Let me be straight with you.
When I started growing TechEntires, I was not about to spend $130 a month on Ahrefs or $200 on Semrush. I had a blog to build, not a marketing budget to burn. So I did what most bloggers actually do, I figured out what the free versions could tell me and squeezed every bit of useful data out of them.
Years later, I still use the free versions of these tools regularly. I check which keywords on my site went up or down, which pages are pulling traffic, and which backlinks are quietly dragging my rankings into the ground. If a website is throwing thousands of low-quality links at my domain, I want to know. The free tier catches most of it.
Here is what nobody tells you in these roundups: the best free competitor keyword research tools for bloggers give you enough data to build a real strategy, find keyword gaps, and understand exactly what your competitors are doing, without ever entering a credit card. You do not need to pay to find competitor keywords without paying a premium subscription. The free versions of the best tools in the market are genuinely enough to get started.
This guide is written specifically for bloggers and content creators who are either just starting out or simply not ready to justify a premium subscription yet. I will show you exactly what each tool gives you for free, what it locks behind a paywall, and which one to start with based on where you are right now.
Why Competitor Keyword Research Matters for Bloggers
Here is a scenario most bloggers know too well.
You spend three days writing what you think is a great article. You hit publish. You wait. Six months later it sits on page four with eleven impressions and zero clicks. Meanwhile, a competitor blog with a similar domain age sits on page one for the exact same topic.
What do they know that you do not?
Usually it comes down to three things. They targeted a slightly different keyword variation with less competition. Their content covers angles you missed. And they built content around what their audience actually searches for, not what they assumed people search for.
Using free keyword research tools for bloggers fixes all three problems at once. Instead of guessing, you look at what is already working for blogs in your space. You find keyword gaps they have not filled yet. You build content with actual search demand behind it.
The good news is you do not need an expensive tool to do this. You need the right free tool used the right way.
Quick Comparison: 10 Best Competitor Analysis Tools Free for Bloggers
The table below covers the 10 best free competitor keyword research tools for bloggers sorted by what each one does best.
| # |
Tool |
Free Competitor Keywords | Backlink Check | Keyword Tracking |
Best For |
| 1 | Semrush Free | 10 searches/day | Yes (limited) | Yes (limited) | Overall competitor research |
| 2 | Ahrefs Free | Yes (top keywords) | Yes (limited) | Yes | Backlink + keyword combo |
| 3 | Google Search Console | Your site only | No | Yes (full) | Tracking your own rankings |
| 4 | Ubersuggest Free | Yes (limited daily) | Yes (limited) | Yes (3 keywords) | Beginners starting out |
| 5 | SpyFu Free | Yes (top 5-10 keywords) | No | No | Quick competitor snapshot |
| 6 | Mangools Free Trial | Yes (full, 10 days) | Yes | Yes | Deep research in 10 days |
| 7 | Google Keyword Planner | Yes (via competitor URL) | No | No | Free keyword volume data |
| 8 | Similarweb Free | Yes (top 5 keywords) | No | No | Competitor traffic overview |
| 9 | Wordstream Free | Yes (instant, no account) | No | No | Fastest keyword snapshot |
| 10 | Keyword Surfer | Yes (inside Google search) | No | No | Research while you browse |
1. Semrush Free The Best Starting Point for Competitive Research
If you only try one tool from this entire list, make it Semrush.
The free version gives you ten searches per day. That sounds limiting until you realize most bloggers only need to check three or four competitors at a time. Ten searches is genuinely enough to build a solid strategy across a few sessions.
Here is what the free version actually shows you for any competitor domain:
- Their top organic keywords with search volume and current position
- Estimated monthly traffic to their site
- Their top performing pages by organic traffic
- A basic backlink overview
- Keyword gap comparison between your domain and theirs
The keyword gap tool free feature is the one I use most on TechEntires. You enter your domain and a competitor domain side by side, and Semrush shows every keyword they rank for that you currently do not. This free keyword gap analysis alone is worth the account signup. You are looking directly at proven topics with real search demand that your competitor has already validated for you.
What Semrush Free Locks Away: Historical data beyond a short window, full backlink profiles, position tracking over time, and more than 10 requests per day.
Paid Plan: Starts at $139.95/month. Worth it only when you are ready to scale.
