Cheap SEO Tools: What You Get Under $50 a Month

Prices are list prices from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026. Start with the limit, not the price: most cheap plans cap one thing hard, such as tracked keywords, audit pages or credits.

On these plans, Keysearch and Ubersuggest cap tracked keywords between 80 and 200. A site with 300 or more keywords to track needs bots or a plan with a larger quota.

• Google Search Console is free. Its search analytics shows which queries bring users to your site, with impressions, clicks and position.
• The Search Console API returns search analytics rows in pages of 25,000, up to 50,000 rows per day per search type, sorted by clicks. That is free, but it is not a full export on a large site; use the BigQuery export for everything else.
• Bing Webmaster Tools has keyword research with search volumes, a Site Scan audit and a backlink report.
• Ahrefs Free says it checks 170+ technical and on-page SEO issues, with 5,000 crawl credits per project each month.
• Ahrefs Free shows up to 1,000 backlinks and up to 1,000 keywords at once for your own sites.
• Google Keyword Planner is free. It gives keyword ideas and bid estimates.
• Google Business Profile is free to create. Listing your business on Google costs nothing.
• Seobility Basic is free forever. It tracks 10 keywords on 1 project and audits up to 100 pages per crawl.

Keywords Everywhere charges one credit per keyword. A Google search also loads related keywords and People Also Ask questions, and each one uses a credit.

A search that shows 20 People Also Ask questions and 8 related keywords uses 1 + 20 + 8 = 29 credits. Bulk data uses a credit for each keyword you enter, with or without search volume.

When credits run out, Keywords Everywhere stops showing volume, CPC and competition. The related-keyword widgets keep showing keywords.

• Ubersuggest Individual: 250 monthly credits and 150 searches a day, $29 a month.
• Ubersuggest Business: 500 monthly credits and 300 searches a day, $49 a month.
• Keysearch Starter: 200 keyword searches a day, $24 a month. Keysearch Pro: 500 a day, $48 a month.
• Mangools Basic: 100 keyword research requests per 24 hours, $61 a month or $37.70 a month billed annually. Premium: 500 per 24 hours.
• SpyFu Basic: 10k keyword search results, $39 a month, or $29 a month billed annually.
• Wincher Keyword Explorer: unlimited daily lookups on every plan, with up to 50 related keywords per search on Basic.
• Google Keyword Planner is free, with keyword ideas and bid estimates.

Credit quotas suit bulk lists. Daily search quotas suit ad hoc research. A tool with both suits a team that does both.

Each paid SERPRobot bot costs $4.99 a month and gives 75 keyword updates per 24 hours. Add bots as your keyword list grows.

Per tracked keyword, that is $4.99 divided by 75, or $0.0665 a month for daily checks.

SE Ranking Core tracks 2,000 keywords daily for $129 a month, which is $0.0645 per keyword. On annual billing at $103.20 a month, it is $0.0516 per keyword.

At 2,000 keywords checked daily, a bot route needs 27 bots: 27 x $4.99 = $134.73 a month. Compare the quotas as each vendor lists them, and compare features too.

Per keyword, the two routes cost about the same at full quota, so the choice comes down to features and limits.

• Ubersuggest: 125 tracked keywords per project on Individual and 150 on Business. Updates are weekly.
• Keysearch: 80 tracked keywords per month on Starter, 200 on Pro.
• SpyFu Basic: 5k keywords for rank tracking.
• Mangools Basic: 200 keywords across unlimited domains, with weekly updates, at $61 a month or $37.70 billed annually.
• Wincher: daily ranking updates from 500 keywords on Basic, $49 a month or $41 billed yearly. On-demand updates start on Standard.
• Seobility Basic: 10 keywords on 1 project.

For a self-hosted route that bills per request, see our Semrush alternative guide. It covers an OpenSEO setup on the DataForSEO API that costs about $5.30 a month for 368 keywords tracked weekly, against $4.99 for one bot.

The free Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawls up to 500 URLs. A paid license costs $279 a year, or $23.25 a month ($279 divided by 12).

