Moz vs Semrush: prices, limits and which one to pick

Quick verdict

• Pick Moz if Domain Authority is the number you report on, or links are the job: only Moz calculates DA, MozBar shows it as you browse, and Link Explorer is its backlink tool.
• Pick Semrush if you research competitors' keywords and ads, or need daily rankings: rankings update daily on every plan, and the SEO plan covers 5 websites with 500 tracked keywords.
• Moz starts cheaper: $49 a month for one website, or $99 for Standard (3 campaigns, 300 keywords), against $139 for Semrush's SEO plan.
• For teams, Moz Medium includes 2 users and Large 3; every Semrush plan includes one user, and extra seats start at $45 a month.
• If you only work on your own site, Search Console's measured data is free, and you may not need either suite.

Moz vs Semrush pricing: every plan

Moz Pro's plans run from $49 to $299 a month; Semrush's paid plans run from $139 to $299 a month, with Advanced priced on request. Moz gives 20% off the base plan when you pay yearly, quoted as the price for your first year. Semrush gives up to 17% off, paid upfront for the year. Our Moz Pro pricing and Semrush pricing guides cover add-ons, extra users and research limits.

Where Moz is better

Moz is stronger where its own data is the product: Domain Authority, MozBar and link research.

• Domain Authority. Moz created DA, and it is still the score many clients, link sellers and agencies quote. Only Moz calculates it, so if a report or contract names Moz DA, no other tool can give you the real number.
• MozBar. Moz's free browser toolbar shows Domain Authority, backlinks and linking root domains for the page you are on, which makes a quick look at the sites ranking for a query easy.
• Link research. Link Explorer is Moz's backlink tool, and Moz's Link Explorer page lists 45.5 trillion links in its index. Standard, Medium and Large each include backlink queries, and a free Moz Community account gives 10 Link Explorer queries a month.
• A lower entry price. Starter at $49 a month and Standard at $99 both cost less than Semrush's cheapest paid plan.

Where Semrush is better

Semrush is stronger for broad keyword and competitor research and for the range of tools in one account.

• Keyword research at breadth. Keyword, competitor and advertising research share one login, and the Free plan already covers keyword research within 10 reports a day across its main tools. Moz's Keyword Explorer lists over 1.25 billion keyword suggestions, but its research queries are capped per plan, and the smallest plans get few; our Moz Pro pricing guide lists each cap. Neither vendor publishes its keyword database counted the same way, so we do not rank their sizes.
• Toolkit range. Beyond the SEO plans, Semrush sells separate Local, Content, Traffic & Market and AI Visibility toolkits, each priced on its own, so one account can grow into listings, content and market research.
• Daily rank tracking. Rankings update daily on every plan: 500 keywords on SEO and Starter, 1,500 on Pro+ and 5,000+ on Advanced.
• More sites per plan. The SEO plan covers 5 websites and Pro+ 15 websites, against 3 campaigns on Moz Standard and 25 campaigns on Large.

Domain Authority vs Authority Score

Moz's Domain Authority and Semrush's Authority Score are both 1 to 100 scores of a site's strength, but each is calculated from its own data, so the same site gets different numbers. Moz builds DA with a machine learning model over its Link Explorer index, where linking root domains and link quality weigh most. Semrush's Authority Score combines Link Power, estimated organic traffic and spam factors that look for a manipulated link profile.

Google uses neither: Moz itself says Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor. Compare sites within one tool, never a DA against an Authority Score. Our guide to what domain authority is sets out how each score works and where to check it free, and our free domain authority checker shows MrKeyword's own Link Authority for several domains, which is neither Moz DA nor Authority Score.

Free use

• Moz: a free Moz Community account gives limited access to MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer, which is how most people check DA without paying. Moz Pro also offers a free trial; the pricing page does not state its length.
• Semrush Free: no card, 1 demo project and 10 reports a day across its main tools, 10 tracked keywords and a 100-page audit a month. Paid plans also have a 7-day free trial.

For a wider field, our Moz alternatives page compares Moz Pro with Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking and others, and Semrush vs Ahrefs sets Semrush against its closest rival.

A cheaper option for your own site

MrKeyword, which we make, is a cheaper tool for the weekly work on sites you own, not a replacement for Moz or Semrush. It reads your Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools data, keeps a daily history, crawls your site and gets keyword volumes from Google Keyword Planner through the official Google Ads API. Free covers 1 website, 25 tracked keywords and 100 audit pages a month; Starter is $10 a month, Growth $19 and Agency $49 (see pricing). What it does not do: it does not show Moz DA or Semrush's Authority Score, it does not research competitors' rankings, keywords or ads, and its own link index is far smaller than theirs. Our Semrush alternative page sets out the trade.

Moz, Moz Pro, Domain Authority and Semrush are trademarks of their owners, used here only to compare them. MrKeyword is not affiliated with either.

Questions and answers