10 Best SE Ranking Alternatives in 2026 (SEO + AI Search)

SE Ranking alternatives are worth a look if you want deeper SEO data, Claude in your AI tracking, or tools that act on what they find. SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO suite with rank tracking, audits, backlinks and keyword research, and since February 2026 its Core plan costs $129 a month with 100 AI prompts included. Its AI Search add-on, which brings SE Visible, adds $89, so the pair costs $218 a month billed monthly, and Claude is still listed as coming soon.

These 10 SE Ranking alternatives include bigger SEO suites, budget SEO tools, dedicated AI visibility trackers and an agentic AI search platform. Prices checked in November 2026.

SE Ranking alternatives compared

Prices from each vendor's pricing page, checked November 2026. Monthly billing unless noted. AI engines are those on the entry plan that includes AI tracking.

Tool	Starting price	SEO suite	AI engines on entry plan	Claude	Acts on findings	Best for
SE Ranking	$129/month; AI Search add-on $89	Full: rank tracking, audits, backlinks	AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini	Coming soon	Reports only	Budget all-in-one SEO
Orchly	$49/month	Rank tracking, Search Console, GA4, site audits	ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, with Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot as add-ons; also tracks Meta AI and DeepSeek+5 add-ons	Add-on	Agents run the work	SEO data plus AI visibility, with agents
Semrush	$139/month; AI toolkit $99 per domain	Full, largest databases	AI Visibility Toolkit: ChatGPT, AI Mode, Gemini, AI Overviews, with Perplexity in Brand Performance	Enterprise AIO only	Recommendations	Biggest SEO databases
Ahrefs	$129/month; Brand Radar from $199	Full, large backlink index	Brand Radar: AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot	Custom prompts only	Reports only	Backlinks
Search Atlas	$99/month; AI tracking from $199	Full	ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode on Growth; Copilot, Perplexity and Claude on Pro+3 on Pro	From Pro, $399	OTTO deploys fixes	Automated fixes
Nightwatch	€79/month	Rank tracking, site audit, keyword research	ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews	Every plan	SEO Agent credits	Rank tracking plus AI
Peec AI	€85/month	None	Any 3 of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Naver AI; Perplexity costs extraPick any 3	Enterprise only	Actions, Peec Agent	Dedicated AI tracking
Otterly.AI	$29/month	None	ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot	Add-on	GEO audits, recommendations	Budget AI tracking
Surfer	$49/month (billed yearly); AI tracking from $99	Content editor only	ChatGPT weekly on Standard; ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini daily on Pro+4 from Pro	No	Content editor, AI writer	Content optimization
Mangools	$37.70/month (billed yearly)	Light: keywords, rank tracking, backlinks	ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Mistral, Llama, checked weekly+ Mistral, Llama	Included	Reports only	Small sites on a budget
Profound	Custom	None	9 engines on Enterprise: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews, Exa+ DeepSeek, Exa	Enterprise	AI Marketer agents	Enterprise AI visibility

1. Orchly: best SE Ranking alternative to grow SEO and AI visibility with agents

Orchly is an agentic AI search optimization platform that covers the SEO basics many teams use SE Ranking for, rank tracking, Search Console and GA4 data and site audits, and adds daily AI visibility tracking in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with Gemini, Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Microsoft Copilot as paid add-ons (Orchly also tracks Meta AI and DeepSeek).

Its agents run on their own, on a schedule. They analyze your AI visibility, your competitors, your SEO and your Search Console and GA4 data, decide what to write and which pages to refresh, and write and refresh them in your brand voice. They keep Brand Brain up to date, find the sites, people and Reddit threads worth reaching, run the outreach and draft the replies, and audit your site for technical SEO and AI search issues with the fixes ranked. You decide whether each agent runs on its own or waits for your approval.

SE Ranking gives you a tracker plus a to-do list. Orchly's agents run the work end to end, from $49 a month, with smaller SEO databases than SE Ranking in exchange.

The SEO side

• Rank tracking. A Google rank tracker by country and device, with daily movers.
• Search Console and GA4. Clicks, impressions, conversions and revenue from Google Search Console and GA4, with topic clusters and branded vs non-branded splits.

• Indexing and site health. An indexing report and the Site Health Agent, which audits your site and ranks the fixes.

The AI search side

• Daily tracking. ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, with Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot as paid add-ons (Orchly also tracks Meta AI and DeepSeek). SE Ranking still lists Claude as coming soon.
• Perception and fact check. Attributes, objections, and AI claims checked against your Brand Brain.

