SE Ranking vs Semrush: Prices, Limits and Our Hands-On Tests
We tested SE Ranking's trial and a free Semrush account, then compared both vendors' plans, prices and limits. Here's which one fits your workload.
Anton · · 13 min readSE Ranking Core costs $129 a month and Semrush's SEO plan $139.95. Core tracks four times as many keywords (2,000 against 500) and includes AI prompt tracking and API credits. Semrush reports a keyword database about five times the size of SE Ranking's. For the five US keywords we checked, Semrush's displayed search-volume estimates were four to six times as high as SE Ranking's. In SE Ranking's trial on our own site (one small site, one day), we confirmed the condition behind each of the 13 audit findings it classified as errors.
In this guide
Short answer
- Rank tracking across several sites on a budget: SE Ranking Core. It costs $129 a month ($103.20 on annual billing) and covers 10 projects and 2,000 keywords checked daily.
- Research that needs bigger keyword and backlink databases: Semrush. The SEO plan costs $139.95 a month ($117.33 on annual billing), and Semrush reports about five times as many keywords in its database as SE Ranking does.
- AI answer tracking on a small budget: SE Ranking Core tracks 100 AI prompts daily. Semrush adds AI tracking from its Starter plan at $199 a month, with 50 prompts tracked daily.
The comparison
USD list prices and limits come from each vendor's pricing page and help center, checked on 23 September 2026.
| SE Ranking Core | Semrush SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Billed month to month | $129 | $139.95 |
| Per month, billed annually | $103.20 | $117.33 |
| Projects (websites) | 10 | 5 |
| Keywords tracked daily | 2,000, counted per keyword and search engine | 500, counted per keyword and target |
| AI prompts tracked daily | 100 | not included; 50 from Starter ($199) |
| Research requests | unlimited, per SE Ranking | 3,000 reports a day |
| Rows of results | up to 50,000 to view or export | up to 10,000 per report |
| Site audit | 250,000 pages a month | 100,000 pages a month, up to 20,000 per audit |
| JavaScript rendering in audits | an option in audit settings | from Pro+ ($299) |
| Users included | 1 | 1 |
| Extra user | from $16 a month; billing terms not stated | $45 a month |
| API | 25,000 research API credits a month | Advanced plan only ($549), units bought separately |
| Engines in rank tracking | Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube; in our trial, which includes the AI Search add-on, the project form also offered AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity | Google, Bing, Baidu; ChatGPT and Google AI Mode need Starter or higher, or the AI Visibility Toolkit |
| Database size, vendor's figures | 5.5B keywords, 2.9T backlinks | 28.9B keywords, 43T backlinks |
| Geographic coverage, vendor's wording | 188 countries | 142 geo databases |
| Free access | 14-day trial, no card | 7-day trial with a card; free account with 10 requests a day |
| Refunds | none, except when the service isn't delivered as promised or a promotion says so | one-time 7-day guarantee for eligible initial annual plans or additional-license orders; conditions apply |
| Key distinction | higher tracking and project limits for the price; AI prompts and API credits on the entry plan | larger reported databases; separate toolkits, including advertising and social media |
| Our access | 14-day trial, tested 23 Sep 2026 | free account, keyword lookups on 23 Sep 2026 |
When we opened the pricing pages from Portugal, they showed euro prices: SE Ranking Core €109 a month (€87.20 on annual billing) and Semrush SEO €134.21 (€112.52).
What you'd pay for your workload
Monthly billing, prices as of 23 September 2026:
| Workload | SE Ranking | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person, up to 5 sites, 500 keywords | Core: $129 | SEO: $139.95 |
| Same, plus AI prompt tracking | Core: $129, 100 prompts tracked daily | Starter: $199, 50 prompts tracked daily |
| 3 people using the SEO tools, 15 sites, 1,500 keywords | Growth: $279 for 30 projects, 3 users and 5,000 keywords | Pro+ with two extra users: $299 + 2 × $80 = $459 |
Semrush's extra-user price covers its SEO tools. It charges separately for AI visibility access for each additional user, and the $459 total leaves that out.
Several comparison pages in the search results on 23 September 2026 still quote SE Ranking's legacy Essential, Pro and Business plans, which are closed to new subscribers, and Google's AI Overview for this query calls SE Ranking about half the price of Semrush. At entry level the gap is now $10.95 a month on monthly billing. The bigger differences show up in the limits, and in the bill once a team needs more users and sites.
How we compared
On 23 September 2026 we connected our own site, nakodil.site, to a 14-day SE Ranking trial. We set up rank tracking for four keywords in Google (United States, English, desktop) and let SE Ranking run the site audit it started automatically when we created the project. Then we checked the results against what we know about our site and against a separate look at Google's results.
We also opened a free Semrush account, which needs no card and allows 10 analytics requests a day, and looked up the same keywords in its US database. We didn't test Semrush's paid plans, rank tracking or site audit: its trial requires a credit card, so their limits and features come from Semrush's pricing page, help center and statistics page, with the check date. Our method: how we compare.
