Ahrefs
CE 93 free tierBacklink data and competitor research as the daily job.
Starter, flat account fee$29 / mo
Covers all 6 people+ $0
Against your $49 ceiling−$20
Team cost$29 / mo
Verified
Reviewed by
Oleh Kem
Oleh KemPlans checked30 / 8 vendors
“Contact sales”2/30
Median entry$49/mo
Entry range$29-139
Free tier2/8
Leader95 Screaming Frog SEO Spider
SEO tools compared: pricing, site audit, keyword gap and local SEO
Subscriptions billed monthly, a desktop crawler sold on a yearly licence, and 2 genuine free tiers: the 8 tools here price the same work in different shapes. Prices are read straight from each vendor's pricing page, with the metering that decides the real bill, keywords tracked and reports per credit, flagged on every row.
How much does an SEO tool cost, and what makes the bill grow?
Across the 8 SEO tools ranked here, the median plan opens near $49 each month; the cheapest paid door is $29, the priciest entry $139. 2 come with a permanent free plan, not a trial clock. Every vendor prints an entry price. The figure hides the metering that follows it: the keywords a plan tracks, the reports a credit buys.
- eight vendors post an entry price on their own page, and the tiers that stay dark are the enterprise steps a buyer that size negotiates anyway.
- 2 carry a truly free tier, not a countdown trial. Ahrefs Free shows limited data on a site you own, and Screaming Frog's free build crawls a small site in full. Each limits the size of the job, not the calendar.
- The tool ranked first is a desktop crawler on a yearly licence, not the broadest platform. The score pairs price disclosure with review scores, so a narrow tool can land above a wider suite that hides its top tier.
- Entry price settles little on its own. What you pay follows the keyword and report limits a plan sets, which is what the matrix and the records below actually compare.
- A second person on the account is the quiet second bill. Most vendors charge for each added seat, so a two-seat team pays well above the single-plan figure.
Ranked by a transparency score: pricing transparency 60%, user satisfaction 40%. Capability is not scored. It is the condition grid below. Prices are read from vendor pricing pages and re-checked per product on the dates shown. ComparEdge sells no SEO tools and takes no payment for placement. How the score is built.
01 / 07
SEO tools ranked: site audit, keyword gap, local SEO and white label
This table is ordered by transparency, not by price or by size. One shared price scale runs under every row, compressed so distant tiers still fit, which means a position to the right is a genuine step up in cost, not a cosmetic one. Beside it, eight columns record capability, covering full price disclosure, the free tier, site audit, local SEO, keyword gap, historical data, white label and PPC research. Each cell reads granted, partial or absent.
Sorted by transparency scorePriced tiers 28 / 30Full disclosure 6 / 8
How to read this table
Reading the console
A granted mark says the tool does that job, not that it does it well or without a limit. That gap matters most here, where two tools can grant the same keyword work yet cap it ten times apart, and the grid has no column for the cap. The ranking shows it anyway: the top tool holds fewer capability marks than several below, because the score reads only two signals, a vendor's price disclosure and its buyer ratings, and passes no judgment on how far a plan will stretch. A missing mark means the feature was not listed on the vendor's page at the last check, not a claim it cannot be done.
- Price axis
- One shared logarithmic axis, $29 to $1k. A tick further right is genuinely dearer. The tall tick is the cheapest paid tier.
- Diamond
- A flat platform fee, billed per month, not per seat.
- Granted
- Listed on the vendor’s own pages on the verify date.
- Conditional
- Present, but some tiers carry no published price.
- Not on the record
- Absent from the recorded feature set. It means unlisted, not incapable.
01Screaming Frog SEO SpiderAnnual contract onlyfrom $279 / yrFree tierAll tiers pricedSite audit listedLocal SEO not on the recordKeyword gap not on the recordHistorical data not on the recordWhite label not on the recordPPC research not on the record$279/yr95Alternatives to Screaming Frog SEO Spider
02MangoolsNo free tierAll tiers pricedSite audit not on the recordLocal SEO listedKeyword gap not on the recordHistorical data not on the recordWhite label listedPPC research not on the record$30.50flat95
03AhrefsFree tierAll tiers pricedSite audit listedLocal SEO not on the recordKeyword gap listedHistorical data listedWhite label not on the recordPPC research not on the record$29flat93
04SpyFuNo free tierAll tiers pricedSite audit not on the recordLocal SEO not on the recordKeyword gap not on the recordHistorical data not on the recordWhite label not on the recordPPC research listed$39flat91Alternatives to SpyFu
05SISTRIXNo free tierAll tiers pricedSite audit listedLocal SEO listedKeyword gap listedHistorical data listedWhite label not on the recordPPC research not on the record$137.49flat89
06SemrushNo free tierAll tiers pricedSite audit listedLocal SEO listedKeyword gap listedHistorical data listedWhite label listedPPC research listed$139flat77
07SE RankingNo free tier1 of 3 tiers unpricedSite audit listedLocal SEO listedKeyword gap listedHistorical data not on the recordWhite label listedPPC research not on the record$129flat76
08Moz ProNo free tier1 of 5 tiers unpricedSite audit listedLocal SEO listedKeyword gap not on the recordHistorical data listedWhite label not on the recordPPC research not on the record$49flat75
GrantedSome tiers sealedNot on the recordFlat account fee, not per seatScore ranks pricing transparency and user ratings, not capability. Capability is the grid.
