9 Best SEO Competitor Analysis Tools

Want to increase traffic, leads, and sales? Reverse-engineer the best-performing websites in your industry.

Competitive analysis tools help you outrank your rivals—but which one should you choose? 

Semrush is an excellent fit for marketers looking to save time with an all-in-one solution. Ahrefs is another strong choice, with extensive filtering options for analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles.

Below, we reviewed the nine best SEO competitor analysis tools, ranked by standout features, so you can find the ideal option for you. 

But let’s start with the basics. 

Why You Need SEO Competitor Analysis Tools

Your competition has spent a lot of time conducting keyword research, publishing content, and building links. With a small investment, you can see it all.

In fact, it’s impossible to stalk websites to this degree without an analysis tool. Yes, you can see what your competitors have published and guess what keywords they’re targeting (if any). 

But you can’t see how those pages are performing. 

Your options as an SEO marketer expand once you use the right competitor analysis tool. 

For example, competitor analysis tools for SEO let you test a niche’s traffic potential before launching your blog, app, or online store. Ongoing analysis ensures your SEO strategy is as strong—or stronger—than your rivals. 

Pumped? Good. 

Let’s review the criteria for finding the perfect tool for the job.

Competitor Analysis Tool Criteria

• Price: Does the price match your budget goals? Can you get a discount for paying for a full year? How many competitive analysis reports can you run at the price offered?
• Depth of information: Can you see all the relevant information about a competitor, including backlinks, keywords, and traffic? Is it enough to take action on?
• Accuracy and recency: Is the reporting fresh and updated with the most recent metrics available? Can you trust that the data provided is correct?
• User interface: Can you see important information easily? Is it obvious how to use the tool?
• Customer support: Is a human support team available for onboarding or for questions about using the service? Do tutorials and help guides clearly explain how the service works?
• Integration with other tools and processes: Is it easy to go from the competitive analysis reports to the next step in SEO optimization? Does the tool fit seamlessly into your existing workflow?

What’s the Best SEO Competitor Analysis Tool? 

1. Semrush – Best for overall SEO functionality
2. Ahrefs – Best for backlink analysis
3. SpyFu – Best for historical data on competitors
4. Moz Pro – Best competitive analysis Chrome extension
5. SE Ranking – Best affordable competitive analysis option
6. Similarweb – Best for benchmarking your website against competitors
7. SparkToro – Best for competitor audience insights
8. BuzzSumo – Best for analyzing competitor content strategies
9. Screaming Frog – Best for finding competitor technical SEO weaknesses

#1 Semrush

Best for overall SEO functionality

Price: Starts at $139.95 per month; 7-day free trial available 

Since its founding in 2008, Semrush has continually added functionality to its competitor tools and has even earned the number one spot in G2’s “Best Marketing and Digital Advertising Products” list.

But why is it number one on our list? 

Semrush now offers five categories of competitor insights: Domain Overview, Traffic Analytics, Organic Research, Keyword Gap, and Backlink Gap. Each report is highly interactive and adaptable to different competitor keywords or campaigns.

The Best Part

With five dashboards for competitive analysis, you have all the options you need to create an effective SEO strategy. Visual reporting gives you the important information first and helps you identify low-hanging fruit.

The Worst Part

The lowest-priced plan only supports five projects and doesn’t include historical data.

Top Features

• Create keyword lists of quick wins: Run a gap analysis. Then, rank competitor keyword opportunities by Keyword Difficulty and Volume so you can tackle the most achievable keywords first.
• Forecast traffic: Determine the most visited pages for any domain and identify the keywords driving the most traffic to each page
• Compare your performance to your competitors: See how your website stacks up by keeping an eye on your competitors’ daily and weekly traffic 
• Personalize backlink gaps by criteria: See what inbound links you have vs. your competitors, and sort by country, authority score, or link strength 
• Create client reports: Run reports to show, at a glance, where competitors rank and what opportunities exist. The color-coded reporting and Venn diagrams are especially appealing for clients with less tech experience to focus on actionable metrics.

Pricing

Semrush offers four plans for various budgets:

• Free: Use up to 10 credits per day across tools
• Pro: $139.95/month for access to Semrush’s competitive analysis tools, 500 tracked keywords, and five projects 
• Guru: $249.95/month for everything in Pro, plus 1,500 tracked keywords, 15 projects, and historical data 
• Business: $499.95/month for everything in Guru, plus access to the Semrush API, 5,000 tracked keywords, and 40 projects 

#2 Ahrefs

Best for backlink analysis

Price: Starts at $129 per month

Ahrefs has a rich history of comparing domains; its Domain Rating (DR) tool is highly respected as a website authority measurement. With a host of free webmaster tools, you’ll get a taste of what it offers to paid customers, including robust backlink tools.

