Best Semrush Similar Tools in 2020: Paid and Free Tools
Best Semrush Similar Tools in 2020: Paid and Free Tools
In the world of SEO and digital marketing in general, SEMRush is one of the most prominent tools available with a well-rounded set of features for all your SEO needs.
It includes a powerful keyword research and keyword suggestion tool, in-depth domain analysis with versatile (and real-time) reporting, and a very useful backlinks analysis feature.
SEMRush is by no means perfect, however. There are plenty of SEMRush alternatives with lower price tags (or even completely free), and there are tools that are better in some ways.
Here we'll discuss those SEMRush alternatives, both paid and free. Let's start with some of the best free alternatives available today.
Free Alternatives to SEMRush
We all love free stuff, and these free options are great for small bloggers just starting out, small businesses on a tight budget, and some of them are even good enough for big companies that want the advanced features of SEMRush, Ahrefs, or other premium keyword research tools.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Since most of us focus our SEO efforts on ranking on Google, it would only make sense that Google's own Keyword Planner is one of the best keyword research tools.
The best part is, if you have a Google account (which is also free), you can use Google Keyword Planner without any restrictions.
Advantages of Google Keyword Planner:
Being a free tool, the Keyword Planner is especially good at what it does. There are two core functions here: finding new keywords and getting search volume and forecasts.
Using it is simple: enter your starting keyword (s) and the Keyword Planner will show keyword suggestions along with key metrics such as average search volume, PPC (Pay Per Click) cost, etc.
As a keyword suggestion tool, Google Keyword Planner is probably the best today, especially considering it's free.
Disadvantages of Google Keyword Planner:
Some of the statistics displayed by Google Keyword Planner are just rough estimates. For example, the Keyword Planner will only display 'Low', 'Medium' or 'High' on the Competition tab.
2. Ubersuggest by Neil Patel
Ubersuggest is another free tool with similar core features to Google Keyword Planner. Coming from Neil Patel, one of the most prominent opinion leaders in the world of digital marketing, and it's completely free.
Advantages of UberSuggests:
Unlike Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggests is quite accurate with its statistics. It only displays 3 metrics: Search Volume, PPC Cost (CPC), and SEO Difficulty, but all 3 are fairly accurate, comparable to SEMRush.
It has also recently launched a new "Content Ideas" feature where it will suggest topic ideas along with useful statistics such as the number of backlinks generated by similar content and estimated monthly visits.
Cons of UberSuggests: Does
n't give too many keyword suggestions compared to SEMRush and even Google Keyword Planner. A good approach is to get your keyword suggestion from Google Keyword Planner and copy it to UberSuggests for more accurate stats (and content idea suggestions).
3. Search
Metrics SEMRush is not just about keyword research and keyword suggestion, but also a great analytics tool to analyze the performance of your site, from the backlink profile to organic traffic to referring domains. Searchmetrics is relatively unknown, but a great alternative to SEMRush for this role.
You need to create a free account, but besides that, Searchmetrics is completely free. Simply enter your domain URL (or your competitor's) and Searchmetrics will generate a report of the domain's SEO performance, all on one page.
Benefits of Searchmetrics:
Streamlined one-page analytics report that's completely free.
Disadvantages of Searchmetrics: It is
clear that the generated report is less complete compared to that of SEMRush and only offers basic analysis tools.
Paid SEMRush Alternatives
While, as mentioned, the most common problem people have with SEMRush is the high price tag, some of us are probably looking for SEMRush alternatives for other reasons. Below are some paid alternatives to SEMRush, along with a brief discussion for each of how they will compare to SEMRush.
1. Ahrefs
Probably the biggest competitor SEMRush, Ahrefs SEMRush resembles in terms of features and overall functionality. Price-wise, Ahrefs also offers similar package plans for SEMRush. All plans from Ahrefs are $ 0.95 cheaper than SEMRush's offers. In the long run, you still spend less, saving nearly a dollar every month.
Advantages of Ahrefs:
As mentioned, Ahrefs offers similar features to SEMRush for almost a dollar cheaper per month.
Ahrefs is also stronger than SEMRush in the link analysis department: reports more metrics and each more accurate than SEMRush. In the past, keyword search has been significantly lower than SEMRush's, but nowadays it's catching up.
