Moz is one of the most established names in SEO — home of Domain Authority, Whiteboard Friday, and one of the industry's best learning communities. NetNav is a digital marketing companion built for people who'd rather not learn SEO at all. Here's the honest comparison.
You're a marketer who wants a well-established SEO platform with excellent educational resources. You want to understand the 'why' behind SEO while using professional-grade tools. Moz is the most approachable enterprise SEO platform and its learning community is unmatched.
You don't want to learn SEO — you want to know what to do next. You need your full digital presence monitored, opportunities surfaced, and guidance delivered in plain English. You want results without the education.
Moz is one of the original SEO software companies, founded in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig. It pioneered many concepts that are now industry standard — most notably Domain Authority (DA), a metric that became the de facto way marketers assess a website's authority.
Moz offers two main products: Moz Pro (a comprehensive SEO suite) and Moz Local (a local listing management tool). The company is also known for its educational content — Whiteboard Friday (now a community institution), the Moz blog, and the Beginner's Guide to SEO, which has introduced millions of people to search engine optimisation.
Moz Pro includes keyword research, site auditing, rank tracking, link research, and on-page optimisation tools. It's positioned as the most beginner-friendly among the "big" SEO suites — more approachable than Semrush or Ahrefs, though still designed for marketers.
Moz is designed for:
NetNav is a digital marketing companion that monitors, analyses, and guides your entire online presence — not just your website's SEO, but every part of how your business shows up digitally. Read our story →
Think of it this way: Moz is an SEO platform you log into and learn from. NetNav is a companion that runs in the background, watches over your digital presence, surfaces what matters — both problems and opportunities — and gives you a clear, evolving roadmap for what to do next.
NetNav covers nine pillars of your digital presence:
Every finding comes with three things: what's happening, why it matters to your business in plain English, and step-by-step guidance on what to do about it. But NetNav doesn't just find problems. It actively identifies growth opportunities — gaps your competitors are missing, local search terms you could own, emerging channels where your business should be visible. See how NetNav works →
NetNav is designed for:
Moz occupies a unique position in the SEO industry. It's not the most powerful tool (Semrush and Ahrefs have more data). It's not the cheapest (Ubersuggest and SE Ranking undercut it). What Moz has is brand authority, educational excellence, and the most beginner-friendly approach among traditional SEO suites.
Moz is a beginner-friendly SEO suite for marketers learning the craft. It provides professional tools alongside outstanding educational content that helps you understand what you're doing and why. It's designed for people who want to become better marketers.
NetNav is a digital marketing companion for people who don't want to become marketers. It provides guidance, monitoring, and a roadmap without requiring you to learn SEO terminology or understand how ranking algorithms work. It's designed for people who want results without the education.
Both are "accessible." But Moz makes SEO accessible to learn. NetNav makes digital presence accessible to manage. Those are different things.
Put simply: Moz teaches you to fish. NetNav catches the fish for you. Both are valid — depending on whether you want to become a marketer or just want your business to succeed online.