The Best Part

The competitor backlink checker offers numerous filters to see what’s contributing to your competitor’s website authority.

The Worst Part

The free webmaster tools only provide backlink info for your site, limiting your ability to conduct a full competitive analysis. 

Top Features

• Learn what keywords to target: Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool identifies keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t. So you can improve your traffic and rankings.
• Analyze your competitors’ backlinks: Dive deep into your competitors’ backlink profiles with Ahrefs’ powerful backlink report that pulls from a database of 326 billion indexed pages. Learn your rivals’ referring domains, backlinks, Domain Authority (DA), and more.
• See all competitors with the Portfolio view: In higher-priced plans, get metrics for dozens of competing websites in one report or compare any number of insights for up to 10 domains
• Sort by intersection: Ahrefs reporting view allows you to mix and match which competitors you see for each keyword opportunity. For example, only show keywords that appear in two out of three competitor SERPs or yours and one specified competitor.  

Pricing

While Ahrefs offers a limited Starter plan for $29, we’ve focused on the plans that are better suited for agencies and enterprises.  

• Lite (5 projects): $129/month for access to most of the competitive analysis tools and some backlink reporting features
• Standard (20 projects): $249/month for everything in Lite, plus batch analysis and SERP comparison 
• Advanced (50 projects): $449/month for everything in Standard, plus image, video, and news search volume
• Enterprise (100 projects): $14,990 per year for everything in Advanced, plus API access, SSO capabilities, and the ability to pay by invoice

#3 SpyFu

Best for historical data on competitors

Price: Starts at $39 per month

SpyFu has a reputation as a pay-per-click (PPC) or Google Ads agency tool, and this is where it shines. The company claims to track over 80 million domains and 5 billion web results and backs it up with screenshots of SERPs. 

Historical data spans 10+ years—or to the start of a website (whichever happens later). Allowing you to see all of your competitors’ ad strategies. 

The Best Part

See every keyword used in a competitor’s PPC campaigns for the past 10 years or more, including what they spent and how it performed. 

The Worst Part

Because it’s designed from a PPC perspective, it lacks the SEO site audit features commonly found in other tools. 

Top Features

• Conduct a competitive analysis: Learn your competitors’ top paid and organic keywords. And get suggestions for terms you should target with the Keyword Kombat tool.
• View your rivals’ ad history: Analyze your competitors’ complete Google Ads campaign history, including split tests and failed keywords 
• Track competitors’ rank changes: Know when your rivals’ content hits the top of Google–and the bottom—to identify opportunities to improve your rankings
• Perform unlimited searches: The Pro plan comes with unlimited searches and domain comparisons so you can spy on every competitor, big and small 

Pricing

Spyfu offers three pricing tiers:

• Basic: $39/month for 10k row search results, 100 domain overview reports, six months of historical data, and 5k weekly tracked keyword rankings
• Pro: $79/month for unlimited search results, data exports, and domain reports, as well as 10+ years of historical data and 15k weekly tracked keywords

#4 Moz Pro

Best competitive analysis Chrome extension

Price: Starts at $99 per month; 30-day free trial available 

Created in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, Moz was originally called SEOmoz. It’s known for its expert advice for boosting site ranking factors and has grown the Moz toolkit into a full-featured agency offering. 

The Moz competitor analysis tools all have limited free functionality to help you understand what’s possible, including its unique Chrome browser extension. 

The Best Part

Get instant insights without ever leaving the SERP. The MozBar Chrome extension shows Domain Authority, Page Authority (PA), and link analysis for paid subscribers.

The Worst Part

Moz has limited data compared to other tools for lower-volume keywords. The MozBar Chrome extension functions are minimal without paying for a plan.

Top Features

• See instant metrics from any webpage: MozBar works in the SERPs and on individual webpages. See markup, HTML, inbound/outbound links, and keyword opportunities directly from competitor websites.
• Try out multiple search engines: Get support for Google U.S., Google International, Google Mobile, Bing, and Yahoo!
• Get an overview of what’s working: Moz uses colors to indicate overlap in competitor keywords and ranking opportunities, making it easy to quickly identify where you should start 

Pricing

While Moz offers a Starter plan for $49 monthly, it only allows you to track one site. So, we’ve focused on its other plans, which are better suited for agencies, businesses, and enterprises. 