8 vendorsMedian entry $49Coverage span 6 → 1 of sixSealed tiers 2 / 30
Scroll the console sideways to reach the remaining conditions.
02 / 07
Shortlist an SEO tool by projects tracked and what it really costs
The shortlist ranks by what the plan actually costs your team, not by list price. Flat plans are folded into a per-team number so they compare like for like. Only vendors rated 85 and up are eligible.
Team size
6
Budget / mo
For a team of 6 under $49 / mo, start with these
Ranked by monthly team cost, vendors rated 85 and up
Mangools
CE 95Teams whose keyword work stays around a few hundred tracked terms and who want it cheap.
Mangools Basic, flat account fee$30.50 / mo
Covers all 6 people+ $0
Against your $49 ceiling−$18.50
Team cost$30.50 / mo
SpyFu
CE 91Paid-search history, going back more than a decade, as the reason to buy.
Basic, flat account fee$39 / mo
Covers all 6 people+ $0
Against your $49 ceiling−$10
Team cost$39 / mo
Over your ceilingSISTRIX $137.49 / mo
Not sure what to weigh? Five questions narrow it faster than the grid.Answer 5 questions
03 / 07
Every tool's plans, verdicts and the date we checked each price
The order is the transparency ranking, not a capability one. A desktop crawler and a budget keyword suite outrank the broad platforms here, because they show every tier while the wider suites hold one back for the enterprise buyer.
Transparency scorePricing transparency 60%User satisfaction 40%
A crawler that runs on your desktop, not a cloud dashboard. Screaming Frog is the odd one out here: a desktop app on a yearly licence, no keyword or backlink database, and a free build that stops at a fixed crawl size. Licences are counted per person, so a second analyst means a second licence.
Critical gapThe interface lacks modern data visualization, complicating the analysis of complex site architecture and link graphs.
Plan table and expert take
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: expert take
Technical SEOs are the buyer, and what they get is unusual for this list: a desktop app bought as a yearly licence, not a monthly seat. The free build handles a small site; past that the paid licence renews each year to keep crawling.
Where Screaming Frog SEO Spider holds up
- Custom extraction using XPath, CSS Path, or Regex
- Direct integration with GA, GSC, and PageSpeed Insights APIs
- Visualise site architecture with interactive crawl diagrams
- Generates and validates XML sitemaps and hreflang attributes
- No crawl limits; data is stored locally on your machine
4.8CE scoreG2 4.7 · 102 reviewsCapterra 4.8Founded 2010Verified July 16, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Free Version | Free | Free |
| Paid Version | Not published | $279 / yr |
Teams whose keyword work stays around a few hundred tracked terms and who want it cheap. Mangools trades depth for price: the daily request limits bite once campaigns scale, and there is no site audit in the bundle, so a technical crawl needs a separate crawler.
Critical gapThe rank tracker restricts monitoring to primary domains, excluding competitor domains.
Plan table and expert take
Mangools: expert take
Solo SEOs and small teams are the fit, and Mangools is built for the budget end. It runs the steepest annual discount of the eight, real money off for paying yearly, but the trade is fixed: no site-audit crawler in the bundle, so a technical review needs another tool.
Where Mangools holds up
- Clean, fast interface that's far easier to use than Semrush or Ahrefs
- All 5 tools included in one subscription with no feature-gating
- KWFinder keyword difficulty is reliable for long-tail research
4.8CE scoreG2 4.7 · 96 reviewsCapterra 4.8Verified August 7, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Mangools Basic | $30.50 | $18.85 |
| Mangools Premium | $40.50 | $26.35 |
| Mangools Agency | $70.50 | $48.85 |
Backlink data and competitor research as the daily job. Ahrefs runs on one of the deeper link indexes in this field, and it meters heavy use through credits, so a month of intensive digging can tip into overage. No local SEO, and no white-label reporting.
