GrowthBar review: An honest look at AI content creation for SEO

If you're on a content team, you know the drill. The demand for a constant stream of high-quality, SEO-friendly blog posts never stops. It feels like you're always juggling speed, quality, and scale, and something has to give. This is where tools like GrowthBar step in, promising to make life a little easier.

GrowthBar has made a name for itself, with over 6,000 customers using it to mix AI writing with SEO tools. The main pitch is that it helps you get from a blank page to a first draft in record time. The question for many teams is whether a quick draft is enough to meet their goals.

WriteSonic / GrowthBar • GrowthBar gives SEO metrics + keyword ideas • WriteSonic generates actual draft content Not perfect, but much better at a readable draft + SEO signals than most standalone tools.

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In this review, we will explore GrowthBar's features, what it does well, and where it has limitations. The goal is to create content that's ready to publish and rank. For some, this may mean using a tool that produces more complete posts with media, such as the eesel AI blog writer.

What is GrowthBar?

GrowthBar is a two-in-one tool for SEO and AI writing. It's powered by ChatGPT-4 and comes as a web app and a Chrome extension. The main selling point is that it helps you plan, write, and optimize content "10x faster", which sounds great when you're on a deadline.

It’s built for people like solo bloggers, small marketing teams, and agencies who want a straightforward tool without a million confusing features. You won't find the kind of dashboard that makes your head spin like you would with a massive enterprise SEO platform. Instead, you get a clean interface focused on one thing: creating content.

It was created by Hailey Friedman and Mark Spera from Growth Marketing Pro, and you can tell it was made by marketers for marketers. It's not designed for super technical SEO audits. It’s more about giving you the basic data and AI help needed to get a piece of content ready for Google.

Key features of GrowthBar

GrowthBar is built on two main components: its AI content creation tools and its SEO research features. Let's get into what you actually get with each.

AI content creation suite

This is the core of the product, the part that’s supposed to get you from zero to a full draft in no time.

Its main feature is the 2-Minute Blog Builder. You feed it a keyword, and it analyzes the top-ranking articles on Google for you. Then, you can literally drag and drop headlines from your competitors' articles to piece together your own outline. Once you have a structure you like, you hit a button, and the AI generates a first draft of around 1,500 words. It's a smart approach to building a post on a structure that's already working for others.

They also have Custom AI Models. This is a more recent addition where you can upload some of your own high-performing content to create a personalized AI model. The goal is for the AI to learn your brand's style and tone, so the content it produces sounds less generic and more like something your team would actually write.

Beyond the main blog builder, there's a bunch of other small AI tools. You get an AI chat, paragraph rewriters, meta description generators, and even tools for things like press releases. It's a decent little toolkit for handling all the miscellaneous copy you need.

It is important to note that GrowthBar excels at creating a first draft. The content will need human editing to sound natural, check facts, and add your own unique perspective. Even more, the AI only gives you text. Users are responsible for finding and adding visual elements like images, charts, and videos. For teams aiming to move directly from generation to publication, this manual step is a key consideration.

SEO research and optimization toolkit

GrowthBar doesn't just write; it also helps you figure out what you should be writing about in the first place.

The platform includes Keyword & Competitor Research, giving you access to a database of 7 billion keyword suggestions. You can check difficulty scores to find realistic targets and peek at what your competitors are doing, including their top keywords, Google Ads, and backlinks. It's a solid place to start your content planning.

One of its best features is the Chrome Extension. This 5-star-rated extension overlays SEO data right on your Google search results page. You can see metrics like Domain Authority (DA), traffic estimates, and keyword difficulty without clicking away. It also integrates with WordPress, so you can use the AI writer and get optimization tips right inside your editor, which is pretty convenient.

Regarding the SEO capabilities, while these features are useful for content writers, they do not offer the same depth as dedicated platforms like Semrush or Ahrefs. GrowthBar is good for content-focused SEO tasks like keyword research and on-page tweaks, but it's not built for technical site audits or advanced backlink strategies. It’s a content tool that has some SEO features, not the other way around.

For a closer look at how these features work in practice, this video offers a detailed walkthrough of GrowthBar's capabilities.

GrowthBar pricing plans

GrowthBar keeps its pricing simple. There's a 7-day free trial to let you poke around, and then three main plans. They often have introductory discounts, so keep that in mind.

The Standard plan is a good starting point for individuals, but the limits of 25 AI articles and 25 tracked keywords can feel tight if you're publishing frequently. The value definitely improves with the Pro and Agency plans, which offer much higher limits and more user seats.

The pricing makes sense for what the tool is. It's positioned to help you draft content faster, not to replace a full-featured SEO platform.

GrowthBar alternative: eesel AI

GrowthBar is a solid tool for generating a first draft and overcoming writer's block. However, the process of turning that text into a complete, polished blog post often requires additional work, such as sourcing images, videos, and quotes. The eesel AI blog writer is designed for teams looking to automate more of the content creation process. Instead of just a wall of text, eesel AI generates a complete blog post from a single keyword, including all the elements that basic AI writers leave out.

Here’s how eesel AI approaches content creation:

• Automatic Assets: It doesn't just write. It creates and inserts relevant, AI-generated images, infographics, and data tables right into the post. You can stop searching for stock photos.
• Rich Media Integration: To build authority and keep readers on the page, eesel AI automatically finds and embeds relevant YouTube videos and insightful quotes from real Reddit discussions.
• Context-Aware Research: The AI is smart enough to understand the intent behind your keyword. If you're writing a comparison post, it will find pricing data. If it’s a product review, it will look up technical specs.
• Proven Results: We use this tool to run our own content strategy. It’s how we went from 700 to over 750,000 daily impressions in just three months by researching, writing, and publishing over 1,000 optimized blogs.

While GrowthBar provides a strong starting point for content, the eesel AI blog writer is designed to generate a more complete, publish-ready post.

Final verdict: Is GrowthBar right for you?

So, what’s the final call? GrowthBar is a great, easy-to-use, and affordable tool for a specific person: the solo blogger, freelance writer, or small marketing team who needs an AI assistant to speed up the drafting process.

Its biggest selling points are the clean interface, the super useful Chrome extension, and how quickly it can generate a solid outline and first draft. It's a fantastic tool for breaking through writer's block and getting your initial thoughts organized.

However, it has some limitations to consider. The SEO tools aren't robust enough for dedicated SEO professionals, and the AI content is a starting point, not a final piece. It needs a human to fact-check, refine the tone, and add all the visuals and media that make a post worth reading.

Here’s our recommendation: If you need a tool to help you draft content faster and handle some basic keyword research, GrowthBar is a strong choice and worth the money. But if your goal is to generate complete, media-rich, and SEO-optimized blog posts with a single click, you should look at a more advanced platform built for true end-to-end content creation.

Final thoughts

For teams that spend significant time editing AI text and sourcing visuals, an alternative may be beneficial. While GrowthBar helps with the initial draft, the eesel AI blog writer is built to handle the entire process from draft to a more complete post.

You can generate a complete, publish-ready blog post, with images, videos, and Reddit quotes included, from just a single keyword. See the difference for yourself and find out what it feels like to go from an idea to a published article in minutes, not hours.

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