Struggling to get your SEO game on point without emptying your wallet on pricey tools? I totally get it. Semrush is an amazing, comprehensive platform, a real powerhouse for digital marketers. It helps with keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, backlink checks, and even content marketing, offering a treasure trove of data. But let’s be real, its price tag, starting around $139.95 per month for the Pro plan, can be a tough pill to swallow for small businesses, freelancers, or anyone just starting out. That’s why so many of us are on the hunt for effective Semrush competitors that are either free or at least much cheaper.

Here’s the deal: finding one single free tool that does everything Semrush does is pretty much impossible. Semrush bundles over 140 tools and features, from keyword research to content AI, and even social media management. A tool that powerful and data-rich comes at a cost for a reason. What we can do, though, is piece together a “DIY Semrush” toolkit using a combination of excellent free tools and more affordable paid alternatives. This approach lets you cover most of your essential SEO tasks without the hefty subscription fee. You’ll learn how to leverage these tools to spy on competitors, find winning keywords, clean up your site, and boost your rankings, often with better value or a smoother workflow.

Table of Contents

The Reality of “Free” When It Comes to SEO Tools

Before we dive into the specific tools, let’s manage expectations. When people ask “is Semrush free?” or “are free Semrush alternatives equally good?”, the short answer is: not entirely. Semrush does offer a limited free account where you can perform about 10 searches or queries per day and track one project with 10 keywords and audit up to 100 URLs. It’s a taste, but it’s not enough for serious, ongoing work. There are also 14-day free trials for their Pro and Guru plans, which give you full access to features, but require credit card details and will auto-renew if you don’t cancel.

So, when we talk about “Semrush competitors free” or “best free Semrush alternative,” we’re usually looking at two things:

Truly Free, Task-Specific Tools: These are often excellent for one or two specific SEO jobs, like keyword research or site auditing, but they won’t be an all-in-one solution.
Freemium Tools: These offer a free tier with significant limitations, but you can upgrade to a paid plan for more features or data.

The goal here isn’t to find a magic bullet, but to empower you with smart strategies to get Semrush-level insights without the Semrush-level investment.

Essential Free Tools to Build Your DIY SEO Stack

Let’s start with the absolute must-haves. These tools are completely free and offer incredible value for your SEO efforts.

Google Search Console GSC

This is a non-negotiable for any website owner. Google Search Console is like Google’s direct report card for your website. It’s free, and you literally can’t do proper SEO without it.

What it does: Shows you how Google sees your site. You can monitor your site’s performance in Google Search results, identify indexing issues, see which keywords you’re already ranking for, track your backlinks, and submit sitemaps.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free for your site: For your own domain, GSC provides real, direct data from Google itself, which is often more accurate for your site’s performance than third-party estimations. It’s perfect for technical SEO audits and finding existing ranking opportunities.
How to use it: Verify your website ownership, and Google will start populating data. Regularly check the “Performance” report for keywords, “Coverage” for indexing issues, and “Links” for your backlink profile.

Google Keyword Planner

If you’re serious about finding keywords, Google Keyword Planner is a solid, free starting point, especially if you have a Google Ads account.

What it does: Helps you discover new keywords, research search volume, and forecast performance for potential ad campaigns.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: While primarily for advertisers, its “Discover new keywords” feature is excellent for brainstorming ideas and getting estimated search volumes. It gives you a good sense of keyword competition too, indicating how difficult it might be to rank.
How to use it: Head to Google Ads, then find Keyword Planner. You can enter a seed keyword or your competitor’s URL to get hundreds of keyword ideas and their estimated monthly searches.

Google Trends

Want to know if a topic is hot or not? Google Trends is your go-to.

What it does: Visualizes the popularity of search queries over time and across different regions. You can compare multiple terms to see which is trending more.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: It’s fantastic for identifying seasonal trends, comparing interest in different products or services, and spotting rising niches. This helps you plan your content strategy to align with current and future user interest.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools AWT

This is a true gem in the free SEO toolkit, especially for your own websites. Ahrefs is a premium tool, but they offer AWT for free, which gives you access to some powerful features.

