58 SEO Tools With a Real Free Plan in 2026 (Not a Trial)
Our directory lists 58 SEO tools with a free plan that has no end date, and 34 of them publish a first paid plan in US dollars, at a median of $19.99 a month. Of the other 24, eight have no paid plan at all and 16 don't publish a monthly price in US dollars.
We read the pricing page of every tool in our directory on 1 October 2026 (how we rate), and kept only the free plans that don't expire. Each tool sits under the job it's listed for first, with its free limits as the vendor states them. The full set is also browsable as free SEO tools.
| Job | Tools with a free plan | Lowest first paid step (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword research | 14 | $15/month |
| Rank tracking | 4 | $9/month |
| Site audit | 9 | $8/month |
| Content | 19 | $4.95 |
| Analytics | 5 | $9/month |
| WordPress | 4 | Not published in USD |
| Backlinks and outreach | 3 | $29/month |
Free plan vs free trial: what's the difference
A trial ends on a date and usually opens a paid plan in full for those days. A free plan has no end date and caps the work instead: keywords tracked, pages crawled, reports run, words written. Ahrefs says in its pricing FAQ that it doesn't offer free trials, so Ahrefs Free is its only way in without paying. SpySERP runs both. Its trial asks for a card, while the free plan follows 5 keywords on 1 project for as long as it's used.
Free keyword research tools
Keyword research has 14 tools with a free plan, and they differ most in what they hold back. Several return ideas with no numbers attached, fine for brainstorming and no help in choosing between two terms. The full category is at SEO keyword tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Answer Socrates | 3 keyword searches a day, 1 recursive search a day, 500 cluster credits a month, 1 CSV download a month; no SEO metrics, no LLM tracker, no projects, no API | $19/month |
| AnswerThePublic | A free daily search limit; the exact number isn't stated on the pricing page | Not published in USD |
| CanIRank | 1 website, 5 keyword reports, 5 SEO reports and 20 link opportunities, all in total | $49/month |
| Exploding Topics | Public trending lists and free SEO tools; limits not stated | $39/month |
| Keyword Tool | Autocomplete suggestions, up to 750+ per term; no search volume; no account required | $88/month |
| Moz Pro | Free Moz Community account: limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer | $49/month |
| Seed Keywords | Free; no paid plan shown | None |
| Semrush | 1 demo project, 10 reports a day | $139/month |
| Serp Miner | 50 tokens a month, 300 search volume checks a day, 10 daily or 50 weekly tracked keywords | $29.99/month |
| Soovle | No limits stated; no account required | None |
| Ubersuggest | Limited access to the SEO tools for 1 website | Not published in USD |
| WordStream | Free Keyword Tool, Google Ads Performance Grader, Facebook Ads Grader | None; paid LocaliQ services by demo only |
Free, limits not published: AlsoAsked (paid from $15 a month) and Mangools.
The strongest free keyword research tool here is Serp Miner, because it's the only free plan in the table that puts a number on search volume: 300 checks a day, or 9,000 across a 30-day month, and it tracks 10 keywords daily or 50 weekly. Semrush is the better look at a full suite, with 10 reports a day on one demo project, though its first paid step, $139, is $51 above Keyword Tool's $88, the next highest here. For raw ideas, Keyword Tool returns up to 750+ suggestions per term and Soovle pulls autocomplete from several engines, neither with volume.
Free rank trackers
Four tools list rank tracking as their main job and keep a free plan, with allowances from 5 to 20 keywords. That's enough to watch a homepage and a handful of money pages, and not much more. The paid trackers sit in rank tracker SEO tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| SEO PowerSuite | 1 project, no saving, audit 500 URLs, 1,100 backlinks, 1 competitor per project | Not published in USD; billed every 1, 2 or 3 years |
| Serpfox | 10 keywords and 3 AI prompts, checked weekly | $12/month |
| SheerSEO | Limited features; 10 or 20 keywords (the page shows both), 1 site audit, 100 pages crawled a month | $10/month |
| SpySERP | 1 project, up to 5 keywords, up to 2 search engines per project | $9/month |
Serpfox is the strongest free rank tracker of the four. It follows 10 keywords and adds 3 prompts checked in AI assistants, which nobody else in this group includes for free, and its first paid plan is $12. SheerSEO may allow 20 keywords, but its own page shows both 10 and 20, and polling is weekly unless upgraded for $10 to $20 a month. SpySERP has the cheapest step up at $9 and the smallest free allowance at 5 keywords. SEO PowerSuite can't save a project on the free version, so it suits a one-off check more than a weekly record. Serp Miner, listed under keywords, tracks 50 weekly.
