10 Best Semrush Alternatives & Competitors (2026)

We have been using Semrush for over four years now, and we can say it is one of the best all-in-one SEO and AI visibility platforms available.

It offers everything, including keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink analysis, website audit, content optimization, etc.

Semrush also offers AI search visibility tools that let you track how your brand appears in AI-generated results. As a result, you can drive traffic from both traditional SEO and AI search engines.

If semrush offer everything, then what’s the problem?

Semrush is not affordable for everyone, which leads people to look for alternatives.

And trust us, it’s not an easy task, given the number of excellent and poor SEO tools out there. So, to help you avoid the traps, we have curated a list of our top 10 best Semrush alternatives.

Let’s dive in!

Why Look for Alternatives to Semrush?

Here are a few reasons why you might look for Semrush alternatives.

  • Not very budget-friendly: Semrush can be expensive, especially if you’re on a tight budget. The lower plans come with strict limits, and upgrading costs more. Prices also tend to go up over time, which can be frustrating.
  • Too complex for beginners: The platform offers a lot, but that also makes it hard to use. New users often find the interface confusing and need time to figure things out.
  • Extra costs add up fast: Many useful features are locked behind paid add-ons. Once you start adding them, the total price can increase quickly.
  • More features than most people need: Semrush includes a wide range of tools, but most users only end up using a small portion of them. That means you may be paying for features you’ll never touch.

Top 10 Semrush Alternatives & Competitors

Here is the list of the ten best Semrush competitors you should try.

1. SE Ranking

SE Ranking - SEO and AI Search Software

SE Ranking hits a sweet spot between solid features, reliable data, and an interface that’s easy to use. That’s why we see it as the best alternative to Semrush.

Like Semrush, SE Ranking covers all the core SEO basics. But it also goes a step further by supporting AI-driven search tracking. Its newer features make it easier to adapt your SEO strategy to how search is changing today.

On the SEO side, it helps you uncover keyword opportunities, run full site audits, and fine-tune individual pages. You can also keep an eye on your competitors by tracking their SEO and PPC campaigns, both past and present. On top of that, it lets you build a strong backlink profile and monitor the links that matter most.

When it comes to AI search, SE Ranking includes an AI Search Toolkit. This tool helps you track and improve your visibility across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Gemini.

With it, you can:

  • Check where your site shows up in AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Gemini
  • Compare your performance with competitors
  • Track brand mentions, links, and quoted snippets
  • Set up daily tracking to spot SERP changes as they happen

And here’s the real bonus: it’s more affordable than Semrush, without feeling like a downgrade.

For more, check out our in-depth comparison of SE Ranking vs Semrush.

SE Ranking Best Features:

  • Keyword Rank Tracker: Track keyword rankings in any location, search engine, and device with 100% accuracy.
  • Keyword Research: This allows you to find profitable keywords, analyze the competition, and track keyword rankings.
  • Backlink Checker: Find all the backlinks of any domain and analyze each one against over 15 parameters.
  • Competitive Research: Analyze your competitor’s SEO strategies and identify their top-performing keywords and backlinks.
  • Website Audit: Identify technical issues, broken links, duplicate content, and other on-site SEO issues.
  • On-page SEO Checker: Check how well a web page is optimized for a certain query.
  • White Label: Generate customizable reports with your own branding.
  • Social Media Management: Allows you to monitor social media activity, schedule posts, and track engagement.
  • AI Search Toolkit: Track your presence, mentions, and competitors in AI search engines.

SE Ranking Pricing:

SE Ranking offers three pricing plans and uses a flexible pricing system. The more keywords you need to track, the more you’ll pay.

Its plans start from $52/mo (billed annually).

SE Ranking Free Trial:

SE Ranking offers a 14-day free trial, and you can access all features during that period. You don’t need to sign up with a credit card to use SE Ranking’s free trial. Just set up an account, and you’re good to go.

Start SE Ranking 14-Day Free Trial

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs - Best Semrush Alternatives

Ahrefs is a solid alternative to Semrush, especially if you want access to a huge amount of data. You can dig deep into your competitors, see which pages perform best, and understand why they’re ranking well. It also lets you look into paid traffic, find strong PPC keywords, and spot broken links on your site.

On top of that, Ahrefs shows you exactly where competitors are outranking you, which makes it easier to spot gaps and opportunities.

