Lucjan Suski named Keywords Everywhere as the competitor whose pricing change created the opening for Surfer's Keyword Surfer Chrome extension. According to Suski, Keywords Everywhere had approximately 500,000 users at the time it announced it would move to a paid model, charging roughly $1 per week. Suski described significant user backlash on Facebook to that change, which Surfer moved to capture by building a free alternative in two weeks. The 500,000 user figure for Keywords Everywhere is Suski's characterization of a competitor, not a figure confirmed by Keywords Everywhere.
Suski also referenced Ahrefs, Semrush, and HubSpot as large, established competitors in the SEO space with strong domain authority, which he cited as the reason Surfer chose not to invest in SEO content marketing early in its growth. He described those players as having the budget and domain strength to make SEO a long waiting game for a bootstrapped challenger.