VidIQ is a usable tool and provides YouTube creators with what they will need to succeed.

It can help YouTubers to perform keyword research, channel examines, stay ahead of the competition, find trending, and viral videos, and gain more views and subscribers.

In this review, we are going to see all in one YouTube SEO Tool - VidIQ.

If you're a YouTube creator, then I am sure you will agree that keyword research and competition analysis are key to growing on YouTube.

This extension claims to help you grow your YouTube channel and get more views and subscribers.

So, in this review, I will show you how VidIQ works and help you decide if it's actually worth it.

What Is VidIQ?

VidIQ is a browser extension that helps you grow your YouTube channel and get more views and subscribers.

Unlike other YouTube tools, VidIQ takes data directly from YouTube API which shows exact search volume results and exact results for competition and other things which will immensely help you grow your YouTube channel and gain more views and subscribers.

You can use VidIQ for:
  • Keyword research
  • Staying ahead of the competition
  • Gain more views and subscribers
  • Discover trending and viral videos
And much more!

All in one you are getting everything you need to grow your YouTube channel and gain more views and subscribers.

VidIQ Review: Pros & Cons

We know that every coin has two faces. Similarly, VidIQ has the same condition here. It has some pros as well as some cons also. 

Pros of VidIQ

Has a forever free plan

Yes, you can use VidIQ for free.

Of course, there are many limitations.

The free plan lets you do competitor tracking, and gives you access to a video scoreboard, live stats bar, and VidIQ Academy.

The built-in included training(VidIQ Academy) is really good

Want to increase your level as a YouTuber? Then the VidIQ academy is a good place. This course teaches you how to create a YouTube channel to grow into a successful channel.

It has a nice affiliate program

VidIQ offers a really nice affiliate program. Their affiliate program starts you off at a 20% recurring commission for every referral you make.

The VidIQ free plan, it makes it super easy to make money with the VidIQ affiliate program.

Has a mobile app

VidIQ has a mobile app that is available on both Android on Google Play Store and IOS on the Apple store. 

The VidIQ app lets you manage your YouTube channel, including video SEO and real-time YouTube analytics.

Available as an Extension on both Chrome and Firefox Browsers 

Another cool thing about VidIQ is that is available for both Chrome and Firefox browsers

Cons of VidIQ

You Can't export keywords

The VidIQ keyword research tool lacks the feature to export keywords directly to CSV/excel sheet.

This is a bit frustrating because you have to manually copy your keywords and paste them into a spreadsheet when doing keyword research. This can be a bit time-consuming especially if you are doing a lot of keyword research.

Can be quite confusing at first

VidIQ is packed with lots of features. This makes it quite confusing at first when you are not well known for it.

VidIQ Pricing Plans

This is how VidIQ pricing is:

VidIq Basic Plan

This is the free version of VidIQ and has a lot of limitations. The free version allows you to add only one channel and gives you access to the following features:
  • Competitor Tracking (up to 3) 
  • VidIQ Academy 
  • Video Scoreboard
  •  Live Stats Bar 
  • Basic Email Support

VidIQ Pro Plan

The pro version costs $7.50/month and lets you get more analytics and perform keyword research.

This plan lets you add 1 channel, track up to 6 competitors, receive 1 trend alert and provide Email and chat support.

In addition to what the basic plan offers, the pro plan gives you access to:
  • YouTube Description Campaigns 
  • Keyword Research Tool 
  • Historical Data Analysis 
  • Top Tweets for Videos 
  • Top Trending Videos 
  • Keyword Research Tool 
  • Best Time of Day

VidIQ Boost Plan

This plan costs $39/month and it lets you add up to 5 channels, track up to 20 competitors, give up to 15 trend alerts, and give Email and chat support.

In addition to what the pro plan offers, the boost plan gives you access to:
  • VidIQ Keyword Engine (up to 200 videos/month) 
  • SEO Title & Description Recommendations 
  • Inline Tag Recommendations 
  • Video Archival 
  • Bulk SEO Optimizations 
  • Dedicated SEO Analytics 
  • Channel Wide Tags

VidIQ Boost+

This plan costs $415/month and is the highest VidIQ plan and give you access to all VidIQ tool in addition to what the boost plan offers, this plan gives you access to 
  • Prior Email and Chat Support
  • Monthly Coaching
  • Analytics Deep Dive

Features of VidIQ

Here are some of the features that VidIQ offers:

VidIQ Scorecard

This feature collects all your channel data like views per hour, views, average view time duration, top devices, and top countries.

This will be useful for channel optimization and click-through rate optimization.

Social Engagement

This shows all the engagements your video received on social media. Engagements are sorted from social media sites with the highest engagement to the lowest. And also shows the engagement rate in percentage (%).

SEO Feedback 

This feature lets you see which hashtags are performing best against the most popular ones on YouTube which is good for YouTube SEO. You can use this feature to make quick changes o your video.

