9 Semrush Alternatives to Upgrade Your SEO Strategy [2025]

Semrush is one of the biggest names in SEO. But, lately, it feels bloated and expensive, especially because apart from SEO, key features like AI visibility, content, and PPC are sold as separate toolkits (unless you purchase the more expensive SEO plans).

If you’re looking for platforms that give you strong SEO features without the fragmentation (and often at a better price), here are the best Semrush alternatives worth considering in 2025.

What Are the Best Semrush Alternatives as of August 2025?

Based on our latest feature and pricing analysis as of August 2025, Writesonic, SE Ranking, and Nightwatch stand out as the most balanced Semrush alternatives this month. Each offers a strong mix of traditional SEO features and emerging capabilities like AI search visibility tracking—without the need for stacked toolkits or high-tier upgrades.

These platforms are especially valuable because they’ve recently rolled out feature updates that cover SEO and AI search in one plan, making them easier to adopt and more affordable than Semrush’s bundled offerings.

If you’re re-evaluating your SEO stack this quarter, these three tools are delivering the most complete functionality at a fraction of Semrush’s cost.

Semrush Alternatives: Comparison Table

All pricing and features are updated based on the information available in August 2025.

9 Best Semrush Alternatives for 2025

Here are the 9 best Semrush alternatives, along with their features and pricing.

1. Writesonic

Writesonic is your all-in-one SEO and AI visibility platform. It gives you the full SEO toolkit plus built-in AI search tracking and optimization.

Pricing: Starts at $39/month. AI visibility features unlock with the Professional plan at $199/month (billed annually).

Unique Features

• Keyword Research & Clustering: Find keywords relevant to your industry and group related keywords into smart clusters.
  
• Content Strategy Planner: Automatically generates campaign roadmaps that combine SEO and AI visibility opportunities.
  
• Site Audit: Identify technical SEO issues across your site and get recommendations for fixes.
  
• Content Gap Analysis: Compare your content coverage against competitors and uncover high-value topics you’re missing.
  
• AI Visibility Tracking: Measure how often your site is cited in AI search results across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot.
  
• Citations Overview: All AI mentions of your site in one table, with filters to track competitors, trends, and content performance.
  
• Prompt Explorer + AI Search Volume: Discover what people are asking AI tools (and how often), then use that data to guide your content.

Writesonic as a Semrush Alternative: With Semrush, you’ll often need to upgrade to a higher-tier plan or pay for separate add-ons, especially for something as essential as AI visibility. Writesonic includes these features by default, giving you SEO and AI search tools in a single, all-in-one platform without stacking on extra costs.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most established SEO platforms, known for its backlink data and keyword research depth. It’s less broad than Semrush but goes deeper in its core areas.

Pricing: Plans start at $129/month (billed annually).

Unique Features

• Massive Backlink Index: Over 30 trillion known links with detailed filtering options across referring domains, anchors, and link growth.
  
• Content Explorer: Search any keyword or topic to find the most linked-to, shared, or cited pages across the web.
  
• Link Intersect Tool: Uncover backlink opportunities by seeing which sites link to your competitors but not to you.
  
• New & Lost Links Tracker: Daily updates showing which backlinks you’ve gained or lost, with context and impact metrics.
  
• Limited AI Search Tracking: The Brand Radar tool checks if you appear in AI answers but lacks prompt-level insights, citation context, or fix suggestions.

Ahrefs as a Semrush Alternative: Ahrefs gives you solid SEO coverage, especially for backlinks, site audits, and keyword research. However, it lacks built-in content tools, and its AI visibility tracking is still limited. It can work as a Semrush alternative if your focus is mainly on technical SEO and link building, but you may need other tools to complete your workflow.

Check this detailed Ahrefs vs Semrush review for more information.

3. Moz

Moz is a compact SEO platform that’s best known for its simplicity and beginner-friendly interface. It doesn’t try to match Semrush’s all-in-one scope, but it offers the fundamentals without the clutter.

Pricing: Plans start at $49/month (billed annually).

Unique Features

• Page Optimization Score: Get a real-time score and checklist for improving individual pages, based on Moz’s SEO rules.
  
• Spam Score for Backlinks: Flag potentially harmful links using Moz’s proprietary spam metrics to avoid penalties.
  
• Link Explorer: Provides overview metrics like Domain Authority and Page Authority to benchmark your domain strength.
  
• On-demand Crawls: Run technical audits with instant crawl scheduling and issue prioritization.
  
