Semrush vs SE Ranking: Market-Leading SEO Suite or Budget-Friendly All-in-One for Small Teams?
Semrush and SE Ranking are both all-in-one SEO platforms: keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, site audits, backlinks and, now, tracking of how your brand shows up in AI answers. The difference is scale and price. Semrush, an Adobe company since April 2026, is the bigger suite with the larger database and extra toolkits for ads, social, local and content, each sold separately. SE Ranking covers the same core SEO work for less money, tracks more keywords per plan and is built with small teams and agencies in mind. Whether you search for Semrush vs SE Ranking or SE Ranking vs Semrush, this guide compares plans, prices, limits and data side by side. We checked both official websites on 12 November 2026.
Quick answer: for most startups and small agencies, SE Ranking gives more for the money: Core costs €109 a month, or €87.20 a month billed annually, and tracks 2,000 keywords a day across 10 projects, with a 14-day free trial and no card. Choose Semrush when you need its larger database, its advertising, social or market toolkits, or the Adobe ecosystem: the SEO plan costs €134 a month, or €112.52 billed annually, tracks 500 keywords a day and comes with a free account and a 7-day trial. Prices are as shown to our European visitor; SE Ranking lists Core at $129 a month, or $103.20 billed annually, in US dollars.
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Semrush vs SE Ranking at a Glance
Sources: semrush.com (pricing, homepage, Adobe FAQ) and seranking.com (pricing, FAQ, Our data), checked 12 November 2026. Both sites showed euros to our European visitor on their default annual view; monthly prices are the crossed-out ones.
Semrush and SE Ranking in 2027: What Each One Offers
Semrush: the market-leading SEO and AI-search suite, now part of Adobe
Semrush now calls itself the leading platform to grow and measure brand visibility, from search results to AI answers. Its core SEO tools cover keyword research, competitor analysis, backlinks, Position Tracking and Site Audit; around them sit separate toolkits for AI Visibility, Traffic and Market, Local, Content, Social, Advertising and AI PR, plus Semrush One, its bundle of SEO and AI search. Semrush says its database holds 29 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks and 808 million domain profiles across 142 geographic databases, and that it monitors more than 317 million LLM prompts. Its customer FAQ of 28 April 2026 says Adobe has officially acquired Semrush and that operations continue without interruption.
The Semrush pricing page opens on the SEO + AI Search toolkit with annual billing ("save up to 17%"):
- SEO, €112.52 a month billed annually (€134 month to month): 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword research and competitor analysis, Position Tracking and Site Audit. The AI-search features are not included.
- Starter, €158.40 billed annually (€190 monthly): the full keyword research and competitor tools, MCP access, 50 AI prompts tracked daily and 300 AI visibility reports a day.
- Pro+, €238 billed annually (€286 monthly): 15 websites, 1,500 keywords daily, historical data, content optimisation, cannibalisation analysis, multi-location and device tracking, 100 prompts.
- Advanced, custom: 40+ websites, 5,000+ keywords, share of voice, API, team users and unlimited prompts.
- Free account and trial: 1 demo project and 10 reports a day with no card; paid plans have a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel, downgrade or upgrade at any time. Extra users start at €43 a month. We saw no startup discount on the pricing page.
Best for: teams that want the largest data set, or that also run ads, social and market research in one account.
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SE Ranking: the budget-friendly all-in-one for small teams and agencies
SE Ranking covers rank tracking across the major search engines, keyword, competitor and backlink research, a website and on-page audit, local SEO with a local and map rank tracker, content tools and reports. Its GEO product, SE Visible, tracks your brand in AI answers. SE Ranking says its database holds 5.4 billion keywords across 188 geographic databases, 2.2 billion domain profiles and a backlink index of 2.7 trillion backlinks across 420 million domains.
The SE Ranking pricing page opens on annual billing ("Save 20%"), in euros for our European visitor; its FAQ lists the US dollar prices:
- Core, €87.20 a month billed annually (€109 monthly); $103.20 or $129: 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2,000 keywords tracked daily, 250,000 audit pages a month, 25,000 API credits and MCP access, unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research, 25 AI prompts a day across 5 AI engines, 6 months of history.
