Best SEO tools
Which SEO tool fits your job? 12 compared, with September 2026 prices
Most teams need two or three tools, not one. Each card says which job a tool does best, what it costs today, and when another tool on the list fits better.
Disclosure: SearchBlueprint makes this page and is one of the 12 tools on it, listed first. Every other tool's price and features come from its own website, read on September 29, 2026, and each card says when another tool is the better pick.
- The shortlist
- 1SearchBlueprintDeciding what to do next on your own site, before you pay for a suite.
- 2Google Search ConsoleEvery site owner: your own clicks, searches and indexing problems, straight from Google.
- 3Google AnalyticsSeeing what visitors from search do after they land: which pages they read and whether they enquire or buy.
- 4Google Keyword PlannerRough search volumes and related keyword ideas at no cost.
- 5SemrushTeams that want keyword, competitor and AI search research in one large suite.
- 6AhrefsMarketers whose work is backlinks and competitor research.
- 7SE RankingAgencies running SEO for many client sites.
- 8Screaming Frog SEO SpiderTechnical SEOs who want to crawl a whole site from their own computer.
- 9PageSpeed InsightsFinding out why one page is slow, on mobile and on desktop.
- 10Moz ProSmall businesses that want core SEO metrics at a modest price.
- 11SurferContent teams writing and optimizing pages to rank in Google and get cited by AI.
- 12Mangools (KWFinder)Beginners and freelancers who want easy keyword research at a low price.
How we chose and compared them
We compared published facts only: what each vendor's own pages say the tool does and costs. We did not score or rate the tools.
- The job it does best: planning, research, tracking positions, crawling your site or improving content.
- Whether its data is about your own site or about the whole web.
- What you get free, and what the first paid plan costs.
- How many sites and people a plan covers, if you work for clients.
At a glance
Prices as each vendor states them on September 29, 2026, in US dollars. Check their site before you buy.
| Tool | Best for | Entry price | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|
| SearchBlueprint | Deciding what to do next on your own site, before you pay for a suite. | Free first plan, then $150/mo (Base) | Your first strategy run free, plus 61 free tools with no signup |
| Google Search Console | Every site owner: your own clicks, searches and indexing problems, straight from Google. | Free | Free for any site you verify you own |
| Google Analytics | Seeing what visitors from search do after they land: which pages they read and whether they enquire or buy. | Free | Free of charge, per Google's product page |
| Google Keyword Planner | Rough search volumes and related keyword ideas at no cost. | Free | Free, inside a Google Ads account once billing details are entered |
| Semrush | Teams that want keyword, competitor and AI search research in one large suite. | $139/mo (SEO), or $117.33/mo billed annually | Free plan with 10 reports a day; 7-day free trial on paid plans |
| Ahrefs | Marketers whose work is backlinks and competitor research. | $29/mo (Starter); core plans from $129/mo (Lite) | Ahrefs Free account, plus free tools such as a keyword generator and an AI visibility checker |
| SE Ranking | Agencies running SEO for many client sites. | $129/mo (Core), or $103.20/mo billed annually | 14-day free trial, no credit card |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Technical SEOs who want to crawl a whole site from their own computer. | $279 per user a year | Free version crawls up to 500 URLs, with no sign-up |
| PageSpeed Insights | Finding out why one page is slow, on mobile and on desktop. | Free | Free in the browser, no sign-up |
| Moz Pro | Small businesses that want core SEO metrics at a modest price. | $49/mo for one website; Standard $99/mo, or $79/mo paid yearly | Free trial; a free Moz Community account gives limited Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer and MozBar access |
| Surfer | Content teams writing and optimizing pages to rank in Google and get cited by AI. | $49/mo (Discovery), billed yearly | A free AI visibility audit and free AI Detector and Humanizer tools |
| Mangools (KWFinder) | Beginners and freelancers who want easy keyword research at a low price. | $37.70/mo (Basic), billed annually | Free account with 5 KWFinder lookups a day; 48-hour money-back guarantee |
The tools, one by one
1.SearchBlueprint
Our productBest for: Deciding what to do next on your own site, before you pay for a suite.
