The best Semrush alternatives in 2026

Semrush is one of the broadest SEO suites available, but in 2026 more teams are pricing out alternatives. The plan lineup changed, extra users cost more on each higher plan, monthly subscriptions can't be refunded, and Semrush is now an Adobe company. None of that makes Semrush a bad product. It does make it worth checking whether you are paying for parts of it you don't use.

This guide compares Semrush with six alternatives: Ahrefs, Moz Pro, SE Ranking, Ubersuggest, Mangools and Serpstat. All prices, plan limits and trial terms come from each vendor's own pricing page and help docs as checked on 17 October 2026.

When you compare SEO suites, look at these things first:

• Tracked keywords and how often they update. Some tools update rankings daily on every plan; others only weekly unless you pay for a higher tier.
• Users. Most suites include one user and charge for each extra login. For a team, the per-user fee can matter more than the base price.
• Projects. The number of websites you can set up for tracking and audits.
• Data depth. Backlink and keyword database size, and how much history you can see.
• Trial and refund terms. These range from a 14-day trial with no card to "does not issue refunds in general".
• Add-ons. AI visibility tracking, white-label reports, local SEO and API access are often sold separately.

Why People Leave Semrush

These are the main buying terms that push people to compare, taken from Semrush's own pricing page, help center and legal pages.

Price and the plan change. The old Pro, Guru and Business plans are gone from the pricing page. The current lineup is Free, SEO ($139/month), Starter ($199/month), Pro+ ($299/month), Advanced (custom) and Enterprise (custom). The SEO and Starter plans each track 500 keywords across 5 projects. To track 1,500 keywords across 15 projects you need Pro+ at $299/month. An older Semrush help page that is still online lists the previous Guru plan (also 15 websites and 1,500 keywords) at $249.95/month, so the same limits now cost more at monthly billing. The plan with 40 projects and 5,000 keywords (Advanced) no longer shows a public price at all.

Extra users. Every Semrush plan includes one user seat. Each extra user costs $45/month on Starter, $80/month on Pro+ and $100/month on Advanced. Semrush does not state the extra-user price on the new SEO plan. Extra users also don't get the AI Visibility toolkit ($99/month per user) or Traffic & Market ($289/month per user) unless you buy those again for them.

Toolkits are separate. Local SEO, content tools, AI visibility and traffic analytics are now sold as separate toolkits. Semrush shows these prices billed annually: Local from $30/month per location, Content from $60/month, AI Visibility from $99/month per domain, Traffic & Market Pro at $289/month.

No refunds on monthly plans. Semrush's refund policy says: "Refunds are not available for month-to-month subscriptions." The 7-day money-back guarantee only applies to first-time subscriptions of 12 months or longer bought online by card. The 7-day free trial needs a card and converts to a paid plan unless you cancel.

Adobe ownership. Adobe's acquisition of Semrush closed on 28 April 2026. Semrush's customer FAQ says "At this time, there will be no changes to our existing contracts and agreements." That is not a promise about future pricing or product direction, and some buyers prefer an independent vendor while that plays out.

Comparison Table

Semrush (the tool you are replacing)

What it is

Semrush is an all-in-one marketing suite: keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking (Position Tracking), site audits, backlink analysis, content tools, local SEO, AI search visibility and traffic analytics. It is now owned by Adobe, and G2 lists it as "Semrush By Adobe".

Pricing

Monthly billing, with annual billing saving up to 17%:

• Free: $0, 1 demo project, 10 tracked keywords, 10 reports per day. No card needed.
• SEO: $139/month ($117.33/month billed annually). 5 projects, 500 tracked keywords, Position Tracking, Site Audit, basic keyword and competitor research, 3,000 analytics report requests per day.
• Starter (SEO + AI Search): $199/month ($165.17/month billed annually). 5 projects, 500 keywords, 50 AI prompts tracked daily, MCP access.
• Pro+: $299/month ($248.17/month billed annually). 15 projects, 1,500 keywords, historical data, content optimization, cannibalization analysis, multi-location and device tracking, 100 prompts per day.
• Advanced: custom price. 40 projects and 5,000 keywords per the help center, SEO Share of Voice and API data integration.
• Enterprise: custom. SSO, audit logs, dedicated account manager.

