Since 2016, Semrush has been one of my go-to tools for managing hundreds of SEO campaigns. I genuinely believe it’s the best all-around tool for digital marketing.
But it can be more expensive than some competitors. And it takes time to learn all of Semrush’s features.
So, if you want to learn what else is out there, I’ve compiled a list of the top Semrush alternatives below.
I chose these tools based on my experience and the following criteria:
- Pricing: I compared how much they cost and what you get for your money
- Functionality: I looked at how many features they offer and how they compare to Semrush
- Ease of use: I included tools for both beginners and experts
- Data reliability: I checked their data sources and reliability
Lets start.
All-in-One SEO Tools
If you’ve used Semrush, you know it’s a powerhouse for SEO tasks (if you don’t, check out our full Semrush review for more info).
But it’s not the only option if you want a single, comprehensive SEO solution.
1. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an SEO software suite and one of the closest alternatives to Semrush based on the number and variety of features.
Like Semrush, Ahrefs offers a toolkit for SEO professionals, including:
- Site Explorer
- Keyword Explorer
- Site Audit
- Rank Tracker
- Competitive Analysis toolkit
And more.
However, Ahrefs falls short when it comes to social media, influencer marketing, and local SEO—areas where Semrush excels. So, if you’re looking for a tool to serve your entire marketing team, Ahrefs might not be the best fit.
If you want to learn more about how the two tools compare, I’ve written an in-depth comparison of Ahrefs and Semrush.
Pros
One of Ahrefs’ key strengths is its ability to present complex data in a clear, easy-to-understand way.
For example, the Site Explorer report gives a visual snapshot of your website’s historical performance—tracking organic traffic, referring domains, and indexed pages.
This report is particularly useful for identifying correlations between published pages, organic traffic, and keyword rankings.
It’s an excellent tool for tracking your site’s progress over time and monitoring your competitors.
Cons
Ahrefs’ cheapest plan uses a credits system. You need credits for everything, including viewing reports or changing dates.
If you have the cheapest plan, you only get 500 credits, which can disappear quickly—even with simple keyword searches.
While the more expensive plans no longer use the credits system, this is still a major limitation for those looking for a cost-effective SEO tool.
Pricing
Ahrefs is definitely on the pricier side, especially compared to other options I’ll discuss below.
And unlike Semrush, Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free trial, so you’ll need to jump straight into the Ahrefs Lite plan at $129 per month.
However, this plan lacks crucial features like the Content Explorer, keyword clusters, keyword search intent data, and batch analysis.
Ahrefs does offer a free account, called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. But you only get limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit with this.
To access Ahrefs’ capabilities fully, you’ll need to upgrade to the Standard plan, which costs $249 per month.
For more similar options, check out our guide to the best Ahrefs alternatives.
2. Moz
Moz has been around since 2004, making it one of the pioneers in helping website owners improve their online visibility.
Its intuitive interface makes it accessible for both beginners and seasoned SEO pros.
While it may not have all the features of some of the newer platforms, it’s still a solid choice for foundational SEO tasks like site auditing and link building.
Pros
First, Moz is more budget-friendly than Semrush. If you’re managing just one domain, Moz’s entry-level plan at $49 a month could be an excellent alternative to Semrush’s $139.95 starting price.
While I don’t use Moz as much anymore, I have to highlight its standout tools—like Keyword Suggestions.
Even with the free plan, you can get up to 1,000 keyword ideas related to your target keyword.
Plus, you get essential metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent to guide your SEO strategy.
It’s similar to Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, but Moz Pro offers comparable keyword insights for a lower price.
The Moz team is also active on social media, with its support team monitoring requests via X (formerly Twitter). That level of responsiveness is a nice touch.
Cons
I’ll be honest: while Moz Pro can work as an all-in-one SEO tool, it doesn’t quite match Semrush’s depth and capabilities.
The biggest drawback? It doesn’t offer the same level of detailed data.
Here are a few key areas where Moz falls short compared to Semrush:
- Location-based search volumes
- Search trends
- Paid search insights
- Keyword clustering for subtopics and secondary keywords
- Social media performance tracking
- Content marketing tools for topic research and SEO writing assistance
Plus, Moz’s keyword database is much smaller. Semrush has over 26 billion keywords, while Moz has about 1.25 billion.
This means Semrush offers access to a much larger pool of potential keywords to discover and track.
Pricing
Moz is an affordable tool with a free plan, and it is great for testing before committing. Unlike Semrush, it offers a 30-day free trial, which is rare for such a robust SEO tool.