A planning tool, not a data suite: one run on your URL gives you a keyword map (which page on your site targets which search, with two pages chasing one search flagged), a site structure and a list of pages to write next. On paid plans the on-page plan suggests a new title and headings for each page, and the free tools check one page, one keyword or a robots.txt file with no signup.
Writing opens to customers in October.
- Entry price
- Free first plan, then $150/mo (Base)
- Free option
- Your first strategy run free, plus 61 free tools with no signup
Pick another tool if: It is not a data suite: no backlink index, no historical data and no daily tracking of keyword positions. If that is the job, a suite on this list does it.
2.Google Search Console
Best for: Every site owner: your own clicks, searches and indexing problems, straight from Google.
Google calls it a free service to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search. It shows the searches that bring people to your site with impressions, clicks and position, takes sitemaps and single URLs for crawling, emails you when Google finds issues, and its URL Inspection tool shows how Google crawled and indexed a page.
- Entry price
- Free
- Free option
- Free for any site you verify you own
Pick another tool if: It only covers sites you have verified, and only Google, so it shows nothing about competitors or searches you don't appear for yet.
3.Google Analytics
Best for: Seeing what visitors from search do after they land: which pages they read and whether they enquire or buy.
Google says it gives you the tools, free of charge, to understand the customer journey. The current version collects event-based data from websites and apps, and connects to Google's advertising tools.
- Entry price
- Free
- Free option
- Free of charge, per Google's product page
Pick another tool if: It measures visits after they arrive. For the searches that brought them and your positions in Google, use Search Console.
4.Google Keyword Planner
Best for: Rough search volumes and related keyword ideas at no cost.
Part of Google Ads. Google says it suggests keywords related to your products or website, shows how often terms are searched and how that changed over time, and gives bid estimates for ads.
- Entry price
- Free
- Free option
- Free, inside a Google Ads account once billing details are entered
Pick another tool if: Google built it for planning Search ad campaigns, and it asks for a Google Ads account with billing details. Use Search Console for what your own site already gets.
5.Semrush
Best for: Teams that want keyword, competitor and AI search research in one large suite.
The SEO plan covers 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily, with keyword research and competitor analysis. The Starter plan at $199/mo ($165.17 billed annually) adds 50 AI prompts tracked daily.
- Entry price
- $139/mo (SEO), or $117.33/mo billed annually
- Free option
- Free plan with 10 reports a day; 7-day free trial on paid plans
Pick another tool if: The free plan stops at 10 reports a day, and extra users start at $45/mo each, per their pricing page.
Semrush's homepage says Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush.
6.Ahrefs
Best for: Marketers whose work is backlinks and competitor research.
Starter at $29/mo covers keyword and competitor research. Lite at $129/mo adds 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 5 tracked AI prompts and 6 months of history, with API and MCP access on core plans.
- Entry price
- $29/mo (Starter); core plans from $129/mo (Lite)
- Free option
- Ahrefs Free account, plus free tools such as a keyword generator and an AI visibility checker
Pick another tool if: Brand Radar, their AI prompt database, is priced separately from $199/mo.
7.SE Ranking
Best for: Agencies running SEO for many client sites.
Core includes unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research, 10 projects, 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts tracked daily across 5 AI models, and 250,000 audit pages a month.
- Entry price
- $129/mo (Core), or $103.20/mo billed annually
- Free option
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
Pick another tool if: White-label reporting sits in the Agency Pack, an add-on, per their pricing page.
8.Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Best for: Technical SEOs who want to crawl a whole site from their own computer.
A desktop crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux that checks a site for over 300 SEO issues, from broken links and redirects to page titles, duplicate pages and hreflang. A licence removes the 500-URL limit and adds saved crawls, JavaScript rendering and API integrations.
- Entry price
- $279 per user a year
- Free option
- Free version crawls up to 500 URLs, with no sign-up
Pick another tool if: It runs on your machine, so the size of a crawl depends on its memory and storage, and each user needs their own licence.
