KeySearch vs Semrush (2026): which should you pick?

Pick KeySearch if

• Fits if you run a blog or niche site and want the main SEO jobs for about $20 a month
• Works for hunting long-tail keywords a small site can rank for

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you track lots of keywords, as Starter stops at 80 and Pro at 200
• Skip it if you want keyword data in your other tools, as there's no API on record
• Not for you if you want longer than a week to try it, as there's no free plan
• Watch out: Foresight and team sharing are Pro only, at $40 a month on yearly billing
• Watch out: AI writing runs on monthly credits, 5,000 on Starter, and the listing doesn't say if the trial needs a card

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

KeySearch

• There is no free plan after the 7-day trial, only a set of free stand-alone tools.
• Rank tracking is capped at 80 keywords on Starter and 200 on Pro, low next to dedicated rank trackers.
• Foresight and team collaboration are only on the Pro plan.
• Refunds can be requested within 30 days of the first purchase, according to the terms.

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.

KeySearch

Keyword research and difficulty

Look up search volume, cost per click and a difficulty score for keywords by language and country, with filters for long-tail ideas.

Live SERP and competitor analysis

See which pages rank for a keyword and what keywords a rival site ranks for, along with a backlink checker and URL metrics.

Foresight recommendations

On the Pro plan, Foresight reads a site's niche, authority and rankings and suggests keywords it could win and pages worth improving.

AI content assistant

Builds outlines and drafts from the pages that already rank and checks topic coverage. AI use is metered in monthly credits.

Rank tracking and site audit

Track positions for 80 or 200 keywords depending on plan, and audit up to 2,000 or 5,000 pages a month for technical problems.

YouTube research

Research keywords for YouTube and look at the videos that perform well in a niche.

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.

KeySearch

• Starter Plan$20

  per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)

  200 keyword searches a day, 80 tracked keywords, 2,000 audited pages and 5,000 AI credits a month. No Foresight.

• Pro Plan$40

  per month, billed annually ($48 billed monthly)

  500 keyword searches a day, 200 tracked keywords, 5,000 audited pages, 15,000 AI credits a month, Foresight and team sharing.

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.

KeySearch

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  KeySearch's pricing section offers annual billing with 2 months free: Starter is $20 a month instead of $24, and Pro $40 instead of $48.

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.