If you only do SEO, stay on Mangools. To plan Google Ads, Google’s Keyword Planner gives free volumes and CPC ranges, Semrush covers SEO and paid search in one suite, and SpyFu shows competitors’ ads. To decide which keywords deserve a bid for your offer, Should I Bid reads today’s Google results page and makes the call: Bid, Test or Skip.
Key takeaway: Find your ideas wherever you like, KWFinder included, but only pay for Google Ads clicks when the results page shows buying intent for what you sell.
We scored each tool on an advertiser’s question: does it help you plan a Google Ads campaign without paying for useless clicks? That gives four criteria: keyword research, Google Ads prep (costs, lists, exclusions, the bid call), competitor ad research and starting without paying. All of them count double except competitor ads: Mangools users are often small teams that watch what they spend.
We read each vendor’s official pages: features, documentation and pricing. The amounts we found are in the verified price table, with the date they were checked. We did not open a paid account with every tool, run a live campaign with them or measure how accurate their volumes or CPCs are. A low score means a feature is missing or secondary in what the vendor presents. It does not mean the tool is bad.
Should I Bid is our tool, scored on the same criteria. It loses on keyword research and competitor ads, and Google’s free Keyword Planner beats it on starting without paying, as does Semrush with its free plan. Mangools has no row in the grid: it is the tool you are trying to replace or complement.
Prices checked on the vendors’ official pricing pages on .
| Tool | Keyword research | Google Ads prep | Competitor ads | Start without paying | Total /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4.0 |
| Google Keyword Planner | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3.9 |
| SpyFu | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3.3 |
| Should I Bid (our tool) | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3.3 |
| Ubersuggest | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2.4 |
| Keywords Everywhere | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2.1 |
| LowFruits | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.9 |
Each tool gets a score from 1 to 5 on four criteria. Keyword research, Google Ads prep and starting without paying count double; competitor ad research counts once. For starting without paying: 5 for a free tool, 4 for a permanent free plan, even a limited one, 3 for a free trial or a few free analyses to try, 2 for a money-back guarantee only, 1 for nothing free. Scores are an editorial assessment based on each vendor’s official pages, without live campaign tests. Mangools is not scored because it is the benchmark; Should I Bid is our own tool, scored on the same criteria.
| Should I Bid | Mangools | |
|---|---|---|
| Per-keyword bid verdict for your offer | ✓ Bid (70 or more), Test (50 to 69) or Skip (below 50), with a score out of 100, based on today’s Google results and what you sell. | ✗ SERPChecker analyzes the SERP, but Mangools gives no bid verdict based on your offer. |
| CPC and PPC competition | ~ The score is not built on CPC, a number Should I Bid does not provide. It captures the ads actually displayed and the advertisers behind them (Competitors module). | ✓ KWFinder shows the CPC and PPC competition for each keyword. |
| Keyword research | ~ Vision generates ideas from a product or URL and sorts them (brand, generic, questions), without search volumes. | ✓ KWFinder is the suite’s keyword research tool, at the core of Mangools. |
| Negative keywords and Google Ads export | ✓ Recommended exclusions with every analysis, inclusion and exclusion lists, exact-match CSV export. | ✗ No Google Ads negative keyword lists: KWFinder gives you the ideas and their metrics. |
| SEO: rank tracking, backlinks, site analysis | ✗ Not covered: no organic rank tracking, no backlinks, no technical audit. | ✓ Covered: rank tracking, backlinks and site analysis, plus an API, an MCP and tracking of visibility in AI answers. |
| Pricing model | 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid plans with no commitment. 1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed. | Subscription with three plans (Basic, Premium, Agency), Basic billed monthly or annually, 48-hour money-back guarantee. Amounts in the verified price table. |
There is no best alternative in the abstract. Start from what you are missing in Mangools: each tool below answers a different need.
What you are missing: Deciding before you pay for the click
Price: Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page.
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Official volumes and CPC ranges, for free
Price: Free
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Combining SEO and paid search in one suite
Price: from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Your competitors' ad history
Price: from $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Keyword ideas and basic SEO
Price: from $29/mo
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Seeing volume and CPC right in Google
Price: from $84/yr
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Finding low-competition SEO keywords
Price: from $29.90/mo ($20.75/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Backlinks and content SEO
Price: from $29/mo
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Rank tracking and agency reporting
Price: from $129/mo ($103.20/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
Should I Bid is built for one decision: should you pay for this keyword in Google Ads, given what you sell? It reads today’s SERP, ads included, returns a verdict per keyword and prepares the lists to import, negative keywords included. It does not do SEO and provides no volumes or CPC.
Mangools is an entry-level SEO suite: KWFinder for keywords, with CPC and PPC competition, SERPChecker for the SERP, plus rank tracking, backlinks and site analysis. An API and MCP are included. It gives you the list and the numbers. Choosing which keywords to pay for is still up to you.
