SEMrush vs. Moz
After creating a website and registering your domain name, there are about a million things to do. Creating and publishing content, improving your site’s design and mobile compatibility, and enriching your site’s SEO rankings are a few of the most common battles creators face.
Many online services have emerged out of this need to improve and simplify the site creation process. Some offer in-depth SEO tools to help your site reach more viewers, and some may rely on marketing functions and PPC tools.
Choosing the best service for your site can be challenging. If you’ve been trying to decide between SEMrush and Moz, this brief guide may help you make your final decision. We’ll be taking a moment to consider each service’s features, advantages, and disadvantages before comparing them directly. Let’s begin!
SEMrush Overview
SEMrush is a service offering website creators and digital marketers a full range of virtual tools, many of which are geared toward SEO or PPC. As such, it could be a helpful one-stop-shop for all of your necessary site improvement and site marketing tools.
Like many other such services, SEMrush offers users several service options. Each plan consists of a set amount of functions and features and costs a predetermined monthly price. Users could also choose to invest in an annual program that withdraws a single, full payment.
The optimal plan for any potential user depends on the user’s needs and preferences. For example, a small business owner new to website design and creation may benefit from the SEMrush Pro plan far more than the SEMrush Business plan, despite the name.
Pro
The SEMrush Pro plan is the favorite SEMrush option for freelance workers and small businesses. It offers a moderate amount of services and tools, including up to three campaigns per month, 10,000 data rows per analytics reports, and up to 500 simultaneous keyword tracking functions.
In total, users can enjoy more than 40 unique SEO and PPC tools to increase their site’s ranking, visibility, and marketability. As such, the $100 may be relatively affordable, particularly for those hoping to grow their site over the coming months or years.
Guru
Individuals that choose the Guru plan can enjoy a little more than those who’ve chosen the Pro option. Instead of 10,000 data rows per analytics report, users can enjoy 30,000 data rows per report.
This plan also includes access to historical site data, allowing subscribers to access historical data reaching back to 2012. With the Guru plan, you can experience a slight upgrade in the Pro plan’s tools, particularly in usage.
However, apart from the few additional functions described above, the Guru plan doesn’t offer a ton of other features and extra tools. Those looking to enjoy the maximum amount of SEMrush’s toolkit may want to choose the Business plan.
Business
The SEMrush Business plan costs about $399 per month. It includes everything offered in the Pro and Guru plans, plus some. For example, while the Guru plan offers 30,000 data rows per each analytics report, the Business plan provides 50,000.
The Business plan also SEMrush PLA data for product listing ads, unlimited targets per project, Google Data Studio integration. Users could also choose to share with “read-only” access. As such, this plan may work best for larger businesses with heavy analytics needs.
Pros
- Offers a lot more than just SEO tools
- Easy to understand and use interface
- Plenty of SEO and PPC tools
- Users can generate tons of daily reports
Cons
- Some SEMrush plans may be too pricey for self-employed entrepreneurs or small business owners
- No free trials
- Ranking data is only pulled from Google, not other search engines
Moz Overview
Moz is a company that provides an array of website and SEO services. They have four primary products, though they offer a restricted amount of access to several necessary SEO tools.
Depending on the exact product you choose, Moz could be your ultimate SEO toolkit. Or, it could be a comprehensive set of functions that help you improve your site’s SEO while also allowing you to manage marketing resources and content quality.
Due to the many different facets of Moz, it’s crucial to examine each of its offerings. In this way, it may be easier to understand what Moz offers potential users and what it lacks.
Free Tools
Moz offers its site visitors a simple SEO toolbox that includes a handful of practical applications. You can find a:
- Domain SEO Metrics Tool
- Keyword Explorer
- Online Presence Analysis Tool
- Link Explorer
- Moz Bar Tool
- Domain Analysis Tool
- MozCast Tool
To access most of these tools, you will need to register with Moz and create a user account. This process can be tedious and a little time-consuming for those hoping to access SEO tools very quickly. However, once you’re signed into Moz, their free toolbox is incredibly easy to use.
Still, free users are given restricted access to all of the features mentioned above. To gain unlimited access to the many SEO tools Moz offers, you’ll likely need to upgrade your plan to a paid one. Moz offers four paid products, the most popular of which seems to be either the Moz Pro or the Moz Local services.
Pro
The Moz Pro service offers a few different levels of access, depending on the selected payment tier. The most affordable of these tiers is the Standard one, which costs about $99 per month. This cost can be slightly reduced by choosing an annual billing option.
