Search for free SEO marketing tools and you get long lists of names, and some of them are trials in disguise. The real question is simpler: what can you actually get done before the tool asks for a card? We opened free accounts on Semrush, Mangools and Ubersuggest, ran a no-card trial on SE Ranking, and wrote down every daily cap we hit on one small website.
Why “Free” Means Something Different in Every SEO Tool
Each free plan we used rationed a different thing: Semrush capped audit pages and tracked keywords, Mangools capped lookups per 24 hours, and Ubersuggest capped searches per day, per our October 21, 2026 test log. So “free” is never one number. It is a budget, and every tool spends it on a different line item.
That’s why a Reddit thread near the top of this search asks for free SEO tools that are “actually free.” A plain list can’t answer it. A tool can be free and still useless for your job if its cap lands on the one task you need. So which cap hits your job first?
This guide sorts it out by job. Keyword research, site audits, backlinks and rank tracking each get a pick, based on the caps we saw on screen. Where we did not test something, we say so and quote the vendor’s own page instead.
Key Takeaways
Semrush’s free plan lists 10 reports per day across its main tools (Semrush pricing), against 5 lookups per tool in Mangools and 3 searches a day in Ubersuggest in our test. SE Ranking has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial. For your own site’s Google data, Search Console is free with no daily cap to manage.
Quick Verdict: The Best Free SEO Tool for Each Job
No single free plan covered every job well in our test, but each job had a clear winner, from Semrush’s 100-page audit to Mangools’ 50 tracking slots, per our October 21, 2026 test log. Here’s the short version.
| Job | Best free pick | What the free plan gave us |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword research | Semrush | 10 reports a day on the pricing page; one lookup returned volume, difficulty, CPC and intent |
| Site audit | Ubersuggest | 150 pages crawled, the biggest free audit we ran |
| Backlinks | Mangools | 2,000 backlink rows per period in LinkMiner |
| Rank tracking | Mangools | 1 tracked domain with 50 keyword slots |
| Your own Google data | Google Search Console | Free, no lookup cap, data straight from Google |
Why isn’t one tool the winner? Because the caps don’t overlap. Semrush’s audit stops at 100 pages, while Ubersuggest’s stops at 150. Mangools has the most tracking slots but no crawler audit at all. If you’re picking only one, pick it by the job you’ll do most often.
For the paid side of the same comparison, our test of four SEO suites on the same website covers prices, keyword data and audit results in depth. This page stays on what $0 buys.
How We Tested Four Free Accounts
We tested the four SEO suites on October 21, 2026, with one work account, no credit card, and the same small marketing website our own team runs. Each tool got the same six tasks, written down before we started:
- Sign up and record every screen.
- Look up one English keyword in the US database.
- Run a site audit on our site.
- Check backlinks for the same domain.
- Set up rank tracking for the keyword.
- Write down every free limit the tool showed.
Three of the four accounts were real free plans. SE Ranking doesn’t have one, so we used its 14-day trial, which also asked for no card. We copied the limits straight from the screen and kept masked screenshots of every step.
What did we not test? Paid plans, Ahrefs Free and Google’s own tools. Those parts of this guide come from each vendor’s documentation, read on October 24, 2026, and they’re labeled that way. Why mix the two? Because a free stack usually includes Google’s tools, and leaving them out would make the list less useful.
A note on money: Indie Stack Lab may add affiliate links to some tools later. When a link is an affiliate link, it is labeled. That didn’t change what we tested or what we wrote down.
Semrush Free: What You Keep After Pressing “Skip Trial”
A free Semrush account includes 1 demo project and “10 reports per day across all vital tools,” with no credit card required, according to Semrush’s pricing page. Getting to that free account takes one careful click, though.
The trial screen comes first
After the sign-up survey, Semrush showed us a plan page: “This is your best plan match — Pro+ $299/mo … 7 days free, then $299/mo.” The big button said “Get free trial.” The free path was the smaller “Skip trial” link. We pressed it and landed on a free account.
