Free SEO tools can be great if you’ve just started your blog and are only experimenting. I even used them when I first began blogging. (You can explore them here if you want.)
But everything changed once I started investing in premium SEO tools.
My blog began to grow, and I needed real-time AI insights, something only premium SEO tools can provide in 2025. These tools not only provide higher usage limits and more features but also offer far more accurate data.
Over the last 14 years, we’ve tried and tested hundreds of SEO tools. When it comes to data accuracy and premium features, I’d recommend Semrush. However, it’s not for everyone because of its pricing.
My team and I work together and curated a list of the best paid SEO tools for every need. The list includes budget friendly paid tools, SEO suites, technical SEO tools, and more.
I’ll also share my own SEO workflow with each tool along with their pros and cons
This post is a handpicked collection of 9 of the BEST professional SEO tools worth your money.

Table of Contents
- Top 9 Paid SEO Tools for Beginners & Experts (My Best Picks)
- 1. Semrush – Complete SEO Suite
- 2. SE Ranking – Best Budget Friendly SEO Tool
- 3. SurferSEO – Best Content SEO Tool
- 4. SpyFu – Best For PPC & Advertising SEO
- 5. Mangools – Best SEO Tool for Beginners
- 6. RankMath Pro – Best Paid WordPress SEO Plugin
- 7. Ahrefs – Best For SEO Keyword Research
- 8. Moz Pro – Best for Link Building
- 9. Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Best Technical SEO Tool
- Final Thoughts on Premium SEO Tools
Top 9 Paid SEO Tools for Beginners & Experts (My Best Picks)
Paid SEO Tools | Category | Pricing | Free Trial |
---|---|---|---|
Semrush | Complete SEO Suite | $117.33/month | Available |
SE Ranking | Budget Friendly SEO tool | $52/month | Available |
SurferSEO | On-Page & Content SEO | $79/month | Not Available |
Spyfu | PPC & Advertising SEO | $33/month | Not Available |
Mangools | SEO tool for Beginner | $19.43/month | Free Version |
RankMath Pro | Paid WordPress SEO Plugin | $6.99/month | Free Version |
Ahrefs | Best for SEO Keyword Research | $108/month | Not Available |
Moz Pro | Best for Link Building | $39/month | Available |
Screaming Frog | Technical SEO Tool | $279/year | Free Version |
1. Semrush – Complete SEO Suite
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $139.95/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $117.33/month
- Free Trial: 14 Days (Activate)
- Features: Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, Position Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Site Audit, AI Overview Tracking, AI Brand Visibility, Traffic Analysis, Local SEO, Content SEO, PPC SEO, and more.
I open Semrush every morning to track how my blog keywords are performing. Yes it is my regular use tool for all kind of SEO needs.
Semrush ranked #1 in terms of accuracy test I conducted between the data comparison of Search console with these tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, and, SE Ranking.)
The most comphrensive feature of Semrush I like is their Competitor Analysis tool. When you put a competitor URL in their competitor analysis tool then it gives you essential metrics like organic traffic count, number of backlinks, and more.
The main reason people pay a high amount for Semrush is because of its data. It holds stats like 27.2 billion keywords, 808 million domain profiles, 43 trillion links, and more. In addition, Semrush has historical data for most backlinks dating back to 2012, which can be extremely useful when analyzing a domain’s past history.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one SEO paid tool that gives excellent value for money, try Semrush, which is used by over 10 million people worldwide.
We’ve been using Semrush for 10+ years and generated excellent ROI in traffic and sales. With Semrush, you can do everything from finding profitable keywords to spying on your competitors. It covers all kinds of SEO features covering Keyword Research to Competitor Analysis to Content SEO.
These days Semrush is added AI SEO features into their tool.
The best part? It gives access to 55+ tools under one roof. Whether you’re new to SEO or a seasoned expert, you’ll find many exciting features Semrush offers.
