15 Best Affordable SEO Tools Every Startup Needs

Budget is never within the scope of things for startups. But great SEO doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and thanks to plenty of cheap SEO tools on the market, enhancing your website’s visibility and performance won’t break the bank.

Here are a few affordable SEO tools any startup needs to cut through the noise, categorized into keyword research, on-page SEO, competitor analysis, analytics and rank tracking, and technical SEO.

1. Keyword Research Tools

Successful keyword research is the backbone of any SEO strategy. Here are some affordable tools that help startups discover high-value keywords to target.

· Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a powerful, yet cost-effective keyword research tool developed by Neil Patel.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Subscription
• Free Trial

They give you keyword ideas, provide search volume data, do competition analysis, and even some content ideas for you. Ubersuggest is an excellent fit for small businesses or new users as their keyword research tool since it’s very affordable.

Ubersuggest Features

· Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is a tiny, free Chrome extension that will reveal search volume for target keywords and suggestions straight from the Google search results.

Price Details  

• Free (Chrome Extension)

This is an excellent tool for any startup looking for a quick, no-cost solution to keyword research.

Surfer SEO Features

• Answer The Public

Answer The Public gives keyword ideas from what people are asking. Best to find out the long-tail keywords and user intent, Answer The Public is a perfect tool to identify by itself.

Price Details

• Free Plan (limited searches)
• Paid Plans  

Although it’s free with some limitations, it can help you find some good ideas when you don’t have much information.

• Answer The Public Features

2.   On-Page SEO Tools

On-page SEO is optimizing your website for search engines, with factors such as keyword use, content structure, and page speed. Below are a few affordable tools that can make on-page optimization easier.

·  Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is perhaps the most widely used on-page optimization WordPress plugin. It helps optimize meta titles and descriptions, keyword placement, readability, and internal linking.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Paid Plan (Yoast SEO Premium – $99/annually)

Essential features are included in the free version, but you get more advanced insights with the premium version.

Yoast SEO Features

· Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog is a desktop-based tool that does a crawl of your website to identify on-page SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and more. The free version allows up to 500 URLs, which is good for most small websites.

Price Details

• Paid Plan
• Free Trial
• Free Version

Screaming Frog Features

3. Competitor Analysis Tools

Knowing what your competition is doing is paramount to the ongoing battle for search rankings. This free, cheap set of tools can help you understand their strengths and weaknesses.

· SEMrush

SEMrush is a fully-fledged digital marketing powerhouse for tools that offers various features like competitor analysis, paid advertising, social media and SEO.

Price Details

• Paid Plan
• Free Plan

It will help you to understand competitors’ organic keywords, backlinks, and paid ads. SEMrush is a paid tool, though even startups use it because of its rich features.

SEMrush Features

• SpyFu

SpyFu is a very inexpensive tool to view information about your competitors’ SEO and PPC methods. It offers words searched for, backlinks, and ad campaigns.

Price Details

• Free Version
• Paid Plan

It has low-cost bundle deals that are cheaper than most competitor analysis tools, making it a great fit for startups looking to stay under budget.

SpyFu Features

· Moz Pro

Moz Pro is another big competitor analysis tool providing insights about backlinks, keyword rankings, and domain authority.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Paid Plan

This suite includes tools for startups to monitor their competitors and themselves and start improving.

Moz Pro Features

4. Analytics and Rank Tracking Tools

Analytics and rank-tracking tools will enable you to measure the success of your SEO campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve your strategies.

·  Google Analytics

The first must-have tool for any startup is Google Analytics. You want to know so many important things about your website, including traffic numbers, user behavior, conversions, and many more.

Price Details

• Free Version

It doesn’t contribute to direct SEO impact but can provide invaluable data to make smart SEO decisions and monitor your website.

Google Analytics Features

·  Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a must-have for any startup; it gives you essential insights into how Google views your website, its indexing status, search traffic you might be missing, and search problems like crawl errors.

Price Details

• Free Version only

Google Search Console Features

·  AccuRanker

AccuRanker is a cost-effective rank-tracking tool for keyword rankings across multiple search engines and geographies.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Paid Plan

It helps ensure rich reporting insights, which are important in measuring how effectively your SEO strategies work.

AccuRanker Features

·  RankMath

RankMath is a WordPress SEO plugin that has functionalities like rank tracking and SEO optimization.

Price Details

• Free Version
• Paid Version

The free version offers some essential on-page SEO tools, while the premium version unlocks more advanced features like more precision in keyword tracking and schema support.

RankMath Features

5. Technical SEO and Site Performance Tools

Technical SEO will ensure your site is crawlable, fast, and secure-all these impact search engine rankings. Here are some inexpensive technical SEO and site performance tools:

·  GTmetrix

GTmetrix is a free utility for scanning your website page load time and performance. These reports detail areas where your website might be slowed by server response times, image sizes, and even JavaScript execution.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Paid Plans

Fixing your site speed is important in technical SEO, and with GTmetrix, you can easily determine problems and solutions.

GTMetrix Features

·  Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

The free version of the paid toolset on Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is limited but powerful, nonetheless. It provides backlinks, technical SEO issues on your site, and keyword rankings.

Price Details

• Free Plan
• Paid Plan

Ahrefs is a premium SEO tool that still has a lot in it for startups to continue improving their website’s SEO performance.

Ahrefs Webmaster Features

Wrapping Up!

When you are a startup on a shoestring, SEO tools that make sense for one’s budget need to come into play. Here are the affordable SEO tools for keyword research, on-page SEO, competitor analysis, analytics, and technical optimization-all pretty comprehensive solutions.

Having the right tools in place, startups can climb up the ranks of search, bring more traffic in, and even outmaneuver larger companies-all without breaking the bank.

Whether beginning from the ground up or refining an existing SEO strategy, these tools will help you hit your marks in 2025 and beyond.

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