- Growth, €188 billed annually (€235 monthly); $223.20 or $279: 30 projects, 3 seats, 5,000 keywords daily, 2 million audit pages, 100,000 API credits, all-time history, guest links and page changes monitoring.
- Enterprise, custom: custom limits, full API and dedicated support.
- Add-ons: extra seats from €14.40 a month, extra keywords from €20.80, the Agency Pack at +€59 a month on annual billing (white label, 30 client seats, Lead Generator) and an AI visibility add-on from €64 a month for 75 prompts.
- Trial and free tools: a 14-day free trial with no credit card (up to 10 projects, 750 keywords and 20 AI prompts a day). No permanent free plan, but free tools such as Google Location Changer, Keyword Difficulty Checker and daily checks of Rank Checker and Keyword Research work without an account. Payments are non-refundable except when the service was not delivered as promised.
Best for: startups, freelancers and agencies that need daily tracking of many keywords and several seats on a small budget.
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Semrush vs SE Ranking: Feature by Feature
Pricing and value
Entry plan for entry plan, SE Ranking Core is €25 a month cheaper than Semrush SEO on monthly billing and tracks four times as many keywords a day. By our calculation, one month of tracking costs about €5.45 per 100 keywords on SE Ranking Core (€109 for 2,000) and €26.80 per 100 keywords on Semrush SEO (€134 for 500). Extra seats cost from €14.40 on SE Ranking and from €43 on Semrush.
Data depth and accuracy
Semrush reports a much larger keyword database (29 billion keywords against SE Ranking's 5.4 billion) and backlink index (43 trillion against 2.7 trillion). SE Ranking covers more geographic databases (188 against 142). Both figures come from the vendors themselves, and neither number tells you how accurate the data is for your market. The fair test is to run the same keywords and domains in both trials and compare them with your own Google Search Console data.
Rank tracking and audits
Both track rankings daily and audit your site. Semrush's SEO plan covers 500 keywords across 5 websites; SE Ranking Core covers 2,000 keywords across 10 projects and audits up to 250,000 pages a month. Semrush includes mobile data on the SEO plan; multi-location and multi-device tracking starts on Pro+.
AI search visibility
Both now track how your brand appears in AI answers. Semrush adds it from the Starter plan, with 50 prompts a day, 100 on Pro+ and unlimited on Advanced, plus a separate AI Visibility toolkit. SE Ranking includes 25 prompts a day across 5 AI engines in Core and Growth through SE Visible, with an add-on for more.
Beyond SEO
This is where Semrush pulls ahead: advertising research, social media, market and traffic analytics, local and AI PR are sold as their own toolkits. SE Ranking stays focused on SEO, local and content, with an Agency Pack for client work and a separate social media product, Planable.
What Changed Since the Old Version of This Comparison
- New prices and plans: the 2026 version said Semrush started at "$129.95 a month" and SE Ranking at "$49 a month". Today Semrush SEO costs €134 a month (€112.52 billed annually) and SE Ranking Core €109 (€87.20 billed annually), or $129 and $103.20 in US dollars.
- Semrush is part of Adobe: Adobe completed the acquisition, per Semrush's FAQ of 28 April 2026.
- AI search tracking: both tools now track brand visibility in AI answers, which the old version did not cover.
- Corrected database figure: Semrush now reports 29 billion keywords, not 25.3 billion.
- Removed: an unsourced "67% of clicks" statistic, third-party review verdicts and links, and a generic mistakes section.
Which One Should You Choose?
- You are a startup on a tight budget: SE Ranking Core, for 2,000 tracked keywords and the full research toolset.
- You run an agency: SE Ranking with the Agency Pack, unless your clients also need Semrush's ads and social toolkits.
- You need the largest database or ads research: Semrush, starting with the SEO plan and adding toolkits as you need them.
