Semrush vs SE Ranking
Seven of twelve models named Semrush first on the direct prompt; zero named SE Ranking. Semrush was named by twelve of the twelve models and SE Ranking by eleven and Semrush carries 43 labels and SE Ranking 24, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Boston, United States, founded 2008. Named in seven categories this edition.
United States, founded 2012. Named in three categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the SEO and content optimization platforms page.
By framing
SemrushFirst choices, of twelve modelsSE Ranking
Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, Semrush and SE Ranking were named in the same answer forty-nine times, of the 206 answers naming Semrush and the 100 naming SE Ranking. In those answers SE Ranking took the first choice nine times and Semrush twelve.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | ||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | ||
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | ||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | |||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | |
Semrush SE Ranking first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Semrush on the left and SE Ranking on the right.The direct prompt
Semrush first, SE Ranking an alternative
7 of 12 modelsSE Ranking was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Semrush21%#2 of 13SE Ranking13%#4 of 13Semrush20%#2 of 16SE Ranking6%#5 of 16What the models said about Semrush
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“SEO Tools to Avoid or Use with Caution | Semrush | 40/100 (High) | 3 documented complaints; recurring billing issues” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid: Enterprise tools (Ahrefs/Semrush $99–$139); overkill for small budgets.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Semrush ($140+/mo) — great but overkill for most small budgets” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Semrush is the strongest all-in-one SEO platform for keyword research, site audits, rank tracking, competitive analysis, PPC, and content marketing workflows.” Perplexity Sonar · comparative prompt · first choice
“Choose Ahrefs or Semrush if you need a baseline tool for overall website health, backlink tracking, and competitor espionage.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“If you want one platform only, Semrush is often the best balance of capability, breadth, and cost for mid-market teams.” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about SE Ranking
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“SE Ranking is solid for agencies and cost-conscious teams, but may fall short for enterprises needing deeper backlink analysis or more advanced SEM integration” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“SE Ranking jumped significantly (now ~$103+/mo)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“The best SEO and content optimization platform for a company with a limited budget is SE Ranking, which costs $55/month” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“or SE Ranking ($44/month) if you want a complete SEO platform including content optimization features” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.