Best keyword research tools.
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Keyword research is a crucial element of modern SEO. Whether you’re kick-starting an old blog or developing your content strategy for a new one; good quality keywords are one of the most efficient ways to attract consistent, quality traffic to your site. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best keyword research tools to help you conquer your content.

The 13 best keyword research tools

1. KWFinder

KWFinder keyword research tool.

KWFinder is a tool designed by Mangools – a developer known for delivering the best keyword research and analysis tools across categories. You can use their beginner guide to get started.

The KWFinder platform makes it easy to find keywords with low SEO difficulty, along with a whole host of other useful features.

⚙️ Standout features

  • A unique and easy to navigate user interface
  • Finding keywords in any language target, anywhere
  • Choose options from the list of powerful keywords
  • Get precise statistics with the keyword competition checker
  • In-depth SERP overview alongside a list of suggestions
  • Use filters to refine the list of keyword suggestions

💳 Pricing

KWFinder is part of a package that includes four other SEO tools. This keyword tool only allows a handful of free searches. You can select an annual plan to save up to 40% on any of their three subscriptions.

  • Entry – $19.90 (freelancers)
  • Basic – $29.90 (small businesses)
  • Premium – $44.90 (new startups and blogs)
  • Agency – $89.90 (eCommerce stores and heavy sites)

2. SEO PowerSuite

SEO PowerSuite is one of the best keyword research tools.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive option, SEO Powersuite is one of the best tools for keyword research. Its complete toolkit includes everything you need to improve on and off-page SEO. You’ll get fundamental SEO keyword research features, as well as optimization options for mobile, social media, and more.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Comprehensive SEO audit
  • Competitor rank tracking
  • Professional SEO reports
  • Cloud storage (up to 400 projects)
  • White-labeling reports for clients
  • Link management and backlink history

💳 Pricing

SEO Powersuite offers a limited free tier, along with two full-featured premium plans.

  • Free – There is a free version of SEO Powersuite that may work well if you run a small/personal site and only need to occasionally check your site’s rankings.
  • Professional – With this plan you get unlimited SEO audits, link management, and more. You’ll also have access to white-labeling (with watermarks) and cloud storage for up to 20 projects. Professional plans cost $299 per year.
  • Enterprise – This option includes everything that the Professional plan does, plus more. You’ll also get white-labeling without watermarks, and cloud storage for up to 400 projects, for $499 per year.

3. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

ahrefs keyword explorer research tool.

Ahrefs is one of the best keyword research tools available for content creators today. The platform provides a broad keyword report to the user and relies on clickstream data to provide unique click metrics.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Accurate keyword difficulty score
  • 1,000+ keyword suggestions
  • Supported in over 171 countries
  • Click metrics for improving CTR
  • Extensive SERP overview

💳 Pricing

Ahrefs has four pricing plans. The rates for freelancers, online marketers, mid-sized organizations, and bigger brands start at just $83.00 per month if you choose an annual payment plan.

They do have a trial offer ($7 for seven days) on their Lite and Standard subscription plans.

4. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is one of the best keyword research tools

SE Ranking uses advanced data processing algorithms to deliver unique SEO insights. Better yet, the dashboard can be customized to reflect your brand book and domain name, making it a great choice for agencies.

Plus, you can combine the SE Ranking insights with tons of other tools like Google Search Console and Zapier. And, the tool doesn’t neglect any area of SEO. You’re able to monitor local SEO, on-page SEO, backlinks, and even track your competitor’s efforts.

⚙️ Standout features

  • SEO keyword tracker
  • Backlink checker
  • Keyword suggestion tool
  • AI writer
  • Local marketing
  • Best for agencies

💳 Pricing

One of the best parts about SE Ranking is that it offers a generous 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Then, you’ll need to choose between three paid plans.

  • Essential – This plan costs $44 a month (with an annual plan) but it’s limited to 750 daily keywords to track. However, you’ll get access to the backlink checker, on-page SEO checker, keyword research, and more.
  • Pro – The next plan up costs $87.20 a month. It includes 2000 daily keywords and unlimited projects with page change monitoring, historical keyword data, and more.
  • Business – This plan costs $191.20 a month and goes up to 5000 keywords. Additionally, you’ll get access to priority support, team training, and five manager seats. You can also contact SE Ranking if you need a custom package.

