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Liam Harris · Morningscore
"Great tool! The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, making SEO analysis straightforward even for beginners…"
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The right SEO competitor analysis tool shows you exactly which keywords, pages and backlinks bring traffic to your rivals, and where you can overtake them. We compared 12 tools by data depth, price, free options and AI search tracking.
The most complete keyword, backlink and content gap toolkit.
From $139/mo Visit SemrushSee competitors' traffic sources, channels and market share.
From $125/mo annually Visit SimilarwebFull competitor research and daily rank comparisons at a lower price.
From $129/mo Visit SE Rankingℹ️We test and review software using an independent, multipoint methodology. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Read about our editorial process.
| # | Tool | Best for | Key feature | Price from | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Semrush | All-in-one competitor research | Keyword & Backlink Gap | $139/mo | Free account |
| 2 | Similarweb | Competitor traffic & channels | Traffic sources, market share | $125/mo annually | Free tools |
| 3 | SE Ranking | Agencies & growing teams | Competitive Research | $129/mo | 14-day trial |
| 4 | Ahrefs | Backlink gap analysis | Site Explorer, link intersect | $29/mo Starter | Ahrefs Free |
| 5 | Brand24 | Competitor mention monitoring | Share of voice, AI visibility | $199/mo annually | 14-day trial |
| 6 | Mangools | Beginners on a budget | SiteProfiler, SERPChecker | $29.90/mo annually | Free plan |
| 7 | SpyFu | Competitor PPC & history | Ad and ranking history | $39/mo | Limited free searches |
| 8 | Moz Pro | Authority & link research | Domain Authority | $49/mo | Free trial |
| 9 | Serpstat | Budget all-in-one with API | API from Team plan | $50/mo annually | 7-day trial |
| 10 | Morningscore | Guided competitor tracking | AI visibility on all plans | $69/mo | 14-day trial |
| 11 | Serpple | Competitor rank tracking | Daily rank comparison | $19/mo | 14-day trial |
| 12 | Diib | Small business benchmarking | Automated benchmarks | $29.99/mo | Free plan |
Prices as of November 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the official pricing page before you buy.
Don't know which software to choose? Our experts are ready to help.
Request expert adviceSemrush is the most complete toolkit for analyzing SEO competitors. Domain Overview shows a rival's traffic, keywords and backlinks at a glance. Organic Research reveals their top pages, Keyword Gap finds keywords they rank for and you don't, and Backlink Gap lists sites that link to them but not to you. From the Starter plan, it also tracks AI search visibility.
Pricing: SEO plan $139/mo ($117.33 billed annually), Starter with AI search $199, Pro+ $299, Advanced $549. A free account gives around 10 queries per day. Deeper traffic and market data come with a separate toolkit.
Similarweb answers the question other SEO tools can't: where do competitors' visitors come from? It estimates visits, engagement and the split between organic, paid, referral and social traffic, and shows audience geography and market share. AI Search Intelligence adds brand mentions, citations and traffic from AI platforms.
Pricing: Competitive Intelligence from $125/mo billed annually ($199 monthly). Competitive Intel & SEO & AEO, with keyword research, rank tracking and AI search data, from $333/mo annually ($399 monthly). Enterprise is custom.
SE Ranking's Competitive Research module shows a competitor's organic and paid keywords, top pages, traffic estimates and backlinks, while its rank tracker compares your positions with rivals daily. It's one of the best-value platforms for agencies that need competitor data for many clients.
Pricing: Core $129/mo ($103.20 billed annually), Growth $279 ($223.20 annually), Enterprise custom. The Agency Pack adds white-label reports for $69/mo, billed annually.
Ahrefs is the go-to tool for understanding how competitors build authority. Site Explorer shows a rival's backlinks, top pages and organic keywords, and its link intersect feature finds sites that link to several competitors but not to you, which makes them strong outreach targets. Brand Radar AI tracks brand mentions in AI answers.
