eRank and Marmalead are keyword research tools: they tell you which words Etsy shoppers type and how crowded those words are. Optimsy is a production workspace: it writes the title, tags and description, makes the product images, and sends the finished listing to Etsy. If your problem is choosing keywords, start with one of the first two. If your problem is the hours between an idea and a published listing, that is the job Optimsy was built for. This comparison uses each company's own pricing and feature pages, checked on October 20, 2026.

What each tool is built to do

The three tools overlap less than their marketing suggests, so it helps to name the main job of each before comparing features.

eRank describes itself with one headline: "Find Better Keywords for Your Etsy Listings." Its homepage groups the product into keyword research, competitor tracking, trend data, listing optimization tips and a shop health check. You can connect your Etsy shop so eRank can audit your listings and show which keywords bring you traffic.

Marmalead leads with "Etsy SEO, powered by AI." Its core is keyword research: a suggestion engine called Storm, popular and similar searches, a search volume forecast for the next 30 days, engagement data and seasonality with a three-month forecast. It grades your listings and your shop with a letter grade, and its AI assistant, Marma, writes titles and tags, critiques descriptions and generates FAQs.

Optimsy starts from the other end of the work. SEO Expert turns a few lines about your product, plus an optional photo and an optional competitor listing, into a title, 13 ranked tags, a structured description and a 0 to 100 SEO score. Goldmine and Keyword Explorer look at live Etsy results for a phrase. Photo Studio and the other studios produce the images and digital products themselves, and a finished listing can be pushed to Etsy as a draft from the same screen.

Keyword research: where eRank and Marmalead are stronger

If you want a number for how often a phrase is searched, eRank and Marmalead both give you one, and Optimsy does not.

eRank shows "Average Searches", which its help center defines as the average number of monthly searches for a keyword, based on the past 12 months of Etsy data. Its glossary calls search volume an estimate. Marmalead presents what it calls real search volume: the number of searches a keyword is expected to get from shoppers over the next 30 days, alongside engagement and a seasonality chart.

Treat both figures as estimates. Etsy does not publish search volume to third parties, so every tool builds its number from its own data and method, and the two tools will not always agree on the same phrase.

Optimsy's research tools work differently. Keyword Explorer and Goldmine read the listings Etsy actually returns for a phrase right now: how many compete, what they charge, how buyers react to them and which related phrases show up. That tells you how crowded a search is and what the winners look like, but it is not a monthly search count. If that count is central to how you choose products, keep eRank or Marmalead for that step.

Listing grades and audits

All three tools will tell you what is weak in a listing, and each uses a different yardstick.

eRank's listing audit and health check look for problems such as missing tags and spelling errors, and its free plan includes five audits a day. Marmalead grades listings and shops with a simple letter grade based on SEO and sales factors. Optimsy's Listing Scorecard scores the weak spots of an existing listing, and SEO Expert returns an SEO score with every rewrite.

Whatever tool you use, check its advice against what Etsy says about its own search. In How Etsy Search Works, Etsy explains that search first matches your listing to the query using the title, tags, attributes, description, first photo and reviews, and then ranks the matches using relevancy, listing quality, customer service, how well the listing converts and a small, temporary recency boost. No score from a third-party tool replaces those signals. A grade is useful when it points you at one of them.

A quick way to check a single listing for free is the Etsy Listing Checker, which looks at title length, tags and description structure without an account.

Writing titles, tags and descriptions

This is where the tools have converged. All three now use AI to draft listing text, so the useful question is what the AI is given to work with and what you get back.

eRank's AI Listing Helper suggests titles, descriptions and tags with competition and search data next to them. Its own help article says the suggested titles will need to be edited, and its free plan allows one use a day. Marmalead's AI Authoring drafts and improves listings, and its pricing page lists an AI description critique and AI-generated FAQs.