Furthermore, it also offers Brand Radar, though it comes at an extra cost of $199 per month. This tool shows how your brand appears in AI-powered search results. You can compare your visibility with competitors and see which topics are bringing in traffic from AI search tools. It works across major platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini.

Ahrefs Best Features:

  • Site Explorer: It provides detailed data on backlinks, organic search traffic, and other key metrics for any website or URL.
  • Keyword Explorer: This allows you to discover new keywords, analyze search volumes, and estimate traffic potential.
  • Content Explorer: A tool that allows you to discover popular content in your niche, analyze social shares, and identify content gaps.
  • Rank Tracker: A feature that allows you to track your website’s ranking for specific keywords over time.
  • Site Audit: It checks technical SEO issues, content quality, and other on-page factors that impact search engine rankings.
  • Backlink Checker: A tool that allows you to analyze your backlink profile and identify areas for improvement.
  • Broken Link Checker: A tool that allows you to identify broken links on your website and fix them.
  • Link Intersect: It allows you to compare your backlink profile to your competitors and identify link-building opportunities.
  • Alerts: Set up alerts for specific keywords or backlinks.
  • WordPress SEO Plugin: With it, you can automate content audits and see how each article performs for a chosen target keyword (based on Ahrefs, GA, and GSC data).
  • SEO Toolbar: Getting the most important SEO metrics for the websites you visit and the search queries you perform.

Ahrefs Pricing:

Ahrefs offers different pricing plans, and their Lite plan starts from $108/mo (billed annually).

Ahrefs Free Trial:

Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free trial. Previously, they used to offer a 7-day free trial worth $7, but it’s not available anymore.

Try Ahrefs

3. Serpstat

Serpstat — Best Tool for SEO, PPC and Content Marketing

Serpstat is the most affordable Semrush alternative. This tool includes over 50 marketing and SEO tools that may help you easily take your business to the next level. It includes all of Semrush’s SEO modules, such as SERP analysis, competitive research, backlink analysis, keyword research, and so on. Serpstat’s keyword database contains over 5 billion keywords from all around the world.

Although Serpstat’s database is smaller than Semrush’s, it is a more affordable option that is suited for beginners. It also provides a free plugin that allows you to analyze your competitors’ websites on the go. With a single click, you may get a number of SEO analyses, such as domain analysis, on-page SEO analysis, and page analysis.

Serpstat Best Features:

  • Rank Tracking: Check rankings in the search results of a domain and its competitors.
  • Keyword Research: Keyword research tool that can be used for your SEO & PPC search campaigns.
  • Backlink Analysis: It provides insights into your website’s backlink profile and the sites of your competitors.
  • Website SEO Audit: Analysis of your website’s technical performance, identifying issues and opportunities for optimization.
  • Batch Analysis: Analyze up to 100,000 keywords or a list of domains and compare the most important metrics.
  • Keyword Clustering: Group the whole packs of keywords with the same meaning for a better semantic search.
  • AI Content Tool: Generate meta tags, articles, FAQ sections, paraphrase text, check grammar and spelling, and more.
  • Local SEO: Make your brand more visible in the local search results, attract new customers, and increase organic traffic.
  • Keyword Trends: Get a list of the most popular searches for the selected region.

Serpstat Pricing:

Serpstat plans start from $50/mo (billed annually).

Serpstat Free Trial:

Serpstat offers a 7-day free trial, and you can access all features during that period. You need to enter your credit card details to use the Serpstat free trial.

Start Serpstat 7-Day Free Trial

4. GrowthBar

GrowthBar - The Ultimate AI Writing Tool for Bloggers

GrowthBar has the same backlink, Google Ads, and organic keyword capabilities but offers extra features that simplify bloggers’ lives. These include a unique AI writing tool based on GPT-4. It will save you hours of content creation time.

It is a cheaper alternative to Semrush, with similarly powerful keyword research and rank-tracking features. GrowthBar can help you figure out which strategies will move the needle for your business so you don’t waste time and money in the wrong places.

