# Semrush Alternatives 2027: 9 Paid, Free & Open-Source

Source: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/semrush/
Prices checked: 2026-11-11 (Zekai Price Ledger)

The best Semrush alternatives in 2027 are Ahrefs (best overall, $129/mo), OpenSEO (best open source, MIT) and Moz Pro (cheaper, $99/mo). Semrush itself starts at $139/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 6 more are compared below, including 2 open source.

| Tool | Type | Starting price | Free plan limit | Licence | Best for | Price checked | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush (the tool being replaced) | — | $139/mo | 1 demo project, 10 reports a day | — | — | 2026-11-11 | [pricing](https://www.semrush.com/prices/) |
| Ahrefs | Free plan + paid | $129/mo | Ahrefs Free: limited Site Explorer and Site Audit | — | backlinks and competitor research | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://ahrefs.com/) [pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/ahrefs/) |
| Moz Pro | Paid | $99/mo | No free plan | — | small sites needing SEO basics | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://moz.com/products/moz-pro) [pricing](https://moz.com/products/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/moz-pro/) |
| SE Ranking | Paid | $129/mo | No free plan | — | agencies and in-house teams on a budget | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://seranking.com/) [pricing](https://seranking.com/subscription.html) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/se-ranking/) |
| Mangools | Paid | Not checked | No free plan | — | solo SEOs wanting simple tools | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://mangools.com/) [pricing](https://mangools.com/plans-and-pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/mangools/) |
| Conductor | Paid | Not checked | No free plan | — | enterprise content and SEO teams | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.conductor.com/) [pricing](https://www.conductor.com/pricing/) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/conductor/) |
| Botify | Paid | Not checked | No free plan | — | large sites with crawl-heavy SEO | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.botify.com/) [pricing](https://www.botify.com/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/botify/) |
| OpenSEO | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | MCP-ready SEO with pay-as-you-go data |  | [code](https://github.com/every-app/open-seo) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openseo/) |
| claude-seo | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | SEO audits inside Claude Code |  | [code](https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/claude-seo/) |
| open-seo-mcp-skills | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | SEO from your own GSC and GA4 data |  | [code](https://github.com/Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/open-seo-mcp-skills/) |

## How each alternative compares with Semrush

- **Ahrefs** (Free plan + paid, $129/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Ahrefs Lite costs $129 a month with 750 tracked keywords and 5 unverified projects, and sells Brand Radar AI tracking separately from $199 a month, while Semrush bundles AI visibility into plans. Switch if you mainly need backlink and competitor data and want a free tier covering your own verified sites. Stay with Semrush if you want AI-visibility prompt tracking and site audit inside one monthly SEO plan.
- **Moz Pro** (Paid, $99/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Moz Pro Standard includes 1 user, 3 tracked sites, 300 tracked keywords and 400K pages crawled a month, plus 150 AI prompts tracked weekly across three AI models. Switch if you run a few small sites and want a lower monthly bill with weekly AI-prompt tracking included. Stay with Semrush if you track more than a handful of sites or need Semrush's larger daily keyword tracking.
- **SE Ranking** (Paid, $129/mo, checked 2026-11-11): SE Ranking Core covers 10 projects and 2k keywords tracked daily at $129 monthly, with extra manager seats from $16 and a 14-day trial without a card. Switch if you manage several client projects and want daily rank tracking with cheap extra seats. Stay with Semrush if you want Semrush's larger research database or the Starter plan's MCP access.
- **Mangools** (Paid, Not checked): Mangools splits work across KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner and SiteProfiler, and updates rank tracking weekly except on its Agency plan, which is daily. Switch if you are a solo SEO who wants separate light tools for keywords, SERPs and links. Stay with Semrush if you need site audits, position tracking and AI-search reports in a single login.
- **Conductor** (Paid, Not checked): Conductor publishes no prices; Essentials lists 3 tracked websites, 1,000 analyzed pages and 60 Writing Assistant drafts a year, with usage-based pricing and a free-trial link. Switch if you are an enterprise team that wants usage-based pricing, a writing assistant and sales support. Stay with Semrush if you want public self-serve pricing and a monthly plan you can start today.
- **Botify** (Paid, Not checked): Botify sells by demo request only, with modules named AI Readiness, AI Visibility and AI Activation and no self-serve sign-up or posted price. Switch if you run a very large site and will buy through a sales process. Stay with Semrush if you want to compare plan prices yourself before talking to a sales team.
- **OpenSEO** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): OpenSEO has no subscription: you bring a DataForSEO API key, pay DataForSEO per request, and get keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, audits and an MCP server. Switch if you want to pay per request and keep the data in a workspace you host yourself. Stay with Semrush if you do not want to host anything or manage an external data API key.
- **claude-seo** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): claude-seo is a skill bundle with 25 sub-skills and 18 specialist agents for Claude Code, so audits run in your terminal instead of a hosted dashboard. Switch if you work in Claude Code and want audits, schema and GEO checks run as agent skills. Stay with Semrush if you need a hosted keyword database and shared dashboards for a team.
- **open-seo-mcp-skills** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): open-seo-mcp-skills reads your own Search Console and GA4 data through an MCP server for Claude, rather than querying a third-party keyword and backlink index. Switch if you only need insight on your own site's search and analytics data, at no licence cost. Stay with Semrush if you need competitor keyword and traffic estimates for sites you do not own.

