7 Best SpyFu Alternatives: My Top Choices for 2025

SpyFu’s search engine optimization (SEO) platform is trusted by some big-name brands—and has been for nearly 20 years.

The app's reporting tools make it popular with corporate teams, while smaller businesses like SpyFu’s affordable pricing.

I’ve used SpyFu at some of my in-house SEO jobs and found its organic and pay-per-click (PPC) keyword data to be reliable. In my work as a freelance writer and consultant, though, I choose to use other SpyFu alternatives.

Comparing the Best SpyFu Alternatives

Check out this at-a-glance overview of the best SEO tools to replace SpyFu in your marketing stack:

Platform	Starting Cost	Free Plan?	Best For
SpyFu	$33 per month (billed annually)	Yes	Basic SEO and PPC campaign research
Semrush	$117.33 per month (billed annually)	Yes	In-depth SEO, PPC, local SEO, and content optimization plus competitor research
Exploding Topics Pro	$39 per month (billed annually)	Yes	Trending keyword research
Ahrefs	$29 per month	No	Single-site SEO
Ubersuggest	$29 per month (billed annually or $290 (lifetime access)	Yes	People in need of a free SEO tool
SE Ranking	$52 per month (billed annually)	No	Small teams and agencies
Mangools	$29 per month (billed annually)	Yes	Free / low-cost SERP analysis
Serpstat	$50 per month (billed annually)	No	Data scraping and reselling

Why Use a SpyFu Alternative?

I find that there are some limitations to what SpyFu's SEO software can do. It isn’t the best platform for:

Technical SEO

SpyFu tools are meant for researching keywords and competitor traffic. The platform doesn’t include tools to help you audit sites, look for Core Web Vitals errors, or identify sitemap issues.

Detailed Backlink Analysis

You can use SpyFu's backlink checker to see basic information —including pages that link to a competitor.

It doesn’t go as in-depth as the Semrush Backlink Analytics report or the SE Ranking Backlink Gap Analyzer.

Content Marketing

Yes, SpyFu works well for finding keywords to write about, but that’s it.

The platform doesn’t offer any additional support for developing lists of semantic keywords or improving your content’s structure. You have to subscribe to a separate SpyFu platform, RivalFlowAI, for that kind of support.

E-Commerce Product Marketing

While you can research the search volume associated with an e-commerce product keyword, you can’t see specific information about how well competitors’ products are selling (and for how much).

For that, you’ll need to pair SpyFu with a product research tool like the one offered by Exploding Topics.

AI Overviews Optimization

SpyFu keyword reports don’t include information about AI Overviews on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

SpyFu can show you how often your brand gets mentioned in ChatGPT responses, which is interesting.

But if you’re focused on AI in the SERP, it won’t be much help.

Semrush, on the other hand, makes it easy to see which sites are referenced in an AI overview.

1. Semrush: Best In-Depth Option for SEO Professionals

Semrush is the best all-in-one SEO tool that can meet nearly every marketer or business owner’s needs.

In my nearly 15-year career in SEO, I’ve tried a lot of SEO tools. Semrush combines every necessary feature into one platform.

You can use the Semrush toolkit to:

• Research keywords: Like SpyFu, Semrush has a great keyword research tool. You can use it whether you want to get keyword suggestions for SEO or PPC work.
• Optimize for different SERP features: Semrush uses icons to clearly denote when a SERP has an AI Overview, featured snippet, set of “People Also Ask” questions, and more. SpyFu does this to a degree, but its SERP feature list isn’t up-to-date.
• Improve your SEO content: You can use the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to discover semantic keywords, analyze your tone of voice, get suggestions for improving readability, and get real-time feedback on potential SEO content performance.
• Run site audits: The Semrush Site Audit tool is an easy way to understand what kinds of technical problems might be holding back your site’s SEO growth. Copilot AI recommendations give you daily feedback about site health and ranking performance, too.
• Conduct backlink outreach: SpyFu and Semrush both let you identify potential backlink sources, including the sites that are linking to a competitor. But Semrush goes further: you can directly reach out to the owners of specific sites through Semrush (and plan your future outreach at the same time!) This makes Semrush the best option for building a healthy backlink profile.
• Improve your overall digital marketing efforts: You can even schedule and monitor your social media campaigns through Semrush, making it a great choice for teams that market via multiple channels.

