Semrush API access requires the Business plan at $499.95 per month in 2026, and API units are billed on top of that subscription. For teams that just need SERP data, keyword positions, or competitor visibility metrics, that price is hard to justify. This guide ranks 5 alternatives that deliver comparable search data at a fraction of the cost, judged on price, data coverage, and API ergonomics.
Scavio delivers the SERP data most teams actually need from Semrush's API at a fraction of the cost. Thirty dollars a month buys 7,000 credits, roughly 7,000 structured Google SERP pulls at about $4.30 per 1,000, with no enterprise contract required, and the same key also covers Amazon, YouTube, and Walmart.
Full Ranking
Scavio
Teams that need Semrush-quality SERP data without the enterprise price
- Over ninety percent cheaper than Semrush API for SERP data
- Returns AI Overviews, People Also Ask, knowledge graph data, and organic positions
- Multi-platform coverage in one key
- Native agent framework integrations
- No minimum contract or enterprise approval needed
- No domain authority or backlink metrics like Semrush
- No historical keyword trend database
DataForSEO
Agencies needing SEO-specific metrics beyond SERPs
- Backlink, keyword, and domain metrics available
- Very cheap per query for batch work
- Closest feature parity to Semrush API
- Fifty dollar minimum deposit required upfront
- Complex API surface with many task types
- No agent framework integrations
SerpAPI
Teams wanting reliable SERP data with mature docs
- Strong documentation
- Stable and well-tested
- Supports many search engines
- Still three to five times more expensive than Scavio per search
- No SEO domain metrics
- Unused searches expire
Serper.dev
Budget Google-only SERP pulls
- Cheapest option for high-volume Google searches
- Simple API with fast responses
- Free 2,500 searches monthly
- Google only, no Amazon or YouTube data
- Minimal SERP feature parsing
- No SEO metrics at all
Brave Search API
Teams wanting non-Google index data
- Independent search index
- Simple pricing per query
- Privacy-respecting infrastructure
- Smaller index coverage
- No SEO-specific metrics
- Limited SERP feature extraction
- Card-free free tier discontinued in 2026; every plan requires a credit card
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost for SERP data | $30 | ~$50 deposit | $75 |
| Semrush equivalent cost | 94% cheaper | 90%+ cheaper | 85% cheaper |
| AI Overview data | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Multi-platform SERPs | 4 platforms | Multiple | Google + add-ons |
| Agent integrations | LangChain + MCP | None | None |
| Domain/backlink metrics | No | Yes | No |
Why Scavio Wins
- At $30 a month versus $499.95 for Semrush Business, Scavio saves teams over ninety percent on the subscription alone while returning organic positions plus SERP features like AI Overviews and People Also Ask.
- No enterprise contract or sales call is needed, you sign up, get an API key, and start pulling SERPs within minutes.
- Multi-platform coverage means one Scavio subscription replaces what would require Semrush plus separate Amazon and YouTube data sources.
- Native LangChain and MCP integrations let teams build automated SEO monitoring agents that Semrush's API was never designed to support.
- The 50 free signup credits, with no credit card required, are enough to evaluate data quality against Semrush before committing any budget.