Semrush alternatives, priced by what you actually open

The best Semrush alternative for a reader who mostly tracks rankings and audits sites is SE Ranking, because its $129 Core plan tracks 2,000 keywords daily where Semrush's $139 SEO plan tracks 500. If you mainly research backlinks and keywords rather than tracking rankings, look at Ahrefs; if the budget is the problem, look at Mangools or Ahrefs' $29 Starter plan. The rest of this page shows why, with every price as the vendor printed it on 22 September 2026.

Nobody here tested rank accuracy or database size, and we do not rank the tools on either: vendors disagree with each other on search volume and difficulty, and no independent measurement settles it. What we compare is what each plan publishes — price, limits, trial terms — and what those limits mean for a typical week of work.

What Semrush costs before you look elsewhere

Semrush's cheapest paid plan, called SEO, costs $139 a month billed monthly or $117.33 a month billed annually. That buys 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily; the next plan up, Starter at $199 a month, adds 50 AI prompts tracked daily but keeps the same 500 keywords.

Two more plans sit above it: Pro+ at $299 a month (1,500 keywords, historical SEO data, multi-location tracking) and Advanced at $549 a month (5,000 keywords, share of voice and API data). Each extra user starts at $45 a month on top. The full breakdown, including what the annual toggle saves on each tier, is in our Semrush pricing breakdown.

If you are looking for a Semrush alternative, the reason you are looking decides the answer. There are three obvious ones:

• The bill. You use two or three tools and pay for twenty.
• The tracking allowance. 500 keywords runs out quickly once you track a few competitors or cities.
• The seats. A second person costs at least $45 a month more.

Entry prices side by side

The cheapest way into each suite, billed monthly, ranges from $29 (Ahrefs Starter) to $399 (Similarweb's SEO package). Semrush's $139 SEO plan is the second-highest entry price in that list; only Similarweb's SEO package costs more to start.

Two cautions before reading the prices as a league table. First, "tracked keywords" does not mean the same thing everywhere: Semrush, SE Ranking and Mangools' Agency plan update daily, while Ahrefs, SpyFu and Mangools' Basic plan update weekly. Second, the cheap entry plans are cheap because they are narrow — Ahrefs Starter runs on 200 credits a month and cannot take extra users.

The alternatives, one drawer at a time

Each section below says what the entry plan opens, what it keeps shut, who should pick it, and what it costs to grow. Where a tool pays us, the button under its section says so.

1. SE Ranking — the closest swap, with four times the tracking

SE Ranking is the answer for someone who uses Semrush mainly to track rankings and audit sites. Its Core plan costs $129 a month, or $103.20 a month billed annually, and includes 10 projects, 2,000 keywords tracked daily, 100 AI prompts tracked daily and 250,000 audit pages a month.

Against Semrush's SEO plan that is $10 less a month billed monthly and four times the daily keyword allowance (2,000 against 500). The catch is seats: Core includes one manager seat, and extra seats start at $16. Growth, at $279 a month, raises that to 3 seats, 30 projects and 5,000 keywords. The 14-day trial needs no card, and SE Ranking says annual subscribers get free assisted migration. Payments are otherwise non-refundable. Our SE Ranking review covers what the Core plan leaves out, and the SE Ranking vs Semrush comparison goes plan by plan.

2. Ahrefs — the research suite with no trial and no affiliate programme

Ahrefs is the pick for backlink and keyword research, and it is the one tool here that pays us nothing: it has no affiliate programme, so the Ahrefs links in this section are plain ones. Lite costs $129 a month with 5 projects and 750 tracked keywords; Standard costs $249; Advanced $449.

Two things surprise Semrush users. Ahrefs' Rank Tracker updates weekly on every plan, not daily. And Lite runs on credits — 1,000 per user a month — which heavy research can exhaust. Ahrefs offers no trial ("We never run discounts"), but Ahrefs Free gives limited Site Explorer and Site Audit data for sites you verify, and the $29 Starter plan adds Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker on 200 credits a month. See our Ahrefs pricing breakdown and the Ahrefs vs Semrush head-to-head.

3. Mangools — the budget drawer

Mangools is the right alternative when the site is small and the budget is smaller. Its Basic plan costs $30.50 a month billed monthly, or $18.85 a month billed annually ($226.20 a year), for 100 keyword lookups a day, 200 tracked keywords updated weekly and 100,000 backlink rows a month.

It is the cheapest paid plan on this page if you pay annually; billed monthly, Ahrefs Starter's $29 is lower. Basic allows no extra seats, and only the $70.50 Agency plan updates rankings daily. Mangools offers a full refund within 48 hours of payment. For a lighter keyword-first comparison, see the Ahrefs alternatives guide.

