Most SEO software costs more than the average SME ever gets out of it. Ahrefs charges $129 a month for its entry plan. SE Ranking sits in the same range. You’re paying for a full platform when in practice you use three things: keyword research, rank tracking, and the odd audit.
OpenSEO does that for $10 a month. Open source, pay-as-you-go, and built around an MCP server you can plug straight into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. I use it myself, on a handful of smaller client projects and in my own day-to-day work, and it’s become my default by now.
In short
- OpenSEO starts at $10/month, including $10 of usage credits, self-hosting is free
- The MCP server connects straight to Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT, with free, read-only access to Search Console and Analytics
- You get the basics: keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, audits, but not the full arsenal of Ahrefs or Semrush
Why the big players are overkill
Ahrefs and Semrush are built for agencies monitoring hundreds of domains at once. If you’re an SME that wants to know how thirty-odd keywords are trending each month and run the occasional audit, you’re paying for features you’ll never open. I’m a genuine fan of SE Ranking, precisely because it does what Semrush and Ahrefs do at a noticeably better price. OpenSEO undercuts even that.
What OpenSEO does differently
OpenSEO is MIT-licensed and fully open source. Self-hosting is free, you only pay for the underlying data. The hosted version starts at $10 a month, and that $10 is your usage credit: keyword research, backlink checks, rank tracking, and site audits draw down credits as you use them, rather than a flat fee regardless of how much you actually pull.
| Tool | Starting price | Model |
|---|---|---|
| OpenSEO | $10/month (incl. $10 credits) | Pay-as-you-go, free to self-host |
| Ahrefs (entry plan) | $129/month | Fixed subscription |
| SE Ranking | roughly $50 to $129/month | Fixed subscription or pay-as-you-go |
| Semrush | typically $100+/month | Fixed subscription |
The MCP is the real story
The price is the hook, but my own reason for choosing it is the MCP server. It connects straight to Google Search Console (free, uses no credits, since Google doesn’t charge you for your own data) and to Google Analytics, read-only. That MCP pulls that data directly into your AI workflows.
That’s a different kind of tool than a dashboard you check yourself. An agent working through OpenSEO’s MCP isn’t guessing plausible-sounding numbers, it’s working with your actual Search Console and Analytics data. Pair that with the right skills and a $10 tool gives you serious room to build AI workflows grounded in real figures instead of whatever the model is picturing.
What you don’t get
Is it as complete as Ahrefs or Semrush? No. The backlink index is smaller, there’s no sprawling content-gap suite, and if you’re monitoring hundreds of domains at enterprise scale, you’ll hit the ceiling. For the basics, the things 90% of businesses actually use, it’s genuinely all there.
Who this is for
A hobbyist can spare $10 a month. An SME can spare $10 a month. Even a larger company could run this as a light, AI-connected layer alongside a heavier platform. The point isn’t that it’s the most complete tool on the market. The point is that it takes no real investment to do proper work with it.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenSEO actually free?
Self-hosting is free, you only pay for the underlying data. The hosted version starts at $10/month, including $10 of usage credits. Search Console data uses no credits, so that costs nothing extra either way.
Does OpenSEO work with Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor?
Yes. OpenSEO runs through an MCP server that plugs straight into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT, so your agent works with real keyword, ranking, and Search Console data instead of guesswork.
Is $10 a month enough for an SME?
For the basics, yes: keyword research, rank tracking, and site audits are all included. For in-depth backlink analysis or content-gap research at Ahrefs’ level, you’ll need to pay for extra usage or bring in another platform alongside it.
So: is OpenSEO the tool that does everything? No. Is it the tool most businesses actually need, for a fraction of what they’re paying now? For me, yes. Try it yourself here.