What it does: AWT allows you to access limited versions of Ahrefs’ Site Audit and Site Explorer tools for any websites you own and verify. This means you can check your site’s SEO health, find all your organic keywords, and analyze your backlink profile.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free for your site: It’s like having a mini-Ahrefs for your own domains. You can monitor your SEO health, get detailed reports on 170+ technical and on-page SEO issues, and see which keywords bring you traffic. You can even perform content gap analysis by adding competitors and seeing keywords they rank for that you don’t for your own site, not theirs. You get 5,000 crawl credits per verified project per month, and can see up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords at once.
How to use it: Sign up, verify your website via Google Search Console or DNS, and start auditing. It’s especially good for uncovering technical issues and understanding your existing organic performance and backlink profile.

Freemium Tools with Valuable Free Tiers

These tools offer a free version that’s more generous than Semrush’s basic free account, but typically have usage limits. If you’re okay with those limits or just need quick checks, they’re fantastic.

Ubersuggest

Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest is a popular freemium tool that’s often suggested as a Semrush free alternative.

What it does: Offers keyword ideas, content ideas, site audit, backlink data, and competitor analysis.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: The free tier of Ubersuggest lets you perform 3 searches or reports per day, track up to 25 keywords for one project, crawl up to 150 pages weekly for site audits, and view up to 100 backlinks per site. It’s great for getting a quick overview of a domain or topic without spending a dime, and the free account has no time limit.
How to use it: You can enter a domain or a keyword to get an overview of its performance, including top keywords, traffic estimates, and a site audit summary. It also offers a Chrome extension for quick data on the fly.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

For technical SEO audits, Screaming Frog is an industry favorite.

What it does: This desktop software crawls websites to extract data and find common SEO issues like broken links, redirects, duplicate content, and missing meta descriptions.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: The free version lets you crawl up to 500 URLs per website, which is often enough for smaller sites or for auditing specific sections of larger ones. It’s incredibly powerful for identifying technical SEO weaknesses that might be holding your site back.
How to use it: Download and install the software. Enter a URL and hit “Start” to begin crawling. You can then analyze various tabs for issues and export reports.

SpyFu

If you want to snoop on your competitors’ keyword strategies, SpyFu is a cool tool.

What it does: It helps you uncover your competitors’ SEO and PPC keywords, historical data, and ad copy.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: The free version of SpyFu provides a generous amount of competitive data, though limited to 5 rows of data per analysis. You can search for any domain to see its top organic keywords, estimated monthly SEO clicks, and even the keywords they’ve bought on Google Ads.
How to use it: Just type in a competitor’s domain name into the search bar. The free results will give you a taste of their keyword and advertising strategies.

SimilarWeb

For a bird’s-eye view of website traffic and audience demographics, SimilarWeb is super useful.

What it does: Provides insights into website traffic, sources, audience behavior, and competitive benchmarking.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: Its free tier lets you get basic traffic estimates and compare your site against a few competitors, giving you a general understanding of market share and audience interests. It’s great for high-level competitor analysis and understanding traffic origins.
How to use it: Enter a domain, and the free report will show you global and country rankings, traffic sources, and audience demographics.

AnswerThePublic

This tool is fantastic for understanding user intent and generating content ideas.

What it does: Visualizes questions, prepositions, comparisons, and alphabetical searches related to a keyword, showing you what people are actually asking Google.
Why it’s a Semrush competitor free: It helps you uncover long-tail keyword opportunities and content angles you might not have thought of, directly addressing user queries. It’s now part of Neil Patel’s suite, so it integrates well if you’re already using Ubersuggest.
How to use it: Enter a keyword, and it will generate a compelling visualization of questions and phrases people are searching for.

Cheaper Paid Alternatives to Semrush

While free tools are great, sometimes you need more comprehensive data and features than a free tier can offer, but still want to keep costs down compared to Semrush. Here are some excellent, more affordable all-in-one SEO tools.

