Cheap SEO Tools level the digital playing field. They grant almost anyone access to the goldmine of Search Engine Optimization.
Key Takeaways
- Mangools and SE Ranking are our top comprehensive SEO tools for 2024. They support effective SEO strategy creation with their affordable pricing and robust features.
- Mangools is notable for its simple interface and affordability at $19.50 a month. Not to mention it provides high-quality data for effective analysis.
- SE Ranking offers extensive features and robust data suitable for crafting in-depth strategies.
- For full technical SEO audits on a budget, we recommend Sitebulb and Screaming Frog. These tools provide detailed and actionable insights necessary for advanced website code optimization.
About Our List of the Best Cheap SEO Tools for 2024
I address the options for 2 types of cheap SEO tools in this post. First I cover affordable comprehensive SEO tools, then I cover technical SEO audit tools.
1. Comprehensive SEO Tools
The first tools I cover are comprehensive SEO tools, also called analysis tools by some. These tools are data sources that include the following capabilities at a minimum:
- Keyword Research
- Competitor URL Research
- Backlink Research
For this type of tool, I assume that you are looking for something that can help you perform excellent SEO strategy research. You want to make a rock-solid plan for keyword research and link building but don’t want to pay for something more premium like AHREFs or SEMrush that both start at around $100 a month.
2. Technical SEO Audit Tools
This is the other kind of tool you need to run a minimal yet full campaign for yourself or a client. Yes, some of the comprehensive tool options on my list also include an auditing feature, but they don’t quite allow for the flexibility and depth of the tech audit tools I’ll cover.
A good technical auditing tool can scan and extract the entire corpus or subsets of public html from a website. Then provide actionable insights. Most of the “audit features” on other tools barely scratch the surface.
Top Affordable Comprehensive SEO Tools: Features, Prices, etc.
To be clear, I really only recommend the top 2 tools on this list. The other tools are included because I want to prove my case as to why you should just try out the first 2. There really isn’t much reason to use tools 3-5 though in my opinion after comparing price, features, and taking them all for a spin.
Additionally, for those who don’t want to spend a dime, there is also a special bonus at the end.
1. Mangools
Mangools is my personal favorite affordable SEO tool on this list. I’m likely a little biased since I’ve used this tool for 7 years. Even after having run campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, it remains part of my tool stack.
Features
Mangools offers a wide array of features that you can use to craft excellent SEO strategies, such as:
- Keyword research
- Competitor keyword research
- Backlink research
- Rank tracking
- SERP research
- Competitor website profiling (similar to a report builder)
Review
The Keyword Difficulty feature is one of the best in the industry. In fact, it’s so good that I often run my keywords through this tool for a second opinion after pulling data from AHREFs or SEMrush. We aren’t the only ones that think that either.
Mangools even has metrics like Moz DA, Moz PA, Majestic Trust Flow, and Citation Flow integrated. An excellent value add since trust flow is used so widely in Link Building.
If you are a beginner in making SEO strategies then I especially suggest checking this tool out. It’s worth it to put in the work to find keywords this tool indicates have a low difficulty. From my experience, there is a good chance even a beginner can rank for many of them.
The interface is very straightforward and easy for beginners to use. In my opinion, the easiest to use on this list.
The data points aren’t always as accurate as tools at higher price points. Sometimes they’re better though. I’ve often experienced this tool scrape backlinks that even AHREFs sometimes misses.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $19.50
Pros
- Wide range of capabilities
- Excellent user experience
- Premium Keyword and Backlink Data for Strategy Formulation
- Great customer support
Cons
- Certain data discrepancies when compared to premium tools, especially concerning the competitor keyword research feature.
- No site auditing feature. Although none of the site audit features from other tools on this specific list are very effective compared to actual technical SEO audit tools.
- Entry level plan doesn’t allow for enough searches per day to perform full research (but the upgraded version is only $29.90)
2. SE Ranking
I took SE Ranking for a comprehensive test drive before writing this post and was thoroughly impressed. You can really do a lot of research with this tool. It is certainly robust enough to craft effective SEO strategies on a budget.
Features
This tool might have the most features on this list. Those include:
- Keyword research
- Backlink research
- Competitor keyword research
- Backlink monitoring
- Rank tracking
- SERP research
- Report building
- Site audit
- Personal Google Business Profile monitoring
- Content strategy planning
Review
My personal favorite feature of SE Ranking was their competitor keyword analysis. I think that feature is particularly good for a tool at this price point and outclasses Mangools.
