Competitor keyword analysis tools show which keywords rival domains rank for or bid on, where your site is missing from those results, and how much search demand sits in the gap.
All 10 tools below run a keyword gap comparison. They differ on price, paid-search coverage, historical data, and team features. Pricing was checked on each vendor's pricing page on September 28, 2026.
For the step-by-step method behind the tools, see the guide to content gap analysis.
What You Learn From Competitor Keyword Research
Competitor keyword data answers four planning questions: where demand is moving, what your audience searches for, where your coverage has gaps, and which terms justify SEO or paid spend.
Spot Emerging Trends Before They Hit the Mainstream
Tracking competitor keywords gives you early signals about where the market is heading. If multiple competitors suddenly start targeting new topics or terms, that’s your cue that something is shifting.
Recognizing those patterns early lets you publish or bid on the new terms before the SERP fills up.
Understand What Your Audience Is Actually Looking For
Competitor keyword research lets you see which queries are driving the most clicks and engagement. These keywords reveal the questions your audience is asking and what they’re trying to accomplish.
Whether they’re looking to learn, find something specific, or make a purchase, you can tailor your content to meet them right where they are.
Use the Topical Dominance tool to evaluate how thoroughly each competitor covers specific topics, with scores ranging from 0 to 100.
Find the Gaps You Didn’t Know Existed
Sometimes, the biggest opportunity lies in what no one’s talking about, or what your competitors are talking about but you’re not. Comparing keyword profiles helps you identify areas where your content might be falling short.
From there, you can create fresh content or update existing pages to fill those gaps. This may give your audience a more complete resource, and give you a boost in search visibility.
Level Up Your SEO and Paid Ads Strategy
Knowing which keywords drive traffic to your competitors shows you which terms are worth targeting in both SEO and PPC, and how competitors already use them.
Whether it’s for landing pages, blog content, or even your next ad campaign, this intel helps you focus your efforts on what actually works.
How to Choose the Best Competitor Keyword Analysis Tool
Six criteria separate the tools below: keyword context, multi-domain tracking, collaboration, pricing structure, supporting features, and ease of use.
Look for Keyword Context
Any tool can give you a list of keywords. What you want is context: search volume, intent, SERP features, and how your competitors are actually using those keywords. The best platforms help you understand how those terms fit into a larger content and ranking strategy.
Check for Multi-Domain Tracking
If you’re managing SEO for several clients, make sure the tool allows you to track multiple domains and competitors per project. Check whether each added domain costs extra.
Prioritize Collaboration Features
Keyword analysis is often a team effort. Look for tools that support multiple users, shared dashboards, and exportable reports. If your SEO and content teams work together (or if you’re handing off tasks to freelancers), easy sharing features are a big time-saver.
See What’s Included in the Price
Some tools charge per user, per project, or even per keyword report. Others bundle everything at a flat monthly rate. Before committing, check how pricing scales with your agency’s growth. A tool that seems affordable at first can become expensive once you add more users or clients.
Consider Additional Features That Support Strategy
Does the tool offer things like content gap analysis, traffic estimations, or historical keyword trends? These extras help you move from insights to strategy faster. Look for platforms that go beyond surface-level keyword data and offer features that support campaign planning and optimization.
Test the Interface
Your team will be using this daily, so it needs to be intuitive. Complicated menus, clunky dashboards, or steep learning curves will slow everyone down. Take advantage of free trials or demos and get feedback from the people who’ll be using it most.
10 Best Competitor Keyword Analysis Tools
The table lists the entry price for each tool. Detailed plan limits follow in each section.
| Tool | Entry plan, billed monthly | Entry plan, billed annually |
|---|---|---|
| Search Atlas | Starter, $99/month | $79/month |
| Ahrefs | Starter, $29/month (full plans from $129/month) | Up to 17% off |
| Semrush | SEO, $139/month | $117.33/month |
| SE Ranking | Core, $129/month | $103.20/month |
| SpyFu | Basic, $39/month | $29/month |
| Similarweb | Competitive Intelligence, $199/month | $125/month |
| Moz | Starter, $49/month (Standard $99/month) | $79/month (Standard) |
| Serpstat | Individual, $69/month | $50/month |
| Mangools | Basic, $30.50/month | $18.85/month |
| Keywords Everywhere | No monthly billing | Bronze, $84/year |
1. Search Atlas
The Search Atlas Keyword Gap tool compares up to 6 domains.
