Today there are over 200 different SEO tools to help businesses boost their visibility and ranking online. We spent 48 hours comparing the top 50 cheapest tools to find the seven best that will help you get higher Google rankings.
What are the Best Cheap SEO Tools?
- RankIQ — best of the best
- Mangools — best bang for the buck
- SEO PowerSuite — best free alternative
- Ubersuggest — best for small businesses
- Serpstat — best all-in-one solution
- SE Ranking — best for search engine marketers
- SpyFu — best for competitor research
1. RankIQ
Our Verdict — Best Of The Best
Price: Starts at $29/month
RankIQ is a comprehensive SEO tool that provides actionable insights for your sites to rank higher. We think it’s the best of the best because of the AI-powered SEO tools, the content optimizer, and its great pricing.
The Best Part:
Guesswork, away. The “title optimizer” report gives you which keywords should be used in your titles so that you get the highest click-through rates.
The Worst Part:
Low volume for agencies. If you’re an agency, doing a ton of work for clients, RankIQ may feel a bit restrictive in some senses, like the limit of 80 keywords reports per month, for example.
Get it if you want the absolute best cheap SEO tool.
I recommend you get started with the Lite plan for $29/month.
(starts at $29/month)
Best For
RankIQ is best for anyone who wants to rank higher, without breaking the bank: bloggers, affiliate marketers, SEO agencies, business owners.
Top Features
- Made by a pro-blogger. RankIQ’s founder is a blogger himself, who walks the walk, and goes above and beyond to help everyone get the most of the software. He also seems to be a great guy!
- Great content made easy. With the Content Optimizer, you can see a list of all of the keywords and related terms you should include in your article, which makes Google fall in love with your content.
- Low-competition library. RankIQ gives you a library of hand-picked lists of keywords that are dying to get some good content optimized for them.
- Highest-scoring topics. RankIQ gives you a list of topics Google wants more content to cover, which can help you structuring your content.
- AI report. RankIQ gives you a SEO report that scores your post, identifying the main areas for improvement, in order for you to rank on Google.
Pricing
RankIQ offers four pricing plans:
- Lite: $29/month for up to eight reports per month.
- Standard: $49/month for up to 16 reports per month.
- Pro: $99/month for up to 36 reports per month.
- Agency: $199/month for up to 80 reports per month.
Try RankIQ today with the Lite plan.
2. Mangools
Our Verdict — Best Bang For The Buck
Price: Starts at $14.95/month
Mangools is our pick for best bang for the buck because it lets you do the same critical SEO tasks (keyword research, competitive intelligence, and backlink analysis) at less than half the price of more well-known SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.
It’s just as easy-to-use as the more expensive tools, and surfaces similar keyword ideas to the more expensive tools.
The Best Part:
- Easy to use interface. Great UX and visualizations make this tool as easy as a three-piece puzzle to understand, even for complete newbies.
The Worst Part:
- Less horsepower than the “OG’s” Ahrefs and Semrush. Those guys have been doing it for so long it’s really hard to beat them in some things, like Ahrefs’ backlink database or Semrush’s keywords database.
Get it if you want a powerful SEO tool on a budget.
I recommend you get started with the 10-day free trial, then upgrade to the Premium Plan at $69/month.
(10-day free trial)
Best For
Mangools is best for anyone: bloggers, affiliate marketers, SEO agencies, business owners, and even complete beginners.
Top Features
- Keyword research tools. Mangools finds high-value keywords for campaigns and generates new content ideas, so you can boost your SEO rankings with the right topics, without researching for hours.
- Competitor analysis tool. Learn who your competitors are, their strategies, and their keywords, so you’re always on top of what the competition is spending their time and money on.
- Get smart with SERPChecker. Get granular site metrics on specific keywords (like the domain authority of all top ranking pages for a keyword) so you can see at a glance how competitive any topic is.
- Keyword rank tracking. Keep track of your most valuable organic search keywords and your website’s visibility against your competitors. Track the results of your SEO efforts over time.
- Sophisticated backlink analysis. Understand your website's current backlink profile and find the most linked pages on any website. It also helps you find and weed out bad links, to keep your site as clean as possible.
Pricing
Mangools offers four pricing plans:
- Entry: $29/month for solopreneurs and freelancers.
- Basic: $49/month for freelancers, SMBs on a budget, and SEO individuals.
- Premium: $69/month for in-house teams and marketing agencies.
- Agency: $129/month for big marketing agencies and large in-house teams.
All paid plans have a 48-hour money back guarantee.
Annual subscriptions provide a 35% discount.
Try Mangools today with a free 10-day trial.