Mangools KWFinder, SERPChecker, LinkMiner, etc.

Many people consider Mangools one of the best cheaper alternatives to Semrush, especially for beginners and those who appreciate a clean interface.

Why it’s great: Mangools is an all-in-one suite that includes KWFinder for keyword research, SERPChecker for SERP analysis, LinkMiner for backlink analysis, SiteProfiler for competitor insights, and SERPWatcher for rank tracking. Users often praise its intuitive and friendly user interface, making complex SEO tasks feel manageable.
Pricing: Mangools plans are significantly more budget-friendly than Semrush, with an Entry plan starting around $19.90/month when billed annually or $49/month if paid monthly, offering full access to its tools with generous limits.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking is another robust all-in-one SEO platform known for its comprehensive features and affordable pricing.

Why it’s great: It offers keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, backlink monitoring, rank tracking, and local SEO tools. It’s often highlighted as a well-rounded and affordable competitive analysis option.
Pricing: Plans start at about €23 per month, making it a considerably cheaper alternative to Semrush.

Serpstat

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO and PPC platform that provides solutions for keyword research, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and site audits.

Why it’s great: It’s strong for keyword clustering, supports 230 regions, and offers multilingual keyword databases, making it scalable for global SEO teams. It’s often seen as a good compromise of data quality and interface for a smaller price.
Pricing: Serpstat plans start around $59 per month.

Moz Pro

Moz has been in the SEO game for a long time and offers a comprehensive suite of tools.

Why it’s great: Moz Pro is excellent for local SEO, keyword research, link research, site audits, and rank tracking. Its Link Explorer is quite popular for backlink analysis. Moz is particularly praised for its user-friendly interface and strong community support.
Pricing: While not as cheap as some other alternatives, Moz Pro’s entry-level plan can be more budget-friendly than Semrush, starting at $39/month if you manage just one domain paid annually. They also offer a 30-day free trial.

SEO PowerSuite

This is a unique desktop-based suite of four tools: Rank Tracker, Website Auditor, SEO SpyGlass, and LinkAssistant.

Why it’s great: SEO PowerSuite is often recommended for agencies because it offers unlimited websites, keywords, and backlinks, depending on the license. The Website Auditor is excellent for technical SEO.
Pricing: It offers a free version with limited features, and a Professional License costs around $596 per year about $49.66/month, making it significantly more affordable than Semrush for its comprehensive features.

How to Combine Free Tools for a “DIY Semrush” Workflow

Since no single free tool can truly replace Semrush, the trick is to become a master of combining them. Here’s a sample workflow:

Keyword Research:
- Start with Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest free tier to brainstorm initial keyword ideas and get search volume estimates.
- Use Google Search autocomplete and “People Also Ask” and AnswerThePublic to find long-tail keywords and understand user intent.
- If you own the site, check Google Search Console and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to see which keywords you already rank for and identify “quick win” opportunities keywords you rank for on page 2 or 3.
Competitor Analysis:
- Use Google Search to identify your top-ranking competitors for your target keywords.
- Plug competitor URLs into Ubersuggest free tier or SpyFu free tier for a quick overview of their top keywords and estimated traffic.
- For your own verified site, use Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to see content gaps by comparing your rankings to competitors.
- SimilarWeb free tier can give you a high-level view of competitor traffic sources and audience demographics.
Backlink Analysis:
- For your own site, Google Search Console and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools are your primary free sources to see who links to you.
- For competitor backlinks limited view, you can try Moz Link Explorer free queries or Ubersuggest free tier, up to 100 backlinks.
Site Audit & Technical SEO:
- Google Search Console will alert you to critical indexing and crawling issues.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools provides comprehensive site audits for your verified sites, identifying 170+ SEO issues.
- Screaming Frog free up to 500 URLs is invaluable for deep technical crawls to find broken links, duplicate content, and meta data issues.
Content Optimization:
- Use your keyword research to inform your content creation.
- Tools like Yoast SEO or Rank Math WordPress plugins offer free versions for on-page SEO analysis as you write.

