A self-hosted SEO platform that costs ~$4/month instead of $139/month.
Rank tracking · keyword research · competitor gaps · AI Overview visibility · site audits · link gaps · local map-pack grids
SEO tools charge subscription prices for data they buy wholesale. Under the hood they're calling the same SERP APIs you can call yourself.
SEO Command Center is the whole dashboard, self-hosted, on top of DataForSEO's pay-as-you-go API. No subscription, no seat pricing, no keyword caps — you pay cents for the exact SERPs you pull:
| SEO Command Center | Semrush Pro | Ahrefs Lite | Local Falcon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | pay-as-you-go (~$4/mo typical*) | $139.95/mo | $129/mo | from $24.99/mo |
| Commitment | none — prepaid API credits | subscription | subscription | subscription |
| Rank tracking, research, competitor gap, site audit, AI Overview tracking, local grids | all included | partial | partial | grids only |
| Your data, on your server | yes — one SQLite file | no | no | no |
* Measured on a real deployment: 570 keywords across 5 sites updated daily, plus weekly local map grids and brand-SERP checks — $3.55/month in API costs. A 7×7 map-grid scan is $0.29; a keyword-research pull is ~$0.02.
Eight pages, one dark command center, everything driven from the browser:
| Page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rankings | Daily positions, 1d/7d/30d deltas, best-ever, sparklines, history charts, visibility score, GSC impressions/clicks, mobile ranks, CSV export |
| Research | Live keyword ideas from seeds or any competitor's domain — volume, CPC, competition — checkbox → tracked |
| Site Explorer | Ahrefs-style analysis of ANY domain or single URL: DR, traffic + traffic value, history charts, backlinks (dofollow/new/broken), anchors, referring domains, best-by-links, broken-page link opportunities, competitors, content gap vs your brands, paid keywords, site structure. A full all-tabs run costs about $0.20 in DataForSEO credits; results cache 24h so re-checks are free |
| Competitors | Who actually outranks you + every keyword they rank for that you don't |
| AI Visibility | Which of your keywords trigger Google AI Overviews, whether you're cited, and who is |
| Site Health | Zero-cost technical crawler: broken links, duplicate titles, missing metas, thin content, per-site score |
| Link Gap | Domains linking to your rivals but not you, junk-filtered and classified by how to actually get the link |
| Map Grid | LocalFalcon-style GPS grid: your Google map-pack rank from 49+ points around your city, who holds the top 3 at every pin, per-keyword history charts and run-over-run improvement deltas |
More screenshots in docs/screenshots.
Try it with sample data first (no account needed):
git clone https://github.com/testedmedia/seo-command-center.git
cd seo-command-center
python3 demo.py && python3 worker.py serve
# → http://localhost:8000Track your own site:
python3 setup.py # guided: DataForSEO creds (validated live), your sites, options
python3 worker.py run all # first pull — typically $0.10-0.50
python3 worker.py serve # local dashboardThat's it. Python 3.9+ standard library only — no pip install, no Docker, no database server (SQLite file).
| Requirement | For | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Python 3.9+ | everything | free |
| DataForSEO account | rankings, research, competitors, map grids | pay-as-you-go, ~$4/mo typical usage (prepaid credits last months) |
| Cloudflare account (optional) | hosted dashboard + in-browser buttons | free tier |
| Google Search Console (optional) | impressions/clicks + found keywords | free |
| Node.js (optional) | only for worker.py deploy (wrangler) |
free |
Local mode is read-only pages. Hosted mode (free Cloudflare Pages) unlocks the buttons: refresh any report, add keywords/sites, delete keywords, live research, and map-grid setup from the browser — protected by a login page (orange matrix included).
python3 worker.py deploy-config # creates the Pages project + queue, pushes your secrets
python3 worker.py deploy # ship the dashboard
python3 worker.py loop # poll the queue + daily auto-refresh (cron/systemd/launchd)Buttons queue work into Cloudflare KV; worker.py loop on any machine (a laptop, a $4 VPS, a Raspberry Pi) picks jobs up within 2 minutes, runs them, and redeploys. Your API credentials only ever live in your .env and as encrypted Pages secrets.
- Create an OAuth client (Desktop) in Google Cloud Console, enable the Search Console API.
- Save the client JSON to
credentials/gsc-client-secret.json. - Run any OAuth helper to get a refresh token into
credentials/gsc-tokens.json({"refresh_token": "..."}). - That's it — rankings runs will merge impressions, clicks and Google-reported positions, and auto-discover keywords you already get traffic for.
┌────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐
│ DataForSEO API │ ←── │ tracker/*.py │ ──→ │ data/ranks.db │
│ (SERPs, keywords, │ │ stdlib Python, │ │ (SQLite, all │
│ maps, backlinks) │ │ one file per report │ │ history forever) │
└────────────────────┘ └──────────┬───────────┘ └─────────────────────┘
│ renders
▼
┌──────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐
│ site/*.html │ ──→ │ localhost or │
│ self-contained dark │ │ Cloudflare Pages │
│ dashboard pages │ │ (+ auth, buttons) │
└──────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────┘
- No framework. Each report is one Python file that pulls data, stores history in SQLite, and renders a self-contained HTML page.
- No backend server. Hosted interactivity is three tiny Cloudflare Pages Functions (auth, queue, research proxy).
- No lock-in. Your entire SEO history is one SQLite file you can query directly.
- Manual refreshes are capped per tool per day (default 2) and research pulls per day (default 20) — a shared dashboard can't drain your balance.
- Every research pull and grid save shows its dollar cost before/after running.
- The keyword cap per site (default 100, configurable) bounds the daily tracking spend.
- Weekly-only for the expensive stuff (map grids, true-SERP brand checks) by default.
Is the ranking data as good as Semrush/Ahrefs? It's the same class of data — DataForSEO is one of the SERP providers this industry runs on. Tracked positions come from live Google SERPs (top 100, any country/language).
Can I track competitors' sites too? Yes — add any domain as a site, or use Research → "Steal from a competitor" and the Competitors gap report.
Multiple sites? Unlimited. Cost scales with keywords, not sites.
White-label / client dashboards?
Out of the box it carries the Tested Media logo. Set BRAND_NAME (and optionally LOGO_FILE) in .env to rebrand everything — sidebar, login page, titles. Deploy once per client, each with its own access key.
Why not just use rank tracker X? If you're happy paying monthly SaaS pricing, do that. This is for people who want the whole stack, their own data, and a bill that rounds to a coffee.
- Optional docker-compose for people who prefer containers (the no-Docker default stays)
- Multiple Google Search Console properties per install
- Scheduled email digests for rank changes
- Deeper AI Overview tracking: which domains get cited, not just presence
- CSV export on every report
Vote or suggest in Discussions.
PRs welcome. The codebase is intentionally boring: stdlib Python, one file per report, no build step. Add a report = one script that writes JSON + HTML, one nav entry.
Built and run in production at Tested Media — every number in this README is from our own deployment.
If this saved you $100+/month, a star helps other people find it.