• Mention Gap and fan-outs. Cited sources that skip you, and the background searches behind answers.

Agents that run on their own

• Content Agent. Runs on a schedule, uses lost prompts, citation gaps and decaying Search Console pages to decide what to write and refresh, drafts in your brand voice and publishes to your CMS, directly or after your approval.
• Activation Agent. Finds the publishers, people, Reddit threads and YouTube videos AI cites, runs the outreach from your inbox and drafts the Reddit replies.
• Site Health Agent. Audits your site for technical SEO and AI search issues and ranks the fixes by priority.

Where Orchly falls short

• Smaller SEO databases. SE Ranking has keyword research and backlink databases. Orchly focuses on your own Search Console data and AI visibility.
• Fewer projects. SE Ranking Core includes 10 projects. Orchly Essential covers 1 site and Pro 3.
• Engines cost extra. Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot are paid add-ons on every plan. SE Ranking includes Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews in its AI tracking.

Orchly pricing

• Essential: $49/month for 25 prompts, 20 articles, 1 site and 1 user
• Pro: $125/month for 100 prompts, 50 articles, 3 sites and 5 users, with AI traffic analytics, custom agents and white-label reports
• Enterprise: custom, with a customer success manager
• There's a 7-day free trial, and yearly billing saves 25%.

See Orchly pricing or start a free trial.

2. Semrush: best full SEO suite

Semrush is the biggest all-in-one SEO suite on this list, with keyword, backlink and competitor databases larger than SE Ranking's and an AI Visibility Toolkit on top, which suits SEO teams that want the deepest data and can pay for it. Semrush has been part of Adobe since April 28, 2026.

We haven't used Semrush's SEO toolkit for this comparison, so that side comes from its pricing page and help center. We have tested the AI Visibility Toolkit. You click AI in the left menu, enter your domain and get an AI Visibility Score out of 100, and Prompt Research was the report we kept opening, because it works like Keyword Magic for AI questions.

The allowance is what slowed us down. $99 a month buys 25 prompts for one domain, and every extra domain and user costs more. SE Ranking's $89 add-on covers 200 prompts.

Engines also change from report to report. Prompt Tracking runs daily on ChatGPT, AI Mode, Gemini and AI Overviews, Brand Performance adds Perplexity and updates weekly, and Claude, Grok and DeepSeek are only in Enterprise AIO.

Key features

• Keyword and backlink databases. The largest on this list, with Keyword Magic, Backlink Analytics and Domain Overview.
• Position Tracking and Site Audit. Daily rankings and a technical crawler in the SEO toolkit.
• AI Visibility Score. One score out of 100 against up to 4 competitors.
• Prompt Research. Prompt volume and intent estimates from a database of 317 million+ prompts.
• Semrush MCP. Semrush data inside Claude and other AI assistants.

Where it falls short

• AI tracking is priced per domain, 25 prompts each.
• Claude, Grok and DeepSeek need Enterprise AIO.
• The SEO plan alone costs more than SE Ranking Core, before any AI tracking.

User reviews

“Keyword volumes, difficulty, CPC and competitor data are all in one place, and I mostly run it through the Semrush MCP inside Claude now. Price is the one real downside for a solo founder or small team.” (Source)

“It takes time to learn because there's a lot inside it, but it gets easier once you know which reports matter.” (Source)

“The data is solid, though I'd love it broken down by search engines other than Google.” (Source)

Pricing

• SEO plan: $139/month, or $117.33 billed yearly
• Semrush One Starter: $199/month with 50 AI prompts; Pro+: $299/month with 100
• AI Visibility Toolkit: $99/month per domain for 25 prompts, billed yearly
• Semrush has a free plan with limited data, and paid SEO plans come with a 7-day trial.

3. Ahrefs: best for backlinks and AI research

Ahrefs is an SEO research suite built around one of the largest backlink indexes, plus Brand Radar for AI visibility, which suits link-focused SEO teams that find SE Ranking's backlink data too thin. Brand Radar has no trial and we haven't used Ahrefs for this comparison, so this section draws on its pricing page, help docs and G2 reviews.

Site Explorer is the reason most people pay for it. It shows which pages drive a site's traffic, what they rank for and where their links come from, and Lite starts at $129 a month, the same as SE Ranking Core.

Brand Radar works differently from SE Ranking's prompt tracking. Instead of your own prompts, it looks your brand up across more than 496 million synthetic prompts built from search data, on AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. Grok tracking is paused, and Claude only appears in custom prompts.

