SE Ranking vs. Semrush: A Side-by-Side Comparison for Marketers

Ask a search engine optimization (SEO) pro about their favorite keyword research tool and you'll get a ton of different answers.

If you ask me, though, I'll tell you this: I've used SE Ranking and Semrush extensively over the past five years, and both are strong options for any digital marketer. I've found, though, that one outshines the other in a few key areas.

Let's take a closer look at how these two SEO tools compare.

Semrush Pros and Cons

I love that Semrush offers several set plans with clear allowances.

Semrush is very accurate. This is the biggest pro, in my opinion. I rarely have to refresh the Semrush database—typically, a lot of information pops up about any keyword I enter into the tool.

Unfortunately, though, Semrush is expensive. Paid plans start at more than $100 per month, so it's not in everyone's budget. Luckily, you can do quite a lot with a free Semrush plan.

SE Ranking Pros and Cons

I used SE Ranking as my primary SEO tool for years and was generally pleased with it. The company offers affordable pricing plans, and I always found their customer support team to be very helpful.

The SE Ranking database isn’t quite as large as Semrush’s, but it gets the job done. SE Ranking found almost every keyword I ever wanted to research. I also found its keyword list building tool to be visually pleasing.

SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Tool is one of my least favorite parts of the platform. The app requires quite a bit of legwork to set up—you need to add in target links, add and remove keywords, and more.

Some content marketing managers may like this, as you get a lot of control over how a brief looks. But I felt that I had to jump through too many steps to generate a list of semantic keywords and check my text.

SE Ranking vs. Semrush Feature Comparisons

SE Ranking and Semrush have a lot of similarities, so let’s take a closer look at how each tool stacks up for things like competitor research, local SEO, content marketing, and more.

	SE Ranking	Semrush
Free Plan	No	Yes
Historical SERP Data Available on All Plans	No	No
Competitor Research Tools	Yes	Yes
Keyword Research Tools	Yes, including a keyword rank tracker	Yes, including a keyword rank tracker
Backlink Analysis Tools	Yes, including gap analysis	Yes, including gap analysis
Local SEO Tools	Yes, on select plans with add-on	Yes, on any plan with add-on
Content Marketing Tools	Yes, on select plans with add-on	Yes, on select plans
Other Notable Features	Website audit tools, AI Overview rank tracking, social media tools, agency reporting	SEO audit tools, ChatGPT response position tracking, trend forecasts, social media management tools, agency reporting, prospecting tools for link builders

Competitor Research

The core competitor research tools found in SE Ranking and Semrush are very similar. After entering a domain, you can see information that includes:

• How trustworthy the site is
• Monthly organic traffic volume
• Total organic and paid search keywords
• Changes in traffic over time
• Top competitors in the organic SERP
• Other sites that link back to your competitor

SE Ranking's historical domain data goes back to 2020. Semrush shows you information that goes back much farther—in the example that follows, I’m able to see organic and paid traffic changes dating back to 2012.

Keyword Research

There are 26.6 billion keywords in the Semrush database, compared to just 4.9 billion in the SE Ranking database.

While I never had any notable issues using SE Ranking to conduct keyword research, I like knowing that I have a high volume of information and ranking data at my fingertips with Semrush.

SE Ranking offers its users two different tools for keyword research:

1. The core keyword tool that shows you metrics like search volume, competition, and pay-per-click (PPC) rates
2. A keyword grouper that can sort terms into similar clusters

Semrush, on the other hand, includes five different keyword research tools:

• Keyword Overview: This is a classic keyword research tool that shows you essential metrics about any term. You can customize it to show adjusted difficulty and position projections for any domain, though, which is super helpful.
• Keyword Magic Tool: This feature gives you keyword suggestions based on SERP feature, type of query, your goals, and more.
• Position Tracking: Once you find terms you want to use, monitor their changes with this tracker. You can track traditional search engines or see how a site performs for specific ChatGPT queries.
• Keyword Strategy Builder: This is Semrush’s answer to keyword clustering, and it’s good. In 15 minutes or less, I can get multiple complete content clusters—I’ve never used anything like the Keyword Strategy Builder, and it’s now one of the first tools I turn to in my SEO strategy workflow.
• Organic Traffic Insights: This tool lets you connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts to get more clarity around the top terms driving traffic to your site.

