One of the most well-known tools on the market for SEO and digital marketing in general is SEMRush, which offers a comprehensive feature set to meet all of your SEO requirements.
Among its many features are a strong keyword research and recommendation tool, complete domain analytics with flexible (and real-time) reporting, and a very helpful backlinks analytics capability.
That being said, SEMRush is by no means flawless. There are several SEMRush substitutes available that are more affordable (or even free), and some programs are superior to others in specific areas.
We’ll talk about those SEMRush substitutes here, both for money and without. Let’s begin with a few of the greatest free substitutes out there right now.
Free SEMRush Alternatives
Since most people enjoy free things, these free solutions are excellent for beginning small blogs and small businesses on a tight budget. Some of them are also sufficient for larger organizations that don’t require the more expensive features of paid keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or others.
Google Keyword Planner
It seems to reason that one of the greatest keyword research tools out there is Google’s Keyword Planner, given that the majority of us target Google rankings with our SEO campaigns.
The greatest benefit is that you may use Google Keyword Planner without any restrictions if you have a Google account, which is also free.
Google Keyword Planner’s advantages
Keyword Planner is particularly effective for its free price. This tool has two main functions: it finds new keywords and provides search volume and forecasts.
It’s easy to use: just enter your seed term or keywords, and Term Planner will provide you with keyword ideas and relevant information like average search traffic and PPC (pay-per-click) expenses.
Given that it is free, Google Keyword Planner is perhaps the greatest keyword recommendation tool available today.
disadvantages of the Google Keyword Planner
There are several indicators on Google Keyword Planner that are only approximations. For instance, on the Competition page, Keyword Planner will only display “Low,” “Medium,” or “High.”
Ubersuggest by Neil Patel
Ubersuggest is an additional free tool that shares many of Google Keyword Planner’s fundamental functions. It is completely free and comes from one of the most well-known thought leaders in the field of digital marketing, Neil Patel.
UberSuggests’ advantages
In contrast to Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest’s numbers are rather accurate. It only shows three metrics: SEO difficulty, PPC cost (CPC), and search volume. However, all three are quite accurate and on a level with SEMRush.
Additionally, it just introduced a new function called “Content Ideas,” wherein it will provide subject suggestions in addition to helpful information like the approximate amount of monthly views and backlinks created by similar material.
Disadvantages of UberSuggests:
isn’t as user-friendly as SEMRush and even Google Keyword Planner when it comes to keyword ideas. For more accurate stats (and content idea ideas), it’s a good idea to duplicate your keyword proposal from Google Keyword Planner to UberSuggests.
Searchmetrics
In addition to offering keyword research and suggestion services, SEMRush is a fantastic analytics tool for examining the performance of your website, including backlink profile, organic traffic, and referring domains. For this purpose, Searchmetrics is a fantastic SEMRush substitute that is still relatively obscure.
Apart from the requirement to register for a free account, Searchmetrics is completely free. All you have to do is input the URL of your domain (or that of your competitor), and Searchmetrics will produce a comprehensive analysis of the site’s SEO performance on a single page.
Advantages of Searchmetrics
A simplified, one-page analytics report that is completely free.
Disadvantages to Searchmetrics
It’s clear that the produced report is less extensive than SEMRush’s and just provides the most basic analytics features.
Paid SEMRush alternatives
Although the most popular complaint about SEMRush is, as previously noted, its high cost, there are likely other reasons why some of us are searching for alternatives to SEMRush. The following list of paid SEMRush substitutes includes a quick comparison of each with SEMRush.
Ahrefs
The most direct rival of SEMRush is probably Ahrefs, which has many of the same features and general functioning. Ahrefs and SEMRush provide comparable package levels in terms of cost. The prices of all Ahrefs packages are $0.95 less than those of SEMRush. Ultimately, you save about a dollar a month and spend less overall.
Advantages of Ahrefs
As previously indicated, Ahrefs offers a comparable feature set to SEMRush for a monthly cost that is about a dollar less.
In terms of link analytics, Ahrefs outperforms SEMRush as well, providing more metrics and doing so with more accuracy. Its keyword research feature used to be far less than SEMRush’s, but it’s starting to catch up lately.
