Serpstat vs Semrush is mostly a question of how many people use the tool and how much of a suite you need. Serpstat is the better buy for a freelancer or small agency that wants keyword research, rank tracking, audits and SERP based clustering for $69 a month, or $50 billed yearly, with three users on the $129 Team plan. Semrush is the better buy when SEO is a daily job across several sites and you want the largest keyword database, daily tracking of 500 keywords and add on toolkits, from $139 a month and $199 for its full keyword research tools.
Every figure below was read off serpstat.com/page/pricing-plans and semrush.com/pricing in October 2026. That matters for this comparison in particular. Serpstat’s pricing page opens on the yearly rate, so many roundups quote $50 as if it were the monthly price, and most Semrush comparisons still quote the older $139.95 Pro plan, which Semrush no longer leads with.
Serpstat vs Semrush pricing, plan by plan
Serpstat sells four self serve plans in US dollars. Semrush leads its pricing page with the Semrush One lineup, four plans that combine SEO and AI search tracking, and sells extra users and its advertising toolkit separately.
| Plan | Paid monthly | Billed yearly | Users included | Main limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serpstat Individual | $69 | $50/mo | 1 | 100 searches a day, 10,000 position checks a month, 5,000 tool credits |
| Serpstat Team | $129 | $100/mo | 3 | 500 searches a day, 50,000 position checks, 25,000 tool credits, API |
| Serpstat Team x2 | $209 | $169/mo | 6 | 1,000 searches a day, 99,999 position checks, 50,000 tool credits |
| Serpstat Agency | $499 | $410/mo | 30 | 5,000 searches a day, 500,000 position checks, white label |
| Semrush SEO | $139 | $117.33/mo | 1 | 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword research |
| Semrush Starter | $199 | $165.17/mo | 1 | 5 websites, 500 keywords daily, full keyword research, 50 AI prompts |
| Semrush Pro+ | $299 | $248.17/mo | 1 | 15 websites, 1,500 keywords daily, 100 AI prompts |
| Semrush Advanced | $549 | $455.67/mo | 1 | 40 websites, 5,000 keywords daily, API, 200 AI prompts |
Semrush extra users start at $45 a month each. The Advertising Toolkit, which most people think of as part of Semrush, is a separate subscription from $99 a month. Our Serpstat alternative page has the full Serpstat limit table, and Semrush pricing goes through every Semrush plan line by line.
Is Serpstat cheaper than Semrush?
Yes, at every comparable tier, and the gap widens with each extra person. Serpstat Individual costs $69 against $139 for Semrush SEO, about half. For a team of three, Serpstat Team is $129 a month with three users included. The same three people on Semrush Starter cost $199 plus two extra users at $45, so $289 a month, more than double.
The yearly discount also favors Serpstat. Its plans drop by up to 27 percent on annual billing, where Semrush saves about 16 to 17 percent. Over a year, three people on Serpstat Team billed yearly pay $1,200. Three people on Semrush Starter paid monthly pay $3,468.
What Semrush gives you that Serpstat does not
Semrush has the bigger data set. Its Keyword Magic Tool draws on a database Semrush puts at over 27.3 billion keywords, and the difference shows mostly in long tail coverage and in markets outside the US. Its traffic estimates for competitor domains are the ones agencies quote in pitches, and its toolkits for local listings, content and advertising research have no direct Serpstat equivalent.
Tracking is also simpler to budget on Semrush. Every plan tracks a fixed number of keywords daily: 500 on SEO and Starter, 1,500 on Pro+. Serpstat meters position checks instead. Individual’s 10,000 checks a month work out to about 330 keywords checked every day, so a Semrush SEO plan tracks roughly half as many again.
What Serpstat gives you that Semrush does not
Three things stand out. The first is seats: Serpstat includes three users from $129 and thirty on Agency, which is the single biggest cost difference for agencies. The second is the API, available from Team, where Semrush keeps API access for its $549 Advanced plan. The third is AI visibility coverage. Serpstat’s LLM Brand Monitor lists ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and more than 140 other models; Semrush does not list Claude among the models it tracks.
Serpstat also clusters keywords from its entry plan, by comparing the URLs that rank in the top 30 for each pair of keywords. The catch is the meter: every keyword costs 5 tool credits, so Individual’s 5,000 monthly credits cluster about 1,000 keywords, and the same pool pays for batch and text analysis.
Backlinks and site audits
Both tools include a backlink checker and a site audit on every plan. Semrush’s backlink index is the larger of the two and its audit reports go deeper on technical errors, which matters if you sell audits as a service. For a small agency checking a client’s links once a month and fixing obvious crawl errors, Serpstat’s versions are enough. If link building is part of the service, the research is only half the job. Once you have a list of sites that link to competitors, you still need to find and verify the editor’s email address before any outreach goes out.
Free trials and getting started
Both run a 7 day trial and both want a card. Serpstat covers Individual or Team, charges $1 to verify the card and refunds it, then bills the full plan on day eight unless you cancel. Its Agency plan has no trial. Semrush’s trial also renews automatically, and it keeps a permanent free account limited to one project and 10 reports a day, which is enough to learn the interface but not to do client work.
Which should you buy?
Buy Serpstat if you are a freelancer or an agency of two to six people, you track rankings and audit sites for clients, and the per seat price is what decides your margin. Team at $100 a month billed yearly is one of the strongest value plans in the category.
Buy Semrush if you need the largest keyword database, competitor traffic estimates your clients recognize, or local and advertising toolkits in the same login. Budget for Starter at $199 rather than SEO at $139 if keyword research is the main use, because Semrush calls the research on its cheapest plan basic.
If you are still weighing the field, the Mangools vs Semrush comparison covers the cheapest end of it, and cheapest SEO tools ranks every entry plan by price.
The step both tools leave to you
Serpstat and Semrush are research tools. Both can group keywords, and both then hand you a table. What decides whether any of it becomes traffic is the next step: which keywords share a page, which page a site like yours can win now, and what gets written first.
That is the job KeywordPilot does. Paste a seed or upload the CSV you exported from Serpstat or Semrush, and you get intent clusters with difficulty and volume bands and a content plan in publishing order with a brief per article. The keyword clustering tool page shows how a cluster is formed. Starter is $49 a month, or $24 billed yearly, so Serpstat Individual plus KeywordPilot Starter still costs less than Semrush Starter alone.
Serpstat vs Semrush questions people ask
Is Serpstat as good as Semrush?
For keyword research, rank tracking and audits on a few dozen sites, Serpstat is close enough that most small agencies will not miss Semrush. It falls behind on database size, competitor traffic estimates and the extra toolkits. It is ahead on price per seat, API access and the number of AI models it monitors.
Is Serpstat good for beginners?
Reasonably. The interface is cleaner than Semrush’s and there are fewer tools to learn, but it still assumes you know what a keyword gap or a position check is. Beginners on a tight budget often start with a simpler tool and move to Serpstat when they take on clients.
Can Serpstat replace Semrush for an agency?
For many small agencies, yes. Serpstat Team or Team x2 covers research, tracking, audits and reporting for three to six people at less than half the Semrush cost. Agencies that win business on competitor traffic reports or run paid search research for clients usually keep Semrush for those jobs.
Which has better keyword data, Serpstat or Semrush?
Semrush, mainly on coverage. Its database is larger, so it returns more long tail variants, especially outside the US. For established US English keywords the two tools usually agree on which terms matter and disagree on exact volumes, which is normal: every third party tool models search volume rather than measuring it.
Put it into practice
The fastest way to apply this article: run your own niche through the free KeywordPilot demo. One seed keyword, twenty seconds, a clustered mini content plan. No account.