TL;DR: SE Ranking is the best value in mainstream SEO software right now: $129/month buys daily rank tracking on 2,000 keywords, 250K-page site audits, competitor research, and — unusually — AI search tracking (AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity) included rather than upsold. It’s not the deepest link index (that’s Ahrefs) and the single-session login is a nuisance, but for agencies and serious local businesses it’s the platform we recommend first. Rating: 9.1/10. Pricing verified July 20, 2026.

What is SE Ranking?

SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO platform — rank tracker, site audit, keyword and competitor research, backlink monitoring, content tools, local marketing, and an AI-visibility suite — that has been around since 2013 and now runs under SER Acquisition Inc. It sits in the same category as Semrush and Ahrefs but prices a tier below them, which is exactly why it keeps coming up when people search for a Semrush alternative.

We evaluate SEO platforms the way an agency has to: can it track client rankings reliably, catch technical problems before clients do, and produce reports a business owner actually reads — at a subscription cost that doesn’t eat the retainer? That’s the lens for everything below.

SE Ranking pricing (verified July 20, 2026)

There’s a 14-day free trial with no credit card, free assisted migration on annual plans, and extra capacity is à la carte (extra seats from $16, extra keywords from $22.40). Cancellation is anytime; payments are non-refundable, so trial properly before you commit.

Module by module

Rank Tracker — the reason to switch (9.5/10)

Daily updates on every plan, Google top-100 tracking, mobile/desktop and multi-location splits, and share-of-voice reporting. The daily cadence is the quiet killer feature: when you push a fix, you know within a day whether it moved, not the following Tuesday. Ahrefs updates weekly below Enterprise; Semrush is daily but you’re paying $0.28/keyword at entry versus roughly $0.06 here.

Website Audit (9/10)

250,000 crawled pages per month on Core is enough to run continuous audits across a full client roster of small-business sites. Checks are well-prioritized, the fix descriptions are readable enough to forward to a developer, and page-change monitoring (Growth) catches the “someone edited the template and noindexed the site” class of disaster. This is the module we lean on most after rank tracking.

Keyword & competitor research (8.5/10)

Unlimited keyword and competitor lookups on all plans, with a 17.5K-row database expansion on Core (50K on Growth). The database is smaller than Semrush’s or Ahrefs’ — you’ll notice on obscure long-tail — but for local and small-business niches we work in, coverage is more than adequate, and the unlimited-lookups policy beats burning per-day credits.

Backlink checker & monitoring (8/10)

Functional and improving, with research and monitoring on all plans. It is not an Ahrefs replacement for serious link-prospecting work; it is enough to monitor client link profiles and catch losses. If links are your core deliverable, run SE Ranking + Ahrefs Starter ($29) side by side — still cheaper than one Semrush AI tier.

AI Results Tracker + SE Visible (9/10)

This is where SE Ranking got ahead of its price class. The AI toolkit tracks how you appear across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, with unlimited AI-source tracking, competitor research across those surfaces, and prompt tracking included on every plan (100/day on Core). The Agency Pack adds SE Visible, a dashboard for brand mentions, citations, and sentiment across LLMs. Semrush charges $199+/month to start tracking AI surfaces; Ahrefs sells Brand Radar from $199 standalone. Here it’s in the base subscription. We use this category of data constantly for AI-search work, and covered the field in our AI visibility tools comparison.

Local marketing (8.5/10)

Three locations included: local and map rank tracking (1,500 keywords), listing management across 100+ directories, review monitoring, and GBP post scheduling. For Hawaii businesses — where the map pack decides who gets the phone call — this replaces a standalone local-SEO subscription. Extra locations from $18.40.

Content marketing module (8/10)

Brief builder, on-page checker, and an AI writer, capped at 25 articles on Core. Competent for briefs and optimization scoring; like every built-in AI writer, treat drafts as raw material, not publishable copy.

Reporting & Agency Pack (9/10 for agencies)

Report Builder covers scheduled white-label reports (10 on Core, 30 on Growth), and the $69 Agency Pack unlocks the client-facing layer — branded portals and lead-gen widgets. Flat-fee white-labeling is rare at this price and is the line item that makes the platform pencil out for agencies.

What we don’t love

• One active session per login. Sign in on a second machine and it bumps the first. Seats are cheap (from $16) but the nudge is constant.
• Core’s 6-month historical window. Long-run trend data is a Growth-tier feature. Agencies should just budget for Growth.
• Add-ons bill annually only. The Agency Pack and API add-on want a year’s commitment even if your base plan is monthly.
• Link index depth. Fine for monitoring, not for prospecting-grade research.
• No refunds. Standard for the category, but pair it with the trial deliberately.

SE Ranking vs Semrush vs Ahrefs

Who should (and shouldn’t) buy it

Buy it if you’re an agency, a multi-location local business, or an owner-operator who wants daily rankings, audits, local tools, and AI-visibility tracking on one defensible invoice.

Skip it if your work is link-prospecting-first (Ahrefs), you need PPC competitive research in the same login (Semrush), or you only need occasional lookups (use the $5 stack or Ahrefs Starter).

Already using it and shopping around? We wrote up the honest SE Ranking alternatives too.

FAQ

How much does SE Ranking cost?

Core is $129/month ($103.20/month billed annually); Growth is $279/month ($223.20 annually); Enterprise is custom. The white-label Agency Pack is +$69/month and the standalone Data API starts at $179/month (both annual billing). Verified July 20, 2026.

Does SE Ranking have a free trial?

Yes — 14 days, no credit card, with starter limits (10 projects, 750 keywords/day, 20 AI prompts/day).

What does SE Ranking’s AI Results Tracker do?

It tracks whether and how your brand appears in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity for prompts you define, monitors which sources those engines cite, and benchmarks competitors across the same surfaces. On the Agency Pack, SE Visible adds mention, citation, and sentiment dashboards.

Is SE Ranking’s rank tracking accurate?

Its daily, location-specific tracking has matched our manual SERP spot-checks closely, including Hawaii-specific local results. Whatever tool you choose, verify against an incognito or geo-set search occasionally — every tracker has bad days.

Is SE Ranking cheaper than Semrush?

At entry, modestly ($129 vs $139). On capability-per-dollar it’s not close: 4x the tracked keywords, twice the projects, and AI tracking that Semrush reserves for its $199+ tiers.

This review reflects our editorial evaluation for agency use; specs and prices pulled from SE Ranking’s published plans on July 20, 2026. Links to SE Ranking on this page are partner links — subscribing through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you; the rating is editorial either way. Want this class of tooling run for you instead? That’s literally what we do.