SE Ranking vs Search Atlas (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SE Ranking and Search Atlas share a 2.2 GPA, neither has a free plan, and Search Atlas starts cheaper, at $99 a month against $103.20 a month.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
SE Ranking
SEO platform for rank tracking, audits, research and AI visibility
Search Atlas
SEO platform with an agent that applies site fixes on its own
Which one is for you
Pick SE Ranking if
- Fits if you track lots of keywords daily across several client sites
- Works for small marketing teams who want research, audits and tracking under one login
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're one person with one site, as Core is $103.20 a month even on yearly billing and there's no lower plan
- Tight if you need old data, since Core keeps 6 months of history and has 1 manager seat; extra seats start at $16 a month
- Pricey if you want white-label reports, as the Agency Pack is $69 a month extra and sold on yearly billing only
- Watch out: deeper AI search tracking is an add-on at $71.20 a month on yearly billing ($89 monthly)
- Watch out: payments are non-refundable unless the service wasn't delivered as promised, and there's no desktop or phone app
Pick Search Atlas if
- Fits if you want fixes applied to your site, not just listed
- Works for agencies that want SEO, local, ads and reports under one login
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want AI answer tracking, which starts at Growth for $199; Perplexity, Claude and Copilot need Pro at $399
- Tight if you write a lot, as 50,000 credits is about 50 AI articles or 1,500 rank checks
- Not for you if you want an easy refund: it's 48 hours by live chat with under 10% used
- Tight if you're on Starter, with 1 project, 1 seat and OTTO on 1 site
- Watch out: white-label dashboards start at Pro, and Agency, from $999, is sold through sales
How we grade them
| 2.2GPASE RankingFair | 2.2GPASearch AtlasFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DCore is $103.20 a month billed yearly ($129 monthly), and it's the lowest self-serve plan. That's well above this category's middle, for one manager seat with 10 projects and 2,000 keywords tracked daily; extra seats start at $16. | DStarter is $99 a month, billed monthly, for 1 project, 1 seat and 50,000 credits. That's twice this category's middle, and AI answer tracking, the ad tools and a second project all need Growth at $199. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but the 14-day trial needs no card and allows 10 projects, 750 keywords and 20 AI prompts a day. Payments are non-refundable after that, so use the trial properly. | CNo free plan, but a 7-day trial of Starter or Growth with a free one-to-one onboarding session. Refunds after that are narrow: a live-chat request within 48 hours, with under 10% of the quota used. |
| Features | BDaily rank tracking with share of voice, keyword, competitor and backlink research with no caps on either plan, audits of 250,000 pages a month, reports, listings in 100+ directories, AI answer tracking and API credits. The whole job. | BOTTO applies fixes on 1 to 10 sites, alongside rank tracking, site audits, AI content published to your CMS, backlinks and link building, Business Profile upkeep and ads. The whole job, though Starter has no AI answer tracking. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Projects, keyword lists and reports all need setting up before the tool pays off. | CNo rating on record. One credit pool shared across every tool takes planning, and there's a lot of platform to learn, which is why the trial comes with onboarding. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, connected to Looker Studio, Google Analytics, Search Console, Matomo, n8n, Make and Claude, with 25,000 API credits a month and MCP on Core. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb only, connected to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Google Business Profile, Google Ads and Meta Ads. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | tracking rankings across many client sites | SEO fixes applied by an agent |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: SE Ranking and Search Atlas. How we grade
Price against what you get
SE Ranking starts at $103.20 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Search Atlas starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Search Atlas starts $4.20 a month lower. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, none scores higher than SE Ranking for less, and none scores higher than Search Atlas for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- SE Ranking also covers reports and keyword research.
- Search Atlas also covers AI agents, AI search visibility, content optimization and local listings.
At a glance
| SE Ranking | Search Atlas | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $103.20 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly) | $99 per month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required; 10 projects, 750 keywords and 20 AI prompts a day | 7-day free trial on Starter and Growth, with a free 1-on-1 onboarding session |
| Web | ||
| Made by | SER Acquisition Inc. | Search Atlas |
| Price read from | seranking.com | searchatlas.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
SE Ranking
- Core keeps only 6 months of historical data and includes 1 manager seat; extra seats start at $16 a month.
