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The best cheap SEO tools in 2026

By Udayan Ambwani, Co-founder & CTO · 2 Oct 2026

Cheap should mean the lowest bill for a tool you will keep using. We priced seven tools for one person and one website, paying yearly where that is cheaper, and list them by what each costs for that setup, cheapest first, with Veritas, our product, priced by the same rule.

Ubersuggest homepage
Ubersuggest homepage, 29 September 2026
Ahrefs homepage
Ahrefs homepage, 29 September 2026
Mangools homepage
Mangools homepage, 29 September 2026

The short answer

The cheapest plan is only cheap if it covers what you check every week. Start on a free tier, and pay for the first limit you actually hit rather than the biggest plan you can afford.

  • UbersuggestFor a full suite for $29 a month, or a one-time lifetime plan.$29/mo
  • AhrefsFor free backlink and keyword data for sites you own.$129/mo
  • MangoolsFor easy keyword research with AI tracking, $37.70 billed yearly.$37.70/mo
  • VeritasOursFor the lowest paid entry here, with content drafting included.$13/mo

How to choose a cheap SEO tool

A cheap tool is only cheap if you keep using it, so decide first which weekly job you are paying for: tracking a few rankings, researching competitors, finding keywords or getting pages written. Each cheap plan here is strong at one of those and thin on the rest.

Use the free tiers before any card. Verify your own site with Ahrefs Free and it lists up to 1,000 of its backlinks and keywords; Mangools allows five lookups a day without a card, Ubersuggest three searches a day with 25 tracked keywords, and Moz ten Link Explorer queries a month. SpyFu’s free version has no time limit.

Then check what each entry plan leaves out. Rankings update weekly on Ubersuggest, SpyFu, Mangools Basic and Moz Starter. SpyFu Basic has no historical data and stops at 10,000 rows, Moz Starter allows 75 keyword queries a month with no AI tracking, Mangools describes no site audit, and Veritas Starter, ours, leaves local SEO, AI tracking and backlinks to higher plans.

Match the plan to the job. For competitor research, SpyFu Basic tracks 5,000 keywords for $29 a month billed yearly. For keyword research alone, Mangools Basic costs $37.70 billed yearly. For drafting, Veritas Starter is $13 billed yearly. For daily tracking of many keywords, SE Ranking Core, at $103.20 billed yearly, is the least a full suite costs here.

Finally, pay yearly only once you are sure. Annual billing cuts SpyFu Basic to $29 a month and Mangools Basic to $37.70, but the refund windows are short: 48 hours on Mangools and 30 days on SpyFu. An Ubersuggest lifetime plan is final, with no refund and no downgrade.

All 7 tools at a glance

Each tool priced for one person and one website, paying yearly where that is cheaper: the cheapest published plan that covers it, plus any extra users or add-ons it needs, per month. Where no published plan covers it, the cell says why instead of guessing.

Paying yearly where offered, one site costs $13 a month on Veritas Starter, $29 on Ubersuggest or SpyFu Basic and $37.70 on Mangools, while a full suite with daily tracking starts at $103.20.

ToolBest forCost a monthFree planSites included
VeritasOursThe lowest paid entry, with drafting included$13/moStarterTrial of 7 days1 SEO site on every self-serve plan
UbersuggestA complete suite at the lowest monthly price$29/moIndividual3 free searches a day1 project on Individual; extras $5/mo
SpyFuCheap competitor research$29/moBasicFree, limited results1 tracking project on Basic; 10 on Pro + AI
MangoolsEasy keyword research on a small budget$37.70/moBasic5 free lookups a dayUnlimited domains sharing 200 tracked keywords
Moz ProA cheap start with room to learn$49/moStarterFree account, limited1 campaign on Starter; 3 on Standard; extras $10/mo
SE RankingThe least a full suite costs$103.20/moCoreTrial of 14 days10 projects and 2,000 daily keywords on Core
AhrefsFree data for sites you own$129/moLiteAhrefs Free, own sites5 projects on Lite, plus sites you verify

Veritas prices are in US dollars, as its pricing page shows them to visitors in the United States, excluding GST.

The lowest paid entry on this list

Veritas Starter audits one site, finds keywords worth targeting and drafts content from your own material. Try it on one domain.

Start your 7-day free trial See pricing

The SEO toolkit, tool by tool

What each tool gives you for classic SEO, as its own pages describe it. A tick is included, a dashed circle is included with a limit the cell names, and a dash means the vendor’s pages do not describe it.

