The tools, side by side
| Tool | Cost | Good for | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Free | The real searches people use to find you on Google, clicks, which pages are indexed, Core Web Vitals and problems Google found. | Shows what happened, not what to change. No competitor data. |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Free | Bing search data, plus an AI Performance report (public preview since February 2026) showing how often your pages are cited in Copilot answers. | Bing and Copilot only, not Google. |
| Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | Free for sites you verify | A site audit with 170+ technical checks (5,000 crawl credits per project a month), plus your own keywords and backlinks. | Only your own verified sites. Competitor research needs a paid Ahrefs plan. |
| Semrush free account | Free, then $139 to $299 a month | A taste of Semrush's keyword and competitor research: 10 reports a day across its main tools, one project. | The limits run out fast for regular use. AI visibility tracking is in the $199 and $299 plans. |
| Ubersuggest | Limited free use, then US$29 to US$99 a month | Keyword ideas and a simple site audit, with a 7-day trial on monthly plans. | Free use is limited. Paid plans cap daily reports and audit pages by tier. |
| SEARCH ONE (ours) | 5 free page audits, then $9, $20 or $35 a month | One page checked for SEO, AEO and GEO, with each fix written out in plain words, code to paste and steps for WordPress, Shopify and Wix. | One page per audit, not a full-site crawl. No keyword database, backlink index or competitor traffic estimates. |
Prices in US dollars as shown on 19 October 2026; some tools show local prices in other countries.
A free setup that covers most needs
- Google Search Console for the real searches and any indexing problems. Set it up once, then check it monthly.
- Bing Webmaster Tools, which can import your Search Console sites in a few clicks, for Bing data and Copilot citations.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for a free whole-site technical audit and your backlinks.
- SEARCH ONE's free audits for your five most important pages, to get the SEO, AEO and GEO fixes written out. And our free one-job checks for AI crawlers, llms.txt, schema and FAQs.
When Semrush is worth paying for
When you need to research competitors' keywords and traffic, track hundreds of keywords across many sites, plan ads, or run an agency. None of the free tools above do deep competitor research, and SEARCH ONE doesn't try to.
Where SEARCH ONE fits
It answers a narrower question: "What's wrong with this page, and how do I fix it?" It checks one page at a time for Google and AI search, explains each finding in plain words and gives the code and steps. It's built for owners and small teams, not for keyword research.
Questions
Is Semrush worth it for a small business?
If you or your agency use it every week for keyword research, competitor analysis or ads, it can be. If you mainly want to know what's wrong with your own site and how to fix it, the free tools on this page cover most of that.
What's the one free tool every business should set up?
Google Search Console. It's the only place that shows the real searches people used to find your site on Google, and it tells you when Google finds a problem.
Can a free tool tell me if ChatGPT mentions my business?
Bing Webmaster Tools now shows Copilot citations for your pages. For ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, the simplest free check is asking them your customers' questions yourself each month. Paid tools, including SEARCH ONE's paid plans, track questions for you.
Why should I trust a list written by a company that sells one of the tools?
You shouldn't trust it blindly. That's why every price and limit links to the company's own page, and why we list what SEARCH ONE can't do. If anything here is out of date, email us and we'll correct it.
New to the terms? Read SEO vs AEO vs GEO or the glossary. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.