Another unique feature of Ahrefs is the handy SEO Toolbar add-on for Chrome and Firefox. This toolbar shows useful statistics such as search volume, backlink profile and PPC cost for all search engine results in your browser. A very useful function.
Cons of Ahrefs:
Only one user can use Ahrefs at a time, even if you opt for the more expensive plans. This can be a problem if more than one person is working on SEO in your company.
2. Moz Pro
Moz Pro is another well-known name in the SEO and digital marketing world thanks to their prominent digital marketing blog and their Domain Authority scoring system. As with Ahrefs, all of Moz's plans are $ 0.95 cheaper than SEMRush (even cheaper if you have an annual plan), so it's another cheaper alternative (albeit a bit).
Advantages of Moz
Not directly related to the Moz Pro tool, but Moz provides several helpful resources on SEO and digital marketing topics in general. By subscribing to one of Moz Pro's plans, you will get a 1-on-1 session with a real expert who will help you achieve your SEO goals.
As mentioned, Page Authority and Domain Authority were invented by Moz, so all of their tools will integrate these statistics (which can be very useful).
Moz's interface is very user-friendly and arguably the best when compared to SEMRush and Ahrefs, and even then there are the various resources that can help you learn more about the platform.
The Basic plan can also be accessed by two different users, which can be helpful if you have more than one SEO marketer.
Disadvantages of Moz
It takes a little longer to receive data and reports from Moz compared to SEMRush. Plus, most of Moz's good features are offered for free, while the advanced features in the pro plans are a bit lackluster compared to SEMRush.
3. SpyFu
SpyFu is, as its name suggests, a tool aimed at spying on your competitors' sites. SEMRush offers similar features, but due to its focused approach, SpyFu's competitor analytics features are deeper and more diverse.
That said, SpyFu is a bit lacking in features to analyze your own domain, but is significantly cheaper than SEMRush at just $ 33 / month, the price of a third of SEMRush.
Advantages of SpyFu:
As mentioned, SpyFu is only a third of the cost of SEMRush, Ahrefs and Moz Pro, while offering a very advanced set of competitive analysis features. For example, you can get a detailed look at your competitor's traffic sources (so you can target similar sources), their Google Ads spend, their ranking keywords, and their backlink profile, among others.
In the competition analysis department, SpyFu is arguably best in class. SpyFu is also relatively easy to use, and being a SpyFu registered customer can get you a plethora of learning resources too.
Disadvantages of SpyFu:
SpyFu, as mentioned, focuses on competitor analysis, and while you can also use the same tool to analyze your own domain, it won't be as comprehensive as SEMRush or Ahrefs. There are also no dedicated keyword research and keyword suggestion tools.
However, given the cost, there are plenty of solutions to this problem, such as combining SpyFu with free keyword research and analysis tools that we discussed above.
4. Monitor backlinks
Another important feature of SEMRush is the ability to analyze your backlink profile and that of your competitor. Backlinks analysis is important so that you can avoid Google penalties for low quality links, while analyzing your competitor's backlinks can also help you understand how to build your own links.
Monitor backlinks starts from $ 47 / month where you can monitor 1 domain and 2 competitor domains. However, there is the free Backlink Checker tool that allows you to generate free reports for two websites per week, which is a useful free alternative to backlinks analysis.
Advantages of Monitor Backlinks
By focusing on - as the name suggests - monitoring the backlink profile, Monitor Backlinks is very powerful in that purpose. Even the free tool can generate free reports for 300 backlinks, and for the premium plan, you get several advanced features, such as the ability to track important metrics such as Citation Flow and Trust Flow, the ability to preview a link. view and scan for malware, and much more.
If you are just looking for a backlink profiling tool, Monitor backlinks is a good choice.
Disadvantages of Monitor Backlinks
Considering its fairly limited (targeted) set of features, the $ 47 / month price tag is quite expensive.
End words
We all have different needs and different SEO goals. For some of us, SEMRush is probably still the best option for most SEO experts, even after considering all of these alternatives. However, there are tools that focus on certain features, which makes it a better alternative to SEMRush in that regard. There is also an abundance of free tools that may be sufficient for your current needs.
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