Semrush vs Majestic: All-in-One SEO Suite or Specialist Backlink Tool?
Semrush and Majestic both show you backlinks, but they are built for different jobs. Semrush is an all-in-one SEO and AI search suite: keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor analysis, backlinks and, on its newer plans, how often ChatGPT and Google's AI answers mention your brand. Majestic does one thing: it crawls the web, maps who links to whom and scores those links with its own Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics. We checked both tools on their official websites and pricing pages in October 2026, replaced the outdated prices of the older version of this article and removed the claims the vendors' pages don't support.
Quick answer: for most startups, Semrush is the better first tool, because keyword research, rank tracking and site audits matter before link building. Its free plan gives 10 reports a day, and the SEO plan costs €112.52 a month billed annually (€134 monthly). Choose Majestic when links are your main problem, or when you need to check a domain's link history: Lite costs €46.99 a month excluding VAT, and a free account gives a few searches a day. Link-focused teams can use both: Semrush for keywords and rankings, Majestic for a second, deeper view of backlinks.
Majestic against a content-planning tool is covered in our Majestic vs Keyword Insights comparison.
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Semrush vs Majestic at a Glance
Sources: semrush.com pricing, backlink and keyword research pages, majestic.com homepage index box, plans, free tools and glossary pages, checked 28 October 2026. Semrush showed euros from Europe; Majestic's default view is monthly in euros.
The Two Tools Compared
Semrush: the All-in-One SEO and AI Search Suite
Semrush covers almost every SEO task in one login: keyword research, competitor keyword gaps, Position Tracking, Site Audit, backlink analysis, content tools and AI search visibility. It no longer sells one bundle with every tool. The Semrush pricing page splits the product into toolkits (SEO + AI Search, AI Visibility, Traffic & Market, Local, Content, Social, Advertising and AI PR), so you pay for the parts you use. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush in April 2026, and Semrush's customer FAQ dated 28 April 2026 says there are no immediate changes to services, features or billing.
- Free plan: 1 demo project and 10 reports a day across the main tools, with AI Visibility features and no credit card.
- SEO, €112.52 a month billed annually (€134 monthly): 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword research and competitor analysis, Position Tracking, Site Audit and AI search monitoring.
- Starter, €158.40 billed annually (€190 monthly): the full keyword research and optimisation tools, competitor insights, MCP access for AI assistants, 50 AI prompts tracked daily and 300 AI visibility reports a day.
- Pro+, €238 billed annually (€286 monthly): 15 websites, 1,500 tracked keywords, historical SEO data, content optimisation, keyword cannibalisation analysis and 100 AI prompts.
- Advanced: custom price through a demo, with 40+ websites, API data integration and team users. Annual billing saves up to 17%.
Semrush's backlink tools are part of every SEO plan. On its backlink analysis page, Semrush says its database holds more than 43 trillion backlinks across 808 million domain profiles, with about 10 billion pages crawled every day. Backlinks, Referring Domains, Backlink Gap (your profile against up to five competitors) and Backlink Audit (spam links and a disavow file) cover the usual link work. For keywords, the Keyword Magic Tool draws on more than 28 billion keywords in 142 regional databases, so it also works for small markets and non-English sites.
More on Semrush: our Semrush pricing guide, the guide to free Semrush tools, and head-to-head comparisons with Similarweb (market and traffic data), BrightEdge (enterprise SEO) and Long Tail Pro (long-tail keywords).
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Majestic: the Specialist Backlink Index
Majestic has worked on backlink analysis since 2004 and runs its own crawler. It keeps two link indexes, and the index box on its homepage showed these figures on 28 October 2026:
- Fresh Index: the backlinks found in the last 120 days, including links that were deleted or lost. It covered 30 June 2026 to 28 October 2026, with about 188 billion unique URLs crawled and 548 billion found, and it is updated several times a day.
- Historic Index: records going back to 2006, with about 4.5 trillion unique URLs crawled and 21.7 trillion found. Its date range is 6 June 2006 to 26 March 2024, and it was last updated on 3 May 2024.
Semrush counts backlinks and Majestic counts URLs, so the two sets of numbers can't be compared directly. Both are the vendors' own figures.
- Flow Metrics: Trust Flow scores the quality of the links pointing to a page or site, based on how close it is to manually reviewed trusted seed sites. Citation Flow scores their quantity, and Topical Trust Flow shows in which topics a site has influence. All run from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale.
- Link tools: Site Explorer, Link Graph, Link Context, Related Sites and a Bulk Backlink Checker on every plan; Compare, Clique Hunter (domains that link to several competitors), Backlink History and Search Explorer on Pro.
- Keyword features: Keyword Checker and N-grams Near Links give keyword data from Majestic's link index. There is no keyword database with search volume by country, no site audit, and only an experimental rank tracker (via Google Search Console) on Pro.
- Pricing (default view: monthly, euros, excluding VAT): Lite €46.99 for 1 user and 1 million analysis units, Fresh Index only; Pro €94.99 for 1 user and 20 million analysis units, adding the Historic Index and all web tools; API €379.99 for 5 users and 100 million analysis units with full API access. Lite and Pro have a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers; prices are also shown in dollars and pounds.
- Free options: the free backlink checker gives a few Site Explorer clicks a day with a free account, a weekly showcase site gets almost Lite-level access, browser plugins show link counts and Flow Metrics for the page you are on, and the Majestic Million list of top domains is a free download.
