The cheapest SEO tools, by job
The cheapest plan here is Sitebulb Lite at $18 a month, but a crawler won't track rankings. Below, every job gets its own ranking, each tool on the cheapest plan that does it.
All-in-one suite
Ahrefs Starter is cheapest at $29, but it tracks no keywords. With rank tracking included, Mangools Basic leads at ≈ $68.
| # | Suite and cheapest plan | A month | Tracked keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahrefs Starter | $29 | – |
| 2 | Moz Pro Starter | $49 | – |
| 3 | Mangools Basic | ≈ $68 | 200 weekly |
| 4 | Serpstat Individual | $69 | 10,000 checks |
| 5 | SE Ranking Core | $129 | 2,000 daily |
| 6 | Sistrix Start | ≈ $133 | – |
| 7 | Semrush SEO | $139 | 500 daily |
| 8 | Similarweb Competitive Intelligence | $199 | – |
Daily rank tracking
| # | 500 keywords | A month | 2,000 keywords | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wincher Basic | ≈ $55 | SE Ranking Core | $129 |
| 2 | SE Ranking Core | $129 | Serpstat Team x2 | $209 |
| 3 | Serpstat Team | $129 | AccuRanker Professional 2,000 | $249 |
| 4 | Semrush SEO | $139 | AWR Agency | $279 |
| 5 | AWR Pro | $139 | Wincher Professional | ≈ $357 |
| 6 | Mangools Agency | ≈ $158 | Semrush Advanced | $549 |
Any other count: the rank tracker calculator.
Site crawler
Sitebulb Lite costs $18 a month for audits of up to 10,000 URLs. Without that cap, Sitebulb Pro is $42 a month ($425 a year), and a Screaming Frog licence $279 a year: paid monthly, Sitebulb Pro passes the Screaming Frog licence in month 7. The crawler comparison works it out for teams.
Content optimisation
| # | Tool and cheapest plan | A month | Billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frase Starter | $49 | $39 |
| 2 | Surfer Discovery | ≈ $66 | €49 |
| 3 | Clearscope Essentials | $129 | – |
AI search visibility
| # | 50 prompts, daily, 3 engines | A month | Per prompt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peec AI Starter | ≈ $95 | $1.90 |
| 2 | Rankscale Pro | $99 | $1.98 |
| 3 | Brand Radar Custom prompts Growth | $100 | $2.00 |
| 4 | Trakkr Growth | $100 | $2.00 |
| 5 | Searchable Pro | $125 | $2.50 |
| 6 | Otterly.AI Standard | $189 | $3.78 |
Smaller budgets: Otterly.AI Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts. More in AI visibility tools pricing.
A team of three on an SEO suite
| # | Tool and plan | A month | Per seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serpstat Team | $129 | $43.00 |
| 2 | SE Ranking Core | $161 | $53.67 |
| 3 | Ahrefs Lite | $209 | $69.67 |
| 4 | Sistrix Plus | ≈ $267 | $89.04 |
| 5 | Moz Pro Large | $299 | $99.67 |
Other team sizes: cost per user.
Free to start
- Semrush: A free account with 1 demo project and 10 reports a day across the main tools.
- Screaming Frog: The free version crawls up to 500 URLs.
- AthenaHQ: The free Essential plan comes with $25 of credit (300 credits).
- Semrush: A free trial lasts seven days.
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs says it never runs discounts; Ahrefs Free gives website owners limited Site Explorer and Site Audit access.
- SE Ranking: The 14-day trial includes up to 10 projects, 750 tracked keywords a day and 20 AI prompts a day.
- Profound: For brands Profound publishes no price: a free trial (50 prompts run daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and Enterprise on request.
Cheapest, in short
What is the cheapest SEO tool?
The lowest monthly price here is Sitebulb Lite at $18, a site crawler. The cheapest all-in-one suite is Ahrefs Starter at $29; the cheapest suite plan with rank tracking is Mangools Basic at ≈ $68.
What is the cheapest way to track keyword rankings?
For 500 keywords updated daily, Wincher Basic at ≈ $55 a month; for 2,000, SE Ranking at $129.
Is Screaming Frog cheaper than Sitebulb?
A Screaming Frog licence is $279 a year. Sitebulb Lite is $18 a month but stops at 10,000 URLs per audit; Sitebulb Pro at $42 a month costs more than a Screaming Frog licence after 7 months.
What is the cheapest AI visibility tracker?
By entry price Otterly.AI Lite at $29 a month (15 prompts). For 50 prompts checked daily on three engines, Peec AI at ≈ $95.
Prices read from each vendor's own pricing page on .