Comparison
Manifold vs OpenSEO: two hosted SEO MCP servers for small budgets
OpenSEO starts at $10 a month with $10 of usage. Manifold starts free with monthly credits and adds social, Reddit, ads and leads. How they differ.
By Jesse Sibley, FounderPublished · Last updated · 3 min read
Comparison
Manifold or OpenSEO?
At a glance
| OpenSEO entry price | $10 a month, includes $10 of usage |
|---|---|
| Manifold entry price | $0, 250 credits a month |
| Search Console data | Free on both |
| Checked | openseo.so/pricing, 26 October 2026 |
Side by side
| OpenSEO | Manifold | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $10 a month, includes $10 of usage | Free plan, 250 credits a month, no card |
| Trial | $0.50 of credits | The free plan, every month |
| Subscription needed | Yes, top-ups included | No for the free credits; top-ups come with Pro or Max |
| Unused credits | Plan usage resets; top-ups roll over | Plan credits reset; top-ups never expire |
| SEO data | Keywords, backlinks, domain overview, site audit | Keywords, SERPs, backlinks, domains, technical crawl |
| Rank tracking over time | Yes | Position checks on demand, no saved history |
| AI visibility | Mentions, citations and prompt tracking | Any prompt on six engines, on demand |
| Search Console | Free, outside the $10 | Free, plus Bing Webmaster Tools |
| Reddit, social, ads, leads | Not in its feature list | Yes, on the same balance |
| Open source | Yes, and you can self-host it free | No; the marketing skills library is MIT |
| Works in | Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT, among others | Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and others |
OpenSEO's prices and features are from its pricing page and homepage, read on 26 October 2026.
Who each one is for
OpenSEO is for someone who wants a low-cost SEO platform they can also run themselves: keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits, in its own app or from an agent over MCP.
Manifold is for someone who wants their agent to reach SEO data and the rest of marketing from one connection: AI answers, Reddit, social, ad libraries and leads, with a free plan.
Both use DataForSEO for their search data.
When to pick which
- Pick OpenSEO if SEO is the whole job, you want rank tracking with history, or you want to host the tool yourself.
- Pick Manifold if your agent also needs AI answers, Reddit, social, ad or lead data, or if you want to start without a subscription.