9.PageSpeed Insights
Best for: Finding out why one page is slow, on mobile and on desktop.
Google's speed test reports real visitors' Core Web Vitals from the Chrome User Experience Report over the previous 28 days, beside a Lighthouse lab test that lists what to fix.
- Entry price
- Free
- Free option
- Free in the browser, no sign-up
Pick another tool if: It tests one URL at a time, and a new or quiet page may have no real-visitor data. To check every page on a site, Screaming Frog is the better fit.
10.Moz Pro
Best for: Small businesses that want core SEO metrics at a modest price.
A $49/mo plan covers one website. Keyword Explorer gives volume, Keyword Difficulty and suggestions, and Standard at $99/mo adds 300 tracked keywords and 50 AI prompts checked weekly.
- Entry price
- $49/mo for one website; Standard $99/mo, or $79/mo paid yearly
- Free option
- Free trial; a free Moz Community account gives limited Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer and MozBar access
Pick another tool if: AI prompts are checked once a week, per their pricing page.
11.Surfer
Best for: Content teams writing and optimizing pages to rank in Google and get cited by AI.
Discovery covers 120 documents and 10 tracked pages. Standard adds 25 AI prompts refreshed weekly, and it connects to WordPress, Google Docs, Contentful and Zapier.
- Entry price
- $49/mo (Discovery), billed yearly
- Free option
- A free AI visibility audit and free AI Detector and Humanizer tools
Pick another tool if: Discovery has no AI prompt tracking, and only yearly prices are shown on their pricing page.
Surfer's site now carries the name Positive Surfer.
12.Mangools (KWFinder)
Best for: Beginners and freelancers who want easy keyword research at a low price.
KWFinder is the keyword tool in the Mangools bundle, with more than 65,000 locations for local keyword research. Basic allows 100 keyword lookups a day and tracks 200 keyword positions.
- Entry price
- $37.70/mo (Basic), billed annually
- Free option
- Free account with 5 KWFinder lookups a day; 48-hour money-back guarantee
Pick another tool if: Basic has no extra seats; a team needs Premium at $52.70/mo billed annually.
Which one to pick
- You want to know which page on your site should target each search, and what to write nextSearchBlueprint
- You want your own Google clicks and indexing problems, for freeGoogle Search Console
- You want to know what search visitors do on your site, for freeGoogle Analytics
- You want search volumes without paying for a suiteGoogle Keyword Planner
- You want every kind of search data in one subscriptionSemrush or Ahrefs
- You run SEO for several client sitesSE Ranking
- You want to crawl a site for technical problemsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
- You want to know why one page loads slowlyPageSpeed Insights
- You write and optimize content every weekSurfer
- You want the lowest paid price for keyword researchMangools
Questions people ask
What is the best free SEO tool?
For your own site, Google Search Console: it is free and its data comes straight from Google. Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs, and our free tools check one page, one keyword or a robots.txt file with no signup.
Do I need more than one SEO tool?
Usually. Search Console covers your own site in Google; a paid tool adds research on searches and competitors you don't see there. Pay for a suite when you research every week or work on several sites.
What is the difference between an SEO tool and an SEO plugin?
A WordPress SEO plugin edits the titles, meta tags and sitemap on your own site. The tools on this list research searches, competitors and pages from outside it.
Do SEO tools use Google's own data?
Only Google's do. Search Console and Keyword Planner report Google's data, and PageSpeed Insights reads real Chrome users. Google's page on hiring an SEO says third-party tools have no access to its internal ranking data, so their scores are estimates.
Which free SEO tools come from Google?
Search Console for your site in Google Search, Google Analytics for what visitors do, Keyword Planner for search volumes inside Google Ads, and PageSpeed Insights for page speed. All four are free.
Is SearchBlueprint an SEO tool?
Yes, a planning one: it decides which page on your site targets which search and what to write next. It has no backlink index and no daily tracking of positions, so pair it with a suite if you need that data.
Before you pick a tool, see what your own site needs.
Start with the plan for your own site: which page targets each search, and what to write next. The first one is free.
- Free first plan
- No credit card
- Keep your plan