Built for: Moz — Marketers learning and practising SEO | NetNav — Small business owners & solo marketers
| Feature | Moz | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Marketers learning and practising SEO | Small business owners & solo marketers |
| Core philosophy | Learn and apply SEO with professional tools | Digital companion that guides you |
| Starting price | ~£79/mo (Standard) | Free |
| Free tier | Limited — Moz Bar extension, DA checker | Yes — full digital presence audit |
| Separate local product | Moz Local (additional cost) | Local included in all tiers |
| Feature | Moz | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| Website SEO | Site crawl, on-page optimisation | One of nine pillars |
| Domain Authority metric | Industry standard (Moz proprietary) | Health score across 9 pillars |
| Keyword research | Keyword Explorer | Focused on relevant opportunities |
| Backlink/link analysis | Link Explorer | Basic backlink health |
| Website performance & speed | Basic within crawl | Dedicated pillar |
| Accessibility | Not covered | Full accessibility analysis |
| Security & trust signals | Not covered | SSL, trust markers, compliance |
| Mobile experience | Basic | Dedicated mobile analysis |
| Content quality | On-page optimisation tool | Readability, relevance, gaps |
| Local presence | Moz Local (separate paid product) | Included — GBP, citations, local search |
| Social signals | Not covered | Social presence health |
| AI search visibility | Not covered | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity |
| Feature | Moz | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| Plain-English explanations | More approachable than competitors, still marketing terminology | Written for non-experts |
| Educational resources | Industry-leading (Whiteboard Friday, blog, guides) | Built-in Blueprint guides contextual to tasks |
| Prioritised action plan | Crawl issue priorities | Ranked by business impact |
| Personalised roadmap | Not available | Evolves with your business |
| Score journey & progress | DA tracking over time | Visual journey with milestones & timelines |
| Opportunity detection | Keyword Explorer, Link Intersect | Proactive — competitor gaps, local wins, AI visibility |
| Proactive monitoring | Rank tracking, crawl scheduling | Full presence + proactive alerts |
| Executive-ready reports | PDF reports (professional) | Boss-ready reporting for non-marketers |
Core philosophy: Moz — Learn and apply SEO with professional tools | NetNav — Digital companion that guides you
Starting price: Moz — ~£79/mo (Standard) | NetNav — Free
Free tier: Moz — Limited — Moz Bar extension, DA checker | NetNav — Yes — full digital presence audit
Separate local product: Moz — Moz Local (additional cost) | NetNav — Local included in all tiers
Website SEO: Moz — Site crawl, on-page optimisation | NetNav — One of nine pillars
Domain Authority metric: Moz — Industry standard (Moz proprietary) | NetNav — Health score across 9 pillars
Keyword research: Moz — Keyword Explorer | NetNav — Focused on relevant opportunities
Backlink/link analysis: Moz — Link Explorer | NetNav — Basic backlink health
Website performance & speed: Moz — Basic within crawl | NetNav — Dedicated pillar
Accessibility: Moz — Not covered | NetNav — Full accessibility analysis
Security & trust signals: Moz — Not covered | NetNav — SSL, trust markers, compliance
Mobile experience: Moz — Basic | NetNav — Dedicated mobile analysis
Content quality: Moz — On-page optimisation tool | NetNav — Readability, relevance, gaps
Local presence: Moz — Moz Local (separate paid product) | NetNav — Included — GBP, citations, local search
Social signals: Moz — Not covered | NetNav — Social presence health
AI search visibility: Moz — Not covered | NetNav — ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity
Plain-English explanations: Moz — More approachable than competitors, still marketing terminology | NetNav — Written for non-experts
Educational resources: Moz — Industry-leading (Whiteboard Friday, blog, guides) | NetNav — Built-in Blueprint guides contextual to tasks
Prioritised action plan: Moz — Crawl issue priorities | NetNav — Ranked by business impact
Personalised roadmap: Moz — Not available | NetNav — Evolves with your business
Score journey & progress: Moz — DA tracking over time | NetNav — Visual journey with milestones & timelines
Opportunity detection: Moz — Keyword Explorer, Link Intersect | NetNav — Proactive — competitor gaps, local wins, AI visibility
Proactive monitoring: Moz — Rank tracking, crawl scheduling | NetNav — Full presence + proactive alerts
Executive-ready reports: Moz — PDF reports (professional) | NetNav — Boss-ready reporting for non-marketers
It's worth addressing Domain Authority directly, because it's Moz's most famous contribution to SEO.
Domain Authority is a score from 1-100 that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results. It's become an industry-standard metric used by marketers, agencies, and journalists worldwide.
Here's what you need to know: Domain Authority is a Moz proprietary metric. It's not a Google ranking factor. Google has repeatedly stated they don't use DA or any similar third-party metric. DA is useful as a comparative benchmark (is my site stronger than my competitor's?), but it doesn't directly determine your rankings.
Many small business owners are told "you need to increase your Domain Authority" without understanding that DA is a proxy metric — useful for SEO professionals but not something you can directly "fix" or that directly translates to more customers.