The Moz Pro Premium service costs about $599 per month but is designed for medium-to-large businesses or companies. There’s also Moz Pro Medium and Moz Pro Large, both of which offer varying levels of toolbox access and effectiveness.
As such, users that opt for the Moz Pro service can expect to run 3-50 campaigns, track between 300 and 4,500 keywords, crawl between 100,000 and 2 million pages, and make between 5,000 and 100,000 backlink queries per month.
Moz Pro is designed to meet the needs of small businesses, self-employed entrepreneurs, and larger companies hoping to improve their website’s SEO. However, Moz also offers a service that grants access to its SEO toolbox and a few nifty marketing functions.
This alternative service is called Moz Local. It’s also a bit challenging to describe due to the multiple payment plans available.
Local
Moz Local comes in three “flavors” of service, each with a specific price point. The most affordable of these payment tiers is the Moz Local Lite, while the Moz Local Elite is the priciest.
Users can expect to spend about $129 per month on Moz Local Lite and $299 per month for the Elite option. The mid-tier plan, the Moz Local Preferred, costs $179 per month.
The Moz Local service is designed for business owners. With a primary focus on listing management, data aggregation, data syncing, and social media integration, this service helps website builders craft a site that appeals to consumers and popular search engines.
While Moz Pro could help you master SEO basics and intermediate SEO skills, Moz Local attempts to do that plus help you keep your business functioning smoothly and effectively. It features more marketing-based tools and analytics to help business owners stay one step ahead of the market.
But businesses in need of an in-depth SEO service may decide to top for a combination of Moz services. The Moz STAT service, for example, could be particularly helpful in generating search engine results pages (SERP) analytics.
STAT
Moz STAT appeals to the analyst in all of us. It grants users access to a dazzling abundance of SERP analytic tools, including large-scale rank tracking. Pricing starts at about $720 per month, which is bound to be an affordable cost for businesses that require such a massive amount of SEO data.
Mozscape API
The Mozscape API service may be best suited to programmers or website developers with extensive knowledge of tool creation and SEO integration. This service offers up a seemingly endless stream of metrics and data analysis tools and allows users to create their own SEO tools and applications.
You could try this service for free if you decide to take advantage of the free 30-day trial. That’s excellent savings when you consider that this service costs between $250 and $10,000 per month. Still, this service is almost explicitly designed to meet the needs of expert designers and data analysts.
Pros
- Free SEO tools for those unwilling or incapable of paying for a subscription
- Plenty of different payment tiers appeal to users of all budgets
- Four distinct products for website designers
- Affordable plans for small and large businesses
- Excellent range of SEO applications
Cons
- Overcomplicated pricing structures can be challenging to navigate
- Moz Local could offer more marketing tools
- Only offers two plans that are beneficial for the majority small of business owners
SEMrush vs. Moz: Which Is Better?
The first thing to point out about these two different services is their selling point. Moz advertises itself as an SEO software and data service that can help you increase your site rankings and help you reach a wider audience. SEMrush advertises itself as a marketing toolkit, offering SEO services in addition to a wide range of other features, including content marketing.
Because these two companies don’t offer precisely the same services, comparing them can be tricky. However, it’s made easier by breaking each service down into three essential categories. After all, you could compare apples and oranges based solely on their color, but that won’t help you decide between their texture, taste, and convenience.
As such, we’re going to compare SEMrush and Moz based on their features, ease of use, and price. This way, you’ll have a more comprehensive idea of what both services offer and which might be the better option for your site.
Features
SEMrush offers one essential product at three different pricing tiers. Moz offers four products at several different pricing tiers. Comparing these features is a dubious task.
That said, Moz’s two most affordable plans offer almost the same types of functions as SEMrush’s two most affordable plans. Still, SEMrush offers the tiniest little bit more in terms of functionality, making it the overall winner in this category.
But users only looking for simple SEO tools could find that Moz’s features work better for their purposes. Of course, they’ll need to master Moz’s occasionally confusing user interface.
Ease of Use
A user interface, or UI, is a crucial aspect of any software or online service. You could have the best and most capable software at your disposal, but if you don’t know how to operate it, it’s not doing you much good.
Moz’s user interface is relatively standard. There are plenty of tabs to access and click through to find various tools, but exporting data and wading through the numbers can be laborious. SEMrush visualizes its data in a far more user-friendly way. Its general design is also easier to learn and master.
