Moz Alternatives 2026: 8 SEO Tools Compared on Price, Limits and Fit

Moz has been selling SEO software for more than 20 years by its own count, and its current price ladder makes the “should I stay” question a fair one. On the pricing page I read on October 7, 2026, Moz Pro Standard is $99 a month, or $79 a month on yearly billing, and it covers 300 tracked keywords and 150 keyword queries a month. Whether that is a good deal depends entirely on how you search, track and report.

I run Ecommerce Paradise. The stores I teach about follow the model in my guide to what high-ticket dropshipping is. A high-ticket store lives on a modest set of expensive product and category terms, so a rank tracker, a keyword tool and a backlink checker are recurring costs worth getting right. This guide compares Moz with eight alternatives on what each one publishes for price, limits and trial terms.

I have not run a head-to-head test of these tools, and I am not going to pretend I ran an accuracy contest. Every figure below comes from each company’s own pricing or help pages, read in October 2026, and anything I could not confirm is marked as such. Prices change often, so check the signup page before you pay. This is general information about software, not a promise of results.

What Moz Costs in 2026

Before you decide to leave, price what you are leaving. Moz Pro has three published tiers plus a smaller starter plan, and the limits move a lot between them.

Below those, the pricing page lists an entry plan at $49 a month “designed specifically for individuals managing a single website.” Moz’s Starter plan help page lists 1 user, 1 campaign, 50 tracked keywords, 75 keyword queries a month, 5,000 pages crawled a week and no AI visibility dashboards. By my arithmetic that is about $0.98 per tracked keyword, and I did not see a yearly price for it. There is also an Enterprise option that is quote-only.

All three tiers list MozBar Premium and Moz’s AI-powered tools. Support shows as 24/7 in the plan table and as 24-hour, same-day online support in the feature text, so ask what that means in practice. They also include AI visibility tracking across GPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity, with 150, 300 and 600 tracked prompts on Standard, Medium and Large. Moz says yearly billing saves 20%, and its FAQ says you can cancel or change plans at any time.

The add-on prices matter more than the base price. Extra user seats are $49 a month each, extra tracked keywords are $20 a month per 200, extra campaigns are $10 a month each, and extra keyword queries are $10 a month per 10,000. By my arithmetic, taking Standard from 300 to 1,500 tracked keywords with add-ons costs $99 plus six packs of $20, or $219 a month, while Medium lists 1,500 at $179 and adds a second user and more campaigns. If you outgrow Standard, step up a tier instead of stacking add-ons.

Moz Local is a separate product with its own pricing. It lists Lite at $20 a month ($16 a month, $199 billed yearly), Preferred at $30 ($24, $299 yearly) and Elite at $40 ($33, $399 yearly), plus a custom Enterprise tier aimed at 50 or more locations. Listings AI is $14 a month as an add-on (included in Elite) and Reviews AI is $10 a month. Moz Local’s FAQ says each physical location you manage needs its own subscription, so those prices are per location. Five locations on Preferred, for example, would be about $120 a month on yearly billing by my arithmetic.

Moz Free is a real thing, but it is small. A free Moz Community account gives limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer, and the Link Explorer page says you get 10 queries a month. The free tools page also lists a Domain Authority checker, a Brand Authority checker, a competitive research tool, a local citation checker and MozCast.

One more point on promotions. Every Moz page I loaded showed a banner reading “Last chance to save up to 40% – ends today!”, and I could not see what it applied to. Treat any discount as something to confirm at checkout, not a number to plan around.

On the trial, Moz’s free-trial page says 7 days, and its help center says a credit card is required, the trial covers only the Medium monthly plan, and any upgrade or add-on ends the trial and starts billing. The help center also says Moz offers no refunds of any kind, so cancel renewal at least a day before the trial ends. Confirm all of that on the signup page, since the pricing page itself does not state the length.

Why People Look for Moz Alternatives

The first reason is the keyword-query cap. Standard lists 150 keyword queries a month against 5,000 on Medium, and a store owner researching product categories can use up 150 quickly. That gap is the main reason I would not buy Standard for active keyword research.

The second is cost per tracked keyword. On yearly billing, Moz Standard works out to about $0.26 per tracked keyword per month, against about $0.05 for SE Ranking Core. Moz improves as you go up the ladder, which is why the top tiers hold up better, but the entry plan is expensive for what it tracks.

The third is refresh speed. Moz’s help hub says campaign rankings update once per week, while Semrush and SE Ranking list daily tracking. Mangools and Ahrefs are weekly too, so this only matters if you run promotions or test titles and want to see a drop within a day or two.