Video Optimization Checklist

This checklist is essential for optimization. There are basically 15 checklists to help you optimize your videos. The checklist items include:
  • Title 
  • Tags 
  • Description 
  • Cards 
  • End screen 
  • Thumbnails 
  • Captions 
  • Reply to recent comments 
  • Social Share 
  • Monetization enabled 
  • Added to playlist 
  • Pinned comment 
  • Hearted comment

Controversial Keywords 

According to this feature VidIQ, it helps you to avoid demonetization based on the keywords you use. 

Video Tags 

The video tag feature lets you see the tags a video is using, and how high they are ranking on YouTube. It also lets you copy video tags directly.

Historical Data

This is one of the most important features of VidIQ. It shows you how a video has performed since it was uploaded.

This is very useful for finding rending videos because you will be able to see if the video views are either declining or increasing. If it's increasing, you can go ahead and create a similar video and optimize it to get suggested views from that.

Trending

This section shows videos related to yours that are currently trending. This is also an important feature because you have chances of going viral when you catch a trend when it is still hot. 

Achievements 

This lets you celebrate your wind by allowing you to download and share your achievements like a top-performing month, top-performing videos, based on subscribers, views, likes, etc. directly on social media.

Channel Audit Tool

As the name states, this tool inspects your channel and shows you what is working, what is not working, and what urgently needs your attention.

This tool contains five features:
  • The first feature shows you how your videos are performing for the last 30 days.
  • The second feature shows you what is working on your channel based on your views per hour (VPH)
  • The third feature shows your worst performing videos based on lowest watch time, lowest like ratio, and videos leading to losing subscribers.
  • The fourth feature gives you suggestions to fix issues on your channel like thumbnails, descriptions, titles, tags, etc.

Competitors

This tool helps you confirm your competitors and lets you see what is working for them so that you can implement it on your channel.

This tool lets you:
  • Add competitor channels to keep eye on them 
  • Sort your competitors’ views by date, views per hour, and more 
  • Export top keywords

Most Viewed

This is a very useful VidIQ feature. This helps you understand the most viewed videos on YouTube at any time. This is essential for growth and finding trending videos.

You can use the sorting options based on:
  • Views per hour
  • Videos within the last 48 hours, 7 days, 30days, or 6months.
This tool has search filters that let you discover only the video content you are interested in.

Trend Alerts

This tool informs you when a video on a particular keyword you see has started taking up. It lets you set an Email alert for the top trending videos on any topic to give you a head start on creating content around the trend.
With this tool, you can also set it to alert you when a video on a keyword has reached several views.

Productivity Tools

This tool contains 3 sets of tools to make things easier for you and to help increase your productivity. The tools are: 
  • The first tool allows you to bulk copy/edit cards & end screen. 
  • The second is the comment productivity tool. On this tool, there are comment templates to help you in responding to comments and answer questions. This is very useful especially if you have a very big channel and want to respond to your viewers’ comments and answer their questions. 
  • The third one allows you to bulk download your metadata which is useful for making backups. It even let you export the metadata information to a spreadsheet and sort it the way you want.

Real-Time Stats Bar

This bar makes YouTube stats and data more accessible to help you quickly get the information you need. This tool also shows you how close you are to meeting YouTube's requirements for monetization and other higher-level stats.

This bar also lets you see minutes watched in the last 7 days which is one of the important ranking factors. Also shows you how many total subscribers you have.

VidIQ Keyword Research Tool

This is one of the most important VidIQ tools. It lets you perform keyword research and provides you with useful information like search volume, competition, and other information. 

One of the things about this tool is that it gives you an overall score for a keyword. VidIQ all the data about a given keyword and gives you the overall score. 

So if a video has a high overall score, then that means it is a perfect keyword to go for.

VidIQ Keyword Inspector Tool 

This tool displays related terms, keyword scores, related videos, and interest over time which is useful to determine whether a keyword has stopped performing or trending. 

Inline Keywords 

This feature allows you to see what tags your competitors are using on search results. It also lets you copy them to help you generate ideas for your own content. 

Keyword Translator Tool 

Sometimes, you may find channels/videos that you want to model, but find out that it is in a different language. This feature let you translate video titles, descriptions, and tags that were written in another language. 

Tag Auto-Complete 

Upload a video and start typing tags and this tool will start suggesting ideal tags for your video. 

Keyword Templates 

This lets you create keyword templates based on the core words you might use in a series of videos, thereby saving you time.

VidIQ Alternatives

TubeBuddy is the only real alternative to VidIQ. They are all great tools and both have their own pros and cons.

Conclusion

So is VidIQ worth it? 

The answer is “Yes”. 

I think this tool can add a lot of value to your YouTube creators, especially if you frequently upload videos on your YouTube channel. 

As of right now, VidIQ is the best YouTube tool I’m aware of. There are lots of features that can help your channel grow into a successful big YouTube channel. 

So take advantage of this amazing tool and start using it to grow your YouTube channel today.