Mangools vs Semrush: Which Fits a Small Website?
We ran the same keyword task in Mangools and SE Ranking, checked Semrush's published plans, and compared prices and limits. Here's who each tool is best suited to.
Mangools Basic (EUR 37.70/mo annually) fits one small site. SE Ranking Core (EUR 87.20) fits several sites with daily rank tracking. Semrush (from EUR 112.52) fits competitor and content research. On the same keyword the tools showed 3,800 vs 80 searches a month, so check important numbers in a second source.
In this guide
Short answer
- One small site, lowest price: Mangools. Basic is €37.70 a month on annual billing, €61 month to month.
- Several sites and daily rank tracking: SE Ranking Core, €87.20 a month on annual billing, with a 14-day trial that needs no card.
- Competitor research in one suite: Semrush SEO, from €112.52 a month on annual billing. AI visibility tracking starts on Starter (€158.40) and content optimisation on Pro+ (€238).
The comparison
Prices and limits below come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked on 22 September 2026.
| Mangools Basic | SE Ranking Core | Semrush SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly equivalent, billed annually | €37.70 | €87.20 | €112.52 |
| Billed month to month | €61.00 | €109.00 | €134.00 |
| Keyword searches | 100 / 24h | "unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research" per vendor | daily limit not published |
| Suggestions per search | 200 | not stated as a number | not stated as a number |
| Keywords tracked | 200, updated weekly, unlimited domains | 2,000 checked daily | 500 checked daily |
| AI prompts tracked | not offered | 100 daily | 50 daily, from Starter |
| Projects | unlimited domains for tracking | 10 projects | 5 websites |
| Included seats | 1, no extra seats available on Basic | 1 manager seat | 1 |
| Additional seats | not available on Basic | add-ons priced separately | from €43 / mo |
| Free access | free plan, 5 keyword and 5 SERP lookups a day | 14-day trial, no card required | trial requires a card |
| Refunds | full refund within 48 hours of payment, conditions apply | not verified | not verified |
| Hands-on access we used | free plan | 14-day trial | not tested |
| Best fit | one site, lowest price | several sites, daily tracking | competitor and content research |
USD equivalents in this article are illustrative conversions at the European Central Bank reference rate of 22 September 2026 (€1 = $1.1463): roughly $43, $100 and $129 a month on annual billing. Vendors set their own dollar prices, so the amount at checkout will differ. We viewed the pricing pages from Portugal, and vendors may show other currencies elsewhere.
How we compared
We ran the same task in Mangools and SE Ranking: find keywords for a small site about home coffee roasting, seed keyword home coffee roasting, United States, English.
We used Mangools on its free plan and SE Ranking on its 14-day trial, so we saw the limits of those access levels, not of the paid plans in the table. We did not run the task in Semrush, because its trial asks for a credit card; everything here about Semrush comes from its published pricing and feature pages. Our method: how we compare.
The same keyword, two different estimates
For home coffee roasting in the United States:
- Mangools showed 3,800 searches a month, with a CPC of $0.62.
- SE Ranking showed 80 searches a month, with a difficulty score of 26 and informational intent.
For this single query the displayed estimates differed by a factor of 47.5. Both figures are estimates. We did not establish why they differed or which one is closer to real demand, and one keyword on one day proves nothing about either database. Google also rounds the search-volume statistics it publishes.
What you can take from it: before you plan months of work around one keyword, check its volume in a second source.
Mangools
On the free plan our search returned 25 suggestions for the seed keyword, with volume, CPC and a trend chart in the results table.
The free limits are 5 keyword lookups and 5 SERP lookups per 24 hours. Keyword difficulty is tied to those SERP lookups: once they run out, the difficulty values stay behind a refresh icon until the daily limit resets, as the screenshot above shows. Basic raises this to 100 keyword searches a day and 200 suggestions per search; unlimited suggestions start on Premium at €52.70 a month on annual billing (€81 month to month).
Basic tracks 200 keywords with weekly updates across unlimited domains, and daily rank updates start on the Agency plan. Basic lists no extra seats.
Affiliate disclosure. Some links in this article are affiliate links: if you subscribe through them, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it doesn't change our conclusions. More: how we compare.
Try Mangools — the free plan is enough to see the data and the interface before paying.
SE Ranking
On the trial, the same seed keyword returned 906 related keywords, with filters for difficulty, volume, search intent, SERP features and CPC, grouping by word, and export. Mangools' free plan displayed its maximum of 25 suggestions. These are different access levels, so the counts say nothing about database coverage or what a paid Mangools plan would return.
Core costs €87.20 a month on annual billing (€109 month to month) and covers 10 projects, one manager seat, 2,000 keywords checked daily, 100 AI prompts, 250,000 pages a month in audits and 25,000 API credits with MCP access. Add-ons extend that rather than unlock it: the Agency Pack (+€59) brings white-label reporting and client seats, AI Search (+€63.20) raises prompt limits, and the API add-on (+€39) adds credits. The trial runs 14 days and needs no card, with starter limits rather than full Core limits.
Semrush
We did not run our task in Semrush, so this section reports its published plans.
The SEO plan costs €112.52 a month billed annually, or €134 month to month, and covers 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword and competitor research, position tracking and site audit. AI visibility tracking with 50 prompts starts on Starter at €158.40 a month billed annually. Content optimisation, historical data and 15 websites start on Pro+ at €238 a month billed annually. Extra users cost from €43 a month, and reporting add-ons are priced separately.
If you need competitor research and backlinks in one subscription, the SEO plan covers that; content tools and AI visibility sit on the higher plans. If you only need keyword ideas and rank tracking for one site, much of it will stay unopened.
Which one fits you
- One small site, occasional research: start with Mangools' free plan and move to Basic when 5 lookups a day stop being enough.
- A few client sites and daily rank tracking on a budget below Semrush's entry price: SE Ranking Core, after the 14-day trial.
- Team that needs competitor research: Semrush SEO. Add AI visibility tracking with Starter, or content optimisation with Pro+.
- Not sure yet: start with Mangools' free plan or SE Ranking's 14-day trial before paying for anything.
What we did not test
- Semrush: no hands-on test, its trial requires a card.
- Paid plans: we used the Mangools free plan and the SE Ranking trial, not Basic and Core.
- Rank tracking accuracy over time, and backlink data quality.
- Search database sizes: none of the three publishes a figure we could verify.
- Markets other than the United States. We ran one seed keyword on one day.
Sources
- Mangools plans and pricing, checked 22.09.2026
- SE Ranking pricing, checked 22.09.2026
- Semrush plans and pricing, checked 22.09.2026
- Our own test runs in Mangools and SE Ranking, 22–23.09.2026
- European Central Bank euro reference rate, 22.09.2026 (€1 = $1.1463)
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Keyword Research for One Website: What to Check Before Paying for SEO Tools