Semrush vs SE Ranking
By Udayan Ambwani, Co-founder & CTO · 5 Oct 2026
Semrush and SE Ranking are full SEO suites at different price points. Semrush is deeper and broader; SE Ranking covers the core jobs for less and now includes daily AI tracking in its base plans.
The verdict
SE Ranking for daily AI tracking from $129, cheaper seats and agency reporting. Semrush when research depth, Claude tracking or digital PR justify paying more.
Choose Semrush if
You need the deepest keyword data, Claude tracking and digital PR in one suite.
Choose SE Ranking if
You want 100 AI prompts tracked daily on the entry plan, cheap seats and white-label reports.
How to choose between Semrush and SE Ranking
Both are full SEO suites, and the $10 gap between their entry plans hides larger differences in what each includes. Semrush SEO costs $139 a month for five websites and 500 daily keywords. SE Ranking Core costs $129 for ten projects, 2,000 daily keywords and 100 AI prompts tracked every day. The better buy depends on whether you need Semrush’s extra depth or SE Ranking’s larger allowances.
SE Ranking suits agencies and teams that report on many sites. Extra manager seats start at $16 a month, the plan covers local SEO in three locations, with listings in 100+ directories, and the Agency Pack adds white-label reports for $69 a month billed yearly. Its trial runs 14 days with no card and includes 20 AI prompts a day. The gaps are Claude and Copilot, which its tracking does not cover, and no listed security certification.
Semrush suits teams whose research spans many markets or reaches beyond search. Its keyword database is about five times the size, 27.3 billion against 5.5 billion, and the same account runs digital PR, marketing reports and Content Creation for full articles. Local listings are sold separately through Semrush Local at $30 to $60 per location a month, and branded reports cost $20 a month each through Pro Report.
On AI answers, SE Ranking gives more at the entry price. Its Core plan includes 100 daily prompts, while Semrush’s $139 plan shows no allowance and tracking begins on the $199 Starter plan with 50. Semrush does track Claude, which matters if your buyers use it.
Count the people who need a login before comparing plans. Five users on SE Ranking Core cost $193 a month; the same five on Semrush SEO, with extra users from $45, cost at least $319. Both offer a trial, 14 days on SE Ranking and 7 on Semrush, long enough to run your own keywords through each.
Feature by feature
What each tool does today, on the plans named in each row. Not described means the vendor’s pages do not mention it, which is not the same as the product lacking it.
SE Ranking puts daily AI tracking, API and MCP on its entry plan with cheaper seats; Semrush answers with a larger keyword database, digital PR and Claude tracking.
| Feature | Semrush | SE Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| SEO data | ||
| Keyword database | 27.3B+ keywords | 5.5B keywords |
| Rank tracking updates | Daily | Daily |
| Digital PR | Yes | Not described |
| AI search and writing | ||
| AI tracking on the cheapest plan | No allowance shown | 100 prompts a day |
| AI writing | Content Creation | AI writer |
| Access and buying | ||
| Additional users | From $45 a month | From $16 a month |
| API and MCP | API on Advanced | On Core and Growth |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days, no card |
| Security certification listed | SSO; SOC 2 not stated | No trust page found |
What some rows meanThe plan or limit behind a cell, where it needs saying
- Keyword database. SE Ranking also lists 2.2 billion domain profiles across 188 country databases.
- AI tracking on the cheapest plan. Semrush’s $139 SEO plan shows no tracked-prompt allowance; its $199 Starter tracks 50 a day.
Need cited drafts beside the SEO data?
Veritas, which we build, drafts from a knowledge graph of your own documents with every knowledge-based claim cited, beside keyword research, site audits and AI visibility on four engines.
AI answer tracking
Both suites refresh AI answers daily across five engines, but not the same five. SE Ranking covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, with 100 prompts on Core, 250 on Growth at $279 and an optional add-on from $89 for 200 more. Semrush covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and AI Overviews, tracking 50 prompts on Starter at $199 and up to 200 on Advanced.
A year of tracking 10 or 50 prompts costs $1,548 on SE Ranking and $2,388 on Semrush. For a team of five on 100 prompts, SE Ranking Core with four extra seats comes to $2,316, while Semrush needs Pro+ plus four more users, $7,428. For an agency tracking 300 prompts across three brands, SE Ranking Core with its AI Search add-on comes to $4,344 a year; Semrush publishes no plan that reaches it.