The fourth is that local SEO sits in a separate subscription. If you have a showroom or service area, you are paying for Moz Pro and Moz Local on top of each other, and some alternatives bundle local tracking into one plan.

The fifth is simple fit. Moz’s strongest asset is the Domain Authority metric and its teaching content, and a store that cares about neither can get more for the money elsewhere. I say more on that below.

How I Compared Them

I used five criteria: price per tracked keyword on the entry tier, the limits on lookups and projects, how often rankings refresh, what the trial or refund terms say, and whether local SEO is included. For prices I used only each company’s own pricing page, read on October 7, 2026, plus Moz’s help pages, one Mangools plan file and the Whitespark pricing page. Where a page did not say, I say it did not say.

I also give you the vendor claims as claims. If a company says its index is the biggest or its crawler the second most active, that is marketing until someone shows you the test. Competitor research is the point of these tools, and the SBA guide to competitive analysis describes it as learning from the businesses competing for your potential customers.

The 8 Best Moz Alternatives in 2026

1. Semrush: Best for an All-in-One Suite

Semrush’s pricing page lists SEO at $139 a month, or $117.33 a month billed annually, with 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily. Starter is $199 ($165.17 annual), Pro+ is $299 ($248.17) with 1,500 daily keywords and 15 websites, and Advanced is $549 ($455.67) with 5,000 keywords and 40 websites. Extra users start at $45 a month. The page says you can try it free for seven days, and there is a $0 plan limited to 1 demo project and 10 reports a day.

Who it fits: owners who want keyword research, tracking, audits and AI-search reporting in one login, and who will use most of it. Where it loses to Moz: price. At about $0.23 per tracked keyword on yearly billing it is among the priciest on this list, because you are paying for the whole suite. My best rank trackers guide compares how these tools count tracked keywords.

2. Ahrefs: Best for Backlink and Competitor Research

Ahrefs lists Lite at $129 a month with 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords and 6 months of history, Standard at $249 with 20 projects and 2,000 tracked keywords, and Advanced at $449 with 50 projects and 5,000 tracked keywords. The page says paying annually saves up to 17%. A $29 Starter tier is described as limited and Ahrefs Free as limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit, but I did not confirm Starter’s exact limits.

The catch is the jump. Lite is the entry price, but Standard at $249 is where the data and limits look more like Moz Medium or Large, which is why I wrote up the real cost of Ahrefs separately. Who it fits: link builders and competitor researchers who want the deepest backlink data and do not mind weekly rank updates.

3. SE Ranking: Best Value for Daily Tracking

SE Ranking’s Core plan is $129 a month, or $103.20 a month billed annually, with 2,000 keywords tracked daily, 10 projects and 1 manager seat. Growth is $279 ($223.20 annual) with 5,000 daily keywords, 30 projects and 3 seats. The page lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, and “free migration with an annual subscription.”

Core also lists 3 local locations, a local and map rank tracker of 1,500 keywords and listing management across 100 or more directories, so it covers part of what Moz Local does. Extra manager seats start at $16 a month and extra keywords from $22.40. It is the one I would price first against Moz Medium if daily tracking matters.

4. Mangools: Best for Small Stores on a Budget

Mangools’ plan file lists Basic at $49 a month or $358.80 a year (about $29.90 a month), Premium at $69 or $538.80 a year (about $44.90), and Agency at $129 or $1,078.80 a year (about $89.90). Tracked keywords are 200, 700 and 1,500. Its own page says SERPWatcher updates weekly, daily on Agency, and the FAQ lists a full refund within 48 hours of payment (not for two consecutive subscriptions).

I found a free account but no paid trial, and I could not confirm the free account’s limits. Who it fits: a store tracking a few hundred terms that wants keyword research and rank tracking in one cheap bundle. The weekly refresh is the trade, and I would not choose it for a category that moves daily.

5. Ubersuggest: Best Cheapest Option for Solo Owners

Ubersuggest’s plan prices load dynamically, so I could not read them off the page this session. The figures here come from my own pricing post, written from the page on September 29, 2026. Individual was $12 a month, $80 a year or $120 lifetime, with 1 project and 125 tracked keywords. Business was $20 a month and Enterprise $40. Those numbers were promotional.

The page’s promotion banner has changed since then, so confirm the prices. It still lists 125 weekly-tracked keywords per project and 150 reports a day on Individual, and says there is a one-time 7-day free trial for monthly subscriptions.

It is the cheapest ticket on this list, and my post notes that the page listed Moz at US$49 to US$299 in a comparison module, which lines up with the Moz plans above. Who it fits: a solo owner on a tight budget who needs light research. Where it loses: data depth and project limits at the entry tier.

