- They do different jobs. SpyFu sells competitors' paid and organic keyword history, with 10+ years of data on its pricing page; Semrush is a wider suite with daily rank tracking, audits and separate toolkits for local, content, ads and social.
- Prices (November 2026, monthly billing): SpyFu from $39 (Basic) to $249 (Team / Agency); Semrush from $139 (SEO plan) to $299 (Pro+), Advanced custom.
- Rank tracking: SpyFu tracks more keywords (5,000 on Basic) but updates them weekly; Semrush tracks 500 on its SEO plan, updated daily.
- Free use: Semrush has a Free plan with 10 reports a day; SpyFu's pricing page lists no free plan, but every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- For your own site on a budget, Google Search Console is free, and MrKeyword (our product) builds on it from free, then $10 a month. It does not research competitors' keywords or ads like either tool.
Disclosure: MrKeyword publishes this page, and MrKeyword overlaps with both tools for work on your own site. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, and the date we read it is printed next to it. Where a page did not state something, we say so rather than guess.
Quick verdict
- Pick SpyFu if your main question is what competitors bid on and rank for, and how that changed: its plans are built around that history, and Basic costs $39 a month.
- Pick Semrush if you want one suite for keyword research, daily rank tracking, audits and more: rankings update daily and plans cover 5 websites on SEO and 15 websites on Pro+.
- SpyFu is cheaper at every listed tier: Pro + AI at $119 sits below Semrush's SEO plan at $139.
- Semrush is the one you can try free: its Free plan gives 10 reports a day. SpyFu offers a money-back guarantee instead.
- If you only work on your own site, Search Console's measured data is free, and you may not need either.
SpyFu vs Semrush pricing: every plan
SpyFu's plans run from $39 to $249 a month; Semrush's paid plans run from $139 to $299 a month with Advanced priced on request. SpyFu takes 25% off for yearly billing (Basic is $29 a month paid yearly), and Pro + AI has a first-month offer: $59 for the first month, then $119 a month. Semrush's yearly billing is up to 17% off, paid upfront for the year. Our SpyFu pricing and Semrush pricing guides cover extra users, add-ons and refunds.
SpyFu plans, as of November 2026
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed yearly, per month | Projects / sites | Tracked keywords | Rank updates | Users | Extra user |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39/mo | $29/mo | 1 tracking project | 5,000 | Weekly | 1 | $15 |
| Pro + AI $59 for the first month, then $119 a month | $119/mo | $89/mo | 10 tracking projects | 15,000 | Weekly | 1 | $30 |
| Team / Agency | $249/mo | $187/mo | Unlimited tracking projects | 50,000 | Weekly | 5 | $30 |
Semrush SEO and SEO + AI Search plans, as of November 2026
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed yearly, per month | Projects / sites | Tracked keywords | Rank updates | Users | Extra user |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | $139/mo | $117.33/mo | 5 websites | 500 | Daily | 1 | From $45/mo |
| Starter (SEO + AI Search) | $199/mo | $165.17/mo | 5 websites | 500 | Daily | 1 | $45/mo |
| Pro+ (SEO + AI Search) | $299/mo | $248.17/mo | 15 websites | 1,500 | Daily | 1 | $80/mo |
| Advanced (SEO + AI Search) | Custom | Custom | 40+ websites | 5,000+ | Daily | Team users | $100/mo |
Competitor keyword and PPC research
Competitor research is SpyFu's whole focus; for Semrush it is one part of a wider suite. Both build competitor data from their own collection of search results, so every figure for a site you do not own is an estimate, not that site's real numbers.
- SpyFu: its pricing page lists 10+ years of historical data on every plan: how competitors' organic rankings and paid ads have changed over time. Basic shows up to 10,000 rows per search and export; Pro + AI and Team / Agency show unlimited results.
- Semrush: its pricing page sells keyword and competitor research inside the SEO plans, with per-report limits that grow by plan. Its user-management guide lists separate toolkits next to SEO, including Ads, Local, Content and Social, each priced on its own.
Before you trust either for a market, compare what it reports for your own site with your Search Console data. Our guide to competitor keyword research shows how to do a gap analysis with free data.
Rank tracking limits
SpyFu tracks far more keywords per plan, but weekly; Semrush tracks fewer, but daily.
- SpyFu: 5,000 keywords on Basic (1 tracking project), 15,000 on Pro + AI (10 tracking projects) and 50,000 on Team / Agency (unlimited tracking projects), updated weekly on every plan.