Search Atlas is an SEO platform that runs competitor keyword analysis alongside keyword research, content, on-page, off-page, PPC, and technical SEO work in one workspace.
Its competitor analysis goes past keyword gaps into content gaps and topical coverage, measured by the Topical Dominance score.
For agencies, Report Builder turns the same data into client reports:
- AI summaries that draft client updates from Site Explorer, GSC, GA4, and rank tracking data
- Weekly, monthly, or quarterly scheduled reports
- White-label branding on client-facing dashboards (Pro plan and above)
- Delivery as branded dashboards, PDFs, CSVs, or live links
OTTO SEO also gets cheaper per site as volume grows, from $99 for one site to $49 per site at 25 to 99 sites.
Search Atlas Popular Features
- Site Explorer: Look at any domain’s paid and organic keywords, position history, organic and paid traffic, search intent, and the URLs connected to each keyword.
- Keyword Gap: Compare up to 6 domains and see keywords in common, keyword opportunities, and unique keywords.
- Competitors: See organic and paid competitors for any domain, common keywords, paid and organic traffic cost.
- Topical Dominance: Score your site’s coverage of a topic from 0 to 100 and compare it with competitors’ coverage.
- Local SEO Heatmap: Compare local keyword rankings with competitors across a custom radius and grid, up to 175 pins per scan.
- SCHOLAR: Grades your content against competitors’ on 12 dimensions, including readability, entity score, and content freshness.
- OTTO SEO: Finds missing keywords and on-page issues, then deploys fixes through a JavaScript pixel.
- Keyword Tools: Including classic keyword research tools and advanced rank tracking.
- Automated PPC Research: Researches PPC keywords and automates Google Ads campaigns.
Search Atlas Limitations
- Keyword lookups are capped by plan (500 on Starter), so research-heavy teams need Growth or higher.
- White-label reporting starts on the Pro plan.
Search Atlas Pricing
| Starter | Growth | Pro | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billed monthly | $99/month | $199/month | $399/month | $999/month |
| Billed annually | $79/month | $159/month | $319/month | From $999/month |
| User seats | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
| OTTO SEO projects | 1 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| Site Explorer projects | 5 | 50 | 100 | 500 |
| Competitor gap analysis | 2,000 | 200,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 |
| Keyword lookups | 500 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 100,000 |
| Keyword rank tracker projects | 20 | 50 | 1,000 | Unlimited |
| GSC projects | 5 | 15 | 100 | 999 |
Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial with full platform access.
2. Ahrefs
Via Ahrefs
As one of the best-known SEO tools, Ahrefs also has a reliable competitor keyword research tool that lets you identify content gaps. It lets you look at multiple competitors at the same time and find keywords you should be targeting.
It also has several filtering options, letting you find keywords that:
- Any of your competitors rank for
- At least a certain number of your competitors rank for
- All your competitors rank for
It also provides PPC competitor keyword research tools.
Ahrefs' full plans start at $129/month, against $99/month billed monthly for Search Atlas Starter. The Search Atlas vs Ahrefs comparison covers the differences in detail.
Ahrefs Popular Features
- Content Gap Tool: The tool lets you find the keywords your competitors rank for, but you don’t, and offers a way to improve your strategy.
- Site Explorer: Uncover competing domains and their SEO strategies by analyzing their backlinks, organic traffic, and top-ranking pages.
- Keyword Explorer: See which keywords your competitors rank for, with data on volume, difficulty, and ranking opportunities.
- Content Explorer: Find top-performing competitor content based on traffic, backlinks, and engagement to improve your strategy.
