17 Best SEO Software Tools For 2026 (Affordable Options + Tools For Agencies)
Looking for the best SEO software to help you dominate the SERPs? You’re in the right place.
A wise man once said ‘a man is only as good as his tools’—and the same holds true when it comes to marketing. Without the help of SEO software tools, you won’t be able to gather the data you need to plan winning campaigns.
But with the help of SEO software, you’ll have a ton of strategic insights at your fingertips that will help you to outrank the competition and send your organic traffic through the roof.
In this post, we’re going to be revealing the best SEO tools on the market right now.
We’ve made sure to include a mix of options with different features and price tags, so you should be able to find something that fits your needs and your budget below.
The best SEO software tools – summary
TL;DR:
- SE Ranking – Best balance of features and affordability. Ideal for individuals. Especially affordable for large numbers of projects.
- Semrush – Best for SEO professionals, larger teams, and enterprise customers.
- Mangools – Best SEO tool for beginners.
#1 – SE Ranking
SE Ranking is, in our opinion, the best SEO toolkit available right now. Particularly in terms of its balance of features and affordability. It’s been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years and catching up to industry leaders like Ahrefs and Semrush. It also has one of the largest databases of backlinks and keywords of any other SEO tool.
SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO software solution, which means it includes all the different SEO tools that marketers need to use on a daily basis in one place.
It can help with pretty much every SEO task you can think of: keyword research, rank tracking, website audits, backlink checking, competitor analysis, on-page SEO… you name it!
Their Marketing and SEO Plan feature is a great place to start. It’s a neat feature that gives you a detailed roadmap outlining your entire SEO strategy, complete with a checklist of steps you need to take in order to reach your goals.
These steps are grouped into logical categories, like pre-launch, keywords research, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, social media management, etc.
As you check items off your to-do list, SE Ranking will keep track of your overall progress and let you know how far you are from reaching your goals with a percentage marker.
And of course, the platform also comes with all the tools you need to complete all the SEO tasks on your checklist.
For example, the Keyword Suggestion tool helps you to find new keyword opportunities and analyze them with metrics like search volume, difficulty score, and CPC.
SE Rankings database is huge with 7 billion keywords in total, so you should be able to find tons of search terms that other SEO software solutions miss.
The interface is really intuitive too. You can tab between similar keywords and related keywords, or filter them by search volume to find less-competitive long-tail keywords. Then, click on any keyword to immediately see who you’ll be competing with in both the organic and paid search results.
Aside from the Keyword Suggestion tool, there’s also the backlink checker, backlink tracking tool, webpage monitor, on-page SEO checker, website audit, keyword rank tracker, social media management software, and more.
We don’t have time to explore everything you can do with all these features but they all come in useful and have their place in your SEO strategy.
In addition to all these SEO tools, SE Ranking also comes with powerful reporting capabilities, so it’s ideal for agencies. You can generate beautiful white-label reports for your clients, and even set up your own white label SE Ranking interface on your own domain.
Agencies will also appreciate the Lead Generator—SE Ranking’s On-Page Checker widget. You can install it on your agency website to turn it into a lead generation machine.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Complete all-in-one toolkit | UI is a little cluttered |
| Huge database of backlinks and keywords | |
| Intuitive interface | |
| Affordable plans |
Pricing
SE Ranking offers much cheaper plans than some of its competitors. Prices are calculated based on usage, with plans starting from $23.52/month.
Read our SE Ranking review.
#2 – Semrush
Semrush is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market when it comes to SEO and there are tons of reasons why. Semrush is a true all-in-one tool that can be used not only to manage your essential SEO tasks but also for tasks like content management and distribution, advertising, market research, social media management, and reputation management.
When it comes to SEO, Semrush has everything you could ever need. There are tools for keyword research, on-page and local SEO, rank tracking, link building, and even competitor analysis and research.
On the advertising front, you can use Semrush for PPC campaign research and PPC competitor analysis. In particular, the keyword research tool has a reputation for being advanced and reliable and provides key data such as keyword value, search volume, intent, difficulty, and more.
Semrush may appear to be more expensive by comparison to some SEO tools. But you get a lot of tools bundled in with that price and generous usage limits, which do make it worth the price.
As an example, Semrush allows 3,000 daily reports on their domain & keyword tools. That allowance increases on higher plans. But Ahrefs allows only 500 monthly reports. And that number does not increase on higher plans.
Semrush is a great option for both individuals and businesses alike that are looking to purchase one tool that they can use to manage all the various areas of SEO and online marketing.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Huge toolset | UI can be difficult to navigate simply due to the large number of tools |
| Advanced keyword tools | Credit card required for free trial |
| A true ‘all-in-one’ solution | |
| Extensive database of keywords and backlinks |
Pricing
Plans start from $139.95/month. 7-day free trial available.
Read our Semrush review.
#3 – Mangools
Mangools is the best SEO software tool for beginners. It’s incredibly easy to use with one of the best UIs we’ve seen.
Mangools is a collection of 5 different SEO tools in one. Once you sign up, you can access the KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner, and SiteProfiler.
The KWFinder is Mangools keyword research tool. It’s great at finding low-competition, high-volume search terms that you can rank for.
The SERPChecker is a SERP analysis feature that shows you who’s ranking for a given search query and how authoritative they are. Use it to analyze the search results to figure out whether or not you stand a chance of ranking for a keyword.