Backlink Audit

SE Ranking allows you to check your site’s backlink profile and search for potential backlink gaps when compared to another company.

The app delivers solid functionality in this area—if you’re mostly interested in checking the health of your backlinks or spying on a competitor’s, SE Ranking will serve you well.

While Semrush’s backlink checker offers the same features, they go one step further with their Link Building Tool. This is a way to find backlink prospects, complete with contact information.

Earlier in my SEO career, there was a point at which I was asked to launch a backlink strategy for a rather niche product, and I had no idea where to begin. Access to a tool like this one would have made my life a lot easier—and allowed me to speed up the process of getting live backlinks.

Local SEO

SE Ranking and Semrush have similar local SEO tools. Both platforms let you:

• See how you rank in local SERPs and Google Maps results
• Update your business listings in various online directories
• Analyze and respond to customer reviews
• Improve your Google Business Profile (GBP)
• Schedule GBP posts

You can add these local SEO tools to any SE Ranking or Semrush plan, however, Semrush also lets you subscribe to its local SEO tools as a standalone service.

Content Marketing

SE Ranking’s content marketing tool is available as an add-on to any plan. While it will scan the text you write and provide suggestions for semantic keywords and optimizations, at its core, it’s a content briefing tool. I find that the SE Ranking tool works best if you’re going to set up a brief, save it, and share it with a writer.

The main purpose of Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant, though, is to give you direct feedback as you write. Simply plug one or two keywords into the tool and it’ll generate a complete list of semantic terms that can enhance your content.

The app will score your content and provide suggestions to improve your writing.

Other Features

What’s the reporting like in SE Ranking and Semrush?

Both SE Ranking and Semrush allow you to create a variety of reports. You can choose to use these reports for the purpose of tracking metrics internally or share them with clients. Each tool gives you the option to white-label reports for clients, too, though you’ll need to pay extra for this feature.

Do SE Ranking and Semrush support social media management?

Yes! If social media marketing is an important part of your strategy, you can manage campaigns directly from either SE Ranking or Semrush.

SE Ranking works with Facebook and X accounts, while Semrush connects to:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

You can also post to your GBP with Semrush’s social media tool, regardless of whether you use the platform’s local SEO tools.

Can SE Ranking and Semrush help me find trends?

Trend spotting and forecasting is one area where Semrush really excels. There are two tools available for trend tracking in Semrush: .Trends and Exploding Topics.

When you subscribe to an Exploding Topics Pro plan, you can access our trend data through your Semrush account.

How does Semrush help analyze customer journey messaging?

Semrush users can buy an optional ImpactHero subscription that uses AI to uncover information about your buyer’s journey stages—and then analyze marketing copy to determine how effective it will be with that target audience.

Which is the easiest SEO platform to use?

If it’s your first time using an SEO platform, there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve—there’s no way around it. That said, I find Semrush to be nice for beginners as there are user-friendly tool tips and suggestions that pop up as you use various features for the first time.

How do SE Ranking and Semrush compare on API integration?

Semrush offers more robust API capabilities, especially in its Business tier, with higher request limits and more endpoints. SE Ranking's API is more limited and primarily focused on rank tracking and basic data retrieval.

SE Ranking vs Semrush Pricing

SE Ranking Plan Type	SE Ranking Price	Semrush Plan Type	Semrush Price
Essential	$52.00	Pro	$117.33
Pro	$95.20	Guru	$208.33
Business	$207.20	Business	$416.66
Additional user seat	$16–$48 each	Additional user seat	$45–$100 each
Agency Pack	$20	My Reports Suite	$10–$20 per report
Content Marketing	$23.20–$79.20	Content Marketing Platform	Included in Guru and Business plans
Local Marketing	$18.40–$920.00	Semrush Local	$50–$60 per location
Social Media	$5.20–$26.00	Social Media Management	$19.99–$29.99
		Semrush .Trends	$289 per user
		ImpactHero	$200
		Additional Apps	Price varies

Final Verdict: Which is the Best SEO Tool?

While both SE Ranking and Semrush are good platforms, Semrush wins the title of best SEO tool thanks to its vast feature set and app center.

The ability to see Exploding Topics trend data directly in Semrush is great, too—by combining our trend forecasts with Semrush’s extensive historical SEO data, you can get a great picture of how any market is evolving.

Try out Semrush and Exploding Topics Pro for free today and see how the two work together to elevate your marketing.