Best Features of GrowthBar:

  • AI Content Generation: Generate email, marketing, and blog copy for your website and business using artificial intelligence.
  • Backlink Checker: Find out who’s linking to your website or your competitors’ domain.
  • Traffic Analytics: Gives a performance overview of any website with a channel-by-channel breakdown.
  • Keyword Tracker: A tool that can track keywords for all your web projects simultaneously.
  • Competitor Monitoring: Keep tabs on your competitors’ rankings, traffic, mentions, changes to their website, etc.
  • Site Inspector: This allows you to input various domains that you’d like to look into further.
  • Keyword Research: Find profitable keywords with high search volume and low competition.
  • Chrome Extension: This allows you to see important SEO metrics directly in your browser.

GrowthBar Pricing:

GrowthBar plans start from $20.30/mo (billed annually).

GrowthBar Free Trial:

GrowthBar offers a 7-day free trial for any of its plans. You do have to provide your credit card information.

Start GrowthBar 7-Day Free Trial

5. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO

Next on the list of the best semrush alternatives is Surfer SEO. It is not a perfect replacement for Semrush, but it is the best for on-page SEO optimization. It is a cloud-based software that may help you analyze your pages and provide recommendations based on that analysis. Further, it compares your page to the top competitors and gives you the changes you need to make to optimize your page completely.

Both Semrush and Surfer SEO were built with the objective of optimizing online businesses in mind. Surfer SEO picks out your strongest competitors and analyses their pages using over 500 on-page signals. After analyzing your page, it suggests changes you should make to outrank your competition.

Furthermore, it also offers an AI Tracker, which helps you track mentions of your content and brand in responses generated by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others. It gives you a peek into what sources LLMs use to answer prompts and whether your website is among them.

Surfer SEO Best Features:

  • Content Editor: Analyzes top-ranking pages for a given keyword and suggests improvements to your content to help you rank higher.
  • SERP Analyzer: Show top-ranking pages for a given keyword and provide data on their content length, keyword density, backlinks, etc.
  • Keyword Research: Help you find the best keywords to target by providing data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and related keywords.
  • Audit: Analyzes your website’s on-page SEO and provides recommendations for improving it.
  • Content Planner: It provides keyword suggestions and content ideas based on your target audience and industry.
  • Page Speed: Analyzes your website’s page speed and provides suggestions for improving it.
  • AI Tracker: Shows where, when, and how often AI tools mention your brand, across multiple models and prompts.
  • Chrome Extension: This allows you to see important SEO metrics directly in your browser.
  • Google Docs Integration: See all of Surfer’s suggestions directly in Google Docs.

Surfer SEO Pricing:

Surfer SEO plans start from $69/mo (billed annually).

Surfer SEO Free Trial:

Surfer SEO offers a 7-day free trial with 1 article, one advanced keyword research, and one audit. You need to enter your credit card details to use the Surfer SEO free trial.

Start Surfer SEO 7-Day Free Trial.

6. SEO PowerSuite

SEO PowerSuit - Semrush Alternative

Are you looking for a site similar to Semrush? If yes, SEO PowerSuite is the tool for you. It is an all-in-one SEO tool with features like site audits, keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracker, and more. SEO Powersuite is a collection of four tools: Rank Tracker, Website Auditor, Link Assistant, and SEO SpyGlass. Further, SEO Powersuite provides a desktop app for Windows and Mac to help you manage the SEO of your website.

SEO Powersuite is a strong competitor of Semrush since it offers all SEO tools at a low cost. All of the data provided by this tool is based on all search engines.

The best thing about this tool is that it also offers a free plan with no validity. This plan is perfect for those who are new to the SEO field.

SEO PowerSuite Best Features:

  • SERP Tracking/Analysis: Let you analyze the top 50 pages ranking for any keyword and find the most influential ranking factors.
  • Toxic Backlink Removal: It helps in finding & hiding toxic links with a disavow file.
  • Keyword Difficulty Checker: Find easy-to-rank-for keywords and beat your competitors in SERPs.
  • Keyword Gap Analysis Tool: Identify keyword gaps between your site and all your competitors.
  • Social Media Management: Help you manage your social media accounts and track your social media metrics.
  • Backlink Analysis: Help you analyze your website’s backlink profile and identify opportunities to build new links.

SEO PowerSuite Pricing:

SEO PowerSuite offers a free plan, and premium plans start at $299 (one-year billing) or $199 (three-year billing).

SEO PowerSuite Free Trial:

SEO PowerSuite doesn’t offer a free trial. However, it offers a free plan of its software that you can use to test out its features.

Try SEO PowerSuite

7. Moz Pro

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is known for its competitiveness metrics and site analysis.