## Open-source options in detail

- **OpenSEO** (https://github.com/every-app/open-seo): Licence: MIT
- **claude-seo** (https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo): Licence: MIT; Last release: 2026-09-23
- **open-seo-mcp-skills** (https://github.com/Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills): Licence: MIT

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to Semrush in 2027?
Ahrefs is the best overall Semrush alternative on this page ($129/mo). To self-host, OpenSEO is open source (MIT).

### Is there a free version of Semrush?
Yes. Semrush has a free plan: 1 demo project, 10 reports a day. Paid plans start at $139/mo, checked on 11 Nov 2026.

### Is there a 100% free alternative to Semrush?
Yes. OpenSEO, claude-seo, open-seo-mcp-skills are open source and free to self-host. Ahrefs has a free plan with limits, shown in the table.

### What is cheaper than Semrush?
Moz Pro starts at $99/mo, against $139/mo for Semrush, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026.

### How much do Semrush alternatives cost for a team of 5?
If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Moz Pro $495/mo, Ahrefs $645/mo, SE Ranking $645/mo, against Semrush $695/mo for Semrush. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size.

### Which is better, Ahrefs or Semrush?
Ahrefs Lite costs $129 a month with 750 tracked keywords and 5 unverified projects, and sells Brand Radar AI tracking separately from $199 a month, while Semrush bundles AI visibility into plans. Choose Ahrefs if you mainly need backlink and competitor data and want a free tier covering your own verified sites. Stay with Semrush if you want AI-visibility prompt tracking and site audit inside one monthly SEO plan.

### Why are people leaving Semrush?
The documented reasons are: Semrush's pricing page lists the SEO plan at $139 a month ($117.33 billed annually) with 5 websites and 500 daily-tracked keywords; Starter, Pro+ and Advanced tiers sit above it (11 Nov 2026); The free tier is limited to 1 demo project and 10 reports per day across vital tools (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above.

### What is better than Semrush?
It depends on the job: Ahrefs for backlink research, SE Ranking or Moz Pro for lower-cost plans, and Conductor or Botify for enterprise sites.

## Related on Zekai

- [Ahrefs alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/ahrefs/)
- [Moz Pro alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/moz-pro/)
- [SE Ranking alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/se-ranking/)
- [Writesonic alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/writesonic/)
- [AI for Writing, Translation & Localization](https://zekaiwork.com/professions/ai-writing-translation-localization-tools/)

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Live table, team cost finder and price alerts: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/semrush/