Add-ons include extra users ($45 to $100/month depending on plan), white-label reports ($20/month Pro Report add-on) and a $90/month Lead Generation listing.

Strengths

• Semrush states 29.2 billion keywords across 142 country databases and 43 trillion backlinks.
• The widest range of tools in this comparison, from SEO to traffic analytics and local listings.
• AI search tracking and MCP access built into the SEO + AI Search plans.
• G2 rating of 4.4 from 4,275 reviews, the most reviewed tool here.

Weaknesses

• Each extra user costs $45 to $100/month.
• Local, content, AI visibility and traffic data are separate subscriptions.
• No refunds on monthly plans; the trial needs a card.
• The plan with 40 projects and 5,000 keywords no longer has a public price.

Who should stay

Teams that use several Semrush toolkits every week (SEO, traffic analytics, local and content) may find no single alternative replaces all of it. If you mainly use keyword research, rank tracking and site audits, read on.

SE Ranking

What it is

SE Ranking is an SEO platform with rank tracking, keyword and competitor research, backlink research, website audits, local marketing and content tools. It has replaced its Essential, Pro and Business plans with two self-serve plans, Core and Growth, and folded Local Marketing and Content Marketing into both.

Pricing

Monthly billing, with annual billing saving 20%:

• Core: $129/month ($103.20/month billed annually). 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2,000 keywords tracked daily, 100 AI prompts tracked daily, 250,000 audit pages per month, 10 Report Builder reports, 6 months of historical data, 25 content articles, 25,000 Research API credits.
• Growth: $279/month ($223.20/month billed annually). 30 projects, 3 manager seats, 5,000 keywords tracked daily, 250 AI prompts, 2 million audit pages, 30 reports, all-time historical data, 50 articles, 100,000 API credits, page change monitoring and dedicated support.
• Enterprise: custom.

Both plans include Local Marketing for 3 locations with 1,500 local and map rank tracker keywords and listing management. Extra manager seats start at $16/month, extra keywords at $22.40 (Core) or $32 (Growth), extra locations at $18.40. The Agency Pack (white label, client seats, Lead Generator) starts at $69/month and is annual only. The AI Search add-on (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode) starts at $89/month.

There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Payments are non-refundable except where the service wasn't delivered as promised.

Strengths

• Core's 2,000 daily tracked keywords are four times Semrush SEO's 500, at a lower price.
• Local SEO and content tools are included, where Semrush sells them separately.
• Extra seats start at $16/month, compared with $45 to $100 on Semrush.
• Free migration with an annual plan.
• G2 rating of 4.7 from 1,615 reviews.

Weaknesses

• Smaller vendor-stated databases: 2.7 trillion backlinks and about 5.4 billion keywords, against Semrush's 43 trillion and 29.2 billion.
• Core keeps only 6 months of historical data.
• White label needs the Agency Pack, which is annual only.
• Only one active session per login, so seats can't be shared.

Who it's for

Teams and small agencies whose daily work is rank tracking, audits and keyword research, and who want local SEO without a separate subscription. Skip it if deep backlink research is your main job.

Ahrefs

What it is

Ahrefs is an SEO suite known for its backlink data. It covers Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Web Analytics and Content Explorer, plus newer AI tools (Brand Radar AI and AI prompt tracking). Its free tier, formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, is now called Ahrefs Free.