The helpful Ahrefs SEO Toolbar add-on for Chrome and Firefox is another special function. This toolbar will provide helpful stats for every search engine result in your browser, including search traffic, backlink profile, and PPC cost. A really helpful function.
The disadvantages of Ahrefs
Even with the more costly plans, Ahrefs can only be used by one person at a time. If many individuals at your firm are working on SEO, this might be a problem.
Moz Pro
Because of their well-known digital marketing blog and Domain Authority rating system, Moz Pro is another well-known brand in the SEO and digital marketing industries. Like Ahrefs, Moz’s plans are all $0.95 less expensive than SEMRush (much less expensive if you sign up for an annual subscription), making it another somewhat less expensive option.
Benefits of Moz
Although it has nothing to do with the Moz Pro product specifically, Moz provides a wealth of helpful materials on SEO and digital marketing in general. If you sign up for one of Moz Pro’s programs, you’ll receive one-on-one assistance from a real professional to meet your SEO objectives.
Since Moz created Page Authority and Domain Authority, as previously indicated, these metrics—which may be quite helpful—will be integrated into all of their products.
In comparison to SEMRush and Ahrefs, Moz’s UI is likely the most user-friendly. Additionally, the platform offers an array of resources to aid in your learning.
Additionally, two different people may use the most basic package, which might be helpful if you employ multiple SEO marketers.
Drawbacks with Moz
Compared to SEMRush, Moz takes a little longer to provide data and results. Additionally, the majority of Moz’s useful capabilities are available without charge, but the pro plans’ additional features are lacking in comparison to SEMRush.
Monitor Backlinks
The capability of SEMRush to examine the backlink profiles of both you and your competitors is another important function. In addition to helping you avoid a Google penalty for having low-quality links, backlink research from your competitors may provide you with valuable ideas on how to develop your own.
The monthly cost of Monitor Backlinks is $47, which allows you to keep an eye on one domain and two competitor’s domains. A useful free substitute for backlink analytics is the Free Backlink Checker application, which allows you to create free reports for two websites each week.
Benefits of Monitor Backlinks
Monitor Backlinks is an extremely effective tool for tracking backlink profiles, as its name implies. The subscription plan offers several advanced functions including the ability to monitor crucial metrics like Citation Flow and Trust Flow, the ability to evaluate links and check for malware, and much more. Even the free tool can create reports for 300 backlinks without cost.
Monitor Backlinks is a decent option if all you’re searching for is a backlinks profiling tool.
Drawbacks of Monitor Backlinks
Given its rather narrow (targeted) feature set, the $47/month subscription fee seems steep.
SpyFu
As its name implies, SpyFu is a tool designed to spy on the websites of your rivals. While SEMRush provides comparable tools, SpyFu’s competition analytics features are more complete and varied because of its targeted approach.
That being said, SpyFu is far less expensive than SEMRush, costing only $33/month, or one-third of what SEMRush charges, but it does not have as many tools for analyzing your website.
Benefits of SpyFu:
As previously noted, SpyFu offers a highly advanced feature set for competition analysis at just a little of the price of Ahrefs, Moz Pro, and SEMRush. For instance, you may obtain a thorough analysis of your rival’s traffic sources (so you can focus on comparable sources), Google AdWords expenditure, ranking keywords, and backlink profile, among other things.
In terms of competition analysis, SpyFu is maybe the greatest in its field. SpyFu is also rather simple to use, and as a registered user, you get access to a wealth of educational resources.
Drawbacks of SpyFu:
As previously said, SpyFu is mostly intended for competitor analysis. Although you may use the same tool to examine your domain, the results won’t be as thorough as those obtained from SEMRush or Ahrefs. Additionally, there are no tools specifically designed for keyword research and recommendation.
Nevertheless, there are other ways to get around this problem given its price, such as integrating SpyFu with the previously mentioned free keyword research and analytics tools.
Final Words
Each of us has unique requirements and objectives for SEO. After comparing all of these options, SEMRush is still most likely the best choice for the majority of SEO specialists, at least for some of us. It is superior to SEMRush in that regard because it has tools that are targeted at certain qualities. Additionally, there are a ton of free tools available that could be enough for your requirements right now.
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