Building a strong presence online revolves around implementing a proper SEO strategy. One of these strategies is spying on your competitors, which SpyFu is often used for. However, simultaneously, many are looking for alternatives to replace SpyFu.
While excellent for finding out more about your competitors, the tool, after all, lacks many features. For this reason, users are turning to SpyFu competitors that seemingly offer more. While not all of them are better, we’ll focus on those that are.
This means offering SpyFu alternatives with more features that you’ll likely enjoy more. Once we’re done with our top 6 suggestions, we’ll explain why we chose them and why they’re better than SpyFu. Let’s get down to business.
The 6 Best Alternatives to SpyFu in 2024
- Semrush – Best Alternative to SpyFu overall
- SE Ranking – Best cheap SpyFu alternative
- Mangools – SEO tool offering good value for money
- Ahrefs – Comprehensive SEO tool
- Moz Pro – A more complete competitor than SpyFu
- KeywordSpy – An alternative of last resort
Best SpyFu Alternatives in 2024 – Our Detailed List
Let’s be honest. Dozens, if not hundreds of SEO tools exist but not all of them are great. You, on the other hand, don’t want to replace SpyFu just for the sake of it. You want something greater. Much better.
In that case, here are the best alternatives to SpyFu in 2024.
1. Semrush
Semrush is a state-of-the-art SEO tool for all your needs. It’s a perfect SpyFu alternative that offers everything you need to rank better, including comprehensive competition analysis features. Not only that but Semrush even includes excellent keyword research.
This means getting new keyword ideas or simply learning more about the keyword volume and difficulty. Compared to SpyFu, it’s more expensive but offers multiple times more. For example, we like its Site Audit function.
It helps implement required improvements to make the site function and rank well. Moreover, Semrush allows you to use its Keyword Magic Tool which gives dozens of keyword suggestions based on the given phrase or keyword.
One of the best features is Organic Search, which lets you examine any domain for the number of organic keywords, visitors, and estimated monthly traffic. SpyFu, while not bad, still offers fewer valuable insights, and thus, is inferior for competition analysis.
SpyFu also lacks functions like site auditing, backlink research, and content editor. Semrush offers all of these, which makes it the end-all-be-all tool that you can use for all aspects of SEO. Not to mention that SpyFu has no free trial, which makes it look… well, bad, after all.
Semrush and its 14-day trial sounds like a dream. This means you can test the service for 2 weeks without paying a dollar. We recommend doing so if you want the #1 SpyFu alternative in 2024, as this is truly the best option compared to all other choices on the list.
2. SE Ranking
SE Ranking is very close to Semrush quality-wise. Yet, it’s more affordable and offers flexible subscription plans that you can tailor to your needs. Again, SE Ranking is superior to SpyFu when discussing competitor research.
Its stunning interface easily displays all information in the form of graphs that you can read from a mile away. Another perk is SE Ranking’s in-depth backlink checker, which ensures you have no broken or toxic backlinks, thereby boosting your ranking.
In our review of SE Ranking, we praised its AI-driven content editor. It lets you check for plagiarism and improve the quality of each page. SE Ranking allows you to research PPC campaigns as well, which helps understand your competitors more thoroughly.
Not to mention its rank tracking, which works like a charm, with daily updates and incredible accuracy – like Semrush. SE Ranking lets you track a myriad of keywords and get important metrics like their volume, difficulty, and questions related to them.
Compared to SpyFu, SE Ranking looks and feels better. We like its Local Marketing suite of tools for improving local SEO and making your local business flourish. Other notable functions include a report builder, site audits, and content marketing.
SE Ranking’s pricing structure is straightforward and the entire range kicks off at just around $44 a month. SpyFu costs only $16 but offers way less, as expected. Better yet, SE Ranking’s 14-day free trial sounds much fitter than SpyFu’s lack of it.
3. Mangools
Mangools is a company renowned for capable SEO tools, many of which are free. Its Site Profile function, in particular, is its version of competition analysis. Type in the domain name and get info like domain authority, citation flow, trust flow, referring IPs, and more.
Site Profiler is intuitive and easy to get into. Above all, it’s FREE, although it’s limited in this case. Mangools Site Profiler will show you the backlink profile of each site, along with the number of total backlinks. Who said you can’t spy on your competition with it?
Best of all – you can see top referring domains, anchor type distribution, and other nitpicks, making Mangools a solid SpyFu alternative. Mangools offers other SEO tools, some of which are KWFinder and SERPWatcher for rank tracking, which we discussed recently.
KWFinder is a quality keyword research tool that you can test for free. Type in the keyword and discover more suggestions plus their search volumes and difficulty. The LinkMiner feature can analyze your backlinks and advise new opportunities to improve them.
Now, Mangools is free by default but we don’t recommend using it like that. Instead, you can check some of its premium plans that start at just $19.90 a month. Mangools Premium is just below $45 a month, yet, it offers unlimited keyword suggestions and tracked domains.
Let’s not forget a 48-hour money-back guarantee, along with the fact that half of the plans are ready for multiple simultaneous users. Our main criticism concerns the longer waiting periods for the various analyses, which could detract from the user experience.
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is much like Semrush in a way that it offers all essential tools to maximize SEO. In the same fashion, it’s a great alternative to SpyFu thanks to swift competitor research that lets you discover competitors’ rankings in different regions and countries.
We should also mention its huge backlink database of 22 trillion backlinks. This helps establish proper backlinking opportunities, and thus, ranks better on Google. We like Ahrefs because of its Site Explorer – a nifty little function.