Pricing

Monthly prices, with annual billing saving up to 17% (Lite $1,290/year, Standard $2,490/year, Advanced $4,490/year):

• Ahrefs Free: $0. Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for sites you verify, with limits such as 5,000 crawl credits per project per month.
• Starter: $29/month. 200 credits per month, a limited set of tools, monthly only, no extra users.
• Lite: $129/month. 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history, 1,000 credits per user per month. Up to 2 extra users at $40/month each.
• Standard: $249/month. 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history, unlimited credits, Content Explorer. Up to 5 extra users at $60/month each.
• Advanced: $449/month. 50 projects, 5,000 keywords, 5 years of history. Up to 10 extra users at $80/month each.
• Enterprise: $1,499/month, annual commitment. From 10,000 keywords, 3 users included, extra users $100/month, SSO and uncapped API.

Rank Tracker updates weekly on all plans. Add-ons include Content Kit (from $99/month), the Report Builder add-on ($99/month) and Brand Radar AI (from $199/month).

There is no free trial. Ahrefs says it "does not issue refunds in general"; on monthly plans you can ask if you haven't used the service.

Strengths

• Vendor-stated 35 trillion external backlinks in its history, 494 billion pages indexed, 29 billion filtered keywords and 16 years of data.
• Ahrefs Free gives real site audit and backlink data for your own sites at no cost.
• API and MCP access from Lite.
• G2 rating of 4.5 from 720 reviews.

Weaknesses

• Rank tracking updates weekly on every plan, not daily.
• No free trial and almost no refunds.
• Lite caps usage at 1,000 credits per user per month.
• Extra users are capped per plan (2, 5 or 10) and cost $40 to $100/month.

Who it's for

SEO specialists and agencies that live in backlink and competitor data. Skip it if you need daily rank updates or want to try before you pay.

Moz Pro

What it is

Moz Pro, from Moz (a Ziff Davis company), offers keyword research (Keyword Explorer), link research (Link Explorer), rank tracking, site crawl and the MozBar browser extension. Standard, Medium and Large now include AI visibility tracking across GPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.

Pricing

Monthly prices, with yearly billing saving 20%:

• Entry plan: $49/month, for individuals managing a single website. Moz does not publish its limits on the pricing page.
• Standard: $99/month ($79/month yearly, $950 for the first year). 1 user, 3 campaigns, 300 tracked keywords, 150 keyword queries per month, 150 AI prompts tracked.
• Medium: $179/month ($143/month yearly, $1,719 for the first year). 2 users, 10 campaigns, 1,500 tracked keywords, 5,000 keyword queries, 300 AI prompts, site re-crawls, branded reports.
• Large: $299/month ($239/month yearly, $2,868 for the first year). 3 users, 25 campaigns, 3,000 tracked keywords, 15,000 keyword queries, 600 AI prompts.
• Enterprise: contact sales.

Extra user seats cost $49/month on any plan. Other add-ons: $20/month per 200 extra keywords, $10/month per extra campaign. The yearly price is described as billed "for your first year"; the renewal price isn't stated.

A free Moz Community account gives limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer (10 Link Explorer queries per month). Medium has a 7-day free trial that needs a card. Moz says you can cancel or change plans at any time; it doesn't publish a refund policy.

Strengths

• Medium includes 2 users, so a small team pays less in seat fees than on Semrush.
• AI visibility tracking is included from Standard, not sold as a toolkit.
• Vendor-stated link index of up to 45.5 trillion links (Moz pages give different figures).
• G2 rating of 4.3 from 608 reviews.

Weaknesses

• Standard's 150 keyword queries per month is low for active research.
• Branded reports and site re-crawls start on Medium.
• Renewal price after the first year isn't published.
• Rank checker is limited to 200 to 500 checks per day by plan.

Who it's for

Small in-house teams that want rank tracking, audits and link data with 2 or 3 users included. Skip Standard if you do keyword research every day.

Mangools

What it is

Mangools is a bundle of five focused tools: KWFinder (keyword research), SERPChecker (SERP analysis), SERPWatcher (rank tracking), LinkMiner (backlinks, using Majestic data) and SiteProfiler (domain metrics), plus AI Search Watcher. Each tool is narrow and simple.

