Backstage SEO vs Breaking B2B vs DerivateX: Which Agency Fits Mid-Market B2B SaaS?

Three senior-led search partners for B2B SaaS, compared on how they run the work, what they charge, how long you sign for and what they have proven.

Last updated: November 2, 2026. Backstage SEO facts checked on backstageseo.com and Breaking B2B facts on breakingb2b.com. DerivateX facts from derivatex.agency/pricing.

Backstage SEO, Breaking B2B and DerivateX all sell senior-led SEO and AI search to B2B SaaS, but they run the work in three different ways. Backstage SEO is a founder-run consultancy where Josh Gallant personally works with 4 to 6 clients, starting with an $8,000 Search Blueprint. Breaking B2B is a content and link volume agency led by Sam Dunning, from $6,000 a month on 6 or 12 month terms. DerivateX is a full-service SEO and GEO agency for B2B SaaS at $5M to $50M ARR, from $5,000 a month with a 90-day pilot. Pick Backstage SEO for one senior operator, Breaking B2B for monthly output at scale, and DerivateX for one team that owns Google and six AI surfaces end to end.

Disclosure: DerivateX publishes this comparison. Every Backstage SEO fact below comes from backstageseo.com and every Breaking B2B fact from breakingb2b.com, both read on November 2, 2026. Where an agency does not publish something, this page says so rather than estimating it.

Backstage SEO vs Breaking B2B vs DerivateX: how do they compare at a glance?

The short version: Backstage SEO is one expert, Breaking B2B is volume on a fixed term, and DerivateX is a small SaaS-only team with a pilot. The table puts the facts each agency publishes side by side.

	Backstage SEO	Breaking B2B	DerivateX
What it is	“Search intelligence consultancy” for B2B SaaS that combines SEO, AEO and CRO	“B2B SaaS SEO & AEO for revenue”, B2B and SaaS only	Full-service SEO and GEO agency for B2B SaaS
Who leads	Founder Josh Gallant works directly with every client	Founder Sam Dunning on the first call; a dedicated lead strategist and senior SEOs run the programme	A co-founder leads every account; four people own it from kickoff
Capacity or reach	4 to 6 clients at a time	Says it has worked with 50+ B2B SaaS companies	B2B SaaS at $5M to $50M ARR, Series A to C
AI engines named	ChatGPT and Google, with daily prompt tracking	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews	Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude
Other channels	CRO and conversion path work	Reddit and YouTube marketing, CRO heatmaps from Gold up	No paid ads and no custom development
Entry price	Search Blueprint from $8,000 one time (4 weeks)	$6,000 a month (12 months) or $6,500 (6 months); Light plan from $4,600 on 12 months	$5,000 a month plus $1,000 to $1,200 off-site budget
Contract	90-day sprint, then month to month; “No annual contracts. No break fees.”	6 or 12 month terms	90-day pilot, no lock-in after on the first two tiers; 6-month minimum on the top tier
Technical fixes	On-page and internal link work in the lane	Prioritised list for your developers, or a website support add-on	Client implements at $5,000; DerivateX implements in the CMS from $8,000

What is Backstage SEO?

Backstage SEO is a one-person-led search consultancy for B2B SaaS, run by founder Josh Gallant. Its homepage says it helps B2B businesses “get discovered in search surfaces like ChatGPT and Google, then turn that visibility into qualified pipeline.” Josh’s bio says he spent seven years at Foundation Marketing, rising to Director of Strategy and working on brands such as Canva, SimilarWeb and Jobber, before starting Backstage SEO.

The model is deliberately small. Backstage SEO says it works with 4 to 6 clients at a time, every client works directly with Josh from kickoff through delivery, and there are no account managers or junior handoffs. That is the clearest senior-attention promise of the three, with an obvious trade-off: capacity is capped, and output volume depends on one person.

How does Backstage SEO price its work?

Offer	Price	What it covers
The Search Blueprint	From $8,000 one time, 4 weeks	AI search visibility (priority prompts, citation gaps, brand perception), traditional search (rankings, refresh vs retire, competitor gaps) and on-site conversion paths, ending in a prioritised 90-day plan
Search Operating Lane	$8,000 a month	Execution against the Blueprint, content production and refresh, AI visibility tracking and citation gap work, on-page and internal links, conversion recommendations, monthly reporting, direct access to Josh
Embedded Search Leadership	Custom	Weekly strategic partnership for multi-product or multi-market teams, with custom AI visibility workflows

Terms are the most flexible of the three: Backstage SEO starts execution with a 90-day sprint and then runs month to month, and states “No annual contracts. No break fees. No cancellation penalties.” The Blueprint can also be bought on its own and handed to an in-house team.

