Semrush Competitors & Alternatives
Semrush is one of the most popular software tools used by online marketers. The company has over 7 million users and is a go-to resource for marketers managing paid and organic search for their businesses.
Before purchasing Semrush, it's important to understand alternative options. Below, we break down the different Semrush features, and share the top competitors in each category.
As you'll discover below, Semrush is the strongest all-around software to search marketers. It is the best solution for keyword research, keyword rank tracking, and competitive research. In addition, it has very strong tools for backlink analysis, SEO site audits, and content research. If you need a foundational search marketing tool and can afford $119.95 per month, it's an ideal choice.
You can also read this in-depth review of Semrush to better understand its software.
Table of Contents
Semrush Features
Before digging into Semrush competitors, it's important to understand the different Semrush features. Semrush is a portfolio of over 50 tools that help marketers improve their websites' performance in online search.
The nine primary Semrush feature categories are:
- Keyword Research
- Competitive Research
- Keyword Rank Tracking
- Backlink Analysis
- SEO Site Audits
- Content Research
- Traffic Analytics
- Listing Management
- Social Media Management
Semrush Competitor Overview
Semrush competes with numerous search solutions. The competitors you should evaluate alongside Semrush depends on which features you plan to use.
Tools like Ahrefs, the top Semrush competitor, compete with Semrush across all feature categories. Others, like AccuRanker and Screaming Frog, compete with individual Semrush tools.
- Would you prefer an all-in-one SEO tool to do everything? Consider Ahrefs, Moz, Serpstat, and SE Ranking.
- Are you looking for a keyword rank tracker? Try AccuRanker.
- Do you need a tool for site audits? Try Screaming Frog.
Top Semrush Competitors
The top Semrush competitors are:
- Ahrefs
- Moz
- Serpstat
- SE Ranking
- SpyFu
- Alexa
- AccuRanker
- KWFinder
Semrush Competitors by Feature Category
Another way to understand Semrush's competitors is to evaluate them by feature category. Here's a full breakdown of Semrush competitors by feature category:
| What Feature Do You Need? | Top Semrush Competitors |
|---|---|
| All Features | Ahrefs, Serpstat, SE Ranking, Moz |
| Keyword Research | KWFinder, Long Tail Pro |
| Competitive Research | SpyFu, Alexa |
| Keyword Rank Tracking | AccuRanker |
| Backlink Analysis | Majestic |
| SEO Site Audits | DeepCrawl, Screaming Frog |
| Content Research | BuzzSumo |
| Traffic Analytics | SimilarWeb |
| Listing Management | Yext |
| Social Media Management | Sprout Social |
All-in-one SEO Tools
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an excellent all-in-one SEO solution. It's actually Semrush's top overall competitor. If you're focused on backlink analysis, then we recommend Ahrefs. If you're more interested in doing keyword research and rank tracking, then Semrush is your better option.
| Ahrefs Starting Price: $99/month
Ahrefs vs. Semrush:
|
Serpstat
Serpstat is another popular all-in-one SEO solution that offers most of the same features as Semrush. It is slightly cheaper than Semrush and allows you to track a much higher keyword volume. As a result, many cost-conscious marketers believe that Serpstat is the better option. We recommend testing both of these tools to determine which is best for you.
| Serpstat Starting Price: $69/month
Serpstat vs. Semrush:
|
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a solid all-in-one SEO tool used by over 300,000 customers. It's $19 starting price is significantly lower than Semrush's $99 entry plan. While the systems offer many of the same features, the tools in Semrush are generally more robust. Keyword research is an important example where the quality of the two systems differs greatly.
| SE Ranking Starting Price: $19/month
SE Ranking vs. Semrush:
|
Moz
Moz offers many of the same features as Semrush, including keyword research, rank tracking, backlink analysis and business listing management. It is a very popular tool among online marketers. However, Moz does not offer the same breadth of tools. In addition, its keyword research provides far less data than Semrush.
| Moz Starting Price: $99/month (Moz Pro), $129/year (Moz Local)
Moz vs. Semrush:
|
Keyword Research
KWFinder
KWFinder is a keyword research tool developed by Mangools. It is a good option for beginners on a budget.
KWFinder has a few significant drawbacks compared to Semrush. For example, it limits results to 200 keywords (vs. 10,000) and does not offer a keyword gap analysis tool. Overall, we recommend Semrush for keyword research.
| KWFinder Starting Price: $49/month
KWFinder vs. Semrush:
|
Long Tail Pro
Long Tail Pro is another leading keyword research tool. At $37/month, it is far cheaper than Semrush.
However, for most use cases, its keyword research tool is less valuable than what Semrush provides. And with Semrush, you get a portfolio of tools that will provide incremental value. Once again, for keyword research, we recommend going with Semrush.
| Long Tail Pro Starting Price: $37/month
Long Tail Pro vs. Semrush:
|
Competitive Research
SpyFu
SpyFu is a competitive intelligence tool for online marketers. It is used by customers to spy on the organic and paid search activity of their competitors.