5. LowFruits

LowFruits SEO tool

If you’re looking for one of the best keyword research tools to make SERP analysis easier, LowFruits is what you want. This tool can identify weak positions on the first page of Google search results and assess other crucial metrics like word count, title relevance, and website types.

What’s more, it’s super easy to get started. You can use the SEO keyword generator (including long-tail keywords), or import an existing list. Then, LowFruits will analyze the SERPs in bulk while detecting other significant factors like keyword clusters (which can help you reduce the chance of duplication).

⚙️ Standout features

  • Keyword clusters
  • SERP analysis in bulk
  • Wildcard SEO keyword search (to find specific combinations of keywords)
  • Domain explorer to identify low authority websites (that are easy to outrank)
  • Competitor analysis (with sitemap extraction)

💳 Pricing

To get started with LowFruits, you can pay-as-you-go or subscribe to an annual plan. With the former option, you’ll get 10 credits for free (no credit card required).

Then, you can purchase 2000 credits for $25, 5000 credits for $60, 10,000 credits for $100, or 50,000 credits for $250. These credits will be valid for one year.

However, if you’d prefer to proceed with a subscription, the Standard plan is the most affordable (costs $249 a year). This includes 3000 credits a month and exclusive features like competitor keyword extraction, sitemap extraction, and free keyword searches.

Or, you can upgrade to the Premium plan for $749 a year. This is best suited to enterprise websites since it includes 10,000 credits a month alongside the exclusive features available with the Standard plan.

6. Google’s Keyword Planner

Google keyword planner.

Google’s Keyword Planner is a simple SEO keyword tool option serving up a few basic features. Despite the lack of functionality, however, it’s one of the most accurate sources of keyword data on the market. The data comes directly from Google and the results integrate well with AdSense monetization.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Locate commercial keywords using “top of page” bid range
  • Accurate search volume directly from Google’s search engine
  • Best choice for business websites

💳 Pricing

Google’s Keyword Planner is available for free. It might not be among the best keyword research tools when stacked up against the premium options on this list, but for being 100% free, it’s a solid addition to any keyword research toolbox.

7. GrowthBar

GrowthBar keyword research tool.


GrowthBar is one of the best keyword research tools for marketers and bloggers who are in a hurry, and want ranking difficulty or keyword suggestions to appear along with their search results.

A unique feature they recently added is content outline generation, you can use it to generate content outlines in one click for your blog or website with keywords, word counts, headers, images, links and more.

It also allows you to explore competitors’ profile featuring – backlink data, organic keywords, Google/Facebook ads info and related insights.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Generate content outlines with AI
  • SEO keyword tracker
  • Accurate ranking difficulty
  • Long tail keyword suggestions
  • Exportable keyword data
  • On-page word count

💳 Pricing

GrowthBar offer a free 5-day trial, after which you will be charged based on the plan you choose. The higher-tier plan will let you search unlimited keywords. You’ll get the following rates when you pay annually.

  • Standard – $20.30/month
  • Pro – $55.30/month
  • Agency – $90.30/month

8. Long Tail Pro

Long Tail Pro is one of the best keyword research tools that's designed for identifying long tail keyword opportunities.


It’s no secret that long-tail keywords are the new standard of SEO. The Long Tail Pro keyword tool generates long-tail keywords for niche sites and has even found a cult following with content producers for micro-niche sites.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Powerful, detailed keyword metrics
  • Easily find long-tail keywords
  • Provides recommendations for attracting highly convertible organic traffic
  • 2,500+ SERP lookups every 24 hours

💳 Pricing

Long Tail Pro is a premium tool and does offer a 7-day free trial (subscription to be cancelled before seven days). Subscriptions start as low as $24.75 per month (when billed annually). Long Tail Pro currently offers three plans to users.

  • Starter – $24.75/month
  • Pro – $44.75/month
  • Agency – $98.08/month

9. Majestic

Majestic SEO tool for keyword research.


