Subastian / Tool stacks / SEO Agency
Niche stack · SEO Agency
SEO Agency Tool Stack: What It Costs in 2026 (and What to Cut)
An SEO agency stack covers research and rank tracking, technical crawls, client reporting, content optimization and design. Reporting is usually priced per client, so the numbers below assume 10 clients and 2 team members.
Prices checked October 19, 2026 on each vendor's own page- Lean stack
- ≈ $613.87/mo
- Paying for the overlaps too
- + $249/mo
Semrush Guru, Screaming Frog, AgencyAnalytics for 10 clients, Surfer Standard and Canva Business for 2 people. Yearly prices divided by 12.
What the tools marked “Overlaps” add on top, for jobs the lean stack already covers.
The stack, tool by tool
Prices are in USD before tax, exactly as each vendor listed them. Some only show yearly billing; the per-month column divides those by 12.
| Tool and job | Price as listed | ≈ per month | Free plan or trial | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush GuruResearch, rank tracking, site audits | $249.95/mo | $249.95 | 7-day free trial | In lean stack |
| Ahrefs StandardResearch, backlinks, site audits | $249/mo, billed monthly | — | No trial. Ahrefs Free gives limited access. | Overlaps Semrush Guru |
| Screaming Frog SEO SpiderTechnical site crawls | $279/yr per user | $23.25 | Free version up to 500 URLs | In lean stack |
| AgencyAnalytics CoreClient reporting dashboards | $20 per client per month, billed annually | $200 (10 clients) | 14-day free trial, no card | In lean stack |
| Surfer StandardContent optimization | $99/mo, billed yearly | $99 | Trial terms not listed | In lean stack |
| Canva BusinessReport covers, client graphics | $250/yr per person | $41.67 (2 people) | Free plan | In lean stack |
What to cut
- Semrush Guru and Ahrefs Standard overlap almost entirely.Both handle keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits. Running both adds about $249 a month. Pick one as the agency's source of truth.
- Check whether you need a separate crawler.Semrush and Ahrefs both include site audits. Screaming Frog is cheap at $279 a year, but if nobody runs deep crawls, the free 500-URL version may be enough.
- Reporting grows with every client.AgencyAnalytics is $20 per client per month. Remove a client from it the day the contract ends. Finished clients left on per-seat tools are the classic agency leak.
Track this stack automatically
Subastian is subscription management software in development. Its Niche Stacks feature is being built to put together a list like this for your work, then warn you before you pay for a job you already cover. Join the free Founding Roster for early access and the launch rate.
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Sources
Every price above was read on the vendor's own website on October 19, 2026. Plans and prices change, so check before you buy. This page has no affiliate links, and Subastian isn't paid by any tool listed.
- AgencyAnalytics: https://agencyanalytics.com/pricing
- Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/pricing
- Canva: https://www.canva.com/pricing/
- Screaming: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/pricing/
- Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/kb/1547-seo-toolkit-pricing-limits
- Surfer: https://surferseo.com/pricing/