Semrush alternatives: 6 options, and when to stay put

Semrush is a broad and expensive suite, and since April 2026 it is part of Adobe. Most people looking for an alternative want another suite, so those come first. GSC Wizard is not a suite. It appears further down, for the one job it replaces: analysing your own site's Search Console data, which Semrush handles thinly.

Disclosure: we make one of the alternatives on this page (GSC Wizard). It gets the same "watch for" note as every other tool, and the page starts with the cases where the honest advice is to stay with Semrush. Facts about other products come from each vendor's own website, checked October 3, 2026, and every source is linked at the bottom. Spot an error? Tell us.

On this page
Best like-for-like alternative

Ahrefs. A comparable keyword database and backlink index, and it stores your Search Console history, which Semrush does not.

Best cheaper suite

SE Ranking. From €109 a month, with a 14-day trial and no card.

Best for your own site's data

GSC Wizard. Full Search Console history and analysis from €17 a month. It replaces none of Semrush's research tools.

Should you leave Semrush at all?

Semrush does a great deal, and most alternatives do less. Check what you use before you cancel.

Stay with Semrush if

  • You use the advertising, local or content toolkits as well as SEO. No alternative here covers all of them.
  • You need daily rank tracking with competitors alongside.
  • You send white-label reports from My Reports, and your clients are used to them.
  • You rely on one keyword database for PPC and SEO research together.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need more than one user. Each extra seat costs €43 to €96 a month.
  • You pay for a suite but mostly check your own site's traffic.
  • You need features that sit on the higher plans: historical data, the cannibalization report, the Looker Studio integration.
  • You want Search Console history beyond 16 months. Semrush states that it never stores connected Search Console data.
  • You want to try the full product without entering a card. The Semrush trial requires one, though its limited free account does not.

The alternatives at a glance

Alternative Best for Entry price Main trade-off
Ahrefs A like-for-like suite that keeps your Search Console history €27/mo (Starter), €119 (Lite); free tier No trial; weekly rank updates by default
SE Ranking The core SEO jobs for less €109/mo, 14-day trial One seat and 10 projects on Core
Sistrix Tracking visibility over time €119/mo, 14-day trial €119 a month, one user, 3 projects
GSC Wizard Your own site's Search Console data €17/mo, 7-day trial No keyword database, competitors, rank tracker or crawler
Wincher Daily rank tracking on a smaller budget €49/mo, 7-day trial Built around rank tracking
Ahrefs Free A free audit and limited link data Free Verified sites only
Semrush (for reference) One vendor for SEO, PPC, local and content €134/mo, 7-day trial €134 a month, one user; Search Console data not stored

Prices as listed on each vendor's own pricing page, checked October 3, 2026. Each entry below links to its source.

6 Semrush alternatives

The suites are listed first because they are what most readers of this page need. Our own tool is fourth, where it belongs here.

1. Ahrefs

What it is. A full SEO suite built on its own crawl of the web: a backlink index, a keyword database, competitor research in Site Explorer, a rank tracker, a site audit crawler and AI visibility tracking in Brand Radar. Its GSC Insights reports read your connected Search Console, keep the data for as long as the account stays connected, and list keywords that Search Console leaves out, taken from Ahrefs' own index.

Why pick it over Semrush. The closest match on data: a backlink index and a keyword database of similar size, with Site Explorer for competitor research. It does one thing Semrush does not. It stores connected Search Console data for as long as you stay connected, and its GSC Insights reports analyse it. The free tier covers verified sites.

Watch for. There is no free trial. Rank Tracker updates weekly by default, where Semrush tracks daily. Its help centre says it does not currently allow white-label reports. Lite is €119 a month with one user.

Cost. Starter is €27 a month with 200 credits; extra users and credits cannot be added to it. Lite, the first full plan, is €119 a month (quoted as $129 in Ahrefs' help centre), Standard €229 and Advanced €419, each with one user. Extra users are listed at €37 to €75 a month each and billed by how much they use the tool. There is no free trial. Ahrefs Free gives verified site owners limited Site Audit, Site Explorer, Web Analytics and GSC Insights at no cost. Ahrefs pricing. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

2. SE Ranking

What it is. A mid-priced all-in-one suite: daily rank tracking, a site audit, keyword and competitor research and backlink monitoring, with Search Console and GA4 connected alongside.

Why pick it over Semrush. Daily rank tracking for 2,000 keywords, a site audit, keyword and competitor research and backlink monitoring from €109 a month, with a 14-day trial that needs no card. White label is an add-on for the whole platform, from €59 a month billed annually, where Semrush charges per report.

Watch for. Core includes one manager seat and 10 projects. Run the trial against the specific Semrush reports you rely on before you cancel.

Cost. Core is €109 a month, or €87.20 billed annually, for 10 projects, one seat and 2,000 tracked keywords. Growth is €235. White label is the Agency Pack, from €59 a month, billed annually. 14-day trial without a card. SE Ranking pricing. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

3. Sistrix

What it is. A German SEO suite best known for its Visibility Index, a long-running benchmark of how visible a domain is in Google across more than 30 countries. It connects Search Console and Analytics alongside its own data.

Why pick it over Semrush. If what you watch in Semrush is visibility over time, Sistrix's Visibility Index is a long-running benchmark covering more than 100 million domains in 30+ countries. Plans can be cancelled monthly, and there is a 14-day trial.

Watch for. The Start plan includes one user, 3 projects and three months of history. It is a narrower product than Semrush, built around visibility and rankings.

