SE Ranking vs Semrush 2026: Price, Limits and Who Wins

The short verdict: value against depth

SE Ranking and Semrush are the two SEO suites most often compared by people who find Ahrefs too expensive or too strict. Both track rankings daily, both now track AI answers, and both cost about $130 to $140 a month to start. SE Ranking gives far more for the money. At entry level it tracks four times the keywords, it includes local, content and AI tracking in the plan, and its trial is one you cannot be billed for. Semrush answers with bigger data, more toolkits and a free plan.

So the choice is simple. Pick SE Ranking for tracking and client work, and pick Semrush when depth and breadth of research are the job itself. This comparison uses both vendors' pricing pages and help centers as of October 12, 2026, and every total below is our own arithmetic, so you can check each one against the plan limits it comes from.

What each plan costs, tier by tier

The entry plans: a $10 gap that hides the real one

SE Ranking Core costs $129 a month and Semrush's SEO plan $139 ^{[1] [2]}. Billed annually, Core comes to $1,238.40 a year and Semrush to $1,407.96, a difference of $169.56. The monthly gap is only $10. That is not the story. Core tracks 2,000 keywords daily across 10 projects, with 100 AI prompts, 25 content articles and 3 Local Marketing locations. Semrush SEO covers 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily, with basic keyword and competitor research, Site Audit and AI visibility reports. Per tracked keyword, that puts Core under 7 cents a month and Semrush at about 28.

The middle tier, where history lives

SE Ranking Growth costs $279 a month for 30 projects, 3 seats and 5,000 keywords. Semrush Pro+ costs $299 for 15 websites and 1,500 keywords tracked daily. Billed annually, Growth comes to $2,678.40 a year and Pro+ to $2,978.04, a difference of $299.64, while Growth tracks 3.3 times the keywords. Core holds six months of historical research data and Growth keeps it for the project's lifetime, while Semrush lists historical SEO data from Pro+ up. For year-over-year client reports, both push you to the middle tier, and on SE Ranking that tier costs $20 a month less.

The top of the range

SE Ranking's Enterprise plan has no public price. Semrush publishes Advanced at $549 a month, or $455.67 billed annually. Large teams compare custom quotes in both cases. Still, the gap at list price grows with size, because Semrush's limits rise more slowly per dollar. The table below makes that visible; cost per keyword is our arithmetic from each plan's monthly price and daily tracking limit.

SE Ranking's annual discount is 20% on both plans. Semrush's annual saving works out at 15.6% on the SEO plan, and its billing FAQ is plain about the terms: "you pay for the entire year upfront". SE Ranking also bills annual plans upfront. Neither refunds unused months of an annual plan after its window. Run the trial first. For the full plan-by-plan math on each side, see our SE Ranking pricing guide and our Semrush pricing guide.

The real bill: seats, projects and locations

Extra users and shared access

SE Ranking sells extra seats from $16, or $20 a month per user in its FAQ. Semrush's additional user pricing starts at $45 per month on SEO plans. A team of three on the entry plans pays $169 a month at SE Ranking and $229 at Semrush, which is $720 more a year. Sharing works differently too. SE Ranking Growth includes guest links for view-only access without a seat, and Semrush offers view-only access to folders as part of its user options. SE Ranking allows only one active session at a time, which makes sharing a login impractical. Plan seats or guest links from the start.

Projects against websites

The two vendors count sites in different units. SE Ranking counts projects, each tied to one website: 10 on Core and 30 on Growth. Semrush counts websites to monitor: 5 on SEO and Starter, and 15 on Pro+. An agency with twelve clients fits SE Ranking Growth but needs Semrush Pro+, the plan priced $20 a month higher, and it still tracks fewer keywords there.

Local listings and content tools

Every SE Ranking plan includes three Local Marketing locations, with listings in 100+ directories and review management. Semrush sells a separate Local toolkit, priced per location, on top of any plan. A business with three locations therefore pays nothing extra at SE Ranking and three location fees at Semrush. Content follows the same pattern. SE Ranking includes 25 articles a month on Core and 50 on Growth in Content Marketing, while Semrush sells its content tools as a separate Content toolkit. SE Ranking's AI Writer and Content Editor are simpler. Semrush's content tools are deeper, but they sit on top of the SEO plan.