• Starter: $49/month for Moz’s starter SEO tools, one tracked site, and 50 tracked keywords
• Standard: $99/month for Moz’s standard SEO tools, including competitor research, three tracked sites, and 300 tracked keywords
• Medium: $179/month for everything in Standard, plus branded reports, 10 tracked sites, and 1,500 tracked keywords 
• Large: $299/month for everything in Medium, plus increased quotes on SEO tools, 25 tracked sites, and 3,000 keyword rankings 
• Enterprise: Contact Moz for more information 

#5 SE Ranking

Best affordable competitive analysis option

Price: Starts at $65 per month; 14-day free trial available 

SE Ranking has the look and feel of a high-end agency tool but has won several web awards for its ease of use and quick setup. With a global keyword database and support in several languages, it may appeal if you serve a broad demographic of clients.

The Best Part

A generous two-week free trial (no credit card required) gives you plenty of time to try out the brand’s competitor analysis tool. Which provides a holistic view of your rivals’ paid and organic strategies.  

The Worst Part

SE Ranking has few integrations with other agency services, CRMs, or analytics tools beyond its API. 

Top Features

• Access a large global database: SE Ranking claims to have 190 supported countries with over 4.7 billion keywords, which you can search with every plan 
• Analyze your competitors’ website performance: Enter any URL to see estimated organic traffic, clicks, traffic cost, highest-performing keywords, and more
• Track page ranking: Get updates whenever a competitor’s page is changed, see changes between two versions, and compare it to Google algorithm updates
• View rivals’ keyword strategies: See keyword rankings, new and lost keyword statistics, CPC, and search results by country

Pricing

SE Ranking offers three pricing tiers:

• Essential: $65/month for five projects, 500 daily tracked keywords, and core tools such as Rank Tracker, On-Page SEO Checker, Website Audit, and Backlink Checker  
• Pro: $119/month for everything in Essential, plus 30 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, on-page and SERP analysis, and three months of historical data
• Business: $259/month for everything in Pro, plus unlimited projects, 5,000 daily tracked keywords, API access, and all-time historical data 

#6 SimilarWeb

Best for benchmarking your website against competitors

Price: Starts at $149 a month; 7-day free trial available 

Similarweb is a data company specializing in a range of intelligence tools, including those for competitive analysis, ecommerce, and sales. Its Digital Marketing Intelligence product is a full-functioning SEO research tool with a unique competitor analysis tracking function. 

Because Similarweb is primarily a research company, it’s in tune with what you’d want to know most about your competitors. Including their SEO, PPC, affiliate, and advertising strategies.

The Best Part

The Competitive Tracker tells you how much market share you get compared to competitors and updates it regularly. Get alerted to changes via email and look for opportunities to outrank your rivals. 

The Worst Part

The upfront pricing is limited to personal or casual users. If you’re part of a larger team or run an agency, you may find the process of receiving a quote off-putting, as it requires a product demo. Historical data of more than six months is limited only to the higher-priced tiers.

Top Features

• View traffic stats easily: See Google Analytics-like traffic reports for competitors, including visit duration, pages per visit, bounce rate, and unique visitors
• Quick analysis: Get a basic report for each competitor URL, including traffic, keywords, and marketing channels without having to leave the dashboard
• Analyze new vs. returning users: On the custom plan, you get access to the returning user’s ratio to see how much of your competitor’s traffic is sticking around
• Competitive tracker: See how your list of 20+ competitors does over time, including market share, traffic, and SERP improvement. Get results emailed as they change.

Pricing

Similarweb offers four pricing tiers, as well as a free 7-day trial. 

• Starter: $149/month for one user, up to 100 website and 1,000 keyword results per report, and three months of historical data
• Professional: $399/month for everything in Starter, plus 500 website and 5,000 keyword results per report, and six months of historical data
• Team and Enterprise plans: These custom plans require a quote for pricing. They support five to 10 team members, up to 37 months of historical data, and an API.

#7 SparkToro

Best for competitor audience insights

Price: Starts at $50 per month

While not specifically an SEO tool, SparkToro offers an in-depth look into your competitors’ audience across channels. This includes social media, PR, and websites, making it an ideal addition to your competitive intelligence arsenal.

The Best Part

By entering your competitor’s website as a source of audience information, you can get ideas for content, keywords, and potential backlink outreach opportunities.

The Worst Part

It’s limited in how you can use it for competitive research. You won’t find in-depth data on backlinks, keyword rankings, and technical SEO aspects like you would with other SEO tools. 

Top Features

• Find hidden backlink gems: The tool suggests sites with less overall traffic that catch the attention of your competitors’ audiences
• Discover keyword opportunities: Learn which keywords your competitors use, including trending keywords, and the questions their audience searches for on Google
• Learn new audience insights: This tool tells you things others don’t, like how your competitors’ audience describes themselves in their bios and the language they use in their content. Which can provide interesting insight into audience preferences and interests and potential keyword opportunities. 

