The 13 Best Semrush Alternatives and Competitors - SEOptimer

The 13 Best Semrush Alternatives and Competitors

10 Jun 2025 Hailey Friedman in Digital Marketing

Semrush is one of the biggest (and most expensive) names in SEO tools.

However, there are Semrush alternatives that are equally effective and sometimes at half the price. And guess what, there’s a lot of them.

G2 lists over 600 SEO tools. Certainly, you don’t need to sift through 400 tools to find the right one. But not doing your diligence could spell disaster for your SEO strategy.

Plus, depending on your use case, you may not need all the bells and whistles (and cost) of Semrush. There are a number of stellar alternatives that might even be more performant for your use case.

For instance:

Best Semrush Alternatives

Any Semrush alternative will be an SEO tool. And an SEO tool is generally a suite of tools for growing organic traffic.

Some typical features usually include:

If you’re serious about SEO, you probably need an SEO tool or two, or you’re going to be doing a lot of guesswork.

But which one to pick?

1. SEOptimer

SEOptimer is known for its SEO audit and reporting capabilities.

But our tool also has the same backlink research, keyword tracking and research, and site auditing features, but it also has special features that make bloggers’ lives way easier. These include game-changing AI writing tools like our AI Blog Generator, topic idea generator, etc. Seriously, it will save you hours of time creating content.

As an alternative to Semrush, it’s much more affordable and has equally powerful keyword research and rank tracking. SEOptimer can help you identify exactly which strategies are going to move the needle for your business so you’re not wasting time and money on the wrong places.

Features include:

SEOptimer vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
AI content writing suite that enables you to create full blog posts in half the time. Also enables paragraph and blog idea generation. Unlike Semrush, SEOptimer doesn’t include metrics like competitive density, trend, and SERP features
Content analytics suite so you can understand how optimized your blog post is for SEO. SEOptimer does not have a marketplace of apps like Semrush. There are indeed some apps for content analytics.
Advanced keyword research across more than 2 billion keywords. Includes search volume, competitiveness, CPC, “value of position 1”, and more. SEOptimer has keyword trend data or non-English speaking keyword search data.
Track thousands of keywords across up to 10 websites. Export any data to csv for analysis. SEOptimer has advanced rank tracking for other search engines like Bing.
Evaluate your competitors across 8 metrics including backlinks, organic keywords, paid keywords, and even Facebook Ads. Semrush has more robust competitive metrics. They enable you to see historical backlink data, display ads, etc.
$29/month and excellent customer support. Semrush has more support documentation.

Monthly Pricing:

2. SpyFu

SpyFu has tools for SEO research, keyword research, PPC research, and more. In their words, SpyFu “exposes the search marketing secret formula of your most successful competitors.”

They also supply "how-tos" for various SEO topics to help you find keywords most important to your market, determine how to rank for them, how to make paid ad campaigns, and more.

Features include:

SpyFu vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
Incredible competitive intelligence data across organic research, Google Ads, backlinks, and more. Semrush has some of the best keyword research features on the planet. SpyFu has the best Google Ads research.
Second-to-none PPC recommendations and historical data. They even have click fraud monitoring capabilities. SpyFu has the most robust PPC data in the world. It is superior to all competitors.
Robust keyword tracking. SpyFu does not include advanced rank tracking for other search engines (Bing, YouTube, etc.).
Keyword research across 5 languages. The keyword research is not as sophisticated or accurate as Semrush.
Backlink research and backlink list-building features. Spyfu and Semrush are probably equal when it comes to backlink research.

Monthly Pricing:

3. SE Ranking

SE Ranking first does an SEO audit, and then shares a marketing plan for you to follow along with that helps you rank for specific keywords.

It has many of the same tools as Semrush, including keyword research, competitor research, rank tracking, and site audits.

Features include:

SE Ranking vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
Backlink checker includes Domain Trust, Page Trust, backlink count and follow vs nofollow link ratio. Also includes a realtime backlink checker at a higher tier. Extremely robust backlink features, similar to Semrush. However, real-time backlink checker is included in Semrush for no extra cost.
A big keyword database with features like: volume, competition, and keyword difficulty. Also see competitor keywords and ranking. The keyword research is just about as sophisticated as Semrush. Some report that SE Ranking’s keyword research is actually better than Semrush for international keywords.
100% accurate keyword rank tracking that can be adjusted for any country in the world. No advanced rank tracking features like Bing, YouTube, etc.
Backlink tools, social media tools, competitor research, white label reporting, API. The features are as expansive as Semrush, which is probably the most comprehensive in the business.
Backlink analysis tool specializes in examining backlinks, anchors, backlink monitoring and more. Semrush has superior breadth of backlink data, but SE Ranking’s data is pretty good.

Monthly Pricing:

4. UberSuggest

Ubersuggest is a pretty popular and fairly affordable SEO tool — best for keyword research and light competitive research. Ubersuggest actually lets you try the tool for free for a few queries. The keyword and backlink data is pretty accurate and robust.

Features include:

Ubersuggest vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
Great keyword research, search volume accuracy, historical data and more. Ubersuggest’s strongest feature is keyword research. Along with Semrush and SEOptimer, it is one of the most comprehensive keyword suites.
PPC data with good accuracy. While it doesn’t have the best Google Ads data (that title goes to SpyFu), it is as good as Semrush.
Useful Chrome Extension with keyword recommendations and limited competitor research right in the SERP. Both have a useful browser Chrome Extension.
Backlink Discovery Tool is strong and accurate for finding competitor backlinks. It also has a historical backlink analysis, which is unique. It’s not quite as accurate as Semrush, but Ubersuggest’s backlink feature is pretty solid.
Email support According to G2 reviews, people have had bad experiences with Ubersuggest’s customer support. Speaking from experience, Semrush has helpful support.