Free SEO audit tools
Audit tools split into crawlers that read a whole site and checkers that read one page at a time. Free crawlers stop at a page count. More options are in SEO auditing tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| BROWSEO | No limits stated; inspects one URL at a time | None |
| NitroPack | 1 site, 1,000 pageviews a month, 1GB CDN bandwidth | $8/month |
| RankWeek | Identifies pages with indexing issues; no submissions | $9/month |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | 500 URL crawl limit; no saving crawls, no crawl configuration or advanced features | Not published in USD; paid annual licence |
| Seobility | Basic: 1 project, 10 tracked keywords, 100 pages per crawl, 3 AI prompts | $69.90/month |
| SEOquake | Core reports without an account; a free Semrush account adds Authority Score, referring domains and Traffic Analytics | None |
| Serpstash | 2 reports a month; no branded or white-label reports, no data export, no API | $10/month |
| Siteliner | Sites up to 250 pages, one analysis per site every 30 days | Not published in USD |
Free, limits not published: SiteGuru (paid from $49 a month).
For a site under 500 URLs, Screaming Frog is the strongest free audit tool on the list, because it crawls the whole thing in one pass. The trade is that crawls can't be saved or configured, so each audit starts from zero. Seobility reads only 100 pages per crawl, but it keeps a project with 10 tracked keywords and 3 AI prompts, which makes it the one to leave running between audits. Siteliner covers 250 pages and allows one analysis per site every 30 days. BROWSEO and SEOquake check single pages. NitroPack handles speed, and RankWeek finds unindexed pages but leaves submitting them to its $9 plan.
Free SEO content tools
Content is the largest group, 19 tools, and it mixes two kinds of product. Some plan and optimize pages against search results. The rest write, rewrite or check text and carry no SEO data. The SEO side is collected in SEO content tools.
Planning, optimization and internal links
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Revive by Animalz | No limits stated; requires a GA4 connection and email | None |
| Backlinko | Free tools and guides; no sign-up stated for articles; the tools run on Semrush data | None |
| InLinks | 2 content optimizations a month, internal links on 25 pages, limited AI assistant | $49/month |
| LinkBoss | 50 auto-insert credits on signup, 1 site, full audit, GSC analytics and silo builder | $11/month |
| MarketMuse | 1 user, 10 queries a month; no site inventory or briefs | Not published; paid plans go through a demo |
| Robinize | 1 seat, 3 reports a month, 2 projects, 30 AI credits, 2 keyword researches, 3 keyword trackings | $19/month |
Writing, rewriting and checking
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Copyscape | Search by URL; limits not stated on the pages read | $4.95 |
| Grubby AI | 300 words a month | Not published in USD |
| HyperWrite | Limited monthly credits on a basic AI model | $19.99/month |
| Lunchbreak AI | AI detection; 1 essay (about 750 words); 5 Copilot generations a day | $19.99/month |
| Phrasly.AI | "Get started for free"; limits not stated | Not published in USD |
| ProWritingAid | Each line-editing report up to 2 times a day on 500 words; no Story Critiques | $30/month |
| RightBlogger | 2,000 AI words a month, 1 site, 1 MyTone style, limited keyword research | $59/month |
| UnAIMyText | Standard mode; 500 words per input; unlimited inputs; an account adds saved history | Not published in USD |
| vevy.ai | Blog builder, AI blog post writer, topic clusters and calendar, 1 language, basic analytics; Shopify app only | $7/month |
| Writecream | 20 credits (about 40,000 characters), 2 long articles, 4 short articles, 20 icebreakers | $29/month |
Free, limits not published: Prepostseo (paid from $7), Speedwrite (paid from $14.95) and TextOptimizer.