6. Screaming Frog: Best for Technical Audits

Screaming Frog is a site crawler, not a keyword tool. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs, and a paid licence is $279 a year per user (volume discounts start at 5 licences), valid for one year. It covers the same ground as Moz’s Site Crawl.

It does not track rankings or show backlinks, so it replaces one Moz feature, not Moz. My Seobility alternatives guide covers more crawler options, and the sensible setup is a crawler plus whichever rank tracker you pick.

7. Whitespark: Best Moz Local Alternative

Whitespark sells its tools separately and says so: it does not believe in forced bundling. Its pricing page lists Local Ranking Grids from $10 a month, Local Rank Tracker from $14 to $200 a month, Local Citation Finder from $33 to $149 a month, Reputation Builder at $79 a month per location, and Local Platform at $1 a month per location. One-time listing packages run $20 to $999.

Who it fits: a business with a physical location that wants to pick local pieces rather than rent a suite. If BrightLocal is on your list too, my BrightLocal alternatives post covers who still publishes prices. Where it loses to Moz: no general SEO suite.

8. Google Search Console: Best Free Baseline

Google’s help page calls Search Console a free service that helps you monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. It shows real impressions, queries and click-through rates, and it flags indexing problems. Read Google’s Search Console overview before you spend a dollar on a rank tracker.

It has no competitor data and no keyword database, so it complements a paid tool rather than replacing one. If you are on Moz Free and not paying for anything, set this up first.

What the Same Setup Costs on Each Tool

Published prices only mean something when you apply them. These are my own arithmetic from the figures above, before taxes, and they are illustrations rather than quotes. “Not confirmed” means I could not get a clean number.

Two patterns stand out. Per tracked keyword, SE Ranking and Mangools undercut Moz at the entry level, while Semrush lands at about the same cost per keyword as Moz Standard, with daily tracking but a higher monthly bill. At about 1,500 keywords the gap narrows, and Moz Medium looks competitive because it includes a second user and 10 campaigns.

These numbers ignore refresh frequency and everything else a suite does, so a lower cost per keyword is not automatically a better tool. Moz and Mangools both update rankings weekly (Mangools daily on Agency). A business tool bill like this is also a normal recurring expense, so keep it on a business card; my guide to business formation for high-ticket dropshipping covers that setup, and what is deductible is a question for your accountant, since I am not a licensed advisor.

Where Moz Still Wins

Moz still wins on a few things, and I would not talk anyone out of it for the wrong reasons. The first is Domain Authority, the score most link-builders and outreach lists quote, along with Page Authority and Brand Authority, which Moz lists as part of its data. If a client or a link partner asks for your DA, Moz Pro is the source of the number.

The second is learning. Moz’s site points to its Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Moz Academy and an in-app onboarding flow, and the plans promise online support from a real person the same day. For a newcomer, that is worth paying for if the budget allows.

The third is AI visibility tracking built into the plan. Moz Standard lists 150 tracked prompts across four AI models, checked weekly. SE Ranking Core lists 100 daily prompts and sells a separate AI Search add-on at $89 a month ($71.20 annual) for 200 prompts, and Ahrefs sells Brand Radar separately from $199 a month. If AI answers matter to you, Moz is competitive here, though SE Ranking checks daily.

The fourth is the free tooling. The Link Explorer’s 10 free queries a month and the MozBar are useful even if you pay for nothing, and Moz’s index claim, 40 trillion links or more in its Link Explorer, is its own number. Moz’s menus say both 44 trillion and 40 trillion, so I would not quote either as a fact.

Is Domain Authority a Reason to Stay?

Only if you use it. Domain Authority is Moz’s own score, and the Google ranking systems guide lists the systems Google describes, such as PageRank-based link analysis, spam detection and reliable information systems, without mentioning Domain Authority or any third-party score. That does not make DA useless, but it does mean the number is a comparison tool for you, not a lever Google reads.

Semrush has Authority Score and Ahrefs has Domain Rating, so each suite gives you a comparable number. For a store, the practical use is judging whether a site that could link to you is stronger or weaker than yours. If you never do outreach, DA is a nice-to-have.

If You Sell Local, Compare Moz Local Separately

A store that ships nationwide rarely needs local listings tools. A showroom, a repair service or an installer does, and that is where Moz Local, SE Ranking’s local features and Whitespark overlap. Moz Local lists 90 or more directories and Local Grid map-pack rankings, while SE Ranking Core lists 100 or more directories and 1,500 local keywords across 3 locations.

Whitespark’s pieces are cheaper individually but sold separately, so a simple setup needs two or three of them. Price the exact combination you need, per location, before you decide. This is the one case where an all-in-one suite can beat a stack of point tools.