But it can do almost everything that Semrush can. The only difference is that Moz does not have tools for PPC.

If you want to see what it’s capable of and why it’s one of our picks for the best Semrush alternatives, read the best features.

Moz Pro Best Features:

  • Link Explorer: Allows you to analyze the backlink profile of any website.
  • Keyword Explorer: Find and analyze keywords that are relevant to their business and track their rankings over time.
  • Site Crawl: Help in identifying technical issues such as broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and more.
  • Customized Reports: Help you track your website’s performance and monitor your SEO progress over time.
  • SERP Analysis: Analyze search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords and phrases.

Moz Pro Pricing:

Moz Pro plans start from $39/mo (billed annually).

Moz Pro Free Trial:

Moz Pro offers a 30-day free trial, and you can access all features in that period. You need to enter your credit card details to use the Moz Pro free trial.

Start Moz Pro 30-Day Free Trial

8. SpyFu

SpyFu - Best Semrush Competitor

SpyFu, as the name suggests, is an SEO tool for monitoring your competitors’ websites. You can see exactly how your competitors are performing in the SERPs.

Use SpyFu to search for any site and discover what keywords your rivals are ranking for and how many clicks they get each month.

SpyFu Best Features:

  • Domain Overview: Detailed information about a domain’s SEO and PPC performance, including its organic and paid search traffic, backlinks, and top organic and paid keywords.
  • Keyword Research: Find the most profitable keywords in your niche by keyword suggestions and estimated search volumes.
  • Competitor Analysis: Comprehensive analysis of the keywords that competitors are ranking for, their ad campaigns, and estimated budgets.
  • PPC Research: Find profitable PPC campaigns and ad groups, along with their estimated cost per click (CPC) and click-through rates (CTR).
  • SERP Analysis: Track search engine ranking position(SERP) for specific keywords, as well as analyze the organic search results for a particular keyword.
  • Keyword Tracking: Track keyword rankings over time and monitor the performance of SEO and PPC campaigns.

SpyFu Pricing:

SpyFu plans start from $8/mo (billed annually).

SpyFu Free Trial:

SpyFu doesn’t offer a free trial. However, you can use SpuFu for free with limited features.

Try SpyFu

9. Majestic

Majestic - SEO Backlink Checker & Link Building Toolset

Majestic is another all-in-one SEO package with an extensive history and a few unique features.

Majestic is not a tool for keyword research or competitor analysis. Its primary focus is on delivering excellent backlink research, making it a clear choice for your SEO needs.

Its backlink analysis uses a database of approximately 8 trillion URLs. That is a large sample size. And that is the main reason for the high quality of its backlink data.

Majestic Best Features:

  • Site Explorer: Site Explorer allows users to explore a website’s backlink profile, including the number of backlinks, referring domains, and anchor text used.
  • Trust Flow and Citation Flow: Majestic offers two metrics to measure the quality of a website’s backlink profile: Trust Flow and Citation Flow. Trust Flow measures the quality of the backlinks, while Citation Flow measures the quantity.
  • Backlink History: Historical data on a website’s backlink profile, allowing you to track the growth of your backlinks over time.
  • Site Comparison: Compare your website’s backlink profile to your competitors.
  • Link Context: Offer information about the context in which a backlink appears on a webpage.

Majestic Pricing:

Majestic plans start from $41.67/mo (billed annually).

Majestic Free Trial:

Majestic does not offer free trials. However, Majestic offers a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Try Majestic

10. Mangools

If you’re new to SEO, look no further than Mangools SEO Suite.

Mangools offers many individual tools that you can use for certain SEO tasks.

While their system looks separated from the outside, it is not. All of these tools work nicely together. For example, when you look at a query in the KWFinder, a SERP Checker dashboard appears in the corner.

If you want to go deeper into the SERP, simply click on it to be redirected to SERP Checker’s main dashboard.

However, Mangools might not be as comprehensive as Semrush. It lacks several of the features that set it apart from Semrush, like social media and paid advertising tools.

But if you’re just getting started with SEO, affiliate marketing, or organic traffic overall, the Mangools Suite outperforms Semrush in terms of usability and interface.

