SE Ranking vs Surfer SEO
Both are SEO tools aimed at marketers, freelancers, agencies and site owners. They differ most on rank tracking, backlink data and site audits.
At a glance
| SE Ranking | Surfer SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 78/100 Higher | 52/100 |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Paid from | £95/mo (about $125.59) monthly; £76/mo billed annually; 2,000 tracked keywords, 100 AI prompts | $59/mo (about £44.63) monthly; $49/mo billed yearly |
| Positioning | value suite | content optimisation |
| Launched | 2013 | — |
| Best for | Freelancers and small agencies who want most of a full suite at a fraction of the price. | Content teams that want to write pages that rank and track how AI answers mention their brand. |
Where each one leads
| Dimension | SE Ranking | Surfer SEO | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Value for money | 4/5 | 3/5 | SE Ranking |
| Keyword research | 4/5 | 3/5 | SE Ranking |
| Free plan | 1/5 | 1/5 | Tie |
| Rank tracking | 5/5 | 2/5 | SE Ranking |
| Site audits | 4/5 | 2/5 | SE Ranking |
| Breadth of features | 4/5 | 2/5 | SE Ranking |
| Backlink data | 3/5 | 1/5 | SE Ranking |
| AI-search tracking | 4/5 | 5/5 | Surfer SEO |
Scores are 1–5 per dimension. SE Ranking leads on 6 dimensions, Surfer SEO on 1. The overall figure weights these for SEO tools generally — see methodology.
Pricing
Plans are listed per tool rather than paired row by row — tiers rarely line up, and putting one vendor's second plan beside another's implies an equivalence that is not there.
| Tool | Plan | Per month | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | Core | £95 | monthly; £76/mo billed annually; 2,000 tracked keywords, 100 AI prompts |
| Growth | £209 | monthly; £167.20/mo billed annually; 5,000 tracked keywords, 250 AI prompts | |
| Surfer SEO | Discovery | $59 | monthly; $49/mo billed yearly |
| Standard | $119 | monthly; $99/mo billed yearly | |
| Pro | $219 | monthly; $182/mo billed yearly | |
| Peace of Mind | $359 | monthly; $299/mo billed yearly |
Pricing checked 23 September 2026 and 24 September 2026 against each vendor's own pricing page. SE Ranking: Shown to UK visitors in GBP. Annual billing saves 20% and includes free migration. Surfer SEO: Billed in USD. Yearly billing saves about 17%. Where the two bill in different currencies, conversions use the European Central Bank reference rate.
Verdict
SE Ranking
- +Core gives twice the projects and four times the tracked keywords of Semrush's entry plan (10 and 2,000), for less — £95 a month.
- +AI-search tracking comes built in: 100 prompts a day on Core, 250 on Growth.
- +Unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research on every plan.
- −API use is capped — 25,000 credits a month on Core.
- −White-label reporting for agencies is a £49-a-month add-on, annual billing only.
Surfer SEO
- +Tracks how AI models including ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews mention your brand, from the Standard plan.
- +Standard includes 360 documents with one-click content optimisation and a plagiarism checker.
- +Discovery, at $49 a month billed yearly, covers 120 documents and 10 tracked pages.
- −Its plans list no backlink analysis, so link research needs another tool.
- −Monthly billing costs about 20% more: Standard is $119 a month, or $99 billed yearly.
Common questions
Is SE Ranking cheaper than Surfer SEO?
SE Ranking starts at £95/mo (about $125.59; monthly; £76/mo billed annually; 2,000 tracked keywords, 100 AI prompts), and Surfer SEO starts at $59/mo (about £44.63; monthly; $49/mo billed yearly) — so Surfer SEO is the cheaper entry point. Converted at the European Central Bank reference rate. Compare what each includes at that tier, and what it renews at, rather than the headline figure alone.
Which is better, SE Ranking or Surfer SEO?
On our weighted scoring across the use cases in this category, SE Ranking comes out ahead overall. The honest answer is that it depends on the use case — the tables above break the score down by dimension so you can weight it to your own priorities.
Other comparisons
Sources & verification
- api.frankfurter.app — checked 24 September 2026European Central Bank reference rate, published via Frankfurter.
- seranking.com — checked 23 September 2026No free plan; a 14-day free trial with no card required.
- surferseo.com — checked 24 September 2026No free plan is listed on the pricing page.