Our Verdict — Best Free Alternative
Price: Starts with a free plan
SEO PowerSuite is an SEO toolkit that comes with four desktop applications. One for rank tracking and keyword research, one for on-page SEO and technical SEO audits, one for backlink research, and one for link building and outreach.
SEO PowerSuite is our choice for the best free alternative because the free version gives you access to actually useful SEO features, such as keyword research, keyword search volume, backlink analysis, competitor rank tracking, keyword optimization and site audits. Very generous for a free version.
The Best Part
Premium SEO features at no cost. SEO PowerSuite gives you access to a few premium features that allow you get real strategic about your SEO, for free. When you learn that Cisco, Microsoft, Heineken, IBM, and Disney are a few examples of companies that use SEO PowerSuite, you start to understand how powerful this tool may be for your business.
The Worst Part
Can't export data and save projects on the free plan. You only get these extra features on the paid version, so once SEO PowerSuite makes it into your daily “business toolbox”, or if you provide SEO services to clients, it might be worth it to upgrade to a paid plan.
Get it if you need a free SEO tool that delivers actual strategic information.
I recommend you get started with the Free plan, then upgrade to a paid plan for extra SEO punch (starting at $299/year).
(free plan)
Best For
SEO PowerSuite is best for people looking for actionable SEO insights while keeping their credit cards cozy in their wallets.
Top Features
- Competitor analysis tool. Find out what your competitors are doing in terms of backlinks, keywords, and content strategy. Get insights into your competitor website traffic and keep up with the competition.
- SEO auditing tool. Discover SEO issues within your websites, like broken links. Fix what Google doesn’t like and watch the SEO juice flow.
- Social media engagement metrics and reports. Understand how your blog posts and landing pages are performing on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and so on.
- In-depth keyword research tools. Find the keywords that will move the needle, so you’re able to focus on spending your time where you’ll have the most results, quicker.
- Local and global SEO tools. Optimize your website for specific locations and languages, so you can expand and dominate other markets.
Pricing
SEO PowerSuite offers three pricing plans:
- Free: Free forever for freelancers and individuals.
- Professional: $299/year for in-house SEO specialists and business owners.
- Enterprise: $499/year for industry experts and SEO agencies.
All paid plans offer a 7-day free trial.
Try SEO PowerSuite today with the free plan.
4. Ubersuggest
Our Verdict — Best For Small Businesses
Price: Starts at $12/month
Ubersuggest is our pick as the “best for small businesses” because it’s a dirt-cheap SEO tool that offers all the basics you’ll need: keyword research, content ideas, keyword tracking, and more in its free version. And it only gets better from there.
Nike, Microsoft, Dell, Adobe and Shopify use UberSuggest.
The Best Part
Get actionable SEO insights, even with the free version. You can get personalized SEO suggestions, search engine rankings, and limited keyword ideas on the free version.
The Worst Part
The data is not comprehensive. Ubersuggest has limited databases in their backlink and keyword research tools, when compared to Mangools.
Get it if you want a very cheap and easy-to-use SEO tool that does all the basics extremely well.
I recommend signing up for Ubersuggest's 7-day free trial, then upgrading to a paid plan (starting at $12/month).
(7-day free trial)
Best For
Ubersuggest is best for small businesses and individuals managing up to 15 websites.
Top Features
- Related keywords. Discover keywords related to the primary ones you want to rank for. This gives you a rich list of content ideas you can use to scale your website’s organic traffic.
- Chrome extension. Assess a website’s organic keywords, organic monthly traffic, backlinks, domain authority, and more, right from your browser.
- SEO Tip Of The Day. Discover simple SEO tactics everytime you load a page on Ubersuggest from Neil Patel’s team.
- Paid difficulty. Discover the cost of ranking for a particular keyword on paid search. This is a great way of identifying lucrative content opportunities your competitors still haven’t found out about.
- Keywords Generator. Get a .csv file of the list of keywords your competitor is ranking for, for free. In the file, keywords are ordered from most to least relevant, based on the content you already have on your website.
Pricing
Ubersuggest offers three pricing plans:
- Individual: $12/month, for entrepreneurs and small businesses managing one website (or get lifetime access for $120 one time).
- Business: $20/month, for medium sized businesses operating 4-7 websites (or get lifetime access for $200 one time).
- Enterprise / Agency: $40/month, for large businesses and agencies operating up to 15 websites (or get lifetime access for $400 one time).
All lifetime plans have a 30-day money back guarantee.
Try Ubersuggest today with a 7-day free trial.
5. Serpstat
Our Verdict — Best All-In-One Solution
Price: Starts at $69/month
Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform that puts keyword research, site analysis, rank tracking, site audits, and backlink analysis under one login. We picked it as the “best all-in-one solution” because even the cheapest plan gets all five core tools, not a stripped-down version of them.
