Head-to-head · facts checked 13 Sept 2026
Frase vs Semrush
Semrush uniquely has 3 features.
From
$39/mo (Starter, annual) or $49/mo (monthly)
Free plan
No
From
$139.95/mo (SEO plan)
Free plan
Yes — limited free account available
The verdict
Frase or Semrush?
Section 01
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Frase
Starter
$49/mo · $468/yr
1 seat, 1 site, 10 articles & 50 audit pages/month, Content Guard watches 3 pages
Professional
$129/mo · $1,236/yr
3 seats, 5 sites, 40 articles & 250 audit pages/month, Content Guard watches 15 pages, content calendar, internal linking
Scale
$299/mo · $2,868/yr
5 seats, 5 sites, 100 articles & 1,000 audit pages/month, Content Guard watches 50 pages, client-ready reports, repurposing
Enterprise
Custom
Custom seats & domains, white-label reports, branded client portal, SSO/SAML, dedicated account manager, SLA
Semrush
SEO
$139.95/mo · $1,407.96/yr
5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword research and competitor analysis, Position Tracking, Site Audit, AI visibility reports
Starter (SEO + AI Search)
$199/mo · $1,982/yr
5 websites, 500 keywords, 50 prompts tracked daily, 1 domain AI brand performance, 300 AI visibility reports/day, MCP access
Pro+ (SEO + AI Search)
$299/mo · $2,978/yr
15 websites, 1,500 keywords, 100 prompts tracked daily, historical SEO data, content optimization, keyword cannibalization analysis
Advanced (SEO + AI Search)
$549/mo · $5,468/yr
40 websites, 5,000 keywords, 200 prompts tracked daily, SEO share of voice, API data integration, maximum power tier
Section 02
Pros and cons
From each tool's full review, written from the same checked facts.
Frase
Pros
- AI Visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI is a genuine differentiator that most competitors don't offer at the same level.
- The SEO Research module uses live SERP data rather than cached snapshots, giving accurate competitor benchmarking and entity research.
- Automated content brief generation maps entities and topic coverage from top-ranking pages, consistently flagged by G2 reviewers as the feature they'd miss most.
- Content Guard monitors existing content for ranking drops and traffic decay, addressing a gap most content teams struggle to fill.
- Multi-model AI setup integrating Claude and Gemini means the platform isn't locked to a single provider as the model landscape evolves.
- The 2025–2026 pricing restructure is noted as more logical and coherent than the previous pricing model.
- Platform covers the full content loop from research and drafting through editing, publishing, and performance monitoring in one tool.
Cons
- Despite significant growth since 2016, the platform still has rough edges that users are likely to encounter.
- The feature list is very long, which can make the platform feel bloated or complex for users who only need core functionality.
- AI Visibility tracking and GEO performance monitoring are newer additions, meaning they may lack the maturity of the core research tools.
- No live hands-on testing was conducted for this review, so real-world usability nuances may not be fully captured.
- The platform has undergone notable pricing changes as recently as 2025–2026, suggesting potential instability in plan structures.
- Content monitoring features like Content Guard are recent additions and may not yet match the reliability of more established SEO tools.
Semrush
Pros
- Semrush covers an exceptionally wide range of SEO capabilities including site auditing, rank tracking, keyword research, backlink analysis, PPC tools, and social scheduling all in one platform.
- The Keyword Magic Tool draws from a database of 28 billion keywords, giving users access to one of the largest keyword datasets available.
- AI Visibility Toolkit launched in October 2025 allows users to monitor brand presence across LLM platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity using over 317 million tracked prompts.
- Position Tracking provides daily rank updates with multi-location options, making it useful for agencies managing multiple client campaigns.
- The platform has 17 years of development behind it, meaning core SEO data quality is well-established and trusted by a reported 10 million users.
- Backlink analysis covers 43 trillion backlinks according to Semrush, giving users substantial data for link building and competitive research.
- Content tools include both brief generation and a live optimization editor, streamlining the content production workflow within a single platform.