- Semrush: 500 keywords on SEO and Starter, 1,500 on Pro+ and 5,000+ on Advanced, updated daily on every plan. The Free plan tracks 10 keywords.
If you need to see movement day to day, weekly updates will feel slow. For trackers built only for this job, see best rank tracking software.
Backlinks and site audit
For a full audit and link toolset in one login, Semrush is the broader pick; SpyFu's audit is newer, but its crawl allowance is large. Neither vendor publishes its link index size counted the same way, so we do not compare their link data.
- SpyFu: its pricing page marks the site audit New and lists 50,000 crawled pages a month on Basic, 500,000 on Pro + AI and 2 million on Team / Agency. Its plans are sold on competitor keyword and ad history; if links are your main job, check SpyFu's own pages for its backlink features before you buy.
- Semrush: backlink reports and Site Audit are part of the SEO plans. On the Free plan, backlink reports count toward the 10 reports a day and Site Audit covers up to 100 pages a month; paid plans raise both limits by plan.
Who each one is best for
| If you are… | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Running paid search and watching rivals' ads | SpyFu | Built around competitors' ad and keyword history, from $39 a month |
| Exporting long competitor keyword lists | SpyFu Pro + AI | Unlimited results and exports, 15,000 tracked keywords |
| An agency or in-house team needing one suite | Semrush | Daily rank tracking, 15 websites on Pro+, audits and extra toolkits |
| Trying before paying | Semrush | A Free plan with 10 reports a day, and a 7-day free trial of paid plans |
| Working on your own site on a budget | Google Search Console + MrKeyword | Measured Google data free, with daily history and keyword volumes on a free plan |
For more options, see SEO tool pricing compared and Semrush vs Ahrefs.
An option built on your own Search Console data
MrKeyword, which we make, is a cheaper tool for the weekly work on sites you own, not a replacement for SpyFu 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.
Plans: 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:
- No web-scale keyword index. It cannot list every keyword a competitor ranks for. Its search volumes come from Google Keyword Planner through the official Google Ads API, for the keywords you research.
- Competitor positions are predicted, not measured. The Competitors tab in rank tracking estimates where rival domains rank from MrKeyword's own index and labels every figure Predicted.
- No live SERP checks. It never scrapes Google. Your positions are Google's own average positions from Search Console (and Bing Webmaster Tools), for sites you verify, with Google's usual 2 to 3 day delay.
- A smaller link index. Backlinks and Link Authority come from MrKeyword's web graph, which is smaller than the link indexes the big suites run.
- No local pack, map or ads tracking, and no social media or PPC toolkits.
Check a keyword's real search volume freeMonthly searches fetched live from Google Keyword Planner, with the source and time on every figure.
Open the keyword research toolSpyFu and Semrush are trademarks of their owners, used here only to compare them. MrKeyword is not affiliated with either.
Questions and answers
SpyFu vs Semrush questions
Is SpyFu cheaper than Semrush?
Yes, on listed prices. SpyFu Basic is $39 a month and Pro + AI $119, against $139 for Semrush's SEO plan. Paid yearly, SpyFu Basic is $29 a month and Semrush SEO $117.33 (prices checked November 2026).
Is SpyFu's data as accurate as Semrush's?
Neither vendor publishes an accuracy figure measured the same way, so we cannot rank them. Both estimate competitors' keywords and traffic from their own collection of search results; only a site's owner sees its real queries in Search Console. Compare each tool's figures for your own site with your Search Console data before relying on it.
Which is better for PPC, SpyFu or Semrush?
SpyFu if you mainly want competitors' ad history: its plans are built around how rivals' paid and organic keywords changed over 10+ years. Semrush if you want PPC research alongside a wider suite; it sells an Ads toolkit separately from its SEO plans.
Are there free options instead of SpyFu or Semrush?
Semrush has a Free plan with 10 reports a day and no card; SpyFu's pricing page lists no free plan, only a 30-day money-back guarantee. For your own site, Google Search Console is free, and MrKeyword builds on it from free, then $10 a month, but it does not research competitors.
Sources
- SpyFu pricing — plans, prices and limits; checked 1 November 2026
- Semrush pricing — checked 2 November 2026; plans, yearly prices, websites, tracked keywords and daily updates
- Semrush user management — Semrush Knowledge Base 1409, per-plan limits and separate toolkits
- SEO & AI Search plans and pricing — Semrush, the Free plan: 1 demo project and 10 reports a day
- What can you do with a free Semrush account? — Semrush blog, free limits for Position Tracking and Site Audit
- About Search Console — Search Console Help: a free service offered by Google
- MrKeyword pricing — our own plans and limits