Who Should Use It: Any blogger who wants the most complete picture of a competitor’s keyword strategy within the limits of a free account.
2. Ahrefs Free (Webmaster Tools) Best for Backlink and Keyword Combined
Ahrefs gets a bad reputation for being expensive, and the paid plans are. But the free Webmaster Tools version is genuinely underrated, especially for backlink health and keyword tracking on your own domain.
I use the Ahrefs free version specifically to check two things. First, which keywords a page ranks for and how positions have shifted recently. Second, what backlinks are pointing to my domain and whether any of them look suspicious.
When I find a website sending thousands of low-quality links to TechEntires, Ahrefs surfaces it quickly. I check the referring domains, look at the domain authority of those sites, and if something looks spammy I work on removing or disavowing that link before it quietly tanks my rankings. This is a real, practical use case the free tier handles well.
For competitor research, the free Site Explorer shows the top keywords any competitor page or domain currently ranks for. It is limited compared to the paid version, but the top keywords alone are often enough to understand what a competitor’s best performing content is targeting.
What Ahrefs Free Locks Away: Full keyword exports, complete backlink data, keyword difficulty scores, and historical ranking changes.
Paid Plan: Starts at $129/month.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want to manage their backlink profile and do keyword research in one place.
3. Google Search Console The Free Tool Most Bloggers Underuse
This one is free forever. No search limits. No upgrade prompts. And it is the most accurate SEO data source you will ever have because it comes directly from Google itself.
Search Console does not show competitor data, so why is it on this list?
Because before you research competitors, you need to know your own baseline. Search Console tells you exactly which keywords are bringing impressions to your site, which ones dropped in position recently, and which pages are getting shown in search but not clicked. That last part is critical.
I check Search Console on TechEntires regularly for one specific thing: keywords sitting between position eleven and twenty. These are pages close to page one but not quite there. A targeted content update on those specific pages is almost always faster than writing something brand new from scratch.
Used alongside any competitor analysis tools free on this list, Search Console becomes the anchor of your entire SEO workflow.
What It Cannot Do: Show you anything about competitor domains. For that you need the other tools in this list.
Who Should Use It: Every single blogger with no exceptions. If Search Console is not set up on your site right now, stop reading this and do that first.
4. Ubersuggest Free Best for Keyword Research for New Bloggers
Neil Patel built Ubersuggest specifically for people who want useful SEO data without the complexity of enterprise tools. The free version reflects that intention. It is clean, easy to understand, and gives you a solid overview of competitor keywords without requiring an SEO background to interpret the results.
The free tier lets you search a competitor domain and see which keywords they rank for, their estimated monthly traffic, and the difficulty score of individual keywords. You also get a basic content ideas section that shows the top performing articles for any keyword you search, which is useful when planning what to write next.
For anyone doing keyword research for new bloggers specifically, Ubersuggest is the most beginner-friendly option on this entire list. Everything is labeled in plain English. Difficulty scores come with explanations. And the content ideas section shows you what format and depth Google is currently rewarding for a particular topic, so you are not writing blind.
What Ubersuggest Free Locks Away: Unlimited daily searches, full keyword lists, rank tracking beyond three keywords, and historical data.
Paid Plan: Starts at $29/month with a lifetime deal at $290 — genuinely worth considering for solo bloggers.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers brand new to keyword research who want a tool that explains what the data means, not just shows raw numbers.
5. SpyFu Free Best Way to Spy on Competitor Keywords Free
SpyFu does one thing better than almost every other tool: it lets you spy on competitor keywords free going back many years without a paid account. The free version limits you to the top five to ten keywords per competitor, but those top keywords alone reveal a lot about a blog’s content strategy.
Enter any competitor blog URL into SpyFu and within seconds you see their best performing organic keywords, estimated traffic, and which pages rank for what. It also surfaces their paid keyword history if they run Google Ads, and paid keywords with long histories usually signal high-converting topics worth targeting organically.
SpyFu is not as deep as Semrush for overall competitor analysis, but it is significantly faster. When I want a quick snapshot of what a competitor is known for ranking, SpyFu gives me that in about thirty seconds without burning one of my daily Semrush requests.