- Rank Tracker: Track keyword rankings and benchmark your visibility against competitors over time.
- PPC & Ads Analysis: Analyze competitors’ paid campaigns, including keywords and ad copy, to sharpen your own PPC efforts.
Ahrefs Limitations
- Each plan includes 1 user; additional users cost $40 to $80/month depending on the plan.
- Rank Tracker updates tracked keywords weekly on every listed plan.
Ahrefs Pricing
- Starter: $29/month, for basic keyword and competitor research.
- Lite: $129/month. 5 projects, 6 months of historical data, 750 tracked keywords, 100,000 crawl credits.
- Standard: $249/month. 20 projects, 2 years of historical data, 2,000 tracked keywords, 500,000 crawl credits.
- Advanced: $449/month. 50 projects, 5 years of historical data, 5,000 tracked keywords, 1,500,000 crawl credits.
- Enterprise: $1,499/month with an annual commitment.
Annual billing saves up to 17%.
3. Semrush
Via Semrush
Semrush is a marketing tool that helps you dig SEO and PPC insights and discover what your competitors are ranking for. You can enter up to five domains, subfolders, or exact URLs to see both shared and unique keywords across them.
Its competitor analysis tool lets you switch between organic, paid search, and product listing ads to get a clearer picture of where their traffic is coming from.
You can also spot which competitors have the biggest keyword footprints and build your own keyword list to guide your SEO or PPC plans.
Semrush Popular Features
- Rankings Distribution: Compare your rankings to competitors across Google’s top 3, 10, 20, and 100 search results.
- Keyword Overview: Analyze a keyword’s potential using intent, volume, difficulty, CPC, SERP features, and competitive insights.
- Keyword Gap: Benchmark up to five domains to spot keyword overlaps and find new ranking opportunities.
- Organic Research: Identify organic search competitors and uncover high-value keywords they’re ranking for that you’ve missed.
- Map Rank Tracker: Monitor Google Maps rankings by grid, location, and keyword for local SEO visibility.
- Paid Keywords: See which search terms competitors are bidding on, along with CPC, volume, and competition level.
Semrush Limitations
- The SEO plan monitors 5 websites; 40 websites and API data integration start on the Advanced plan.
- Plan prices rise quickly for teams that need AI search tracking alongside SEO.
Semrush Pricing
- Free: $0, with no credit card required.
- SEO: $139/month billed monthly, or $117.33/month billed annually. 5 websites to monitor.
- Starter (SEO + AI Search): $199/month billed monthly, or $165.17/month billed annually.
- Pro+ (SEO + AI Search): $299/month billed monthly, or $248.17/month billed annually.
- Advanced (SEO + AI Search): $549/month billed monthly, or $455.67/month billed annually. 40 websites, 5,000 tracked keywords, API data integration.
4. SE Ranking
Via SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO platform that covers keyword research, website audits, backlink analysis, and tracking to improve your site’s visibility.
Its competitor keyword research tool lets you uncover the keywords your competitors are targeting and find valuable gaps in your own strategy.
The platform offers insights into keyword rankings, new and lost keyword statistics, search volume, and difficulty. It also provides detailed competitor keyword comparison by displaying shared and unique terms.
You can also see emerging or seasonal trends through its Insights feature.
SE Ranking Popular Features
- Competitor Discovery (PPC & SEO): Find competitors in both organic and paid search to understand their strategies and performance.
- Competitor Search Distribution: Review how competitors are positioned in paid and organic search.
- Competitor Keyword Comparison: Run keyword analysis on competitors and compare their results with your own domain’s performance.
- Ranking Changes Over Time: Track competitors’ ranking shifts, identifying keywords that gained or lost visibility.
- Top Traffic-Driving Pages: Discover which pages on competitor sites brought in the most traffic and replicate success.
- PPC Ad History Analysis: Review your competitors’ PPC campaigns to see which ads performed best and optimize your own.