• No Real AI Visibility Tools: While Moz covers traditional SEO well, it doesn’t offer any features to monitor AI search citations or prompt coverage.

Moz as a Semrush Alternative: Moz is a simpler, more approachable SEO tool with a clean UI and helpful suggestions for beginners. It’s less comprehensive than Semrush, especially in areas like AI visibility, competitive research, and advanced reporting. But if you’re after ease of use over depth, Moz can be a solid alternative.

4. BrightEdge

BrightEdge is an enterprise SEO platform designed for large organizations managing multi-domain strategies. It focuses on connecting SEO with measurable business outcomes, combining search insights, content optimization, and performance tracking.

Pricing: Custom-quoted pricing only. Typically starts in the thousands per month with annual contracts.

Unique Features

• Data Cube: Enterprise-grade search data warehouse combining keyword, content, and performance metrics at scale.
  
• ContentIQ: Deep site auditing tool that identifies SEO issues across thousands of pages and tracks fixes over time.
  
• StoryBuilder Dashboards: Drag-and-drop SEO dashboards for customized reporting with cross-channel data.
  
• AI Integration (Autopilot): Uses AI to recommend actions and automate content adjustments—but focused on SEO, not AI search visibility.
  
• No Prompt-Level AI Tracking: While BrightEdge supports some AI workflows, it lacks visibility or reporting on citations from tools like ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews.

BrightEdge as a Semrush Alternative: BrightEdge focuses more on high-level reporting and strategy than day-to-day SEO tasks. It’s useful if you need dashboards, workflows, and performance tracking across lots of pages or teams. But it’s not as hands-on or flexible as Semrush when it comes to content creation, quick research, or experimentation.

5. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is a mid-market SEO platform that balances affordability with core features. It doesn’t try to cover everything like Semrush, but it gives you the main workflows without the heavy complexity.

Pricing: Plans start at $52/month (billed annually).

Unique Features

• Multi-layered Rank Tracking: Track rankings across multiple search engines, regions, and devices with customizable frequency (daily, weekly, etc.).
  
• Page Changes Monitoring: Get alerts when important on-page elements (titles, content, links) are modified.
  
• Marketing Plan Module: Pre-built SEO checklist that functions like a guided action plan, especially helpful for beginners.
  
• White Label Reports: Full white-labeling across client dashboards, PDFs, and emails with customizable branding.
  
• AI Overview Tracker: Lets you check if your site appears in AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, etc.), but doesn’t track prompt or citation-level data.

SE Ranking as a Semrush Alternative: SE Ranking gives you most of the core SEO tools—like audits, rank tracking, and backlink data—without the complexity or cost of Semrush. It’s easier to use, and AI visibility tracking is included in mid-tier plans. If you want something simpler and more budget-friendly, it’s a practical switch.

6. SISTRIX

SISTRIX is a professional SEO platform best known for its Visibility Index, a metric that measures how prominently domains show up in Google search results. It’s widely used in Europe and is strong for competitive benchmarking.

Pricing: Plans start at €119/month or ~$140/month, with higher tiers unlocking more modules and users.

Unique Features

• Visibility Index: Proprietary score to benchmark your domain’s organic visibility across regions, updated daily.
  
• SERP History: View historic search result snapshots to analyze how SERPs evolve over time.
  
• On-SERP Feature Tracking: See how often your content appears in specific SERP features (like People Also Ask, Featured Snippets).
  
• Content Discovery Tool: Discover pages on any domain sorted by traffic potential, internal links, and performance gaps.
  
• Google Updates Radar: Detect traffic fluctuations caused by algorithm changes, shown visually across keywords and URLs.

SISTRIX as a Semrush Alternative: SISTRIX is built around visibility scores and long-term tracking, especially for European markets. It’s great for benchmarking domains and spotting trends over time. But compared to Semrush, it’s lighter on content tools and harder to use for day-to-day SEO tasks like writing, optimizing, or running quick audits.

7. Morningscore

Morningscore takes a gamified approach to SEO, turning tasks into missions with XP points and ROI tracking. It’s designed to keep teams motivated while still covering the basics.

Pricing: Plans start at $49/month, with pricing based on credits for websites and competitors.

Unique Features

• Gamified SEO Missions: Turn SEO tasks into “missions” that award XP points, badges, and completion streaks to boost motivation.
  
• ROI Forecasting: Shows expected value and difficulty for every SEO task, so you know where to focus first.
  
