Free Sites Like Semrush: 8 Honest Alternatives Compared
Updated October 22, 2026 · 15 min read
Disclosure: this article is written by the team behind budgetSEO, which appears in this comparison. Competitor prices and features are checked on the date above; verify on their sites before buying.
- Ahrefs Lite (billed monthly)
- $129/mo
- budgetSEO Starter
- $9/mo
- budgetSEO Pro
- $39/mo
Published prices, October 2026
The real cost problem
Semrush is a legitimate enterprise SEO platform, but most people searching for free alternatives share three complaints: the entry price is not published on its pricing page, its dashboard is built for agencies and overwhelms solo site owners, and it includes dozens of features, such as PPC competitor analysis, social media schedulers and a content marketplace, that a blogger or local business will never touch. Semrush does offer a free account, but the source we checked does not confirm a specific daily request cap, so we have not put a number on it here.
Semrush's cheapest paid plan price is not published on its pricing page, so a monthly or annual comparison cannot be made from a verified figure. For a freelancer tracking 20 client keywords or a niche site monitoring 50 long-tail terms, that's budget spent on a toolset designed for teams managing hundreds of domains. The pain isn't that Semrush lacks features. It's that small operators pay for site audit crawls of 100,000 pages, historical ad copy databases and API access they'll never use.
Complexity and feature bloat
The Semrush sidebar lists a large number of tools across many categories. New users commonly report spending time hunting for basic rank tracking or getting lost in the difference between its keyword and position tools. When you need one number, such as where your blog post ranks for "best hiking boots," a platform built for enterprise reporting feels like overkill.
What Reddit says
Threads in r/SEO and r/juststart often ask about free alternatives and land on a similar answer: Google Search Console is the only truly free tool with your own site's data, but it won't show competitor keywords or search volume. Users mention limited free tiers from third-party tools, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for crawling your own domain, and the reality that "free" in SEO software usually means a small daily query allowance or a short trial. One common theme: people want rank tracking and keyword research without paying a high entry price, and they're willing to accept smaller keyword limits if the core data is accurate.
Expectation setting
No free tool replicates Semrush's full suite. The realistic trade is choosing which features matter. If you need rank tracking and keyword volume, you'll sacrifice site audits and content templates. If you need backlink analysis, you'll give up some rank history.
How we picked these alternatives
We assessed each tool in this list against four criteria: whether it offers a genuinely free tier, what that free tier actually lets you do, how much the paid plans cost, and whether the tool pulls live data or relies on cached databases.
Free tier honesty. A tool only made this list if it has a permanent free plan with no credit card required, or if it offers a core SEO function, such as site audits or backlink checks, completely free with no signup. We excluded tools that gate everything behind a trial or require payment to see any useful data. budgetSEO's free plan (15 keywords, 1 project, manual rank checks) qualifies because you can use it indefinitely without paying.
Scope of free limits. Where we could verify them, we note the exact free-tier limits. A tool that gives you a handful of keyword lookups per day is useful for spot checks but not for ongoing rank tracking. A tool that shows a sample of backlinks is a preview, not a working backlink analyzer. We state these limits so you can decide whether "free" means "useful" for your workflow.
Paid plan price anchors. Most readers will outgrow free tiers, so we compare paid plans where the price is published. Ahrefs Lite is listed at $129/month billed monthly. budgetSEO Starter is $9/month or $90/year, and Pro is $39/month or $390/year. Where a competitor's price is not published on its pricing page, we say so rather than estimate it.
Data freshness. We checked whether each tool queries live search results or uses a proprietary index updated on a schedule. Live data costs more to generate, which is why truly free tools often show cached metrics or small samples. Neither approach is wrong, but you should know which one you're getting.
The honest tradeoff: no single free tool replicates Semrush's full feature set, so most users end up combining two or three tools, one for rank tracking, one for backlinks and one for site audits, to cover the same ground.
Google Search Console as a free foundation
Google Search Console is the only free tool that shows you exactly which queries brought real clicks from Google to your site. Every site owner should install it before spending money on any SEO tool, because it reports impressions, clicks, average position and CTR for the queries that triggered your pages over a rolling window. The data comes directly from Google, costs nothing and requires no credit card.
