Semrush vs Ahrefs vs a Free Tool for Local SEO Agencies

What local SEO actually needs from a tool

Local SEO work for a client splits into two jobs.

Doing the SEO. Auditing the site, checking which keywords it ranks for, finding links, tracking positions week by week. This is what Semrush and Ahrefs are built for, and a narrower tool doesn't replace them.

Finding the client and the market. Which trade to target, in which city, and who to pitch. Here the deciding numbers are search demand in one city and the businesses there. The platforms cover the first part to different degrees, and neither has the second.

Semrush for local SEO

For local work, Semrush's most useful feature is city-level volume: its Keyword Overview takes a city, region or other local place, one keyword at a time, and each new place uses one of the plan's keyword metric updates. It also scores keyword difficulty (KD%, plus a personal score for your own site) and tracks positions daily: 500 keywords on the SEO plan, 1,500 on Pro+.

Prices on 2 November 2026: SEO $139 a month ($117.33 billed yearly), Starter $199, Pro+ $299 and Advanced at a custom price, with extra users from $45 a month. The Free plan gives 1 demo project and 10 reports a day across its main tools, with no card.

For finding clients, Semrush offers a Lead Generation add-on at $90 a month. It lists your agency on its Agency Partners platform, where businesses ask to be matched with an agency. That brings enquiries to you; it is not a list of businesses you can search.

Ahrefs for local SEO

Ahrefs' main strength is backlink data: 35 trillion historical external backlinks and 285 million domains, refreshed every 15 minutes, by its own figures. Its keyword difficulty score is based on the backlinks of the pages that rank, which makes it a useful guide to how much link building a client will need.

For local research, the limit is that Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer shows search volume by country, not by city. Ahrefs also says it doesn't update its cost-per-click data very often.

Prices on 2 November 2026: Starter $29 a month, Lite $129 (750 tracked keywords), Standard $249, Advanced $449 and Enterprise $1,499, with up to 17% off when paid yearly. Ahrefs Free costs nothing for websites you verify you own, and covers a site audit, Site Explorer and web analytics. Its free keyword generator lists ideas for up to ten words or phrases, from a database of over 8 billion queries.

Where a narrower tool fits

KeywordQuasar, LeadQuasar's keyword tool, does the part neither platform does fully: the monthly Google searches for a keyword in any city, county, state or country, next to how many businesses of that kind LeadQuasar holds there. Here is what that city-level view looks like for one keyword across four Texas cities.

City	"plumber" searches a month	Top-of-page bid (USD)
Houston, TX	6,600	$20.00 to $76.25
San Antonio, TX	4,400	$28.00 to $100.05
Dallas, TX	4,400	$30.23 to $65.02
Austin, TX	3,600	$33.09 to $113.13

Monthly Google searches, measured with KeywordQuasar on 2 November 2026. Across the whole US, "plumber" gets 673,000 Google searches a month.

A country-level figure can't tell you that Houston has 6,600 searches a month to Austin's 3,600, or that advertisers pay more per click in Austin than in Houston. An agency deciding which Texas city to sell plumbing SEO in needs exactly that difference.

What KeywordQuasar doesn't do is just as clear: no keyword difficulty, no backlinks, and no site audits inside the tool. It is free to try with no account: 5 searches a day with exact figures in the US, UK and Canada, and one preview search elsewhere. KeywordQuasar in full is on the Plus ($21.99 a month) and Max ($29.99 a month) plans, which add more keyword ideas, more cities, city comparisons and the lead list. LeadQuasar also has a CRM and email sequences from your own Gmail in the same account.

Which one should a local SEO agency pick?

• Just starting, a handful of clients: a narrower tool to choose the niche and city and to find clients, plus Ahrefs Free for any site you can verify. Add Ahrefs Starter at $29 a month when you need more.
• Doing SEO for many local clients: Semrush or Ahrefs Lite and above for the work itself. Semrush has the edge if you need city-level volumes inside the same platform; Ahrefs if backlinks drive your results.
• Selling SEO to a trade in a new city: KeywordQuasar for the demand figure and the businesses to pitch, alongside whichever platform you use.

One platform and one prospecting tool make a sensible pair, because they do different jobs.

For the full detail, see our comparisons of Semrush, Ahrefs and Ahrefs vs Semrush, and the lists of Semrush alternatives and cheap SEO tools.

Frequently asked questions

Is Semrush or Ahrefs better for local SEO?

Neither wins everywhere. Semrush shows search volume for a city or region, one keyword at a time, and has a free plan with 10 reports a day. Ahrefs shows volume by country, is cheaper to start at $29 a month, and has a backlink index refreshed every 15 minutes, by its own figures. Both were checked on their own pages on 2 November 2026.

Which is cheaper, Semrush or Ahrefs?

Ahrefs, to start: Starter is $29 a month and Lite $129, against $139 a month for Semrush's SEO plan ($117.33 billed yearly), on their pricing pages on 2 November 2026. Semrush has a free plan; Ahrefs Free covers only websites you verify you own.

Is there a free alternative to Semrush and Ahrefs for local keywords?

For search volume by city, partly. KeywordQuasar shows the monthly Google searches for a keyword in any city, with the businesses there: 5 free searches a day in the US, UK and Canada with no account, then the Plus and Max plans. It has no keyword difficulty or backlinks, so it replaces them only for that job.

Can Ahrefs show search volume for a city?

Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer shows search volume by country. Semrush's Keyword Overview takes a city or region. KeywordQuasar shows the monthly Google searches for the city you type.

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Check a trade's demand in any city: try a free search on KeywordQuasar, with no account.