Mangools is more than a volume tool: KWFinder also shows the CPC and PPC competition level for each keyword. That makes it a real starting point for estimating what a campaign will cost. Around KWFinder, the suite covers the rest of everyday SEO: SERPChecker to analyze the SERP, rank tracking, backlinks and site analysis. An API and MCP are included, along with tracking of your visibility in AI answers.
CPC tells you what a click costs, without telling you whether it can convert. Under Google Ads’ definition, it is what you pay each time someone clicks your ad. So it tells you advertisers are fighting over that keyword. It does not tell you whether they sell what you sell, or whether the searcher wants to buy, compare or just learn.
PPC competition shows how hard advertisers compete for a keyword. A heavily contested keyword can be perfect for a competitor and useless for you, if the results page shows an intent your offer does not serve. In Google Ads, you do not earn a position: you buy a visit.
To make the call, you have to read each keyword’s results page. Which organic results, which ads, what kind of pages at the top. For three keywords, you can do it by hand; for a list of a hundred, it takes hours. Should I Bid does that reading for every keyword and compares it with what your business sells, through its keyword intent analysis.
Google Keyword Planner is the free baseline: keyword ideas, volumes, CPC ranges and campaign forecasts, inside your Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account that already spends; otherwise you see ranges. It does not read the results page and does not qualify intent. We cover it in our Keyword Planner alternatives.
Semrush is the pick if you want to combine SEO and paid search in one suite. It covers keyword research and volumes, labels each keyword’s intent and, with its Advertising toolkit, adds competitors’ paid keywords and ads, ad history included. SEO stays covered too: backlinks, site audits and rank tracking. It does not tell you which keywords to buy for your offer. See our Semrush alternatives.
Should I Bid handles the step Mangools leaves open: deciding which keywords deserve a bid. You start from your KWFinder list, or from ideas Vision generates from a product or URL. For each keyword, the analysis reads the live Google results page, organic results and ads, then an AI reads the pages that rank and weighs it all against your business. You get a verdict, Bid at 70 or more, Test from 50 to 69, Skip below 50, plus recommended negatives and a CSV ready for Google Ads (how the score is computed).
SpyFu is the paid search research specialist. It shows competitors’ PPC keywords and ads with 10+ years of history, and its Google Ads Advisor suggests keywords from their past bidding. It also recommends negative keywords and offers pre-built campaigns on higher plans. It does not judge today’s results page against your offer. The Should I Bid Competitors module shows, at no credit cost, who bids on your keywords once you have analyzed them; for several years of history, SpyFu goes further. More in our SpyFu alternatives.
Ubersuggest is the closest match to Mangools in positioning: an entry-level SEO suite. It offers keyword ideas and volumes, domain and competitor analysis, a basic SEO audit and backlinks, with three plans, a 7-day trial and a lifetime access offer. For Google Ads, it gives you volumes, with no bid verdict.
Keywords Everywhere is an add-on more than a replacement. The browser extension shows volume, CPC and competition right inside Google, with related keywords and “people also ask” questions. Its Gold and Platinum plans add a purchase-intent filter through Keyword Keg. It runs on credits with an annual subscription and gives no bid verdict.
LowFruits reads the results page for SEO, the way Should I Bid reads it for paid search. It spots weak sites in the top 10 to tell you whether you can rank, and charges per credit, one analyzed results page per credit. Should I Bid reads the results page to tell you whether you should pay for the click, and also uses one credit per keyword analyzed. LowFruits does no negative keywords and no Google Ads export.
Going by KWFinder’s columns alone, four keywords can look the same. Take a US company that sells appointment scheduling software to hair salons and spas. Its list has “appointment scheduling software for small business”, “free appointment scheduling app”, “how to schedule client appointments” and “appointment scheduling software pricing”. Say all four show similar volume, CPC and PPC competition: you would keep them all.
The results page splits them apart. If “appointment scheduling software pricing” brings up pricing pages and comparison articles, with several software ads, the searcher is comparing before buying: that is the keyword to fund first. If “free appointment scheduling app” mostly shows free apps, the searcher does not plan to pay: better to exclude it. If “how to schedule client appointments” mostly shows advice articles, the intent is informational first: test it carefully, or leave it to your SEO content.
That is the reading Should I Bid does, keyword by keyword, with a score out of 100 and a verdict. This example illustrates the method: real verdicts depend on the day’s results page and on your offer. KWFinder’s numbers still help you size the budget; the results page tells you where to spend it. For the full method, see our guide on how to choose Google Ads keywords.
If Mangools works for your SEO, keep it and add only the missing step. You only spend credits on the short list meant for paid search, and your SEO research stays in Mangools. The workflow takes five steps.
Excluded keywords also protect the budget of campaigns already running. Google Ads lets you exclude keywords so your ads stop showing on searches unrelated to your offer. Our comparison of negative keyword tools covers the other options. To get started, the free analyses to try need no credit card.
If it is Mangools’ SEO side that no longer works for you, that is not Should I Bid’s territory. For a broader comparison, read our Ahrefs alternatives or our roundup of keyword research software for Google Ads. Here are the options, one line each.