There is no denying that this tool has lots of features that go above and beyond most other tools on this list.
This tool is a great budget option but I want to be clear. Simply having a lot of features does not automatically make a tool the best.
Overall these extra features are cool and helpful to an extent. That said they are overly simplistic, especially for the affordable plan option so there is really a minimal benefit to having them. There are much better ways of conducting many of the processes offered by their extra features with other tools. It almost feels like they tried doing too much.
For example, a perk of this tool compared to the others on the list is that it offers an audit feature. That audit feature is nowhere near as robust as the audit-specific tools I’ll mention in the next section. Your website likely wouldn’t reach full technical optimization even if you used it to the max extent.
Then there is the Content Editor. It creates really helpful briefs and extracts important info that competitors include in their content. It was not that simple to use and in my opinion, has a subpar UX. It also gave the impression it would write my article for me, but that wasn’t available when I tried to use it. I’d opt for ChatGPTor Meta AI over that any day.
Lastly, I was personally not a huge fan of the user interface. It’s likely a little too advanced for beginners and would probably have a steep learning curve for most users, myself included.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $44.00
Pros
- Wide range of capabilities
- More capabilities than any other cheap SEO tool
Cons
- Interface might be too complex for beginners
- Some features have confusing UX
- Limited backlink data
- Special features are too basic with the cheap plan
3. Serpstat
I spent some time playing around with Serpstat while writing this blog post. Overall, there are a decent amount of features but I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed in the performance.
Features
Has a wide range of features including:
- Keyword Research
- Backlink Research
- Rank Tracking
- Site Auditing
- On-Page SEO Checker
There are more features but they aren’t available to the basic plan. I left them out because if you upgrade to a higher plan, then you are no longer in the range of cheap solutions.
Review
The data was very limited for the websites and keywords I researched with this tool
In my opinion the user experience is better than SE Ranking but not as good as Mangools.
Some cool features like domain batch analysis and keyword clustering are not available to the entry-level plan.
This is a very standard affordable SEO tool. I don’t really see any reason to use this tool over SE Ranking or Mangools.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $59
Pros
- Has all the necessary features to run an SEO campaign
- There is a free version (very limited)
Cons
- Limited Data
- Entry level Plan has limited features
4. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a classic SEO tool that was purchased by Neil Patel. It used to be entirely free but Neil has added some improvements that might make it worth paying for. Overall, this tool is very similar to Mangools but not quite as robust in my opinion and definitely more expensive.
Features
Features include:
- Keyword Research
- Backlink Research
- Content Ideas
- Rank Tracking
- Site Audit
Review
Ubersuggest was originally designed to be a free keyword research tool. Back in the mid 2010’s it was a real gem as far as free resources went. Today it has evolved into a paid comprehensive SEO platform.
In my opinion, the main selling point of this tool is the ease of use and friendly user interface. It’s a good tool for beginners and really straightforward.
This tool has all the important features that you’d want an SEO tool to have. You can certainly craft a strategy with it.
That said, some of the features are basic and others are more superficial like the technical audit. You truly can’t accomplish much with it.
To be frank, I’m not sure why someone would use this tool over Mangools. While I still think it deserves a spot on this list, I’d recommend spending your money on either Mangools or SE Ranking before this one.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $49
Pros
- Has all the necessary features to run an SEO campaign
- Good user experience
- Easy to use and great for beginners (but I’d expect you to quickly grow out of it)
Cons
- Limited data outputs
- Seemingly inaccurate data compared to other tools
- Similar to Mangools but less robust and way more expensive
5. SpyFu
SpyFu is a classic tool that can be very useful but has failed to keep up throughout the years.
Features
Some key SEO features include:
- Keyword research
- Competitor keyword research
- Backlink research
Review
Has cool data visualizations and the core features you would need to craft an SEO strategy. From my experience customer support is also great.
The competitor keyword research feature is pretty good for the price point. That aligns perfectly with their selling point, after all, they’re called “SpyFu.” It seems more geared toward PPC than SEO for which they have a whole suite of features. So if you are doing both SEO and PPC, then that might also be a reason to consider this cheap SEO spy tool.
