the honest Serpstat alternative for backlinks.
most Serpstat alternatives are the same subscription with a different logo. this page does the boring version instead: what Serpstat's own free tier covers, where it stops, how the real Serpstat competitors price up, and what each one is genuinely best at. then the pitch, which is narrow on purpose. if you want an alternative to Serpstat for one job, finding the domains that link to your competitors and not to you, CrawlGraph runs it on Common Crawl's open hyperlink graph and the gap analysis returns your first 5 gaps for an email, with no account to create.
first 5 gaps for an email, no account · see the open-graph data behind this page
Serpstat's free tier: what you get, where it stops
the phrase people type is usually "free serpstat alternative", so start with the free part that already exists.
Serpstat runs a standing free tier rather than a countdown trial, which is more generous than most of this list and worth saying out loud. It is metered in queries per day, and the reports truncate. That shape suits a look, not a project: enough to check whether a domain is worth chasing, not enough to pull its referring domains and work the list. Backlink exports and any usable API volume move you onto a paid plan, and it is on the entry plan that the per-project and per-seat limits start to bite.
over three years that is Serpstat at roughly $2,484 vs $99 once. for the job most people open Serpstat for - finding the competitor backlinks you don't have - you get the same gap.
where Serpstat genuinely wins
- an all-in-one budget suite (rank tracking, audit, keywords)
- team plans that stay affordable as you add seats
- API access even on the lower tiers
if you live in those, Serpstat earns its price. we say so.
where CrawlGraph wins
- $99 once, not a subscription - the same open Common Crawl link data
- free gap analysis: your first 5 gaps for an email, no card
- finds the contact email and drafts the outreach - closes the loop
- open methodology, plus an API and MCP server
who should switch, and who should stay on Serpstat
Serpstat's pitch is breadth for the money: rank tracking, audits, keywords, and backlinks in one budget suite, with API access even low down the range. That breadth is real and it is why the price looks like a bargain next to Ahrefs. It stops being a bargain the moment you notice you only ever open the backlink module, and you are buying six tools to use one.
it is the same backlink data
Serpstat draws its core index from the public web, the same place Common Crawl publishes its open hyperlink graph every quarter. we measured it: Serpstat has 3,282 referring domains and a cg authority of 49 in the open graph (full method in our SEO-tools link study). for finding the domains linking to your competitors but not to you, that open graph is all you need - and it is what the free gap analysis runs on.
Serpstat alternatives and competitors, priced
the shortlist people actually compare against Serpstat, at list price for the entry plan, taken from each vendor's own pricing page. the strength column is where that tool genuinely beats the rest, including where it beats us.
| tool | price | strongest at |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | $129/mo | the largest, freshest live backlink index (continuous re-crawl) |
| Semrush | $140/mo | an all-in-one suite (PPC, social, content, not just SEO) |
| Moz | $99/mo | Domain Authority, the metric the whole industry quotes |
| Majestic | $50/mo | Trust Flow and Citation Flow, its well-known link metrics |
| SpyFu | $39/mo | PPC and AdWords competitor intelligence, its real specialty |
| SE Ranking | $103/mo | accurate daily rank tracking, its core strength |
| Ubersuggest | $29/mo | keyword research at a beginner price, the reason most people keep it |
| CrawlGraph | $99 once | competitor backlink gap analysis on open data, free to try for an email |
cheapest subscription in this table: SpyFu at $39/mo. our $99 is paid once, so it costs less than SpyFu after about 3 months.
priced closest to Serpstat, and so the most likely swap: alternatives to Majestic, Moz competitors, and tools like SpyFu. all eight are side by side on the seo tool price comparison.
alternative, competitor, or just similar? the four questions behind this search
people arrive here having typed one of four things, and they do not mean the same thing. answering them separately is more useful than pretending they are synonyms.
- “an alternative to Serpstat”
- you already pay for Serpstat and want the same job done for less. the answer is job by job rather than tool for tool. Serpstat wins at an all-in-one budget suite (rank tracking, audit, keywords), and if that is the reason you opened it, nothing on this page replaces it. the part that is genuinely replaceable is competitor link discovery, and that runs on open data for $99 once.
- “Serpstat competitors”
- you want the market map before you commit to anything. that is the table above: Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Majestic, SpyFu, SE Ranking, Ubersuggest, at entry-plan list price with the one thing each is genuinely strongest at, including where they beat us.
- “tools like Serpstat”, “sites like Serpstat”, “similar to Serpstat”
- you want the same shape of product, not a cheaper Serpstat. worth saying plainly: every tool in that table is a suite, and CrawlGraph is not one. if what you liked about Serpstat was having rank tracking, audits, and keywords in a single login, a specialist is not similar to it and you should buy a suite. if you only ever opened the backlink module, the similarity you were looking for is one report, not the login around it.
- “better than Serpstat”
- the only honest response is “at what?”. better across the board, at a lower price, does not exist, and a page that claims it is selling you something. better at one thing is real: for listing the domains that link to a competitor and not to you, the open Common Crawl graph finds the same gap a subscription would, then finds the contact address and drafts the outreach.
questions people actually ask
- Is there a free Serpstat alternative?
- Partly, and it is worth being precise about which part. CrawlGraph's backlink gap analysis is free and needs an email rather than an account, and it returns your first 5 gaps; a free API key gives you 15 backlink lookups a month. The full list, exports, and unlimited API access are $99 once, not a subscription. None of it is a time-limited trial.
- What is the cheapest Serpstat alternative?
- Of the tools compared on this page, SpyFu is the cheapest subscription at $39/mo. CrawlGraph is $99 paid once, so it costs less than SpyFu after about 3 months and never renews after that.
- Which Serpstat competitors are worth comparing?
- The realistic shortlist is Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Majestic, SpyFu, SE Ranking, Ubersuggest, and CrawlGraph. They are not interchangeable, so compare them on the job rather than on the feature count: the table on this page names the one thing each tool does better than the rest. For competitor backlink discovery specifically, the open Common Crawl hyperlink graph finds the same gap any of them would, and that is what CrawlGraph runs on.
- Is anything actually better than Serpstat?
- Not across the board, and be suspicious of any alternatives page that claims so. Serpstat beats us at an all-in-one budget suite (rank tracking, audit, keywords). What beats Serpstat is narrower: for the single job of listing the domains that link to a competitor and not to you, open data finds the same gap without a subscription, and CrawlGraph then finds the contact address and drafts the outreach email.
- Do these alternatives use the same backlink data as Serpstat?
- Not identical data, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling. Serpstat runs its own crawler. CrawlGraph reads Common Crawl's open hyperlink graph, 121.1M domains and 3.90B domain-level links as of the current release, republished every quarter. A live commercial index is fresher and deeper on brand-new links. For the job most people open Serpstat for, finding the domains that link to a competitor but not to you, the open graph finds the same gap.
test the data before you switch anything
not ready to move off Serpstat? don't. pull the same open graph yourself first and see whether the links you already know about show up. a free key is emailed to you, no card, no account to create.
see the gap before you pay anyone
run your domain against a competitor and read the list of sites linking to them and not to you. your first 5 gaps for an email, seconds.
first 5 gaps for an email · $99 once unlocks the full list, export, and API