SE Ranking Limitations
- The Core plan includes 1 manager seat; extra seats start at $16/month.
- Core keeps 6 months of historical data; all-time history requires the Growth plan.
SE Ranking Pricing
- Core: $129/month billed monthly, or $103.20/month billed annually. 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2,000 keywords tracked daily, 25,000 API credits and MCP access.
- Growth: $279/month billed monthly, or $223.20/month billed annually. 30 projects, 3 manager seats, 5,000 keywords tracked daily, 100,000 API credits and MCP access.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing and limits.
Both self-serve plans include a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
5. SpyFu
Via Spyfu
SpyFu is a competitive research tool focused on SEO and PPC. It lets users look up any domain to uncover the keywords competitors rank for or bid on in Google Ads.
The platform offers a variety of tools for tracking paid and organic search activity, comparing competitor performance, and identifying missed keyword opportunities. Users can also explore ad history, ranking trends, and backlink data.
Every SpyFu plan includes more than 10 years of historical data, which is useful for long-term trend analysis. See the SpyFu alternatives roundup for tools with a different mix of features.
SpyFu Popular Features
- Google Ads Keyword Spy: Enter a competitor and download their entire PPC keyword list with cost and click data.
- Monitor PPC Competitors: Track domains bidding on Google Ads, spot strategy changes, and flag new market players early.
- Missing Paid Keywords Finder: See profitable keywords your competitors buy, but you don’t, based on your own domain input.
- SEO Competitor Keyword Download: Download any competitor’s full SEO keyword list, along with rankings and estimated clicks.
- SEO Competitor Tracker: Keep tabs on ranking shifts, content updates, and new players in your SEO space over time.
- Multi-Competitor Keyword Tool: Find keywords multiple competitors rank for that your site is missing out on.
SpyFu Limitations
- The Basic plan caps search results and data exports at 10,000 rows.
- API access starts on the Pro + AI plan.
SpyFu Pricing
- Basic: $39/month billed monthly, or $29/month billed annually. 10,000-row search results and exports, 5,000 weekly tracked keyword rankings, 1 user.
- Pro + AI: $119/month billed monthly ($59 for the first month), or $89/month billed annually. Unlimited search results and exports, 15,000 weekly tracked keyword rankings, API access.
- Team/Agency: $249/month billed monthly, or $187/month billed annually. 5 users, 50,000 weekly tracked keyword rankings, API access.
6. Similarweb
Via Similarweb
Similarweb is a digital intelligence platform offering insights into website traffic, user engagement, and competitive analysis. It tracks data like sources, geographic regions, and device preferences to help businesses optimize their strategies.
With its Keyword Gap tool, you can analyze up to four competitors at once and find keyword overlap and missed opportunities. You can also use it to visualize overlaps, track SERP features, and evaluate keyword difficulty.
Similarweb Popular Features
- Keyword Gap Tool: Identifies keywords competitors rank for that you’re missing, helping uncover growth opportunities.
- Keyword Generator: Produces targeted keyword lists from seed terms, pulling data from Google, YouTube, and Amazon.
- Keyword Comparison: Compares keywords across multiple domains, enabling competitive insights and strategy adjustments.
- Paid Keyword Tool: Reveals competitors’ paid search strategies, helping identify profitable keywords for your campaigns.
- Venn Diagram Visualization: Analyzes keyword overlap between your site and competitors, aiding in resource prioritization.
- Traffic Share Data: Compares traffic share between your site and competitors, detailing organic vs. paid distribution.
Similarweb Limitations
- The SEO toolkit, which includes Keyword Gap, starts on the $399/month tier, not the $199/month entry plan.
- Traffic estimates are less reliable for low-traffic websites, as the Similarweb review explains.
Similarweb Pricing
- Competitive Intelligence: $199/month billed monthly, or $125/month billed annually. Website performance, traffic and engagement, demographics, competitor alerts.
- Competitive Intel & SEO & AEO: $399/month billed monthly, or $333/month billed annually. Adds the SEO toolkit and AI brand visibility tracking.