Critical gapData latency occurs in real-time keyword tracking.
Plan table and expert take
Ahrefs: expert take
Starter looks like a $29 way in, but the plans people actually use, Lite and up, publish only an annual-commitment price and no monthly rate at all. The real Ahrefs decision starts a tier higher, at the $129 Lite plan.
Where Ahrefs holds up
- Industry-leading backlink index size and freshness
- Keyword Explorer shows clicks, not just search volume
- Content Explorer finds link opportunities in seconds
- Site Audit tool provides actionable technical SEO fixes
- Robust competitive analysis via Content Gap feature
4.7CE scoreG2 4.6 · 670 reviewsCapterra 4.7Founded 2011Verified August 5, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Free | Free | Free |
| Starter | $29 | $29 |
| Lite | $129 | $108 |
| Standard | $249 | $208 |
| Advanced | $449 | $374 |
| Enterprise | Not published | $1,499 |
Paid-search history, going back more than a decade, as the reason to buy. SpyFu reverse-engineers what rivals bid and rank on, a job the broad suites treat as a side feature, and it prices under them for staying narrow.
Critical gapThe interface reflects legacy design patterns, which limits navigation speed during complex data analysis.
Plan table and expert take
SpyFu: expert take
The $39 Basic plan is the honest number. One tier up hides a promo: Pro + AI dangles a cut-price first month, then settles at $119 a month. Budget for the second figure. SpyFu stays the cheapest door into a decade of paid-search history.
Where SpyFu holds up
- 15+ years of historical keyword data no other tool matches
- Best competitor PPC research with ad copy history and spend estimates
- Significantly cheaper than Semrush or Ahrefs for similar competitor intelligence
4.7CE scoreG2 4.6 · 518 reviewsCapterra 4.5Verified August 7, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 |
| Pro + AI | $119 | $89 |
| Team / Agency | $249 | $187 |
A visibility index read as a trend, tracked back more than a decade. Sistrix is a DACH staple, priced in euros plus tax, and it shows its regional roots once you look outside its core markets.
Critical gapThe platform imposes restrictive API credit limits and high costs for bulk keyword tracking.
Plan table and expert take
SISTRIX: expert take
The START plan hides its real trait: Sistrix never discounts for annual billing, so month one and month twelve cost the same. Sistrix bills in euros plus tax, about $137.49 for START at the August 2026 exchange rate, and each extra user is a separate monthly charge.
Where SISTRIX holds up
- Industry-standard Visibility Index for historical trend analysis
- Extensive historical SERP data, dating back to 2008
- Unmatched keyword data and visibility tracking for DACH region
- Identifies Google update impacts with pinpoint accuracy
- Clean, uncluttered interface focused on core SEO metrics
4.5CE scoreG2 4.4 · 20 reviewsCapterra 4.5Founded 2007Verified August 5, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Start | $137.49 | Not published |
| Plus | $276.14 | Not published |
| Professional | $484.11 | Not published |
| Premium | $923.16 | Not published |
Above that break, every tier is on the page and the scores sit within a few points. Below it, the two suites seal an enterprise tier, and that gap explains most of the ranking.
Agencies wide enough to run research, audit, tracking and reporting from one login. Semrush covers the broadest span here and prices for it, opening at the Pro plan and keeping its enterprise step off the public list.
Critical gapThe platform enforces strict, non-negotiable PDF export volume limits.
Plan table and expert take
Semrush: expert take
The $139 Pro plan reads as the entry, but it is a one-person floor. Every extra seat is a paid add-on billed monthly on top, and API access waits until the $499 Business tier. A small team on Pro pays more than the entry implies.
Where Semrush holds up
- Unrivaled competitor analysis for paid and organic search
- Massive keyword database (26B+) with deep filtering options
- Integrated Content Marketing Platform with SEO writing assistant
- Powerful backlink analytics and gap analysis tools
- Comprehensive local SEO features including listing management
4.6CE scoreG2 4.5 · 3,382 reviewsCapterra 4.7Founded 2008Verified August 5, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | $139 | $117.33 |
| Starter | $199 | $165.17 |
| Pro+ | $299 | $248.17 |
| Advanced | $549 | $455.67 |
Agencies wanting broad SEO and GEO coverage nearer the bottom of the price range. SE Ranking bundles the white-label reporting the cheaper keyword tools skip, and it seals its enterprise tier the way the larger suites do.