SERPWatcher is Mangools’ rank tracking tool. It’s simple and easy to use and gives you daily rank updates that tell you your organic rank position for target keywords. You can track keyword rankings locally and on any device.
LinkMiner is the backlink analysis tool. You can use it to mine your competitors’ backlinks and supercharge your off-page SEO efforts. Mangools uses Majestic’s fresh and historic backlink index, which we’ll talk about later.
SiteProfiler is an SEO metrics & insights tool. You can use it for competitor analysis to identify their best-performing content and analyze any site’s backlink profile.
Despite all those features, Mangools is super cheap. Plans start at a fraction of the cost of other all-in-one platforms like Semrush, which is another reason it’s great for beginners.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Very affordable | Lacking some advanced features |
| Easy to use | Not as many deep insights |
| Five tools in one | |
| Good backlink index |
Pricing
Free plan available. Paid plans start at €29/month, save 35% with an annual subscription. Mangools offer a 48-hour full refund policy.
Read our Mangools review.
#4 – Ahrefs
Ahrefs has dominated the SEO software industry for a long time. It’s been thought to be the gold standard of SEO toolkits, but lately, its competitors have been catching up—and things are beginning to change.
Ahrefs is still a fantastic SEO platform. Not only does it have an incredibly broad feature set, with dozens of simple and advanced tools in one place, but it also has the most active web crawler (second only to Google), a huge keyword and backlink database, and proprietary metrics like DR (Domain Rating).
So it’s not surprising that so many marketers still consider Ahrefs to provide the most accurate data of any SEO tool.
But recently, they’ve significantly changed their pricing model—and users aren’t happy. First off, they removed the $7 trial option, which many marketers relied on in order to test the service.
That alone wouldn’t be a huge deal, but they also started billing for overages automatically. Now, if you exceed your plan limits, Ahrefs will charge you for any extra data you use, which means you can run up a huge bill accidentally if you’re not careful about your usage.
And, they have massively reduced usage limits. New plans only allow 500 monthly reports – regardless of whether you go for the $99/month plan or $999/month plan. Compare this to the 3,000 daily reports on Semrush’s base plan and you can see just how little you get for the money.
Don’t get me wrong, Ahrefs is still a fantastic toolkit. And if cost isn’t an issue for you, it might still be a good option for you. But if your budget is limited or you like to control costs, there are SEO tools out there that offer far better value for money.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Most active web crawler (after Google) | Expensive – offers the least value of any SEO tool |
| Huge database | Questionnable billing practices |
| Full suite of SEO tools | No free trial |
| Packed with advanced features |
Pricing
Plans start at $83/month if you pay annually, with automatic additional charges for overages and monthly credits vary depending on plan.
#5 – WebCEO
WebCEO is an SEO and digital marketing tool suite that’s perfect for agencies and large teams. It comes with 23 pro-level tools and has over 1.4 million users.
It has everything you’d expect from an all-in-one SEO platform. You can use it for keyword research, rank checking, SEO auditing, analyzing backlinks, and competitor research.
Aside from SEO, it also comes with tools for PPC and social media marketing. You can use it to track your SMM performance on all the main networks: Facebook, Twitter, etc.
One feature we really like is its Content Submission tool. It lets you automatically submit your site to over 90 popular directories and RSS feeds for a bunch of quick-win backlinks.
We also liked its powerful report builder. You can use it to generate over 90 detailed reports that look great and are super easy to understand. This, plus the built-in team collaboration and project management tools, and the white-labeled interface, make it a great choice for marketing agencies.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| 23+ SEO tools in one place | Lacks some metrics |
| Automatic content submission | UI could be better |
| SMM, PPC, and SEO | |
| Great for agencies |
Pricing
Plans start at $33/month if billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.
#6 – SEO PowerSuite
SEO PowerSuite is a desktop SEO software solution. It’s very affordable, with a generous free plan and a ton of powerful features.
Unlike all the other SEO tools we’ve looked at so far, SEO PowerSuite doesn’t run in the cloud (with the exception of a couple of its features). It’s one of the only downloadable SEO software products on the market. If you prefer desktop apps over cloud-based platforms, you’ll like the UI.
In terms of features, SEO PowerSuite gets top marks. They claim that ‘there is no SEO tool available elsewhere that’s not already a part of SEO PowerSuite’—and while this might be overstating it a little, they’re not far wrong.
It certainly has an incredibly broad feature set. There’s a tool for everything, from backlink checking to content editing, ad optimization, keyword research, and everything in between.
All these features are grouped into a handful of toolkits: The Rank Tracker, Website Auditor, SEO SpyGlass, and LinkAssistant.
Despite the name, the Rank Tracker isn’t just for checking your ranking position. It also serves as a keyword research solution and has 17 different keyword research tools built into it, which you can use to find thousands of new ideas.
There’s a lot to say about each toolkit, and we don’t have time to share all our thoughts here. But the good news is you can try it out for yourself for free! SEO PowerSuite offers a generous free account that lets you access most of the tools without spending a dime.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Tons of SEO tools and features | No monthly payment option |
| Desktop UI | Requires download |
| Very affordable | |
| Generous free plan | |
| Huge backlink database |
Pricing
You can start out with a free account. Paid licenses start at $299/year and unlock additional features and benefits.
#7 – Moz Pro
Moz Pro is another top-tier marketing toolkit. It has a stellar reputation amongst marketers and its proprietary DA and PA metrics are widely thought to be the best way to get a measure of SEO authority.