Majestic is an all-in-one SEO keyword tool that can help you keep track of your site’s health. It’s an ideal option for new blogs and small businesses that don’t have the resources to invest a lot of complicated support for search engine optimization.

⚙️ Standout features

  • All SEO features are available in a single toolkit
  • Find easy-to-target phrases
  • Research competition on each keyword
  • Trustworthiness vs. authority graph for website analysis

💳 Pricing

Majestic allows you to sign up and run three free searches to help you get a feel for the service. The keyword checker, however, is only available in PRO and API plans. You can grab the SEO toolkit for $83.33 per month when you select the annual billing option.

10. Keyword Tool

Keyword Tool for research.


If you’re obsessed with keyword data mining, try Keyword Tool. The platform is regarded as one of the top keyword research tools on the market and offers analysis for multiple search engines including Google, YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and the App Store.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Find great keywords using Google Autocomplete
  • Supplement your social media marketing with Instagram and Twitter keyword analysis
  • Export results to CSV
  • Simple UX for beginners

💳 Pricing

Keyword Tool is very similar to Google Keyword Planner. It’s free for first 750+ keywords and extremely easy to get started with. The Keyword Tool “Basic” plan starts at $69 per month and is billed annually.

11. Serpstat

SERPstat is one of the best keyword research tools that also offers other SEO features.

If you’re searching for a full SEO suite, Serpstat is an excellent option. It’s not only one of the best keyword research tools available, but it also offers website analytics, SERP analysis, backlink analysis, an SEO keyword tracker, and website audit features. It’s an all-in-one solution meant to streamline everything you would need for comprehensive SEO.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Understand your competition using the competitor graph feature
  • Find keyword difficulty and keyword trends
  • The most budget-friendly option on our list

💳 Pricing

Similar to a couple of the other options we’ve listed here, Serpstat can be used a few times for free by signing up for their trial membership. To use the service regularly though, you need to get yourself set up with one of its subscriptions. An Individual plan goes for $50 per month if you pay up front for the year. Otherwise it’s $59 on a month-to-month basis.

12. Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz Keyword Explorer is consistently among the best keyword research tools.

The Moz Keyword Explorer serves up easy to use, out-of-the-box keyword recommendations. Moz’s SEO tool boasts all the features you’d expect from the very best keyword research tools, plus two very unique data points:

Organic CTR score – This click-through rate demonstrates the number of clicks you’re expected to attract on page one of Google.

Priority score – The priority score is a mixture of all the individual factors a typical tool uses to suggest keyword options. It combines data on CTR, search volume, and keyword difficulty to help you select the best terms for your project.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Get related keyword suggestions
  • Organic CTR and Priority score for smart targeting
  • Moz offers a one month trial period

💳 Pricing

You can sign up for a free Moz account and get ten free queries per month. The Keyword Explorer is not a standalone researching tool, to get full access to this useful little asset, you will need to pay for the entire SEO suite. You can get the keyword research features with the Moz Pro plan, which starts at $79 per month if paid annually (or $99 if paying month-to-month) with the option to do a free 30-day trial.

13. SpyFu

SpyFu keyword research tool.


SpyFu works best as an SEO keyword competition checker. The SEO keyword tool uncovers valuable, virtually untapped keywords and makes a huge difference if you’re working in a highly saturated niche.

⚙️ Standout features

  • Compare different websites competing for a single search term
  • Discover ranking difficulty and historical rank changes
  • Additional modules for in-depth domain analysis

💳 Pricing

SpyFu is a little different from the other best keyword research tools we’ve listed here as they offer monthly results, not real-time feedback. You can subscribe to SpyFu for $16 per month if you choose the annual billing option.

Which one of these best keyword research tools is right for you? 🤔

The benefits of keyword research cannot be understated, and the options you just read through are some of the best keyword research tools you can currently find in the SEO marketplace. To find the one that works for your business, start by analyzing your budget and then consider the primary focus of your brand’s SEO strategy.

That being said, here are some of the best keyword research tools for you to add to your workflow:

Do you have any questions about choosing between these tools? Ask away in the comments!

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