- Competitive Intel, SEO & AEO & Ads: $649/month billed monthly, or $542/month billed annually. Adds ad intelligence.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing through Similarweb's sales team.
Similarweb offers a 7-day free trial.
7. Moz
Via Moz
Along with Semrush and Ahrefs, Moz is another big name in SEO, although there are some key differences between the three. It is generally more approachable for beginners.
In Moz Pro's Keyword Gap tool, you can enter up to three competing domains, track them on a weekly basis, and identify keywords where you’re ranking in the top 20, but they’re still outperforming you in the SERP.
Moz Popular Features
- True Competitor Tool: Identifies your actual market competitors based on SERP rankings, providing valuable competitor analysis insights.
- Keyword Gap Tool: Finds missed keyword opportunities by comparing your rankings with up to three competitors’ keywords.
- Content Strategy Gaps: Analyzes competitor content and identifies areas to improve your strategy and outrank them.
- Rank Tracking: Monitors competitor keyword rankings side-by-side for continuous performance tracking in Moz Pro Campaigns.
- Venn Diagram for Keyword Gap: Visualizes keyword overlaps between competitors, helping you target valuable gaps more efficiently.
- Custom Filters & Views: Offers tailored data views and filtering options to focus on the most relevant keyword opportunities.
Moz Limitations
- The Standard plan allows 150 keyword queries a month; Medium raises that to 5,000.
- Standard includes 1 user seat and 3 tracked campaigns.
Moz Pricing
- Starter: $49/month, for individuals managing a single website.
- Standard: $99/month billed monthly, or $79/month billed annually. 1 user, 3 campaigns, 300 keyword rankings, 100,000 pages crawled per week.
- Medium: $179/month billed monthly, or $143/month billed annually. 2 users, 10 campaigns, 1,500 keyword rankings, 500,000 pages crawled per week.
- Large: $299/month billed monthly, or $239/month billed annually. 3 users, 25 campaigns, 3,000 keyword rankings, 1,250,000 pages crawled per week.
8. Serpstat
Via Serpstat
Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform that helps you analyze and improve your SEO strategy. Its Keyword Gap Analysis tool lets you compare your site with competitors, highlighting shared and unique keywords.
You can find keyword opportunities, assess search volume, difficulty, CPC, and more. Use this tool to uncover gaps in your keyword strategy and improve rankings.
It’s popular with SEO professionals, marketers, and content strategists looking to refine their keyword profiles.
Serpstat Popular Features
- Competitor Traffic Analysis: Discover your competitors’ traffic sources and tap into them to boost your growth.
- Keyword Gap Analysis: Compare competitor keywords and find shared or unique opportunities to enhance your SEO.
- Top Organic Competitors by Keyword: Analyze competitors’ organic keywords, visibility, and backlink profiles to identify growth areas.
- Side-by-Side Comparison: Compare multiple competitors’ domains to pinpoint ranking gaps and find areas for improvement.
- Top Pages Analysis: Identify your competitors’ most successful pages and analyze the factors driving their traffic.
- PPC Analysis: Examine competitors’ PPC campaigns, including keywords, ads, landing pages, and paid search performance.
Serpstat Limitations
- API access and ChatGPT and Claude integration through MCP start on the Team plan.
- The Individual plan is limited to core features; batch analysis and scheduled reports require Team or higher.
Serpstat Pricing
- Individual: $69/month billed monthly, or $50/month billed annually. Keyword research, site analysis, rank tracker, site audit, backlink analysis.
- Team: $129/month billed monthly, or $100/month billed annually. Adds API access, MCP integration, share access, batch analysis, and scheduled reports.
- Team x2: $209/month billed monthly, or $169/month billed annually. Team features with higher limits.
- Agency: $499/month billed monthly, or $410/month billed annually. The highest limits and 30 users.
9. Mangools
Via mangools
Mangools is a suite of SEO tools that helps you analyze competitors’ websites to discover relevant keywords and improve your own SEO strategy.