What we saw in SE Ranking's trial
Rank tracking
Setting up the project took one form: the site address, the search engine, the location and the keywords. The engine picker offered Google, AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT, with Gemini, Perplexity, Yahoo and Bing under a menu. Our trial included the AI Search add-on, and SE Ranking's pricing page lists tracking in AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity and ChatGPT under that add-on.
The first check ran right after we saved the project. It returned US search volumes (390 a month for se ranking vs semrush, 210 for semrush vs se ranking) and showed that our site wasn't in the top 100 for any of the four keywords. Our English section went live in September 2026, so we expected that.
For every keyword, SE Ranking keeps the top 100 results and a cached copy of the results page it checked. We compared its top 10 for se ranking vs semrush with a separate check of Google's results the same morning, using US settings in English; our request didn't come from a US IP address. Nine of the ten URLs matched, and the first four appeared in the same order. Google showed eight organic results on the first page of our check, so we took positions 9 and 10 from the second page, which makes this an approximate comparison. It covers one keyword on one morning and says nothing about accuracy over weeks.
Site audit
The audit started on its own when we created the project. Within a few minutes it had crawled 115 pages of our site and reported a health score of 84, with 13 errors, 31 warnings and 409 notices.
We checked all 13 items SE Ranking classified as errors and confirmed the condition behind each one:
- Four pages returned 4XX codes. Two were broken links from our changelog page, which pointed to our English articles at Russian-section URLs; we fixed that the same day. One came from an old article that linked to a catalog page we had taken down. The fourth is a page we closed on purpose with a 410 code, and three pages still link to it.
- Eight images loaded through redirects. All of them are badges, charts and avatars from other sites embedded in our skills catalog.
- One page had no internal links pointing to it. It sits in our sitemap, but no other page on the site links to it.
The audit ran with JavaScript rendering off, the default in our trial. SE Ranking's help center lists JavaScript rendering as an option in the audit settings, and we didn't turn it on. Semrush includes JavaScript rendering in audits from the Pro+ plan.
Trial limits
The trial allowed 750 tracked keywords a day and 10,000 audited pages across the account. Our test used 4 keywords and about 115 pages. SE Ranking says the trial doesn't renew into a paid plan when it ends.
What we saw in Semrush's free account
On 23 September 2026 we looked up the same keywords in a free Semrush account, US database. We collected volumes for five keywords: three through direct lookups and two from the keyword variations shown in those reports. For each of the five, Semrush's estimate was four to six times as high as SE Ranking's:
| Keyword (United States) | SE Ranking | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
se ranking vs semrush |
390 | 1,900 |
semrush vs se ranking |
210 | 1,000 |
mangools vs semrush |
70 | 390 |
semrush vs mangools |
50 | 210 |
home coffee roasting |
80 | 320 |
Keyword difficulty differed as well: 15 in SE Ranking and 28% in Semrush for se ranking vs semrush. Each vendor estimates volume and difficulty with its own method, and this five-keyword sample can't tell you which estimate sits closer to real demand. If a keyword matters to your plan, check it in a second source.
The free view also listed Semrush's top 10 results for se ranking vs semrush. Seven of its ten URLs also appear in SE Ranking's top 10, and the first three positions match. The free view doesn't show when Semrush captured that results page, and it hides the page metrics (authority score, referring domains, backlinks) behind an upgrade prompt.
Our lookups for this article and our Mangools comparison used 4 of the free account's 10 daily requests.
SE Ranking: plans and limits
SE Ranking lists two plans on its pricing page, Core and Growth, plus custom Enterprise pricing. Core costs $129 a month or $103.20 a month on annual billing. It covers 10 projects, one user, 2,000 keywords checked daily, 100 AI prompts tracked daily across up to five AI platforms, 250,000 audited pages a month, 25,000 research API credits a month and MCP access. SE Ranking counts tracked keywords per engine: 30 keywords tracked in Google and Bing use 60 of the limit.
Growth costs $279 a month ($223.20 on annual billing). It raises the limits to 30 projects, three users, 5,000 keywords and 250 AI prompts tracked daily, and includes the full available research history.
Add-ons extend both plans. The Agency Pack (from $69 a month, annual billing only) adds white-label reports and client seats, AI Search (from $71.20 a month on annual billing) adds a 200-prompt package for AI search tracking, and the API add-on (from $45 a month, annual billing only) adds credits. Extra users start at $16 a month; the pricing page doesn't say whether that price requires annual billing.
SE Ranking checks rankings once a day and has no weekly schedule; you can trigger a manual recheck. Payments are non-refundable, except when the service isn't delivered as promised or a promotion says otherwise, so use the 14-day trial to test it on your own site. The trial needs no card.
Who it fits: freelancers and small agencies who track many keywords across several sites, and teams that want AI prompt tracking and API access on the entry plan.
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.
Start the 14-day SE Ranking trial
Semrush: plans and limits
Apart from the free-account lookups above, we didn't test Semrush, so this section reports its published plans and limits as of 23 September 2026.