Maximizing Your Free and Cheaper SEO Tools

To truly make these tools work for you, remember these tips:

Focus on Specific Goals: Don’t try to do everything at once. Pick one area e.g., keyword research for a new blog post, fixing broken links and master the tools relevant to that task.
Combine and Conquer: As we discussed, the power lies in using multiple tools in conjunction. Each fills a small piece of the Semrush puzzle.
Use Free Trials Wisely: When trying a paid tool with a free trial like Semrush itself or Moz Pro, make sure you have a clear plan for what you want to test and the data you want to extract before your trial ends. Cancel before you get charged if you don’t intend to subscribe.
Prioritize Actionable Data: Don’t get overwhelmed by all the metrics. Focus on the data that directly helps you make improvements to your website and content.
Stay Updated: The SEO and tool features change constantly. Keep an eye on updates for your favorite tools.

Finding effective Semrush competitors, especially free ones, is all about resourcefulness and smart strategy. While you won’t get a one-click solution that rivals Semrush’s full power for free, building a toolkit from the excellent options available will absolutely put you in a strong position to boost your SEO without breaking the bank. So go ahead, experiment with these tools, and start improving your online presence today!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main differences between Semrush’s free account and a free trial?

The Semrush free account offers very limited functionality, typically allowing only 10 requests or searches per day across all features, one project, tracking for 10 keywords, and site audits for up to 100 URLs. It doesn’t require credit card details. A Semrush free trial usually 14 days, though sometimes extended to 30 days via special links provides full access to all features of a specific plan Pro or Guru with no limitations during the trial period. However, it typically requires credit card details and will automatically convert to a paid subscription if not canceled before the trial ends.

Can I really do competitor analysis for free without Semrush?

Yes, you absolutely can, but not with a single, all-encompassing free tool like Semrush. Instead, you’ll need to combine several free tools, each focusing on a specific aspect of competitor analysis. For example, you can use Google Search to identify top competitors, Ubersuggest free tier or SpyFu free tier for basic keyword insights, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for content gaps on your own site compared to competitors, and SimilarWeb free tier for high-level traffic overviews. It’s more manual but definitely doable.

What’s the best free alternative for keyword research?

For free keyword research, the best tools often depend on your specific needs. Google Keyword Planner is excellent for discovering new keywords and getting search volume data, especially if you have a Google Ads account. Ubersuggest free tier offers keyword ideas with some volume and competition estimates, and AnswerThePublic helps you understand user intent by visualizing questions people ask. Don’t forget Google Search itself, using autocomplete and “People also ask” sections for quick ideas.

Are there any free tools that can replace Semrush for backlink analysis?

While no free tool offers the same depth as Semrush’s comprehensive backlink database for any website, you have strong free options for your own site. Google Search Console provides a list of backlinks pointing to your domain, and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for verified sites gives you a more detailed view of your backlink profile, including referring domains and anchor text, with up to 1,000 backlinks shown. For competitor backlinks, free options are very limited. a freemium tool like Moz Link Explorer offers a few free queries per day. Semrush ceo salary

What are some good cheaper paid alternatives if I can’t afford Semrush?

If you need more than free tools but find Semrush too expensive, several robust and more affordable options exist. Mangools is highly praised for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive suite KWFinder, SERPChecker, etc. at a lower price point. SE Ranking is another excellent all-in-one choice that’s more budget-friendly. Serpstat offers good value for its features, and Moz Pro can also be a cheaper alternative, especially for local SEO. These tools provide many of the core SEO functionalities without the premium cost of Semrush.

0.0

0.0 out of 5 stars (based on 0 reviews)

Excellent0%

Very good0%

Average0%

Poor0%

Terrible0%

There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.

Amazon.com: Check Amazon for Semrush competitors free
Latest Discussions & Reviews:

BestFREE.nl

Semrush competitors free