Mangools Best Features:

  • KWFinder: A keyword research tool to find long-tail SEO keywords with SEO metrics.
  • SERP Checker: Helps you find the weak spots of your competitors.
  • SERP Watcher: A rank-tracking tool that monitors website rankings for targeted keywords over time.
  • Link Miner: A backlink checker tool that allows you to analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles in an advanced way.
  • Site Profiler: Check the SEO authority of any website.

Mangools Pricing:

Mangools plans start at $29.90/mo (billed annually).

Mangools Free Trial:

Mangools doesn’t offer a free trial. However, you can use Mangools for free by creating an account.

Try Mangools

Is Semrush Still Worth Your Money?

So far, we’ve covered some of the best Semrush alternatives for your SEO needs, but we still believe Semrush is one of the best tools for all of your marketing, SEO, and website needs.

Here are some of the biggest reasons why Semrush is better than its competitors.

  • Keyword Research: Using Semrush keyword research, you can find keywords with data like search volume, related keywords, backlinks information, and so on, all in one place. When compared to its competitors, it also provides accurate keyword volume data. It also has a huge keyword database of around 24.6 billion keywords.
  • Competitor Analysis: Semrush gained popularity because of its ability to do accurate competitor research. Do you want to know how much search traffic your competitors have? Looking for website traffic information? Do you want to find out where your opponents are getting their backlinks from? Using Semrush, you can get all of this information. It is the ultimate competitor analysis tool.
  • Site Audit: Using the Semrush site audit features, you can simply find and fix all of your website’s issues, such as duplicate content, no alt tags, missing meta descriptions, broken links, redirection errors, and so on. You can also identify toxic/bad backlinks on your site to improve your organic rankings.

So what are you still waiting for? Click the button below to try Semrush today.

Start Semrush Free Trial

Semrush Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • It has a huge database of 26.1 billion keywords in the Keyword Magic tool.
  • Offer 60+ SEO tools under one roof.
  • User-friendly interface that is easy to use, even for beginners.
  • Great tool for both PPC and organic keyword research.
  • You can easily find toxic links on any site.
  • Analyze traffic, backlinks, and keywords of any site in the world.
  • Measures featured snippets better than any other tool.
  • Provides custom SEO reports.
  • A free trial.

Cons:

  • Pricing is a bit expensive compared to competitors.
  • Semrush only provides data for one search engine, Google.
  • While Semrush is user-friendly, it can take some time to learn how to use all of the features effectively.
  • All Semrush plans only come with one user account, and buying additional seats is expensive.
  • Add-ons are quite expensive.

Semrush Alternatives: Final Thoughts

Semrush is not for everyone. That is why we have compiled a list of Semrush alternatives for you to choose from.

Although we like Semrush and suggest it to everyone who wants to enhance their search traffic and revenue. However, there are many more SEO tools that are worth giving a try.

We hope this article helps you find the best Semrush alternatives and competitors for your site.

For more, check out these helpful resources:

Lastly, follow us on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to stay updated on the latest WordPress and blogging-related articles.


Frequently Asked Questions

Is There a Free Version of Semrush?

Yes! You can get a free trial of all of the Semrush features using this link. This will allow you to test it out and decide whether it’s right for you.

What Are Some Best Free Semrush Alternatives?

Google Keyword Planner, Ubbersuggest, KeywordTool.io, etc., are some of the best free alternatives to Semrush.

Which is Better: Semrush or Ahrefs?

I have been using Semrush for years, and I would recommend Semrush over Ahrefs because it gives you lots more data and tools when compared to Ahrefs.

Which is Better: Semrush or Ubersuggest?

Semrush is better suited for larger enterprises that have the budget and bear its expensive price tag. Ubersuggest is better suited for individual SEOs looking for a free or low-cost product that does the job.

Is SpyFu Better Than Semrush?

SpyFu is definitely a great tool for competitive analysis. But, Semrush is better. SpyFu, for example, lacks brand monitoring and social media tracking tools, both of which are major elements of competitor research.

Is Semrush the Best?

SEMrush has a number of strengths, including a wide range of features for keyword research, site audit, competitive analysis, and more. It also offers a user-friendly interface, regular updates and improvements, and excellent customer support. However, SEMrush may not be the best fit for everyone, particularly those on a tight budget.

Is Semrush worth It?

Semrush is definitely worthwhile! Although Semrush isn’t the cheapest solution available, We still think it’s a “must-have” tool for anyone who takes their SEO seriously.