NetNav doesn't use Domain Authority. Instead, it measures your digital presence across nine real-world pillars that directly affect whether customers find you and whether your business shows up where people are searching. It's the difference between measuring a proxy and measuring reality.
Domain Authority is a useful professional benchmark. But for a business owner, knowing your DA is 23 doesn't tell you what to do about it. NetNav skips the proxy metrics and tells you directly what's working, what isn't, and what to fix.
This deserves its own section because it's a significant structural difference.
Moz separates local SEO into a separate product: Moz Local. It's not included in Moz Pro. If you need local listing management, citation tracking, and review monitoring, you pay for Moz Local in addition to Moz Pro — adding roughly £14-20/month to your bill.
NetNav includes local presence as one of its nine core pillars at every tier, including the free Scan. Google Business Profile monitoring, local citation health, local search visibility, and local opportunity detection are all included — not upsold as a separate product.
For local businesses (which describes the majority of NetNav's target audience), this is a meaningful difference. Moz makes you pay separately for local. NetNav includes it by default.
Moz Pro's Site Crawl identifies technical SEO issues and provides an overview of your site's health. It's well-organised and more approachable than Semrush or Ahrefs' equivalents. Issues are categorised with clear severity levels, and Moz's educational content helps you understand what each issue means.
However, Moz still presents findings in SEO terminology with the expectation that you'll research solutions yourself or use their educational resources to learn.
Moz gives you a Domain Authority score. NetNav gives you a journey. Here's what that looks like:
NetNav doesn't just tell you where you are. It shows you where you're going, what to do at each stage, and how long it will take. See how the roadmap works →
Moz gives you issues and teaches you about them. NetNav gives you tasks and walks you through them. One makes you a better marketer over time. The other makes your business more visible right now.
Missing meta descriptions: 12 pages on your site are missing meta descriptions. Meta descriptions help search engines understand your content and can improve click-through rates.
Your homepage isn't attracting clicks from search results: Your homepage appears in search results for 'accountant Manchester' but gets clicked only 1.2% of the time. The average for position 6 is 3.8%. Your meta description is missing, so Google is generating one automatically — and it's pulling text from your cookie policy.
Evidence: Position 6 for 'accountant Manchester.' CTR: 1.2% vs 3.8% average. No meta description set — Google is showing: 'We use cookies to ensure...'
Estimated time: 15 minutes
NetNav tracks your progress through milestones: from your first scan through quick wins, foundation fixes, growth phase, and ongoing optimisation.
Moz does not currently monitor AI search visibility. Its focus remains on traditional Google ranking factors and its proprietary metrics. This isn't a criticism — most SEO tools haven't caught up with this shift yet — but it's an increasingly significant gap.
NetNav includes AI search visibility as one of its nine monitoring pillars. It tracks how your business appears (or doesn't appear) when people use AI tools to find services like yours. Learn more about AI search visibility →
Moz optimises for where search has been. NetNav also optimises for where search is going.
The way people search is changing. Increasingly, potential customers are asking ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI tools for recommendations instead of scrolling through traditional search results. If your business isn't visible in these AI-generated answers, you're invisible to a growing segment of your market.
Moz Local: ~£14-20/month per location (separate from Moz Pro).
A small local business wanting Moz Pro + Moz Local: approximately £93-99/month.
NetNav Accelerate at £49/month includes everything — SEO, local presence, AI visibility, competitor benchmarking, and executive reporting. That's roughly half the cost of Moz Pro alone, and includes the local features that Moz charges extra for.
Moz Pro is mid-range among traditional SEO suites. NetNav delivers broader digital presence coverage at roughly half the price — with local included, not upsold. For professional SEO work, Moz Pro's features justify the cost. For business owners, NetNav delivers more relevant value per pound.
Scan — Free forever: Full 9-pillar digital presence audit. Navigate — £29/mo (£23/mo annual): Continuous monitoring + proactive alerts. Accelerate — £49/mo (£39/mo annual): Competitor benchmarking + AI visibility + executive reporting.