If you manage more than one website, you’ll need to upgrade to the Standard plan at $99 monthly. For agencies and larger teams, the top-tier plan is $599 monthly.
3. Majestic
Majestic is a popular SEO backlink checker and link-building toolkit. While it offers some keyword research capabilities, its main strength is in the backlinks department.
Unlike Semrush, Majestic doesn’t cover competitor analysis, technical SEO, rank tracking, or content marketing. Making it less of an all-in-one solution.
Pros
Majestic claims to have the most comprehensive backlink database, with over 15 years of data in its “Historic Index.”
I ran a quick test comparing Majestic and Semrush for trafficthinktank.com, and here’s what I found as of September 2024:
| Tool | Backlinks | Referring Domains |
| Majestic Historic Index (over 15 years of data) | 20,119 | 1,215 |
| Majestic Fresh Index (updated almost daily) | 967 | 418 |
| Semrush (data collected in the last few months) | 6,000 | 2,000 |
Majestic’s ability to find more backlinks might be useful if you’re focused on tracking historical backlink data. However, it also includes lost backlinks and domains that might no longer be relevant.
In contrast, Semrush and Majestic’s Fresh Index provide more up-to-date insights.
Note: There’s always some variance between tools, as they each use their own proprietary systems for finding backlinks.
Cons
Majestic was primarily a link-building tool until they introduced the Keyword Research Tool in 2020.
However, I wouldn’t recommend relying on it for keyword research, as it lacks key metrics like:
- Search intent
- Location-based search volumes
- SERP analysis
- Global volume split by countries
Plus, the search volume column only shows a number between 0 and 100 (estimating the relative volume, it seems), rather than an exact figure.
For example, Majestic’s Keyword Checker shows 54 for “steam store,” while Semrush reports 27.1k monthly searches in the U.S. alone.
So it’s not all that useful for understanding a keyword’s traffic potential.
Pricing
Majestic is a paid tool that doesn’t offer a free trial, making it difficult to test before buying.
There are three pricing plans:
- The Lite plan is the most affordable at $49.99 per month, and it includes basics like keyword research and backlink analysis
- The Pro plan costs $99.99 per month, and gives you access to the Historic Index and more robust reporting
- If you need API access to pull data directly from Majestic, it’s $399 per month
Majestic is cheaper than Semrush, but it’s less comprehensive for advanced SEO needs.
4. SEO PowerSuite
SEO PowerSuite started as a link-building and outreach tool in 2004.
Today, it has evolved into a powerful platform with four main tools:
- LinkAssistant
- Rank Tracker
- SEO SpyGlass
- Website Auditor
Pros
The free plan offers solid features, enough to run some fundamental SEO processes. Here’s what you get:
- Access to all four SEO PowerSuite tools
- Unlimited keyword tracking
- Site crawling and auditing for up to 500 URLs
- In-app content optimization
- Backlink tracking and auditing for up to 1,100 links
- Link prospecting and outreach for up to 1,000 prospects
You can also track rankings globally or locally, monitor top-gaining and top-losing keywords, and get weekly ranking reports by email.
Cons
Unlike cloud-based tools like Semrush, SEO PowerSuite is desktop-based, meaning you’ll need to download and install it.
I found it a bit clunky, and if your computer isn’t fast enough, some performance issues might crop up.
I’ve also come across several Reddit posts where users reported performance issues.
Pricing
SEO PowerSuite is more affordable than Semrush. For example, the Professional License costs $596 per year, which breaks down to $49.66 per month (but you need to pay annually).
It includes:
- Everything from the free plan
- Unlimited link-building and outreach
- The ability to save SEO projects
- SEO task scheduling
There’s also an Enterprise plan for larger websites, priced at $1,396 per year.
This includes:
- Everything in the Professional Plan
- Unlimited data export
- SEO reporting functionality
- Up to 400 projects under one account
5. Serpstat
Serpstat started as a keyword research tool back in 2013, but has since grown into a fully-fledged SEO platform. It offers everything from website audits to competitor analysis, rank tracking, and more.
Its key features include:
- Website technical analysis
- Keyword research
- SEO and PPC analysis
- Competitor research
- Rank tracking
- On-page audits
- Backlink analysis
Compared to Semrush, Serpstat is a much more affordable option, starting at just $59 per month.
Pros
Serpstat has a user-friendly interface, similar to Semrush. So you can pick it up quickly as a beginner.
