cognitiveSEO vs Semrush (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Semrush grades higher than cognitiveSEO: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
cognitiveSEO grades higher on value for money. Semrush grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
cognitiveSEO
SEO suite for backlink audits, rank tracking and content optimization
Semrush
SEO suite for keyword research, rank tracking and AI search visibility
Which one is for you
Pick cognitiveSEO if
- Fits if you're cleaning up a backlink profile after a Google penalty
- Works for consultants who audit other people's links for a living
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you'd rather not give a card for a trial, as the 7-day Starter trial needs a card or PayPal
- Skip it if you want AI answer tracking, which the maker sells separately as BrandMentions
- Pricey if you pay monthly, at $129.99 against $89 on a 12-month contract
- Tight if you need white label or JavaScript crawling, which start at Premium at $199 a month
- Watch out: the pricing table puts the API on Elite only, while the API page says Premium and up
Pick Semrush if
- Fits if you want research, rank tracking and audits in one account and can pay $117.33 a month or more
- Works for agencies that need keyword data for many countries and compare client sites with competitors
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're one person with one site, at $117.33 a month even yearly, and the trial checks your card with a small charge
- Tight if your team is more than just you, since every extra user is from $45 a month
- Skip it if AI answer tracking is the point, as the SEO plan leaves it out and Starter is $165.17 a month
- Watch out: the API and share of voice need the custom-priced Advanced plan, and scheduled PDF reports are $10 to $20 a month extra
- Watch out: local, content, social and ad tools are separate toolkits with their own prices, and the free plan allows 10 reports a day
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAcognitiveSEOFair | 2.2GPASemrushFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStarter is $89 a month on a 12-month contract, or $129.99 billed monthly, for 5 campaigns, 2 users and 1,500 keywords. The yearly price sits at the edge of this category's dearer quarter; paying monthly puts it in the dearest tenth. | DThe SEO plan, the one Semrush aims at freelancers and small businesses, is $117.33 a month billed yearly ($139 monthly). That's in this category's dearest tenth, for one user. AI search tracking needs Starter at $165.17, and each extra person is from $45 a month. |
| Free plan and trial | DNo free plan, and the 7-day trial of Starter needs a card or PayPal account up front. You can cancel before it ends, but it's not a no-strings look. | CA free account with no card: 1 project, 10 reports a day and 10 tracked keywords. Fine for a look around, but you'll hit the wall in an afternoon. The 7-day trial of the paid plans checks your card with a small charge that's refunded at once. |
| Features | CSite audits, backlink analysis with penalty-risk detection, rank tracking by city, content scoring and automated reports. The gaps the listing names: no AI answer tracking, which is a separate product, and Starter has no JavaScript crawling or white label. | BKeyword research from a database it puts at 29 billion keywords across 142 countries, competitor and backlink analysis, daily rank tracking and Site Audit. It covers the whole job, though the SEO plan only gets the basic research tools and no AI visibility. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Link audits and disavow work assume you know what you're looking at, and campaigns take setting up. | CNo rating on record. It's a big suite with a lot of reports, and there are projects to set up and plenty to learn before it all makes sense. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with Google Analytics and PageSpeed Insights as its two integrations and an API for link, ranking and social data. The pricing table puts the API on Elite, the API page says Premium and up. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, Wix, Yoast, AIOSEO, Supermetrics and Monday.com, has MCP from Starter, and the API comes with the custom-priced Advanced plan. |
| Best for | backlink audits and Google penalty recovery | all-in-one SEO research for teams with a budget |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: cognitiveSEO and Semrush. How we grade
Price against what you get
cognitiveSEO starts at $89 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Semrush starts at $117.33 a month and scores 2.7.
Semrush scores higher, and starts $28.33 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, 13 score higher than cognitiveSEO for less, and none scores higher than Semrush for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- cognitiveSEO also covers content optimization.
At a glance
| cognitiveSEO | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $89 per month, billed annually ($129.99 billed monthly) | $117.33 per month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Free account: 1 project, 10 analytics reports a day across the main tools and 10 keywords in Position Tracking. No credit card needed. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of the Starter plan; a card or PayPal account is required | 7-day free trial of paid plans; a card is checked with a small charge that is refunded at once |
| Web | ||
| Made by | GESKIMO SRL | Semrush Holdings |
| Price read from | cognitiveseo.com | semrush.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
cognitiveSEO
- Starter has no white-label reports, JavaScript crawling or success manager; those start at Premium.
