Semrush
Semrush is an SEO and AI-search visibility platform that combines keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits and rank tracking. Core uses are finding traffic opportunities, monitoring rankings and checking how brands appear in AI answers.
#5 in Marketing ToolsSEO ToolsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Small SEO teams that need keyword, rank and competitor data in one place
Freelance SEO specialists running site audits and rank tracking for clients
Not for
Trial users who expect a refund after a missed cancellation
Small businesses that need all tools included without paid add-ons
Free plan$0
SEO$139.95/mo
Starter$199/mo
Advanced$299/mo
Features
Keyword research
Unearth billions of keywords with AI, check volume and difficulty, and compare keyword sets against competitors before planning content.
Site audit and technical health
Run technical site audits that surface the issues holding back rankings, and follow fixes from the same dashboard.
AI visibility tracking
Track prompt-level visibility in AI answers and compare AI market share against competitors across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google.
Backlink analysis
Analyze backlinks and referring domains, benchmark competitors and find link opportunities that build off-site authority.
Traffic and market data
See where any website's traffic comes from, track market trends and benchmark competitors with a large traffic and market dataset.
What users say
Pros
- Keyword research, rank tracking and site audits produce data solid enough to trust for real projects.
- Visibility reports pick up rankings for thousands of queries that other trackers show as nearly invisible.
- A free tier covers enough SEO work for a small site without a subscription.
Cons
- Cancelling in the dashboard needs a second confirmation by email, so accounts look closed and are still charged.
- Monthly subscriptions are excluded from refunds, so a same-day request after a trial charge is refused.
- Many tools inside a paid plan need extra add-ons, and add-ons can start billing without a clear warning.
- Monthly plans are expensive and every limit hit brings a paid top-up on top of the subscription.
- Rank tracking lags behind real ranking changes and reports drop dates that are way off.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 10k
Alternatives
Rank#5 in category#1 in category#2 in category#3 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProTrusted keyword data, wide query coverage, usable free tierFar cheaper than big SEO suites, quick keyword ideas and auditsCheap SEO suite, plain interface, fast replies, solid keywordsFinds broken links fast, reliable custom extraction, same-day replies
Better forLower-cost paid subscriptions starting at $37.70/month billed annually.Deep desktop technical crawls, custom page extraction and XML sitemaps at $16.58/month.
Weaker atRunning technical site audits and multi-competitor keyword gap comparisons.Researching keywords, tracking search rankings and analyzing competitor traffic.