It depends on what you use Semrush for. For SEO, pick Ahrefs or SE Ranking, or Mangools and Ubersuggest at the entry level. For Google Ads, SpyFu studies competitors’ ads, Google’s Keyword Planner gives free volumes and CPC ranges, and Should I Bid, which does not do SEO, tells you which keywords deserve a bid for your offer.
Key takeaway: Keep Semrush only if you use every module; for Google Ads, money is won or lost keyword by keyword, so pay only for the clicks that can convert.
For a Google Ads advertiser, the question that matters is simple: does this keyword attract buyers? We scored each tool from 1 to 5 on five criteria, explained under the grid. Since most readers also want to replace an SEO suite, full SEO and keyword research count double, as much as Google Ads prep.
We read each vendor’s official pages: pricing, features and documentation. We did not test all eight tools in live campaigns, and we did not compare how accurate their volumes are. A low score means the feature is missing or secondary in what the vendor presents. It does not mean the tool is bad.
Should I Bid is our own tool, scored on the same criteria. It clearly loses on SEO and keyword research, because it does not do that work, and Google Keyword Planner, which is free, beats it on starting without paying. Semrush has no row in the grid: it is the tool you are trying to replace.
Prices checked on the vendors’ official pricing pages on .
| Tool | Full SEO | Keyword research | Google Ads prep | Competitor ads | Start without paying | Total /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4.0 |
| SE Ranking | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3.8 |
| Moz Pro | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3.3 |
| Mangools | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3.1 |
| SpyFu | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3.1 |
| Google Keyword Planner | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3.0 |
| Should I Bid (our tool) | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2.8 |
| Ubersuggest | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2.5 |
Each tool gets a score from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Full SEO (backlinks, audits, rank tracking), keyword research and Google Ads prep count double: most readers want to replace an SEO suite, the rest open Semrush to plan their campaigns. Competitor ad research and starting without paying count 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, a few free analyses to try or a free tier limited to your own site, 2 for a money-back guarantee only. Scores are an editorial assessment based on each vendor’s official pages, read on the date shown in the price table. None of these tools was tested in a live campaign for this page. Semrush is not scored because it is the benchmark. Should I Bid is our own tool, scored on the same criteria.
| Should I Bid | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | ✗ Semrush does not give a per-keyword bid verdict based on your offer. |
| Reading today’s SERP | ✓ Reads the live Google SERP, organic results and ads, and weighs it against what you sell. | ~ Analyzes SEO and Ads competition and labels each keyword’s intent, without turning it into a decision for your offer. |
| Keyword research and volumes | ~ Vision generates ideas from a product or URL, sorts them (brand, generic, questions) and drops the ones already in your history. | ✓ Keyword research and volumes, at the core of the suite. |
| Competitor ad research | ~ The Competitors module shows the advertisers seen on your analyzed keywords, a profile of any domain (ads, landing pages) and the ads on searches that contain your brand. | ✓ Its Advertising toolkit shows competitors’ paid keywords and ads, plus their ad history (the “Ads History” report). |
| From keyword to campaign | ✓ Inclusion and exclusion lists, recommended negative keywords, exact-match CSV export, ready to import into Google Ads. | ~ The Advertising toolkit shows competitors’ paid keywords and ads. It does not tell you which ones to buy for your offer. |
| SEO: backlinks, audits, rank tracking | ✗ Not covered. Should I Bid does no backlinks, organic rank tracking or technical audits. | ✓ Covered: backlinks, site audits and rank tracking. |
| Pricing model | 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid plans with no commitment. 1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed. | Subscription per toolkit, entry “SEO” plan with a 7-day trial. Amounts in the verified price table. |
There is no best alternative in the abstract. Start from what you are missing in Semrush: 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.
Verified on · Details and source
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)
Verified on · Details and source
Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: SEO keyword research and rank tracking
Price: from $49/mo
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: SEO keyword research with CPC data (KWFinder)
Price: from €61/mo (€37.70/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
Verified on · Details and source
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)
Verified on · Details and source
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: 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: Your site's real search queries, for free
Price: Free
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
Should I Bid answers one question: should you pay for this keyword, for this offer, in today’s SERP? You start from your own ideas or from Vision, the analysis reads the results page, ads included, and returns a verdict per keyword. You leave with lists to target, negative keywords and a CSV ready for Google Ads. Pay per credit, with free analyses to try.
Semrush is a broad SEO and PPC suite: keyword research and volumes, an intent label for each keyword, SEO and Ads competition, backlinks, audits and rank tracking. For paid search, a separate Advertising toolkit shows competitors’ paid keywords and ads. It gives you a lot of data. The bid decision for your offer is still yours to make.
