SE Ranking vs Semrush Pricing: Plans, Limits and API Access Compared
Published September 8, 2026 by the Rankable team · Last updated September 9, 2026
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Short answer: SE Ranking is the cheaper platform and it is not close on the limits that matter to most teams. Core costs $129 a month and tracks 2,000 keywords daily with an API included; Semrush SEO costs $139 and tracks 500, with no API until the Advanced tier at $549. Semrush wins on index depth, AI prompt allowances and integrations. Pick SE Ranking for coverage per dollar, Semrush for depth and ecosystem.
Ignore the prices on most comparison pages
Before the comparison, a correction that changes the budget. A large share of the "SE Ranking vs Semrush" articles currently ranking still quote Semrush as Pro at $139.95, Guru at $249.95 and Business at $499.95. Those three tiers are retired. They are not a discount, a legacy option or a regional variant, they simply are not sold any more, and any spreadsheet built on them is wrong before you start.
Here is what Semrush actually publishes today, read from its own pricing page on 9 September 2026: SEO at $139 a month, Starter at $199, Pro Plus at $299 and Advanced at $549. Billed annually those become $117.33, $165.17, $248.17 and $455.67 a month. The free trial is seven days.
SE Ranking vs Semrush pricing, side by side
| What you get | SE Ranking Core | SE Ranking Growth | Semrush SEO | Semrush Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $129 | $279 | $139 | $549 |
| Projects or websites | 10 projects | 30 projects | 5 websites | 40 websites |
| Keywords tracked daily | 2,000 | 5,000 | 500 | 5,000 |
| Seats included | 1 | 3 | Not published | Not published |
| API access | Yes, 25,000 credits | Yes, 100,000 credits | No | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card | 7 days | 7 days |
| Annual discount | 20% | 20% | Up to 17% | Up to 17% |
Prices and limits read from each vendor's own pricing pages on 9 September 2026. SE Ranking publishes a euro ladder on its main pricing page and a dollar ladder on its API page, so the dollar figures above are the ones a US buyer is quoted. Semrush does not publish a base seat count per plan, which is why those two cells say not published rather than one.
Where SE Ranking is genuinely cheaper, not just nominally
The headline prices look close at the entry point, $129 against $139, and that similarity hides the real gap. For roughly the same money SE Ranking Core tracks 2,000 keywords a day against 500 on Semrush SEO, and covers 10 projects against 5 websites. That is four times the rank tracking and twice the project count for ten dollars less.
The gap widens on seats. SE Ranking Growth includes three seats at $279. Semrush does not publish how many seats each plan includes and sells extra users from $45 a month on top of the subscription, so a three person team is comparing $279 against a Semrush plan plus two paid users. Work that out before you compare the headline numbers, because it is usually the line that decides a small agency's answer.
Where Semrush is worth the extra money
This is not a one-sided comparison and it would be dishonest to present it as one. Semrush has the larger index and the deeper backlink and traffic analytics, which matters if you are doing competitive research rather than tracking your own positions. Its ecosystem of integrations and its content and advertising toolkits go well beyond what SE Ranking covers, and for agencies that already build client reporting on Semrush the switching cost is real.
Semrush also allocates AI prompts by tier: none on the $139 SEO plan, 50 a day on Starter, 100 on Pro Plus and 200 on Advanced. SE Ranking treats AI search visibility as a separate paid add-on rather than including it, so "cheaper" stops being unconditional the moment AI visibility tracking is on your requirements list. Price the add-on before you conclude.
API access is the biggest structural difference
If you intend to pull data programmatically, the two platforms are not comparable products. SE Ranking includes API access with every subscription, 25,000 credits a month on Core and 100,000 on Growth. Semrush lists API data integration on Advanced only, at $549 a month, with nothing on the three tiers below it.
That is a $420 a month difference for the same checkbox, and it is the single most common reason teams look past Semrush. If an API is a hard requirement, the comparison is really SE Ranking Core at $129 against Semrush Advanced at $549, not $129 against $139. We work through the full field, including Ahrefs at $249 for unlimited API credits per user and the pay-as-you-go providers, on our Semrush API alternative page.
One practical note if you are building on either API. The bill is rarely what hurts six months in; not knowing which internal dashboard breaks when a feed changes is. Teams piping keyword and backlink rows into a warehouse usually end up wanting a map of where each table actually comes from before they have too many reports depending on it.
Is SE Ranking cheaper than Semrush?
Yes, at every comparable tier, and by more than the sticker price suggests. Core is $129 against $139 for Semrush SEO, but includes four times the daily tracked keywords, twice the projects and an API that Semrush does not offer below $549. Growth at $279 includes three seats where Semrush charges from $45 per extra user.
Which SE Ranking plan should I buy?
Core at $129 covers one person managing up to 10 projects with 2,000 keywords tracked daily, which fits most in-house teams and solo consultants. Move to Growth at $279 when you need more than 10 projects, more than one login, or more API credits. The 14 day trial does not ask for a card, so test the project count against your real client list first.
Which Semrush plan has API access?
Only Advanced, at $549 a month. Semrush lists API data integration as an Advanced feature, and the SEO tier at $139, Starter at $199 and Pro Plus at $299 do not include it. There is no smaller API plan and no per-call top-up on the lower tiers. Our Semrush API pricing breakdown covers what is and is not published about the units.
Does Semrush still have Pro, Guru and Business plans?
No. Those tiers are retired and have been replaced by SEO, Starter, Pro Plus and Advanced. If a comparison page quotes Guru at $249.95 or Business at $499.95, it has not been updated since the change, which is a reasonable signal to distrust the rest of its numbers too. Always check the vendor's own pricing page before you sign anything.
What neither platform does
Both tools tell you what to write. Neither writes it, and neither publishes it. That is a real gap, because the most common reason an SEO program stalls is not a shortage of keyword data, it is that nobody has time to turn the research into pages. Buying a bigger analysis plan does not move that, it just measures the same backlog more precisely.
That is the part Rankable handles. We research the keywords, write the articles and publish them on a schedule, at $19, $59 or $149 a month depending on how many sites and articles you need. On Scale that works out at $1.49 per published article in software cost. To be explicit about the boundary, since this is a comparison of data platforms: we do not operate a backlink index or a keyword database, and we do not ship a rank tracker. If you need competitor data, buy one of the two platforms above. Plenty of teams run one of each on purpose. Our Semrush pricing page has the full current ladder if you want to budget the analysis side properly, and Ahrefs vs Semrush covers the other obvious pairing.
The short version
SE Ranking is cheaper and more generous on the limits most teams actually hit: 2,000 daily keywords against 500 at the entry tier, 10 projects against 5, three seats on Growth, and an API on every plan instead of only on a $549 one. Semrush earns its price on index depth, AI prompt allowances and the breadth of its toolkit. Check whether your comparison source is still quoting the retired Guru and Business tiers, and if it is, rebuild the comparison from the live pricing pages before you commit a budget.