OpenSEO: The Open-Source Semrush Alternative Starting at $10/Month
Discover OpenSEO, an open-source Semrush and Ahrefs alternative for keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, site audits, competitor analysis, and AI SEO workflows. Learn how to self-host it with Docker and connect SEO data to AI agents through MCP.
OpenSEO: the open source Semrush alternative that starts at $10 a month
Semrush costs $139.95 a month at its cheapest plan. Ahrefs switched to per-seat pricing in March 2026, and a 5-person agency on Standard jumped from $249 to $447 overnight. OpenSEO, an MIT-licensed open source tool on GitHub, covers the same core workflows starting at $10 a month, or free if you self-host and bring your own DataForSEO key.
It has 10.3k stars on GitHub, a Docker self-hosting path, and a built-in MCP server so Claude Code and other AI agents can query your SEO data directly.
What is OpenSEO?
OpenSEO is a pay-as-you-go SEO tool that runs on DataForSEO’s API. It covers keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, site audits, competitor analysis, and AI brand visibility tracking. The full source code is on GitHub at github.com/every-app/open-seo under the MIT license.
The hosted version at openseo.so costs $10 a month, and you can fork and modify the codebase to build your own custom SEO workflow on top of it.
The pitch is straightforward. If Semrush or Ahrefs cost too much or include dozens of features you never open, OpenSEO gives you the workflows you actually use and charges you only for the API calls you make. Unused credits from top-ups never expire. Your $10 base plan resets every billing cycle, but any extra usage you buy rolls over indefinitely.
How does the pricing actually work?
The base plan is $10 a month and includes $10 of usage credits. The plan comes with keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking, and site audits. Google Search Console data is free and doesn’t touch your usage credits.
Here’s what $10 of credits actually buys, from OpenSEO’s pricing estimator:
| Activity | Volume | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword searches | 100/month | $5.00 |
| Backlink checks | 20/month | $1.58 |
| Rank tracking | 217 checks/month | $0.54 |
| ChatGPT brand checks | 0 | $0.00 |
That’s $7.12 of estimated usage on a typical month, which fits inside the $10 already included. The expensive item is AI brand checks: about $1.09 each for checking ChatGPT mentions.
Compare that directly: Ahrefs’ cheapest plan is $129 a month. Semrush’s Pro plan starts at $139.95. A solo SEO doing 100 keyword searches and 20 backlink checks a month was paying $140+ for this. Now it’s $10.
Self-hosting drops the cost lower still. The hosted service charges 28% extra on every DataForSEO API request to cover infrastructure costs. When you self-host, you pay DataForSEO directly at their base rates.
What features does OpenSEO include?
OpenSEO covers 6 main workflow categories out of the box.
Keyword research handles search volume, keyword difficulty, and related terms via DataForSEO’s SERP API. Saved keywords let you build tracked lists without re-running the same searches.
Rank tracking monitors your positions for chosen keywords on a weekly or daily schedule. Tracking 50 keywords weekly runs about $0.54 a month, compared to Semrush’s rank tracking add-on costs that compound on top of an already expensive base plan.
Backlinks pulls referring domains, anchor text, and link history for any domain you want to analyze. A domain overview with one year of history costs about $0.08.
Site audit checks page-level SEO signals: missing meta tags, broken links, redirect chains, canonical issues, Core Web Vitals. It writes directly to your DataForSEO crawl budget.
Domain overview covers competitor visibility at the domain level. You get organic traffic estimates, top keywords, and share of search comparisons.
AI visibility is the newest piece. It checks how often your brand appears in AI search responses across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other models. Prompt Explorer lets you compare how different AI engines answer the same query, so you can see whether your content is being surfaced.
What is the OpenSEO MCP server?
This is what separates OpenSEO from most SEO tools. OpenSEO exposes an MCP server so AI agents like Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Hermes can query your SEO data directly. Agent Skills are reusable workflows that guide an agent through SEO tasks using the MCP.
In practice, this means you can tell Claude Code to pull keyword data for a specific topic, analyze your top competitor’s backlink profile, or audit a URL, and it uses your OpenSEO account to run the actual data queries. You write the task in plain language. The MCP handles the API calls.
Pre-built skills ship with the repo. You can also write your own to match your exact workflow. The MCP setup doc is at openseo.so/docs/mcp and the skills guide at openseo.so/docs/skills/setup.