Monthly Pricing:

5. Serpstat

Serpstat is a powerful, reliable, and affordable SEO software that helps you monitor and analyze your website’s Google rankings. It also provides invaluable information about your competitors.

Serpstat’s SEO features attract leads through organic and paid search, track your main competitors and improve your content, as well as SEO and PPC efforts.

Features include:

Serpstat vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
Competitive intelligence data across organic research, Google Ads, backlinks and more. Also includes deep metrics like text analytics. Semrush has more capabilities and deeper metrics.
A big keyword database helps in collecting semantics for a site with such indicators: volume, popularity, competition, keyword difficulty. It also has lists of trending queries. The keyword research is almost as sophisticated as Semrush. There are fewer keywords in the database, but no other tool has "trending queries" like Serpstat.
Robust keyword tracking in delightful dashboards. Serpstat does not include advanced rank tracking for other search engines (Bing, YouTube, etc.).
Analyze up to 100,000 key keywords and a list of domains using 18 metrics. The keyword research is not quite as sophisticated or accurate as Semrush.
Backlink analysis tool specializes in examining backlinks, anchors, link donors, identifying malicious links and tracking all changes in the link profile of your domain and the sites of your competitors. Both tools have a comparable database of backlinks.
Team features, white-label reports and slick reporting. Both Semrush and Serpstat have white-label reporting and other agency features.

Monthly Pricing:

6. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb describes itself as a market intelligence platform, but it also has some great SEO features. It’s pretty expensive, but for enterprise customers that want deep, accurate competitive data, it’s best-in-class.

Customers use SimilarWeb for competitive insights, digital marketing sales intelligence, research intelligence, and investor intelligence. It tends to be an enterprise product due to the price and range of features. It’s generally a tool that senior leaders, marketers, and product leaders can use to make decisions together.

Features include:

SimilarWeb vs Semrush

Feature vs Semrush
Backlink checker includes Domain Trust, Page Trust, backlink count and follow vs nofollow link ratio. Also includes a realtime backlink checker at a higher tier. Robust backlink features, similar Semrush. And by some accounts, it may be more accurate.
A big keyword database with features like: volume, competition, and keyword difficulty. Also see competitor Google Ads and keywords. The keyword research is just about as sophisticated as Semrush.
The competitive suite includes competitor display ads, affiliate research, lead gen research, estimated marketing spend and much more. The competitive insights from Similarweb are on par with Semrush and SpyFu. Similarweb may have the most accurate data… at a hefty price.
Global and country-level data for all metrics. Both tools have international data.
Investor tools like sector performance, tracking certain companies, etc. Similar to Second Measure. Semrush has larger suites for marketers, but it cannot claim investor tools like SimilarWeb.

Monthly Pricing:

7. SEO Spider, from Screaming Frog

The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is an advanced SEO site audit tool. It can be used to crawl both small and very large websites.

In real-time, you can view, analyze, and filter the crawl data as it’s gathered and updated continuously in the program’s user interface.

They offer a free version of the SEO which is restricted to crawling up to 500 URLs in a single crawl and it does not give you full access to their dashboard. Their pricing is paid per license, and paid features include:

8. Google Search Console

Google Search Console tools and reports help you measure your site’s search traffic and performance and fix issues so you can rank higher.

You can set up and use Google Search Console for free, and features include:

9. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a WordPress SEO plugin and it’s one of my favorite tools. In Yoast SEO, you can enter the keyword or keyphrase you’d like your post or page to rank for in the search results.

Then they run a check on your content to check whether you’re using the keywords often enough – and in the right spots. In Yoast SEO Premium they also analyze your text on all variations of that word or phrase.

Other features include:

Pricing: $139/site for Yoast Premium.

10. Mangools

Mangools is an SEO tool that focuses on keyword rankings finding backlinks, competitor authority, and tracking rankings.

They provide an SEO browser extension, SEO volatility check, and SERP simulator for free. Paid tools include:

Monthly Pricing:

11. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO uses a data-driven model to show marketers what’s working for top-performing pages and then how to outrank them. With reverse engineering of the top fifty results, Surfer analyzes 500+ factors that may impact your rankings.

Features include:

Monthly Pricing:

12. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a browser add on for keyword research that can be used on Chrome or Firefox.

This tool combines search volume data, CPC, and competition data onto the interface of your favorite keyword research tool.

You can see all the relevant search volume data in real time while you are on Google, YouTube, Amazon, Bing, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and more.

Their platform shows:

Monthly Pricing: Keywords Everywhere does pricing by credits, with 1 credit = 1 keyword, with $27 getting you 100,000 credits per year.

13. Keywordtool.io

Keyword Tool is a free online keyword research instrument that uses Google Autocomplete to generate hundreds of relevant long-tail keywords for any topic.

Google Autocomplete is the feature used in Google Search that works to speed up the searches performed by users on Google. The search terms suggested by Google Autocomplete are selected based on many different factors.

Keyword Tool helps you employ Google Suggest for keyword research. It extracts Google keyword suggestions and presents it to you in an easy-to-understand interface.

Monthly Pricing:

Conclusion

So, do you need to pay thousands of dollars for a great SEO tool? No! While Semrush is the biggest name in the industry, any of these 15 SEO tool alternatives is a great option.

You get just as great of a platform while paying a fraction of the cost and being able to focus on what you need to make your marketing decisions.

Plus, almost all of the SEO tools on this list have some free services, free trials, and annual or other subscription-based discounts. Check them all out to see what fits in your budget and what will work best for your business’ SEO & growth goals.