Some have cash back. Many offer 1/2 million dollars in travel accident insurance, double warranty period to up to 5 years, car rental collision damage waiver and more. Read your card agreement to find out exactly what benefits are offered.
If you are not a frequent traveller, you do not need gold card basically. TD Select Gold is a good card that does not need annual fee. It also has a feature like other Gold card with covering the rental car insurance.
Tons of gold/platinum cards without annual fees, e.g. RBC Visa Platinum, MBNA Platinum MasterCard, AmexCostco Platinum, CitiSony Platinum Mastercard, etc.