It costs $199 a month for one AI platform or $699 for all of them, on top of your Ahrefs plan, so the AI side costs more here than anywhere else on this list.

Key features

• Site Explorer and Keywords Explorer. Backlink, keyword and competitor research.
• Brand Radar. 496M+ prompts on six AI platforms, with no setup.
• Custom prompts. Your own prompts on top, with 2,500 checks on the $699 plan and packs from $50.
• History. AI Overviews data from August 2024 and chatbots from May 2025.
• Site Audit and Rank Tracker in the same subscription.

Where it falls short

• Brand Radar's prompts are modeled from search data, not your buyers' own questions, unless you pay for custom checks.
• Grok is paused and Claude is limited to custom prompts.
• No content agents or client-ready Brand Radar reports.

User reviews

“Site Explorer shows us quickly why a competitor is outperforming a client, and the data is consistent enough to base decisions on. The learning curve is real for new team members, and the price is on the higher side.” (Source)

“I wish there were a cheaper tier between the free plan and the next one up.” (Source)

“In Brand Radar, the metrics change retroactively every time the index updates.” (Source)

Pricing

• Lite: $129/month; Standard: $249/month; Advanced: $449/month
• Enterprise: $1,499/month
• Brand Radar: $199/month per AI platform, or $699/month for all with 2,500 custom checks
• There's no free trial.

4. Search Atlas: best for automated fixes

Search Atlas is an all-in-one SEO platform with OTTO, a pixel-based agent that pushes on-site fixes live, and LLM Visibility tracking, which suits lean teams and agencies that want SE Ranking's toolset plus fixes applied for them. We haven't used Search Atlas, so this section is based on its pricing page, archived copies of it, and Capterra and Trustpilot reviews.

Plans run from $99 a month for Starter to $999 and up for Agency, all drawing on shared Universal Credits. AI tracking starts on Growth at $199, with 100 queries on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode, and Pro at $399 adds Copilot, Perplexity and Claude.

OTTO is the difference from SE Ranking. You add a pixel, it scans the site and deploys fixes on autopilot unless you switch on approval mode. That saves a small team hours, but a script editing live pages is hard to get past a cautious dev team, and one Trustpilot reviewer quoted below says its rendering advice broke client sites.

Key features

• OTTO SEO. Technical and on-page fixes deployed through a pixel, with an optional approval mode.
• LLM Visibility. Mentions, position in AI answers, sentiment and share of voice.
• Atlas Agent. A conversational agent on every plan.
• Content Genius. AI content writing.
• White-label reporting from Pro.

Where it falls short

• No AI tracking on Starter, and three engines on Growth.
• Credits are shared across tools, so heavy use in one area eats into another.
• Trustpilot holds it at 3.9 from 352 reviews, with billing and cancellation complaints among them.

User reviews

“From five tools to one, and better results.” (Source)

“The only thing I don't like is the whole credit system, though that's normal for AI software now.” (Source)

“Following their server-side rendering advice broke several client sites, and years after we cancelled they still won't fully delete our data.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: $99/month for 1 project and 2,000 keywords, with no AI tracking
• Growth: $199/month for 2 projects, 3 seats and 100 AI queries on 3 engines
• Pro: $399/month for 4 projects, 5 seats, 6 AI engines and white label
• Agency: from $999/month. Every plan has a 7-day trial.

5. Nightwatch: best rank tracker with AI checks

Nightwatch is a rank tracker that adds daily AI visibility tracking on six platforms, Claude included, to every plan from €79 a month, which suits SEO teams that want Claude covered today next to their Google rankings. We haven't used Nightwatch ourselves, so this section is based on its pricing and product pages.

It overlaps with SE Ranking on rank tracking. Starter tracks 500 keywords a day across Google, Bing, YouTube, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Google Maps, and adds a site audit, keyword research and Content Studio.

The AI side covers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode and AI Overviews on every plan. That's Claude, which SE Ranking still lists as coming soon. The limit is volume: Starter has 50 prompts and 1,500 AI answers a month, so you can't run every prompt on all six platforms every day.

Backlink research, the thing many SE Ranking users rely on, isn't part of Nightwatch.

Key features

• Six AI platforms on every plan. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode and AI Overviews.
• Rank tracking. Google, Bing, YouTube, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Google Maps, checked daily.
• Sentiment and citation analysis for tracked prompts.
• Content Studio, Site Audit and an SEO MCP server on every plan.
• SEO Agent credits. 100 a month on Starter for tasks the agent runs for you.