Cost. Start is €119 a month for one user and 3 projects. Plus is €239 and Professional €419. 14-day trial. Sistrix pricing. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

4. GSC Wizard

What it is. A Search Console, GA4, Bing, Yandex and Google Merchant Center analysis tool. It stores your Search Console history in its own warehouse (up to ten years on stored properties) and builds reports on top: content decay, cannibalization, CTR benchmarks, striking-distance queries, forecasting, anomaly detection and an indexing tracker. Traffic and indexing alerts go to Slack, Microsoft Teams or a webhook, and the same data is available to ChatGPT and Claude through an MCP server, including the Yandex and Merchant Center data.

Why pick it over Semrush. Semrush reads Search Console live and does not store it, and Organic Traffic Insights covers your top 30 to 50 landing pages. If the questions you ask are about your own site (which pages are decaying, which queries are split across two URLs, whether a drop was real), GSC Wizard answers them on every row the Search Console API returns, with history that grows to ten years, Bing data, an index tracker and alerts. Pro, with three invited seats, is €39 a month.

Watch for. It is not a suite. No keyword research beyond queries you already appear for, no competitor or backlink data, no SERP rank tracker, no full site crawler, no PPC or local tools, and no white-label or PDF reports. See the full head-to-head.

Cost. 7-day free trial without a card, then Starter at €17 a month (10 live properties plus 5 with stored history, 15 in total, 1 invited seat), Pro at €39 (50 plus 25, 75 in total, 3 seats) and Business at €249 (500 plus 150, 650 in total, 10 seats). In US dollars that is $19, $49 and $299. Every feature is on every plan. There is no free plan for the web app and no annual discount. GSC Wizard pricing. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

5. Wincher

What it is. A rank tracker. It checks the keywords you choose in real search results every day, which is a different measurement from Search Console's average position.

Why pick it over Semrush. If Position Tracking is the only Semrush tool you open, a dedicated rank tracker costs about a third as much. Wincher checks 500 keywords daily for up to 10 websites on its Basic plan.

Watch for. It is a rank tracker first. Its plans also include a keyword explorer, an on-page checker and PDF reports, and its Search Console integration imports keywords. Basic includes one user.

Cost. Basic is €49 a month for 500 keywords and up to 10 websites. Standard is €89 for 1,000 keywords and unlimited websites. 7-day trial. Wincher pricing. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

6. Ahrefs Free

What it is. The free tier of Ahrefs, formerly called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. For sites you verify, which takes Owner permission on the Search Console property or a DNS or HTML check, it gives limited access to Site Audit (5,000 crawl credits a month per project), Site Explorer (1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once), Web Analytics and the GSC Insights reports.

Why pick it over Semrush. For a site you own, three free tools cover much of what a small business uses Semrush for: Ahrefs Free for a site audit and limited backlink data, Google Search Console for your search performance, and Bing Webmaster Tools for keyword research and more backlink data.

Watch for. None of them shows you a competitor's keywords or tracks rankings daily. Ahrefs Free only works on sites you verify and shows 1,000 backlinks and keywords at a time.

Cost. Free for verified site owners, with unlimited verified websites. Ahrefs Free. Price checked Oct 3, 2026.

Which alternative fits your reason for leaving

You want the same breadth of SEO data

Ahrefs. Accept weekly rank updates by default and no trial in exchange for stored Search Console history and its link index.

You want to pay less

SE Ranking, then Wincher if rank tracking turns out to be all you used.

You mostly look at your own site

GSC Wizard for the analysis, with the free tools for audits and occasional link checks.

You use the PPC, local and content toolkits

Stay. Nothing on this page replaces all of them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Semrush alternative?

For the same breadth of SEO data, Ahrefs. For a lower price, SE Ranking. For tracking visibility over time, Sistrix. If you only need to understand your own site's organic traffic, a Search Console tool such as GSC Wizard does it for far less, without any competitor data.

Is there a free alternative to Semrush?

Not a complete one. Ahrefs Free, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools together cover site audits, your own search performance, and some backlink and keyword data for sites you own. Semrush also has a limited free account of its own.

Is Semrush still sold separately after the Adobe acquisition?

Yes. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush on April 28, 2026, and Semrush continues to sell its plans under its own name.

Can GSC Wizard replace Semrush?

Not as a suite. It has no keyword database, competitor research, backlink data, rank tracker or crawler. It replaces only the Search Console part, where Semrush is thin: Semrush does not store Search Console data and limits Organic Traffic Insights to your top landing pages.

Sources and method

Every fact about another product on this page comes from that vendor's own website (pricing page, documentation or product announcements), read on October 3, 2026. Prices are quoted in the currency the page showed. Vendors change plans often, so check the linked page before you buy. Claims about GSC Wizard come from our own pricing and documentation.

Semrush

Ahrefs

SE Ranking

  • Pricingseranking.com/subscription.html
  • Integrationsseranking.com/integrations.html
  • FAQseranking.com/faq.html

Sistrix

GSC Wizard

Wincher

Ahrefs Free

Google Search Console

Bing Webmaster Tools

  • Feature overviewblogs.bing.com/webmaster/2025/6/Start-Using-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-to-Improve-Your-Site-Visibility
  • AI Performance reportblogs.bing.com/webmaster/February-2026/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview

All sources read on October 3, 2026.

Found something that is wrong or out of date? Tell us and it gets corrected. That includes the vendors named here: if we have described your product unfairly, we want to know.

Written by Jan-Willem Bobbink · Published October 3, 2026 · Facts and prices checked October 3, 2026