OpenSEO: the open-source Ahrefs alternative

Keyword lookups, rank tracking and backlink checks start at $29/month on Ahrefs’ Starter plan, and the Lite tier that unlocks its MCP costs $129 (official pricing page, October 2026) — hard to justify if you manage a couple of sites. OpenSEO is an MIT-licensed, self-hostable SEO workbench written in TypeScript that puts keyword research, rank tracking, competitor insights, backlinks, site audits and AI visibility in one interface, paying DataForSEO per query; it also ships an MCP server with pre-built Agent Skills, so agents like Claude Code and Cursor can pull your SEO data directly. The repo had 22,143 stars as of October 2, 2026, and A姐分享 covered it that day.

Core features

• Six workflows: keyword research (volume, CPC, competition, intent), rank tracking, competitor insights, backlinks, site audits and AI visibility — Prompt Explorer watches whether your brand shows up in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI results.
• MCP plus Agent Skills: it exposes an MCP server so Claude Code, OpenClaw or Hermes can query keywords, rankings and backlinks directly, and the pre-built Agent Skills walk an agent through SEO tasks; write your own if they don’t fit.
• Free software, metered data: self-host with your own DataForSEO API key and pay only for what you query; the hosted plan starts at $10/month, and the README states the hosted service makes money by charging 28% extra per request — self-hosting is the cheaper path.
• Two self-hosting routes: Docker (docker compose up -d, best for trying it locally) and Cloudflare (Worker, D1, KV, R2 plus Access — the recommended route for internet-facing or team use, runs on the free plan, though enabling R2 requires a payment method on the account).
• No auth by default: Docker mode is pinned to AUTH_MODE=local_noauth, the app does no login checks, and the docs say plainly to keep it behind an authenticated reverse proxy, Cloudflare Access, a tunnel or a private network.

How it compares

	OpenSEO	Ahrefs / Semrush
Software	MIT open source, self-hostable	Commercial SaaS
SEO data	DataForSEO and other APIs, per query	Proprietary multi-year index
Billing	Free self-hosting plus usage; hosted from $10/mo	Ahrefs Starter $29, Lite $129 (Oct 2026)
Agent access	MCP and Agent Skills, included when self-hosted	MCP offered, gated by plan and API limits
History	No proprietary index	Long-running, back-searchable

Subscription prices follow Ahrefs’ official pricing page (checked October 2026); the rest comes from both projects’ READMEs and OpenSEO’s pricing estimator.

Typical use cases

• A site owner who runs a few keyword lookups a month and doesn’t want to subsidize an enterprise data index.
• A developer already living in Claude Code or Cursor who wants keyword and backlink data pulled into the workflow without exporting spreadsheets.
• A team that wants the data flow in its own hands: self-hosted app, self-managed database, queries on your schedule.

Quick start

The hosted version at openseo.so is free to try; subscribe at $10/month if you want to support the project. For Docker self-hosting you need a DataForSEO API key:

git clone https://github.com/every-app/open-seo && cd open-seo
cp .env.example .env   # set DATAFORSEO_API_KEY
docker compose up -d   # open http://localhost:3001

The first start builds the app and takes a minute or two — follow it with docker compose logs -f. For public access add Cloudflare Access or an authenticated reverse proxy; don’t expose port 3001 bare.

Summary

OpenSEO fits low-volume site owners and developers who want SEO data inside their agent workflow; it does not fit heavy SEO teams that live on years of historical data and collaboration features — it builds no proprietary index, so Ahrefs keeps the back-tracking advantage. Two things to internalize: the software is free but every query bills DataForSEO (about $0.05 per keyword search, $0.08 per domain overview, $1.09 per ChatGPT brand check, per the official estimator), and Docker self-hosting has no login by default, so public deployments need your own auth. MIT-licensed, written in TypeScript, with the repo still taking commits on October 2, 2026. If you only want a quick technical read on a site — no keywords involved — the web-check we covered earlier is the lighter tool.