As a content marketer, one of my absolute favorite Semrush tools is the Keyword Strategy Builder.

Here’s how it works:

1. Find a list of terms using the Keyword Magic Tool
2. Add them to a list
3. Send your selected keywords to the Strategy Builder
4. Wait about 15 minutes for the tool to analyze and group your terms

Once done, you’ll have an interactive list of topic clusters that you can explore or export directly to the SEO Writing Assistant.

This one tool has saved hours of my time when researching keyword ideas and developing content plans.

How Much Does Semrush Cost?

Semrush plans start at $117.33 per month when billed annually.

Yes, this is more expensive than SpyFu. But you get access to additional features that only Semrush offers.

Check out this detailed comparison of SpyFu vs Semrush.

You can also do a lot with a free Semrush account, too. If you’re on a tight budget, I recommend trying this out, or looking for a Semrush coupon.

2. Exploding Topics Pro: Best for Finding New Keyword Trends

Exploding Topics is a trend spotting tool that’s useful for marketing, product development, competitor research, and more.

While it isn’t a direct replacement for SpyFu’s SEO research tools, Exploding Topics is a better choice in some situations.

With Exploding Topics, you can:

• See current trends
• View forecasts about how trends might change
• Discover where people are talking about a topic most online (i.e. is it more popular on LinkedIn or Instagram?)
• Understand how different topics connect to each other with Meta Trends reports
• Learn more about competitors’ most popular e-commerce items with our Trending Products list

I started using Exploding Topics to enhance my SEO work long before I began working with the team here.

I’ve found it to be useful for brainstorming, creating content, developing keyword lists, making recommendations to clients, and more.

Paid Exploding Topics Pro customers can run on-demand Trend Analysis reports, too. This is one of my favorite features.

If I don’t see a trend in the database, or I have something very specific that I need to research, I can look it up at any time.

Here’s an example of what Trend Analysis results look like:

How Much Does Exploding Topics Pro Cost?

You can do a lot for free when using Exploding Topics. To unlock the entire trend database and additional features like our e-commerce product insights, you’ll need a paid plan.

Plan options start at $39 per month (billed annually). You can try before you buy with a 14-day Exploding Topics Pro trial, too: it’s just $1.

3. Ahrefs: Best Cheap SpyFu Alternative for Small Businesses

Ahrefs is another full-featured SEO platform that you can use in place of SpyFu.

Like Semrush, Ahrefs SEO features go beyond what SpyFu offers.

In addition to conducting organic and PPC research with the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, you can use the platform to:

• Find high-quality link building opportunities and content ideas with the Content Explorer
• Conduct a competitive analysis (organic traffic, backlinks, and more) with the Site Explorer
• Run complete SEO audits to find and fix technical issues
• Improve SEO content on new or existing web pages with the help of AI

Ahrefs also maintains its own search engine called Yep.

You can use the Ahrefs Web Explorer to learn more about how pages are indexed and ranked on Yep by:

• Locating pages based on link anchor text
• Finding all pages that link to a specific URL
• Filtering results based on meta descriptions
• Narrowing search results based on H1 and H2 tags

This tool can help you find specific pages faster than when analyzing Google search results, and may be useful for building backlinks and doing competitor analysis work.

You can learn more about the platform's top features in our complete Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz Pro comparison guide!

How Much Does Ahrefs Cost?

Ahrefs doesn’t have a free trial. But it offers one of the most affordable plans out of any paid SpyFu alternative: the Starter plan is just $29 per month. (Note: this only works for sites that are connected to your Google Search Console account.)

You’ll also get 100 credits to put toward keyword research or crawling websites that you don’t own. You’ll need to be mindful of how many credits you’re using. It’s easy to use them up quickly if you’re doing a lot of keyword research.

All in all, though, I think this affordable Starter plan makes Ahrefs one of the best cheap choices for business owners who need access to a high-quality SEO tool.

4. Ubersuggest: Best Free SpyFu Alternative for Beginners

Ubersuggest is a user-friendly marketing tool that offers free access to useful SEO features.

For example, many keyword research platforms hide historical data for search volume behind a paywall. Ubersuggest shows you several months’ history for free.

