Best Semrush Alternatives for B2B SaaS

The best Semrush alternatives are Geodde, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Moz, Mangools and SpyFu. We make Geodde, and we say plainly where another tool fits better.

Disclaimer: The information in this article comes from our own research into each product, carried out in October 2026. Pricing, features and plans change. Before you make a decision, check each product's own website and speak to the vendor directly to get the most accurate and up-to-date information.

The best Semrush alternatives at a glance

• Early-stage team or generalist scaling up who needs content that gets cited: Geodde
• Backlink data plus Brand Radar AI tracking: Ahrefs
• Lower-cost suite with AI tracking from the entry plan: SE Ranking
• Simpler SEO suite for a small team: Moz
• Budget keyword research with AI tracking across many engines: Mangools
• Competitor keyword research on a budget: SpyFu
• Want AI search strategy and execution done with you or for you: Geodde with After Search, Geodde's services arm

Why marketing teams look for Semrush alternatives, and what you give up

Semrush is a large SEO suite. It covers keyword research, technical site audits, backlinks, content tools and AI visibility tracking. Public pricing starts at $139/month for SEO only; AI search tracking starts on the Starter plan at $199/month. Advanced and Enterprise are custom and sold by demo. Extra users cost from $45/month on top.

That breadth works best when someone runs it every week. Most of what it gives you is insight: reports, audits and keyword lists. Acting on those findings means using separate toolkits for content, social and traffic. The AI PR Toolkit, which adds journalist outreach, sits in a separate paid layer. Prompt tracking covers ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Gemini only; the guide recommends testing ChatGPT and Perplexity manually in an incognito browser.

Where Semrush remains the better choice: if you already pay for it, or if you have an SEO specialist who needs keyword and backlink depth, Semrush's dataset is hard to match. Enterprise teams that need API access, SSO, audit logs and team governance get those on the Enterprise tier.

How we judged them

• Built for: start-up, scale-up, mid-market or enterprise
• Strategy and execution support: self-serve, onboarding or CSM, done-with-you, or managed service
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: low, medium or high
• How opinionated on strategy: neutral data, recommendations, or prescribed playbook
• Tracking or execution: tracking, balanced, or execution
• Off-site execution support: none, insight only, or active
• CMS integration
• MCP availability: none, read-only, or full

Comparison table

The Semrush alternatives, one by one

Geodde

Best for: Early-stage teams and marketing generalists scaling up without a technical SEO specialist.

What it is: Geodde is an AI search execution platform that tracks where your brand appears in AI-generated answers, identifies the questions your buyers ask that you're not answering, and produces AI-assisted content built from your own team's knowledge to fill those gaps.

• Built for: Start-ups and scale-ups.
• Strategy and execution support: Self-serve, or After Search, Geodde's services arm, which does the strategy and execution with your team or for you: commercial research into your buyers and their questions, technical fixes on your site, targeting the highest-value questions, content built from interviews with your team (with human review), and reporting on AI search visibility. Works on any CMS. Priced on enquiry.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: Low. Geodde is built for a generalist, not a specialist.
• How opinionated on strategy: Prescribed playbook. Answer buyers' questions with AI-assisted content built from your own experts' knowledge, and earn citations.
• Tracking or execution: Execution-led, with tracking included across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode.
• Off-site execution support: None. For outreach, we point to tools such as AthenaHQ, Writesonic or AirOps.
• CMS: Publishes directly to Webflow on the self-serve plans. After Search works on any CMS.
• MCP: Full. Run Geodde from Claude or another MCP-compatible assistant: it reads prompt tracking, citations and the content roadmap, and can add prompts, create pages, generate content and stage edits for review.

Also worth knowing: Geodde is not built for large-scale prompt monitoring. If your main need is high-volume tracking across many prompts and competitors, the dedicated SEO suites below will serve you better.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Professional US$189/month; Scale US$499/month. Both are self-serve with a 14-day trial and 10 seats. After Search is priced on enquiry.

Choose it if: You're an early-stage company or a generalist marketer who needs to start appearing in AI search answers, doesn't have an SEO specialist, and wants content built from your team's expertise rather than another report to act on.

