8 Semrush Alternatives, Priced per Tracked Keyword (2026)

Semrush is the biggest name in SEO software. For a blogger paying with their own money, that is precisely the problem: you are buying the surface area of an enterprise marketing suite whether you use it or not. We keep a dated price history for Semrush, so this page starts from verified numbers rather than folklore.

Most Semrush alternatives roundups compare headline prices. We think the honest unit is the cost per tracked keyword, because tracked keywords are the allowance bloggers exhaust first and the lever vendors use to move you up a tier. Semrush’s $139 SEO plan tracks 500 keywords a day, which works out at 27.8 cents per keyword. SE Ranking’s $129 plan tracks 2,000, at 6.45 cents. Same shelf, four times the difference, and the headline prices are $10 apart.

One warning before the list. Semrush retired its old Pro tier at $149.95, and that dead price is still quoted as current in a large number of comparison articles. Every figure below was read from the vendor’s own pricing page on the date given next to it, most on 4 or 6 September 2026.

Quick comparison

Prices are monthly list unless marked. The last column is the entry-tier price divided by the keywords it tracks, which is the number this page is built around.

Notes on that table. Moz meters keywords per month and Mangools’ entry tier updates weekly, so neither is directly comparable to a daily tracker and we have flagged the unit in each cell. SpyFu does not meter tracked keywords on its entry plan in a comparable way. Serpstat counts keyword position checks per month and Ubersuggest sets allowances per project, and we will not pretend those units line up. Wincher prices in euros with no dollar toggle, so its cost per keyword is not comparable either.

The keyword maths, which reorders the whole list

Here is the same category with the marketing stripped out. A tracked keyword is a data row updated on a schedule. On 6 September 2026 the going rate for that row ranged from about 5.2 cents a month on SE Ranking Core billed yearly to 33 cents on Moz Standard billed monthly. Compare on the same billing basis and the spread is still about five to one, between platforms that appear side by side in every roundup.

Semrush sits at the expensive end at 27.8 cents, and that only buys the keyword rows. Its real sell is everything around them: advertising research, social scheduling, content tools and an AI-visibility suite. If you use that breadth, the maths changes and Semrush earns its price. If you only ever open Semrush to check rankings, you are paying enterprise rates for a rank tracker.

Note also what the annual toggle does. Semrush drops to $117.33 a month billed yearly, which is $1,407.96 paid up front, a saving of 15.6 percent. SE Ranking drops to $103.20, or $1,238.40 up front. Over three years on annual billing, and assuming today’s prices hold, Semrush SEO costs $4,223.88 against SE Ranking Core’s $3,715.20 and Moz Standard’s $2,844. Those three-year figures are our arithmetic, not the vendors’, and each one is only as durable as the price behind it.

The alternatives

Eight tools, each introduced by the specific reason it beats Semrush, with the catches underneath.

1. SE Ranking, if you want the same job for a quarter of the keyword price

SE Ranking Core is $129 a month, or $103.20 billed yearly, for 2,000 keywords tracked daily across 10 projects, with a site audit allowance of 250,000 pages a month and 25,000 API credits included. Growth is $279, or $223.20 yearly. Our SE Ranking review and dated SE Ranking price history go deeper.

What it does better than Semrush. Cost per tracked keyword, by a factor of four at the entry tier. It is the platform we named our best blogging tool of 2026 in our ranked leaderboard, on exactly that value argument.

The downsides. The keyword databases and backlink index are smaller than Semrush’s, and there is nothing comparable to Semrush’s advertising and social modules. The white-label Agency Pack and the larger API allowances are annual-billing add-ons, which our SE Ranking alternatives piece prices out in full.

2. Ahrefs, if backlink data is the reason you pay for software

Ahrefs Lite is $129 a month for 750 tracked keywords and 5 projects. Standard is $249 for 2,000 keywords, Advanced $449, and the cut-down Starter plan is $29. Extra seats cost $40 a month on Lite and are capped at two.

What it does better. The backlink index, which is the reason most people pay for it. For link research specifically, Semrush is the one playing catch-up.

The downsides. At 17.2 cents per tracked keyword on Lite it is poor value as a tracker. Ahrefs also advertises an annual discount of up to 17 percent without printing an annual price for any tier, so you cannot compute your own annual-billing price from the page. We keep a dated Ahrefs price history, and our Ahrefs alternatives page covers the escape routes.

3. Moz Pro, if AI-visibility tracking is the itch

Moz Standard is $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for 1 user, 3 tracked sites and 300 tracked keywords a month. Medium is $179, or $143 yearly, for 1,500 keywords. Large is $299, or $239. Every tier now includes an AI-visibility dashboard tracking prompts across GPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. We read the page in a browser on 6 September 2026, with USD printed beside the figures.

What it does better. AI search tracking at the entry tier. Semrush holds its prompt tracking back until the $199 Starter plan, while Moz includes 50 tracked prompts at $99. For a blogger whose traffic question in 2026 is “what do the answer engines say about my topics”, that inversion matters.

The downsides. The keyword allowance is monthly, not daily, and 300 of them is the smallest number on this page. Per keyword it is the most expensive platform here. Moz also blocks ordinary automated reading of its site, which is why several roundups quote Moz prices that are years old.