Where it falls short

• 1,500 AI answers a month on Starter limits daily coverage.
• No backlink database.
• White-label reports, Looker Studio and the API start on Professional at €159.

User reviews

Nightwatch's reviews on Capterra and G2 are about its rank tracker, and we couldn't find any that cover the AI tracking, so we have no quotes to share.

Pricing

• Starter: €79/month for 500 keywords, 50 AI prompts and 1,500 AI answers
• Professional: €159/month for 2,500 keywords, 150 AI prompts and 4,500 AI answers
• Agency: €399/month for 7,500 keywords, 500 AI prompts and 15,000 AI answers
• 14-day free trial with no card, and yearly billing saves 20%.

6. Peec AI: best dedicated AI tracker

Peec AI is a dedicated AI search analytics platform with daily prompt tracking, unlimited seats and plans from €85 a month, which suits marketing teams that want deeper AI visibility data than SE Ranking's add-on and don't need SEO tools in the same place.

We signed up and had data in a few minutes. Peec read our site, suggested prompts, and visibility, position and sentiment against competitors filled in for each engine.

The sources view was the part we liked most, with every cited domain labelled owned, editorial, reference or UGC. In October 2026 Peec added Peec Agent, which drafts briefs and page edits from that data.

Coming from SE Ranking, you lose the SEO side entirely. There's no rank tracker, keyword research or backlink data, you pick 3 engines per plan, and Claude, Grok and DeepSeek need Enterprise.

Key features

• Model choice. Any 3 of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Naver AI, with Perplexity and other extra models from €25 a month.
• Unlimited seats on every plan.
• Source analytics. Cited domains and URLs grouped into owned, editorial, reference and UGC.
• Actions and Peec Agent. Ranked fixes since February 2026, and an agent that drafts briefs and page edits since October 22.
• Brand Perception and GA4 AI referrals. How AI describes you, and the sessions, conversions and revenue AI sends.

Where it falls short

• No SEO tools.
• 3 engines per plan unless you pay for more.
• Claude, Grok and DeepSeek are Enterprise only.

User reviews

“It's hard to reach a real person, because they're growing so fast.” (Source)

“It tells us not just whether we're mentioned but how, where from and in what context, which helps our content strategy a lot. For a smaller company that only wants to track a couple of prompts, though, it's probably more than you need.” (Source)

“I'd like more ready-made report templates to get new colleagues started faster.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: €85/month (about $95) for 50 prompts and 3 models
• Pro: €205/month for 150 prompts
• Advanced: €425/month for 350 prompts
• Enterprise is custom, with Claude, Grok and DeepSeek.

7. Otterly.AI: best budget AI tracker

Otterly.AI is a low-cost AI search monitoring tool that checks ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot daily from $29 a month, with unlimited seats, which suits small teams that want AI tracking for less than SE Ranking's $89 add-on.

Our first report was ready about 15 minutes after we added our brand. Otterly built the competitor list and suggested prompts by itself, and we liked opening a prompt and reading each answer the way the engine wrote it.

The cheap entry has limits. Lite covers 15 prompts and caps GEO recommendations at 3 a week, and AI Mode, Gemini and Claude are paid add-ons, so all seven engines on Standard come to about $416 a month.

There's no rank tracking or keyword research, so most SE Ranking users would keep an SEO tool next to it. Since August 2026, Agent Analytics also shows AI crawler visits from your server logs.

Key features

• Four engines included. ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, checked daily.
• Brand Visibility Index. Sorts brands into Leaders, Niche or Low Performance.
• GEO URL audits. 1,000, 5,000 or 10,000 depending on plan.
• Agent Analytics. AI crawler visits from your logs, via Cloudflare, WordPress, Netlify or a log upload.
• Unlimited seats on every plan, with API and MCP access from Standard.

Where it falls short

• AI Mode, Gemini and Claude cost extra on every plan.
• No SEO tools.
• The jump from Lite to Standard is steep.

User reviews

“Switching from Semrush AIO to Otterly was a great decision, and my team had every client set up within a few hours. I'd like to see more raw mention counts on the dashboard instead of percentages.” (Source)

“Lite is great for testing, but the price jump to Standard is pretty significant once you need more prompts.” (Source)

“The results aren't always stable.” (Source)

Pricing

• Lite: $29/month for 15 prompts
• Standard: $189/month for 100 prompts
• Premium: $489/month for 400 prompts
• Yearly billing saves 15%, and there's a free trial with no card.