What Google Search Console does well
GSC excels at showing you what's already working. The Performance report lists the keywords your site appears for, filtered by page, country, device or date range. You can spot pages that rank on page two and deserve an update, or queries with high impressions but low clicks that signal a title-tag problem. The Page Indexing report tells you which URLs Google indexed and flags crawl errors, mobile usability issues and structured-data warnings that would otherwise stay invisible.
What it cannot do
Google Search Console does not show search volume, keyword difficulty, competitor rankings, or keyword ideas beyond the queries you already rank for. It will not tell you what keywords your competitors win or whether a keyword is worth targeting before you publish. Position numbers are averages over the selected date range, so a keyword that moved from #8 to #3 yesterday still shows a blended figure until enough days pass.
Can I replace Semrush with Google Search Console?
No. GSC is a reporting tool for traffic you already have; Semrush and the alternatives in this guide are research tools for traffic you want. If you only need to monitor your own rankings and diagnose indexing problems, GSC plus a simple rank tracker covers most solo-founder needs at zero cost. The moment you want to find new keywords, audit competitors or estimate search volume, you need a second tool, whether a paid platform or one of the free-tier options below.
Free keyword research and rank tracking options
Free tiers for keyword and rank tracking tools change often, and we have not verified current daily or monthly limits for every tool in this section, so we have removed specific numbers rather than risk publishing outdated ones. Check each tool's pricing page before you rely on its free allowance.
Google Keyword Planner remains a strong free option for search volume data because it's the source most other tools license or estimate from. You need a Google Ads account (free to create), and the interface shows volume ranges instead of exact numbers unless you run a small campaign, but the data is authoritative. Free third-party keyword tools typically provide a small daily lookup allowance, which is useful for occasional research but not for ongoing work.
For rank tracking specifically, free allowances are usually the first thing to shrink. Many rank trackers that advertised free tiers have moved to trial-only models or reduced free limits. If you need regular checks across many keywords, a low-cost paid plan is usually more predictable than stitching together free allowances and trial periods.
Current free tier limits that change often
Free keyword and rank tracking limits shrink as tools mature. If you need more than a handful of checks, a low-cost paid plan often beats juggling several free allowances, and you keep your historical data instead of losing it when a trial expires.
Ahrefs as a traditional Semrush alternative
Ahrefs is the most direct competitor to Semrush in the premium SEO platform category, offering a similar depth of data across keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, backlink analysis and content tools. Agencies and in-house teams often treat it as the default alternative when Semrush pricing becomes a blocker.
Is Ahrefs a good alternative to Semrush? Yes, if budget is not a constraint. Ahrefs Lite is listed at $129/month billed monthly. Its feature set is broad and its interface is well regarded, but it does not include a permanent free tier. We could not verify a refund or trial policy, or an annual Ahrefs Lite price, from a current source, so we make no claims about either here. Check Ahrefs directly before you commit.
The main issue for small operators is price. Freelancers tracking 20 keywords or indie site owners who need rank checks twice a month may use only a small fraction of what a $129 monthly plan offers. That gap is what pushes many people toward cheaper rank trackers and free keyword tools that cover the basics at a much lower cost.
Ahrefs makes sense as a Semrush alternative if you already have agency clients or several high-traffic sites that justify the cost. For solo projects and bootstrapped teams, the $129 monthly price pushes people toward budget tools.
SE Ranking as a budget all-in-one alternative
SE Ranking delivers one of the broader feature sets among budget-friendly Semrush alternatives, combining rank tracking, site audits, backlink analysis, keyword research and on-page SEO tools in a single platform. Its trial length and paid plan prices are not verified in our sources, so check its website for current terms.
SE Ranking sits between the free tools and enterprise platforms like Semrush or Ahrefs. Its bundle includes rank tracking for multiple projects, a site crawler that identifies technical SEO issues, backlink monitoring and a keyword research database with search volume and difficulty scores.
SE Ranking bundles tools that Semrush splits across modules. The tradeoff is that if you only need rank tracking and keyword volume rather than the full audit and backlink suite, an all-in-one platform may cost more than you need.
Budget and free crawling, backlink and audit tools
Screaming Frog SEO Spider offers a free desktop crawl capped at 500 URLs, making it a common choice for technical site audits on small sites. The free version does not include scheduled crawls, and the paid license price should be confirmed on its website before you budget for it. For sites under 500 pages, the free tier handles most technical SEO diagnostics without a subscription.
