Semrush and Ahrefs both show what people search for, which sites rank and who links to them. Both are full SEO suites with many tools. If you run a small business and do your own SEO, the deciding points are the price, what you can do for free and how often each one checks your rankings.
Facts below come from the Semrush pricing page, the Ahrefs pricing page and the Ahrefs Free page, as of October 2026. Prices are in US dollars.
The short verdict
- Pick Semrush if you want a free trial before paying and daily rank tracking.
- Pick Ahrefs if you mainly want to study your own site and competitors' pages and links, and Ahrefs Free or the $29 Starter plan covers what you need.
- Pick neither yet if you have no traffic to study. Start with Google Search Console, which is free.
Prices
Semrush, SEO plans, per month:
- Free: $0, no credit card. 1 demo project and 10 reports a day across its main tools.
- SEO: $139 billed monthly, or $117.33 a month billed annually. 5 websites to monitor, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword research and competitor analysis.
- Starter: $199 billed monthly, or $165.17 a month billed annually. Adds the fuller keyword research and competitor tools.
- Pro+: $299 billed monthly, or $248.17 a month billed annually. 15 websites, 1,500 keywords tracked daily.
Extra users start at $45 a month. Paid plans show a "try for free" option.
Ahrefs, per month:
- Ahrefs Free: $0. For sites you verify you own.
- Starter: $29 a month.
- Lite: $129 billed monthly, or $1,290 a year (about $108 a month). 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history, 1,000 credits per user.
- Standard: $249 billed monthly, or $2,490 a year. 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history, unlimited credits.
Each plan includes 1 user. Extra users cost $40 a month on Lite, up to 2 more. The pricing page says Ahrefs does not run discounts.
Free options
This matters most when money is tight.
Ahrefs Free works on sites you own. You verify the site, then get Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for it. The limits as of October 2026 include 5,000 Site Audit crawl credits per project each month and up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once in Site Explorer. It is useful for checking your own site. It only covers sites you verify, so it is not built for studying competitors.
Semrush Free gives you 10 reports a day across its main tools and 1 demo project. That is enough to look up a few keywords or a competitor's domain now and then.
Rank tracking
If you want to watch where your pages sit in Google, the update speed differs.
- Semrush tracks keywords daily on every paid SEO plan.
- Ahrefs Rank Tracker updates weekly on all plans, including Enterprise.
For a local business tracking 20 or 30 keywords, weekly updates may be enough. If you want to react fast, daily tracking helps.
Limits that change the real price
- Ahrefs Lite includes 1,000 credits per user each month. Standard and above have unlimited credits. Check what uses credits before you choose Lite.
- Semrush SEO covers 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords. Most small businesses fit inside that.
- Users. Both charge for extra people. If two of you will log in, add that to the price.
How to decide
- Set up Google Search Console first. It is free and shows the searches already bringing visitors.
- Try the free options. Use Semrush Free and Ahrefs Free on your own site for a week.
- List the jobs. Keyword ideas, a site audit, rank tracking, competitor research.
- Pay for one month only. Do the research you need, then decide if a yearly plan is worth it.
For cheaper or free tools, see Ahrefs alternatives. For what to do with the research, read SEO for small business and how to write landing page copy. A complete Google Business Profile description also helps local searches.