Is that a trick? Not really, since the price is printed on the same screen. But a beginner in a hurry could start a $299 trial without meaning to. Read that page twice. Our breakdown of Semrush’s plans, trials and free account explains what each paid tier adds.
What the free account did on our site
Here’s what each free tool gave us on our small site, per our test log:
- Site Audit: 100 pages per audit, scheduled weekly on Fridays by default. Our crawl finished in a few minutes with a Site Health score of 89%.
- Position Tracking: 10 keywords. The setup step showed “Keyword limit 1/10” after we added one.
- Keyword Overview: one lookup returned volume, difficulty, intent and CPC, with a note: “Go beyond basic volume and discover advanced metrics with Semrush Pro.”
- Backlink Analytics: a full summary for one domain, including referring domains and Authority Score.
The surprise was where the limits live. The in-app subscription page listed only paid plans, starting with Starter at $199/month, and no summary of the free account. Each cap appeared only when we opened the tool that enforced it.
Semrush’s own list of free limits
Semrush’s free account guide fills that gap. It lists 10 queries a day each for Domain Overview, Keyword Research, Competitor Research and Backlinks, a 100-page Site Audit and 10 tracked keywords. The same guide adds one On Page SEO Checker campaign with 10 pages or keywords, and AI writing tools with three free uses a day.
One rule from that guide matters for planning: “Every new search (in any Semrush keyword research tool) counts toward your daily limit.” Ten searches go fast if you click around. Write your keyword list first, then look it up.
What about AI search? The engine menu in Position Tracking offered ChatGPT and Gemini next to Google, but we tracked Google only. Semrush’s Prompt Tracking guide says the number of AI prompts you can track depends on your paid subscription level. Don’t count on AI rankings from a free account.
Want every tool on the free account, screen by screen? Read what a free Semrush account includes, tool by tool, see what Semrush’s free 100-page audit found, or check how Semrush’s rank tracker is set up and capped.
Mangools Free: Five Lookups a Day per Tool
Mangools’ free plan gave us 5 keyword lookups, 5 SERP lookups and 5 site lookups per 24 hours, plus 2,000 backlink rows per period, per our October 21, 2026 test log. Mangools’ FAQ says the free plan “is completely free” and needs no credit card to activate.
Signing up takes longer
There’s no Google sign-in on Mangools’ sign-up page. You need an email, a password, a reCAPTCHA and an email confirmation link. When we confirmed the account in a second browser, the first one stayed logged out until we signed in again. It’s a two-minute detour, not a dealbreaker.
What the free plan covers
The account menu showed two plan badges, “MNGLS FREE+” and “AI FREE,” and these caps:
| Free allowance | What we saw | Resets |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword lookups (KWFinder) | 5 | Every 24 hours |
| SERP lookups | 5 | Every 24 hours |
| Site lookups (SiteProfiler) | 5 | Every 24 hours |
| Backlink rows (LinkMiner) | 2,000 | About 11 days away when we read it |
| Tracked domains (SERPWatcher) | 1, with 49 of 50 keyword slots left after one | Not a daily cap |
| API & MCP welcome bonus | 100 keyword and 100 SERP lookups | One time only |
Five lookups is less than it sounds. Each keyword you check costs one, and each competitor domain you open costs one site lookup. So a beginner researching five keyword ideas has used the day’s budget by lunch.
What it doesn’t do
Mangools has no crawler-based site audit. SiteProfiler shows domain metrics such as Domain Authority and Trust Flow, not a list of broken pages. When our task list called for an audit, that was the closest Mangools had. Pair it with a crawler from another free plan.
Is the free plan still worth it? For rank tracking, yes. Fifty keyword slots on one domain beat every other free plan we used. Our walkthrough of KWFinder, LinkMiner and SERPWatcher on the free plan covers each tool, including a SiteProfiler glitch that shows zeros until you retype the domain.
Ubersuggest Free: Three Searches a Day and a 150-Page Audit
Ubersuggest’s free plan allowed 3 searches per day, shared between keyword and backlink lookups, and our keyword check plus our backlink check used two of them, per our October 21, 2026 test log. It’s the tightest daily budget of the three free plans. It also ran the biggest free audit.
