OpenSEO Review: Free Open-Source SEO Tool With Claude Code

OpenSEO is an open-source SEO platform that covers keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking, site audits and AI visibility, and it connects to AI coding agents like Claude Code and Codex through an MCP server. In this review I’ll walk through how I set it up, connected Google Search Console, ran keyword research and backlink checks, and used Claude Code to run a full SEO audit from my terminal. I’ll also cover what it costs today and where its limits are.

Prefer to watch? See the full walkthrough on YouTube. I build the whole thing on screen.

What is OpenSEO?

OpenSEO bills itself as a lighter, cheaper alternative to the big SEO suites. According to openseo.so, it includes:

• Keyword research with ideas, volume, difficulty, intent and live SERPs
• Domain overview with estimated organic traffic and ranking keywords
• Backlinks with referring domains and link quality
• Rank tracking and site audits
• AI visibility for checking mentions and citations in AI answers
• An MCP server and skills so agents like Claude, Codex, OpenCode and Gemini can use the data

The site says its data comes from DataForSEO, and the whole project is open source on GitHub, with docs for self-hosting if you’d rather run it yourself. I found it after the founder was interviewed on YouTube, and the GitHub project already had a large following.

What OpenSEO costs right now

Pricing is the part most likely to change, so check the OpenSEO pricing page before you sign up. When I recorded the video I was testing it without paying. As of October 2026, the pricing page lists:

• One base plan at $10 a month that includes $10 of usage each month
• A free trial with $0.50 of credits so you can test it first
• Extra usage you can top up any time; top-up credits roll over, while the included monthly credits reset each billing cycle
• Google Search Console data that doesn’t use your credits
• Cancel any time, with access until the end of the billing period

The pricing page also says you need an active subscription to keep using OpenSEO, even if you have top-up credits. Keyword research, backlinks, competitor data, site audits, rank tracking and AI visibility all use credits, so a heavy month can cost more than the base $10. Compared with the big paid suites, it’s a much lower starting price, but compare current plans yourself rather than relying on figures quoted in any video, including mine.

Step 1: Create an account and finish onboarding

After signing up, OpenSEO asks a few onboarding questions. I picked competitive research, backlink analysis and rank tracking as my goals, and said I was doing SEO mainly for my own business (with some client work).

Step 2: Connect Google Search Console

Next, connect Google Search Console. I’d already verified my SaaS site in Search Console, so OpenSEO could pull that data straight in without me building a custom scraper or script. Because Search Console data doesn’t use credits, it’s worth connecting this early.

Step 3: Install the OpenSEO MCP in Claude Code or Codex

This is where OpenSEO gets interesting. In the dashboard there’s a setup prompt for your AI agent. Copy it, paste it into Claude Code (or Codex, OpenCode or another supported client), and the agent installs the MCP connection for you. I show this step on screen in the video.

Once it’s installed, your agent can call OpenSEO’s tools directly. The first time I ran a command, I had to sign in to my OpenSEO account to authorize the agent to read my data and act on my behalf. Read that permission screen before you approve it, so you know what the agent can access.

If you’d like a guided path through setups like this, AI Income Lab has the Claude Code and Codex tutorials I use for agent workflows.

Step 4: Add your site and run keyword research

Back in the dashboard, OpenSEO prompts you to add your website. I added mine with the country set to the United States and saved it.

Then I ran a keyword search for “YouTube”. It returned 150 results with search volume, cost per click, competition and a difficulty score, and I could sort from most to least competitive to find long-tail keywords worth targeting. It also showed a SERP analysis listing the sites currently ranking, which in my niche were mostly YouTube analytics tools I compete with.

The domain view shows estimated organic traffic and organic keywords, sortable by traffic or CPC. Treat these as estimates, as with any third-party SEO tool, and use your Search Console data as the source of truth for your own site.

Step 5: Check backlinks for competitors and your own domain

The backlinks tool shows total backlinks, referring domains, a domain rating, a spam score, broken pages and a full list of the linking pages. I looked up one of my biggest competitors first. They’ve been around far longer than my site, so as expected their backlink profile is much larger.

