Marketing
Best SEO Tools for Small Business in 2026: Free, Paid and AI Options
Best SEO tools for small businesses, as of September 2026: free Google tools first, then Semrush, Ahrefs or Mangools by budget, plus AI SEO tools.
Topic
Marketing Technology
Marketing stacks accumulate tools the way drawers accumulate cables. This hub covers the platforms we actually see paying for themselves in smaller businesses — marketing automation such as ActiveCampaign, SEO suites such as Semrush — and when the honest answer is to use less software, better.
Guides
Guides in Marketing Technology
1 article
Reviews
Tools we’ve reviewed in Marketing Technology
Marketing Technology
ActiveCampaign
Serious marketing automation at mid-market prices
Best forSMEs ready to run real behavioural email automation — onboarding journeys, lead nurture, win-back — beyond batch-and-blast newsletters.
Marketing Technology
Brevo
Email marketing priced by what you send, not who you store
Best forCost-conscious SMEs with larger lists and modest sending volumes — and EU/UK businesses that value a GDPR-native platform with email, SMS and WhatsApp in one place.
Marketing Technology
Semrush
The full-suite SEO and competitive research platform
Best forBusinesses executing a genuine SEO/content programme, and anyone who needs to see what competitors rank and advertise for.
Marketplace
Marketing Technology in the marketplace
Marketing
Copy.ai
Copy.ai, Inc.
GTM AI platform — AI copywriting plus sales and marketing workflow automation
Free tier; Starter ~$29-49/mo; Advanced higher — indicative pricing, Aug 2026
Marketing
Jasper
Jasper AI, Inc.
AI marketing copilot for on-brand content generation at scale
No free tier (7-day trial); Creator from ~$39/mo, Pro ~$59/mo — indicative pricing, Aug 2026
Marketing
Surfer SEO
Surfer
Content optimisation platform that tells you exactly what to write to rank
No free tier; Essential from ~$79-99/mo — indicative pricing, Aug 2026
Marketing
Writesonic
Writesonic, Inc.
AI writing + SEO platform: article writer, Chatsonic assistant, SEO checker
Free tier; paid from ~$16-20/mo (annual) — indicative pricing, Aug 2026