Entry plans save money on refresh and scope: Ubersuggest, SpyFu, Mangools and Moz Pro update rankings weekly, and Mangools describes neither a site crawler nor a writing tool.

ToolKeyword dataBacklinksRank trackingSite auditAI writing
VeritasOursVolume, CPC and difficulty from DataForSEOBacklink monitoring on BusinessPosition history on every planGraded for Google and AI crawlersDrafts cited to your own documents
Ubersuggest350 million keywords a month2,000 rows on IndividualWeekly, 125 keywords per project1,000 pages a weekAI Writer, 10,000 words a month
SpyFu13.1 billion keywordsLinks from Google top-100 pagesWeekly, 5,000 keywords on Basic100+ issues, AI-suggested fixesRivalFlow rewrites, Pro + AI up
Mangools2.5 billion related keywords9.5 trillion backlinks (Majestic)Weekly, 200 keywords on BasicNot describedNot described
Moz Pro1.25 billion keyword suggestions45.5 trillion links indexedWeekly, 50 keywords on StarterWeekly crawl, 5,000 pages on StarterAI Content Briefs from Standard
SE Ranking5.5 billion keywordsBacklink checkerDaily, 2,000 keywords on CoreWebsite auditAI writer
Ahrefs28.7 billion filtered keywords35 trillion live backlinksWeekly, 750 keywords on Lite170+ SEO issuesContent Kit add-on, from $99/mo

AI answer tracking

AI answer tracking is often the first thing a cheap plan drops. Ubersuggest Individual tracks 10 prompts in ChatGPT, refreshed monthly, and its lifetime plans include only a basic version. Mangools Basic comes with 500 prompts on eight engines in its bundled watcher. SE Ranking Core checks 100 prompts daily on five engines, Moz needs Standard at $99 for 50 weekly prompts, and SpyFu describes none. Veritas starts on Growth at $78.

Paid monthly for a year, one person tracking 10 prompts spends $348 on Ubersuggest, $732 on Mangools, $936 on Veritas, $1,188 on Moz Pro and $1,548 on SE Ranking. On Ahrefs the same job costs $2,988, as ten prompts are beyond Lite. At 50 prompts Mangools, Moz and SE Ranking keep the same price, while Ubersuggest and Veritas have no published plan that fits.

Veritas prices per workspace, with users included; its entry plan covers one site.Start a 7-day trialSee pricing

Engine by engine, and what tracking costs a yearWhich engines each tool covers on its tracking plan, and the yearly cost for four team sizes

Which engines each tool covers

On the cheapest plan that tracks AI answers. Most vendors list more engines than that plan includes, so this is what you get at the price shown, not the brochure maximum.

Tool and planChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexityAI OverviewsAI ModeCopilot
VeritasOurs
Growth
IncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedIncludedNot on this planNot on this plan
Ubersuggest
Individual
IncludedNot on this planNot on this planNot on this planNot on this planNot on this planNot on this plan
Mangools
Basic
IncludedIncludedIncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedNot on this plan
Moz Pro
Standard
IncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedNot on this planIncludedNot on this plan
SE Ranking
Core
IncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedNot on this plan
Ahrefs
Lite
you chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou choose

A tick is included. Add-on means an extra monthly fee. You choose means the plan lets you pick a limited number of platforms from this list. Unclear means the vendor’s wording does not say.

The plan behind each row, and what changes on higher plans, are on each tool’s review: Moz Pro, SE Ranking, Ahrefs and Veritas.

What AI answer tracking costs a year

These setups price one thing: tracking how AI assistants answer about you, for a given number of prompts and people, over twelve months. They are not the cost of the SEO toolkit, which is in the table above. Where no published plan fits, the note says why instead of guessing.

ToolGetting started1 seat, 10 tracked prompts, 1 brandOne marketer, one brand1 seat, 50 tracked prompts, 1 brandTeam of five, one brand5 seats, 100 tracked prompts, 1 brandAgency, three brands10 seats, 300 tracked prompts, 3 brands
Ubersuggest$348lowestNo published fit1No published fit1No published fit1
Mangools$732$732lowest$1,692lowestNo published fit2
VeritasOurs$936No published fit1No published fit1No published fit1
Moz Pro$1,188$1,188$3,912$8,304
SE Ranking$1,548$1,548$2,316$4,344lowest
Ahrefs$2,988$17,988No published fit1No published fit1
SpyFuNo published plan fits any of these setups3
  1. 1No published plan tracks the prompts this setup needs; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
  2. 2No published plan covers the people this setup needs and the vendor does not publish a per-seat price.
  3. 3No published plan on this product describes AI answer tracking.