For SEO content work, Robinize gives the most per month: 3 reports, 2 projects and 30 AI credits in a tool that analyzes the top 20 ranking pages for a phrase, with $19 as the step up. Revive is the pick for refreshing old posts, since it states no limits at all and only asks for GA4. For internal links, InLinks covers 25 pages and 2 optimizations a month, while LinkBoss gives 50 insert credits once, plus a full audit, and costs $11 after that. MarketMuse allows 10 queries a month but holds back briefs. Among the writers, Writecream states the largest allowance, about 40,000 characters, though its Backlink Autopilot builds links across a network of users, a scheme Google's spam policies treat as risky. RightBlogger caps at 2,000 AI words a month.
Free AI visibility tracking tools
No tool in our directory lists AI visibility as its first job and keeps a free plan, so there's no table here. Eight tools carry the tag further down their listing, and only two free plans in the whole list put a number on AI prompts. Serpfox includes 3 AI prompts checked weekly next to its 10 keywords, and Seobility includes 3 AI prompts in its Basic plan, with a count and no stated frequency. Answer Socrates sells an LLM tracker, but its free plan excludes it. For three prompts, Serpfox is the cheaper road up, at $12 a month against Seobility's $69.90. The dedicated trackers are in AI SEO tools.
Free SEO analytics tools
Analytics tools read data a site already owns, so their free limits are counted in properties, sessions and days of history. More are in SEO analytics tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Clicky | 1 website, 3,000 daily page views, 30 days of history | $9.99/month |
| diib | SEO and site health scan, daily health score, keyword and backlink analysis, competitor benchmarking, weekly email | $30/month |
| Keyword Hero | Little Hero: 2,000 organic sessions a month; no history | $9/month |
| SEO Gets | GSC data only, unlimited properties and team members, 16 months of history, master dashboard, filtering | $59/month |
Free, limits not published: Algoroo, which is free with no paid plan and charts Google volatility for google.com and google.com.au.
SEO Gets has the most generous free plan in the whole list: no cap on properties or team members and 16 months of history, on the condition that it reads Search Console data and nothing else. Its first paid plan is $59. Clicky covers traffic analytics on one site up to 3,000 page views a day, with 30 days of history. Keyword Hero stops at 2,000 organic sessions a month and keeps no history, so any site past that volume starts at $9.
Free WordPress SEO plugins
None of the four WordPress plugins with a free version publishes a first paid price in US dollars, so they're compared on what the free plugin holds. The rest are at WordPress SEO tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Rank Math | Core plugin | Not published in USD; paid plans billed annually |
| Squirrly SEO | 1 site, 1 focus page, 5 AI keyword researches a month, 1 audit page a month | Not published in USD |
| URLsLab | Most modules free; AI content and SERP query monitoring require paid API calls | Not published in USD |
| Yoast SEO | Core plugin: real-time SEO and readability analysis, schema, XML sitemaps | Not published in USD |
Yoast SEO has the clearest free version of the four, described by what it does rather than by a cap: real-time SEO and readability analysis, schema and XML sitemaps. Rank Math describes its free version only as the core plugin, and its paid plans are billed annually. URLsLab keeps most modules free, though WordPress.org shows it untested with recent releases. Squirrly SEO is the narrowest, at 1 focus page and 1 audit page a month.
Free backlink checkers and outreach tools
Only three tools list links as their first job and keep a free plan, and one of them doesn't publish its limits. The paid field is in backlink tools.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Ahrefs Free: limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit for your own verified site | $29/month |
| Hunter | 50 credits a month, 1 connected email account, 500 recipients per sequence | Not published in USD |
Free, limits not published: Majestic (paid from $49.99 a month).