Here’s what its interface looks like;
As you can see above, you’ll find all your website’s metrics, including organic keywords, traffic, and referring domains, in one place, and ALL its tools on the left side.
Semrush’s keyword magic tool is one of the best in the industry. It gives you access to everything from question keywords to related keywords.
Have a look;
This is just a short overview of my experience with Semrush…You can find more features of this fantastic tool by reading our unbiased Semrush review.
Overall if you have no issues with budget and you’re looking for industry best SEO tool then you can trust Semrush. I am sure you won’t regret it.
Pros:
- You’ll get access to the world’s most extensive keyword database with over 25 billion keywords. No matter what your industry or topic, you can discover hundreds (if not thousands) of hidden keywords.
- Its position tracking tool allows you to track your keyword rankings daily. You can track both mobile and desktop keyword rankings on Google. It also offers a “keyword cannibalization report,” which helps you identify pages that compete against each other.
- Offers a 14-day free trial on Pro and Guru plans. It also provides a 7-day money-back guarantee on all plans.
- Gives you access to 55+ tools, including scheduled reports with ALL plans.
- You can conduct a detailed “Competitor SEO Analysis” to find all your competitors’ keywords, backlinks, and traffic sources.
- Access to “Content Optimization” tools where you get personalized recommendations to optimize your content.
Cons:
- It is one of the most expensive paid SEO tools, as its pricing starts at around $120/mo.
Pricing: Semrush offers three different pricing plans, which are listed below. Read our comparison of Semrush Pro vs Guru for more details.
- The pro plan costs $117.33 per month, where you can add up to 5 projects, 500 keywords to track, and 10,000 results per report. It costs $108.33 if billed annually.
- The guru plan costs $208.33 per month, where you can add up to 15 projects, 1500 keywords to track, and 30,000 results per report. It costs $208.33 if billed annually.
- The business plan costs $416.66 per month, where you can add up to 40 projects, 5000 keywords to track, and 50,000 results per report. It costs $416.66 if billed annually.
It also offers a 14-day free trial. See Instructions for Activating 14 Days Free Trial of Semrush.
2. SE Ranking – Best Budget Friendly SEO Tool
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $65/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $52/month
- Free Trial: 14 Days (Activate)
- Features: AI Data Insights, Rank Tracker, Website Audit, Competitor Research, Keyword Research, Backlink Checker, On-Page Analysis, SERP Analysis, Content SEO, Local SEO, AIO Tracker & Research, and More.
SE Ranking is one of the best affordable SEO tools that offers a complete toolkit to boost your website’s search traffic. If you don’t have a budget for Semrush or Ahrefs then you can definitely consider SE Ranking.
I loved this tool because it has all set of tools and enough database of keyword research (5.9B) and domain profiles (1.6B) for small to medium scale sites. Yes the database is a little bit short compared to Semrush and Ahrefs but more than all the rest of the SEO tools.
Further SE Ranking is also moving forward to AI SEO tools. Now you can track AI overviews, keyword tracking, AI Brand tracking, and more.
It offers an excellent rank tracking tool to help you accurately track your rankings and spot issues in your website’s keyword rankings.
Here’s what it looks like;
You can also see your current top 1, top 3, top 5, top 10 ranking keywords in one place.
Have a look;
You can read our in-depth SE Ranking review for more details about this tool.
Despite all the greatness, SE Ranking charges few additional amount like $0.001/query for the usage of some features like Keyword Grouper, Auto Suggestions, etc. (So please keep in mind while finalizing it).
Before moving forward, one more thing I want to share is about SE Ranking customer support…
SE Ranking makes it easy to get connect me with both email and live chat support. Some competitors like Semrush limit how you can reach them or make you pay extra for quick replies, SE Ranking keeps it simple. The chat box is right there on every page, so you can get in touch without digging around for contact details.
Pros:
- You can perform site audits for up to 100,000 pages per account (even with the basic plan)
- Its Rank Tracker tool is one of the most accurate tools for tracking your keyword positions daily.