Price is the first reason people look for a Semrush alternative. Semrush sells its product as toolkits. The entry “SEO” plan comes with a 7-day trial, a limited free plan exists, and advertising runs through a separate Advertising toolkit with its own plan. The amounts we read on its pricing page are in the verified price table below, with the date they were checked.
The second reason is the size of the suite: you also pay for the modules you do not use. Semrush covers keyword research, backlinks, site audits, rank tracking and competitor analysis for both SEO and Ads. If your work only needs part of it, a narrower tool, picked for the job, is often enough.
For Google Ads planning, Semrush describes the market without telling you which keywords deserve your budget. People who mainly open it for their campaigns get volumes, an intent label for each keyword and, with the Advertising toolkit, competitors’ paid keywords and ads. That data qualifies the market. The bid decision, given what you sell, is still yours to make.
Ahrefs is the natural pick if backlinks matter to you: it is the market reference there. It also covers keyword research with difficulty and volumes, site audits and rank tracking. On the paid side, its “Paid keywords” and “Ads” reports show what competitors buy, and it offers a free Google Ads copy generator. It does not tell you which keywords to bid on and does not export ready-to-import Google Ads lists. Ahrefs Free covers your own site. We compare Ahrefs with Should I Bid on our Ahrefs alternatives page.
SE Ranking covers the same SEO basics as Semrush: rank tracking, keyword research, site audits and backlinks. It also covers SEO and PPC competitor research, with their paid keywords and ads. For agencies, the optional Agency Pack add-on brings white-label reporting. You can try the Core plan for 14 days without a card. Like the other SEO suites on this list, it gives no bid verdict.
Moz Pro is an SEO suite built around Keyword Explorer. Keyword Explorer gives each keyword’s volume, difficulty and organic CTR, with a primary search intent generated by Moz AI. Moz Pro adds SERP analysis, rank tracking, site crawls and link analysis. There is an entry-level plan limited to one site, and a free trial. Its intent estimate describes the keyword. It does not tell you whether that keyword is worth a bid for your offer.
Mangools is an entry-level suite built around KWFinder, which shows the CPC and PPC competition for each keyword. SERPChecker analyzes the SERP, and the suite also covers rank tracking, backlinks and site analysis, with an API and MCP included. There are three plans, Basic, Premium and Agency; Basic is billed monthly or annually. 48-hour money-back guarantee. If you also use it to pick paid keywords, read our Mangools alternative for Google Ads.
Ubersuggest is an entry-level tool for keyword ideas and basic SEO. It covers keyword ideas and volumes, domain and competitor analysis, a basic SEO audit and backlinks. It offers three monthly plans, a 7-day trial and a promoted lifetime access deal. For a small business site or a blog, those basics are often enough.
For SEO on your own site, Google Search Console is free. It shows your site’s queries, impressions, clicks and positions, and flags indexing issues. It says nothing about queries where you do not appear, so a suite is still useful to explore new topics.
On the paid side, Semrush sells a separate Advertising toolkit that describes what competitors do. It shows their paid keywords and ads, plus their ad history. Semrush also labels each keyword’s intent. That data describes the market and the keyword. It does not tell you whether the keyword deserves your budget, for what you sell.
Google Keyword Planner is the free starting point for planning a campaign. It gives 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 live SERP and does not qualify intent. See also our Keyword Planner alternatives.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that shows volume, CPC and competition right inside Google. It also shows related keywords and runs on credits with an annual subscription. Its Gold and Platinum plans add a purchase-intent filter through Keyword Keg. It gives no bid verdict. It is an add-on more than an alternative, which is why it is not in the grid.
SpyFu is the specialist in competitors’ paid keywords and ads. It shows their PPC keywords and ads, 10+ years of ad history, and a Google Ads Advisor that suggests keywords from competitors’ bidding history. It also recommends negative keywords and offers pre-built Google Ads campaigns on its higher plans. It does not judge today’s SERP against your offer. It comes with a 30-day guarantee. More in our SpyFu alternatives page.
Should I Bid starts from the other end: it tells you, for each keyword, whether it deserves a bid for your offer. You start from your own keywords, or the ones Vision generates from a product or URL. For each one, the intent analysis reads the live Google SERP, organic results and ads, then an AI reads the pages that rank, weighs it all against your business and returns a verdict: Bid at 70 or more, Test from 50 to 69, Skip below 50. The score combines intent fit, buying stage, competitive signal and the commercial signal of the page (how the score is computed). You leave with the keywords to target, recommended negatives and a CSV ready for Google Ads.
The Competitors module rounds out the research and costs no credits to browse. It shows who bids on your keywords you have analyzed, a profile of any domain with its ads and landing pages, and the ads on searches that contain your brand. These are real ads, captured on the Google pages Should I Bid reads, each observation dated. They come from keywords analyzed on Should I Bid: for several years of history, SpyFu goes further.