Critical gapThe platform experiences intermittent reporting failures and inconsistent daily rank scan completion data.
Plan table and expert take
SE Ranking: expert take
Multi-client agencies are the target, and the white-label reporting they need is not in the base plan. It comes through the Agency Pack, an add-on that only bills on annual terms. The page price is a floor for one team, not the agency total.
Where SE Ranking holds up
- Flexible keyword rank tracking frequency (daily, 3-day, weekly)
- Comprehensive white-labeling and client reporting tools
- Content Marketing platform with AI writer on all plans
- Generous project and keyword limits for the price point
- Includes local marketing and social media management tools
4.9CE scoreG2 4.8 · 1,547 reviewsCapterra 4.8Founded 2013Verified August 5, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Core | $129 | $103.20 |
| Growth | $279 | $223.20 |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | |
Newcomers who want approachable metrics like Domain Authority over raw index depth. Moz Pro keeps the lower plans tight on tracked keywords, leaving the enterprise tier quote-only.
Critical gapThe platform relies on proprietary Domain Authority metrics that lack external validation.
Plan table and expert take
Moz Pro: expert take
Newcomers are the natural buyer, pulled in by Domain Authority as an easier yardstick than raw index size. The bill for that simplicity sits low on the ladder: the entry plans track only a few hundred keywords, and the single-site $49 Starter is a footnote, not a card.
Where Moz Pro holds up
- Pioneered Domain Authority (DA), a key industry-standard metric
- Intuitive UI and helpful 'Moz Recommends' simplify SEO for beginners
- Excellent keyword prioritization with Difficulty & Opportunity scores
- Robust on-page SEO grader with actionable, specific recommendations
- Integrated local rank tracking for specific city or postal code SERPs
4.4CE scoreG2 4.3 · 608 reviewsCapterra 4.4Founded 2004Verified August 5, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $49 | Not published |
| Standard | $99 | $79 |
| Medium | $179 | $143 |
| Large | $299 | $239 |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | |
04 / 07
Compare any two SEO tools: plans, keyword limits and our score
vs
What the records say
Screaming Frog SEO Spider publishes no monthly figure, so there is no team bill to line up against Mangools.
Mangools carries 2 of the 6 capability columns on the record; Screaming Frog SEO Spider shows 1.
Users rate them level: 4.7 on G2 apiece.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider runs a free tier to start on; Mangools does not.
Both publish every tier they sell.
Pick Screaming Frog SEO Spider for: A crawler that runs on your desktop, not a cloud dashboard.
Pick Mangools for: Teams whose keyword work stays around a few hundred tracked terms and who want it cheap.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
CE 95 · G2 4.7Published plans, US$/mo
Free VersionFree
Paid VersionNot published
Team of 6Not published
Verified July 16, 2026
Mangools
CE 95 · G2 4.7Published plans, US$/mo
Mangools Basic$30.50
Mangools Premium$40.50
Mangools Agency$70.50
Team of 6$30.50 / mo
Verified August 7, 2026
Both price lists on the category axis
Screaming Frog SEO SpiderAnnual contract onlyfrom $279 / yr
Mangools
Where they differ
Only Screaming Frog SEO Spider has on the record
- $0 tier
- Site audit
Only Mangools has on the record
- Local SEO
- White label
05 / 07
SEO tool questions: cheapest suite, free options, solo blogger value
Which SEO tool is the cheapest?
On monthly billing, Ahrefs Starter and Mangools Basic are the lowest paid doors in, both well under $49. Pay yearly and Mangools drops furthest, since it runs the steepest annual discount here. If a free tier will do, Ahrefs and Screaming Frog each give you one, capped by how much work you can do rather than by how many days.
Are there free SEO tools, or only free trials?
2 keep a free tier that never expires, not a countdown clock. Ahrefs Free reports limited data on a site you own, and Screaming Frog's free build crawls a small site in full. The rest hand out trials that expire, so use a free tier to trial the workflow, not to run a campaign for months.
Is a full SEO suite worth it for a solo blogger?
Rarely at the start. A suite like Semrush or SE Ranking bundles research, audit, tracking and reporting into one high entry price, and a solo blogger uses a slice of it. A budget keyword tool plus a free crawler covers most of that work for a fraction of the monthly cost. The suite earns its price once several of those jobs run every week.
Can ChatGPT do SEO instead of a paid tool?
For some tasks, yes: drafting titles, clustering keywords, outlining briefs. What it cannot do is pull live rank data, a backlink index, or an audit crawl of your own site, which is what these tools sell. Most of them now bill AI features into the plan anyway, so the practical setup is a tool for the data and a model for the writing.