The Best Part
Every core tool on the cheapest plan. The Individual plan already includes keyword research, site analysis, rank tracking, site audits, and backlink analysis.
The Worst Part
Tight daily limits on Individual. You get 100 searches a day for sites, keywords, and links, which a busy research session can burn through before lunch.
Get it if you want one affordable SEO platform instead of paying for five separate tools.
I recommend signing up for Serpstat's 7-day free trial, then upgrading to the Individual plan (starting at $50/month on annual billing).
(7-day free trial)
Best For
Serpstat is best for freelancers and small teams who want every core SEO tool in one place.
Top Features
- Site analysis. Plug in any competitor’s domain and see how it performs in search before you pick your battles.
- Rank tracker. Get 10,000 keyword position checks on the Individual plan and see where you moved after every update.
- Site audit. Audit up to 30,000 pages on the Individual plan and fix the technical issues that hold your rankings back.
- Backlink analysis. See who links to you and to your competitors, so you know where your next links could come from.
- Keyword research. Look up the keywords worth targeting before you write a word.
Pricing
Serpstat offers three main pricing plans:
- Individual: $69/month, or $50/month on annual billing, for freelancers and beginners working on up to 5 projects.
- Team: $129/month, or $100/month on annual billing, for agencies and growing teams that want unlimited projects and API access.
- Agency: $499/month, or $410/month on annual billing, for large agencies that want white label reports and phone support.
Annual subscriptions provide up to a 28% discount.
Try Serpstat today with a 7-day free trial.
6. SE Ranking
Our Verdict — Best For Search Engine Marketers
Price: Starts at $129/month
SE Ranking is an SEO platform that tracks your rankings in search engines and your brand in AI answers. We picked it as the “best for search engine marketers” because its Core plan tracks your keywords and your AI prompts side by side, so one report covers both.
The Best Part
SEO and AI visibility in one plan. Core tracks 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts every day, so you don’t need a second tool to see how you show up in AI answers.
The Worst Part
Not the cheapest pick on this list. At $129/month for Core, SE Ranking costs more than every tool ranked above it.
Get it if you want your search rankings and your AI visibility in the same report.
I recommend signing up for SE Ranking's 14-day free trial, then upgrading to Core (starting at $103.20/month on annual billing).
(14-day free trial)
Best For
SE Ranking is best for marketing teams and agencies who report on search and AI visibility together.
Top Features
- Rank tracking. Track your keywords every day across the major search engines and watch them move after each update.
- Unlimited research. Run unlimited keyword, competitor, and backlink research on every plan.
- Website audit. Crawl up to 250,000 pages a month on Core and fix the on-page issues that cost you rankings.
- Bring your data in. Connect Google Analytics, Search Console, Matomo, and Data Studio to SE Ranking.
- MCP access. Connect SE Ranking data to your AI assistant through its MCP server, with 25,000 API credits on Core.
Pricing
SE Ranking offers three pricing plans:
- Core: $129/month, or $103.20/month on annual billing, for marketing teams that need 10 projects and 1 manager seat.
- Growth: $279/month, or $223.20/month on annual billing, for agencies running multi-client SEO with 30 projects and 3 manager seats.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, for large teams that need custom limits and full API access.
Annual subscriptions provide a 20% discount.
Try SE Ranking today with a 14-day free trial.
7. SpyFu
Our Verdict — Best For Competitor Research
Price: Starts at $39/month
SpyFu is an SEO and PPC research tool that shows you the keywords your competitors rank for and the ads they buy. We picked it as the “best for competitor research” because a single domain search gives you its organic keywords, its paid keywords, and its ad history in one place.
The Best Part
See what already works for your competitors. Search any domain and get its organic keywords, paid keywords, and Google Ads history in one report.
The Worst Part
Basic cuts the history. The Basic plan leaves out the 10+ years of historical data, so the full picture starts at Pro + AI.
Get it if you want to learn from what already works for your competitors in search and in Google Ads.
I recommend starting on the Basic plan ($29/month on annual billing), then upgrading to Pro + AI once you need the full keyword history.
(30-day money-back guarantee)
Best For
SpyFu is best for marketers and agencies who want to research competitors’ SEO and PPC before they spend.
Top Features
- Competitor keywords. Type in a competitor’s domain and see the keywords it ranks for and the ones it pays for.
- 10+ years of history. Pro + AI and Team / Agency show more than 10 years of organic ranking and ad history.
- Weekly rank tracking. Track up to 5,000 keyword rankings a week on Basic, and up to 50,000 on Team / Agency.
- Site audit with AI fixes. Crawl up to 50,000 pages a month on Basic and apply up to 1,000 AI fixes to what the audit finds.