Pricing: Ahrefs Free for your verified sites. Starter $29/mo (limited), Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449, Enterprise $1,499 (annual). Annual billing saves up to 17%. Brand Radar AI from $199/mo.
Brand24 covers the side of competitor analysis that SEO tools miss: what people say about your rivals. It monitors competitor brand names across social media, news, blogs, forums and podcasts, measures sentiment and share of voice, and tracks how often brands appear in AI chatbot answers.
Pricing: billed annually: Individual $199/mo ($249 monthly), Team $299, Pro $399, Business $599, Enterprise from $1,499. 14-day free trial without a credit card.
Mangools makes competitor analysis approachable. SiteProfiler gives a quick overview of any competitor's authority, top content and backlinks, SERPChecker compares the pages ranking for a keyword, and KWFinder finds keywords where competitors are weak.
Pricing: free plan with 5 keyword and 5 SERP lookups per 24 hours. Paid plans from $29.90/mo billed annually ($49 monthly). AI Search Watcher bundles from $37.70/mo annually.
SpyFu is built around spying on competitors' search strategy, especially paid search. You can see the keywords a domain has ranked for and bid on over time, their ad copy history and estimated ad spend, which helps you avoid expensive experiments your competitors have already run.
Pricing: Basic $39/mo, Pro + AI $119/mo, Team/Agency $249/mo on monthly billing, with lower prices on annual plans. Searches and exports are unlimited on all tiers.
Moz Pro is known for Domain Authority, a widely used metric for comparing how strong competitor sites are. Link Explorer, Keyword Explorer and Competitive Research help you benchmark your site against rivals, and the Medium plan adds AI Visibility dashboards.
Pricing: Starter $49/mo, Standard $99, Medium $179, Large $299, or about 20% less billed annually ($39, $79, $143, $239).
Serpstat combines competitor analysis, keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits at a mid-market price. From the Team plan, it includes API access and integration with AI assistants, which is useful for agencies automating competitor reports. Compare it with similar tools in our Serpstat alternatives guide.
Pricing: Individual $50/mo annually ($69 monthly), Team $100 ($129), Team x2 $169 ($209), Agency $410 ($499). Annual billing saves up to about 27%.
Morningscore turns competitor tracking into simple missions. It shows how your rankings, traffic value and backlinks compare to rivals, explains what to do next, and includes AI visibility tracking for ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews on every plan.
Pricing: Lite $69/mo (3 websites, 100 keywords), Business $99, Pro $159, Premium $299. 14-day free trial without a credit card.
Serpple is a focused rank tracker for watching competitors' positions. It updates rankings daily on every plan, tracks desktop, mobile and local results, compares your positions with competitors and flags keyword cannibalization.
Pricing: Side Hustler $19/mo (100 keywords, 2 competitors), Entrepreneur $29 (500 keywords), Agency from $99 (3,000 keywords).
Diib benchmarks your website against competitors automatically and turns the results into simple growth tasks. It's a good fit for owners who want to know how they compare without learning a professional SEO tool.
Pricing: free plan with basic monitoring and limited competitor insights. Pro $29.99/mo adds deeper competitor analysis and up to 30 websites.
Looking for a cheaper all-in-one tool? See our guide to the best Semrush alternatives or compare SE Ranking vs Ahrefs and Mangools vs Ahrefs.
You can start analyzing competitors without paying. These free options cover the basics:
Shows the queries and pages where you already appear. Compare them with the results ranking above you to find the competitors that matter.
Around 10 queries per day: enough to check a few competitors' top keywords and traffic estimates.
Quick traffic and channel estimates for any website, with limited depth and history.
Mangools gives 5 keyword and 5 SERP lookups per day. Diib's free plan includes basic competitor benchmarking.