The second seat, and why it nearly doubles a small bill
Most tools here price the plan for one person and charge for the next. A second Semrush user costs extra as an add-on; Ahrefs, SpyFu and Sistrix each bill per added seat; Screaming Frog counts a licence per person. So a two-seat team often pays close to double the single-plan figure, which the headline never shows.
Do SEO tools make you pay for a year in advance?
Some do. Ahrefs lists its main plans on a yearly commitment with no monthly rate shown, and SE Ranking's Agency Pack bills yearly only. Most others let you go month to month at a higher rate, then take a fifth or more off for paying annually. Sistrix is the outlier that bills monthly only and never rewards paying a year ahead.
What does an SEO tool actually track?
The core is the same across the field: keyword rankings, search volume, the backlinks pointing at a site, and an audit of on-page issues. The differences are depth and metering, how many keywords a plan will follow and how fresh the data is. Newer plans add AI-search visibility, tracking whether a brand shows up in answers from models, not just in blue links.
Is Ahrefs or Semrush the better buy?
They split on strength. Ahrefs is built around a deep backlink index and meters heavy use with credits. Semrush spreads wider, across research, PPC data, content and reporting, and prices for that breadth. For link-led work, Ahrefs; for one platform covering the most ground, Semrush. Both keep a costly top tier, and the real test is how much of either you will actually use.
The published SEO price matters the least
Entry prices in this category sit close together. That makes them a weak way to choose. What moves the real bill is metering: the keywords a plan will track, the reports or lookups a credit buys, the projects a seat allows before the next tier. A plan that looks cheap on the page can run dry early in a serious campaign.
Two tools can advertise the same capability and set the limits underneath ten times apart. Read the plan you would truly land on, at the tracking and reporting volume you expect. Compare that figure, not the one printed largest at the top.
Buy one suite, or build a stack
The open question in this market is not which vendor hides a price. It is whether to buy one broad platform or assemble a set of focused ones. A suite like Semrush or SE Ranking puts research, audit, local search and reporting behind a single login and one invoice, and bills for the breadth whether or not you use it all.
The other route is a stack: a cheap keyword tool for research, a competitor-intel tool for paid search, a desktop crawler for the audits a cloud plan would meter. The stack often costs less and covers more. The price is living in several tools and reconciling their numbers. Which way wins depends on whether one workflow dominates the week or many share it.
The verdict on SEO toolsSigned review · Updated
Seat two is where SEO tool pricing turns: the headline covers one login, and every extra user is a paid add-on that can double a small team's bill. Check the annual-only fine print too, because part of this market keeps the monthly rate out of sight.
Promos here settle a tier higher than they start. These tools sell transparency to their own customers. We hold them to it, and the number says who passed.
MethodEvery price on this page is read from the vendor's own pricing page: 30 plans across eight vendors, last verified .
DisclosureCollection is tool-assisted; every verdict is written and signed by a human analyst.
06 / 07
Not sure which? Answer one, take a shortlist.Pick the line that sounds like your team. Each one opens the vendor built for it.
A crawler that runs on your desktop, not a cloud dashboardScreaming Frog SEO SpiderTeams whose keyword work stays around a few hundred tracked terms and who want it cheapMangoolsBacklink data and competitor research as the daily jobAhrefsPaid-search history, going back more than a decade, as the reason to buySpyFuA visibility index read as a trend, tracked back more than a decadeSISTRIXAgencies wide enough to run research, audit, tracking and reporting from one loginSemrushStill weighing it? Answer 5 questions, take a shortlist.
07 / 07
Read next: cost guides for SEO tools, plus related categories
Related categoriesAnalytics & BIProject ManagementWebsite BuildersCRMAI Writing ToolsEmail MarketingCompare two vendorsScreaming Frog SEO Spider vs MangoolsMangools vs AhrefsAhrefs vs SpyFuSpyFu vs SISTRIXSISTRIX vs SemrushSemrush vs SE RankingStill unsureAnswer 5 questions → a shortlistAll categories
How this review is made. Prices are read from vendor pricing pages and re-checked on the dates shown against each product. Condition columns reflect the feature set recorded on the vendor’s own pages on that date. ComparEdge sells no SEO tools and takes no vendor payment for placement. Where a vendor publishes nothing, this page says so rather than estimating. Ranking is by transparency score: pricing transparency 60%, user satisfaction 40%. What a product can do is shown in the condition columns and carries no weight in the number.