- It gives you access to a powerful “On-page SEO Checker” that helps you optimize your content for search engines.
- It offers you a backlink checker and monitoring tool that allows you to analyze any domain’s links and keep track of your own domain’s links.
- Its SEO audit tool gives you a detailed breakdown and suggestions for every significant website issue.
- It offers an exclusive local marketing tool that makes it easier to find your business in local search.
- Offers a 14-day free trial for new users.
Cons:
- This tool lacks advanced SEO features such as Historical data and analysis, customization, and collaboration options.
Pricing: SE Ranking offers three pricing packages, which are mentioned below.
- The essential plan costs $65 per month, where you can track 750 keywords daily and create 10 projects with 1 user seat. Its annual plan costs you $52 per month.
- The pro plan costs $119 per month, where you can track 2000 keywords daily and create unlimited projects with 3 user seats. Its annual plan costs you $95.20 per month.
- The business plan costs $259 per month, where you can track 5000 keywords daily and create unlimited projects with 5 user seats. Its annual plan costs you $207.20 per month.
Grab 14-day Free Trial of SE Ranking
Read: SE Ranking vs Semrush: Which is Better?
Read: SE Ranking vs Ahrefs 2025: An Honest Comparison
Read: SE Ranking Discount Code 2025: Big Sale is Live
3. SurferSEO – Best Content SEO Tool
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $99/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $79/month
- Free Trial: Not Available
- Features: AI Brand Visibility, AI SEO Optimized Content Generation, Custom Voice, Built-in Templates, Existing Article Optimization, and more.
SurferSEO is a unique SEO tool designed for people who primarily work with content, such as content writers, bloggers, and similar professionals.
It specifically provides tools to optimize your content, helping you identify and fix SEO gaps in your existing articles or even generate fully SEO-optimized content from scratch.
In other words, SurferSEO covers all your content SEO needs — from keyword research and topic research to improving the SEO of existing content, generating new SEO-friendly content, and now even offering an AI-powered brand tracking feature.
I signed up for Surfer SEO about 6 months ago when they still offered a free trial.
To be honest, Surfer SEO mainly helped me get my existing articles to rank — the ones that had already reached the second page of Google search but weren’t making it to the first page because some on-page SEO checklist points were being missed.
Their On-Page SEO optimization suggestions are good, but trust me, you have to edit a few tweaks before finalizing the draft.
Its keyword research tool gives an organized list of relevant keyword clusters for ANY topic.
Here’s an example;
Here’s the best part: SurferSEO allows you to create an entire content plan with one click for the chosen keywords.
You can also use its AI content editor to generate a blog post for ANY topic quickly.
For more details, read our in-depth Surfer SEO review, where you can find all its features.
Overall, you can consider Surfer SEO for all your Content SEO needs, but do remember features like Competitor Analysis, Backlink Analysis, and Position tracking are not available in this.
Pros:
- It is an all-in-one tool for creating content briefs, writing AI content, and optimizing existing articles.
- It offers integrations with all major platforms like Google Docs, Jasper, and WordPress.
- Surfer’s Content Editor is an excellent tool that helps you pick relevant keywords and offers real-time suggestions to optimize your content.
- Easily export content into WordPress.
Cons:
- Not a dedicated full-fledged SEO tool, As it only covers On-Page SEO module & AI content creation.
Pricing: You’ll get the following pricing options from SurferSEO.
- The Essential plan costs you $99 per month, where you get 30 content edits, and 2 user seats. Its annual plan costs you $79 per month.
- The Scale plan costs you $219 monthly, where you get 100 content edits, Content audit feature, and 5 user seats. Its annual plan costs you $175 per month.
4. SpyFu – Best For PPC & Advertising SEO
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $39/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $33/month
- Free Trial: Not Available
- Features: Organic Research, PPC Research, Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, Backlink Tracking, Domain Analysis, and more.