But because Moz can be used as an SEO tool, and SEMrush can work as a multipurpose site toolkit, users only wanting SEO assistance may find that Moz is easier to use. For this reason, it’s challenging to determine which UI is easier to use. Still, SEMrush has a slightly flatter learning curve.
Price
When it comes to price, Moz is unquestionably the better option. That’s because Moz offers free SEO tools and a free 30-day trial for its Pro plan. SEMrush isn’t as budget-friendly. The lowest-price payment plan for SEMrush users costs about $100 per month.
Still, it’s crucial to consider the adage, “you get what you pay for” when comparing these two services. Sure, Moz offers free SEO tools, and their Moz Pro pricing starts at the same point as SEMrush’s Pro plan. But does the range of services reflect this pricing point?
Well, Moz Pro Standard offers more page crawls per month, unlimited scheduled reports, and far more SEO-focused functions than SEMrush Pro. However, SEMrush Pro does provide more keyword tracking per month, and they also offer a few unique features like social profile tracking.
Creators searching for a handy SEO toolkit may find that Moz Pro Standard is the better option in terms of features and price. But those hoping to discover an all-in-one service for multiple site improvements may find that SEMrush is the better-value choice despite its higher price point.
Overall, Moz is the most affordable solution. But the better value depends on your needs and preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below you will find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding SEMrush and Moz. If you cannot find the answer you’re looking for below, don’t panic.
The customer service teams for both of these services do an outstanding job of answering client questions and concerns, so don’t hesitate to reach out to Moz Support or SEMrush Support for more info.
Which Is Better SEMrush or Ahrefs?
Determining whether SEMrush or Ahrefs is the better service can be challenging. That’s because the right answer depends on what you’re looking for from an SEO service. SEMrush offers a ton of SEO and marketing tools, and Ahrefs is primarily designed for SEO.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use application with phenomenal keyword research and SEO tools, Ahrefs may be the better option over SEMrush. But if you’re hoping to gain access to a comprehensive set of online tools to improve your site’s performance and rankings, SEMrush could be the more satisfactory choice.
Essentially, the buyer is the only person who could answer this question. That’s because each site designer has a unique vision for their site.
Some may want to focus on content creation and curation, slowly learning about search engine optimization as they go. Others may focus on SEO first and fill their pages with useful content after figuring out a solid SEO plan. Determining which type of site builder you are could help you choose the best possible service and virtual toolbox.
Is SEMrush Free?
No, SEMrush is not free. Unlike many other online toolbox applications that offer free trials or essential tools, SEMrush charges a minimum of $99 per month ($83.28 per month when billed annually).
Is Moz Good?
Is pineapple on pizza good? Depending on who you ask, you’re bound to get several different answers. That’s because “Is [something] good?” is a subjective question that is nearly impossible to answer. However, “Is Moz Helpful?” or “Is Moz Useful?” are questions that do have a more definitive answer.
Moz can be a helpful service for individuals or businesses hoping to improve their site’s SEO. If you choose to upgrade to Moz Local or Moz STAT, you could also work on content marketing, intercompany communication, info sharing, and SERP analytics. As such, Moz could also be considered a beneficial service.
What Is Moz Pro?
Moz Pro is one of three paid Moz services. It grants Moz users access to several Moz functions, including:
- Keyword Explorer
- Ranking Tracker
- Site Audits
- Crawl Diagnostics
- Link Explorer
- Page Optimization Score
- Customized Reports
This option is designed to suit the needs of website designers and creators that are explicitly hoping to improve their site’s SEO and rankings. Depending on the precise plan, Moz Pro can cost between $99 and $599 per month.
Users could also choose to save by purchasing an annual plan. You can expect to spend between $950 and $9,750 when selecting a one-time yearly payment.
This variation ensures that small business owners and self-employed site owners can afford Moz’s most popular SEO functions. Larger companies or businesses can access the more expensive elements Moz offers.
Final Thoughts
Both SEMrush and Moz could help website creators hoping to increase their site’s rankings, visibility, SEO, and reception. However, Moz’s services are geared more toward SEO purposes than marketing tactics.
SEMrush offers far more marketing features and functions than Moz and includes nearly everything Moz offers in SEO. But Moz offers free SEO tools and low-priced plans for subscribers. SEMrush’s most affordable plan costs about $100 per month. Still, your exact needs and preferences will help you decide between these two services.