
We live in a golden age of tools for SEO—which is great, as it’s never been easier to wade through the increasingly long list of daily and monthly SEO tasks. Better still, with the sheer number of different SEO tools—many of which arguably do the same thing—the market is super competitive.
This means there are loads of SEO free trials, letting you try before you buy in an attempt to compete—offering loads of value to anyone getting started with SEO, which is exactly why I made this list. With this list, any business owner interested in SEO or those working in digital marketing, have an easy way to take advantage of the thousands of dollars worth of freebies that are out there before they taking the plunge investing in SEO software.
For the benefit of full disclosure, many of the free trials in this list include affiliate links. While I created this post—primarily out of curiosity—wanting to see just how much money was being “left on the table” by digital marketers, but if I can make a few beans to invest into future hobby projects that I intend to post to this blog, I’m not going to pass that up.
With all that out of the way, let’s jump into it—here is my ultimate list of SEO tools offering no credit card free trials.
No credit card SEO free trials
If you’re short on time or looking for a specific type of SEO tool, I’ve grouped each of the no trial offers in this article into their respective types.
To jump to a particular type of SEO tool, use the links below.
- Keyword research tools
- Keyword tracking tools
- Site audit tools
- Backlink audit tools
- Competitor analysis tools
- Content ideation tools
- AI content writing tools
- Web and SERP scraping tools
One thing I’ll add, is that rather than having an “all-in-one” comprehensive SEO tool category, I’ve included such tools multiple times, listing them under all relevant categories based on their features.
For instance, if a particular SEO tool offers keyword research, keyword tracking, and backlink audits, the tool will be listed in each of these sections.
Keyword research tools
Research keyword opportunities by volume, difficulty, and competition—making finding the right keywords to focus your early SEO efforts on easier.
Keyword tracking tools
Keep track of keyword rankings, monitoring the progress and impact of your SEO efforts with a rank tracker tool.
Website audit tools
Find and fix on-page and technical SEO issues with a website audit tool—some even offer real-time SEO auditing.
Backlink audit tools
Monitor off-site activity with a backlink checker tool—monitor backlinks, assess link building targets, or identify competitor backlinks.
Outreach management tools
Local SEO tools
Content ideation tools
Easily find and come up with new content ideas to work into your wider content strategy.
AI content tools
Optimize content production processes and workflow using AI writing assistants, speeding up content creation.

đź—¸ Forever-free tier
đź—¸ Up to 2,000 words/m
đź—¸ 7-day free trial (pro plan)
đź—¸ No credit card required
Premium tier from $19/m
SERP scraping tools
Scrap data directly from the SERPs—organic positions, paid ads, featured snippets, PAA—pretty much anything you can see on Google you can capture with SERP scraping APIs.

đź—¸ 7-day free trial
đź—¸ Up to 5,000 API credits
đź—¸ No credit card required
From $99/m after trial
Web scraping tools
Scrape the competitor sites and other online resources, creating your own unique data sets and insights for SEO using web scraping tools

