• Top 100 Tracking

DataForSEO Top 100 Tracking Costs 10× More – Ranktracker Is Daily

  • Felix Rose-Collins
  • 3 min read

Intro

If you’re exploring DataForSEO Top 100 rank tracking, there’s an important pricing detail you should know before building it into your SEO tech stack.

DataForSEO does provide Top 100 ranking data via API, but the cost structure makes full-depth daily tracking significantly more expensive than shallow tracking — often 10× or more and subject to price increases based on volume.

That means full Top 100 visibility is technically possible with DataForSEO, but not affordable as a baseline for daily rank monitoring.

How DataForSEO pricing for Top 100 works

DataForSEO offers rank tracking (and SERP data) through an API where pricing is tied directly to:

  • Depth of SERP data requested
  • Frequency of updates
  • Volume of keywords tracked
  • Region and device settings

Crucially:

  • Getting deeper results (Top 100) costs significantly more than shallow depth (Top 10/20/30)
  • Daily Top 100 API calls consume far more credits than weekly or shallow calls
  • Costs scale non-linearly — roughly 10× more per unit of depth + frequency

As a result, using DataForSEO as a daily Top 100 rank tracker quickly becomes very expensive, especially at scale.

What this means in practical SEO workflows

If you want to track:

  • 1,000 keywords
  • Across positions 1–100
  • Updated daily

With DataForSEO, that means:

  • 10× higher pricing compared to shallow depth
  • Higher storage or data retention fees
  • Frequent price increases as volume grows

Most teams either:

  • Reduce depth to save cost
  • Reduce frequency to save cost
  • Accept delayed or partial data

That’s not visibility — that’s compromise.

Why expensive Top 100 tracking holds SEO back

Rank tracking isn’t just about depth. It’s about frequency + visibility + actionability.

SEO progress tends to happen like this:

  • Page 10 → page 7
  • Page 7 → page 5
  • Page 5 → page 3
  • Page 3 → page 1

If tracking those movements daily is too expensive, you lose:

  • Early momentum visibility
  • Fast feedback loops
  • Competitor movement tracking
  • Precise cause-and-effect insight

And at higher volumes, costs continue to rise.

How Ranktracker handles Top 100 differently

Ranktracker took a different approach.

Instead of charging more for depth or frequency, Ranktracker:

  • Includes full Top 100 tracking daily
  • Doesn’t inflate cost based on depth
  • Keeps pricing consistent regardless of frequency
  • Provides full historical tracking
  • Balances scalability with affordability

If a keyword moves today — whether it’s position 14 or 84 — you see it tomorrow.

No credit multipliers. No depth penalties. No surprise price increases.

DataForSEO vs Ranktracker in simple terms

DataForSEO

  • Provides Top 100 data via API
  • Pricing increases steeply with depth and frequency
  • Daily Top 100 tracking is expensive
  • Costs scale non-linearly at higher volumes

Ranktracker

  • Tracks Top 100 every day by default
  • No depth-based pricing penalties
  • Same update frequency for all keywords
  • Designed for everyday SEO teams

One charges extra to see the whole picture. The other includes it as the baseline.

Why teams using DataForSEO look for alternatives

Many organisations choose DataForSEO as an API source early on.

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They start looking for alternatives when:

  • Daily Top 100 tracking is too expensive
  • Budgets get stretched as keywords grow
  • Frequency compromises slow work
  • Cost increases limit actionable visibility

At that point, an all-in-one daily Top 100 rank tracker becomes more efficient.

Who DataForSEO Top 100 tracking works for

DataForSEO can work if:

  • You mainly need API data for custom tools
  • You have engineering resources to optimise calls
  • You only need occasional Top 100 depth
  • Budgets are flexible with non-linear pricing

But if your SEO needs:

  • Daily updates
  • Full depth for all keywords
  • Clear, automated dashboards
  • Fast feedback loops

Then expensive API-based Top 100 tracking isn’t practical for most teams.

Bottom line

DataForSEO can provide Top 100 ranking data, but daily tracking at that depth is significantly more expensive — often up to 10× the cost and subject to price increases as you scale.

Ranktracker tracks the full Top 100 every day, with no depth penalties, no surprise costs, and complete historical context.

If you want visibility that doesn’t cost a premium to use every day, daily Top 100 tracking matters.

Felix Rose-Collins

Felix Rose-Collins

Ranktracker's CEO/CMO & Co-founder

Felix Rose-Collins is the Co-founder and CEO/CMO of Ranktracker. With over 15 years of SEO experience, he has single-handedly scaled the Ranktracker site to over 500,000 monthly visits, with 390,000 of these stemming from organic searches each month.

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