Pricing

Monthly prices, with annual billing saving about 35%:

• Basic: $61/month ($37.70/month billed annually). 100 keyword lookups per 24 hours, 200 tracked keywords, 100,000 backlink rows per month, weekly rank updates, no extra seats.
• Premium: $81/month ($52.70/month billed annually). 500 lookups, 700 tracked keywords, 500,000 backlink rows, 3 extra seats, weekly updates.
• Agency: $141/month ($97.70/month billed annually). 1,200 lookups, 1,500 tracked keywords, 1.2 million backlink rows, 5 extra seats, daily rank updates.

Every plan includes AI Search Watcher PRO (500 prompts) and API and MCP access. Mangools' FAQ says sub-user seats are included from Premium and share the account's limits; it doesn't list a separate seat price. There is a free plan with no card (KWFinder: 5 lookups per 24 hours) and a 48-hour money-back guarantee.

Strengths

• Clean, simple interface that suits beginners.
• Sub-user seats are included from Premium rather than billed per user.
• AI search tracking and API access on every plan.
• G2 rating of 4.7 from 97 reviews.

Weaknesses

• No site audit tool is listed among its five tools.
• Rank tracking updates only weekly below the Agency plan.
• Sub-users share one set of limits.
• Backlink data comes from Majestic rather than Mangools' own crawler.

Who it's for

Bloggers, small businesses and content teams that mainly need keyword research and rank tracking. Skip it if you need technical site audits.

Serpstat

What it is

Serpstat, founded in 2013, covers keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, site audits and backlink analysis, with an API on team plans and an AI Overview brand report.

Pricing

Prices are per month; annual billing saves up to 27%, but Serpstat shows only the saving, not the annual price:

• Individual: $50/month. 5 projects, 100 searches per day, 10,000 rank position checks per month, 30,000 pages to audit. No API.
• Team: $100/month. 3 users, unlimited projects, 500 searches per day, 50,000 rank checks per month, 150,000 audit pages, API (200,000 credits per month), MCP, scheduled reports.
• Team x2: $169/month. 6 users, 1,000 searches per day, 100,000 rank checks, 400,000 API credits.
• Agency: $410/month. 30 users, 5,000 searches per day, 500,000 rank checks, white-label reports, 2 million API credits.

There is a 7-day free trial of Individual or Team that needs a card ($1 verification charge, returned). Serpstat doesn't publish a refund policy or extra-seat price.

Strengths

• Team includes 3 users and API access at $100/month.
• Rank tracker updates daily on every plan.
• Unlimited projects from Team.
• G2 rating of 4.6 from 466 reviews.

Weaknesses

• Rank tracking is sold as monthly "position checks", which takes some arithmetic to compare.
• No API on Individual.
• White-label reports only on the $410 Agency plan.
• Backlink index size isn't published.

Who it's for

Budget-minded teams and small agencies that want several users, daily rankings and API access. Skip it if you want white-label reports below $410/month.

Ubersuggest

What it is

Ubersuggest, from Neil Patel's NP Digital, is a low-cost SEO tool for keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor analysis and backlinks, with ChatGPT and Gemini visibility data. Its pricing has moved to app.neilpatel.com.

Pricing

• Individual: $29/month, $16/month billed yearly ($192), or $290 once for lifetime access. 1 user, 1 project, 125 tracked keywords per project, 150 searches per day.
• Business: $49/month, $27.17/month yearly ($326), or $490 lifetime. 2 users, 7 projects, 150 keywords per project, 300 searches per day.
• Enterprise: $99/month, $54.75/month yearly ($657), or $990 lifetime. 5 users, 15 projects, 300 keywords per project, 900 searches per day, Google AI Overview data.

Add-ons cost $5/month each: an extra project, an extra 250 tracked keywords, an extra user and more. There is a free account and a one-time 7-day free trial on monthly plans. Lifetime purchases are final and non-refundable. Ubersuggest has no API plans.