Bars share one scale across the whole table, so cost growth shows as well as rank. A figure far above the rest is marked off scale.

The plan, seats and add-ons behind every figure are worked through on each tool’s review: Moz Pro, SE Ranking, Ahrefs and Veritas.

Each tool in brief

VeritasOurs

Best for the lowest paid entry, with drafting included.

Veritas homepage
Our write-up of Veritas

Start a 7-day trialSee pricing

Veritas is ours, and no paid plan here costs less: Starter is $16 a month, or $13 billed yearly, for one user and one site. That buys keyword research with volume, CPC and difficulty, an audit scored for both Google and AI crawlers, 50 tracked keywords, analysis of three competitors, Google Analytics and Search Console, and pages drafted from your own files, each sourced statement numbered to its origin.

What you give up: only 10 chat conversations a month, no AI answer tracking or local SEO until Growth at $78, and backlink monitoring only on Business. There is no free plan, and its keyword and backlink research is limited to the sites you work on, with no whole-market database behind it.

Ubersuggest

Best for A complete suite at the lowest monthly price.

Ubersuggest homepage

Ubersuggest’s free account is a genuine starting point: three searches a day, one project and 25 tracked keywords, with no time limit. Individual, at $29 a month, raises that to 125 tracked keywords, a weekly audit of 1,000 pages, 10,000 AI Writer words and ChatGPT tracking for 10 prompts, and extra users or projects cost only $5 a month each, so growing rarely forces an upgrade.

What you give up: a one-time lifetime purchase is non-refundable, locks in its tier and includes only basic AI tracking, and the monthly trial of 7 days asks for payment details. Rankings refresh weekly, Individual shows 2,000 backlink rows, and the pricing FAQ says no API is available.

SpyFu

Best for cheap competitor research.

SpyFu homepage

SpyFu Basic is the cheap route into competitor research: $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 monthly, for competitor keywords, domain comparisons, top pages, a site audit covering more than 100 issues and weekly tracking of 5,000 keywords, the largest tracking allowance of any entry plan here. You can use the limited free version indefinitely, and a paid plan can be refunded within 30 days.

What you give up on Basic: results stop at 10,000 rows, and anything historical, branded or automated, from ranking history to client reports, the API and RivalFlow AI, waits for Pro + AI at $89 a month billed yearly. Backlinks come only from top-100 pages, local rank tracking is not described, and SpyFu describes no AI answer tracking.

Mangools

Best for easy keyword research on a small budget.

Mangools homepage

Mangools is the cheap pick when keyword research is the main job. Basic costs $37.70 a month billed yearly, or $61 monthly, and includes all five tools, 100 keyword lookups a day, 200 tracked keywords across unlimited domains and AI Search Watcher Pro, with 500 prompts across eight engines. The free plan allows five lookups a day with no card, which is enough to judge KWFinder properly.

What you give up: Basic has one user and no extra seats, rankings update weekly, and it describes no site audit crawler or AI writer. The money-back guarantee on paid plans lasts only 48 hours, so make the decision on the free plan rather than after paying.

Moz Pro

Best for A cheap start with room to learn.

Moz Pro homepage
Full Moz Pro review

Moz Pro Starter is the cheap plan with the most to learn from. At $49 a month it covers one campaign, 50 tracked keywords, a weekly crawl of 5,000 pages and access to a link index of 45.5 trillion links, while a free Moz account adds the MozBar extension and a handful of link and keyword lookups each month. Its Beginner’s Guide and Academy courses cost nothing.

What you give up: Starter has no published yearly price, only 75 keyword queries a month and no AI Visibility, which starts on Standard at $99, or $79 billed yearly. Rankings refresh weekly, each extra user costs $49, and the free trial is of the Medium plan and needs a card.

SE Ranking

Best for the least a full suite costs.

SE Ranking homepage
Full SE Ranking review

SE Ranking is not a budget tool, but it is the least a complete suite costs here. Core is $103.20 a month billed yearly, with daily tracking of 2,000 keywords across ten projects, a website audit, a backlink checker, an AI writer, local SEO and daily AI prompt tracking. It has no free plan, though more than 40 free tools and a trial of 14 days without a card let you test it first.

What you give up: the entry price is more than three times Ubersuggest’s, and paying monthly lifts Core to $129. One manager seat is included, and each extra seat starts at $16 a month, so it suits someone who has outgrown the cheaper tools.

