Semrush Alternative from $10/mo - AI-native, open source

Semrush is a marketing suite built for agencies and marketing teams. Its cheapest plan is $139 a month for one user, and local SEO, ad research, and traffic analytics cost extra.

OpenSEO is an open source SEO platform for business owners and marketers. It's $10 a month, including $10 of usage, and it works with AI agents like Claude through MCP.

Who each tool is for

OpenSEO is for you if…	Semrush is for you if…
You own a business	You're an agency or in-house team
You want to work with an AI agent	You run Google Ads
You don't want to pay $100+ a month	You want ads, content, and social in one suite
You don't want features behind paywalls	You need years of historical data

If you're wondering whether your business needs Semrush, it probably doesn't. Its depth pays off for professionals who use it every day. And if you already love Semrush and it pays for itself, keep it.

OpenSEO vs Semrush at a glance

	OpenSEO	Semrush
Starting price	$10/month, with $10 of usage included	SEO plan: $139/month for one user
What the plan includes	Every feature and unlimited projects	5 websites and 500 tracked keywords on the SEO plan
Extra users	No per-seat fee	From $45/month per user
Trial and refunds	Free trial credits, no card. 30-day money-back guarantee	7-day trial with a card. No refunds on monthly plans
Keyword research	Volume, difficulty, CPC, intent, and trends in 143 countries	Larger database: 28.8B keywords in 142 countries
Rank tracking	Daily, weekly, or monthly. 100 keywords weekly is about $1/month	500 keywords tracked daily on the SEO plan, 1,500 on Pro+
Site audits	Up to 10,000 pages per audit, included	Included on every paid plan
Backlinks	DataForSEO's index, with a year of history	Bigger index from Semrush's own crawler
AI agent access (MCP)	Included, starting with the free trial	From $199/month, read-only
AI search visibility	Brand checks in ChatGPT and AI Overviews, about $1 each	Daily prompt tracking, from $99/month
Ad research (PPC)	CPC data only	Advertising toolkit from $99/month
Open source	Yes. MIT license, and you can self-host	No

What Semrush costs in 2026

Semrush's cheapest plan, SEO, is $139 a month for one user, 5 websites, and 500 tracked keywords. That's $1,668 a year, or $1,407.96 if you pay yearly. MCP access starts at $199 a month, and extra users cost $45 to $100 a month each.

OpenSEO is $120 a year. For every Semrush plan and add-on, see our Semrush pricing breakdown.

What OpenSEO costs

One plan: $10 a month, with $10 of usage included. Usage pays for the SEO data you look up. Your projects, reports, and Search Console data don't use any.

What you run	About what it costs
A keyword research search	5¢
A backlink overview of a domain	8¢
Tracking 100 keywords every week	$1.09 a month
A brand check in ChatGPT and AI Overviews	$1.09
A standard site audit	Included
Your Search Console data	Included

Most people stay within the included $10. A business owner who researches 100 keywords and checks 20 backlink profiles a month, and tracks 50 keywords weekly, uses about $7.50. A freelancer managing 15 client sites spends about $27 a month. Estimate your own month.

If you need more, top-up credits never expire. If you run out, research pauses until you add more, so there are no surprise bills.

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Why people look for a Semrush alternative

The price. $139 a month is a lot for one website.
The add-ons. Local, content, ads, social, and traffic data are each sold separately.
Per-user pricing. Every extra person costs at least $45 a month.
Canceling takes effort. You fill in a form, then confirm through an email link within 24 hours, or billing continues. Monthly plans aren't refundable.
It's a lot to learn. Semrush has 55 tools. That's great if marketing is your full-time job, and overwhelming if it isn't.

What's different about OpenSEO

You pay for what you use

Semrush sells tiers: more websites or keywords means a bigger plan, and each toolkit costs extra. OpenSEO has one plan with every feature, unlimited projects, and no per-seat fees. You choose how many keywords rank tracking checks and how often, and you see the cost before you save.

It's built for business owners, not just agencies

OpenSEO focuses on the SEO work most businesses need: finding keywords, checking competitors, tracking rankings, fixing technical issues, and finding links. If you're new to SEO, the SEO coach skill explains what the numbers mean and what to do next.

"All of the value, none of the bloat. OpenSEO is a no-brainer compared to the expensive alternatives!"

Fed, OpenSEO user

It's open source

The code is public under the MIT license, so you can read it, change it, or self-host it. That keeps us honest: if the hosted version stopped being worth $10 a month, you could run the same software yourself. Why we're open source.

OpenSEO MCP vs Semrush MCP

Both let an AI agent like Claude pull SEO data. Here's how they differ:

	OpenSEO	Semrush
Cheapest plan with MCP	Free trial, then $10 a month	Starter, $199 a month
What it uses	Your normal credits	50,000 API units a month
Can the agent save work?	Yes: keywords, rank trackers, and reports	No, it's read-only

Connect Claude, Codex, Cursor, or another MCP client to https://app.openseo.so/mcp. Your agent gets 59 tools for keyword research, live Google results, competitors, backlinks, rank tracking, local search, Search Console, and Google Analytics, plus skills that walk it through common SEO jobs. It saves finished work as reports in your project, and you can ask it for a link to check any number in OpenSEO.

Is OpenSEO's data as good as Semrush's?

Semrush builds its own databases, and they're bigger: it reports 28.8 billion keywords and history back to 2012. OpenSEO uses DataForSEO, which sells SEO data to tools and agencies, and covers keyword research in 143 countries.

Either way, search volumes and traffic numbers are estimates, and SEO tools often disagree with each other. For your own site, Google Search Console has the real numbers, and OpenSEO includes them at no extra cost.

How to switch from Semrush

Sign up. You get trial credits, and you don't need a card.
Create a project for your site and connect Google Search Console.
Export your tracked keywords from Semrush and paste them into an OpenSEO rank tracker.
Run a site audit, and look up your competitors' keywords and backlinks.
Connect your AI agent to https://app.openseo.so/mcp and ask it what to work on first.
Cancel Semrush before it renews. Use its cancellation form, then click the confirmation link Semrush emails you.

FAQ

Is there a free Semrush alternative?

Not for keyword and competitor research, since that data costs money in every tool. For your own site, Google Search Console is free, and Semrush's free plan gives you 10 reports a day. OpenSEO is free to try, then $10 a month with $10 of usage included.

Is OpenSEO cheaper than Semrush?

For most people, yes: $10 a month with $10 of usage included, against $139 for Semrush's cheapest plan. Heavy users pay more, and daily rank tracking adds up fastest. Tracking 500 keywords every day costs about $38 a month.

Does OpenSEO have an MCP server like Semrush?

Yes. Add https://app.openseo.so/mcp to Claude, Codex, Cursor, or another MCP client. It's included from the free trial on. Semrush's MCP starts at $199 a month.

Is Semrush owned by Adobe?

Yes. Adobe bought Semrush in April 2026.

What about white-label reports?

Your AI agent can make them. Through MCP, it pulls a client's rankings, keywords, and backlinks, then saves a finished report to their project, which you can share by link or print to PDF with your branding. Save the format as a report template, or turn it into your own skill, and every client gets the same report each month.

Can my team use OpenSEO?

Yes. Invite teammates by email. There's no per-seat fee.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes, from the billing portal. If OpenSEO isn't for you, email ben@openseo.so within 30 days of a charge for a refund.

Also comparing Ahrefs? Read OpenSEO vs Ahrefs.