Domain Authority as industry standard. Love it or question it, DA is the metric journalists, agencies, and marketers use to quickly assess a site's authority. If you work in an environment where DA matters, Moz is the source.
Educational excellence. Whiteboard Friday, the Beginner's Guide to SEO, and the Moz blog are among the best SEO learning resources ever created. If you want to understand SEO — not just use a tool — Moz's educational ecosystem is unmatched.
MozBar browser extension. A free browser extension that shows domain metrics in search results and on any webpage. It's simple, useful, and widely used by SEO professionals for quick assessments.
Community and authority. Moz has been a trusted name in SEO for 20 years. The Q&A community, industry research, and thought leadership have shaped how the industry thinks about search.
Moz Local for multi-location businesses. If you manage listings across multiple locations, Moz Local's listing distribution and consistency checking is a dedicated, well-built tool.
These capabilities are genuinely valuable for the right user. The question is whether learning SEO with professional tools or managing your digital presence with guided support is what your business actually needs.
We believe in giving you the full picture, not just the parts that make us look good. Moz is a respected institution with genuine strengths that NetNav doesn't attempt to replicate. You should know about them.
The best tool isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that actually makes your business better given who you are and how you work.
All reviews sourced from verified third-party review platforms. We encourage you to read full reviews to form your own view.
If you're a marketer who values Moz's educational ecosystem and uses Domain Authority as a benchmark, keep Moz for learning and DA tracking. Add NetNav for the monitoring, AI visibility, and full digital presence coverage that Moz doesn't provide.
If budget requires choosing one, ask yourself: do you want to learn SEO or manage your digital presence? If you want to learn, Moz is excellent. If you want results without the education, NetNav delivers.
Moz is a respected institution in the SEO industry. Its educational content has helped millions of marketers learn their craft. Domain Authority, for all its limitations, remains the most widely recognised authority metric. The Beginner's Guide to SEO is still the best introduction to search engine optimisation available.
But Moz is built for people who want to become SEO practitioners. Its tools assume marketing literacy. Its value is partly in the knowledge you gain using it. For someone committed to learning SEO, that's a feature, not a bug.
NetNav is for everyone else. The business owners who want their digital presence managed without becoming marketers. The solo marketers who need results and reports, not education and theory. The people who want to know "what should I do next?" not "what is link equity?"
Different tools for different ambitions. Choose the one that matches yours.
No. Domain Authority is a Moz proprietary metric that predicts ranking likelihood. Google has confirmed they don't use DA or any similar third-party metric. DA is useful as a comparative benchmark but doesn't directly determine your search rankings.
Yes. Moz Pro and Moz Local are separate products with separate pricing. If you need both SEO tools and local listing management, you'll pay for each. NetNav includes local presence monitoring as a core pillar at every tier, including the free Scan.
Moz is the most beginner-friendly among traditional SEO suites. Its educational content is outstanding. However, 'beginner-friendly for marketers' still assumes interest in learning SEO. If you don't want to learn SEO — you just want your digital presence managed — NetNav is more accessible.
Semrush has a larger keyword database, more tools, and broader feature set — at a higher price. Moz is more approachable, has better educational resources, and costs less. For a detailed comparison, see our NetNav vs Semrush guide.
At ~£79/month for Moz Pro (plus ~£14-20/month for Moz Local), it's a significant investment for small businesses. The value depends on whether you'll actively use the tools and engage with the educational content. If you need broader digital presence coverage at a lower price, NetNav covers more ground for less.
We review and update this page quarterly to ensure accuracy. If you notice anything that's changed, please let us know.
See also: NetNav vs Semrush · NetNav vs Ahrefs · All comparisons
Disclaimer: Moz is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison is based on publicly available information and was last reviewed in February 2026. NetNav is not affiliated with Moz.
Last updated: February 2026 · 12 min read · Reviewed quarterly for accuracy
This comparison is based on publicly available information from Moz's website, publicly accessible pricing pages, and verified third-party review platforms as of February 2026. Pricing shown in approximate GBP equivalents. We have made every effort to ensure accuracy, but features, pricing, and capabilities may change.
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