What results does Backstage SEO publish?

Its homepage lists aggregate numbers from past engagements with B2B SaaS and professional services clients: +850 new top-3 rankings, a +160% average 90-day traffic increase, a +281% increase in AI citation rate and a +240% year-over-year lift in top-3 rankings. Client names are not attached to those figures. Named proof comes as testimonials from Aaron Short (Founder and CEO, b-line) and Sarah Jane Owen (Head of Marketing, Legitimate), plus a published case study where a B2B SaaS marketplace earned 14 featured snippets in 30 days with zero backlinks.

Best for: B2B SaaS teams that want a senior search lead without a full-time hire, value direct founder access over output volume, and want a paid diagnostic before any retainer.
Skip it if: You need a large monthly content and link volume, or you want a team rather than one operator covering every surface.

What is Breaking B2B?

Breaking B2B is a B2B and SaaS-only SEO and AEO agency founded by Sam Dunning, who also hosts the Breaking B2B podcast. Its homepage promises “B2B SaaS SEO & AEO for revenue NOT vanity” and says it has worked with 50+ B2B SaaS companies. The services menu covers technical SEO, content, link building, conversion and site structure, Reddit marketing, YouTube marketing, and AEO, GEO and LLM SEO, with industry pages for healthtech, martech, fintech, financial services, logistics and construction.

Breaking B2B publishes the most detailed rate card of the three, and it is built around monthly volume: content pieces, link credits and the number of money keywords and buyer prompts tracked. A dedicated lead strategist owns each programme, supported by senior SEOs, with bi-weekly calls, a shared Slack channel and a custom Looker Studio dashboard on every tier.

How much does Breaking B2B cost?

Tier	12-month term	6-month term	Keywords and prompts	Content pieces a month	Link credits a month
Silver	$6,000	$6,500	20 to 30	7	4
Gold	$8,000	$8,500	40 to 50	10	6
Growth Team	$9,000	$9,500	40 to 50	12	7
Diamond	$10,200	$10,700	50 to 60	14	8
Aggressive Growth	$15,200	$15,700	50 to 60	20	14
Category King	$20,000+	Not listed	Bespoke	Bespoke	Large-scale

A narrower Light plan starts at $4,600 a month on a 12-month term, with 10 to 15 money keywords and prompts, 4 content pieces and 2 link credits. Content pieces run 1,000 to 3,000 words and lean bottom and mid funnel first. Link credits are earned through manual outreach on DA50+ sites. Technical SEO is handled as a prioritised list for your developers, or through a separate website support add-on.

What results does Breaking B2B publish?

Breaking B2B has the deepest library of named customer stories of the three, with 18 customer result pages in its sitemap. Highlights from the pages checked for this comparison:

Client	Published result
RB2B	Non-branded organic traffic up 77% in 6 months from a zero-SEO baseline
Proposify	#1 for “proposal software” in the US, 68% more clicks on comparison pages, AI search visitors up 91%
Chattermill	AI search mention rate from 20% to 80% in a few months, with enterprise RFPs arriving through ChatGPT and Gemini
VerifyTreatment	Monthly demos from 5 to 32, first demos inside 30 days
Fibbler	Organic traffic up 10x

Best for: B2B SaaS teams that want a high, predictable monthly volume of commercial content and links, are comfortable signing for 6 or 12 months, and want Reddit or YouTube in the same contract.
Skip it if: You want to test the work for 90 days before committing, or you need the agency to implement technical fixes without an add-on.

What is DerivateX?

DerivateX is a full-service SEO and GEO agency for B2B SaaS. It was founded in January 2024 in Bengaluru by Apoorv Sharma and Shivanshi Bhatia and works with B2B SaaS companies between $5M and $50M ARR, Series A to C. DerivateX runs Google SEO and AI visibility as one program across Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, and writes, fixes and places the work itself rather than handing over a deck.

Four people own each account: a co-founder as account lead, a senior strategist, a content lead and a B2B SaaS writer. DerivateX does not run paid ads or custom development. Clients own everything built on exit, including content, technical work and placements. See how DerivateX works for the onboarding steps.

How much does DerivateX cost?