4. Moz Pro — link metrics and a gentler learning curve

Moz Pro suits someone who wants link metrics and site tracking without Semrush's breadth. Standard costs $99 a month or $79 a month billed yearly, and Moz prints the yearly bill as "$950 billed for your first year"; it covers 1 user, 3 tracked sites and 300 tracked keywords a month.

Moz also sells a $49-a-month Starter plan "designed specifically for individuals managing a single website". Extra seats cost $49 a month each — steeper than Semrush's $45 starting price. The "first year" wording on the yearly price means the renewal can differ, and Moz does not print the renewal figure. We have not verified Moz's affiliate programme, so it is named here without a link. The three-way comparison is in Moz vs Ahrefs vs Semrush.

5. SpyFu — competitors' ads and their history

SpyFu is the alternative for people whose Semrush use was mostly spying on competitors' paid and organic keywords. Basic costs $39 a month for 5,000 weekly tracked rankings and 10,000-row results.

Watch the middle plan: Pro + AI costs $59 for the first month and $119 a month thereafter, the only published first-month price on this page. SpyFu offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its affiliate programme is unverified, so there is no link.

6. Similarweb — traffic and market research, not a cheaper Semrush

Similarweb is not a budget swap; it is the alternative when the questions are about traffic and market share rather than rankings. Its Competitive Intel & SEO & AEO package costs $399 a month, or $333 a month billed annually, for one user with keyword research, a rank tracker, site audit and 150 tracked AI prompts.

Its Competitive Intelligence package alone costs $199 a month but has no SEO tools. The tracked-keyword allowance is not stated on the plan card. The fuller trade-off is in Similarweb vs Semrush.

7. Google Search Console — the free drawer everyone should open first

Google Search Console is free and shows the clicks, impressions and average positions your own site actually gets in Google. It pays us nothing, and it is still the first thing to set up.

It cannot research competitors or keywords you do not yet rank for, which is why it sits last here rather than first. But if your Semrush use was mostly checking your own positions, Search Console may replace it outright.

Keywords tracked at the entry plan

Tracking allowance is where the alternatives differ most, and the update frequency matters as much as the number. At the entry plan, SE Ranking tracks the most keywords daily (2,000); SpyFu's Basic tracks more (5,000) but weekly.

Read the numbers this way: 500 daily keywords is 500 fresh positions every day, while 750 weekly keywords on Ahrefs Lite is 750 fresh positions once a week. If you report rankings to clients or bosses weekly, weekly updates are enough; if you watch launches or algorithm updates, they are not.

Which one fits your week

Match the alternative to the job you actually do, not to the longest feature list. Four common cases:

• You track rankings for a handful of sites and run audits. SE Ranking Core. It costs less than Semrush's SEO plan and tracks four times as many keywords daily.
• You live in backlink and keyword research. Ahrefs Lite, or Starter at $29 if one person does light research.
• You run one small site on a tight budget. Mangools Basic billed annually, or Search Console plus Ahrefs Free for nothing.
• Your boss asks about market share, not rankings. Similarweb — and expect to pay more than Semrush, not less.

If you are unsure, trial first: SE Ranking gives 14 days without a card, Semrush gives 7 days with a card check (see how the Semrush free trial works), and Ahrefs gives no trial at all.

What changed in 2026, and what we could not confirm

Two changes matter to anyone comparing these tools this year, and one date is often misreported. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush on 28 April 2026, according to Adobe's own announcement; Semrush now sits in Adobe's Customer Experience Orchestration business.

Semrush's pricing page now labels its three higher plans "SEO + AI Search", and markets the combination as Semrush One — explained in Semrush One, explained. Ahrefs' $29 Starter plan is not new: Ahrefs' own announcement is dated 2 September 2024, whatever some 2026 coverage says. We could not confirm Ahrefs' per-plan annual prices (the page says only "save up to 17%"), Moz's renewal price after the first year, or SpyFu's annual prices, so none of them appear as numbers here.

How we chose and ordered these seven

We ordered the list for a reader leaving Semrush, weighting three things we can read on vendor pages: how much of Semrush's everyday work the entry plan covers, what it costs per month and per tracked keyword, and whether you can try it without paying.

We did not score database size, data accuracy or interface quality, because we have no measurement to back a number and the vendors' own claims conflict. Payouts did not set the order either: Ahrefs, which pays nothing, is second, and Search Console, which pays nothing, is on the list at all. Two of the seven — SE Ranking and Mangools — pay us a commission if you subscribe through our link; the Semrush link pays nothing until this site qualifies for its programme. The full policy is on how we get paid.