- SpyFu in ChatGPT. Pull SpyFu data straight into ChatGPT on the Pro + AI and Team / Agency plans.
Pricing
SpyFu offers three pricing plans:
- Basic: $29/month on annual billing, or $39/month billed monthly, for beginners who need 10k-row search results and one tracked site.
- Pro + AI: $89/month on annual billing, or $119/month billed monthly (the first month is $59), for marketers who want unlimited search results, 10+ years of history, and the AI tools.
- Team / Agency: $187/month on annual billing, or $249/month billed monthly, for agencies that need 5 user seats, unlimited site tracking projects, and 50,000 weekly tracked keywords.
All paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Annual subscriptions provide up to a 26% discount.
Try SpyFu today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Our Top Three Picks
Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:
- RankIQ — best of the best
- Mangools — best bang for the buck
- SEO PowerSuite — best free alternative
Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:
Tool | Entry Offer | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
RankIQ | None | Starts at $29/mo |
Mangools | 10-day free trial | Starts at $14.95/mo |
SEO PowerSuite | Free plan | Starts at $299/yr |
Ubersuggest | 7-day free trial | Starts at $12/mo |
Serpstat | 7-day free trial | Starts at $69/mo |
SE Ranking | 14-day free trial | Starts at $129/mo |
SpyFu | 30-day money-back guarantee | Starts at $39/mo |
Here are the top 50 cheap SEO tools we considered in this review:
- RankIQ
- Mangools
- SEO PowerSuite
- Ubersuggest
- Serpstat
- SE Ranking
- SpyFu
- GTmetrix
- SurferSEO
- GrowthBar
- Google Analytics
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Pagespeed
- Check My Links
- Screaming Frog
- Open Link Profiler
- SiteChecker Pro
- WhatsMySerp
- Keywords Everywhere
- Google Search Console
- Rank Math
- WebCEO
- BUZZSumo
- Keysearch
- Moz Pro
- Raven tools
- BuzzStream
- LinkHunter
- Majestic
- Keyword Revealer
- Diib
- NightWatch
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
- Google trends
- Feedly
- Link Prospector
- iSpionage
- SeoQuake
- Woorank
- Similarweb
- SEO Site Checkup
- PitchBox
- Siteliner
- Linkminer
- Seed Keywords
- Social Blade
- SEOptimer
- SEObility
- Authority Labs
- Advanced Web Ranking
Frequently Asked Questions About Cheap SEO Tools
What are the best cheap SEO tools?
Seven cheap tools cover it, led by RankIQ as our overall pick. Round it out with Mangools for value, SEO PowerSuite for the best free option, Ubersuggest for small businesses, Serpstat as best all-in-one, SE Ranking for search marketers, and SpyFu for competitor research.
What is the best overall cheap SEO tool?
RankIQ is our top overall pick. Its AI-powered tools and content optimizer help bloggers, affiliate marketers, and business owners rank higher without breaking the bank.
How do you pick a cheap SEO tool?
Match the tool to your job. Reach for RankIQ overall, Mangools for value, SEO PowerSuite for the best free option, Ubersuggest for small businesses, Serpstat as best all-in-one, SE Ranking for search marketers, and SpyFu for competitor research.
Can you do SEO for free?
Yes, you can do SEO on your own for free. One of the fastest ways to learn is to follow The Ski Slope Strategy and build from there.
Is there a free SEO tool worth using?
Yes. SEO PowerSuite is our best free pick. Its free plan gives you keyword research and backlink analysis at no cost, enough to run real SEO work.
Which cheap SEO tool is the best value?
Mangools is the best value pick. You get keyword research and competitor analysis for far less than Ahrefs or Semrush, with a free trial to test it first.
Are cheap SEO tools as good as Ahrefs or Semrush?
Cheaper tools can carry less horsepower than Ahrefs and Semrush. Even Mangools has a hard time beating them on a few things, since those two have been at it so long, but for most jobs a cheaper tool gets you there.
Which cheap SEO tool is best for small businesses?
Ubersuggest is our pick for small businesses. It is a dirt-cheap tool with keyword research and content ideas, and it works for individuals and small teams running several sites, with a free trial to start.
Do cheap SEO tools come with free trials?
Most of these picks do. Mangools, Ubersuggest, Serpstat, and SE Ranking give you free trials, and SEO PowerSuite has a free plan, while RankIQ comes with no free trial and SpyFu offers a money-back guarantee instead.
The Bottom Line
Here are our top picks for the best cheap SEO tools to try this year:
- RankIQ — best of the best
- Mangools — best bang for the buck
- SEO PowerSuite — best free alternative
- Ubersuggest — best for small businesses
- Serpstat — best all-in-one solution
- SE Ranking — best for search engine marketers
- SpyFu — best for competitor research