Pricing

While SparkToro offers a free plan, it only allows for five monthly searches. As such, we’ve focused on the plans better suited for agencies and businesses. 

• Personal: $50/month for 50 searches for social accounts and websites visited, as well as the top 10 results for podcasts, Reddit, and YouTube
• Business: $150/month for everything in Personal, plus 500 searches for up to 10 users, and the top 150 results for most channels
• Agency: $300/month for everything in Business, plus unlimited searches for up to 100 users, with the top 300 results shown for most channels

#8 BuzzSumo

Best for analyzing competitor content strategies

Price: Starts at $199 per month; 7-day free trial available 

BuzzSumo was built to help PR and media professionals monitor their online reputations. But it also makes a unique addition to competitive analysis workflows. 

The award-winning toolkit tells you which of your competitors are getting the most “buzz,” where they get it from, and what content is most likely to earn you the same results—and rankings.

The Best Part

BuzzSumo tells you why your competitor’s content is doing well, whether from Google traffic or a successful Pinterest pin. You can see everything that contributed to their success, so you can make strategic decisions about which avenues to pursue. 

The Worst Part

The platform is very focused on social media and earned media attention. If you aren’t interested in pursuing influencer outreach for backlinks or generating social media buzz, you won’t get as much out of this tool as you could.

Top Features

• Analyze more types of traffic: Get a look at what drives traffic for competing domains, including social shares and inbound links
• Access backlink stats: Learn information about all relevant links, even those from social media. Find out which influencers are sharing links so you can plan better link-building outreach.
• Do topical research: Get better results when you combine topics and URLs or even discover new URLs from topics. Use this information to broaden your backlink and content strategy.

Pricing

Buzzsumo offers four pricing tiers: 

• Content Creation: $199/month for one user, unlimited searches, and two alerts. It includes the Content and Question Analyzers and Trending Feeds.
• PR & Comms: $299/month for everything in Content Creation, plus five users, five alerts, media database and outreach, and Slack integration
• Suite: $499/month for everything in PR & Comms, plus 10 users, 10 alerts, YouTube Analyzer, and an advanced Chrome extension
• Enterprise: $999/month for everything in Suite, plus 30 users, 50 alerts, RSS feed, and granular location search

#9 Screaming Frog

Best for finding competitors technical SEO weaknesses

Price: Starts at $259 per year; free, limited plan available 

Screaming Frog is an award-winning U.K.-based PR and SEO agency. Its free-to-use technical SEO tool by the same name gives you a peek under the hood of your closest competitors’ websites. 

The Best Part

This fast and free tool can tell you a lot about your competitors’ sites (and your own). In just a few minutes per day, you can learn your rivals’ SEO weaknesses and technical issues so you can ensure your site excels. 

The Worst Part

Screaming Frog isn’t an all-in-one SEO tool, so you’ll need other solutions. It’s also a desktop-only solution with no direct connection to other online or cloud-based marketing solutions.

Top Features

• View competitors’ page titles and metadata: Screaming Frog makes it easy to see your competitors’ on-page elements like page titles, title tags, and meta descriptions. See what words and phrases they use so you can outrank them. 
• Evaluate site structure and performance: Crawl competitor websites to analyze site architecture, internal linking, and technical SEO issues. Such as broken external or internal links and duplicate content. This provides valuable insight into how rivals optimize for search engines and identifies areas of improvement. 
• See how your site stacks up: Crawl your site to identify and fix technical issues before they can affect your rankings 
• Enjoy a generous free license: While you’re allowed only 500 URLs per crawl, it’s enough to get a good look at your top competitor and learn about basic site structure and link strategy

Pricing

Screaming Frog has two plans: 

• Free: The downloadable, free version has a 500 URL crawl limit and lets you find broken links, analyze page titles and metadata, generate XML sitemaps, and more 
• Paid: $259 per year for everything in Free, plus unlimited URL crawls, crawl comparison, structured data and validation, GA integration, and PageSpeed Insights integration 

Our Top Picks for the Best SEO Competitive Analysis Tools

The best SEO competitor analysis tools will reveal your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Allowing you to make strategic updates that improve your rankings, traffic, and revenue. 

Semrush is our go-to tool for in-house teams or agencies of all sizes. With pro-level features available on even the lowest-priced plan, it grows with you, so you don’t have to swap tools as you expand. 

Ahrefs is worth a look for backlink campaign support. With detailed link insights, it can help you create a vetted prospecting list in minutes.

Want to become a power user and get more from Semrush on day one? Check out the Semrush 2024 review to learn how it can simplify your workflow and drive more traffic.