4. Mangools, for the friendliest cheap seat

Mangools bills its headline prices annually: Basic is $37.70 a month, paid as $452.40 a year, for 200 keywords updated weekly. Premium is $52.70 for 700, and Agency is $97.70 for 1,500 updated daily. Month-to-month, those tiers are $61, $81 and $141. The dollar figures are the same to a UK connection as to a US one, which we have checked twice. Our Mangools price history has the dated readings.

What it does better. The interface, and the entry price. $452.40 a year is a third of Semrush’s annual bill, and for keyword research plus light tracking it is the easiest tool here to actually enjoy using.

The downsides. Weekly updates on Basic and Premium, small absolute allowances, and the entry tier is single-seat with no way to add a second user without moving up a plan.

5. SpyFu, for competitor research at pocket money prices

SpyFu Basic is $39 a month, or $33 billed annually. Professional is $79, or $58 annually. When we read the page on 6 September 2026 it was also running a limited-time offer at $9 and $49 for the first month. That is a promotion rather than a price, so we have quoted list rates.

What it does better. Historical competitor data. SpyFu’s pitch is every keyword your competitor has bought or ranked for, going back years, and at $39 it undercuts everything else that does this credibly.

The downsides. It is US-and-UK-centric, and its site audit and tracking features are thin next to a full platform. Its keyword metering also does not map onto the tracked-keywords unit the rest of this page uses, so a like-for-like cost per keyword cannot be stated honestly.

6. Serpstat, for the cheapest full-platform entry

Serpstat Individual is $50 a month, with the page advertising a $228 annual saving, which works back to $31 a month billed yearly. That figure is derived, not printed. Team is $100 and Agency, the only tier with white-label reporting, is $410. The dollar prices displayed to our UK browser matched our earlier US readings.

What it does better. Entry price for a genuine all-in-one. $50 gets keyword research, site audit, rank tracking and backlink analysis, plus API and AI-integration features from the Team tier.

The downsides. Serpstat meters keyword position checks per month rather than tracked keywords, so its allowances cannot be lined up against Semrush’s, and the databases are the part users complain about first. The annual price not being printed is a small dishonesty we would rather vendors dropped.

7. Ubersuggest, for casual use and the lifetime escape hatch

Ubersuggest Individual is $29 a month in the United States, with Business at $49 and Enterprise at $99. Its own comparison table prints the range as US$29 to US$99. There is also a lifetime toggle advertising a large one-time discount, which is unique in this category.

What it does better. Price, and the option to stop paying monthly at all. For a hobby blogger who wants keyword ideas and a basic tracker, this is the cheapest respectable door in.

The downsides. Here is our warning. Ubersuggest showed our UK browser the same digits with the currency symbol swapped: £29, £49 and £99 for the tiers its own table prices at US$29 to US$99. A pound is worth about a third more than a dollar, so a UK buyer pays about a third more for the identical product without the page ever saying so. We first logged this behaviour on 3 September 2026 and reconfirmed it on 6 September. The data depth also trails every full platform above, which at a third of the price is exactly what you would expect.

8. Wincher, if you only ever open the rank tracker

Wincher Basic is €49 a month for 500 keywords tracked daily across 10 websites. Standard is €89 for 1,000 keywords on unlimited websites, and Professional is €319 for 5,000. Prices are in euros with no dollar toggle.

What it does better. It does one job, daily, on every tier, for less than half of what Semrush charges to do that job among fifty others.

The downsides. No keyword research database worth the name, no site audit, and euro pricing means your bill moves with the exchange rate. This replaces one Semrush feature, not Semrush.

Which Semrush alternative should you choose?

You want the same platform shape for less money. SE Ranking Core. At 6.45 cents per tracked keyword against Semrush’s 27.8, it is the largest like-for-like saving on this page, and the tool our own leaderboard ranks first.

Links are the job. Ahrefs, and accept the tracker is overpriced. Pair it with Wincher if you need keyword headroom.

You care about AI answers more than blue links. Moz Standard at $99, because the AI-visibility dashboard is included at entry rather than gated behind a $199 plan.

You are spending your own money and it hurts. Mangools Basic at $452.40 a year, or Ubersuggest at $29 if you are in the United States. If you are in the UK, read the Ubersuggest paragraph above before you pay a third extra for the same digits.

You genuinely use Semrush’s breadth. Stay, and take the annual rate. $117.33 a month for the surface area of five tools is defensible. Paying it to check rankings is not.

What we could not verify

Ubersuggest’s lifetime prices sit behind a toggle that did not respond to our reads, so we have reported that the option exists without quoting figures. Sitechecker, which appeared in our SE Ranking comparison in August 2026, now serves euro prices to a UK connection and has repositioned around agency plans. We could not confirm current dollar figures for it, so it is absent rather than wrong. Serpstat’s annual rate is derived from its printed saving, not read, and we have said so where it appears.

A note on pricing dates

Every figure on this page was read from the vendor’s own pricing page on the date stated beside it, most on 4 or 6 September 2026, in the currency the vendor displayed. This category re-prices constantly: Semrush retired a tier that half the internet still quotes, and we have already logged one vendor here charging UK buyers in pounds at dollar digits. Our pricing hub keeps dated histories for the big names, and our cost index re-reads 30 tools quarterly. If you are reading this months from now, click through and confirm before you buy.