Unlike Semrush, Serpstat highlights site audit results in the same report as their Domain Overview, which is super useful.
Cons
I had high hopes for Serpstat, especially given its roots as a keyword research tool. Like Semrush, you can easily analyze keywords and generate new ideas based on a seed keyword.
However, I was disappointed that Serpstat doesn’t show keyword search intent. Which is an incredibly important aspect of your keyword research.
Knowing the intent is of course important. But from a usefulness perspective, being able to sort by intent is really where you can make gains. That’s one thing Semrush can do that Serpstat can’t match.
Another downside is that it relies on Google Ads data for SEO keyword research. This isn’t ideal, since organic traffic numbers differ greatly from paid search data.
Pricing
Serpstat is a paid tool with a 7-day free trial. Its most affordable plan is $59 per month, suitable for SEO professionals managing up to five projects simultaneously.
For agencies handling large volumes of data, a $479 monthly plan supports unlimited projects and 5,000 daily searches.
6. Raven Tools
Raven Tools helps with SEO and reporting through features like technical SEO audits, keyword analysis, and backlink monitoring.
It allows you to:
- Conduct technical SEO audits
- Monitor your website’s rankings for targeted keywords across Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and Baidu
- Analyze your keyword idea for SEO and PPC
- Generate keyword suggestions
- Assess your domain’s backlink profile
- Check competitor backlinks
- Find new backlink opportunities
- Track existing backlinks
However, unlike Semrush, Raven Tools doesn’t offer broader marketing capabilities for PPC, content marketing, and social media.
Pros
Raven Tools is more affordable than Semrush. This is obviously an important factor if you’re a small business owner looking to improve your SEO on a budget.
I also like its customizable drag-and-drop reports you can build to suit your (or your client’s) needs.
Cons
When compared to Semrush, Raven Tools provides less data to analyze keywords comprehensively.
For example, it’s not able to analyze search intent. And like with Serpstat, this means you also can’t sort by intent.
I’ve also noticed that their Keyword Research Central pulls in data from Google Ads, which doesn’t always align with organic numbers (again, like Serpstat).
Pricing
Raven offers a free trial with paid plans ranging from $49 to $479 monthly.
The lower-tier plan suits two domains, while the highest allows 320 domains and 40 user seats.
7. SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a powerful SEO and content marketing platform.
It lets you:
- Analyze competitors’ paid and organic ad campaigns
- Research keywords in bulk
- Analyze individual keywords quickly
- Monitor backlinks
- Assess your website’s overall health
Like Semrush, SE Ranking also offers tools for social media marketers to manage Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
Pros
From my experience, SE Ranking is one of the go-to tools for SEO pros. It’s user-friendly, affordable, and packed with useful features.
With SE Ranking, you can track keyword rankings and explore new topics using the Keyword Suggestion Tool. You can also organize related keywords with the Keyword Grouper.
The keyword overview report is also clean and easy to use.
Like Semrush, it provides essential details for in-depth research, including search volume (both local and global), search intent, keyword difficulty, and related keywords.
In March 2023, SE Ranking added an AI Writer to its Content Editor tool, a solid alternative to Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant.
Cons
Compared to Semrush, SE Ranking offers fewer link-building capabilities.
You can use the Backlink Checker to analyze any website’s backlink profile. And you can also monitor your backlinks with the Backlink Tracking Tool.
However, if your primary goal is consistently getting new backlinks, Semrush’s Link Building Tool is more helpful. It also comes with domain recommendations and an outreach module.
Pricing
SE Ranking is a paid tool that offers a 14-day free trial.
The basic plan starts at $65 per month and allows you to track 500 keywords across five websites, which may be enough for small businesses.
For larger websites requiring more extensive keyword tracking, the Pro plan offers options for tracking 2,000 or 3,500 keywords on 30 websites.
However, the Business plan is the best choice if you have a large website with lots of keywords to track. It lets you track up to 15,000 keywords daily.
Keyword Research Tools
If you’re looking for the best keyword research tools, you can read my article about it for detailed reviews.
But below, I’ll focus on three tools that can act as decent Semrush alternatives for keyword research.
8. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a keyword research tool that allows you to discover content ideas and questions people ask related to your topic.
You can only conduct three free searches daily. To continue using the tool, you can opt for a 7-day free trial and upgrade to a paid plan later.
Pros
Besides checking insights for organic search results on Google, you can also research the most popular topics for YouTube, Bing, TikTok, and Amazon.
AnswerThePublic identifies questions users frequently search for that are semantically related to your topic.