The reason this tool comes in last on this list is because I doubt the accuracy of the metrics. It has also not remained as competitive over time as newer tools like SE Ranking and Mangools have beefed up their offerings.
I mainly researched my own sites when testing these tools out. I compared what the tools spit out to the real-world data I see in Google Search Console. This one made me chuckle at how off the data was.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $39
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Great customer support
- Robust competitor keyword analysis
Cons
- Data accuracy concerns
- Does not deliver great insights about keywords and backlinks comparatively
- Lacks features compared to the other tools on this list
Bonus: Free SEO Keyword & Backlink Tools
If you’re on a really tight budget (or have no budget), there is an answer for you. It’s true that these tools have limitations but if you are determined to do SEO and just need some free data then I have good news.
These tools are genuinely free to use (yes they have limitations):
- The Hoth’s Free Keyword Volume Checker
- The Hoth’s Free Keyword Planner Tool (powered by SEMrush)
(Note: I genuinely believe the Hoth’s free tools are great. But I want to make it clear, I do not recommend you purchase any of their products except the content, and that’s only if you really know what you are doing and can provide them with a full strategy and outline for the posts.)
Best Cheap Technical SEO Audit Tools
SiteBulb
Sitebulb is a very useful tool for a beginner trying to perform a full technical SEO audit. This tool is the most economical option for a full site audit that also holds your hand through the entire process.
You simply add the website you want to audit, let Sitebulb crawl it then it spits out a very nice-looking report. The report is neatly organized, and spreadsheets with impacted URLs can be easily downloaded. Lastly, they have an awesome knowledge base you can use to help developers understand what needs to be changed on the website and why in order to rectify any errors.
If you are new to performing full site audits then I definitely include Sitebulb.
Entry Level Monthly Price: $13.50
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is not beginner friendly but if you plan to do SEO for a long time then I implore you to become familiar. Learning Screaming Frog is a key step in becoming a first-class Technical SEO Specialist.
Unlike Sitebulb, this is a fully manual auditing tool. It essentially scrapes specific data points from the code of websites and organizes them so you can analyze them.
Entry Level Yearly Price: $259 (around $21.58 per month)
Bonus: Free Single Page Audit Tool
Similarly to the tools above, the Hoth has a pretty good single-page audit tool called the SEO Report Tool.
Can I Just Use the Audit From a Cheap Comprehensive Tool?
You can but if you really want Google to love your website then I wouldn’t. These audits really miss a lot.
They are not true technical audit tools in my opinion, they focus on simple aspects of an audit as well as content and backlink competitiveness.
I’m by no means trying to diminish simple technical audits. They flag important technical items like title tags and meta descriptions. But to truly compete in most spaces it’s worth it to dig in and learn how to properly perform a technical SEO audit.
Affordable SEO Tools Are Game-Changers for Small Businesses
We are living in an era where Google is the single biggest driver of website traffic. Being able to effectively tap into Google and drive targeted visits to your website could mean a large bump to your revenues.
Getting into the game even through free or cheap SEO tools can still help you grow.
The Downside to Using Cheap SEO Tools
The biggest limitation of most of these tools is the amount of data one can access. This really just means that when you look for info like competitor keywords or backlinks, you won’t get as many results as you would with a more expensive tool.
The data limitations are the main reasons why we are like Mangools and SE Ranking so much. We feel like in this aspect especially, they are an especially great value for the money.
Should I Even Bother With These Tools?
If you have budget constraints but need to do SEO, then in my opinion that answer is absolutely yes. In spite of their limitations, these tools can help you run excellent campaigns. If you are willing to work hard and pair them with other free resources then you can get really far with these tools.
It’s worth pointing out that for a lot of these tools like SE Ranking, SERP Stat, and Spyfu, the upgraded tools are so similar in cost to more robust tools like AHREFs or SEMrush. So, if you’re willing to pay that much you might as well just upgrade to one of those tools.
Take Action: Elevate Your SEO Strategy with Inexpensive Tools
If you are holding back on starting an SEO initiative because you can’t afford a top-quality tool, then what are you waiting for? The free tools mentioned above are more than enough to get started! Not to mention that all the tools on the list we covered either offer a free trial or a free version which all together should help you hit the ground running.
Ultimately these tools make it so that practically anyone can get into SEO today and start ranking pages!
If you are still unsure about where to start, then you can request a free SEO marketing plan from our agency today!