At $39 per month, SpyFu costs much less than Semrush. If you want a solution for competitive research only, then SpyFu is a great option. Semrush costs $99 per month, but does come with a wide range of tools.
| SpyFu Starting Price: $39 per month
SpyFu vs. Semrush:
|
Alexa
Alexa is a competitive intelligence tool used by marketers to better understand their competitors' audiences & online marketing practices. Some of the audience insights provided can only be found in Alexa.
Alexa is a solid option worth testing. However, in general, Semrush offers a wider range of tools at a lower price-point.
| Alexa Starting Price: $149/month
Alexa vs. Semrush:
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Keyword Rank Tracking
AccuRanker
AccuRanker and Semrush are our two favorite keyword rank tracking tools. The key difference between these products is their breadth of features – Semrush offers a wide range of tools, while AccuRanker is focused specifically on keyword rank tracking. If you are in the market for a specialized tool to monitor your website's performance in Google search, AccuRanker is worth a look.
| AccuRanker Starting Price: $109/month
AccuRanker vs. Semrush:
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Backlink Analysis
Majestic
Majestic is a backlink analysis tool that leverages data from the company's enormous link intelligence web index. Other SEO software applications actually pay Majestic to use its proprietary database of websites and backlinks.
The Majestic offering is most similar to Semrush's Backlink Audit Tool. Semrush's basic tool is valuable, but is nowhere near as advanced as Majestic. If you want the richest understanding of your website's backlinks, Majestic is the option for you. You might also consider evaluating Ahrefs.
| Majestic Starting Price: $49/month
Majestic vs. Semrush:
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SEO Site Audits
Deepcrawl
Semrush does come with a site audit tool that crawls your website to surface basic technical SEO issues. These include broken links, duplicate content, missing title tags and H1s.
However, website crawling is not Semrush's core competency. It's crawler works for smaller websites, but does not provide the level of insight and detailed analysis that larger sites require. If your goal is to run a thorough crawl of your website to surface and fix technical SEO issues, then we recommend a solution like Deepcrawl.
| Deepcrawl Starting Price: $14/month
Deepcrawl vs. Semrush:
|
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a top Deepcrawl competitor. They're both best-in-class crawlers that website owners use to detect and fix technical SEO issues.
As we explained above, crawling is not Semrush's core competency. As a result, crawls performed by Screaming Frog result in deeper insight and more actionable reports. If you're in the market for a crawler, we recommend evaluating Deepcrawl and Screaming Frog.
| Screaming Frog Starting Price: £149.00 Per Year
Screaming Frog vs. Semrush:
|
Content Research
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a popular content marketing tool. Marketers use it to find content ideas and influencers.
Semrush includes a Topic Research tool that shows you topics related to any keyword, as well as the top performing content for your keyword. BuzzSumo offers several advanced tools in addition to these basic features.
If you are looking for a tool specifically to improve your content marketing, then BuzzSumo is a great option. Keep in mind that it only does content marketing; it does not offer the breadth of tools found in Semrush.
| BuzzSumo Starting Price: $99/month
BuzzSumo vs. Semrush:
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Traffic Analytics
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb leverages its massive panel of users to produce traffic analytics reports for websites. The company tracks the behavior of hundreds of millions of users to understand each website's traffic, traffic sources, audience interests, and competing websites.
Similar Web's product is most similar to Semrush's Traffic Analytics Tool. The Traffic Analytics Tool provides basic audience and traffic insights for any website.
| SimilarWeb Starting Price: Custom Quotes Only
SimilarWeb vs. Semrush:
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Listing Management
Yext
Yext is popular listing management software used by thousands of small businesses to control the data they share with business directories. Popular directories include Google My Business, Apple Maps, Facebook and Yelp.
Semrush has partnered with Yext to offer its service for $20/month through the Semrush platform. We are not aware of any advantages of purchasing it through Semrush vs. directly from Yext.
| Yext Starting Price: $199/year
Yext vs. Semrush:
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Social Media Management
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is the best social media management system for SMBs. It is used by thousands of customers to create, publish and measure social media content across all the major social media platforms. While Semrush does offer basic features for social media, this is not its core competency.
If you are in the market for a tool to streamline your social media operations, try Sprout Social or another social media management tool.
| Sprout Social Starting Price: $99/month
Sprout Social vs. Semrush:
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Bottom Line
Because Semrush offers so many tools, it can be challenging to determine if it is the best solution for you. However, there are really only two types of Semrush competitors:
- All-in-one SEO tools like Ahrefs and Serpstat that compete with Semrush across all feature categories
- Point solutions that specialize in one of Semrush's feature categories
We've highlighted the best options in both categories above. Hopefully this has brought clarity to your software evaluation process. We'd love to hear any feedback: info[at]softwarepundit.com.