Telescope
Web and SaaS
seo keyword research
SHOW HN2024
How HN took it
10 positive, 30 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 17 critical, out of 61 comments about the project. Thread score -0.10.
Pricing: 3 for, 6 againstDesign: 3 for, 4 againstIdea: 1 for, 3 againstDocs: 1 for, 3 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean, simple UI and pay-per-use pricing
From 3 comments
This is super nice Keyword research should absolutely be a pay per use thing instead of a SaaS. So many marketers I know use Ahrefs literally for 2 days for keyword research for…
spaceman_2020 on HNthis is so cool! Much simpler than all the other tools and even I know how to use it. Awesome work!
siyabuilt on HNHow to understand the meaning of what I'm seeing on screen. I'm not versed into SEO but I'd like to. Your tool is very nice to use.
JourneyJourney on HN
Much needed, lower-cost alternative to expensive SEO tools
From 3 comments
It's a much needed tool! I saw one more project do this with a credit based system, I read in this article: https://saasgodfathers.com/article/seo-tools-without-subscription-hassle
0xDeveloper on HNAwesome. All those tools are so freaking expensive.
amanski on HNThanks for sharing! There’s so much opportunity to build lower cost tools here. Very cool.
iambateman on HN
Objections
Billing unclear: charged again on reload or paging, cache behaviour confusing
From 4 comments
Seems nice but going from a keyword search to my account and back, there was another charge on the credit as if a new search was done. This was I fear the charges will rise up…
mgiannopoulos on HNThis isn't clear though, because under the search it tells you the number of results, so you think you've paid for all those results, but you haven't. You've only paid for the…
qingcharles on HNIt was like 30 secs the back-n-forth The same happened when the tab was left opened for a long time and chrome auto-refreshed it or something to that effect. Again, it was…
mgiannopoulos on HNit might be nice to explain somewhere how the billing works too. my first thought is "am i billed again if i go to page 2 of the results? or add a new filter?"
willsmith72 on HN
Missing export, sorting, API, and backlink/site audit features
From 3 comments
- No option to download as excel sheet - No option to sort by columns
twapi on HNDo you offer an API? My issue with most keyword tools is that their APIs suck, with tight limits that force you to only request data in bulk, and so on.
tethys on HNFor sure you win in pricing using Telescope, but here are the things to consider: There are quite a few limits in Ahrefs's Starter plan, but on the other hand you have access to…
kulhavy on HN
Pricing for rank tracking seems high for large sites
From 2 comments
your pricing for kw tracking seems nonsensical to me. eg i have a site where pages rank for 1,000+ keywords it has many pages like this.. tracking for just this ONE SITE would…
nhggfu on HNFrom your landing: Keywords Page 450 x $0.05 Keyword Details 150 x $0.04 Your estimated bill $29 > Semrush. Save up to 71% of your current bill While using semrush, you pay 4…
oloila on HN
Landing page design and logo copied from existing templates or products
From 3 comments
whoever is wondering about the website home page design, it looks direct copy paste from here:…
foragerdev on HNYour logo is very similar to https://insomnia.rest/
edweis on HNJust FYI your logo is almost identical to that of Inoreader (apart from the color).
xz18r on HN
Requests
Keyword export and CSV download
From 2 comments
This is super cool and I would love to try it out. We use SEMrush and they are basically charging us +$1000 dollar for the basic plan, with every other feature as an add-on for…
scientific_ass on HN- No option to download as excel sheet - No option to sort by columns
twapi on HN
Caching of search results
From 2 comments
agreed on this, caching would be very nice. i don't care if results are even a week+ out of date
willsmith72 on HNHi, congrats on the launch! Are searches cached locally in my account? I accidentally reload a page, it seems to run the search again and charge the (free and provided) balance.…
j45 on HN
API access
From 2 comments
Do you offer an API? My issue with most keyword tools is that their APIs suck, with tight limits that force you to only request data in bulk, and so on.
tethys on HNHi - is there an API?
mceoin on HN
Tagging keywords in saved lists
From 1 comment
This is super cool and I would love to try it out. We use SEMrush and they are basically charging us +$1000 dollar for the basic plan, with every other feature as an add-on for…
scientific_ass on HN
Guide or docs for SEO beginners
From 2 comments
I'm not someone who has ever worked with SEO but I'd like to use this tool for other research purposes. Can you make a guide for someone who's entirely new to SEO but is…
written-beyond on HNI don't know that much about SEO. Are you planning on adding a blog section maybe with a few article about how someone might use a tool like this to optimise their own SEO?
dsmurrell on HN
Questions
Where the keyword volume data comes from
From 3 comments
Do you provide keyword popularity and is it based on Google Keyword Tool data or clickstream data?
weinzierl on HNWhere do you get volume and CPC data? keyword planner API?
bytemonitor on HNI am confused. I always thought keyword tools use both: backlink data and estimated search volumes. For example ahrefs has, to the best of my knowledge, its own crawler for…
weinzierl on HN
Coverage for non-English and other countries
From 2 comments
Awesome!! Congrats on the value prop and landing!! Very clear. I run a marketplace in Brazil (kwara.com.br) and we happen to be focusing on SEO at the moment! What's your…
raimille1 on HNThis is something I've been looking for for a while !! What about keywords for France? and in Arabic?
abdellah123 on HN
Difference from Google Keyword Planner and Semrush
From 2 comments
What is the difference between this and Google Keyword Planner? I am asking this as someone with minimum experience in SEO
newbie578 on HNwhat would it take to build a SEMRush alternative?
vivzkestrel on HN
Alternatives named
Ahrefs
From 2 comments
For OP: Would you say this is a drop-in replacement from ahref's lite plan ? What would I miss from ahref ?
maxencecornet on HNThis is super nice Keyword research should absolutely be a pay per use thing instead of a SaaS. So many marketers I know use Ahrefs literally for 2 days for keyword research for…
spaceman_2020 on HN
SEMrush
From 2 comments
This is super cool and I would love to try it out. We use SEMrush and they are basically charging us +$1000 dollar for the basic plan, with every other feature as an add-on for…
scientific_ass on HNFrom your landing: Keywords Page 450 x $0.05 Keyword Details 150 x $0.04 Your estimated bill $29 > Semrush. Save up to 71% of your current bill While using semrush, you pay 4…
oloila on HN
Ubersuggest
From 1 comment
What I learned recently was that all the SEO tool basically query the same back end provider. So I guess it makes sense that there is innovation on the pricing model side of…
baxtr on HN
Google Keyword Planner
From 2 comments
What is the difference between this and Google Keyword Planner? I am asking this as someone with minimum experience in SEO
newbie578 on HNCould you enlighten us what is new here? Your marketing is quite misleading. The value of Ahrefs and SemRush is not in the research but in the representation the clickstream data…
kundi on HN
Nightwatch.io
From 1 comment
Could you enlighten us what is new here? Your marketing is quite misleading. The value of Ahrefs and SemRush is not in the research but in the representation the clickstream data…
kundi on HN