Recently, I renewed my SpyFu subscription after 1 year of heavy usage. This underrated SEO tool came into my life when someone suggested me through a comment on my blog post. I immediately subscribed to it because of its affordable pricing.
Spyfu’s main strength is competitor analysis and PPC research. One thing where Spyfu is ahead of big SEO tools is the usage; their plans are fair and allow you to use their features, for example, keyword research for unlimited reports. Plus, they also offer 10+ years of historical data.
You can use its PPC research tool to analyze your competitors quickly. It gives you metrics like Estimated monthly PPC clicks, paid keywords,and more.
As you can see above, you’ll get a monthly PPC overview and the estimated clicks and budget of your competitors who are using PPC ads.
Here’s what the organic research report looks like in SpyFu:
For a more detailed analysis of this tool, read our SpyFu review.
Overall, If you want to spy on your competitors’ SEO and PPC campaigns, SpyFu is the BEST SEO toolkit for you. It saves you huge amount of money because of extra allowance in feature usage.
Pros:
- Offers pocket-friendly pricing plans
- Excellent tool for finding PPC ad keywords
- It offers all the features you need to run PPC, SEO, and keyword campaigns effectively.
- Add unlimited keyword and domain projects with custom reporting.
Cons:
- Sometimes, the tool gives inaccurate keyword data.
Pricing: Spy offers the following 3 plans.
- The basic plan costs you $39 monthly ($33/mo if billed annually). You’ll get 10k row search results, 10k row data exports, 100 domain overview PDFs, 6 months of historical data, 250 sales leads & domain contacts, and 5k weekly tracked keyword rankings.
- The professional plan costs you $79 monthly ($58/mo if billed annually). You’ll get unlimited search & data exports, PDFs & 10+ years of historical data, 500 leads & 15k weekly tracked rankings, API access, etc.
Explore: Semrush vs SpyFu [Tested & Reviewed]
5. Mangools – Best SEO Tool for Beginners
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $31/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $19/month
- Free Plan: Available
- Features: Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, SERP Analysis, Backlink Analysis, Competitor Analysis, and More.
Mangools is my top paid SEO tool when someone asks me, “Hi Anil, I am new to SEO and I need a simple budget budget-friendly tool for my new site.”
Yes, you have heard it right.
Mangools is a combination of several SEO tools where you can perform keyword research, track rankings, analyze backlinks, and more.
I’ve used Mangools extensively, and I feel it’s a tool that focuses solely on the core SEO features and nothing extra. It’s especially well-suited for newly launched websites or for users who are completely new to SEO and want to start with a simpler tool before moving on to a premium SEO platform.
It is not for big sites where you’ll need a lot of keywords, or you want to track competitor keywords for rank tracking. It’s just enough for your own small site needs. Its keyword and backlinks database is small compared to Semrush or Ahrefs.
I’m not sure if you’ve tried tools like Semrush or Ahrefs before, but if you have, you probably know how overwhelming their interfaces can feel.
That’s where Mangools stands out. Its dashboard is clean, straightforward, and beginner-friendly. Mangools UI is extremely easy as you get just one dashboard where all tools are visible.
Mangools offers an exclusive tool called “KWFinder,” which helps you quickly find hundreds of long-tail keywords.
Here’s what it looks like;
It also offers a backlink tool called “LinkMiner,” which helps you spy on any domain’s backlink profile.
Here’s what it looks like;
As you can see, you can quickly discover any domain’s backlinks, referring domains, Citation Flow, and Trust Score.
Want more information about their tools? Read our detailed Mangools review to find all the details.
Pros:
- Extremely affordable pricing plans when compared to its competitors
- Easy-to-use keyword research tool
- Access to SERPWatcher to track your keyword rankings
- Backlink analysis tool
Cons:
- It does not have a comprehensive keyword and backlink database as Ahrefs or Semrush.