With a free Ubersuggest account, you can also:

• Conduct keyword research
• See a competitor’s traffic and keyword ranking changes for the past 12 months
• Get a top-level overview of a site’s backlink changes
• Research new content topics

How Much Does Ubersuggest Cost?

You can use the free version of Ubersuggest indefinitely, but paid plans give you greater access to the platform. Options start at $29 per month (when billed annually); there are also lifetime plans available for $290 and up.

5. SE Ranking: Best for Small Agencies

SE Ranking is another SpyFu alternative that’s similar to Semrush and Ahrefs.

Like those two tools, SE Ranking is great for keyword research, conducting site audits, and more.

You can use the platform to:

• Find backlink gaps
• Improve SEO content with related keywords
• Identify technical issues through website audits
• See competitors and their traffic volume
• Assess competitors’ Google Ad campaigns
• Research keywords for local SEO

The platform also includes a Keyword Grouper that can sort a list of keywords based on how similar the SERPs are. Unfortunately, you have to pay extra for this, and I find its results to be less helpful than those generated by the Semrush Keyword Strategy Builder.

One thing I really like about SE Ranking is its SEO reporting capability.

The platform lets users on all plans create and schedule multiple reports, although entry-level plan subscribers won’t be able to white label these files.

This makes it a nice choice for small teams and agencies that need to conduct regular reporting on a budget.

How Much Does SE Ranking Cost?

SE Ranking plans start at $52 per month when billed annually.

Unfortunately, there’s no free access to any SE Ranking tools—if you don’t have any marketing budget to speak of, I recommend sticking with a free Semrush account.

6. Mangools: Best Free SERP Analysis

Mangools is a free SEO analysis tool that works similarly to both SpyFu and Ubersuggest.

You can use it to:

• Track keyword ranking changes for a specific website
• Look up keyword search volume
• See which sites link back to you (or a competitor)
• See the ratio of nofollow to dofollow backlinks

I’m most impressed by the Mangools SERP Analysis tool. It gives you an at-a-glance overview of your top competitors for any keyword, and includes metrics from several other SEO platforms like Moz.

You can see metrics like:

• Domain Authority
• Page Authority
• Trust Flow
• Number of referring domains

This is very useful if you want to assess multiple ranking signals all at once.

Mangools doesn’t offer much in the way of local SEO or PPC tools, though, which is its biggest drawback.

How Much Does Mangools Cost?

You can run multiple site scans and keyword searches for free. Most of the platform is accessible to free users.

Paid plans unlock higher usage limits and let you see more lines of data on every screen. Options start at $29 per month when billed annually.

7. Serpstat: Best for API Access

Serpstat is a multipurpose SEO tool that offers more PPC metrics than many SpyFu alternatives.

While it isn’t quite as robust as Semrush, Ahrefs, or SE Ranking, you can still use it to:

• Assess PPC keyword cost and competition data
• View organic search volume and difficulty metrics
• See the top competitors on any SERP
• See how competitors’ keyword strategies overlap
• Track keyword rankings
• Conduct basic site audits

Paid Serpstat users on select plans can also get access to various metrics through the platform’s API. You can access organic search, backlink, rank tracking, and site audit data this way—and you can resell the scraped data.

If you need API access for your product or agency, Serpstat may offer a more affordable option than many of its competitors.

How Much Does Serpstat Cost?

On-platform access to Serpstat data is $50 per month; API access starts at $119 per month (billed annually).

Find Your Ideal SpyFu Alternative

Luckily, you can take each of the SpyFu competitors on this list for a spin with free accounts and trials. I always recommend doing this when possible, so you can get a feel for each tool’s interface and available data.

But if you need to pick a new tool right now—and aren’t interested in trying each one out—be sure to pick tools that give you the best possible access to past, present, and future data.

The best SEO tool for most people is actually a combo: take a comprehensive SEO tool like Semrush and pair it with the trend-spotting powers of Exploding Topics Pro. This way, you can:

• Find keywords for organic, local, content, and paid ad optimization
• Keep tabs on competitor backlinks, marketing strategies, funding, headcount, and more
• Identify what’s most likely to be forefront in consumers’ minds over the next year
• Keep tabs on your site’s technical SEO health

Get started by testing out our top SpyFu alternatives for two weeks. Sign up for a free Semrush account, then activate your 14-day Exploding Topics Pro trial for just $1.