Two keywords with similar volume and CPC can call for opposite decisions. Take a US company that sells invoicing software to contractors. Say your keyword tool shows a decent volume and a similar CPC for both “invoicing software for small business” and “free invoice template”. Nothing in those columns tells you which one can bring you customers.
If the SERP for “free invoice template” is full of templates to download, you are better off not bidding. A page of Word, Excel and Google Docs templates points to a searcher who wants a free file. Paying for that click often means paying for someone who leaves with a template. The right move: add “free template” to your negative keywords.
If the SERP for “invoicing software for small business” shows comparison articles, pricing pages and several software ads, the intent is commercial and close to a purchase. That keyword is worth testing first, with a landing page written for contractors. Should I Bid does this reading for every keyword on a list, with a score out of 100 and a verdict. This example is an illustration: real verdicts depend on the day’s SERP and on your offer.
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. If those features are why you pay for Semrush, pick one of the suites in the SEO section.
Should I Bid is not a keyword database to browse by volume either. Vision generates ideas from what you sell, then sends them to analysis. And a verdict is not a promise of results: campaign performance also depends on the ad, the landing page, your bids and your targeting.
What Should I Bid does is easy to use, because an AI reads the SERP and the pages that rank on it for you. The goal stays the same: stop paying for clicks with no buying intent.
Often the right answer is a combination rather than a single tool. Here are the ones that come out of this comparison.
Two of our comparisons go further on the bid decision itself. One covers the tools that help you decide whether to bid, the other compares paid SERP analysis tools and what each one reads on the page. To get started, the free analyses to try need no credit card.
Its entry price: from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually)
Verified on
What it does not do:
On price: 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.
Choose Should I Bid if you mostly open Semrush to plan Google Ads and want to know, keyword by keyword, which ones deserve your budget for what you sell. Keep a lighter SEO tool alongside if you need one: with Should I Bid, a credit is only used when you analyze a keyword.
Stick with Semrush if you use full SEO every week (backlinks, audits, rank tracking, keyword research) and its toolkits also cover your ad research.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Moz Pro | from $49/mo | Entry-level plan at $49 per month (single site). “Standard” plan: $99 per month billed monthly, $79 per month billed annually; Medium $179, Large $299 per month. Free trial. A promotion was shown on the day of the check: prices to be rechecked. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Google Search Console | Free | Free Google service, with a Google account. Data limited to sites whose ownership you verify. | 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 job. For a full SEO suite, Ahrefs, the reference for backlinks, or SE Ranking, which you can try for 14 days without a card. To get started, Mangools or Ubersuggest. To study competitors’ ads, SpyFu and its 10+ years of ad history. To decide which keywords deserve a bid for your offer, Should I Bid, which reads today’s SERP and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict. Pick the tool for the task you do most often.
Among full SEO suites, Ahrefs, SE Ranking and Moz Pro cover the same core jobs: keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits; Ahrefs and SE Ranking also show competitors’ paid keywords and ads. Mangools and Ubersuggest are entry-level suites. SpyFu competes on paid search research, with competitors’ PPC keywords and 10+ years of ad history. Should I Bid is not a direct competitor: it only handles the Google Ads bid decision, based on today’s SERP and your offer.
Not a full suite, but several free options cover part of the work. Semrush itself has a limited free plan and a free keyword tool (volume, difficulty, intent). Google Keyword Planner gives keyword ideas, volumes and CPC ranges with a Google Ads account. Google Search Console shows the queries, clicks and positions of your own site, and Ahrefs Free also covers your own site. Should I Bid is not an unlimited free tool: you get 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid plans with no commitment.
Today, Semrush is owned by Adobe, a US company. Adobe’s press release announcing the deal described Semrush Holdings as a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and headquartered in Boston. Adobe, listed on Nasdaq, has since completed the acquisition, according to Semrush’s newsroom. When you choose a tool, the question that matters most is still the job you need done.
It depends on the step. For free volumes and CPC ranges, Google Keyword Planner. To study what competitors bid on and how their ads changed over time, SpyFu. To decide which keywords deserve a bid for your offer, Should I Bid: it reads today’s SERP, ads included, returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score, then exports targets and negative keywords to a CSV for Google Ads.
For SEO, no: Should I Bid does no backlinks, rank tracking or technical audits. For Google Ads, it takes over the part that needs the most judgment: deciding which keywords deserve budget. It reads today’s SERP, ads included, and compares it with what your business sells. You can keep a lighter SEO tool alongside it for the organic side of your work.
No. Should I Bid, at shouldibid.app, is a Google Ads tool: it reads the results page for each keyword and tells you whether that keyword deserves a bid for your offer. It has no link to “Should I Bid?” at shouldibid.com, a service that helps construction contractors evaluate bid opportunities. The names are close, the businesses have nothing in common. If you need help deciding whether to bid on a construction project, the other site is the one you want.