Licenses are per user, so two people need two licenses. Five to nine licenses cost $265 each per year.

The paid version has no fixed URL cap. Memory and storage set the limit.

Ahrefs Free spends crawl credits only on HTML pages that return HTTP 200. Redirects, broken URLs and non-HTML files use none, so a clean site stretches the allowance.

• Ahrefs Free shows up to 1,000 backlinks at once for your own sites, with sorting and filters.
• Ahrefs Free also lists broken links and link types: nofollow, UGC and sponsored.
• Bing Webmaster Tools shows referring pages, referring domains and anchor texts for your site.
• Keywords Everywhere lists the top 1,000 backlinks per website on Bronze, 2,000 on Silver and 5,000 on Gold.

Competitor analysis is the line between free and paid. Ahrefs Starter costs $29 a month. When Ahrefs launched it in September 2024, it gave 200 credits a month, no add-on credits or extra users, and monthly renewal only; check the pricing page for current terms. Site Audit and Rank Tracker are included and do not use credits.

Starter leaves $21 of a $50 budget for other tools.

For content tools, the article or document count decides the choice more than the price. Frase Starter gives 10 articles a month. Ubersuggest Business gives 5 AI articles.

SEO Minion comes with Keywords Everywhere Silver and up. Bronze does not include it.

• Google Business Profile is free to create, and listing your business on Google costs nothing.
• BrightLocal Track: $41 a month billed monthly, or $31 a month billed annually ($369 a year). It covers 100 keywords, four competitors and a geo-grid for five keywords.
• BrightLocal Manage: $54 a month billed monthly, or $40 a month billed annually. It adds listing sync and Google Business Profile post scheduling.
• Wincher local tracker: Google Maps positions on every plan, with weekly updates, unlimited locations and 25 included credits. Extra credits cost €10 per 500.
• Ubersuggest allows 20 locations per project on Individual, and unlimited locations on Business.

For 2 to 5 locations, BrightLocal Track is $62 a month billed monthly, or $47 a month billed annually.

Use these seven free tools together: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Ahrefs Free, the free Screaming Frog crawler, Google Keyword Planner, Google Business Profile and Seobility Basic.

• Keyword ideas: Google Keyword Planner and Bing keyword research.
• Search performance: Search Console queries, clicks, impressions and position, up to 50,000 rows per day per search type through the API.
• Audits: 500 URLs per Screaming Frog crawl and 5,000 Ahrefs crawl credits per project each month.
• Rank tracking: 10 keywords on Seobility Basic.
• Competitors: none. Ahrefs Free covers your own sites only.

Total: $0 a month.

On annual billing for Keywords Everywhere, the year costs $168 + ($4.99 x 12 = $59.88) = $227.88.

Headroom: $1.01 under $20 a month. Capacity: 75 keywords checked daily and 400,000 Keywords Everywhere credits a year for up to 3 seats.

Headroom: $4.02 under $50 a month. Capacity: 150 keywords checked daily, 100,000 Keywords Everywhere credits a year, and Ahrefs Starter credits (200 a month at launch) for competitor analysis.

• Rank-heavy, $33.96 a month: the $0 stack, Keywords Everywhere Silver at $14, and 4 SERPRobot bots at $19.96. That tracks 300 keywords daily.
• All-in-one, $39 to $49 a month: SpyFu Basic at $39, Keysearch Pro at $48, or Ubersuggest Business at $49.

Move up when the rank-check count outgrows the bot route. At 2,000 keywords checked daily, a bot route costs $134.73 a month, while SE Ranking Core tracks that quota for $129.

• Ahrefs Starter launched with a 200-credit monthly allowance and no add-ons. Heavy competitor research hits that limit first.
• Free Ahrefs and Search Console cover your own sites only. Competitor and market work needs a paid plan.
• Ubersuggest Business caps tracked keywords at 150 per project, and Keysearch Pro at 200 per month. Past that, a larger quota or a suite fits better.