Then I ran my own domain, TubeAnalytics. The chart showed my total backlinks dropping recently while referring domains kept going up, which is the more useful signal of the two.

A competitor’s backlink list is useful for finding sites that cover your topic. My approach is to earn links with useful content and genuine outreach, not to pay for them. Paid links break Google’s spam policies and can hurt your site, so skip any vendor offering to sell placements.

Step 6: Run an SEO audit from Claude Code

With the MCP connected, I ran OpenSEO’s SEO audit command from Claude Code. It pulled data from my connected OpenSEO project and worked through a full audit of the site. OpenSEO’s site lists focused skills for this kind of work, including an SEO coach, an SEO audit, keyword research and competitor analysis.

I tried it on a second project as well, my other startup. Claude Code generated a complete HTML report. Its summary said the site was well built and every reachable page loaded and was set up correctly, and that the one real gap was that almost no other websites linked to it. The report also listed six smaller fixes and suggested where to point new content first.

On my main project, the agent started fixing long titles and meta descriptions using the issues OpenSEO had flagged. As always with AI agents, review the changes before you ship them.

Step 7: Run a site audit from the dashboard

You can also run a site audit from the dashboard. My site has thousands of pages, but for a first test I limited the crawl to 50 pages. It flagged slow server response on some pages, plus title and meta description issues. The slow responses were the main thing I wanted to fix first; the title and description tweaks were minor.

What needs an upgrade

The brand lookup, which checks where you’re mentioned or cited in AI answers such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews, wasn’t available on the free tier I was using. Under the current pricing it falls under the AI visibility features that use credits on the paid plan.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Skipping Search Console. It’s your own first-party data and it doesn’t use credits, so connect it before anything else.
• Running huge crawls before you know the cost. Start with a small audit, like 50 pages, and check your credit usage.
• Treating estimates as facts. Traffic and keyword numbers from any SEO tool are estimates.
• Approving MCP access without reading it. Know what the agent can read and change in your account.
• Letting an agent push SEO changes unreviewed. Check the diff before titles and meta descriptions go live.
• Buying backlinks. Use competitor link data to find outreach ideas and content gaps, not to buy placements.

If you get stuck wiring the MCP into your agent, ask inside AI Income Lab and work through it with the templates and lessons there.

Is OpenSEO worth it?

For solo founders and small teams who already work in Claude Code or Codex, OpenSEO is an easy tool to try. The starting price is low, it’s open source, and having keyword, backlink and audit data available directly inside your coding agent is the real advantage. If you need very large crawls or heavy daily research, keep an eye on usage, because credits are where the cost grows.

FAQ

Is OpenSEO free?

The code is open source and you can self-host it. The hosted version currently offers a free trial with $0.50 of credits, then a $10 a month base plan that includes $10 of usage. Check the pricing page for current terms.

Does OpenSEO work with Claude Code and Codex?

Yes. OpenSEO provides an MCP server and a copy-paste setup prompt for Claude Code, Codex and other agents such as OpenCode and Gemini.

Where does OpenSEO get its data?

Its site says it uses DataForSEO, plus your own Google Search Console data when you connect it.

Can OpenSEO replace Semrush or Ahrefs?

It covers the core jobs: keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits, at a much lower starting price. Whether it replaces a big suite depends on how much data you need and which advanced features you rely on, so compare against your current workflow.

Does the site audit use credits?

Yes. According to the pricing page, site audits use credits, along with keyword research, backlinks, competitor data, rank tracking and AI visibility features.

Conclusion

OpenSEO gives you a practical SEO toolkit at a low starting price, and the MCP lets Claude Code or Codex run audits, keyword research and fixes for you. Start with the free trial, connect Search Console, run a small audit, and see what your agent finds. Watch the video above to follow along with each step.

If you’d rather not figure this out alone, join AI Income Lab for the courses, templates and help that go with these builds.