Semrush alternatives: pick by the one job you actually use it for

There is no single replacement for Semrush, because Semrush is six tools in one subscription. Work out which of the six you open every week, then pick for that: Ahrefs for backlinks and keyword depth, Moz Pro or SE Ranking for an all rounder at lower cost, Mangools or Serpstat for keyword research on a small budget, Screaming Frog for technical auditing, Similarweb for traffic and audience, and Google Search Console plus Keyword Planner for free coverage of a surprising amount of it. Most teams who switch find two tools cover what one was doing, often for less.

So start with usage rather than features. Open your account, look at which reports you have actually visited in the last month, and write them down. People cancel a suite and then discover they needed the one module they never thought about, and people also pay for five modules to use one.

The six jobs Semrush does

• Keyword research. Volumes, difficulty, related terms, questions.
• Competitor and traffic analysis. What a domain ranks for, what it is estimated to earn in traffic, what it buys in ads.
• Backlink data. Who links to a domain, authority scoring, link gap against competitors.
• Position tracking. Daily ranking by location and device.
• Site auditing. A cloud crawl with a prioritised list of technical issues.
• Content and reporting tools. Briefs, writing assistant, scheduled client reports, social posting.

The alternatives, matched to the job

Tool	Strongest at	Where it is lighter	Best fit
Ahrefs	Backlink index, keyword data, content explorer, clear interface	Paid advertising research, social, built in client reporting	Teams whose work is organic search and links
Moz Pro	Domain Authority, link explorer, straightforward keyword and rank tools, strong learning material	Index size against Ahrefs and Semrush	Smaller in house teams, and anyone reporting on Domain Authority
SE Ranking	Covers nearly all six jobs at a lower price, white label reports	Depth in each individual module	Agencies managing many small accounts
Mangools	Keyword research that is pleasant to use, low cost	Site auditing, large scale crawling	Freelancers and single site owners
Serpstat	All round coverage at a low price point	Data depth in English language markets	Budget constrained teams
Screaming Frog SEO Spider	Technical crawling, and the deepest view of your own site structure	Keywords, backlinks, rank tracking	Anybody doing technical work, free up to five hundred URLs
Similarweb	Traffic and audience estimates across all channels, market and industry views	Keyword level SEO workflow	Market sizing and competitor intelligence
Sistrix	Visibility index with long history, strong in European markets	Breadth of modules	Teams tracking visibility trends over years
Majestic	Link data with Trust Flow and topical breakdown	Everything other than links	Link specialists
SpyFu	Historical paid search and ad copy for competitors	Organic and technical work	Paid search competitor research
Search Console plus Keyword Planner	Measured query and position data for your own site, and Google's own volume ranges	Competitor data, backlinks, scheduled reporting	Everyone, as the free foundation under whatever else you buy

Semrush publishes its plan tiers and current prices on its pricing page, and so do all of the above, so compare against the live figures on the day you decide rather than against a number in an article.

Four common switches, and what they cost in capability

Semrush to Ahrefs. The usual move for teams doing organic search only. You gain link data depth and a faster interface. You give up paid search research and the built in reporting and social modules.

Semrush to SE Ranking. The usual move for agencies watching the subscription line. You keep broadly the same shape of toolkit at a lower price. You give up some depth in each module, which matters most on large sites.

Semrush to Screaming Frog plus Search Console plus Keyword Planner. The lowest cost serious setup, and it covers crawling, measured query data and volume ranges. You give up competitor keyword and backlink data, so this works best for a single site you own and know well.

Semrush to Ahrefs plus Similarweb. The research heavy combination. You get the best link and keyword data next to the best cross channel traffic picture. It is a bigger spend than one suite, so it suits teams doing market work rather than page by page execution.

How to test an alternative in a week

1. Write your five questions first. The actual ones, such as what are my competitor's top ten pages, or which of my pages lost position this month.
2. Run the same five in the trial and in your current tool. Count clicks and note where the answer was easier to get.
3. Check one domain you know well in both. Your own. The numbers will differ, and the question is whether the new tool's picture is a shape you recognise.
4. Test the export. Pull a CSV of a thousand rows. If the export is capped or awkward, that cost shows up every month.
5. Test the report a client will see, if you work with clients. Reporting is the module people forget to evaluate and then miss most.
6. Check the limits, not the price. Tracked keywords, crawl credits, projects, users, rows per export. Those limits are where a cheap plan becomes expensive.

This page covers choosing a suite. For auditing specifically, see what each kind of SEO audit tool checks, and for reading Semrush itself before you decide, see the five Semrush reports in a useful order.

Asked and answered: semrush alternatives

Which Semrush alternative is free?

Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Keyword Planner, PageSpeed Insights and Screaming Frog up to five hundred URLs are all free and together cover measurement, volumes and technical auditing for a small site. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools gives free backlink and keyword data for a site you verify. Most paid tools also offer a small number of free lookups a day, which is enough for occasional competitor checks.

Is Ahrefs better than Semrush?

They are strong in different places. Ahrefs has the edge on backlink data and is quicker to get an answer from. Semrush covers more ground, with paid search research, social and client reporting that Ahrefs does not match. Pick Ahrefs if your work is organic and links, Semrush if you need the breadth in one bill.

Can I replace Semrush with two cheaper tools?

Often, yes, and that is the most common successful switch. A keyword and link tool plus a crawler covers most weekly work. Add the cost of both plans and the time of working across two interfaces before you decide, because one bill and one login has real value for a small team.

Do the volume numbers differ between tools?

Yes, because each vendor models them from a different mix of sources. Pick one tool as your reference for volume, keep using it, and judge keywords against each other on that single scale. Google Keyword Planner gives the ranges Google itself publishes, which is the closest thing to a common reference.

What should I check before cancelling?

Export everything you will want later: historical position data, your keyword lists, your site audit history and any client report templates. Position history is the one people miss, because it cannot be rebuilt after the account closes. Then run the new tool alongside for one full reporting cycle before you switch the reporting over.

The report to ask your next tool about

Whichever suite you move to will report what a search engine shows. Ask its vendor a second question before you switch: does it record what assistants say about your brand, and with which sources?

Meanwhile, ask the five questions your buyers ask in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and note who is named. That costs nothing but time. AI Knows Us does the same across assistants and lists the pages behind each reply, whichever suite you settle on.