OpenSEO also ships a separate Google Search Console MCP, which pulls GSC data into agent workflows at no additional cost since Search Console data is free.
How do you self-host OpenSEO with Docker?
Docker self-hosting is the fastest path. You need Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine + Compose) and a DataForSEO API key.
Clone the repo and copy the example env file:
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git clone https://github.com/every-app/open-seo.git
cd open-seo
cp .env.example .env
Add your DataForSEO API key to .env. The key is the base64 encoding of your email and API password in email:password format. Then start the container:
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docker compose up -d
OpenSEO runs on http://localhost:3001 by default. Docker mode uses AUTH_MODE=local_noauth, meaning no auth checks and a local admin user at admin@localhost. If you expose it publicly, put it behind an auth-protected reverse proxy.
To update to a new release:
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docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
To pin to a specific version instead of latest:
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OPEN_SEO_IMAGE=ghcr.io/every-app/open-seo:v1.2.3 docker compose up -d
If you’re putting Docker behind a reverse proxy or a public tunnel, set ALLOWED_HOST=yourdomain.com before restarting, or add it to your .env file.
The Cloudflare self-hosting path handles internet-facing deployments across multiple devices or for teams. It runs on Cloudflare’s free plan. See docs/SELF_HOSTING_CLOUDFLARE.md in the repo for setup.
How does it compare to Semrush and Ahrefs?
On raw data coverage, Semrush and Ahrefs have larger proprietary databases built up over years. Ahrefs refreshes backlink data every 15-30 minutes. OpenSEO pulls from DataForSEO, which aggregates multiple sources but doesn’t match the freshness of Ahrefs’ own crawler for real-time link monitoring.
On cost, the comparison isn’t close:
| Tool | Cheapest plan | 5-user cost |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush | $139.95/month | $184.95/month ($45/user extra) |
| Ahrefs | $129/month | $447/month (per-seat since March 2026) |
| OpenSEO hosted | $10/month | $10/month (no per-seat fees) |
| OpenSEO self-hosted | DataForSEO cost only | DataForSEO cost only |
Ahrefs switched to per-seat pricing in March 2026. A 5-person agency on Standard went from roughly $249 to $447 a month, a 79% increase that older comparison articles still haven’t caught up to.
Using both Semrush and Ahrefs together costs $378 or more per month at the lowest tiers. Most professionals find one tool covers 90% of their needs.
OpenSEO covers the core 90% for $10. For agencies or freelancers who were paying for Semrush primarily to track rankings, run quick keyword checks, and audit client sites occasionally, the math shifts dramatically.
The category where Semrush and Ahrefs still win: raw historical data depth and the breadth of integrations for larger teams. If you’re running competitor intelligence across hundreds of domains or need real-time backlink alerts, OpenSEO isn’t the right fit yet.
Who is self-hosting OpenSEO for?
Solo founders, freelance SEOs, and developers who want data without subscriptions. OpenSEO is designed for focused workflows instead of a bloated complex SEO suite, with the option to fork and vibe-code your own custom tool on top of it.
The MCP integration makes it especially useful for developers already running Claude Code or Cursor in their workflow. You can query your SEO data from the same tool you’re using to write code, without switching tabs or manually pulling reports.
For teams, the hosted version at $10 and no per-seat pricing means a 5-person agency pays the same $10 as a solo freelancer. That’s the pricing model Ahrefs just moved away from.
There’s a free trial with $0.50 of credits to test the tool before subscribing.
Key facts at a glance
- GitHub: github.com/every-app/open-seo, MIT license
- Stars: 10.3k stars, 1.2k forks
- Hosted: $10/month at openseo.so, includes $10 of usage credits
- Self-hosted: Docker or Cloudflare, you pay DataForSEO directly at base rates (28% cheaper than hosted)
- Free trial: $0.50 of credits, no card required
- Features: keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, site audit, domain overview, AI visibility, Prompt Explorer
- MCP server: connects Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, and other agents to your SEO data
- Google Search Console MCP: free, no credits consumed
- No per-seat pricing: unlimited users on one $10 plan
- DataForSEO costs: ~$0.05 per keyword search, ~$0.08 per domain backlink check, ~$1.09 per ChatGPT brand check
- Semrush comparison: $139.95/month cheapest vs $10/month OpenSEO
- Ahrefs comparison: $129/month Lite, now per-seat since March 2026
- Discord: discord.gg/c9uGs3cFXr