SE Ranking vs SEO Panel (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SEO Panel grades higher than SE Ranking: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
SE Ranking grades higher on features. SEO Panel grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
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
SEO Panel
Free open-source SEO control panel you host on your own server
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 SEO Panel if
- Fits if you're comfortable running your own SEO software on a server
- Works for tracking rankings on lots of sites without a per-site fee
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you've never run a PHP server and don't want to pay for the cloud edition
- Tight if you're on a cloud plan, capped at 50 or 150 keywords per project on 2 or 3 engines
- Not for you if you want keyword research, which isn't on the list
- Watch out: some tools are paid plugins at $10 to $30, and live Cloud API data is $9.99 to $99.99 a month
- Watch out: AI articles, social publishing and the AI assistant are only in the paid cloud edition
How we grade them
| 2.2GPASE RankingFair | 2.4GPASEO PanelFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CThe self-hosted edition is free, but only if you run your own server, which we count as a C. The cloud edition is $34.95 a month for 1 website, mid-range for this category, and plugins at $10 to $30 and live API data from $9.99 a month cost extra. |
| 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. | BFree means hosting it yourself: the open-source edition has unlimited websites and users, rank tracking, audits and Google data, which one person really could live on. Country Google domains and detailed backlinks are paid plugins, though. |
| 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. | CRank tracking, a site auditor with sitemaps, Moz metrics and backlinks, indexing, page speed and Google data. The basics with gaps: no keyword research, country domains need a $10 plugin, and the AI features are cloud only. |
| 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. Self-hosting needs PHP, MySQL and cURL, and keeping it running is on you. The cloud edition takes that away and comes with setup help. |
| 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. | BA web app connected to Google Analytics, Search Console, Google Ads, PageSpeed Insights and Moz, run on your server or theirs. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | tracking rankings across many client sites | self-hosted rank tracking for many sites |
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 SEO Panel. 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. SEO Panel starts at $34.95 a month and scores 2.3.
SE Ranking scores higher, and starts $68.25 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, none scores higher than SE Ranking for less, and 7 score higher than SEO Panel 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
- SEO Panel is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- SE Ranking also covers reports and keyword research.
- SEO Panel also covers page speed.
At a glance
| SE Ranking | SEO Panel | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $103.20 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly) | $34.95 per month for 1 website, cloud hosted |
| Free plan | None | The self-hosted edition is free under GNU GPL v2 with unlimited websites; you supply the PHP and MySQL server, and some plugins and API data cost extra. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required; 10 projects, 750 keywords and 20 AI prompts a day | 30-day free trial on cloud-hosted plans, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Web | ||
| Made by | SER Acquisition Inc. | SEO Panel |
| Price read from | seranking.com | seopanel.org |
| 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.
SEO Panel
- Self-hosting needs a server with PHP 5.5 to 8.x, MySQL or MariaDB and cURL; installing and maintaining it is up to you.
- Some tools are paid plugins ($10 to $30 each, or $249 for all), and live data from the SEO Panel Cloud API costs $9.99 to $99.99 a month.
- AI article publishing, social media publishing and the AI assistant come only with the paid cloud-hosted edition.
- Cloud plans cap tracking at 50 or 150 keywords per project, on 2 or 3 search engines.
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.
SEO Panel
- Keyword rank tracker
- Checks positions on Google, Bing and Yahoo automatically and charts daily changes. Country domains such as google.de come with a $10 plugin.
- Site auditor and sitemaps
- Audits every page of a site for SEO issues and generates XML, HTML and text sitemaps.
- Moz metrics and backlinks
- Tracks Domain Authority, Page Authority and backlinks over time; the $30 Link Diagnosis plugin adds detailed backlink reports for you and competitors.
- Indexing and page speed
- Counts how many pages Google, Bing and Yahoo have indexed and tracks PageSpeed scores and mobile usability.
- Google Analytics and Search Console
- Brings traffic, clicks, impressions and average positions into the panel's reports.
- Users, proxies and directories
- Unlimited user accounts with access levels, a proxy manager that rotates proxies for rank checks, directory submission and a review manager.
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.
SEO Panel
Self-hosted$0
The open-source edition, installed on your own server: unlimited websites and users, rank tracking, site audits and Google data.
Starter$34.95
per month for 1 website, cloud hosted
Enhanced cloud edition: 50 keywords per project, 2 search engines, 1 user, 1 social project with 3 channels and 2 article connections.
SEO Manager$99.95
per month for 6 websites, cloud hosted
150 keywords per project, 3 search engines, 2 users, 10 social projects and 15 article connections.
Agency$269.95
per month for 10 websites, cloud hosted
150 keywords per project, 3 search engines, 5 users, 50 social projects, 35 article connections and priority support.
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.
SEO Panel
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, SE Ranking or SEO Panel?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SEO Panel is cheaper to start with: $34.95 a month, against $103.20 a month for SE Ranking. SE Ranking starts at $103.20 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly), and SEO Panel starts at $34.95 per month for 1 website, cloud hosted.
Which has a free plan, SE Ranking or SEO Panel?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only SEO Panel has a free plan. SE Ranking does not, though it has 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.