Ahrefs

Best for free data for sites you own.

Ahrefs homepage
Full Ahrefs review

Ahrefs is on a cheap list for its free tier. Once you prove you own a site, Ahrefs Free lists as many as 1,000 backlinks and keywords for it at no charge, with limited Site Audit access too. For watching your own site, that is a lot of data.

What you give up: research on competitors’ sites needs Lite at $129 a month, the highest entry price on this list, with no trial, and Ahrefs states that refunds are generally not given. Lite updates rankings weekly and includes one user, so upgrade only when competitor research becomes a weekly job.

What would change our verdict

  • Any entry price moving by more than a few dollars, since this list is ordered by the lowest bill for one site.
  • Ubersuggest publishing yearly or lifetime prices in US dollars, which could move it on this list.
  • A free tier changing its limits, since the free plans are the first step we recommend on this page.

Questions people ask

What is the cheapest SEO tool that is still worth paying for?

On pricing pages read 29 September 2026, Ubersuggest at $29 a month and SpyFu Basic at $29 billed yearly are the cheapest paid suites here, and Veritas Starter is lower still. Which is worth it depends on the first limit you hit: tracked keywords, lookups a day or a missing module.

Are free SEO tools enough?

For one small site, often yes for a while. Google Search Console and Ahrefs Free show how your own site performs, and Semrush’s free plan allows 10 reports a day. Paid plans earn their cost when you track many keywords, research competitors in depth or need regular audits.

Is a lifetime SEO tool deal worth it?

Ubersuggest sells each tier as a one-time lifetime plan. Its help centre says lifetime plans are non-refundable, cannot be downgraded and include only a basic version of AI Search Visibility, so check those limits against how you will use it.

Is it cheaper to pay yearly?

Usually. SE Ranking Core falls from $129 to $103.20 a month, SpyFu Basic from $39 to $29 and Mangools Basic from $61 to $37.70 when billed yearly. Moz publishes no yearly price for Starter, and Ahrefs shows yearly prices only in its page data.

Each tool’s full review

Every feature, price, pro and con for each tool, each fact linked to the vendor page it came from, is on that tool’s own review page.

What we compared on4 questions that separate these tools
  • The lowest bill. The cheapest published way to cover one person and one website, on yearly billing where that is cheaper.
  • What the entry plan leaves out. The limits you meet first: tracked keywords, lookups a day, rank refresh, missing modules.
  • The free tier. What you can do before paying anything, which for many sites is enough for months.
  • The next step up. What the first upgrade costs, because a cheap plan that forces a large jump is not cheap for long.
How the scores are calculatedThe arithmetic behind each score
ToolWeighted scoreCriteria scoredStrongest criterion
Mangools746 of 8Engine coverage at the entry price
SE Ranking717 of 8Refresh frequency
Veritas
Our product
628 of 8What happens after a gap
Ahrefs587 of 8Refresh frequency
Moz Pro527 of 8SEO beyond AI answers
Ubersuggest476 of 8SEO beyond AI answers

Not ranked, for want of published detail

SpyFu could be scored on fewer than 5 of the 8 criteria. A total built on two or three flattering criteria says more about the reweighting than about the product, so we leave it out of the ranking and let its review speak instead.

Eight rules, each applied to the published facts in the reviews and weighted to a total out of 100. The rules and weights are set out in our methodology.

How we researched this pageMethod and the update log

How we researched this page

Every fact about another tool comes from that vendor’s own pages, or from a press report where we say so, listed under Sources with the date we read them. Where a vendor does not describe something, we say so rather than guess.

The scores and cost figures on this page are calculated, not assigned. Our full methodology sets out every rule, what each criterion is worth, and where our evidence runs out.

Disclosure. Veritas is our product. It appears on this page because it competes in this category, and we have tried to state its limits as plainly as anyone else’s. If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to support@getveritas.io and we will correct it and note the change in the log.

Update log

  1. 2 October 2026Published.

Sources

The pages behind this comparison, most recently read 29 September 2026. Each tool’s review dates its own sources.

The same jobs in Veritas, our product

Keyword researchSite auditBacklinksLocal SEOPlans and pricing

How this page was made. Veritas is our product. Every fact about another tool is checked against that vendor’s own pages, and scores and costs are calculated by our published rules.

The best AI visibility tools in 2026The best GEO tools in 2026The best SEO tools for small business in 2026The best SEO tools for agencies in 2026All comparisons

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