The theory is that if you incorporate them into your content, you can better align it with what people are searching for. This can improve your chances of ranking in search results.
Cons
AnswerThePublic is great for generating content ideas, but that’s about it. It doesn’t provide a complete picture that lets you select the best keywords for your SEO campaign.
Unlike Semrush, AnswerThePublic won’t show search intent or keyword difficulty. It also won’t display global search volume or how searches are distributed by country.
Plus, it doesn’t display the actual search results page or highlight SERP features for your keywords.
AnswerThePublic is a solid starting point for keyword research, but you’ll need more data to make well-informed SEO decisions.
Pricing
If you need more than three searches a day, you’ll need to choose from three pricing plans.
The Individual plan costs $9 per month and allows up to 100 daily searches.
It also provides cost-per-click (CPC) and search volume estimates for your target country.
For agencies, the Pro plan at $99 per month offers unlimited searches and supports up to three user accounts.
9. Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a Chrome extension for content and keyword research powered by the popular Surfer SEO tool. It helps you generate keyword ideas and view search volumes in Google search results.
Pros
Keyword Surfer gives you a quick and easy way to check insights like search volume, CPC, keyword suggestions, related terms, and visibility metrics—all while staying on Google’s SERP.
It’s also useful for seeing organic traffic estimates and word counts for competing URLs in search results.
But that’s about all the tool can do.
Cons
I wouldn’t call Keyword Surfer a full keyword research tool because it’s just a basic Chrome extension.
Unlike Semrush, it doesn’t allow for deep keyword research or analysis of key metrics.
Pricing
Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome extension, so there’s no cost to use it.
Since it’s linked to Surfer SEO, you’ll often see a prominent “Get Started Now” button under the keyword ideas list, encouraging you to sign up for Surfer SEO (which is a paid tool).
Link Building Tools
Semrush has a strong link-building toolkit for various tasks, including:
- Backlink audits
- Checking competitor backlink profiles
- Tracking your backlinks
- Gaining new ones
But there are more affordable alternatives to Semrush for each of these tasks.
10. Link Hunter
Link Hunter is an email outreach automation tool.
It helps you find relevant websites for link building, checks their authority and relevance, and gives you their contact details for outreach.
Pros
Link Hunter works much like Semrush’s Link Building Tool.
You can create, automate, and track outreach campaigns right in the Link Hunter dashboard. Instead of manually sending guest post proposals, you can use email templates to send them in bulk to hundreds of website owners.
You get unlimited prospects for $49 per month and can send up to 500 outreach emails.
Cons
Link Hunter doesn’t let you schedule outreach campaigns for later dates. So, this may not be the best option if you need full automation.
You also can’t import domains from other sources for link building. You’re limited to the tool’s database.
Pricing
Link Hunter offers three pricing tiers for different needs.
The Starter plan ($49/mo) works for startups and small businesses. If you manage multiple websites, you can upgrade to the $99 plan, which lets you send up to 2,000 outreach emails from five accounts.
Larger agencies can choose the $199 plan, which supports 5,000 outreach emails, 10 email accounts, phone support, and team training.
11. Linkody
Linkody helps website owners track their backlinks. It can find new backlinks, show the ones you already have, and assist in managing your link-building strategy.
Pros
Linkody tracks your backlinks 24/7 and sends email alerts if any links are changed or removed.
It uses Moz to provide a backlink spam score and the domain authority of referral websites.
It also includes Majestic’s Trust and Citation Flow metrics to evaluate the quality of individual backlinks. Along with your overall backlink profile.
Cons
Unlike Semrush, Linkody doesn’t show the number of referring domains to a given website.
Its backlink count is also less accurate because it only displays one backlink per domain found in the last three months.
In comparison, Semrush shows the new, broken, lost, and total referring domains and backlinks, providing a more accurate picture.
Pricing
Unlike many SEO tools, Linkody offers a generous 30-day free trial without needing a credit card.
If you go for the paid option, there are five pricing tiers. The most affordable, the Webmasters plan, costs $14.90 per month and lets you track two domains and monitor 500 backlinks.
If you need more, the Agency XL plan costs $153.90 per month, supports up to 100 domains, and tracks up to 50,000 backlinks.
12. Featured
Featured isn’t your typical link-building service. It works more like a matchmaker. It connects experts with journalists and content creators who need expert quotes.
For example, if you’re a gardening expert, Featured can help you get your knowledge featured on popular websites, earning valuable backlinks. In the process, it helps journalists find trusted experts to add credibility to their articles.