• SEO Health Timeline: Visual history of all improvements and drops in SEO performance over time.
  
• SEO Audit as Quests: Step-by-step guidance that feels more like a to-do list than a report, including priority scoring.
  
• Basic ChatGPT Tracker: A single toggle shows if you’ve been cited in any AI answers, though it lacks detailed prompt tracking.

Morningscore as a Semrush Alternative: Morningscore takes a gamified approach to SEO. It turns tasks into “missions” that help you stay focused and motivated. While Semrush is packed with features, Morningscore keeps things simple.

8. Nightwatch

Nightwatch is an SEO platform that majorly focuses on rank tracking. You can track keywords across Google, Bing, YouTube, and even AI search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini with location accuracy down to the zip code.

Pricing: Plans start at $32/month for 250 keywords, with pricing scaling by the number of tracked terms.

Unique Features

• Hyper-local Tracking: Monitor rankings for thousands of locations worldwide, down to the ZIP/postal code level.
  
• AI/LLM Rank Monitoring: Track positions within AI-generated overviews from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and more.
  
• Click Potential Metric: Predicts how likely users are to click your result based on ranking position, snippet type, and SERP layout.
  
• Data Studio Integration: Plug directly into Google Looker Studio for real-time reporting across SEO and AI visibility.
  
• SERP Volatility Index: Understand when search results are unstable—great for algorithm update detection.

Nightwatch as a Semrush Alternative: Nightwatch is built for accurate rank tracking at scale. It’s great if you care about precise positions across multiple locations or engines. But unlike Semrush, it doesn’t offer research, content, or backlink tools—so it works best as a complement, not a full replacement.

9. Mangools

Mangools is a lightweight SEO toolkit designed for users who want the basics without the overwhelm. It keeps things simple with keyword research, rank tracking, and backlink checks.

Pricing: Plans start at $14.95/month (billed annually).

Unique Features

• All-in-one Simplicity: Combines five tools (KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner, SiteProfiler) in one low-cost bundle.
  
• Keyword Difficulty Scoring: Uses a proprietary system based on link profiles to help you find easy-win keywords.
  
• SERP Snapshot with Metrics: View full SERPs alongside key SEO metrics like DA, backlink counts, and CTR estimations.
  
• AI Search Grader: Checks if your pages show up in ChatGPT and other AI tools—but doesn’t provide prompt or citation detail.
  
• Mini-Dashboard Mode: Great for freelancers who want a fast, visual overview of site performance in under 60 seconds.

Mangools as a Semrush Alternative: Mangools is great if you want a straightforward SEO tool without the complexity of Semrush. It’s fast, simple, and gets the job done for keyword research and rankings. But it caps daily usage with credits, which can be limiting if you’re running multiple projects or tracking lots of keywords.

Final Thoughts: Which Is The Best Semrush Alternative?

All of these Semrush alternatives bring something valuable to the table. Some focus on rank tracking, some on content, and others on competitive visibility. But if you want everything in one place — traditional SEO plus AI visibility without juggling multiple toolkits — Writesonic is the most complete option.

It’s built for how search works today, combining SEO fundamentals with AI search tracking and optimization so you can win visibility in both Google and generative engines.

Start with Writesonic today and streamline your SEO + AI visibility workflow in a single platform.

FAQs About Semrush Alternatives

1. Why switch from Semrush to another SEO tool?

Semrush is powerful, but its features are split across multiple toolkits that can quickly become expensive. Many teams are now switching to alternatives that offer SEO and AI search features together, under one plan.

2. What’s the best Semrush alternative if I want both SEO and AI visibility tools?

Writesonic is the top choice if you want both. It combines a full SEO stack (audits, keyword research, content tools) with AI search features like prompt tracking, citation analysis, and visibility monitoring—all in one platform.

3. Are there cheaper Semrush alternatives for freelancers or small businesses?

Yes. Mangools and Morningscore are two affordable options. They cover essential SEO workflows with simpler interfaces and lower pricing, though they may lack some advanced AI tracking.

4. Does any Semrush alternative support rank tracking across AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. Tools like Writesonic, Nightwatch, and SISTRIX offer AI visibility tracking. They show how often your site appears in AI-generated answers across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Niyati Mahale

Niyati Mahale is a Content Writer @Writesonic. She specializes in artificial intelligence and B2B, with a flair for combining effective storytelling and SEO best practices to create impactful content.