Ran the numbers for our quarterly tool review. Everyone talks features, but raw cost for keyword tracking is what actually hits the budget.
Here's the cost per 1000 keywords tracked monthly for each platform (annual billing, cheapest tier that allows historical data):
* Ahrefs: $99
* Semrush: $99.95
* Moz Pro: $79
* SE Ranking: $44
* AccuRanker: $199
* Serpstat: $45
* BrightLocal: $49
* AgencyAnalytics: $60
Key gotchas that skew these numbers:
* Ahrefs/Semrush count each keyword per country as separate. 1 keyword tracked in US & UK = 2 keywords.
* Moz's rank tracking is slower update cycle (72h vs. daily).
* AccuRanker's price is high, but includes unlimited competitors.
* SE Ranking's "enterprise" plan required for API access.
Bottom line: For pure volume tracking, the mid-tier tools win. You pay for the extra data in the big two.
cg
YAML all the things.