8. Surfer: best for content optimization

Surfer is a content optimization platform built around a live Content Editor and Content Score, with an AI Tracker on its higher plans, which suits content teams that want stronger on-page writing tools than SE Ranking's Content Editor. We haven't used Surfer ourselves, so this section draws on its pricing page, help docs and Trustpilot reviews.

You write in Surfer, Google Docs or WordPress, and the score moves as you add the terms and sections the top results cover.

The AI tracking depends on the plan. Standard at $99 a month billed yearly checks 25 prompts on ChatGPT once a week, while Pro at $182 checks 50 prompts every day on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini. There's also a tracking-only AI Search Analytics plan at $82.

It isn't an SEO suite. There's no backlink database or full technical crawl, so most teams leaving SE Ranking would pair it with another tool.

Key features

• Content Editor and Content Score. Live scoring against the top results, with Google Docs and WordPress integrations.
• AI Tracker. 25 weekly ChatGPT prompts on Standard, 50 daily prompts on five engines on Pro.
• Search Console connection. Page tracking, rank drop detection and content ideas.
• Surfy and the Humanizer. An AI writing assistant plus an AI detector and humanizer.

Where it falls short

• No Claude, Grok or Copilot on any plan.
• Standard checks ChatGPT only, once a week.
• No backlink research or full site audit.

User reviews

“Very helpful for SEO. We're already seeing positive results.” (Source)

“Not worth the money they're asking. There are cheaper options now, especially AI tools.” (Source)

“It's a decent piece of software, but not better than cheaper alternatives, and the extra options don't make the content optimizer more effective.” (Source)

Pricing

• Discovery: $49/month billed yearly ($59 monthly), with no AI tracking
• Standard: $99/month billed yearly ($119 monthly) for 25 weekly ChatGPT prompts
• Pro: $182/month billed yearly ($219 monthly) for 50 daily prompts on five AI engines
• AI Search Analytics: $82/month billed yearly for tracking only. The 7-day Pro trial needs a card.

9. Mangools: best budget SEO suite

Mangools is a budget SEO package of five simple tools, KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner and SiteProfiler, that now bundles its AI Search Watcher Pro on every plan, which suits freelancers and small sites that find SE Ranking more than they need. We haven't used Mangools ourselves, so this section is based on its pricing and product pages, archived copies of them and Trustpilot reviews.

The keyword tools are the core. KWFinder shows search volumes and keyword difficulty with little setup, and the whole package costs less than SE Ranking Core.

Every plan now includes AI Search Watcher Pro, with 500 prompts on ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Mistral and Llama, each checked twice per run. Checks run weekly or monthly, not daily.

Prices have moved. Archived copies of the pricing page said plans started from $29 a month billed yearly through May 2026. By September, Basic was $37.70 billed yearly with the AI Search Watcher bundled in.

Key features

• KWFinder. Keyword research with search volumes and keyword difficulty.
• SERPWatcher. Rank tracking with weekly updates, or daily on Agency.
• LinkMiner and SiteProfiler. Backlinks and domain metrics.
• AI Search Watcher Pro. 500 prompts on 8 AI engines, Claude and Grok included, checked twice per run.
• API and MCP included.

Where it falls short

• Rank tracking updates weekly below the Agency plan.
• AI checks run weekly at most, with no Perplexity or Copilot.
• Basic has 200 tracked keywords and no extra seats.

User reviews

“I tried Moz, Semrush and Ahrefs when I started my agency, but they felt needlessly complicated. Mangools is intuitive, fairly priced, and support replied within ten minutes every time.” (Source)

“The free AI tracker is simple to use, but after you change prompts it takes over a fortnight to get a report on the new set.” (Source)

“It gave completely wrong information about my site's AI visibility.” (Source)

Pricing

• Basic: $37.70/month billed yearly ($452.40 a year) for 200 tracked keywords and 500 AI prompts
• Premium: $52.70/month billed yearly for 700 tracked keywords and 3 extra seats
• Agency: $97.70/month billed yearly for 1,500 keywords with daily updates and 5 extra seats
• There's a free account and a 48-hour money-back guarantee. AI Search Watcher Pro alone is $34.90/month billed yearly.

10. Profound: best for enterprise AI visibility

Profound is an enterprise AI visibility platform with nine engines on Enterprise, Prompt Volumes and AI Marketer agents, which suits large brands that want a dedicated AI search team tool next to the SEO suite they already run.