Cons
- The sheer breadth of tools creates a significant learning curve, with G2 reviewers in agency and marketing roles consistently flagging it before noting any positives.
- At $139.95 per month for the base plan, the cost is a meaningful commitment, and the value delivered appears to depend heavily on which pricing tier you're on.
- The gap between what Semrush promises and what it actually delivers varies significantly based on how much users are paying, suggesting key features may be paywalled.
- The platform may have expanded too broadly, making it difficult for users to know which tools to use, in what order, and for which workflows without weeks of onboarding.
- The Adobe acquisition completed April 2026 introduces uncertainty about the platform's future direction, pricing, and enterprise software bloat.
- AI Visibility Toolkit is still relatively new as of 2025-2026, meaning the feature set and data reliability in that area may not yet be fully mature.
- The volume of features across the platform risks overwhelming smaller teams or solo practitioners who only need a subset of what Semrush offers.
Side by side
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2016 | 2008 |
| HQ | Boston, USA | Boston, USA |
| AI model | Proprietary (multi-model, including Claude and Gemini integrations) | Proprietary |
| User base | 30,000+ | 10M+ users |
| Platforms | Web, API, MCP/CLI | Web, Chrome Extension, iOS, Android |
| Languages | English primarily, some multilingual support | 25+ |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Subscription | Subscription |
| Free plan | No | Yes — limited free account available |
| Free trial | Yes — 7 days, no credit card required | Yes — 7 days |
| Starting price | $39/mo (Starter, annual) or $49/mo (monthly) | $139.95/mo (SEO plan) |
| Enterprise | Custom — scoped to org | Custom — request demo |
| All plans | Starter — $49/mo Professional — $129/mo Scale — $299/mo Enterprise — Custom | SEO — $139.95/mo Starter (SEO + AI Search) — $199/mo Pro+ (SEO + AI Search) — $299/mo Advanced (SEO + AI Search) — $549/mo |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | In-house content and SEO teams, agencies, and freelancers managing the full content lifecycle for Google and AI search | SEO professionals, digital marketers, agencies, and enterprises seeking comprehensive search visibility and AI search monitoring |
| Differentiator | Frase runs the entire content loop — research, drafting, publishing, AI visibility monitoring, and decay detection — in one platform with persistent brand context, eliminating fragmented tool handoffs. | Semrush One unifies traditional SEO and AI search visibility (LLM citation tracking) on a single platform built on 17 years of search intelligence, with 28B keywords, 43T backlinks, and 317M+ LLM prompts monitored. |
| Competitors | Surfer SEO, Semrush, Clearscope, MarketMuse, Jasper | Ahrefs, Moz, Mangools, SE Ranking, Surfer SEO, BrightEdge |
| Features | ||
| AI Copywriting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backlink Analysis | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Brief | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| GSC Integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Keyword Clustering | ✓ | ✓ |
| Keyword Research | ✓ | ✓ |
| Long Form Writing | ✓ | ✓ |
| On Page SEO | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rank Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| SERP Analysis | ✓ | ✓ |
| Topic Clusters | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Chrome Extension | ✕ | ✓ |
| CMS | WordPress, Webflow, Sanity, Wix, FraseCMS (native hosting) | WordPress, Google Docs, Shopify via integrations |
| Google Docs | ✕ | ✓ |
| Key Integrations | WordPress, Webflow, Sanity, Wix, FraseCMS, Claude (MCP), Cursor, ChatGPT monitoring, Perplexity monitoring, Google AI monitoring, Gemini monitoring | Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ads, Adobe (parent company), Lovable AI builder, ChatGPT, MCP access, Zapier, WordPress, Google Docs |
| Wordpress | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zapier | — | ✓ |
Section 03
Frase vs Semrush: common questions
Is Frase or Semrush cheaper?
Frase's cheapest paid plan is $39/mo (Starter, annual) or $49/mo (monthly) and Semrush's is $139.95/mo (SEO plan). Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
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