KWFinder and SiteProfiler show your competitors’ top-ranking keywords, SEO metrics, website traffic, and backlink profiles.
By analyzing this data, you can identify new opportunities, track competitor performance, and refine your content strategy. Mangools also helps you find other competitors you may have missed and continuously improve your SEO and keyword research efforts.
Mangools Popular Features
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Keyword Difficulty Analysis: KWFinder scores keyword difficulty to help you identify easier-to-rank terms.
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Competitor Keyword Research: Enter a competitor’s domain to discover the top keywords they rank for, helping you optimize.
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Local SEO Focus: Find location-specific long-tail keywords to target regional audiences.
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Historical Search Volume: See search volumes with historical data to track seasonal trends.
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SERP Lookup: Get detailed insights into the current SERP for a keyword, making optimization decisions easier.
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Intuitive Interface: KWFinder is designed for both beginners and experienced users, providing a simple and effective user experience.
Mangools Limitations
- Rank tracking updates weekly on Basic and Premium; daily updates require the Agency plan.
- The Basic plan has no extra user seats.
Mangools Pricing
Every plan includes API and MCP access and the AI Search Watcher PRO bundle.
- Basic: $30.50/month billed monthly, or $18.85/month billed annually ($226.20/year). 100 keyword research requests per 24 hours, 200 tracked keywords, 100,000 backlink rows a month.
- Premium: $40.50/month billed monthly, or $26.35/month billed annually ($316.20/year). 500 keyword research requests per 24 hours, 700 tracked keywords, 3 extra seats available.
- Agency: $70.50/month billed monthly, or $48.85/month billed annually ($586.20/year). 1,200 keyword research requests per 24 hours, 1,500 tracked keywords, daily rank updates, 5 extra seats available.
Mangools offers a 48-hour money-back guarantee.
10. Keywords Everywhere
Via Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere offers features for SEO, social media, competitor research, content marketing, and ecommerce. It helps with keyword analysis, tracking competition, and optimizing strategies across various digital marketing channels.
Similarly to other tools, you enter your website and up to 5 competitors, and Keywords Everywhere will generate a list of keywords they rank for, which you likely should target too. It shows keyword positions, traffic, search volume, and more.
Keywords Everywhere Popular Features
- Keyword Gap Analysis: Find valuable keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t, optimizing your content strategy.
- Cross-Platform Support: Works with 15+ websites, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, and eBay, for comprehensive insights.
- Competitor Insights: Discover competitors’ top-ranking pages and gain a competitive edge by analyzing their keywords.
- Browser Extension: Get on-the-go SEO data directly in your browser, simplifying your keyword research process.
- Ecommerce Keyword Data: Shows keyword data on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy for product listing research.
- Low Entry Price: The Bronze plan costs $84 a year, the lowest paid entry price on this list.
Keywords Everywhere Limitations
- Plans are billed annually only; there is no monthly option.
- Each keyword shown uses 1 credit, and credits expire one year after purchase.
Keywords Everywhere Pricing
- Bronze: $84/year. 100,000 credits a year, 1 user seat, top 1,000 keywords and backlinks per website.
- Silver: $168/year. 400,000 credits a year, 3 user seats, top 2,000 keywords and backlinks per website.
- Gold: $480/year. 2 million credits a year, 10 user seats, top 5,000 keywords and backlinks per website.
- Platinum: $1,440/year. 8 million credits a year, 20 user seats, top 10,000 keywords and backlinks per website.
Outshine the Competition with Search Atlas
Keyword gaps show where competitors rank and you don't. Topical coverage decides whether you can close those gaps, because search engines reward sites that cover a subject in depth.
Search Atlas pairs Keyword Gap and Site Explorer with Topical Dominance scoring, so you can see both the missing keywords and the missing topic coverage behind them. OTTO SEO then deploys on-page fixes, and Report Builder turns the results into client reports.
Start a 7-day free trial with full platform access.