Semrush publishes prices for four plans. The SEO plan costs $139.95 a month ($117.33 on annual billing) and covers 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, 3,000 reports a day with up to 10,000 rows each, and 100,000 audited pages a month. Starter costs $199 ($165.17) and adds AI visibility tracking with 50 prompts tracked daily; its SEO limits match the SEO plan. Pro+ costs $299 ($248.17) and moves to 15 websites and 1,500 keywords, with historical website traffic data back to 2012, JavaScript rendering in audits and Looker Studio. Advanced costs $549 ($455.67) for 40 websites, 5,000 keywords and API access, with API units bought separately.
Each plan includes one user, and extra users cost $45 to $100 a month depending on the plan. All four plans include MCP access. Semrush sells traffic research, local, content, social and advertising tools as separate toolkits.
Semrush reports the larger databases: 28.9 billion keywords and 43 trillion backlinks as of 22 September 2026, against 5.5 billion keywords and 2.9 trillion backlinks on SE Ranking's pages. SE Ranking's own comparison page says Semrush has the larger keyword database. Neither figure tells you how well a tool covers your niche.
The 7-day trial needs a card, works once per account and disables exports. If you don't cancel, it becomes a paid monthly plan. Semrush's one-time 7-day money-back guarantee covers eligible initial annual subscriptions or additional-license orders, not monthly plans, and conditions apply. Since April 2026 Semrush belongs to Adobe.
Who it fits: teams whose research needs larger keyword and backlink databases than SE Ranking reports, and teams that want advertising and social media tools from the same vendor.
See Semrush plans and pricing.
What we did not test
- Semrush's paid plans, rank tracking and site audit: its trial requires a card, and we used the free account only for keyword lookups.
- SE Ranking's paid plans: we used the trial, which has its own limits.
- Keyword and backlink data quality, including coverage of English- and Russian-language keywords; rank tracking over weeks; AI Search reports and content tools.
- More than one site: our site test covered one small site on one day. We compared search results for one keyword and search-volume estimates for five US keywords.
Alternatives
- Mangools fits one small site. When we checked from Portugal on 22 September 2026, its Basic plan cost €61 a month (€37.70 on annual billing), less than either entry plan above in euros. We compared it with Semrush in Mangools vs Semrush. Try Mangools
- Ahrefs is the other large all-in-one suite. We haven't tested it yet, and we have no affiliate relationship with Ahrefs.
Which one fits you
- You track rankings for several sites or clients: SE Ranking Core, or Growth for a team of three.
- Your research needs bigger keyword and backlink databases: Semrush SEO, or Pro+ if you need historical data.
- You want to track AI answers without moving to a higher plan: SE Ranking Core.
- You're still unsure: start with SE Ranking's 14-day trial, which needs no card. Semrush's 7-day trial needs a card and becomes a paid monthly plan if you don't cancel.
Sources
- SE Ranking plans and pricing, checked 23.09.2026
- SE Ranking help center: trial limits, rank tracking schedule, audit settings, trial end, checked 23.09.2026
- SE Ranking database figures: Backlink Checker, Domain Analysis API, checked 23.09.2026
- SE Ranking Rank Tracker page, FAQ and plans and billing help, checked 23.09.2026
- SE Ranking's Semrush comparison page, checked 23.09.2026
- Semrush plans and pricing, checked 23.09.2026
- Semrush help center: subscriptions, Position Tracking, refund policy, checked 23.09.2026
- Semrush statistics, data as of 22.09.2026
- Adobe completes Semrush acquisition, 28.04.2026
- Our own test run in SE Ranking and keyword lookups in a free Semrush account (US database), 23.09.2026, screenshots taken the same day
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, SE Ranking or Semrush?
It depends on your workload. If you mostly track rankings and audit several sites, SE Ranking Core covers that for $129 a month with 2,000 tracked keywords. If your research needs bigger keyword and backlink databases, Semrush reports larger ones than SE Ranking, with plans from $139.95 a month.
Is SE Ranking any good?
In our trial on our own site, we confirmed the condition behind each of the 13 audit findings SE Ranking classified as errors, and its top 10 for our test keyword shared 9 of 10 URLs with a separate, approximate Google check. That was one small site on one day. The 14-day trial lets you run the same checks on yours.
How much does SE Ranking cost?
Core costs $129 a month, or $103.20 a month on annual billing. Growth costs $279, or $223.20 on annual billing. Enterprise pricing is custom. Prices as of 23 September 2026.
Is SE Ranking free?
No. SE Ranking has no permanent free plan. It offers a 14-day trial without a card, and its rank tracker page offers free checks for up to 5 keywords a day.
Is Semrush worth the money?
We tested only Semrush's free account, so for the paid plans we can compare published limits. The SEO plan costs $139.95 a month for 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords, while SE Ranking Core covers 10 projects and 2,000 keywords for $129. Semrush's case rests on its larger reported databases and its separate toolkits, including advertising and social media.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Semrush?
SE Ranking Core costs $129 a month against $139.95 for Semrush's SEO plan and has higher tracking limits. For one small site, Mangools Basic cost €61 a month when we checked on 22 September 2026, less than either plan in euros.
Who is Semrush owned by?
Adobe. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush Holdings on 28 April 2026.
Read next
Mangools vs Semrush: Which Fits a Small Website?
Keyword Research for One Website: What to Check Before Paying for SEO Tools