The essentials
- Free account: no credit card, 1 demo project and 10 requests per day on the main tools (keywords, domain, backlinks), 10 tracked keywords and 100 audited pages.
- Free trial: 7 days on a paid plan, credit card required, once per account; if you do not cancel, the subscription then starts.
- Free alternatives: Google Search Console for your real data, Ahrefs Free for your site’s audit and backlinks, Haloscan Free for 50 keyword searches per month, Screaming Frog up to 500 URLs.
- When to pay: as soon as you track several competitors every week or produce audits; Semrush’s SEO plan costs €134 per month (checked on 16/10/2026).
Semrush is not a free tool, but it offers two ways in without immediate payment: a permanent, very limited free account, and a 7-day trial on the paid plans. For an SME owner who wants to look at their keywords once a month, the free account may be enough for a while; for regular competitor tracking, it quickly becomes a blocker. This article details what the free account allows, the trial conditions, the free tools that take over and the point at which paying becomes the rational choice. Full pricing is detailed in Semrush: 2026 prices and real cost, and competing paid tools in the Semrush alternatives.
What the free Semrush account allows
Signing up requires an email address and a password, with no credit card. The official pricing page states “1 demo project and 10 reports per day” for the essential tools; the guide published by Semrush in December 2025 specifies the quotas tool by tool.
| Semrush tool | Free account limit | Realistic use |
|---|---|---|
| Domain overview | 10 requests per day | Taking a quick look at a competitor |
| Keyword research | 10 requests per day | Testing a few query ideas |
| Competitor analysis | 10 requests per day | One-off check |
| Backlinks | 10 requests per day | Overview of a domain’s links |
| Site audit | 100 pages per month | Small brochure site only |
| Position tracking | 10 keywords | A small business’s main queries |
| Free AI writing tools | 3 uses per day per tool, 300 words | Troubleshooting |
Sources: Semrush pricing page and the guide “What can you do with a free Semrush account?”, checked on 16/10/2026.
In practice, the free account is for discovering the interface and answering a specific question (“which keywords does this competitor rank for?”). Reports show a reduced number of rows, history is inaccessible and a single project does not allow you to compare several sites over time.
The 7-day free trial: conditions to know
- Term: 7 days on the chosen plan, with all of its features.
- Credit card: required to start the trial, according to Semrush’s FAQ; virtual cards are not accepted.
- Once only: Semrush’s help centre states that the trial can only be used once; subsequent attempts trigger the purchase of a monthly subscription.
- End of the trial: if you do not cancel before day 7, the account switches to the chosen paid plan (€134 per month for the SEO plan, checked on 16/10/2026).
Seven days are enough for a one-off audit if it is prepared: list of competitors, list of queries to test, exports to run. Note the cancellation date in your calendar as soon as you sign up.
Free alternatives to Semrush
No free tool reproduces Semrush, but several cover part of the need, often with more reliable data for your own site, since it comes from Google or your server rather than from estimates.
| Tool | What is free | Main limit |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Queries, clicks, impressions, average positions and indexing of your site | Your site only, nothing on competitors |
| Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) | Technical audit (over 170 issues), keywords and backlinks for your site, visit statistics | Verified sites only; 5,000 audit credits per project per month; 1,000 backlinks and 1,000 keywords displayed |
| Haloscan Free | 50 keyword searches and 25 site analyses per month | 100 results maximum per search, 1 user |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Full technical crawl on desktop | 500 URLs per crawl; beyond that, a licence at $279 per year |
| Google Keyword Planner | Search volumes and keyword ideas | Volumes shown as ranges without an active campaign |
Sources: official Ahrefs, Haloscan and Screaming Frog pages, checked on 16/10/2026.
A free combination works well for an SME: the Google Search Console to see which queries the site actually appears for, Ahrefs Free for the audit and inbound links, Haloscan Free or the Google Keyword Planner for keyword research, and Screaming Frog for a site with fewer than 500 pages. The real cost is time: four interfaces, four exports, no consolidated view.
What the free options do not do
- Regular competitive monitoring: 10 requests per day on Semrush or 25 site analyses per month on Haloscan are not enough to track five competitors every week.
- The history: free accounts show the present moment, rarely the trend over 12 months.
- Serious position tracking: 10 keywords cover the brand and a few queries, not a content strategy.
- Consolidation: none of these tools links SEO to traffic, Google Ads campaigns, social media or revenue.
When paying becomes worthwhile
| Situation | Sensible option |
|---|---|
| Brochure site, one-off need | Free Semrush account + Search Console + Ahrefs Free |
| Single audit before a redesign | A well-prepared 7-day trial, or one month’s subscription then cancellation |
| SEO consultant or agency producing audits | Semrush, Ahrefs or SE Ranking subscription; see the comparison of alternatives |
| SME owner who wants to manage SEO, advertising, social media and AI visibility together | A multichannel dashboard rather than an SEO suite |
For the last case, GreenRed is a French option: tracking of positions, keywords and backlinks for your site and your competitors, site health, GA4 or Matomo, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, Google Business Profile listing and tracking of 10 queries across 5 AIs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Mistral). In terms of SEO data depth, Semrush and Ahrefs remain richer: GreenRed has no exhaustive backlink index or comparable history. The Pilotage plan costs €69 excl. VAT per month and can be tried for 14 days without a credit card via the trial page. The detailed head-to-head is in GreenRed vs Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz and HubSpot.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's SEO keyword tracking brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Semrush free?
Semrush offers a permanent free account, with no credit card, limited to 1 demo project and 10 requests per day on the main tools. The full features are paid, from €134 per month for the SEO plan (checked on 16/10/2026).
How long does the Semrush free trial last?
The trial lasts 7 days. According to Semrush’s FAQ, a credit card is required to start it and the trial can only be used once. If you do not cancel before the end, the chosen subscription is billed.
What is the best free alternative to Semrush?
There is no single one. Google Search Console gives you your site’s real data, Ahrefs Free the audit and backlinks of your verified sites, Haloscan Free 50 keyword searches per month and Screaming Frog a crawl of up to 500 URLs. Together, they cover the essentials for an SME, except competitive monitoring.
Can you track your competitors for free?
Only very partially. The free Semrush account and Haloscan Free allow a few analyses of competitor domains, but no weekly tracking or history. For regular monitoring, a subscription is needed, whether an SEO suite or a dashboard that tracks competitors’ keywords and backlinks.