- The pricing table lists API access on Elite only, while the API page says it comes with Premium and up.
- Yearly prices are 12-month contracts, and the trial needs a card or PayPal account up front.
- AI visibility and brand-mention tracking are not in these plans; the maker sells them as a separate product, BrandMentions.
Semrush
- Each plan includes one user; extra users start at $45 a month each, priced by plan level.
- Scheduled PDF reports are an add-on at $10 a month, or $20 with white-labeling; Advanced includes reporting.
- API access and share of voice come only with the custom-priced Advanced plan.
- Local, content, social, advertising, AI PR and traffic tools are separate toolkits with their own prices.
Key features
cognitiveSEO
- Site Audit
- Crawls the pages of a site, lists technical problems with fixes, and checks speed through Google PageSpeed. JavaScript crawling starts at Premium.
- Backlink analysis
- Crawls and classifies the links pointing at your site and your rivals', from 200,000 backlinks per site on Starter to 3 million on Elite.
- Unnatural Link Detection
- Flags backlinks likely to draw a Google penalty, for link audits, disavow files and penalty recovery. Included on every plan.
- Rank Tracker
- Tracks Google rankings on desktop and mobile by country, language and city, daily or weekly, for 1,500 to 13,500 keywords per account.
- Content optimization
- A content assistant that combines keyword research, a look at the pages that rank and a content score, paid for with 150 to 1,000 audit credits.
- Reports and API
- Automated marketing reports on every plan, white label from Premium, and an API for link, ranking and social data.
Semrush
- Keyword research
- Look up search volume, difficulty and intent from a database Semrush puts at 29 billion keywords across 142 country databases.
- Competitor and backlink analysis
- See which keywords and pages bring a rival site its traffic, and inspect any domain's backlink profile.
- Position Tracking
- Track daily rankings for 500 to 5,000+ keywords depending on the plan; Pro+ adds tracking by location and device.
- Site Audit
- Crawl your sites for technical SEO problems. From the Starter plan the audit also checks how ready a site is for AI search.
- AI visibility tracking
- Starter and above track daily whether set prompts in AI chat tools mention your brand, with sentiment monitoring. The SEO plan has none of this.
- MCP and API access
- Starter and above can query Semrush data from AI assistants through MCP; the API itself comes with the Advanced plan.
Plans
cognitiveSEO
Starter$89
per month, billed annually ($129.99 billed monthly)
5 campaigns, 2 users, 1,500 tracked keywords, 200,000 backlinks analyzed per site and 150 content audit credits. No white label.
Premium$199
per month, billed monthly (yearly view shows $209 a month)
10 campaigns, 5 users, 4,500 keywords, 1 million backlinks per site, white label and JavaScript crawling. Shown against a crossed-out $299.
Elite$349
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
25 campaigns, 10 users, 13,500 keywords, 3 million backlinks per site, 1,000 content audit credits, API access and a success manager.
Semrush
Free$0
1 project, 10 analytics reports a day and 10 tracked keywords, for trying the tools.
SEO$117.33
per month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly)
1 user, 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword and competitor research, and Site Audit. No AI search tracking.
Starter$165.17
per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
5 websites and 500 keywords, full keyword research tools, MCP access, 50 AI prompts tracked daily and 300 AI visibility reports a day.
Pro+$248.17
per month, billed annually ($299 billed monthly)
15 websites, 1,500 keywords, historical data, content optimization, cannibalization checks, multi-location tracking and 100 AI prompts.
AdvancedCustom
40+ websites, 5,000+ keywords, share of voice, API access, team users, reporting and unlimited AI prompts. Sold after a demo.
Ways to pay less
cognitiveSEO
- Annual discount
Save about 30% with yearly billing
The pricing page's yearly toggle says save 30%: Starter is $89 a month on a 12-month contract instead of $129.99 billed monthly, and Elite $349 instead of $499.
Semrush
- Annual discount
Save up to 17% with annual billing
Semrush's pricing page lists annual billing at up to 17% less: Starter is $165.17 a month billed annually instead of $199 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, cognitiveSEO or Semrush?
As of Oct 23, 2026, cognitiveSEO is cheaper to start with: $89 a month, against $117.33 a month for Semrush. cognitiveSEO starts at $89 per month, billed annually ($129.99 billed monthly), and Semrush starts at $117.33 per month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, cognitiveSEO or Semrush?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Semrush has a free plan. cognitiveSEO does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.