OpenSEO
Open-source Ahrefs and Semrush alternative that talks to your AI agent.
Overview
OpenSEO's pitch is simple: stop paying a $100-plus monthly subscription for SEO data you use twice a week. It bills by usage instead, on top of DataForSEO's data, and the whole thing is open source if you would rather host it yourself.
The MCP layer is the modern part. You can ask your coding or chat agent to run a keyword study, a competitor teardown or an audit and get an agent-written report. It is a Y Combinator company and placed second on Product Hunt on 8 October 2026.
Key Features
Keyword research with volume and difficulty
Domain overview and organic traffic estimates
Backlink analysis
Rank tracking and technical site audits
AI visibility and brand mention tracking, prompt comparison across models
Google Search Console integration
MCP commands for Claude, Codex, Gemini and others
Pricing
Starting price
$10/mo
Hosted: from $10/mo. The $10 works as included usage credit rather than a flat feature plan. Rough per-action costs from the pricing page: about $0.05 per keyword search, $0.08 per backlink check, $0.002 per AI prompt check. Top-up credits can be bought at any time. Month-to-month, cancel from the billing portal; access continues to the end of the billing period.
Free trial: $0.50 in credits.
Self-hosted: the software is free and open source, but the data comes from DataForSEO, so you need your own DataForSEO account and key and pay DataForSEO directly. That cost is not included anywhere on OpenSEO's side.
For reference, OpenSEO's own page compares itself with Ahrefs Lite at $129/mo.
Pros
Open source, so you can inspect it and self-host
Usage billing from $10/mo against Ahrefs Lite at $129/mo, by its own comparison
MCP support works with Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT and other agents
Month-to-month, cancel from the billing portal
Includes AI visibility tracking, not just classic SEO
Cons
Free to self-host is not really free: you need your own DataForSEO key, billed separately
The $10 is usage credit, not an all-you-can-eat plan; keyword searches run about $0.05 each and backlink checks $0.08
Heavy users can burn through credits faster than a flat subscription would cost
Days-old, with no independent reviews and a far thinner track record than Ahrefs or Semrush
Trial is only $0.50 of credit, barely enough to kick the tyres
What Makes It Unique
It is an SEO suite you can actually read the source of, built agent-first, with usage-based pricing that undercuts the incumbents by a wide margin for light users.
Kay Score
7
/ 10