What SpyFu Free Locks Away: Full keyword lists beyond the top results, unlimited exports, detailed PPC ad history, and backlink data.
Paid Plan: Starts at $39/month one of the more affordable premium upgrades on this list.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want fast, no-friction competitor keyword snapshots without setting up a full account first.
6. Mangools Free Trial Best Ten Days You Will Spend on Keyword Research
Mangools is not free forever, but their ten-day free trial gives you complete access to every feature including KWFinder, SERPChecker, and their competitive research tool. No credit card required.
If you use those ten days strategically, you can do a deep competitor analysis across your entire niche, find your best keyword opportunities, and build a content plan that covers months of publishing.
KWFinder specifically is one of the most accurate keyword difficulty tools available. It calculates difficulty based on the actual strength of pages currently ranking for that keyword, not a generic formula. For bloggers trying to find keywords they can realistically rank for on a smaller site, that accuracy matters more than having the largest database.
What Mangools Locks Away After Trial: Everything. After ten days the full tool goes behind the paywall. Go in with a clear competitor list and extract as much as possible before the trial ends.
Paid Plan: Starts at $29/month with 35% off annual billing.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers ready to do a serious competitor keyword deep-dive who want ten days of professional-grade data to plan their entire content strategy.
7. Google Keyword Planner Free Keyword Volume Data Straight from Google
Google Keyword Planner is built for Google Ads users, but bloggers have been quietly using it for organic keyword research for years. The data comes directly from Google, which makes it the most reliable source of search volume estimates available completely for free.
The feature most bloggers miss is the “Start with a Website” tab. You enter a competitor’s full domain or a specific page URL and Google Keyword Planner pulls a list of keywords that site is targeting. You then get search volume ranges, competition level, and seasonal trend data for each keyword.
It is not as polished as Semrush or Ahrefs and the search volume data shows ranges rather than exact numbers on a free account. But for validating whether a keyword actually gets searched and understanding its seasonal patterns, Google Keyword Planner is hard to beat because the data source is Google itself.
What It Locks Away: Exact search volume numbers without an active Google Ads campaign, and deep competitor position data.
Paid Plan: Free forever. Running actual ads unlocks more precise volume data.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want to verify search demand directly from Google before committing to writing an article around a keyword.
8. Similarweb Free Best for Understanding Competitor Traffic Sources
Most keyword tools tell you what keywords a competitor ranks for. Similarweb tells you something different and equally valuable: where their traffic actually comes from, and how much of it is search versus social versus direct.
The free version shows a competitor site’s top five organic keywords, estimated monthly visits, traffic source breakdown, and which countries their audience comes from. That traffic source breakdown is more useful than it sounds. If a competitor blog is getting 70% of their traffic from organic search and you are getting 20%, that gap tells you something important about how they have built their content strategy differently from yours.
For blogger-to-blogger competitive research, Similarweb also shows which pages drive the majority of traffic to a competitor’s site. Knowing which three articles are pulling most of their visitors tells you exactly what topics their audience cares about most.
What Similarweb Free Locks Away: Full keyword lists beyond the top five, historical data beyond one month, and detailed audience demographic data.
Paid Plan: Starts at $125/month for the Starter plan.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want a birds-eye view of how a competitor blog is built before diving into specific keyword research.
9. Wordstream Free Fastest Competitor Keyword List With No Account
Wordstream is the fastest tool on this list for one specific task: getting an instant keyword list for any competitor URL with zero account setup required.
Go to wordstream.com/keywords, enter a competitor’s website address, choose your industry and location, and within seconds you have a downloadable list of keywords that site targets. You can get the full list sent directly to your email without creating a paid account.
It does not show ranking positions. It does not track anything over time. What it does is give you a raw keyword list faster than any other tool on this list, which makes it useful as a first pass before you go deeper with Semrush or Ahrefs.
What Wordstream Free Locks Away: Competitor ranking positions, exact search volume data, and keyword difficulty scores. The tool is intentionally simple.
Paid Plan: Wordstream’s paid product focuses on Google Ads management rather than organic SEO research.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want a fast, zero-friction starting list of competitor keywords before deciding which deeper tool to use next.