The daily budget in practice
After one keyword lookup, the screen read “2 out of 3 free daily searches available.” After one backlink lookup, it read “1 out of 3.” That left one search for the rest of the day. Is three a day enough? For checking one idea before you write, yes. For real keyword research, no. The dashboard also showed “10 Credits left” next to the daily counter.
What else the free account includes
Ubersuggest’s free account guide lists the caps in one place. They matched what we saw:
- Projects: 1.
- Rank tracking: 25 keywords per project, with “weekly desktop-only ranking updates.”
- Site audit: up to 150 pages weekly, no recrawling, CSV export only.
- Locations and competitors: 1 location and up to 2 competitors per project.
- Backlinks: up to 100 backlinks per site.
- Keyword lists: 3 lists of up to 30 keywords each.
- AI Writer: 2,000 words, 5 searches a day and 1 saved document.
- Chrome extension: 40 searches a day.
The project setup also offered AI prompt tracking with a “10 prompts limit.” The help page adds one reassuring line: the free account “has no time limit.” It doesn’t expire after a trial window.
Watch the default country
Both the keyword form and the project picked their language and location from where we were browsing, and that wasn’t the US. We switched the keyword form by hand. The project’s rank tracker kept the default market. So check the country before you add a single keyword, because the free plan gives you only one location to fix it with.
Our record of what the free plan did on a real site has every screen, and the breakdown of Ubersuggest’s free and paid plans covers the lifetime offers.
Ahrefs Free: A Fourth Free Plan for Sites You Verify
Ahrefs Free gives you 5,000 Site Audit crawl credits per project per month on websites you verify, according to the Ahrefs Free page. We didn’t test it. Everything in this section comes from that page, read on October 24, 2026.
The plan used to be called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. It covers three tools, as Ahrefs lists them:
- Site Audit: scans for “170+ common technical & on-page SEO issues,” with 5,000 crawl credits a month per project. Credits are spent only on HTML pages that return a 200 status.
- Site Explorer: shows your keywords and backlinks, with up to 1,000 of each visible at once.
- Web Analytics: traffic data for your site, up to 1 million events per project.
The number of verified websites is unlimited. What’s the catch? Ahrefs Free only works on sites you prove you own. Its FAQ says paid plans are what “allow you to analyze competing websites (unverified websites).” So it audits your site well, but it won’t spy on a competitor.
That makes Ahrefs Free a strong fit for the job Semrush and Ubersuggest cap tightly: auditing a bigger site. A 400-page blog fits inside 5,000 credits; it doesn’t fit inside a 100-page or 150-page free crawl. The paid path starts at $29/month for Ahrefs Starter, per the same page. To see how different crawlers treat the same site, read our comparison of the top issues each crawler flagged. For each Ahrefs tool and its cost, see our guide to Ahrefs features, free tools and plans.
SE Ranking: No Free Plan, but a 14-Day Trial Without a Card
SE Ranking has no free plan, but its 14-day trial asked for no card and gave us 750 tracked keywords and 5,000 audited pages, per its in-app billing page on October 21, 2026. It’s the most generous no-cost option we used, with a hard stop on day 14.
What the trial allowed
The billing page read: “Trial · 14 days remaining — Websites: 1 / 5 — Keywords: 1 / 750 — Pages audited: 1000 / 5000.” The tracking step also offered 20 AI prompts. Research tools carried their own caps: Keyword Research showed “Account limit: 3/10,” and the Backlink Checker showed “Account limit 1/10” after our one lookup.
The first audit started on its own when we created the project and used 1,000 of the 5,000 pages. That’s ten times the free Semrush crawl, in one go.
SE Ranking’s pricing page describes the trial a little differently. Its FAQ says the trial includes “up to 10 projects, 750 tracked keywords per day, 20 AI prompts per day,” and AI competitive research for up to 3 domains. Our account showed 5 websites, not 10 projects. Check the billing page inside your own trial before you plan around either number.
