Similarweb Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Similarweb alternatives: Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Google Search Console and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•3 min read•SEO Tools
Verdict:Leave Similarweb when you no longer need estimated competitor traffic, or when its pricing is hidden behind a sales call you do not want to take. Its public site gives a free sample only, and paid packages are quoted by sales, so you cannot compare before you talk to anyone. For rival traffic estimates on a budget, Semrush is the closest swap: its free account allows one demo project and 10 reports a day, and its SEO plan starts at $139 a month or $117.33 billed annually. Ahrefs Free covers unlimited verified sites with a capped Site Explorer, which suits checking your own domain plus a few rivals. SE Ranking has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and its Core plan is $129 monthly or $103.20 billed annually. If you only track your own site, Google Search Console and Google Analytics cost nothing but show no competitor data. Matomo keeps your visitor data on your server, which matters more than rival estimates for some sites. Choose by the question: rival traffic points to Semrush or Ahrefs, and your own traffic points to Google's free tools or Matomo. Treat every estimate as a trend, not an exact number.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | Free (1 demo project, 10 reports per day across tools); paid from $139 per month, billed monthly (SEO plan; $117.33 billed annually) | Web browser | Teams wanting competitor research in one login | Docs only |
| Ahrefs | Free (Ahrefs Free: unlimited verified sites, Site Audit 5K crawl credits per project per month, Site Explorer shows up to 1K backlinks and keywords); paid from $29 per month (Starter; Lite is $129 monthly) | Web browser | Checking your own domain and a few rivals for free | Docs only |
| SE Ranking | Paid from $129 per month, billed monthly (Core; $103.20 billed annually) | Web browser | Agencies tracking rankings and competitors together | Docs only |
| Google Search Console | Free (Free service; Google states no usage plans) | Web browser | Free search data for your own site | Docs only |
| Google Analytics | Free (Standard Google Analytics is free of charge) | Web browser | Free traffic reports on your own site | Docs only |
| Matomo | Free (On-premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits; heatmaps and session recording need a paid on-premise bundle) | Web browser, Self-hosted (PHP) | Self-hosted analytics with no data leaving your server | Docs only |
| SpyFu | Paid from $33 per month (membership starts at; per homepage) | Web browser | SEO | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want to check your own site's traffic for free (Google Analytics is the pick)
- You want exact search data for your own site from Google (Google Search Console is the pick)
- You want visitor data kept on your own server (Matomo is the pick)
- You want rival traffic in a paid suite with rank tracking (SE Ranking is the pick)
- You want to test competitor research on a free account first (Semrush is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Similarweb features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Similarweb today: See pricing page (Similarweb pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Similarweb alternatives
Similarweb's free data is a sample that shows a limited set of features without deeper drill-downs, and the page says premium features require a custom package. The pricing page publishes no prices, even for the self-service plans aimed at individuals and small teams. Switching a plan to annual billing means contacting support, and Business plan cancellation follows the terms in your contract.
Semrush
Compared with Similarweb: Free account gives one demo project and 10 reports a day; the SEO plan starts at $139 monthly or $117.33 billed annually. You gain a wider marketing toolset than a traffic checker, but the free limits are too small for daily competitor checks.
Price: Free (1 demo project, 10 reports per day across tools); paid from $139 per month, billed monthly (SEO plan; $117.33 billed annually) (Semrush pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Teams wanting competitor research in one login.
Worth knowing: 7-day trial of paid plans.
Ahrefs
Compared with Similarweb: Ahrefs Free covers unlimited verified sites and 5K Site Audit crawl credits per project each month. Site Explorer is capped at 1K backlinks and keywords on the free tier, so heavy competitor work needs a paid plan.
Price: Free (Ahrefs Free: unlimited verified sites, Site Audit 5K crawl credits per project per month, Site Explorer shows up to 1K backlinks and keywords); paid from $29 per month (Starter; Lite is $129 monthly) (Ahrefs pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Checking your own domain and a few rivals for free.
SE Ranking
Compared with Similarweb: No free plan, only a 14-day trial; Core is $129 monthly or $103.20 billed annually. You get rank tracking and keyword research in one login, which Similarweb does not cover for daily rank checks.
Price: Paid from $129 per month, billed monthly (Core; $103.20 billed annually) (SE Ranking pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Agencies tracking rankings and competitors together.
Worth knowing: 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Google Search Console
Compared with Similarweb: Free Google service with exact query, click and indexing data for sites you verify. You gain accurate first-party numbers but lose all rival traffic, since it reports only on properties you own.
Price: Free (Free service; Google states no usage plans) (Google Search Console pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary free service.
Best for: Free search data for your own site.
Worth knowing: Covers your own verified sites only, not competitors.
Google Analytics
Compared with Similarweb: Standard Google Analytics is free and measures your own visitors directly. It cannot show rival traffic at all, so it replaces Similarweb only for analysing your own site.
Price: Free (Standard Google Analytics is free of charge) (Google Analytics pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary.
Best for: Free traffic reports on your own site.
Matomo
Compared with Similarweb: Community edition is free and open source, with unlimited users and hits on your own server. You run and maintain it and keep visitor data in-house, but it reports only on sites you operate, never competitors.
Price: Free (On-premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits; heatmaps and session recording need a paid on-premise bundle) (Matomo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted (PHP). GPL-3.0-or-later (open source).
Project activity: 22k GitHub stars · latest release 5.14.2 (Oct 22, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted analytics with no data leaving your server.
Other popular options (paid)
SpyFu
Compared with Similarweb: SpyFu's homepage states membership starts at $33 per month, with a 30-day money-back guarantee and no contracts, where Similarweb publishes no prices. It focuses on Google Ads and SEO competitor research and lists unlimited data and downloads.
Price: Paid from $33 per month (membership starts at; per homepage) (SpyFu pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You want to check your own site's traffic for free: Google Analytics
- You want exact search data for your own site from Google: Google Search Console
- You want visitor data kept on your own server: Matomo
- You want rival traffic in a paid suite with rank tracking: SE Ranking
- You want to test competitor research on a free account first: Semrush
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Matomo: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Similarweb. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
More in SEO Tools
- Ubersuggest alternatives
- Ahrefs alternatives
- Surfer alternatives
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider alternatives
Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Similarweb, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Matomo, SpyFu. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.