Best for: link builders and founders who already have content and need links, agencies that vet link prospects at scale, and anyone checking a domain's past before buying it or partnering with it. Majestic is compared with other backlink suites in our guides to Ahrefs alternatives and free Ahrefs alternatives.
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What Changed Since the Old Version of This Article
- Semrush prices and plans: the old "starts at $139.95 a month" is out of date. Semrush now sells toolkits, and the SEO + AI Search plans are SEO, Starter, Pro+ and Advanced, from €112.52 a month billed annually in the default view from Europe.
- Semrush's keyword database: the old figure of 25.3 billion keywords is now more than 28 billion in 142 databases.
- Semrush ownership: Semrush is an Adobe company since April 2026.
- Majestic's prices: the old "from $49.99 a month" is now Lite at €46.99 a month excluding VAT in the default view.
- Majestic's Historic Index: it was last updated on 3 May 2024 and its data ends on 26 March 2024. For links found since then, use the Fresh Index.
- Removed: links to third-party reviews and an old screenshot from another site, the claim that most startups fail because they market badly (no source), and promises of "guaranteed" SEO results.
Semrush or Majestic: Which Should You Choose?
- You are starting SEO from zero: Semrush. Keyword research, rank tracking and a site audit come first; start on the free plan, then run the 7-day trial on your real site.
- You rank on page two and competitors have more links: Majestic, to see where their links come from and which prospects have relevant Topical Trust Flow. Semrush's Backlink Gap does a similar job if you already pay for it.
- You are buying a domain or choosing a partner site: Majestic Pro. The Historic Index and Backlink History show whether a domain had a spammy past.
- You want to know if ChatGPT and Google's AI answers mention you: Semrush (Starter or the AI Visibility toolkit). Majestic doesn't track AI search.
- Your budget is under €50 a month: Semrush's free plan for keywords plus Majestic's free searches, or Majestic Lite if links are the bottleneck.
- You run link building as a service: both: check prospects in Majestic and report rankings in Semrush.
Comparing more SEO tools? See Ahrefs vs Moz, Moz vs SE Ranking, Ahrefs vs Wincher, Ahrefs vs Semrush and, for free keyword ideas, Keywords Everywhere vs Keyworddit and Keyword Tool vs Keyworddit.
How Founders Use Semrush and Majestic Together
- Find your keywords. Use Semrush's free plan or Keyword Magic Tool for volume, difficulty and intent; our guide to checking competitor keywords and the one on keyword research on a $0 budget show more ways.
- Publish and track. Write one page per topic, yourself or with the F/MS AI SEO Tool, then track 20 to 50 keywords in Position Tracking and fix what Site Audit flags first.
- Study competitors' links. For the pages that outrank you, open Majestic's Site Explorer and look at referring domains, anchor text and Topical Trust Flow.
- Vet link prospects. Prioritise sites whose topics match yours. Our list of free ways to get quality backlinks and our guide to choosing a link-building agency help here, and F/MS Marketing Directories lists places where you can submit your startup.
- Watch new and lost links. Check Majestic's Fresh Index and Semrush's Backlinks report each month, and compare clicks in Google Search Console.
If nobody searches for the problem you solve, that is a reason to validate your startup idea before you build more. The AI SEO blog explains how AI search changes what to publish.
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FAQ: Semrush vs Majestic
What is the main difference between Semrush and Majestic?
Semrush is an all-in-one SEO suite: keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, backlinks and AI search tracking. Majestic is a specialist backlink tool with its own link index and Trust Flow and Citation Flow scores.
Which is better for keyword research, Semrush or Majestic?
Semrush. Its Keyword Magic Tool covers more than 28 billion keywords in 142 regional databases. Majestic only has Keyword Checker and N-grams Near Links, built from its link index.
Which is better for backlink analysis?
Both are strong. Majestic specialises in links, with a Fresh Index, a Historic Index back to 2006 and Topical Trust Flow. Semrush reports more than 43 trillion backlinks and adds Backlink Gap and Backlink Audit inside the same suite.
How much does Semrush cost?
From Europe in October 2026, the default view showed SEO at €112.52, Starter €158.40 and Pro+ €238 a month billed annually, or €134, €190 and €286 monthly. Advanced is priced on request, and there is a free plan.
How much does Majestic cost?
In the default monthly view, Lite costs €46.99, Pro €94.99 and API €379.99 a month, excluding VAT. Lite and Pro have a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers.
Is there a free version of Semrush or Majestic?
Yes. Semrush's free plan gives 1 demo project and 10 reports a day, and paid toolkits have a 7-day free trial. Majestic's free account gives a few Site Explorer searches a day, plus free browser plugins and the Majestic Million list.
Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.
Is Majestic's Historic Index still updated?
According to the index box on majestic.com, the Historic Index covers 6 June 2006 to 26 March 2024 and was last updated on 3 May 2024. The Fresh Index, covering the last 120 days, is updated several times a day.
Should a startup buy both tools?
Only if links are a big part of your growth plan. Most early-stage startups get more from Semrush's keyword and rank tracking tools first, then add Majestic Lite once they have pages worth linking to.
Can I use AI to write SEO articles once I have my keywords?
Yes. The F/MS AI SEO Tool turns a keyword into a full article written to rank on Google and to be cited by AI assistants, with human editors reviewing it.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