Optimsy's SEO Expert is built around one finished output. You describe the product in one to three lines, add the photo if you have one, and optionally paste a competitor's Etsy listing URL so the rewrite is anchored in what is already selling. It returns the full pack: title, 13 tags ranked by score, a structured description and an SEO score, ready to copy or to send to a draft.

Etsy's own guidance applies to every one of these drafts. Etsy recommends short, clear, descriptive titles written for a buyer rather than a computer, and says long lists of keywords in a title can confuse shoppers. Etsy also offers an optional AI tool that suggests updated titles from your current title, first photo and description, described in its guidance for listing titles. If you want to go deeper on title length, read our guide to Etsy titles on mobile.

Images, products and publishing

Here the comparison stops being close, because eRank and Marmalead do not make images or products, and Optimsy does.

Optimsy includes Photo Studio for product photos, studios for wall art, clip art, patterns, coloring books and e-books, and a video studio. A listing built in Optimsy can carry the images, the copy and the digital files to Etsy as a draft, so you review it there and publish. Your first photo matters for search as well as clicks, since Etsy lists it among the parts of a listing it reads when matching a query. Our post on listing photos and visual SEO covers what to change first.

With eRank or Marmalead, you research and write in one tool, then make images in a design or photo app and build the listing in Etsy yourself. That works, and many sellers prefer to keep those steps separate. It is just more tabs and more copying.

Pricing as of October 2026

Prices below are the monthly prices shown on each company's own pricing page on October 20, 2026. Check the page again before you buy, because plans change.

  • eRank: a permanent free plan with no card required, limited to 5 keyword lookups, 5 listing audits and 1 AI Listing Helper use a day. Paid plans are Basic at $5.99, Pro at $9.99 and Expert at $29.99 a month, with higher daily limits and more connected shops on each step.
  • Marmalead: one plan billed four ways: $19 a month, $53 a quarter, $190 a year, or a one-time lifetime price of $300.
  • Optimsy: a free plan with 25 credits and no card, then Growth at $19 a month with 490 credits, Pro at $49 with 1,400 credits and Scale at $99 with 3,500 credits. Yearly billing saves 20%. Credits are spent when you generate text, images or other outputs.

The prices are not directly comparable, because the tools do different jobs. eRank and Marmalead charge for research access; Optimsy charges for production. Compare each against what it replaces in your week.

Which one fits your shop

Choose by the step that costs you the most time today.

  • If you list a few products a month and mainly need to know which words to use, eRank's free plan or its $5.99 Basic plan covers that at the lowest cost.
  • If keyword forecasting and seasonality drive what you make, Marmalead's 30-day forecast and seasonality charts are built for that decision.
  • If you create many listings and the slow part is writing, making images and building each listing, Optimsy covers those steps in one place and hands the finished draft to Etsy.

Some sellers use a research tool and a production tool together. That is a reasonable setup: pick the phrase with search data, then let a production tool turn it into a complete listing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is eRank better than Marmalead for Etsy keyword research?

They answer slightly different questions. eRank shows average monthly searches from the past 12 months of Etsy data and adds competitor tracking and listing audits, starting with a free plan. Marmalead forecasts searches for the next 30 days and adds seasonality and engagement data, for $19 a month. Try eRank's free plan first if budget matters.

Does Optimsy show Etsy search volume?

No. Optimsy's Keyword Explorer and Goldmine read the listings Etsy returns for a phrase right now, so you see how many listings compete, their prices and how buyers respond. That shows how crowded a search is, but it is not a monthly search count. If you rely on that number, use eRank or Marmalead for the research step.

Can I use Optimsy together with eRank or Marmalead?

Yes, and some sellers do. A common split is to choose the main phrase in a research tool, then use Optimsy to write the title, 13 tags and description around it, create the product images and send the finished listing to Etsy as a draft. Optimsy's free plan includes 25 credits, enough to test that workflow.

References

Competitor details come from eRank's plans page and help center and from Marmalead's homepage and pricing page, all read on October 20, 2026.