How to Switch Without Losing Your History

Do not cancel first. Export your tracked keywords and any rank history as CSV files from Moz, then load the keyword list into the new tool and let it collect for a few weeks before you drop Moz. Moz’s FAQ says you can cancel or change plans at any time, and SE Ranking’s page lists free migration with an annual subscription.

SE Ranking’s FAQ says you can import projects and keyword ranking history with built-in migration options, but I could not confirm that for the other tools, so ask before you pay for a year. Start on a monthly or trial plan, check that the new tracker’s positions agree with Search Console for your top 20 terms, and only then switch to annual billing. If you pick a crawler like Screaming Frog, run it against your store once a month and compare to Moz Site Crawl.

If you do not yet have supplier relationships and are tracking terms for products you do not stock, slow down. Keyword tools tell you what people search, but they cannot tell you whether you can get the product. My guide to finding suppliers for high-ticket dropshipping comes first. After that, my high-ticket niches list helps you pick which categories to research.

Which Should You Pick?

If you are a solo owner with a small catalog and a tight budget, start with Search Console, add Mangools or Ubersuggest, and skip Moz Standard. If you want the most daily tracking per dollar and plan to grow, SE Ranking Core is the one I would price first. If you want an all-in-one suite and will use the extras, Semrush. If your work is link building, Ahrefs Standard or Moz Medium, depending on whether you want Domain Authority.

If you are a beginner who values a gentler on-ramp, Moz Pro is a reasonable choice, but start on a plan you can leave. If you have a physical location, price Moz Local, SE Ranking’s local tools and Whitespark side by side. If you only need audits, Screaming Frog plus Search Console may be all you need.

If you are still learning the model behind the store, my free mini course is a better first spend than any tool subscription. Whichever tracker you choose, run one small test first. Track the 20 terms that matter most for 30 days, compare against Search Console, and look at the real invoice before you scale.

My Verdict: Should You Leave Moz in 2026?

I would not call Moz overpriced across the board. Moz Pro Medium at $143 a month on yearly billing, with 1,500 tracked keywords, 5,000 keyword queries, 2 users and AI visibility tracking, is a fair package for a growing store. The entry plan is the weak spot: 300 keywords, 150 queries and a price that works out to about $0.26 per tracked keyword.

My read is that most small stores will get more per dollar from SE Ranking Core or Mangools, and most people who want the biggest suite will pick Semrush. But if you want Domain Authority, strong learning content and AI tracking inside the plan, Moz Pro is still worth a trial. Confirm the trial terms and the promotional price on the signup page before you commit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Moz alternative in 2026?
It depends on the job. SE Ranking lists the most daily tracked keywords per dollar, Semrush is the biggest all-in-one suite, Ahrefs is strongest for backlink research, and Mangools or Ubersuggest are the cheap options. If you want to stay in the Moz ecosystem, Moz Pro is still the one with Domain Authority.

Is Moz Pro worth it for a small ecommerce store?
The entry plan is hard to justify on tracked keywords alone, at 300 keywords and 150 keyword queries a month for $99. Medium is a better fit once you need 1,500 keywords and a second user. For a store tracking a few hundred terms, Mangools or SE Ranking give you more per dollar.

Does Moz have a free plan or free trial?
Moz Free is a free community account with limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer (10 Link Explorer queries a month). Moz’s free-trial page says 7 days, and its help center says the trial covers only the Medium monthly plan and requires a credit card, with no refunds once you are billed.

What replaces Moz Local?
SE Ranking’s Core plan lists listing management across 100 or more directories and local rank tracking, and Whitespark sells local ranking grids, citation tools and review tools separately. Moz Local’s own plans run $16 to $33 a month on yearly billing, and each location needs its own subscription, so compare per location. My BrightLocal alternatives post covers more local options.

Can I just use Google Search Console instead of Moz?
Search Console is free and shows real impressions and queries for your own site, which no third-party tool can match. It has no competitor data or keyword database, so most stores that do serious SEO use it alongside a paid tool. I would start with Search Console and add a paid tracker once you know what you need.

Related Articles

If you found this useful, these guides go deeper on related topics:

• Best Rank Trackers 2026: 8 Tools Compared on Price, Keywords and Update Speed
• KWFinder vs Moz Pro 2026: Affordable Mangools Suite vs Domain Authority Creator
• 10 Best Semrush Alternatives in 2026: SEO Platforms with Better Pricing, Deeper Backlinks, Friendlier UX, and Cleaner Use-Case Fit
• Ubersuggest Alternatives in 2026: The 8 Best SEO Tools and When Each One Beats Ubersuggest
• Semrush Pricing in 2026: Complete Plan Breakdown, Seat Costs, .Trends Add-On, and Hidden Fees Explained

Trevor Fenner

Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.

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