10. Keyword Surfer Free Keyword Research Without Leaving Google
Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome extension that adds keyword data directly inside your Google search results. You search for anything on Google and Keyword Surfer shows you the monthly search volume for that keyword, related keyword suggestions in the sidebar, and estimated organic traffic for every page currently ranking on page one.
For competitor research specifically, this means you type any keyword into Google and immediately see how much traffic the top ranking pages are likely getting. If a competitor article is estimated to pull 3,000 monthly visits and yours on the same topic pulls 40, that gap tells you something important about the content quality or keyword targeting difference between the two pages.
Because it runs inside Google search itself, Keyword Surfer fits naturally into the research habit most bloggers already have. You are already Googling topics to check competition. Now you get real data alongside every search without opening a separate tool or burning a free search limit.
What Keyword Surfer Locks Away: Deep competitive analysis, historical data, and backlink metrics. It is a surface-level tool, not a replacement for Semrush or Ahrefs.
Paid Plan: The basic extension is free. Surfer SEO’s full content optimization platform starts at $99/month.
Who Should Use It: Bloggers who want keyword data integrated into their everyday Google browsing without switching between multiple tabs and tools..
How to Use Free Competitor Keyword Research Tools for Bloggers (Step by Step)
Knowing the tools is one thing. Knowing how to use them together is what actually moves your rankings. Here is the exact process I follow using only free SEO tools for bloggers on TechEntires.
Step 1: Find your real SERP competitors Open Google and search your main topic keyword. Look at who is ranking on page one. Your real competitors are not the biggest blogs in your niche. They are the specific pages sitting above you for that exact keyword right now. Write down three to five of those URLs.
Step 2: Run each competitor through Semrush free Enter each competitor URL in Semrush’s organic research tool. Look at their top keywords. Note anything with decent search volume and keyword difficulty below forty. Those are your realistic targets on a smaller or newer blog.
Step 3: Use the free keyword gap analysis Enter your own domain against one competitor at a time. Look at keywords they rank for that you have no content covering yet. Every gap is a potential article with proven search demand behind it. This is how you find competitor keywords without paying for an expensive platform.
Step 4: Check their top pages Look at which pages drive the most traffic to a competitor’s site. This tells you what content formats and topics your shared audience responds to most.
Step 5: Cross-reference with Search Console Go back to your Search Console and find keywords where you are getting impressions but no clicks, specifically between position eleven and twenty. These are your quickest wins. A focused content update on those pages is often faster and more effective than writing something entirely new.
Step 6: Build your content plan around the gaps Take your keyword gap list and prioritize by two factors: search volume and how thin the current top-ranking pages look. Knowing how to find competitor keywords for free using this workflow is the skill that separates bloggers who grow from bloggers who stay stuck.
Which Free Tool Should You Start With?
Never done competitor keyword research before: Start with Ubersuggest. It is the most beginner-friendly SEO tool for bloggers on this list and the data is explained in plain English.
Ready to do serious competitor research today: Use Semrush free. Ten searches per day is enough to build a solid keyword gap list across a full week.
Backlinks are hurting your site: Open Ahrefs Webmaster Tools right now. Check your referring domains and find any sites sending suspicious link volumes to your domain.
Want ten days of professional-grade data: Start a Mangools free trial, go in with a clear competitor list, and extract everything before the trial ends.
Want to spy on competitor keywords free with no account: SpyFu gives you that in thirty seconds with zero signup required.
Want keyword volume data straight from Google: Google Keyword Planner is the most reliable free source and it is always up to date.
Want traffic source data on a competitor blog: Similarweb free gives you that overview instantly.
Want keyword data while browsing Google normally: Install Keyword Surfer. It takes two minutes and adds value to every search you do.
Final Thoughts
You do not need to spend money to start understanding what your competitors are doing in search. Every tool in this list of free competitor keyword research tools for bloggers gives you something real and actionable without a subscription.
The bloggers winning on Google right now are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones who consistently study what is working in their niche, find the gaps their competitors missed, and create content that genuinely answers what their audience is searching for.
Start with the free version. Learn what the data is telling you. Then when you are ready to go deeper, you will already know which tool is worth paying for because you will have used it enough to see the value firsthand.
That is a much smarter investment than guessing which $200/month platform to buy on day one.
Have a question about using any of these tools? Drop it in the comments and I will answer from real experience, not a spec sheet.
