Best Semrush alternatives for small sites

Best for

Mangools is the friendliest keyword tool here, and the one most small sites end up on. Trustpilot shows 4.4 across 165 reviews on 3 September 2026, 90 percent of them five-star. AI Search Watcher is bundled into every plan at 500 monitored prompts across eight models, and API and MCP access start at $37.70.

Where it stops

Basic tracks 200 keywords on weekly updates, caps keyword research at 100 requests a day and has no extra seats. The backlink index is far smaller than Semrush's. It shows what people search for and how contested it looks, and you decide which of those to write and in what order.

Best for

Keysearch is the cheapest tool here at $24 a month, and it has held that price for a decade. Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Pinterest and YouTube keyword research come in the same subscription. Foresight takes a URL and scopes opportunities to that site rather than listing keywords in the abstract.

Where it stops

Keysearch publishes no pricing page and no per-plan limits, so you find out what you get after you sign up. Trustpilot shows 3.5 across 28 reviews on 3 September 2026, which is a small sample and worth reading before you buy.

Best for

Ubersuggest is the cheapest tool here that covers everything at once. $29 buys keyword research, rank tracking, a site crawler, and backlink and competitor data, with a step-by-step SEO course included at every tier. Trustpilot shows 4.2 across 570 reviews on 3 September 2026, the best public rating in this group.

Where it stops

Individual is one project, 125 tracked keywords per project and 10 AI prompts a month, with extras at $5 a month each. Their own documentation says a difficulty score is a guide and tells you to open the results page and judge for yourself. Subscriptions are not refundable once processed.

Best for

SE Ranking is the closest feature-for-feature swap for Semrush. Rank tracking is what they started with and it is the best here: daily, multi-location, multi-device. The 14-day trial is fully functional and needs no card, and the refund terms include a review if the service was not delivered as promised.

Where it stops

At $129 a month it is not the cheap option, and the agency features are a $69/mo add-on billed annually. AI search tracking is a further $89/mo. If you run one site, most of what you pay for sits unused.

Best for

Ahrefs is the answer if the reason you paid Semrush was link data. It has the best backlink index in the category, built from its own crawler rather than a licensed feed. They publish their research with the methodology attached, and the company has been bootstrapped for fifteen years.

Where it stops

There is no trial of the paid plans, and the $29 Starter plan cannot buy extra credits at any price. The content tooling is an add-on from $99/mo on top of a $129 plan. It is a specialist's tool and it is priced like one.

Best for

Moz is the one to buy if you want to learn SEO while you work. The Beginner's Guide and the SEO Learning Center are free and still the best education in this market, and Domain Authority is the shared language of the industry because Moz invented the idea. Moz Local is a separate working product if you manage listings across locations.

Where it stops

Standard at $99 is the first plan with the full feature set, and it caps you at two AI content briefs a month; ten of them costs $179. Their own help pages say Moz does not provide refunds at any time.