Strengths

• Among the lowest prices here, and a lifetime option no other suite here offers.
• Enterprise includes 5 users for $99/month.
• $5 add-ons make it cheap to grow.
• G2 rating of 4.2 from 160 reviews.

Weaknesses

• Vendor-stated keyword database of 2.2 billion+, far smaller than Semrush's.
• Its own pages conflict on rank tracking frequency (weekly in the plan table, daily on the product page).
• Tracked-keyword limits are per project, so one large site runs out fast.
• No API.

Who it's for

Solo site owners and very small businesses that want basic SEO data at the lowest price. Skip it if you need deep data or an API.

Cost Example: A 3-Person Team Tracking 1,500 Keywords

Here is one in-house team: 3 people need their own logins, and they track about 1,500 keywords across a few sites. All figures use monthly billing and published prices, and pick the cheapest plan that covers 3 users and 1,500 keywords.

Notes on the arithmetic:

• Semrush: SEO and Starter track only 500 keywords, so Pro+ is the first plan with 1,500. $299 + (2 x $80) = $459. Over a year that is $5,508.
• Ahrefs: Lite tracks 750 keywords, so Standard is needed. $249 + (2 x $60) = $369. Rankings update weekly.
• Moz Pro: Medium includes 2 users. $179 + $49 = $228. Large ($299, 3 users, 3,000 keywords) would cost more.
• SE Ranking: $129 + (2 x $16) = $161, with extra seats listed as "from $16", so the exact figure may be higher. Growth ($279) includes 3 seats if you also need 5,000 keywords.
• Mangools: Agency is the only plan with 1,500 tracked keywords. Seats share the plan's limits.
• Ubersuggest: Enterprise allows 300 keywords per project. Across 5 or more projects, $99 covers 1,500 keywords. If they all sit in one project, you need 5 extra 250-keyword packs: $99 + (5 x $5) = $124.
• Serpstat: if each keyword is checked once a day, 1,500 x 30 days = 45,000 checks, under Team's 50,000 per month.

SE Ranking costs about $298 less per month than Semrush in this example ($459 minus $161), or about $3,576 a year, while tracking more keywords daily. Moz Pro saves $231 a month. The cheapest options (Serpstat, Ubersuggest, Mangools) save more but give up data depth or features, as covered above.

Data Size, Side by Side

All figures are what each vendor states about its own database. Vendors count differently, so treat these as rough signals, not a head-to-head test.

How to Choose a Semrush Alternative

If cost per user is the problem, look at Moz Pro (2 users on Medium, 3 on Large), Serpstat (3 users on Team) or SE Ranking (seats from $16). Each is cheaper than Semrush's $80 per extra user on Pro+.

If you need daily rank tracking at volume, SE Ranking tracks 2,000 keywords daily on Core and 5,000 on Growth. Serpstat updates daily on every plan. Ahrefs updates weekly on all plans, and Mangools only updates daily on Agency.

If backlink research is the core of your work, Ahrefs is the usual pick. By vendor-stated index size, Ahrefs (35T) and Moz Pro (40T to 45.5T) are the closest to Semrush (43T). For Ahrefs, expect to pay $249/month or more for Standard's unlimited credits and Content Explorer.

If you do local SEO, SE Ranking includes 3 locations and listing management on both plans. On Semrush, Local is a separate toolkit from $30/month per location billed annually.

If you want to try before paying, SE Ranking's 14-day trial needs no card. Mangools and Ahrefs have free tiers. Ahrefs has no trial and Semrush, Moz and Serpstat trials all need a card.

If budget is tight, Ubersuggest's Individual plan is $29/month or $290 once, and Mangools Basic is $37.70/month billed annually.

If you need an API, Ahrefs (Lite and up), SE Ranking (all plans), Mangools (all plans) and Serpstat (Team and up) include API access. Ubersuggest has none.

How We Compared

Prices, plans, limits, trials and refund terms were checked on each vendor's website on 17 October 2026. G2 ratings and review counts were checked on g2.com the same day.