We tested it on the 7-day trial. Profound chose 50 prompts for our industry and we couldn't change them, and only ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews ran, so we learned a lot about the product and less about our own market.

There's no SEO suite here. A team leaving SE Ranking would keep rank tracking, keyword research and audits in another tool and use Profound for the AI side.

Brands now buy through sales. Profound dropped its $99 and $399 self-serve brand plans in September 2026, the month it raised a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation, and in October its AI Marketer agents started taking plain-language requests and drawing on credit wallets.

Key features

• Nine engines on Enterprise. ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews and Exa.
• Prompt Volumes. Demand estimates from more than 1.5 billion prompts in 35 countries, refreshed weekly.
• AI Marketer. Content agents that use your brand context from Context Manager.
• Agent Analytics. AI crawler visits, with Search Console data in Pages since September 2026.

Where it falls short

• No rank tracker, keyword research or site audit.
• No self-serve plan for brands.
• The trial runs 50 preset prompts on three engines.

User reviews

“The insights on prompts and competitors give us pretty clear ideas on where to improve.” (Source)

“I'd like a more flexible pricing model, so we pay for what brings us the most value.” (Source)

“The interface is English only, and some of our team would have liked German.” (Source)

Pricing

• Brands: custom Enterprise pricing through sales
• Agencies: a separate self-serve Agency Growth plan
• Trial: 7 days, with 50 preset prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews

What SE Ranking plus AI really costs

• Core plan: $129/month, or $103.20 billed yearly, for 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2,000 keywords and 100 prompts tracked daily.
• AI Search add-on: $89/month, or $71.20 billed yearly, for 200 prompts and SE Visible. Larger tiers cost $179 for 450 prompts and $345 for 1,000.
• Together: $218/month billed monthly, or $174.40 billed yearly.
• Growth: $279/month, or $223.20 billed yearly, for 30 projects, 3 seats and 250 prompts, before the add-on.
• SE Visible on its own: from $99/month for 200 prompts and 3 projects, refreshed daily, with a 10-day free trial.
• Trial: SE Ranking's 14-day trial needs no card and includes 750 keywords and 20 AI prompts a day. Payments are non-refundable.

What changed with SE Ranking in 2026

SE Ranking changed its plans and added a lot on the AI and API side this year. Dates come from its What's New page and archived copies of its pricing page.

• New plans (February): Essential at $65, Pro at $119 and Business at $259 were still on the pricing page on January 31. By February 28 they had been replaced by Core at $129 and Growth at $279, with AI prompts included and the AI Search add-on sold on top.
• Remote MCP server (April 23): SE Ranking's MCP is now hosted, so you connect from Claude or another AI tool's settings with no local setup.
• API on every plan (June 29): new plans include monthly API credits, plus seven ready-made Claude Skills for briefs, audits, backlink gaps and AI search visibility.
• AI Results Tracker and SE Visible updates (July 3): prompt groups, bulk import and AI metrics in Report Builder, and a Competitor Gap Analysis in SE Visible that ranks the sources citing competitors but not you.
• AI ads detection: ads inside ChatGPT and Google AI Mode answers now show in Competitive Research, with no add-on.
• Local Marketing API and MCP (September 15): local rankings, reviews, listings and Google Business Profile data through 15 API endpoints.
• Still missing: SE Visible lists Claude as coming soon, and its plan cards don't include Perplexity, Grok or Copilot.

When to stay with SE Ranking

• You need keyword research, backlinks, audits and rank tracking at a mid-market price, and AI tracking is a secondary need.
• You manage many projects. Core covers 10 and Growth 30.
• You want AI prompts next to rankings in one account, and AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Gemini cover the engines you care about.
• You want to see who runs ads inside ChatGPT and AI Mode answers without paying for another tool.
• You work through Claude or another assistant. SE Ranking's hosted MCP and Claude Skills cover most of its data.

Which SE Ranking alternative should you choose?

• You want SEO data and AI visibility with agents that run the work: Orchly.
• You need the biggest SEO databases: Semrush.
• You care most about backlinks: Ahrefs.
• You want fixes deployed for you: Search Atlas.
• You want Claude tracked today next to daily rankings: Nightwatch.
• You want a dedicated AI visibility tool: Peec AI, or Otterly.AI on a smaller budget.
• You mostly write and optimize content: Surfer.
• You run small sites on a tight budget: Mangools.
• You're an enterprise brand that wants a dedicated AI search platform: Profound.