Ahrefs

Best for: SEO practitioners and scale-up to enterprise teams who need deep backlink and keyword data alongside AI search tracking.

What it is: Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset used by SEO professionals and marketing teams. Its Brand Radar add-on tracks AI search visibility, and it has recently added Letaido, an AI agent workspace built on its data.

• Built for: Scale-up to Enterprise.
• Strategy and execution support: Self-serve only. No onboarding, CSM or service offering. Enterprise is contact sales.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: High. You choose prompts, check frequency, tags and competitors, and act on fan-out queries, citation gaps and crawler logs.
• How opinionated on strategy: Recommendations. It surfaces citation opportunities and content gaps, but doesn't tell you what to publish next.
• Tracking or execution: Tracking. Brand Radar tracks mentions, citations and share of voice. A Content Kit is listed as "Soon".
• Off-site execution support: Insight only. Shows YouTube, TikTok and Reddit data and the sources AI cites. No outreach or PR features.
• CMS: None. Site Audit "Patches" can push on-page fixes live through a JavaScript snippet or Cloudflare Worker without touching the CMS, but only with the Max project boost.
• MCP: Full. Remote MCP on all paid plans from Lite, using API units. Covers Brand Radar reports and a management group for projects, keyword lists and Brand Radar configuration.

Also worth knowing: The Brand Radar add-on starts at $199/month on top of the base plan. Prompts are metered as checks: 150, 300 and 600 a month on Lite, Standard and Advanced. Extra packs run $50 to $250 a month. Ahrefs also offers free AI-referral traffic reporting (Web Analytics) and AI crawler visit tracking (Bot Analytics, beta).

Pricing (checked October 2026): Lite $129/month (1 user, 5 tracked prompts); Brand Radar add-on from $199/month on top. Enterprise $1,499/month on an annual contract, with SSO, access management, audit logs and uncapped API.

Choose it if: You have an SEO specialist or practitioner who needs best-in-class backlink and keyword data and wants AI search tracking layered on top.

SE Ranking

Best for: Start-ups to mid-market teams who want a full SEO suite with AI search tracking from the entry plan, at a lower price than Semrush.

What it is: SE Ranking is an SEO platform with more than 30 tools, covering keyword research, technical audits, backlinks, rank tracking and AI visibility through its SE Visible add-on.

• Built for: Start-up to Mid-market.
• Strategy and execution support: Onboarding or CSM. Enterprise customers get a Customer Success Manager from day one. Core and Growth plans are self-serve with a free trial and live demos. No service offering.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: Medium. You set up projects, keywords, search engines and competitors, run site audits and pick the prompts to track.
• How opinionated on strategy: Recommendations. The AI Search Toolkit offers specific steps to improve AI rankings. SE Visible's agents flag gaps but there is no prescribed playbook.
• Tracking or execution: Tracking. The AI features measure mentions, links, cited sources, share of voice and sentiment. Plans include AI-written articles, but the AI Search Toolkit has no content creation of its own.
• Off-site execution support: Insight only. Maps the domains and URLs that appear in AI answers. No outreach or PR tools for the AI side.
• CMS: WordPress. The Content Editor exports to WordPress, sets post status, author, category and date, and can update existing posts.
• MCP: Full. Official hosted server covering the Data, Project, Local Marketing and SE Visible APIs, included on every plan. Names Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, v0, Windsurf, Zed and Gemini CLI.

Also worth knowing: AI search tracking starts on Core, the entry plan, with 25 prompts a day. The SE Visible add-on (from $71/month) covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT and Copilot, with Claude on Agency or listed as "Soon". SE Visible tracks AI visibility in seven countries: the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. API keys have the same access as your account; restricted or read-only keys are not yet available.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Core $129/month; Growth $279/month; Enterprise custom by demo.

Choose it if: You want a capable SEO suite with AI search tracking from the cheapest plan, and you're comfortable doing the technical setup yourself or with a small team.

Moz

Best for: Small teams and growing agencies who want a simpler SEO suite with AI visibility tracking at a lower entry price.

What it is: Moz is an SEO software company whose Moz Pro suite covers keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and link analysis. Its AI Visibility feature and AI Explorer product add brand monitoring in AI search answers.