Sitebulb offers a trial and then requires a paid license. Its visual audit reports and prioritized issue lists make it easier to read than spreadsheet exports, but it does not offer a permanent free tier, so it suits teams that need occasional deep audits rather than daily crawling. Check its pricing page for current figures.
Majestic provides free backlink summaries for any domain and a free account adds limited access to its index. Its historic index is deep for older domains, but its keyword and rank tracking features are minimal compared with Semrush or Ahrefs. Paid plan prices are not published in our sources.
Moz offers a free browser extension that shows domain and page authority metrics, plus a small monthly allowance of queries in its research tools. Paid plan prices are not published in our sources. The free allowance runs out quickly if you research regularly.
Mangools, which bundles several tools including KWFinder and SERPWatcher, positions itself as a simpler, more affordable option than Semrush. Its trial and paid plan prices are not published in our sources, so confirm them on its website.
SpyFu specializes in competitor keyword analysis, showing the organic and paid keywords a domain has ranked for in Google US over a long history. Its free tier reveals a sample of competitor keywords and ad copy, and its paid plans are listed on its pricing page. It is a US-focused, PPC-leaning tool and does not provide site audits.
How to analyze competitor keywords? Paste a competitor domain into a free tool such as Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool (for sites you manage) or check a sample through a free allowance in a third-party tool. For deeper analysis, a paid plan in SE Ranking, Mangools or Ahrefs will show a fuller keyword list, position history and SERP overlap between your site and competitors.
The tradeoff across these free and budget tools is that you will likely need to combine two or three of them to replace a single Semrush subscription: a crawler for audits, a backlink tool and a separate tool for keyword research and rank tracking.
budgetSEO: a low-cost Semrush alternative (our product)
Full disclosure: This is our product, built as a lower-cost alternative to Ahrefs and Semrush for rank tracking, keyword research and AI visibility monitoring. We include it here because the price is clear and a free tier exists, and we will be upfront about what it does not do.
The free plan gives you 15 keywords, 1 project and manual rank checks with no credit card required. Starter costs $9/month or $90/year and includes 150 keywords, 3 projects and automatic weekly checks. Pro costs $39/month or $390/year and includes 750 keywords, 10 projects and daily checks on up to 100 keywords. Ahrefs Lite is listed at $129/month billed monthly, so budgetSEO Starter is $9/month against that figure, or $90 for a full year on the annual plan.
All rank data comes from live Google results via DataForSEO, so you see organic positions in the top 100 for your chosen country, language and device, with full history and a visibility trend. The keyword explorer shows search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, 12-month trend, keyword ideas and related keywords. The domain overview pulls any domain's organic keywords, estimated traffic, position distribution, top keywords and a backlink summary. You can track up to 5 competitors per project, with competitor keyword alerts on Pro.
What budgetSEO does not do
This tool does not include site audits or crawlers, content editors, PPC research, social media tools or link building services. If you need technical SEO audits, a desktop crawler or Google Search Console will serve you better. If you need backlink prospecting or content optimization, look at an all-in-one platform. The focus is rank tracking, keyword research and AI visibility monitoring at a lower price, not replicating every feature of an enterprise suite.
AI visibility tracking
The biggest difference from older platforms is tracking AI search visibility as a core metric. Pro users see which tracked keywords trigger Google AI Overviews, whether their site is cited in those overviews, how many times ChatGPT mentions their domain, and can save ChatGPT and Gemini prompts for repeat testing. The free plan does not include this view.
AI-first SEO tools and AI search visibility
Search results now include AI-generated overviews, and a growing share of research happens inside chat assistants. That changes what you want to measure, and it means some tools are built around this shift while older platforms are still adding it. Independent options in this area include dedicated AI visibility trackers and the native reporting that Google and other assistants provide to site owners. Pricing and feature details for these vary, and where we could not verify them from a source, we say so rather than guess.
Google Search Console does not currently report whether your pages appear in AI Overviews as a separate metric, so checking that presence usually means manual searches or a dedicated tool. budgetSEO covers this on tracked keywords on its Pro plan, showing AI Overview presence and citations, ChatGPT mention counts, and saved ChatGPT and Gemini prompts. If AI visibility is not a priority for you, the free and budget tools above cover traditional rank tracking, and you can add an AI-focused tool later without changing your keyword list.