What happens on day 15
The trial ends, and the paid plans take over. The public pricing page lists Core at $129/month, or $103.20/month billed annually, and Growth at $279/month, or $223.20/month billed annually. So should a zero-budget site skip it? No. Use the trial as a one-time deep audit: crawl everything, export the issue list, and fix it with the free tools afterward.
For setup details, read what we found in SE Ranking’s 14-day trial. For the plans after day 14, see SE Ranking’s Core and Growth prices.
Free Plan Limits Side by Side
Across the four no-cost accounts we used, daily research caps ran from 3 searches (Ubersuggest) to 10 reports (Semrush), and audit caps from 100 pages to 5,000, per our October 21, 2026 test log and Semrush’s pricing page. The table puts the caps on one screen.
| Limit | Semrush Free | Mangools Free | Ubersuggest Free | SE Ranking trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily research cap | 10 reports a day (pricing page) | 5 keyword, 5 SERP, 5 site lookups per 24 hours | 3 searches a day, shared | Keyword Research “Account limit: 3/10” |
| Site audit | 100 pages per audit | No crawler audit | 150 pages, weekly | 5,000 pages |
| Tracked keywords | 10 | 50 on 1 domain | 25, weekly desktop updates | 750 |
| Projects or sites | 1 demo project (pricing page) | 1 tracked domain | 1 project | 5 websites |
| Backlinks | Summary per lookup | 2,000 rows per period | Summary; up to 100 per site (help center) | Backlink Checker “Account limit 1/10” |
| Card at sign-up | No | No | No | No |
| Time limit | No end date listed | No end date listed | None (help center) | 14 days |
Two rows deserve a second look. “Tracked keywords” is where the free plans differ most: 10 in Semrush against 50 in Mangools. And “Time limit” is the row that separates a free plan from a trial. Three are free plans you can stay on at $0. One is a trial that ends.
Which row should drive your choice? The one tied to your weekly routine. If you check rankings every Monday, the tracking row matters most. If you publish a few posts a month and research each one, the research row does. For keyword caps in more depth, our comparison of free keyword research tools lines up the daily limits.
Google’s Free SEO Tools: No Plan Limits to Track
Google’s own SEO tools cost nothing and have no free tier to outgrow: Search Console is “a free service offered by Google,” according to its help center. We didn’t run these tools as part of this test, so this section quotes Google’s documentation.
Google Search Console
Search Console shows how your site performs in Google Search: queries, clicks, impressions and position, plus indexing problems and alerts. Its product page adds URL Inspection, which gives “crawl, index, and serving information about your pages, directly from the Google index.”
Why does that matter next to Semrush or Mangools? Because those tools estimate. Search Console reports what happened in Google for your verified site. The limit is scope: it shows only sites you own and only queries you already appear for. Our beginner’s guide to Search Console for SEO walks through every report.
PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights reports “on the user experience of a page on both mobile and desktop devices.” It combines lab data from Lighthouse with real-user data from the Chrome UX Report over the previous 28 days. A Lighthouse score of 90 or above counts as good.
Small and new sites often see no real-user data, because the page needs enough visits to qualify. The lab test still runs, so you always get a score and a list of fixes.
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner shows “estimates of the searches they receive and the cost to target them,” per Google’s Keyword Planner help page. Here’s the catch: the same page says you must enter billing information in Google Ads “to access basic features like ‘Get ideas for new keywords’.” So it’s free to use, but it isn’t card-free.
Is SEO itself free on Google? Ranking is. Google’s guide to how Search works says Google “doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher.” What you pay for is time, content and, if you choose, tools.
What Free Plans Lock Behind an Upgrade
Two of the free plans we used showed locked features right on their main screens, Ubersuggest’s trend chart and Semrush’s advanced keyword metrics, per our October 21, 2026 test log. Knowing what’s locked saves you from building a routine around a feature you’ll lose.
Here is what each tool kept behind a trial or a paid plan:
- Ubersuggest: the search volume trend chart and the AI summary on the keyword screen read “Start free trial to unlock data.” The backlinks-over-time chart was locked too.