• Built for: Start-up to Scale-up.
• Strategy and execution support: Self-serve only. Helpful onboarding tips in-app and by email, 24/7 online support, Help Hub and Moz Academy. No CSM or service offering for Moz Pro.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: Medium. Setting up a dashboard needs a brand name, brand terms, up to three competitors and topics. Prompt Suggestions proposes prompts from organic data so you don't start from a blank list.
• How opinionated on strategy: Recommendations. "Get helpful tips on what to do next, from recommendations for content based on target keywords, or top-priority site issues to fix." AI Explorer gives actionable insights in the tool. No prescribed playbook.
• Tracking or execution: Tracking. AI Visibility measures mentions, how early the brand appears, citations, sentiment and competitor share. Tracking is weekly. Execution is limited to AI Content Briefs; no writing or publishing.
• Off-site execution support: Insight only. Citations show which pages LLMs are referencing, with Domain Authority and Spam Score, to spot outreach opportunities. Moz doesn't do the outreach.
• CMS: None. No CMS or publishing integration found.
• MCP: Read-only. Official Moz MCP server, currently in beta and limited to account owners. Exposes site metrics, links, keywords, rankings and more. Needs a separate Moz API subscription (from $20/month). No AI Visibility data listed.

Also worth knowing: AI search tracking starts on Standard ($99/month), not the $49 starter plan. It covers three models: GPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Google AI Overviews are not tracked as prompt engines. Prompt tracking runs weekly on every plan. Each AI Visibility dashboard tracks your brand against up to three competitors.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Starter $49/month; Standard $99/month (AI tracking starts here); top tier $299/month with 3 users. Enterprise via contact form. Moz API subscription from $20/month for MCP access.

Choose it if: You want a straightforward SEO suite at a lower price than Semrush, and weekly AI visibility tracking across GPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode is enough coverage for your needs.

Mangools

Best for: Freelancers, small teams and agencies who want budget-friendly keyword research with AI search tracking across a wide range of engines.

What it is: Mangools is a suite of six SEO tools covering keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking, backlinks and domain metrics. Its AI Search Watcher adds brand visibility monitoring across eight AI engines.

• Built for: Start-up to Scale-up. Positioned as affordable and easy to use for freelancers, teams and agencies.
• Strategy and execution support: Self-serve only. Support, guides, an SEO academy and a glossary. No onboarding, success manager or service offering.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: Medium. Pitched as easy to use, but users still choose keywords, read keyword difficulty and SERP metrics, and set up rank tracking. AI Search Watcher suggests prompts from your site, which you review, tag or replace.
• How opinionated on strategy: Recommendations. AI Search Watcher gives recommendations with specific actions, URL examples and external pages where the brand could earn mentions, filterable by impact. No prescribed playbook.
• Tracking or execution: Tracking. The suite is research and tracking: keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking, backlinks, domain metrics and AI visibility. No content writing or publishing in the paid tools.
• Off-site execution support: Insight only. AI Search Watcher shows cited URLs and cited domains, plus a top-10 cited domains table. Recommendations point to external pages for mentions. Mangools doesn't do the outreach.
• CMS: None. No CMS integration found. Integrations listed are Google Search Console import, a Looker Studio connector and whitelabel reports.
• MCP: Full. Official remote server, currently in beta. Reads data from all six tools and can create keyword lists, rank trackings and AI Search Watcher monitors, add prompts and update settings. Verified clients: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Claude Code.

Also worth knowing: AI Search Watcher covers eight engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Mistral and Llama. Perplexity and Copilot are not listed. Each prompt gets 2 checks per run, and monitors update weekly on every plan. The suite includes 500 AI prompts on every bundle plan. A free AI Search Grader evaluates a brand across the top AI search engines.

Pricing (checked October 2026): From $61/month ($37.70/month on annual billing); top tier $141/month. Up to 5 seats. No enterprise plan.

Choose it if: You want broad AI search engine coverage and keyword research tools on a tight budget, and you're happy to act on the tracking data yourself.

SpyFu

Best for: Teams running paid search alongside SEO who need deep competitor keyword and ad intelligence on a budget.