Pricing: Mangools offers 3 pricing plans, which are: Basic ($19.43/month), Premium ($29.19/month), and Agency ($58.44/month). Below is the description of Mangools pricing:
6. RankMath Pro – Best Paid WordPress SEO Plugin
- Pricing: Starts from $6.99/month
- Free Plan: Available
- Features: Google Schema Markup, Content AI, Redirection Manager, Local Business, Internal Link Manager, Role Manager, 404 Monitor, Multiside Ready, and more.
RankMath is one of the most downloaded SEO WordPress plugins out there. If you are active in the WordPress space, there is no need to give an introduction of Rank Math.
Most importantly, the free version alone will cover most of your needs. However, with its premium modules, you can gain much better control over on-page SEO and content SEO optimization. For example, if you’re a beginner and want to manage your site’s robots.txt file or set up a URL redirect, Rank Math lets you handle these important technical SEO tasks without any coding.
Although it offers a free version, its paid version unlocks all the significant features for you, including the LSI keyword tool, rank tracker, schema generator, and more.
Here’s what the content optimization looks like;
It gives you a green color score if your content is optimized correctly. You can read our detailed Rank Math SEO review to find more information.
Personally, I don’t use it for optimizing my content, but I have been using its premium modules for other technical SEO tasks. If you don’t like the RankMath SEO plugin, then you have other alternative options like Yoast, but do remember Rank Math is the most featutre rich SEO WordPress plugin active in the market.
Pros:
- Get suggestions to optimize your blog posts and pages for better rankings
- Track keyword positions on Google
- Offers a free Content AI Trial with credits
- Import Schema from any website, generate XML sitemaps, and automate schema implementation.
Cons:
- It is MOSTLY a content optimization tool (rather than a complete SEO toolkit, unlike Semrush)
Pricing: RankMath Pro is available in 3 plans;
- Pro plan costs $6.99/mo (billed annually), and you can use it on unlimited personal sites. You can track up to 1000 keywords with 7.5K free AI content credits.
- The business plan costs $20.99/mo (billed annually), and you can use it on unlimited personal sites and support 200 client websites. You can track up to 20,000 keywords with 18k free AI content credits.
- The agency plan costs $49.99/mo (billed annually), and you can use it on unlimited personal sites and support 750 client websites. You can track up to 75,000 keywords with 45k free AI content credits.
7. Ahrefs – Best For SEO Keyword Research
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $129/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $108/month
- Free Trial: Not Available
- Features: Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, Position Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Site Audit, AI Overview Tracking, AI Brand Visibility, Traffic Analysis, Local SEO, Content SEO, and more.
Ahrefs is often considered one of the best professional SEO tools available, as it offers a comprehensive suite of tools that can help websites of all sizes. I have been using it simultaneously with Semrush for a long time.
If Semrush doesn’t suit you, then you can definitely consider Ahrefs as it has a similar kind of robust AI SEO features and a big database (28.7 B keywords, 35.0 T links) as well.
I personally used it for Keyword research because sometimes even Semrush fails to give me keywords for small topics, but Ahrefs hardly disappoints me.
It works for any sort of sites but do remeber their pricing is increased recently and I don’t like their starter plan because it doesn’t offer basic feature like Keyword Research. So if you’re looking to invest in it then you have to spend for Lite plan which cost $129/month (or $129/month).
Want to discover which keywords your competitors’ top pages rank for? You can easily use its site explorer tool to find its top pages or top-performing keywords.
Have a look;
With its backlink analysis tool, you can easily discover the dofollow links of your competitors’ sites (so you can use various tactics like blogger outreach, broken link building to acquire those links).
You can read our Ahrefs review 2025 to find more details about it.
Pros:
- Its most significant benefit is the “Site Explorer” tool that helps you find any website’s backlinks, organic traffic, keyword rankings, and more.
- Its Rank Tracker tool allows you to track your website’s rankings for specific keywords over time.
- It has the largest keyword database of over 7 billion keywords, and you can find ideas from Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, Baidu, etc.