Ahrefs Free is the strongest free backlink check for a site its owner can verify, and the step up is $29. It doesn't look at other people's sites. For a competitor's links, the free options in this list are partial: Moz's community account gives limited access to Link Explorer, SEOquake shows referring domains once a free Semrush account is connected, and CanIRank hands out 20 link opportunities in total. Hunter finds the contacts for outreach and has no link data of its own.
When a free plan stops being enough
Free plans end at a limit, and the limits cluster in five places, each set below against the first paid step of the same tool.
| Limit | Where free plans stop | First paid step |
|---|---|---|
| Keywords tracked | SpySERP 5; Serpfox and Seobility 10; Serp Miner 10 daily or 50 weekly | $9 (SpySERP), $12 (Serpfox), $29.99 (Serp Miner), $69.90 (Seobility) |
| Pages crawled | Seobility 100 per crawl; Siteliner 250; Screaming Frog and SEO PowerSuite 500 | $69.90 (Seobility); others not published in USD |
| History kept | Keyword Hero none; Clicky 30 days; Screaming Frog and SEO PowerSuite no saving | $9 (Keyword Hero), $9.99 (Clicky) |
| Reports | Serpstash 2 a month; Robinize 3 a month; CanIRank 5 keyword and 5 SEO reports in total | $10 (Serpstash), $19 (Robinize), $49 (CanIRank) |
| Traffic | NitroPack 1,000 pageviews a month; Keyword Hero 2,000 organic sessions a month; Clicky 3,000 page views a day | $8 (NitroPack), $9 (Keyword Hero), $9.99 (Clicky) |
Tracking is usually the first wall. A site with more than 10 terms worth watching daily has outgrown every free tracker on this page, and the cheapest paid trackers in the list start at $9 (SpySERP), $10 (SheerSEO) and $12 (Serpfox). Crawl size comes next: once a site passes 500 URLs, no free crawler in the list reads it whole.
History is the limit that hurts quietly. A free plan that keeps 30 days, or none, can't show whether last quarter's change worked, and Screaming Frog's free version can't save the crawl to compare against. SEO Gets is the exception, with 16 months of Search Console data on its free plan.
Report quotas matter most to anyone producing work for others. CanIRank's reports are a fixed total that doesn't reset, and Serpstash allows 2 a month with no white-label output, so agencies start on its $10 plan or look at white-label SEO tools. Traffic caps work differently again. NitroPack's listing notes that optimization stops past the pageview limit unless overages are enabled, and the free limit is 1,000 pageviews a month, so a growing site loses the optimization just as visitors arrive.
Eleven of the free plans above also stop at 1 site or 1 project, Semrush's demo project included. A second site is often the cheapest reason to pay.
How we built this list
The pricing pages were read on 1 October 2026, one per tool in the directory; how we rate explains the method. A tool appears here if it has a free plan with no end date or is free outright, and trials of any length are left out. Limits are copied as each vendor states them. Where a page calls a plan limited without numbers, the table says just that, and the eight tools with no published limits are listed by name only.
The first paid plan is the cheapest monthly price published in US dollars. Where a vendor prices in another currency, bills by the year or sells through a demo, the table says so. Each tool appears once, under the first category it's listed in.
FAQ
What is the best free rank tracker?
Among dedicated trackers, Serpfox, with 10 keywords and 3 AI prompts checked weekly. For a larger list, Serp Miner tracks 50 keywords weekly for free.
Is there a free keyword research tool with search volume?
Yes. Serp Miner's free plan includes 300 search volume checks a day, and Semrush allows 10 reports a day on a demo project. Keyword Tool, Soovle and Answer Socrates give suggestions without volume on their free versions.
Is Ahrefs free?
Partly. Ahrefs Free gives limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit for a site its owner has verified, and Ahrefs says it doesn't offer free trials. Paid plans start at $29 a month on the Ahrefs listing.
Which free SEO tools work without an account?
Keyword Tool and Soovle state that no account is required, SEOquake runs its core reports without one, and UnAIMyText has a visitor mode capped at 500 words per input.
What is the cheapest step up from a free SEO plan?
The lowest published first step is Copyscape's, at $4.95, followed by vevy.ai and Prepostseo at $7 and NitroPack at $8.