đź—¸ Forever-free tier
đź—¸ Up to $5 platform credits/m
đź—¸ No credit card required
Premium tier from $49/m
Who is this SEO tools resource for?
I created this tool list with small business owners and new affiliates in mind, providing alternatives to the costly tools us professional SEOs use, giving them a way of start optimizing their sites without having to fork out a big chunk of their budget on software.
That said, there are plenty of SEO tools listed that I’d never heard of—so there’s probably something here, even for seasoned experts running or working for SEO agencies.
If you’re just starting out with SEO, whether with an older, established site, or one that’s brand new—you want to spend your budget on creating relevant content, not software. The hundreds of dollars a month you could easily spend on expensive keyword research, rank tracking, or other tools, isn’t going to give you as much value early on as content.
However, with this list of tools you can do both, getting the insight and research only possible with top SEO tools, without committing any of your budget —at least in the beginning, while you’re figuring things out.
Why no credit card trials, and not all free trials?
I’m not a big fan of trials that need a credit card to register. If a company stands by its product, they should put their money where their mouth is and let you try it out without needing to provide payment details.
That said, I may just be incredibly cynical from being burnt in the past, having to jump through the hoops of cancellation or spammed to death with “don’t leave us” offers and exit surveys, when all I want is to cancel.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the process of leaving be just as easy as registration, especially if what they offer turns out to be ultimately disappointing software.
What this means is a handful of popular tools—like SEM Rush, Ahrefs, Raven Tools, Moz Pro and other similar SEO software tools—didn’t make it to the list. This is because their trials need a credit card and require you to actively cancel if you decide you don’t want to continue.
This is a list of SEO free trial offers – not reviews or recommendations
While I’ve used many of the SEO tools included in this list, and in fact still use a many of them in my day job—this list isn’t meant as a recommendation, and therefore doesn’t include reviews.
It’s simply a round-up of no credit card required free trials—which tools offer them, and which aspects of SEO each tool is useful for. It’s not a “best SEO tools” list, of which there are way too many already.
There are plenty of other blogs out there offering reviews, so if you’re looking for more in-depth information on any particular tool, I’d suggest first signing up to take advantage of the offer, then having a Google to find more on their features and how to use them.
Essential SEO tools and those you can you live without
The SEO tools you need depends on where you are on your journey—for anyone just starting out, you’re won’t need the full-suite of premium SEO software that SEO agencies would typically use.
First things first, make sure you’re taking full advantage of all the free SEO tools that Google offers—setting up Google Search Console, Analytics, and a Google Ads account to access Keyword Planner, are musts for any new website.
Once that’s out of the way—and for anyone just starting out—creating content is the name of the game. And this doesn’t mean any old content; well-optimized content based off of good keyword research.
The latter is essential for any new website, as with poor site metrics and few SERP rankings, it’s about finding the right keyword opportunities to bag a few wins—for this you’ll need a keyword research tool.
If you do your early keyword research well—finding relatively low difficulty keywords with limited competition and thin content—you’ll be 90% of the way there.
Skip tools like Surfer SEO and Frase that optimize your website’s content for now, as at this early stage these are nice-to-haves that won’t offer as much value as the content you can create with the budget you might sink into them.
You’re also going to need a keyword tracking tool, giving you a way to monitor your progress. Luckily, any good keyword research tool will include a rank tracker tool, so you’ll be covered on with a single tool. My personal go to is SE Ranking, given a basic plan starts from just $23 per month—but there are plenty of worthy alternatives out there.
Once you’ve made good progress with content, seeing search engine visibility and keywords begin to rise in the search engines, you’ll want to move onto more advanced aspects of SEO—adding things like a backlink checker and link building software, along with those that offer better SEO insights to keep pace with or leap frog competitors, like site audit tools to identify technical issues.
Summing it up
Well there you have it—my list of no credit card free trial SEO tools to kick-start your SEO and start clawing your way up search engine rankings, without spending money for a pro plan of the latest and greatest SEO tools that you may or might not have to spare at the beginning of your SEO journey.
For most small businesses SEO can be a game changer, often being the main lead generator—making it an essential part of any digital marketing strategy for the growth and success of a business.
While search engine optimization is data driven, you’re unlikely to need the full range of pricey software that your typical SEO agency would use—at least not in the beginning—which is why it’s all about getting the best SEO tools for your budget, and not necessarily the best on the market.
As this post has shown, there is loads of value out there you can benefit from, with trial offers available for all aspects of SEO—from all-in-one, comprehensive SEO platform and tool suites, to keyword research and rank tracking, competitive analysis, and AI writing assistants.
Something that really surprised me was the sheer number of trials there are for AI writing assistants. Using just the offers here, creating your first 30+ articles should be a breeze, all without having to dip into your budget—which is you’d be a fool to pass on.
While this list aims to be an exhaustive, ultimate list or round-up of SEO tools with no credit card free trials, there are always going to be offers I’ve missed or have yet to come across. If you’re aware of any or have your own SEO tool with an eligible trial offer, drop a comment below and I’ll get these added.