Side-by-side comparison of free and budget options
The table below compares the alternatives on the paid price we could verify, what the free tier includes, and the use case each tool serves best. Where a price is not published, the cell says so.
| Tool | Starting paid price | Free tier | Key features | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | $129/mo billed monthly | None | Backlink index, site explorer, keyword research, rank tracking, site audit | Teams needing the largest backlink database and comprehensive site audits |
| SE Ranking | Not published | Trial (length not verified) | Rank tracking, site audit, backlink checker, keyword research, competitor analysis | Small agencies wanting an all-in-one platform |
| Ubersuggest | Not published | Limited daily lookups | Keyword ideas, domain overview, basic rank tracking | Bloggers who need occasional keyword research without a subscription |
| Moz | Not published | Small monthly query allowance | Domain Authority, keyword explorer, rank tracking, site crawl | Sites that rely on Domain Authority as a link-building metric |
| Mangools | Not published | Trial (length not verified) | KWFinder, SERPChecker, LinkMiner, SERPWatcher, SiteProfiler | Freelancers who want a simple interface and don't need daily rank checks |
| SpyFu | Not published | Limited sample | Competitor keyword history, PPC ad copy, domain comparisons | PPC marketers analyzing competitor ad spend and keyword bidding |
| Screaming Frog | Not published | Free crawl up to 500 URLs | Desktop crawler, technical audit, redirect chains, structured data | Technical SEO audits on small sites without a subscription |
| this tool | $9/mo or $90/yr | 15 keywords, 1 project, manual checks | Rank tracking, keyword research, domain overview, AI visibility, backlink summary | Solo site owners tracking rankings and researching keywords on a tight budget |
Ahrefs and SE Ranking sit at opposite ends of the price spectrum, but both deliver full-featured platforms. Ubersuggest and Moz offer small free allowances, and Screaming Frog is the only desktop tool in this list, crawling up to 500 URLs at no cost.
The tradeoff: no single tool in this table replicates Semrush's full combination of rank tracking, site audits, content tools, PPC research and social media analytics, so most users will need to combine two or three tools to cover the same ground.
Related reading
FAQ
Is there a free version of Semrush?
Semrush offers a free trial of its paid plans. We could not verify its length or current terms from a source for this article, so check Semrush's pricing page. Its paid plan prices are not published on the pricing page we checked, so ask yourself whether you need the full feature set before you start a trial, since trials typically require account setup.
Is there a free alternative to Semrush?
Google Search Console is the only truly free tool that replaces part of Semrush's functionality, showing clicks, impressions and average position for queries that brought traffic to your site. For keyword research and rank tracking beyond your own site, free allowances from several third-party tools cover light use. Screaming Frog's free crawl handles technical audits for sites up to 500 URLs, per a source retrieved 2026-10-22.
What is the best free Semrush alternative for keyword research?
Google Keyword Planner is a strong free option for search volume and keyword ideas if you have a Google Ads account, even without running ads. Third-party free tiers usually allow a small number of lookups per day. Both are more limited than Semrush, but they cost nothing and pull from Google's own data.
Can I replace Semrush with Google Search Console?
Google Search Console replaces Semrush's organic traffic reporting and shows which queries already rank, but it does not offer keyword research for new topics, competitor analysis, backlink prospecting, site audits or rank tracking over time. Most small site owners use Search Console as the free foundation and add a paid tool only when they need keyword ideas or regular rank checks.
Is Ahrefs a good alternative to Semrush?
Ahrefs is the most direct premium alternative to Semrush, with a comparable keyword database, backlink index and site audit toolset. Ahrefs Lite is listed at $129/month billed monthly. Both platforms target agencies or full-time SEO professionals, and if you already know you need an enterprise platform, they are broadly comparable.
How much cheaper is this tool than Ahrefs Lite?
Ahrefs Lite is listed at $129/month billed monthly. the Starter is $9/month or $90/year. Billed monthly, Starter costs $9 against Ahrefs Lite's $129. The tradeoff is that this tool does not include site audits, content editors, PPC research or link building services that the broader platforms offer.