More and more buyers get answers from Google AI Overviews and chatbots without clicking a result. That's why it's worth knowing how often competitors are mentioned and cited in these answers:
| Tool | How AI competitor tracking is offered |
|---|---|
| Semrush | Included from the Starter plan ($199/mo) |
| Similarweb | AI Search Intelligence in the SEO & AEO plan, or standalone AI Brand Visibility |
| Ahrefs | Brand Radar AI, from $199/mo |
| Brand24 | AI visibility tracking alongside social and web mentions |
| Moz Pro | AI Visibility dashboards from the Medium plan ($179/mo) |
| Morningscore | Included on every plan, from $69/mo |
"Great tool! The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, making SEO analysis straightforward even for beginners…"
Read review →"Serpple is a solid tool for tracking competitors. I like how detailed the keyword insights are, and the UI is pretty smooth…"
Read review →"SE Ranking stands out in 2024 for its robust SEO competitor analysis capabilities…"
Read review →"SE Ranking stands out in 2024 as a top choice for SEO competitor analysis…"
Read review →SEO competitor analysis means studying the websites that compete with you for the same search queries, so you can see what works for them and where they're weak. Your SEO competitors aren't always your business competitors. A blog, a marketplace or a review site can take the top positions for your most important keywords even if it doesn't sell what you sell.
Regular competitor analysis helps you find keyword opportunities faster, prioritize content and link building, and react quickly when a rival changes strategy or a Google update shakes up rankings.
Search for 10–20 of your main keywords and note which domains appear most often in the top 10. Then confirm with a tool: Semrush, SE Ranking and Serpstat show "organic competitors" based on keyword overlap. Keep a list of 3–5 direct competitors and 2–3 aspirational ones.
If you run a local business, add local competitors too: the sites that win "near me" searches, plus directories and review platforms in your area.
Use a Keyword Gap tool to list keywords your competitors rank for and you don't. Prioritize terms with clear business intent and manageable keyword difficulty, and group them into topics so you can plan new pages or expand existing ones.
Open competitors' best-performing pages and compare them with yours: format (guide, list, tool, comparison), depth, structure, freshness and media. Check which SERP features they win, such as featured snippets, People Also Ask or AI Overview citations. Your goal isn't to copy them, but to create something clearly better.
Compare backlink profiles with Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz Pro. Sites that link to several competitors but not to you are your warmest outreach targets. Also look at the pages that earn the most links, because these show which content attracts links in your niche.
Run a site audit on your site and compare it against competitors on page speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile experience, internal linking and indexation. Then add competitors to a rank tracker such as Serpple or SE Ranking and set alerts. Sudden ranking jumps often mean a competitor changed its strategy, or that an algorithm update hit your niche.
Choose KPIs that connect directly to your goals, and review them monthly:
If a competitor keeps outranking you for an important keyword, revisit the page: search intent, depth, internal links and backlinks. Then measure again after the next crawl cycle.
Semrush is the most complete option for keyword, backlink and content gap analysis. Similarweb is better for understanding competitors' traffic sources and market share, and SE Ranking offers the best value for agencies.
Yes. Semrush's free account allows around 10 queries a day, Similarweb offers free traffic checks, Mangools has a free plan with daily lookups, and Diib's free plan includes basic competitor benchmarking. Google Search Console shows which queries you already compete on.
Add your main competitors to a rank tracker such as Serpple, SE Ranking or Semrush Position Tracking, track the same keyword set daily or weekly, and set alerts for large position changes.
Enter a competitor's domain in Domain Overview, then use Organic Research to see their top keywords and pages, Keyword Gap to find keywords they rank for and you don't, and Backlink Gap to find sites that link to them but not to you.
Not their exact analytics, but tools such as Similarweb estimate competitors' visits, engagement and traffic sources. Treat these figures as estimates for benchmarking and trends, especially for smaller websites.
Turn it into a prioritized plan: target relevant keyword gaps, improve pages that rank below competitors, pursue backlink opportunities from sites that link to several rivals, and fix technical issues that competitors have already solved.