- White-label reports need the Agency Pack, $69 a month and sold on annual billing only.
- Deeper AI search tracking is an add-on at $71.20 a month billed annually ($89 billed monthly).
- Payments are non-refundable except where the service was not delivered as promised.
Search Atlas
- Every action draws on one monthly credit pool: Starter's 50,000 credits cover about 50 AI articles or 1,500 rank checks.
- Starter has no AI visibility tracking, and Perplexity, Claude and Copilot need Pro at $399 a month.
- White-label dashboards start at Pro, and the Agency plan, from $999 a month, is sold through sales.
- Refunds need a live-chat request within 48 hours of payment with under 10% of quota used; annual plans get half back within 72 hours.
Key features
SE Ranking
- Rank Tracker
- Track rankings daily across major search engines, devices and locations, with Google top-100 tracking and share of voice.
- Keyword, competitor and backlink research
- Research keywords, competitors' traffic and backlinks with no usage caps on either plan, plus backlink monitoring.
- Website audit
- Crawl sites for technical issues, from 250,000 pages a month on Core to 2 million on Growth, with an on-page checker.
- AI visibility tracking
- Track 100 or 250 prompts a day across five AI models, with AI source tracking and AI competitor research by domain.
- Reports and local SEO
- Report Builder (10 or 30 reports), and local tools covering 3 locations, map rank tracking and listings in 100+ directories.
- API and MCP
- Plans include 25,000 or 100,000 research API credits a month and MCP access for querying the data from AI assistants.
Search Atlas
- OTTO SEO
- Applies technical fixes, on-page improvements and content changes to a site straight from live search data, on 1 to 10 sites depending on plan.
- AI content and publishing
- Content Genius writes and edits articles and publishes them to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or other CMSs, paid for from the credit pool.
- Rank tracking and site audit
- Tracks 2,000 to 50,000 keywords and audits 50,000 pages on Starter up to unlimited on Agency, with on-page audits and a site explorer.
- LLM visibility
- From Growth, tracks your brand in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode; Pro adds Copilot, Perplexity and Claude for six AI platforms.
- Local SEO
- GBP Galactic keeps Google Business Profiles up to date, from 3 profiles on Starter to 100 on Agency, alongside local citation tools.
- Links, PR and ads
- Backlink analysis, link building and press release tools, plus Google and Meta ad builders from the Growth plan.
Plans
SE Ranking
Core$103.20
per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly)
1 manager seat, 10 projects, 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts tracked daily, 250,000 audit pages a month and 6 months of history.
Growth$223.20
per month, billed annually ($279 billed monthly)
3 manager seats, 30 projects, 5,000 keywords and 250 prompts daily, 2 million audit pages, all-time history and guest links.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom limits and terms, full API and advanced integrations, through sales.
Search Atlas
Starter$99
per month, billed monthly
1 project, 1 seat, 50,000 credits a month, 2,000 tracked keywords, 50,000 audit pages, OTTO on 1 site and 3 Business Profiles. No AI visibility.
Growth$199
per month, billed monthly
2 projects, 3 seats, 120,000 credits, 3,500 keywords, OTTO on 2 sites, Google and Meta ad studio, and AI tracking in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode.
Pro$399
per month, billed monthly
4 projects, 5 seats, 400,000 credits, 6,000 keywords, white-label reports, and AI tracking that adds Copilot, Perplexity and Claude.
Agency$999
per month and up, billed monthly
10 projects, 10 seats, 1 million+ credits, 50,000 keywords, client portals, unlimited audit pages and 250 AI queries. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
SE Ranking
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
SE Ranking's pricing page lists Core at $103.20 a month billed annually instead of $129 monthly, and Growth at $223.20 instead of $279.
Search Atlas
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, SE Ranking or Search Atlas?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Search Atlas is cheaper to start with: $99 a month, against $103.20 a month for SE Ranking. SE Ranking starts at $103.20 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly), and Search Atlas starts at $99 per month, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, SE Ranking or Search Atlas?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither SE Ranking nor Search Atlas has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.