Semrush alternatives for freelancers and small teams

The Semrush SEO plan costs $139.95 a month. It includes one user, 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords. Each extra user costs from $45 a month.

For a freelancer or a small team, that price covers more tools than they use. Most freelancers need keyword research, rank tracking, a site audit and client reports. The seven Semrush alternatives in this guide cover those jobs for less money, more tracked keywords or cheaper seats.

Why freelancers and small teams switch from Semrush

There are three common reasons to look for a cheaper alternative to Semrush:

• Seat costs: Each extra Semrush user costs from $45 a month, so a team of three pays $229.95 a month.
• Tracking limits: The SEO plan tracks 500 keywords across 5 websites, which a freelancer with several clients can pass quickly.
• Unused tools: The plan includes advertising, social media and local tools that many freelancers do not use.

Semrush alternatives for smaller marketing teams and freelancers

Each tool in this section is listed with the job it covers best, its main features, its cost and its main limit.

SE Ranking: best Semrush alternative for rank tracking

SE Ranking is an SEO platform for rank tracking, keyword research, competitor research, backlinks and site audits. Its entry plan tracks four times as many keywords as the Semrush SEO plan. The Core plan includes:

• Rank tracking: 2,000 keywords tracked daily across 10 projects.
• Research: Unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research.
• Site audit: Up to 250,000 pages a month.
• AI search tracking: 25 prompts a day across five AI engines.

For agencies, the Agency Pack adds white-label reports and 30 client seats for $69 a month on yearly billing.

Cost: $129 a month for Core, or $103.20 a month billed yearly.

Ahrefs: best Semrush alternative for backlink research

Ahrefs is an SEO platform known for its backlink data. It has three plans that fit small teams:

• Ahrefs Free: Site audit and backlink data for websites you own and verify.
• Starter, $29 a month: Keyword research and basic competitor data.
• Lite, $129 a month: Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit and rank tracking for 750 keywords.

Lite is the closest match to the Semrush SEO plan. It costs $10.95 less, and extra users cost $40 a month each, for up to two more users.

Cost: Free, then $29 a month for Starter or $129 a month for Lite.

Mangools: best Semrush alternative for beginners

Mangools is a set of five SEO tools in one plan. The suite includes:

• KWFinder: Keyword research with a difficulty score for each keyword.
• SERPChecker: Analysis of the pages that rank for a keyword.
• SERPWatcher: Rank tracking.
• LinkMiner: Backlink research.
• SiteProfiler: Domain metrics for any website.

The Basic plan includes 100 keyword lookups a day and 200 tracked keywords.

Cost: $18.85 a month billed yearly for Basic. Premium costs $26.35 a month billed yearly and allows three extra users.

Keywords Everywhere: best Semrush alternative for cheap keyword data

Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension. It shows search volume, cost per click and competition next to Google search results. It works on credits, and one keyword uses one credit. The plans include:

• Bronze: 100,000 credits a year, with up to 1,000 top keywords and backlinks for any website.
• Gold: 2 million credits a year and 10 user seats.

Cost: $7 a month billed yearly for Bronze, or $40 a month billed yearly for Gold.

SpyFu: best Semrush alternative for PPC research

SpyFu is a competitor research tool for SEO and Google Ads. It shows the keywords a competitor ranks for and the ads they have run. The Basic plan includes:

• History: More than 10 years of SEO and PPC data.
• Search results: Up to 10,000 rows per search, with exports of the same size.
• Site audit: Up to 50,000 pages a month.

Pro removes the row limits and adds more tracking projects. Each extra user on Pro costs $30 a month.

Cost: $39 a month for Basic. Pro costs $59 for the first month, then $119 a month.

Serpstat: best low-cost all-in-one Semrush alternative

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform. Like Semrush, it covers keyword research, site analysis, rank tracking, site audits and backlink analysis. The plans include:

• Individual: 5 projects, 100 searches a day and 10,000 keyword position checks.
• Team: Unlimited projects, shared access and scheduled reports.

Cost: $50 a month billed yearly for Individual, or $100 a month billed yearly for Team.

Moz Pro: best Semrush alternative for client reports and keyword research

Moz Pro is an all-in-one SEO toolkit used by more than 500,000 marketers. It covers keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor research and client reports, and it also shows how often your brand appears in AI answers. The plans include:

• Starter: One website.
• Standard: One user, 3 sites and 300 tracked keywords.
• Medium: Two users, 10 sites and 1,500 tracked keywords.

Moz Pro’s main tools include:

• Keyword Explorer: Search volume, difficulty and potential reach, with keyword suggestions grouped by search intent.
• Rank Tracker: Rankings across several search engines and locations.
• Site Crawl: Site audits with error reports and fix steps, plus on-demand crawls to check your fixes.
• Competitive Research: The top keywords and best-performing pages of any competitor.
• On-Page Grader: Fixes to help one page rank for its target keyword.
• Custom Reports: Client reports built around the metrics each client cares about.
• AI search tracking: How often your brand appears across tracked AI prompts, compared with competitors.

Every plan also comes with MozBar Premium, a Chrome toolbar for checking pages and search results, and Moz AI insights in Domain Overview and Keyword Suggestions.

Cost: $49 a month for Starter, $99 a month for Standard and $179 a month for Medium.

What a three-person team pays for each Semrush alternative

A team of three on the Semrush SEO plan pays $229.95 a month: $139.95 for the plan and $45 for each of the two extra users. The table lists the cheapest plan on each alternative that gives three people access, from lowest to highest price.

Five of the seven alternatives cost less than Semrush for a team of three. Mangools and Keywords Everywhere are the cheapest, while Serpstat Team is the lowest-cost full SEO suite at $100 a month. SE Ranking Growth and Moz Pro Large cost more, but SE Ranking Growth tracks 5,000 keywords across 30 projects, ten times the Semrush SEO plan limit.

How to switch from Semrush to another SEO tool

Switching tools takes four steps:

1. Export your data. Download Position Tracking data and project settings before the Semrush plan ends.
2. Import projects. SE Ranking offers free assisted migration with yearly plans, and most other tools accept CSV imports.
3. Run both tools for a month. Compare rankings so client reports do not show sudden jumps.
4. Rebuild reports. Set up client reports and scheduled emails in the new tool before you cancel.

Semrush alternatives: common questions

What is the cheapest Semrush alternative?

Keywords Everywhere costs $7 a month billed yearly for keyword data. Mangools is the cheapest full toolkit with rank tracking, at $18.85 a month billed yearly.

Is there a free Semrush alternative?

Ahrefs Free gives site audit and backlink data for websites you own. Google Search Console is also free and shows the real search queries and clicks for your site.

Which Semrush alternative is best for small agencies?

SE Ranking, because it tracks 2,000 keywords on its entry plan and offers white-label reports. SpyFu is a good choice for agencies that also run Google Ads.

Is Ahrefs cheaper than Semrush?

Yes, slightly. Ahrefs Lite costs $129 a month against $139.95 for the Semrush SEO plan, and extra Ahrefs users cost $40 a month against $45.