SE Ranking vs Semrush
SE Ranking is a all-in-one SEO platform; Semrush is a all-in-one marketing suite. Below they are compared row by row on the thirteen things buyers in this category actually ask about — with SERP Checker in the third column, because the honest answer to “which of these two” is sometimes “neither”.
Quick answer
Start with SE Ranking if…
You track thousands of keywords — SE Ranking's daily keyword capacity (2,000–5,000+) is far larger than ours.
Start with Semrush if…
You want one vendor for SEO, PPC, content, social and market research, and the budget matches.
At a glance
| SE Ranking | Semrush | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | ~$52–129/mo | $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project | From $19/mo — 7-day trial + free one-off audit at /audit |
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes | Yes — 500 keywords daily on SEO/Starter, 1,500 on Pro+, 5,000 on Advanced | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Paid add-on / separate product (SE Visible) | Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan | Yes — same workspace, every paid plan from $19/mo |
| AI engines tracked | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode + AI Overviews | Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews — all 6 in the AEO module, no per-engine add-on |
| Multi-client agency workspace | Yes | Yes — 5 sites on SEO/Starter, 15 on Pro+, 40 on Advanced | Yes — 1 client on the $19 Monitor or $39 AI Visibility tier, 3 on Starter, 15 on Pro, 50 on Business |
| MCP server (AI-agent native) | Yes (official, ~160 tools, all paid plans) | Yes — official remote server, OAuth or API key, listed in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity | Yes — queried with a REST API key, so Business tier |
Where the two actually differ
2 of the 13 compared rows come out differently for these two tools. The rest they answer the same way, so they will not decide anything for you.
| SE Ranking | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Paid add-on / separate product (SE Visible) | Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan |
| REST API | Paid add-on | Yes (Standard and Trends APIs) |
Full comparison
| Feature | SE Ranking | Semrush | SERP Checker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes | Yes — 500 keywords daily on SEO/Starter, 1,500 on Pro+, 5,000 on Advanced | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Paid add-on / separate product (SE Visible) | Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan | Yes — same workspace, every paid plan from $19/mo |
| AI engines tracked | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode + AI Overviews | Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews — all 6 in the AEO module, no per-engine add-on |
| Technical SEO audit | Yes | Yes | Yes — every plan |
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented | Not documented on the pricing page | Yes — access-log ingest via the REST API, so Business tier; per-bot hits, crawled paths and refusals |
| Competitor gap analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes — every plan |
| GA4 + Search Console analytics | Yes | Yes (GA4 and Search Console integrations) | Yes — verified first-party GA4/GSC data from the Pro tier ($158/mo); CSV/JSON export plus a Looker Studio connector (source in integrations/, one-time deploy to your own Google account) |
| White-label client reports | Yes (deep) | Higher tiers / add-on | Yes (Business tier) |
| Interface languages | ~10 incl. RU (no Ukrainian UI) | Multi-language interface (no Ukrainian UI) | EN / RU / UK / PL / SK / CS / DE (tracks any region) |
| REST API | Paid add-on | Yes (Standard and Trends APIs) | Yes (Business tier) |
| MCP server (AI-agent native) | Yes (official, ~160 tools, all paid plans) | Yes — official remote server, OAuth or API key, listed in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity | Yes — queried with a REST API key, so Business tier |
| Multi-client agency workspace | Yes | Yes — 5 sites on SEO/Starter, 15 on Pro+, 40 on Advanced | Yes — 1 client on the $19 Monitor or $39 AI Visibility tier, 3 on Starter, 15 on Pro, 50 on Business |
| Entry price | ~$52–129/mo | $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project | From $19/mo — 7-day trial + free one-off audit at /audit |
Pricing
SE Ranking
SE Ranking's base plans don't fully include AI-visibility — it's SE Visible (~$189/mo) or an add-on, and the API is a separate add-on too. SERP Checker bundles SERP + AEO from $39/mo. Compare current tiers on /pricing.
Semrush
Semrush publishes five tiers: Free, SEO at $139/mo ($117.33 annually), Starter at $199 ($165.17), Pro+ at $299 ($248.17) and Advanced at $549 ($455.67), with a seven-day trial and additional users from $45/mo. AI visibility is included on every paid plan at 50–200 prompts a day. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo. See /pricing.
What neither of them does
Derived from the same two columns above: rows where SERP Checker ships the capability outright and neither SE Ranking nor Semrush does. Both of their recorded values are printed so you can check the claim.
| SE Ranking | Semrush | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented | Not documented on the pricing page | Yes — access-log ingest via the REST API, so Business tier; per-bot hits, crawled paths and refusals |
FAQ
Is SE Ranking or Semrush cheaper?
On published entry pricing, SE Ranking starts lower: ~$52–129/mo against $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project for Semrush. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo and includes both Google rank tracking and AI-visibility in that price.
Do SE Ranking and Semrush both track AI answers?
SE Ranking: Paid add-on / separate product (SE Visible) Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode + AI Overviews. Semrush: Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan Engines: Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced. SERP Checker tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews in the same workspace as Google rankings.
Does SE Ranking include AI-visibility tracking?
Only partially. Beyond a small daily prompt allowance, SE Ranking's AI-visibility is sold as SE Visible (a separate product) or a paid add-on. SERP Checker includes AEO in the base workspace.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Semrush?
Yes. Semrush starts at $139/mo billed monthly. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo and covers the two jobs most teams actually buy a suite for: daily Google rank tracking and AI-answer visibility.
Related comparisons
AccuRanker vs SE Ranking · AccuRanker vs Semrush · Ahrefs vs SE Ranking · Ahrefs vs Semrush · AthenaHQ vs SE Ranking · AthenaHQ vs Semrush
SE Ranking review · Semrush review
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Or track Google and AI search in one tool
Rank tracking, AI-answer visibility across six engines, technical audits, AI-crawler analytics and white-label reports — from $39/mo, published pricing, free audit first.
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https://seranking.com · https://www.semrush.com
Competitor pricing and features are taken from their public pages as of July 2026 and may change — verify on their site before deciding. Where a vendor's docs were unclear we say so rather than guess. Every value in the tables above is a figure recorded from the vendor's own public pages, not an estimate. Product and company names are the trademarks of their respective owners.