Trials, free plans, refunds and leaving

Two very different trials

SE Ranking's trial lasts 14 days, needs no card and "does not renew into a paid subscription" ^[3]. Semrush's 7-day trial charges the first payment automatically when it ends unless you cancel beforehand ^[4], and a trial can be used only once. For a cautious buyer, SE Ranking's trial is the safer way to test with real data. Semrush answers with something SE Ranking lacks: a free plan with one project, 10 tracked keywords, 10 reports a day across the main tools and a 100-page site audit. SE Ranking's free option is a set of single-check tools with about five uses a day. For occasional checks without paying, Semrush wins.

Refunds: neither is generous

SE Ranking's payments are non-refundable, except in cases where the service was not delivered as promised. Semrush refunds only a written request made within 7 calendar days of a first purchase, and it does not refund month-to-month subscriptions at all. In practice, Semrush's 7-day window on a first annual plan is the only real refund between them. Plan accordingly.

Cancelling and moving out

SE Ranking cancellation is a button in Billing, and the plan runs to the end of the paid period. Its catch is that annual add-ons need a support request to cancel. Semrush requires a cancellation form and a confirmation link that is valid for 24 hours, and cancellations take effect at the end of the committed term. SE Ranking bills through Stripe and no longer accepts PayPal. After a canceled plan ends, its projects stay stored for 60 days and are then deleted. Whichever tool you leave, export rankings and reports first.

Rank tracking, research data and audits

Rank tracking

Both tools track daily. SE Ranking covers Google desktop and mobile, Bing, Yahoo and YouTube, down to city or postal code. Semrush's SEO plan tracks 500 keywords daily, and Pro+ adds multi-location and device tracking. On volume, SE Ranking gives four times the keywords at entry level, and Growth still tracks 3.3 times what Pro+ does. For anyone whose main job is watching positions across many sites, that volume decides it.

Keyword and competitor research

SE Ranking cites 5.5 billion keywords across 188 geo databases. Semrush promises to unearth billions of keywords without giving a single figure on its home page. SE Ranking's research reports are unlimited on paid plans, while SE Ranking's own comparison page lists Semrush at 3,000 to 10,000 keyword research requests a day. In our assessment, depth favors Semrush and volume favors SE Ranking. Semrush also carries specialist toolkits for advertising, market data and PR, which matter to agencies whose billable work is research.

Backlinks and site audits

SE Ranking cites 2.7 trillion backlinks, and its own pages put the figure anywhere up to 3 trillion. Its tables are built from an analysed sample capped by plan. For link prospecting at scale, Ahrefs is the stronger tool and Semrush sits between the two. For monitoring your own links, both are adequate. On audits, SE Ranking's Website Audit covers 250,000 pages a month on Core and 2 million on Growth. Semrush includes Site Audit on every SEO plan and an AI-ready Site Audit from Starter up. Both are thorough enough for most sites.

AI search, MCP and the API

Tracking AI answers

SE Ranking Core tracks 100 AI prompts daily across five AI engines. Semrush's SEO plan has AI visibility reports but no dedicated prompt-tracking quota; Starter adds 50 prompts. Semrush's AI Visibility toolkit costs $99 a month per domain, billed annually. For AI tracking on a budget, SE Ranking wins. A team that wants daily answers for 100 prompts on five engines gets them inside the $129 Core plan. On Semrush, the same team needs at least the $199 Starter plan for 50 prompts, or the AI Visibility toolkit on top of the SEO plan. That is a second invoice before a single prompt is tracked.

Going deeper costs extra on both sides. SE Ranking's AI Search add-on extends prompt tracking and includes SE Visible, a separate AI brand dashboard, from $89 a month or $71.20 billed annually. Semrush's AI Visibility toolkit starts at $99 a month. Both vendors now treat AI answers as a separate product line, so budget for it if AI search is a priority.

MCP and API access

SE Ranking's MCP server is listed in the Claude and ChatGPT connector directories, and every paid plan includes MCP access and API credits: 25,000 on Core and 100,000 on Growth. Semrush's MCP needs Starter, Pro+ or a legacy Pro or Guru plan, each with 50,000 MCP API units that refresh at renewal. On Semrush's entry SEO plan, MCP is not included. Its Standard API is an add-on to the top tier, which starts with zero units until you buy them. Developers on a budget get more from SE Ranking. By a lot.

