Costs and pricing
Part of Set a keyword research budget with clear costs and pricing
How to build a keyword research cost guide from source data
Build a keyword research cost guide from source data: Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog and analyst hours, with prices to compare.
What to take away
- A keyword research cost guide prices named sources, not software alone: free public data, paid tool tiers and analyst time.
- Free sources include Google Keyword Planner and Google Search Console.
- Paid tiers from Ahrefs and Semrush are quoted per month, per seat.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider is free up to 500 URLs and costs £199 per year for the paid licence.
- Audit overlapping subscriptions before you renew.
Source types
A data source is any place you pull search demand, competitor visibility or technical signals from.
The keyword research costs and budget guide for England sets out the budget frame, so treat this page as the data layer underneath it.
Free and public sources
Government and regulator pages cost nothing to read and often rank for high-intent queries, but they change and need checking.
GOV.UK's managing existing content is a free source.
Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account. It gives broad volume ranges for low-spend accounts, so treat it as a demand signal.
Google Search Console is free and shows queries your site already ranks for. It suits teams that need owned-site data before buying a platform.
Paid tool tiers
Most platforms sell tiers by seat and monthly lookups. Three people multiply the price.
Paid tool tiers compared
Ahrefs
- Entry price
- $29/mo
- Mid tier
- $129/mo
- Best for
- Backlink gaps
- Billing unit
- Seat + lookups
Semrush
- Entry price
- $139.95/mo
- Mid tier
- $249.95/mo
- Best for
- Competitor work
- Billing unit
- Seat + lookups
Screaming Frog
- Entry price
- Free to 500 URLs
- Mid tier
- £199/year
- Best for
- Site crawls
- Billing unit
- URL limit
Ahrefs Starter is 29 US dollars per month, about 23 pounds at 0.79 pounds to the dollar. Lite is 129 dollars, about 102 pounds. It suits backlink and keyword gap work.
Semrush Pro is 139.95 US dollars per month, about 111 pounds. Guru is 249.95 dollars, about 198 pounds. It suits keyword, competitor and technical work. Semrush also positions its technical SEO issue fixing around operational fixes, which consume analyst hours rather than licence fees.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is free up to 500 URLs; paid licence costs 199 pounds per year and removes that limit.
If you are still deciding whether to buy at all, read the hidden costs in keyword research first, because the seat price is rarely the whole bill.
Source-by-source costs:
| Source | Free/Paid | Price | What it gives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | £0 | Volume ranges |
| Google Search Console | Free | £0 | Queries you rank for |
| Ahrefs | Paid | From £23/month/seat | Backlink and keyword gaps |
| Semrush | Paid | From £111/month/seat | Keyword, competitor, technical data |
| Screaming Frog | Free/Paid | Free up to 500 URLs; £199/year paid | Technical crawl and audit |
| Analyst time | Paid | Your hourly rate | Mapping and review |
Pricing analyst time
Take an hourly rate and multiply by hours per task: exports, duplicates, mapping and review.
For a small team, two seats at 400 pounds a month plus six hours at 45 pounds an hour is 670 pounds a month, or 8,040 pounds a year. These are illustrative figures.
For a solo analyst, one seat at 29 dollars, about 23 pounds, plus four hours at 45 pounds an hour is 203 pounds a month, or 2,436 pounds a year.
Labour usually exceeds licence cost, so price the hours before the tool.
What the checklist should cover
A complete guide should list sources, seats, hours per task, monthly and annual totals, and a renewal check. Columns: source, free or paid, price, what it gives.
Before you buy
- List the questions you need answered, then match each to a source rather than a brand.
- Check what your current tools already cover so you are not paying twice.
- Confirm how many people need seats and whether read-only access is cheaper.
- Ask what happens to your data if you cancel.
Before you renew
- Count how many exports were actually used in the past quarter.
- Check whether free public data now covers a paid feature you bought.
- Compare the renewal price against a second quote at the same tier.
- Book the analyst hours into the calendar, or the licence sits idle.
Crawling and site audits are the other half of the picture, and Moz's resources on crawling and site audits explain what that work involves. If nobody owns it, you are paying for a feature you do not use.
Common questions
Is free data enough for a small team?
Often yes, for demand themes and compliance context. It stops being enough when you need competitor keyword gaps or crawl-level diagnostics.
Should the tool cost or the analyst cost dominate the budget?
In most teams the analyst hours dominate. Licence fees are visible and easy to approve, which is why they get over-weighted in planning.
How often should the data audit run?
Quarterly works for most content teams. It catches overlapping subscriptions before renewal and flags stale sources.
Does a higher tool tier reduce research cost?
Only if it removes hours of manual work. A bigger tier with the same workflow adds cost without changing output.