- You want AI-answer tracking on the entry plan: SE Ranking Core includes 25 prompts a day; on Semrush it starts with Starter.
- You have no budget yet: Semrush's free account (10 reports a day) and SE Ranking's free tools; see also Semrush alternatives and free Ahrefs alternatives.
More match-ups for Semrush: Ahrefs vs Semrush, Semrush vs Similarweb, Semrush vs Keyword Planner, Semrush vs BrightEdge and Semrush vs Majestic. More match-ups for SE Ranking: Ahrefs vs SE Ranking, Moz vs SE Ranking, Serpstat vs SE Ranking, SE Ranking vs Wincher, SE Ranking vs Mangools and SE Ranking vs Keyword Insights.
How Founders Use Semrush, SE Ranking and Other SEO Tools
- Pick keywords you can win. Our guide to keyword research for startups and the overview of SEO keyword research tools for startups cover cheaper and free options.
- Study your competitors. The Semrush competitor analysis guide shows the method, and the competitor analysis tools list compares other tools.
- Use the free tiers first. Our list of free Semrush tools shows what the free account can do before you pay.
- Build links to the pages you publish. Submit your startup to the F/MS marketing directories and pitch guest posts to blogs that cover your niche.
- Track and refine. Watch your rankings every week, check whether AI chatbots cite you and update the pages that slip.
Tools only pay off when you publish: the F/MS AI SEO Tool turns your keywords into articles built to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, with human editors checking the result, and the AI SEO blog explains the method.
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FAQ: Semrush vs SE Ranking
What is the main difference between Semrush and SE Ranking?
Both are all-in-one SEO platforms. Semrush is the bigger suite with a larger database and extra toolkits for ads, social, local and market research, now owned by Adobe. SE Ranking covers the core SEO work for less money and tracks more keywords per plan, which suits small teams and agencies.
How do SE Ranking and Semrush prices compare?
On 12 November 2026, in euros for our European visitor: SE Ranking Core €109 a month or €87.20 billed annually, Growth €235 or €188; Semrush SEO €134 or €112.52, Starter €190 or €158.40, Pro+ €286 or €238. SE Ranking lists Core at $129, or $103.20 billed annually, in US dollars.
Which tool tracks more keywords for the money?
SE Ranking. Core tracks 2,000 keywords a day, while Semrush's SEO plan tracks 500. By our calculation that is about €5.45 per 100 tracked keywords a month on SE Ranking Core and €26.80 on Semrush SEO, on monthly billing.
Do Semrush and SE Ranking have free plans or trials?
Semrush has a free account with 1 demo project and 10 reports a day, plus a 7-day trial of paid plans. SE Ranking has no permanent free plan but offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card and free tools without an account.
Which has the bigger and more accurate database?
Semrush reports 29 billion keywords and 43 trillion backlinks; SE Ranking reports 5.4 billion keywords and 2.7 trillion backlinks, but covers more geographic databases (188 against 142). These are the vendors' own figures. To judge accuracy for your market, test the same keywords in both trials against your Google Search Console data.
Who owns Semrush now?
Adobe. Semrush's customer FAQ of 28 April 2026 says Adobe has officially acquired Semrush, and the Semrush logo now reads "An Adobe Company".
Is SE Ranking good for agencies?
Yes. Extra seats start at €14.40 a month, and the Agency Pack (+€59 a month, annual billing) adds white label for the platform and reports, 30 client seats and a Lead Generator. SE Ranking's FAQ adds that you can import your ranking history from Semrush.
Do both tools track AI search visibility?
Yes. SE Ranking includes 25 AI prompts a day across 5 AI engines on Core and Growth, with an add-on from €64 a month. Semrush adds AI visibility from the Starter plan, with 50 prompts a day, rising to unlimited on Advanced.
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.
Does SE Ranking have a Google location changer?
Yes. Google Location Changer is one of SE Ranking's free tools that work without an account, alongside the Keyword Difficulty Checker and free daily checks of its rank checker, traffic checker and keyword research.
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.
