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Is Google Search Console enough, or do you need a paid SEO tool?
Summary
If you only need to know how your own site is doing in Google Search, Search Console is enough, and its numbers are Google's own records, not estimates. You need a paid tool when the question involves someone else's site, keywords you don't rank for yet, or a fixed keyword list you want checked on a schedule. Search Console isn't built to do any of those.
Where Search Console stops
| Question | Can Search Console answer it? | What a paid tool offers |
|---|---|---|
| Which searches show my pages, and how often do people click? | Yes, from Google's own data | Nothing better; vendor figures are estimates |
| Is this page indexed? | Yes, through URL Inspection | Crawlers that check the whole site at once |
| Who links to me? | Partly: a sample, capped at 1,000 rows per table | The vendor's own backlink index, for any domain |
| What does a competitor rank for? | No | Keyword and traffic estimates for other sites |
| Where does this keyword rank every morning? | No; average position is a blend | Daily or weekly tracking of a set list |
The limits to know about
Google describes the Links report as a sample, "isn't a comprehensive list of every link on your site." Tables stop at 1,000 rows, though an export can reach 100,000. The report can include links that have since been removed, and it doesn't say whether a link is nofollow.
Average position is the average rank of your topmost result across the searches where you appeared. Google also notes that a query can appear in your list even when you don't see your site after searching it yourself. That makes average position a poor substitute for checking one keyword at a fixed time.
What paying adds, in numbers
On monthly billing, Semrush's SEO plan ($139) tracks 500 keywords daily, SE Ranking Core ($129) tracks 2,000 daily, and Ahrefs Lite ($129) tracks 750 with weekly updates. Site crawls have caps too: 100,000 crawl credits a month on Ahrefs Lite and 250,000 audit pages a month on SE Ranking Core.
Keep in mind that a competitor's "traffic" in any of these tools is the vendor's model. The guide on why SEO tools show different numbers explains where those figures come from. If only one of the gaps above applies to you, the affordable SEO tools guide shows cheaper single-job options.
Work out your own number: the SEO Tools Cost Calculator finds the cheapest published plan for your sites, tracked keywords and users.
Sources
Figures come from each vendor's own pricing pages and documentation. We have not tested these tools hands-on, and no ranking here is paid for.