Tier	Retainer	Off-site placement budget	All in, per month	Terms
Rank & Get Found	$5,000	$1,000 to $1,200	$6,000 to $6,200	90-day pilot, no lock-in after
Own Your Category	$8,000	$1,500 to $2,000	$9,500 to $10,000	90-day pilot, no lock-in after
Market Leader	$12,000	$2,000 to $3,000	$14,000 to $15,000	6-month minimum

At $5,000 your team implements technical fixes from DerivateX instructions; from $8,000 DerivateX implements in your CMS. The query map grows from about 50 queries at $5,000 to about 80 at $8,000 and about 120 at $12,000, and pipeline attribution goes from sessions identified to session-to-demo, then to closed revenue at the top tier. A two-week diagnostic costs $3,500, and a free AI visibility audit comes back in 48 hours.

What results does DerivateX publish?

Client	Published result
Gumlet	Close to 20% of inbound revenue traced to AI discovery; first ChatGPT-referred demo about 12 weeks after kickoff
Verito	Monthly Google clicks nearly tripled, average position 47.4 to 9.9 and tracked #1 keywords from 5 to 24 in a 10-month SEO and GEO engagement
Truein	#1 most-cited source in GCC AI answers; AI-referred visitors booked demos at 4.2x, 7.2x and 3.0x the organic rate in months one to three

Best for: B2B SaaS at $5M to $50M ARR that wants one team to own Google and all major AI engines, including Claude, with a 90-day pilot and CMS implementation from $8,000.
Skip it if: You need paid media from the same vendor, or you want a single consultant rather than a small team.

What does the first commitment cost at each agency?

Monthly prices hide the real number: the total you sign for before you can leave. On published prices, the smallest first commitment is about $18,000 at DerivateX, from $32,000 at Backstage SEO and $39,000 at Breaking B2B. The figures below are DerivateX’s arithmetic from each agency’s own pricing page, not quotes.

Starting option	How it is calculated	First commitment
DerivateX Rank & Get Found	3 months x $6,000 to $6,200 all in	$18,000 to $18,600
DerivateX Own Your Category	3 months x $9,500 to $10,000 all in	$28,500 to $30,000
Backstage SEO Blueprint plus sprint	$8,000 Blueprint + 3 months x $8,000 Search Operating Lane	From $32,000
Breaking B2B Silver, 6 months	6 months x $6,500	$39,000
Breaking B2B Light, 12 months	12 months x $4,600	$55,200
Breaking B2B Gold, 12 months	12 months x $8,000	$96,000

If budget certainty matters more than flexibility, Breaking B2B’s longer terms buy a lower monthly rate and a fixed output plan. If you want an exit after a short test, Backstage SEO’s month-to-month terms and DerivateX’s 90-day pilot are both easier to walk away from.

What does $8,000 a month buy at each agency?

All three have an $8,000 option, which makes it the cleanest like-for-like comparison.

At $8,000 a month	Backstage SEO: Search Operating Lane	Breaking B2B: Gold (12 months)	DerivateX: Own Your Category
Content	Content production and refresh; volume not published	10 pieces a month, 1,000 to 3,000 words	30 on-page assets per 90 days, including 10 commercial pages and 7 comparison pages
Off-site authority	Citation gap work; volume not published	6 link credits a month on DA50+ sites	4 to 5 placements a month, from a separate $1,500 to $2,000 budget
Queries tracked	Priority prompts from the Blueprint	40 to 50 money keywords and prompts	About 80 queries in 8 clusters
Technical work	On-page and internal link optimization	Prioritised list, or website support add-on	DerivateX implements in your CMS
Who you talk to	Josh Gallant directly	Lead strategist, bi-weekly calls, Slack	Co-founder lead, weekly strategy calls
Term	Month to month after a 90-day sprint	12 months ($8,500 on 6 months)	90-day pilot, then no lock-in

Breaking B2B buys the most published content per dollar, and its $8,000 price includes link credits. DerivateX adds a placement budget on top of the retainer but includes CMS implementation and coverage of Claude and Gemini. Backstage SEO buys the most senior hands-on time per account, because the founder is the one doing the work.

How do they compare on AI search, GEO and AEO?

All three now sell AI search, but they describe the scope differently.

AI search factor	Backstage SEO	Breaking B2B	DerivateX
Engines named on site	ChatGPT and Google	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews	Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude
Tracking	Priority prompts tracked daily against competitors	Buyer prompt sets monitored monthly on higher tiers	Weekly AI Visibility Score tracking
Off-site sources	Citation gap work	Placement on third-party sources engines pull from, on higher tiers; Reddit and YouTube services	Placements on domains LLMs cite, DR 40 to 80+
Published AI proof	+281% AI citation rate (aggregate)	Chattermill mention rate 20% to 80%; Proposify AI visitors +91%	Gumlet AI-traced revenue; Truein #1 cited source in GCC
llms.txt on own site	Yes	Not found (404)	Yes

Backstage SEO vs Breaking B2B vs DerivateX: pros and cons

Backstage SEO

Breaking B2B

DerivateX

Which should you choose: Backstage SEO, Breaking B2B or DerivateX?