- It also offers a few free tools, such as Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
Cons:
- The reporting limits and credits are NOT generous.
- Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free trial
Pricing: You’ll get the following 4 pricing plans from Ahrefs. They doesn’t have a free trial but you have 7 days refund policy. The pricing starts from $108/month.
8. Moz Pro – Best for Link Building
- Monthly Pricing: Starts from $49/month
- Annual Pricing: Starts from $39/month
- Free Trial: 7 Days
- Features: Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, MozBar Premium, Site Tracking, AI Overviews Tracking, and more.
Moz is one of the oldest SEO tools available. It was founded in 2004 by Rand Fishkin. If you are looking for a paid SEO tool that is reliable, comprehensive, and backed by a large community of SEO professionals, then Moz is a great option.
It has a highest links database (45.5 Trillion+) so if your goal is to build Backlinks then Moz Pro is your go to paid SEO tool. It cost you just $39/month. I am sure at this pricing point no one is offering such a big database of links.
Despite being oldest, it still lack some advanced features that premium SEO tool like Semrush is offering.
When I enter a URL in their Link Explorer tool, Within seconds, it provides a snapshot of my site’s backlink profile including domain authority (DA), the number of linking domains, total inbound links, and the keywords my site currently ranks for.
The tool also highlights newly discovered and recently lost linking domains, giving me a clear picture of my link growth or decline. As I scroll further, I can see a detailed list of those links along with the top websites pointing to my site and the pages with the highest page authority (PA).
Another useful feature is Moz’s Spam Score, which flags suspicious or potentially harmful backlinks. This makes it easy to identify risky links so I can either disavow them or take action to strengthen my backlink profile.
You can read our Moz vs Semrush comparison to find in-depth information about both the tools.
Pros:
- It is one of the easiest tools to conduct keyword research and competitor analysis.
- Easily generate SEO reports.
- Offers accurate metrics for search volume, keyword research, and backlink analysis.
- There are hundreds of free guides and resources on using this tool like a pro.
- Offers a 7-day free trial to all new users.
Cons:
- Smaller keyword database compared to premium tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.
Pricing: Moz pricing starts from $39/month. They offer following 4 plans:
Get Moz Pro Free Trial [7 Days] Now!!
9. Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Best Technical SEO Tool
Screaming Frog is a freemium SEO tool that offers an advanced SEO site audit tool to crawl both small and large websites.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is widely used by many website owners to audit their websites. If you’re looking for an inexpensive paid SEO tool, you can’t go wrong with Screaming Frog.
Here’s what the crawl analysis looks like;
You can also watch their official video to learn how to use the tool;
Pros:
- It is one of the best tools to crawl a website instantly and find broken links (404s)
- Find technical errors & redirects of your website easily
- Analyse page titles and meta descriptions. You can identify missing, duplicate, long, short, or multiple titles and meta descriptions.
- Review meta robots & directives.
- Analyze the number of words on every page.
- Audit hreflang attributes (which specify a webpage’s language and targeted region)
- Quickly identify exact duplicate URLs causing content issues on your website.
- Generate XML sitemaps to allow search engines to crawl all your pages
- Unlimited crawl limit with the paid plan
- The ability to connect to Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights
- It also offers a free version which allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs
Cons:
- It takes a lot of time for large websites to crawl all the URLs.
Pricing: Screaming Frog offers a free plan. However, if you want to unlock all its features, including unlimited crawl credits, you’ll need to grab its paid version, which costs $259 annually.
Read: Similarweb vs Semrush in 2025: Which is the Best SEO Tool?
Remember, the best way to choose the RIGHT SEO tool depends on your specific website priorities and needs. No tool is PERFECT.
That’s why you must try several tools (try their free trials) before investing your money.
If you’re looking for a complete tool, we’d suggest Semrush or SE Ranking. So, what are your thoughts on the top paid SEO tools mentioned here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.