- Semrush: the keyword screen pointed to “advanced metrics with Semrush Pro.” Starting the 7-day trial would have turned into $299/month for Pro+.
- Mangools: nothing we needed was locked, but a 10% discount countdown banner sat on every app page.
- SE Ranking: nothing we opened was locked during the trial, but the whole allowance ends after 14 days.
Ahrefs’ lock is different. Per its Free page, the free plan works only on sites you verify, so competitor research is the paid part.
Should the locks change your pick? Only if your routine depends on them. Trend charts are nice, but Search Console’s Performance report shows how your own clicks and impressions rise and fall over time, for free. Competitor research is harder to replace. That’s the feature that most often pushes people onto a paid plan.
Before you upgrade, ask one question. Which locked feature would you open every week? If you can’t name one, stay on the free plan.
A Free SEO Stack That Covers the Basics
A small site can cover keyword research, an audit, backlinks and rank tracking for $0 by giving each job to the plan with the biggest cap for it, such as Ubersuggest’s 150-page audit and Mangools’ 50 tracking slots from our test. This section is our judgment, based on the limits above, not a separate test.
Here’s the stack we’d set up for one small website:
| Job | Tool | How to fit inside the cap |
|---|---|---|
| Google data and indexing | Google Search Console | Check once a week; it has no lookup cap |
| Page speed | PageSpeed Insights | Test your top pages after any design change |
| Keyword research | Semrush Free | Batch your list; 10 reports a day |
| Second opinion on keywords | Mangools Free | 5 lookups per 24 hours for the shortlist |
| Site audit | Ubersuggest Free, or Ahrefs Free for bigger sites | 150 pages weekly, or 5,000 crawl credits a month on a verified site |
| Rank tracking | Mangools Free | Up to 50 keywords on one domain |
| One deep audit | SE Ranking trial | Run once, export the issues, then let it expire |
How would a week look? On Monday, read Search Console. On Tuesday, look up five to ten keyword ideas in Semrush. On Wednesday, check the best two in Mangools. Then write. The weekly audit and rank tracking run on their own.
Why two keyword tools? Because their numbers disagree. In our test, Semrush showed 9.9K US searches for our keyword and Mangools showed 4.1k. Don’t average them. Use one tool to rank your ideas against each other, and the second only to spot a big outlier.
This stack has limits. It covers one site, and no single dashboard ties it together. If you manage several clients, the free caps won’t stretch. Our guide on how to use SEO tools effectively explains the routine behind each step.
Your Next Step With Free SEO Tools
Start with the free tool that has no cap: set up Google Search Console today, then add one free plan for the job you’ll repeat most. In our test, three of the four no-cost accounts were free plans rather than trials, so there’s no rush to pick a paid plan.
A short checklist before you sign up for anything:
- Set the country before your first lookup. Two of our tools defaulted to the country we browsed from.
- Read the trial screen twice. Semrush’s default path starts a $299/month trial.
- Count your pages. Under 100, any free audit works; above 150, look at Ahrefs Free or a one-off trial.
- Write your keyword list first. Every lookup spends part of a daily budget.
- Keep your data. Export audit issues and keyword lists, because free plans keep little history.
Which job will you repeat every week? Start there, and add a second tool only when its cap gets in the way.
For more ways to stretch a zero budget, our guides to free backlink checkers and free rank trackers compare those two jobs in detail.
References
- Semrush: SEO + AI Search Plans and Pricing
- Semrush: What Can You Do with a Free Semrush Account?
- Semrush Knowledge Base: Prompt Tracking
- Mangools: Frequently Asked Questions
- Ubersuggest Help Center: Free Account: Key Features and Limits
- Ubersuggest Help Center: Site Audit Limits for Free Users
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools)
- SE Ranking: Pricing and plans
- Google Search Console
- Search Console Help: About Search Console
- Google for Developers: About PageSpeed Insights
- Google Ads Help: Use Keyword Planner
- Google Search Central: In-depth guide to how Google Search works