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Engine by engine, and what tracking costs a yearWhich engines each tool covers on its tracking plan, and the yearly cost for four team sizes
Which engines each tool covers
On the cheapest plan that tracks AI answers. Most vendors list more engines than that plan includes, so this is what you get at the price shown, not the brochure maximum.
| Tool and plan | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Perplexity | AI Overviews | AI Mode | Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Semrush Starter | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included | unclear | unclear |
SE Ranking Core | Included | Not on this plan | Included | Included | Included | Included | Not on this plan |
A tick is included. Add-on means an extra monthly fee. You choose means the plan lets you pick a limited number of platforms from this list. Unclear means the vendor’s wording does not say.
The plan behind each row, and what changes on higher plans, are on each tool’s review: Semrush, SE Ranking.
What AI answer tracking costs a year
These setups price one thing: tracking how AI assistants answer about you, for a given number of prompts and people, over twelve months. They are not the cost of the SEO toolkit, which is in the table above. Where no published plan fits, the note says why instead of guessing.
| Tool | Getting started1 seat, 10 tracked prompts, 1 brand | One marketer, one brand1 seat, 50 tracked prompts, 1 brand | Team of five, one brand5 seats, 100 tracked prompts, 1 brand | Agency, three brands10 seats, 300 tracked prompts, 3 brands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | $1,548lowest | $1,548lowest | $2,316lowest | $4,344lowest |
| Semrush | $2,388 | $2,388 | $7,428 | No published fit1 |
- 1No published plan tracks the prompts this setup needs; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Bars share one scale across the whole table, so cost growth shows as well as rank. A figure far above the rest is marked off scale.
The plan, seats and add-ons behind every figure are worked through on each tool’s review: SE Ranking, Semrush.
What would change our verdict
- SE Ranking adding Claude to its AI tracking, which would remove Semrush’s clearest engine advantage on this page.
- Semrush publishing a tracked-prompt allowance on its $139 SEO plan, which would change the entry price comparison.
- Adobe repricing Semrush after the acquisition, which would change every cost figure on this page.
Questions people ask
Is SE Ranking as good as Semrush?
For the core jobs of rank tracking, keyword research, backlinks and site audits, SE Ranking covers the same ground for less. Semrush is deeper, with a 27.3 billion keyword database against 5.5 billion, and broader, with digital PR and Claude tracking.
Which is cheaper?
SE Ranking, on prices read in September 2026: Core is $129 a month with 100 AI prompts tracked daily, against $199 for Semrush Starter with 50. Extra seats start at $16 on SE Ranking and at $45 on Semrush, rising to $80 on Pro+ and $100 on Advanced.
Which tracks more AI engines?
Both track five. Semrush includes Claude and AI Overviews; SE Ranking includes AI Mode and AI Overviews. Neither lists Microsoft Copilot on the pages we read.
Each tool’s full review
Every feature, price, pro and con for each tool, each fact linked to the vendor page it came from, is on that tool’s own review page.
- Semrush reviewSEO and AI visibility suite
- SE Ranking reviewSEO suite with AI visibility
How the scores are calculatedThe arithmetic behind each score
| Tool | Weighted score | Criteria scored | Strongest criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | 86 | 7 of 8 | Refresh frequency |
| Semrush | 74 | 7 of 8 | Refresh frequency |
Eight rules, each applied to the published facts in the reviews and weighted to a total out of 100. The rules and weights are set out in our methodology.
How we researched this pageMethod and the update log
How we researched this page
Every fact about another tool comes from that vendor’s own pages, or from a press report where we say so, listed under Sources with the date we read them. Where a vendor does not describe something, we say so rather than guess.
The scores and cost figures on this page are calculated, not assigned. Our full methodology sets out every rule, what each criterion is worth, and where our evidence runs out.
Disclosure. Veritas is our product. It appears on this page because it competes in this category, and we have tried to state its limits as plainly as anyone else’s. If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to support@getveritas.io and we will correct it and note the change in the log.
Update log
- 5 October 2026Published.
Sources
The pages behind this comparison, most recently read 29 September 2026. Each tool’s review dates its own sources.
- Semrush: Academy · Adobe Completes Semrush Acquisition · Features · Keyword Magic Tool · Local · My Reports · Pricing · Pricing (SEO AI Search) · Security · User Management
- SE Ranking: Academy · AI Visibility Tracker · Free Tools · Homepage · Pricing
How this page was made. Veritas is our product. Every fact about another tool is checked against that vendor’s own pages, and scores and costs are calculated by our published rules.
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