It assigns a so-called Ahrefs rank to each site, even including the option to see organic and paid traffic for a selected domain. Furthermore, its SEO Analyzer function signals all issues with the domain and advises fixes that you can implement right away.
SpyFu allows you to spy on your competitors but so does Ahrefs. For example, you can see all relevant data of a competitor domain, even including backlinks and keywords it ranks for. Ahrefs allows you to see the top web pages of a competitor – another insightful bit.
Compared to SpyFu, Ahrefs is miles ahead but sadly, its ranking information is updated every 7 days no matter the plan you choose. Another downside is that Ahrefs has no free trial but neither does SpyFu. You’ll find this in Semrush and SE Ranking.
Ahrefs isn’t very cheap but for the money, you’ll find it more than great. Besides, Ahrefs starts at $99 a month, which isn’t a fortune. Yet, like Semrush, it’s an all-around tool that you can use for many other things aside from competition analysis.
5. Moz Pro
Moz offers a boatload of free SEO tools. However, Moz Pro is a full-fledged version of the tool, with all the bells and whistles you can think of. Namely, its impressive backlink database of 40+ trillion sounds impressive, as it’s very close to Semrush.
Henceforth, you’ll be able to improve your backlinking game in no time. As an alternative to SpyFu, we can report Moz Pro works well for spying on your competitors. For example, its Domain Analysis tool is more than informative.
It signals the domain authority, ranking keywords, spam score, and top-linking domains and pages. Moreover, we like the inclusion of parameters like top questions, branded keywords, and keyword ranking distribution, all of which are vital in many cases.
Moz Pro even offers a free MozBar browser extension for tracking your ranking across Google and other search engines. The Keyword Explorer Tool will analyze every keyword and tell you more about its ranking, estimated search volume, and difficulty.
We like the Link Intersect feature which SpyFu lacks. It allows you to reach out to your competitors and ask for a backlink or guest post to boost your rankings. Moz Pro isn’t the best-looking app on the list but neither is SpyFu.
Still, you’ll find it handy for more than 90% of the tasks. Semrush is better than Moz Pro but there’s a silver lining – a 30-day free trial. We encourage you to test it if you’re interested. This is undoubtedly a formidable SpyFu alternative that will offer much more than it.
Want to find out more? Read our review of Moz.
6. KeywordSpy
A SpyFu alternative titled KeywordSpy sounds suitable enough. Both allow you to spy on your competitor’s keyword ranking and get information regarding organic traffic, PPC campaigns, and top-ranking keywords.
In a way, both are excellent for improving your SEO game and focusing on including the keywords that are more likely to rank. We like KeywordSpy’s focus on affiliate marketing, as it helps to discover new opportunities for affiliate links according to your website niche.
Another helpful metric is ROI (Return on Investment), which helps you decide whether or not a particular PPC campaign is worth investing in. Moreover, KeywordSpy offers a free browser extension for tracking the website ranking, domain age, and a few other tidbits.
It’s good to know that KeywordSpy comes with a heap of accurate domain information in more than 30 locations, whereas, SpyFu offers only UK and US-related data. KeywordSpy is intuitive and easy to set up, alas, with a bit outdated interface.
We found another problem with it, which is expensive pricing. KeywordSpy is limited and won’t allow for website audits and comprehensive backlink research like SE Ranking or Semrush. SpyFu is similar but at least, it’s much cheaper.
At least KeywordSpy’s information is accurate enough and it’s great for those focusing on PPC and competitor research to get more visitors and conversions. Add to that customizable reports exportable to XLS and CSV and you have something worth checking out.
Why Do People Look for Alternatives to SpyFu?
SpyFu is a pretty popular tool SEO tool because of its flexible pricing and solid area of SEO features. The tool sports plenty of information about competitor sites, PPC, and keyword research but not nearly as much as Semrush or SE Ranking.
People often find SpyFu a bit limiting even in the most expensive plan. The problem with SpyFu is that its information is centered around the UK and the US, with no other countries to select. If you’re looking to rank better in France, let’s say, SpyFu won’t help you much.
We also don’t like that SpyFu doesn’t have site auditing or content marketing, which Semrush and SE Ranking possess. SpyFu won’t offer additional social media features and its link-building capabilities are abysmal – if existent at all.
Generally speaking, those looking for SpyFu alternatives likely don’t like its “focused” approach. It’s solid for obtaining competitor-related information in easy-to-read reports but apart from that, it’s nothing special.
The only thing that likely makes it attractive at first is pricing. To be clear, SpyFu is among the cheapest services if we exclude Mangools, whose cheapest plan costs almost the same. For the price, we prefer Mangools for the reasons we mentioned in this guide.
Best SpyFu Alternatives: The Final Verdict
You don’t have to break the bank to use some of the best SpyFu alternatives. Today, we discussed 6 of them that we tested on multiple occasions.
Our honest advice is to get Semrush and enjoy its 14-day trial. A service miles ahead of SpyFu.
If you find it opulent, which it can be, SE Ranking is a lot more affordable and still better than SpyFu in many ways. We also prefer Mangools, Ahrefs, and Moz over this tool, as they’re more equipped with various SEO functions for all purposes.
Obtain the #1 SpyFu Alternative: Semrush
Mangools is an enticing choice with 5 free tools and the option to get more out of them with an affordable premium subscription. Finally, KeywordSpy is similar to SpyFu if you’d like extensive competitor analysis and related information.
Now that you have all these SpyFu alternatives, your doubts should be fully resolved.