What it is: SpyFu is a competitive intelligence tool that shows a competitor's ranking keywords, purchased keywords, estimated clicks and estimated ad spend. It recently added a site audit that can push approved fixes live.

• Built for: Start-up to Scale-up. Its homepage reviewers are mostly companies of 50 or fewer staff.
• Strategy and execution support: Self-serve only. Help is a knowledge base, video tutorials and blog. No onboarding, success manager or service offering.
• Technical SEO knowledge needed: Medium. Users work with competitor keywords, ad history, keyword gaps, backlink gaps and ranking history. The site audit flags technical and on-page issues and drafts fixes around a target keyword it recommends per page.
• How opinionated on strategy: Recommendations. The site audit recommends a target keyword and fixes per page. PPC tools give negative keyword recommendations. SpyFu GPT pulls data into ChatGPT for recommendations. No prescribed playbook.
• Tracking or execution: Tracking. Most of the product is research and tracking. The site audit is new and lets you approve and push fixes to titles, meta descriptions, H1s, social tags and links.
• Off-site execution support: Insight only. Backlink gap analysis shows link opportunities. No view of the third-party sources AI engines cite was found. SpyFu doesn't do outreach.
• CMS: Publishes automatically. The site audit lets you connect your site once, approve each change, and send fixes live. Which CMSs are supported is not specified on the site.
• MCP: None. No official MCP server found. SpyFu GPT, a ChatGPT custom GPT released September 2026, is the AI-assistant route.

Also worth knowing: SpyFu tracks AI search lightly. SpyFu's own blog names only ChatGPT for the AI Tracker. SpyGPT searches a pre-collected dataset of 250 million questions asked to ChatGPT, rather than running your own prompts live. The site audit was released on 16 October 2026 to new plans and Standard (and higher) accounts; the first crawl covers 100 pages by default. PPC competitor data is SpyFu's clearest point of difference.

Pricing (checked October 2026): From $29 to $39/month; top tier $249/month.

Choose it if: Competitor keyword and ad intelligence is your priority, you're running paid search alongside SEO, and broad AI search tracking is not a requirement.

Which alternative fits which team

• Early-stage team or generalist scaling up who needs content that gets cited: Geodde.
• Backlink data plus Brand Radar AI tracking: Ahrefs.
• Lower-cost suite with AI tracking from the entry plan: SE Ranking.
• Simpler SEO suite for a small team: Moz.
• Budget keyword research with AI tracking across many engines: Mangools.
• Competitor keyword research on a budget: SpyFu.
• When Semrush remains the better choice: If you have an SEO specialist who needs keyword and backlink depth, or if you need enterprise-grade features such as SSO, audit logs and API access, Semrush is still a strong fit.

FAQ

Is there a cheaper alternative to Semrush?

Yes. SpyFu starts from $29 to $39/month, Moz from $49/month and Mangools from $61/month ($37.70/month on an annual plan). SE Ranking and Ahrefs both start at $129/month. Geodde's Professional plan is US$189/month. Semrush's entry plan with AI search starts at $199/month.

Which Semrush alternatives track AI search?

Ahrefs (Brand Radar add-on, from $199/month on top of the base plan) tracks AI search; Mangools tracks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Mistral and Llama from its entry plan; SE Ranking tracks AI search from its Core entry plan (the SE Visible add-on from $71/month covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT and Copilot); Moz tracks GPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode from its Standard plan ($99/month); SpyFu tracks AI brand mentions in ChatGPT only. Geodde tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode on self-serve plans.

Does Geodde offer services as well as software?

Yes. After Search is Geodde's services arm for AI search strategy and execution. It does the work with your team or for you: commercial research, technical fixes, content built from interviews with your team and reporting on AI search visibility. It works on any CMS and is priced on enquiry.

Which Semrush alternatives have an MCP server?

Geodde (full), Ahrefs (full), SE Ranking (full) and Mangools (full, currently in beta) all have MCP servers. Moz has a read-only MCP server in beta that needs a separate API subscription. SpyFu has no official MCP server; SpyFu GPT, a ChatGPT custom GPT, is the AI-assistant route instead. Semrush's MCP is read-only.