Pros
I’ve been using Featured since HARO (Help a Reporter Out) was effectively shut down in December 2023.
What I like most about the platform is the curated list of questions they email experts. It makes it easy to find SEO-related topics I can contribute to.
The platform’s interface is intuitive and helps you track the status of your submissions.
If your quote is selected, you can earn potentially valuable backlinks for your website.
Cons
It can take up to a month for publishers to review and publish your submission if it’s accepted.
And to build backlinks with Featured, you need to submit multiple quotes. In my experience, it takes time and effort to write a high-quality submission. So it can be a slow process.
Also, with the free plan, you’re limited to three quotes per month. If you want more, you’ll need to opt for a paid plan.
Pricing
The Pro plan allows unlimited quote submissions, and it costs $49.75 per month. It also provides details about link types (“follow” or nofollow) and domain ratings.
The Business plan, priced at $99 per month, includes extra features like AI-suggested answers and the option to submit guest posts.
Technical SEO Tools
Semrush provides a powerful Site Audit tool to assess your website’s overall health. You can even run a site audit with their free plan.
But if you’re looking for a Semrush alternative for technical SEO tasks, check out the tools below.
13. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a powerful website crawler that helps identify technical issues on your site. You can use it to find broken links, duplicate content, missing title tags, 4xx errors, indexability issues, and more.
In a survey, SEO expert Aleyda Solis asked SEOs what their most-used tool was for consultancy tasks. And 207 said Screaming Frog is their go-to tool (followed closely by Semrush, with 198 responses).
Pros
Both Semrush and Screaming Frog provide in-depth insights for site audits.
However, Screaming Frog offers deeper crawl capabilities, allowing you to thoroughly assess on-page elements for every URL on your website.
Another big advantage of Screaming Frog is that, with the paid plan, there are no limits on the number of URLs you can crawl.
Since Screaming Frog is cheaper than Semrush (although more limited in overall functionality), you can crawl many URLs at a lower cost per crawl.
Cons
From my experience, the main downside of Screaming Frog is its complexity.
It’s less intuitive than Semrush and takes more time to learn. But when you master it, you can do some really in-depth analysis.
Pricing
Screaming Frog offers annual licenses instead of monthly subscriptions, each priced at $259 and including all features.
You can purchase additional user seats for the same price per seat.
There’s also a free version with limited features and a crawl limit of 500 URLs.
14. GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a web performance analysis tool that gives detailed insights into how fast a webpage loads.
It helps identify factors slowing it down, like large images, poorly optimized CSS, or excessive JavaScript.
The tool uses Google’s Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals metrics to grade your website’s performance.
Pros
GTmetrix focuses on how fast your website loads and offers tips to make it faster. That’s its main purpose, and it does it well.
You can even test your site’s speed from different locations worldwide to see if it performs well everywhere.
Though it’s primarily a paid tool, you can still run a few performance tests with the free plan.
Cons
GTMetrix offers insights that are largely similar to Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which is free and doesn’t distract users with ads.
Pricing
Since December 2023, GTmetrix has become a paid tool.
Plans start at $5 per month for the Micro plan and go up to custom pricing for the Enterprise plan.
Higher-tier plans, like Champion, Team, and Enterprise offer more features and tests, with prices ranging from $85 to $600 per month.
15. Lumar (formerly Deepcrawl)
In September 2022, Deepcrawl rebranded as Lumar, and the platform offers a full suite of optimization tools to help you identify, prioritize, and fix technical issues on your website.
Pros
Many users say it’s easy to use and learn, making it appealing for business owners new to technical SEO. Although there are a lot of features on offer, which can be overwhelming at first.
Users also praise Lumar’s “Analyze” feature, which lets them create custom reports tailored to their clients’ needs.
Cons
Lumar can be a bit restrictive. You can’t just sign up and start using it for free—you have to request a demo first. Only then will they share the pricing details.
Given that other great tools are available immediately, this can be a downside for Lumar.
Pricing
Lumar’s pricing is customized to fit specific business needs, which is why it’s not listed on their website.
To get a quote, you need to contact their sales team. They’ll provide pricing details based on your website size, requirements, and desired features.
Which Semrush Alternative Is Best for You?
The best Semrush alternative for you will depend on your specific needs. For the closest match in overall features, Ahrefs is your best bet.
But it’s hopefully clear that there are cheaper, more specialized options for specific SEO tasks. Whether it’s keyword research or link building.
Still not sure which tool you need?
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