What is the best Semrush alternative?

The best Semrush alternative depends on what you use Semrush for and what you can spend. If you need a full suite, start with SE Ranking or Ahrefs. If you only use one part of Semrush, a specialist or a free tool may cover it. This page groups the options by job and budget, and it sits in our guide to research tool alternatives.

We make PAA Box and have no ties to any company named here. Prices and plan limits come from each vendor’s own pages, checked on 5 November 2026. We compare what vendors publish. We did not run our own data accuracy tests, so use a free trial before you move a real project.

What does Semrush cost?

As of 5 November 2026, the SEO + AI Search tab of Semrush’s pricing page lists these plans:

• SEO: $139 monthly, or $117.33 a month billed annually. It covers 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily, with what the page calls “Basic keyword research and competitor analysis”.
• Starter: $199 monthly, or $165.17 a month billed annually.
• Pro+: $299 monthly, or $248.17 a month billed annually, with 15 websites and 1,500 keywords tracked daily.
• Advanced: custom pricing, through a demo request.
• Free: no credit card, 1 demo project and 10 reports per day.

Extra users start at $45 a month. The same page has separate tabs for Traffic & Market, Local, Content, Social and Advertising, so check which tab covers your work. That matters when you compare: a tool that beats the SEO plan on price may not touch the rest.

Which Semrush alternative fits your job and budget?

Here is the short version. Entry prices are as of 5 November 2026 and in US dollars unless marked.

If you need a full suite

We think these two are the closest swaps if you want rank tracking, audits, keyword research and competitor data in one login.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking’s Core plan is $129 monthly, or $103.20 a month billed annually. It includes 10 projects, one manager seat and 2,000 keywords tracked daily. The plan lists rank tracking, website and on-page audits, and “Unlimited keyword, competitor, backlink research”. The trial runs 14 days with no credit card.

On published limits alone, that is more tracked keywords than Semrush’s SEO plan at a similar price. Limits don’t tell you how the data compares, so test your own domains before you decide.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs Lite is $129 monthly, with 750 tracked keywords, 5 non-verified projects and unlimited verified ones. Standard is $249 monthly. The page says paying annually saves up to 17%. Its Site Explorer covers organic and AI search traffic, backlinks and paid traffic. If you are choosing between the two big suites, Ahrefs is the natural comparison, and our ahrefs alternative page breaks that product down job by job.

If you want a lighter tool or a lower entry price

Serpstat

Serpstat’s Individual plan is $50 monthly, and the page advertises up to 27% off with an annual discount. It covers competitor analysis, site audits, a rank tracker and keyword data for 230 countries. Read the trial terms: sign-up needs a card, which is charged $1 for verification and refunded, and the plan renews automatically after 7 days unless you cancel.

Mangools

Mangools bundles five tools: KWFinder for keywords, LinkMiner for backlinks, SERPChecker for results pages, SiteProfiler for website metrics and SERPWatcher for rank tracking. KWFinder offers “5 lookups per 24 hours, 15 related and 5 competitor keywords per lookup for free.” Its plans page describes a full refund within 48 hours of payment. For prices, see their pricing page.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest’s plans list rank tracking from 125 keywords per project, plus backlink data. Its FAQ says the monthly option has no contracts, and that a lifetime plan is a one-time payment. For current prices, see their pricing page.

Ahrefs Starter

Ahrefs also lists a Starter plan at $29 a month, described as “See what people search and spy on competitors.” The pricing page doesn’t show its limits, so check those before you rely on it.

If all you really do in Semrush is check search volume, you may not need a suite at all. Our keywords everywhere alternative page covers lighter browser tools.

Is there a free Semrush alternative?

In parts, yes. You can cover your own site for free, but competitor research is much harder to replace.

• Google Search Console shows the queries your site appears for, with clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position.
• Google Keyword Planner gives monthly search estimates, once your Google Ads account is set up with billing information.
• Ahrefs Free gives you Site Audit, Site Explorer and Web Analytics for websites you verify. Site Audit gets 5,000 crawl credits per project each month, and Site Explorer shows the top 1,000 backlinks and keywords.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawls up to 500 URLs for free.

The common limit is that most of this stops at your own website. Semrush’s own free plan is worth a look too, for its 10 reports per day. For more on the free keyword side, see the best free tool for keyword research.

If you only need one job done

Suites charge for breadth. If you only use one part of Semrush, a specialist can be the simpler buy.

Paid search research: SpyFu

SpyFu focuses on competitor research for SEO and Google Ads. Its homepage says you can “See every keyword they’ve ever bought on Google and every ad test they’ve run.” For prices, see their pricing page.

Content optimization: Surfer

Surfer’s Content Editor gives live guidelines as you write or refresh a page, and its plans add AI tracking. Discovery is $49 a month billed yearly, and Standard is $99 a month billed yearly. It is built for writing and AI visibility, so it replaces the content side of a suite and little else.

Traffic and market data: Similarweb

Similarweb sells web traffic and competitive intelligence. Its packages page says business plans are custom, through its sales team, and calls the free data on its site “a very high-level taste of what we offer.” It fits market research better than day-to-day SEO work.

Technical audits: Screaming Frog

The SEO Spider is a crawler you run yourself. A licence is £199 per year and lifts the 500 URL limit, with the maximum then depending on your memory and storage.

AI search tracking

Semrush’s plans now include AI visibility features. If that is the part you want to replace, we cover the options in our list of ai seo tools.

When Semrush is still the better choice

Stay with Semrush if you use several of its products in one place. The alternatives above often cover one area well, so replacing SEO, advertising, content and social research can mean paying for several logins and joining the data by hand. Add up that cost before you cancel.

It also has a strong case on backlinks: Semrush says its index holds more than 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains. And if you already have years of projects and reports set up there, moving them has a real cost that a price table won’t show.

Is PAA Box a Semrush alternative?

No. PAA Box is our tool, and it is not a replacement for Semrush or any all-in-one suite. It covers question research only. It has no search volume data, no rank tracking, no site audits and no backlink data.

It is a free Chrome extension that opens the People Also Ask questions on the Google results page, up to four depth levels, in your own browser, and exports a CSV with each question’s depth and parent question. If you use a suite for numbers and want the real questions behind a topic, it can sit next to whichever one you choose. Our guide to question keywords shows how to use those questions.

How to choose

1. Write down what you opened in Semrush last month. That list is your real requirement.
2. If it is three or more jobs, trial SE Ranking or Ahrefs on your own domain.
3. If it is one job, use the matching specialist above.
4. If you have no budget, start with Search Console and Ahrefs Free, then add Keyword Planner.
5. Before you cancel, export your projects and reports from Semrush.