Agencies and client reporting

SE Ranking's Agency Pack costs from $69 a month, billed annually, and adds white label for the whole platform, client seats and the Lead Generator. Semrush sells branded reports one at a time, at $10 or $20 a month each, and its agency directory listing costs $90 a month. Agencies that want a branded client login get it only at SE Ranking. Research-heavy agencies are the exception. An agency doing deep keyword and link research for large clients may prefer Semrush despite the price, and many such agencies run both tools.

One caution before you commit: SE Ranking's own pages disagree on several points buyers care about. The Agency Pack's client seats appear as 10 or 30, extra seat prices as $16 or $20, and API add-on credits as 3M or 250K a year. Each can change an agency's budget. Ask for the figure that applies in writing before paying a year upfront.

Support, ease of use and what users say

All SE Ranking customers get chat and email support, the help center and the Academy; Growth adds dedicated support, and higher tiers add customer success. Annual SE Ranking plans also come with free assisted migration. On ease of use, SE Ranking's own review roundup says it is the strength G2 reviewers mention most. Semrush's interface is denser because it covers more toolkits. For a small team without a dedicated SEO, SE Ranking is quicker to learn; for specialists, Semrush's depth is worth the learning curve.

On ownership, Semrush is a public company acquired by Adobe in April 2026, and Adobe's customer FAQ promises no immediate changes to features, support or billing. SE Ranking is a private company founded in 2013 and backed by Camber Partners. Both are stable choices. Watch both anyway. Adobe's promise covers immediate changes only, so it says little about the long run, and an annual plan on either side is a commitment you cannot refund later.

Semrush has more reviews on the big platforms, but SE Ranking scores higher on every one of them. The complaints point in different directions. Semrush's Trustpilot reviews are dominated by billing, cancellation and refund complaints rather than tool support. SE Ranking's one-star reviews focus on rank tracking outages after Google changes, legacy plan moves and refused refunds. One vendor's critics talk about money; the other's talk about data reliability. Each tells you what to check during the trial.

Three buyers, worked through

A freelancer with six clients

A freelancer tracking 1,500 keywords for six clients fits SE Ranking Core at $129 a month. On Semrush, 1,500 keywords need Pro+ at $299, because the SEO plan stops at 500 and covers only 5 websites. Billed annually, that is $1,238.40 against $2,978.04 a year, a difference of $1,739.64. For a one-person business, that gap decides the question on its own. It is hard to argue with.

A local business with three branches

A three-branch business on SE Ranking Core gets its three Local Marketing locations included. On Semrush it pays $139 for the SEO plan plus a Local toolkit fee for each of the three locations. Even before those fees, the Semrush base plan costs $10 a month more and tracks a quarter of the keywords. SE Ranking covers the three locations without a second invoice.

An agency with five staff

On SE Ranking Growth, three seats are included and two more cost $20 a month each, $319 a month in total. On Semrush Pro+ at $299, each extra user costs at least $45 a month. Before any toolkits, the Semrush setup already costs more and tracks 1,500 keywords against 5,000. White label follows the same logic, since Semrush sells branded reports one by one while SE Ranking's Agency Pack covers the whole platform.

Switching from Semrush, or testing both first

SE Ranking imports keywords, projects and ranking history from Semrush, and annual SE Ranking plans include free assisted migration. Custom report layouts and dashboards must be rebuilt by hand. Migrate one project first and compare rankings for two weeks. Then move the rest. Undecided? The two can be tested side by side at no cost: SE Ranking's trial needs no card and stops on its own, and Semrush's free plan needs no card either. Run the same 20 keywords in both for two weeks and compare positions against Google in an incognito window.

Which one to choose

Choose SE Ranking if you track many keywords daily, serve local businesses, want AI tracking without an extra toolkit, need a white-label client portal, or want a trial without a card. It is the better buy for most small agencies, freelancers and in-house teams. Choose Semrush if you need advertising and market research in one login, deeper research data, or a free plan for occasional use. It also suits teams already trained on it. Budget for extra users and toolkits. They add up. Our composite scores in the SEO category put SE Ranking ahead: it leads on value and ease of use, while Semrush leads on capability and depth. The scorecards in our SE Ranking review explain every axis.

The bottom line

For most buyers comparing these two, SE Ranking is the better value by a wide margin, especially on tracking volume, local listings and AI features, and its no-card trial removes the risk of finding out. Semrush earns its premium only when data depth and breadth are the job. Try SE Ranking's trial first, use Semrush's free plan to fill the gaps, and count seats and locations before you compare a single price.