Should I Bid is not an SEO suite. It does not track your organic rankings, does not analyze backlinks and does not run technical audits. For all of that, Mangools remains the right tool, or one of the suites listed above.
It is not a keyword database to browse by volume either. The analysis gives no search volume and no CPC estimate: keep KWFinder or Keyword Planner for those numbers. Vision generates ideas from what you sell, then sends them to analysis. And a verdict is not a promise of results: the offer, the landing page, the bids and the reporting are still your team’s job.
Its job is narrow, and it stays easy to use because an AI reads the results page and the pages that rank on it for you. The goal stays the same: stop paying for clicks with no buying intent.
Its entry price: from €61/mo (€37.70/mo billed annually)
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What it does not do:
On price: “Basic” plan: €61 per month billed monthly, €37.70 per month billed annually (€452.40 per year). Premium €81, Agency €141 per month billed monthly. 48-hour money-back guarantee.
Choose Should I Bid if you pick Google Ads keywords and want to know, before you spend, which ones deserve budget for what you sell. Keep Mangools for SEO and only spend credits on the short list meant for paid search.
Stick with Mangools if you only do SEO: keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks and site analysis. Mangools covers that work, and Should I Bid would add nothing to it.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| Mangools | from €61/mo (€37.70/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: €61 per month billed monthly, €37.70 per month billed annually (€452.40 per year). Premium €81, Agency €141 per month billed monthly. 48-hour money-back guarantee. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. Google requires entering billing information and completing account setup to access keyword ideas. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan with no credit card. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
| SpyFu | from $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: $39 per month billed monthly, $29 per month billed annually. “Pro + AI”: $59 the first month, then $119 per month ($89 annually). 30-day guarantee. | Source |
| Ubersuggest | from $29/mo | Three plans at $29, $49 and $99 per month billed monthly; $192, $326 and $657 per year billed annually (“5 months free” offer shown); lifetime access at $290, $490 and $990. 7-day trial on monthly plans. | Source |
| Keywords Everywhere | from $84/yr | Annual subscriptions: Bronze $84 per year (100,000 credits), Silver $168, Gold $480, Platinum $1,440. 1 credit = 1 keyword, credits valid one year. | Source |
| LowFruits | from $29.90/mo ($20.75/mo billed annually) | “Standard” plan: $29.90 per month billed monthly, $20.75 per month billed annually (3,000 credits per month). “Premium”: $79.90 ($62.45 annually). Pay-as-you-go credits from $25 for 2,000. 14-day refund. | Source |
| Ahrefs | from $29/mo | Limited “Starter” plan at $29 per month, “Lite” plan at $129 per month. “Search intents” filter from the “Standard” plan ($249 per month). Free tier (Ahrefs Free) for your own site. | Source |
| SE Ranking | from $129/mo ($103.20/mo billed annually) | “Core” plan: $129 per month billed monthly, $103.20 per month billed annually. 14-day trial, no card. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
It depends on the step. For free volumes and CPC ranges, Google Keyword Planner. For one suite that covers SEO and paid search, Semrush. For your competitors’ ad history, SpyFu. To decide which keywords deserve a bid for your offer, Should I Bid, which reads today’s Google results page and returns Bid, Test or Skip. If you only do SEO, Mangools is still a sound choice.
Partly. KWFinder helps you find ideas and shows their CPC and PPC competition, two useful inputs to estimate what a campaign will cost. It does not tell you whether the SERP shows buying intent that fits your offer. For that decision, you need to read each keyword’s results page, which Should I Bid does for you with a Bid, Test or Skip verdict.
Mangools offers three paid plans, Basic, Premium and Agency, with a 48-hour money-back guarantee; Basic is billed monthly or annually. The amounts we read on its pricing page are in the verified price table on this page, with the date they were checked. Should I Bid works differently: 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid plans with no commitment, at one credit per keyword analyzed.
We have not measured the accuracy of its data, and we will not pretend we have. For SEO, it is a suite that covers the everyday jobs: keywords, SERP, rankings, backlinks and site analysis. For Google Ads, the real question lies elsewhere: an accurate volume or CPC does not tell you whether the click can convert for you. Today’s SERP, read against your offer, answers that.
Both are entry-level SEO suites. Mangools is built around KWFinder, with CPC and PPC competition, plus rank tracking and backlinks. Ubersuggest offers ideas, volumes, a basic SEO audit and backlinks, with a lifetime access offer. Neither gives a bid verdict. For Google Ads, Google Keyword Planner stays free for volumes and CPC ranges, so you can pair either one with it.
For SEO, no: Should I Bid does no rank tracking, backlinks or technical audits, and it gives no search volumes. For Google Ads, it adds the step Mangools does not cover: deciding which keywords deserve budget for your offer. There is no need to cancel Mangools: a credit is only used when you analyze a keyword, so only on the short list meant for paid search.
Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account: ideas, volumes and CPC ranges, with exact volumes only for accounts with active spend. It does not read the SERP and does not qualify intent. Should I Bid is not an unlimited free tool: you get 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, so you can see what a verdict looks like on your own keywords.