Choose on how you want the work run, then on term, then on budget. Pick Backstage SEO if you want one senior expert, Breaking B2B if you want predictable monthly volume on a fixed term, and DerivateX if you are $5M to $50M ARR B2B SaaS and want one team on Google and every major AI engine with a 90-day pilot.

Choose Backstage SEO if

• You want one experienced operator to own search without hiring a full-time lead.
• You want a paid, standalone roadmap before committing to execution.
• You value month-to-month terms over output volume.

Choose Breaking B2B if

• You want a fixed number of commercial pages and link credits every month.
• You are comfortable with a 6 or 12 month term in exchange for a lower monthly rate.
• You want Reddit and YouTube from the same agency.

Choose DerivateX if

• You are a B2B SaaS company between $5M and $50M ARR, Series A to C.
• You want Google and AI search, including Claude and Gemini, run as one program by a SaaS-only team.
• You want to test the work with a 90-day pilot and have the agency implement in your CMS.

What should you ask any of them before you sign?

1. Which AI engines will you track for us, and how often?
2. Who implements technical fixes, and is it in the quoted price?
3. What is the all-in monthly cost, including links or placements?
4. What are the minimum term and exit terms, in writing?
5. Who will run the account day to day 90 days from now?

Backstage SEO vs Breaking B2B vs DerivateX FAQs

Which is better for B2B SaaS: Backstage SEO, Breaking B2B or DerivateX?

It depends on the operating model. Backstage SEO suits teams that want founder Josh Gallant personally running search for one of 4 to 6 clients. Breaking B2B suits teams that want high monthly content and link volume on 6 or 12 month terms. DerivateX suits $5M to $50M ARR B2B SaaS that wants Google and six AI surfaces in one program from $5,000 a month.

How much does Breaking B2B cost?

Breaking B2B publishes six tiers on its pricing page: $6,000, $8,000, $9,000, $10,200, $15,200 and $20,000+ a month on 12-month terms, and $500 more a month on 6-month terms. A Light plan starts at $4,600 a month on a 12-month term. Its homepage says average spend for a fast-growth B2B SaaS SEO program is $7,000+ a month.

How much does Backstage SEO cost?

Backstage SEO starts with The Search Blueprint, a 4-week assessment priced from $8,000 one time. Ongoing execution through the Search Operating Lane costs $8,000 a month, and Embedded Search Leadership is custom. Work runs as a 90-day sprint, then month to month, with no annual contracts or break fees.

Do Backstage SEO and Breaking B2B do GEO and AI search?

Yes. Backstage SEO maps the prompts prospects use in ChatGPT, tracks visibility daily and works citation gaps. Breaking B2B sells AEO, GEO and LLM SEO aimed at ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and publishes a Chattermill result where the AI mention rate rose from 20% to 80%.

What is a good alternative to Breaking B2B with shorter terms?

If 6 or 12 month terms are the sticking point, Backstage SEO runs month to month after a 90-day sprint, and DerivateX offers a 90-day pilot with no lock-in after on its $5,000 and $8,000 tiers. Both publish their prices, so you can compare the all-in cost before a call.

Is this comparison biased, since DerivateX wrote it?

DerivateX publishes this page, so read it with that in mind. Every Backstage SEO and Breaking B2B fact comes from the agency’s own website, checked on November 2, 2026, and the page recommends each competitor for the buyers it suits best. Where an agency does not publish something, the page says so.

The bottom line

These three agencies are closer in price than in model. Backstage SEO sells senior attention from one founder, Breaking B2B sells published volume on fixed terms, and DerivateX sells one SaaS-only team across Google and AI search with a short pilot. If you are B2B SaaS between $5M and $50M ARR and want Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude handled by one team you can test for 90 days, DerivateX is the right first call.

Want to see whether DerivateX fits? Book a discovery call with a founder, or start with a free AI visibility audit to see which buyer prompts name your competitors instead of you.

Related reading

• Directive vs DerivateX
• Best B2B SaaS SEO agencies
• 7 best RevenueZen alternatives for B2B SaaS
• Compare DerivateX with other agencies
• Discovered Labs vs DerivateX