When it comes to SEO tools, there are no better options available in the market than Semrush and Moz.
But now, the question is, “How do you select between these two leading SEO tools?”.
So if you’re looking for a thorough comparison of these two well-known SEO tools, you’ve landed in the right place.
Hence, I’ll compare Semrush and Moz in this article to help you decide which one best fits your needs.
I will evaluate Semrush and Moz in terms of:
- SEO toolkit review
- Pricing
- Ease of use
- Customer support
- Differences
- Pros & Cons
So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
Moz vs Semrush: A Quick Comparison (2024)
Here is an infographic quickly summarizing which tool is better than the other. Take a look!!
An Introduction To Semrush
Semrush stands out as a leading digital marketing suite, particularly renowned for its comprehensive SEO Toolkit. As an SEO and content head, I make use of Semrush for extensive keyword research, backlink analysis, and technical SEO audits.
Its capability to track SERP positions daily makes it indispensable for SEO professionals. What sets Semrush apart is its massive database, encompassing over 25 billion keywords and 43 trillion backlinks, providing unparalleled market insights.
This robust platform is not just about data; it’s about actionable insights, making it a go-to choice for over 10 million marketing professionals, including many from Fortune 500 companies.
Our team has been using Semrush for over four years, and it helped us a lot in finding. If you want to know everything about this platform, here’s a complete Semrush review.
Bonus: Semrush typically offers s a 7-day free trial to new users. But you can get your hands on our exclusive Semrush 14-day free trial. As being of the official partners of Semrush, this one is specially for our readers.
An Introduction To Moz
Starting as a blog and online community in 2004 named SEOmoz, which intended to explore the new realm of SEO, Moz (now officially known as Moz Pro) has a long history with the industry.
Moz is a trusted provider of SEO services that boosts your search engine optimization using both simple and complex research techniques.
Moz contains a few all-in-one features, such as backlink analysis, site audit, and keyword research, just like Semrush. However, there are a lot of differences that limit Moz to usable only for medium sized businesses.
SEO Toolkit Comparison: Semrush vs Moz
Semrush and Moz both have a wide range of features. To help you navigate, I’ve compared some of the essential features of both SEO tools below:
User Interface
After the initial setup, the Semrush dashboard shows the core metrics, such as domain analysis, traffic, keywords, and position tracking.
All the major tools related to improving your site’s performance are listed on the right side of the page. It makes it convenient for users to pick a tool and use them instantly. Other tools are listed on the left side of the menu. There are no sub-sections, making it easier to navigate.
Every section of Semrush is organized logically and clearly, with the assistance of useful visualizations that make the data more engaging.
Setting up your domain with Moz takes a little time (at least 30 minutes to gather data and insights). You can wait for the email once th setup is done or refresh the page to know if it’s done. Here’s how it looks after the setup.
Compared to Semrsuh, Moz’s dashboard looks very plain and dreary. There is not enough data and insights. All the tools are listed on the left side of the menu. Moreover, a lot of subcategories will make it tough to find a specific tool.
My Verdict: The user interface is clean on both tools. However, on Semrush, it takes minimum effort to find a specific tool. Semrush’s data updates every 24 hours, whereas Moz schedules the update every week. So Semrush has an edge here.
Keyword Research
The keyword research tool of Semrush provides accurate information on keyword difficulty and search volume. Simply select the keyword overview tab on the dashboard to use this function. Now you must type your chosen term into the search field.
For example, I entered the keyword “running shoes” in the Keyword Overview tab, and it gave me all the important insights related to the seed keyword.
Additionally, you can enter numerous keywords in the same search field by separating them with commas. Furthermore, you can choose the location where you wish to view the keyword overview.
When you click the search button, a detailed keyword summary will appear. You can get multiple options such as keyword difficulty, trend, the keyword’s intent, CPC, related keywords, questions related to the keyword, keyword variations, and SERP analysis in the overview section.
- Keyword Magic Tool
You can always leverage the Semrush keyword magic tool to conduct traditional keyword research. Try out the related feature of Semrush’s Keyword magic tool, which can help you find keywords that you would have overlooked otherwise.
On Moz, there are multiple keyword tools available for keyword gaps, suggestions, and SERP analysis. It helps you identify and prioritize the ideal target keywords for your business.
You can find keywords to target using a variety of factors, such as their monthly search volume, organic search competition ranking, and click-through rate.
Additionally, Moz offers a unique priority score that combines these aspects and determines a score that represents the amount of potential for that particular keyword.
Furthermore, it also breaks down SERP analysis by highlighting the websites that rank highest in search engine results for that specific keyword phrase.
My Verdict: With Semrush’s keyword research tool, you can uncover detailed keyword analysis. It evaluates particular SERP keywords, competitive keywords, and the performance of paid keyword searches. Moz’s Keyword Explorer instantly comes up with top keywords and phrases that can be improved for better visibility on SERPs.
Competitors Analysis & Research Overview
For website optimization and competitor research, domain analysis plays an important role. It quickly identifies the gap and aspects that you are missing to rank above your competitors.
Semrush not only provides you with a 360-degree view of your domain but also shows the distributed traffic and keywords in 120+ countries.
At the same time, you can add and compare up to 10 domains. Then Semrush will compare the performance of these data points:
- Paid and organic keywords
- Paid and organic traffic
- Number of referring domains
- Backlinks
- Average visit duration
- Bounce rate
These metrics allow you to compare the engagement rate and incoming traffic from the backlinks.
Moz recently added the domain overview tool to its suite. Like Semrush, this section shows in-depth data and metrics related to the specific domain.
Domain overview is divided into four sections:
- Summary: As shown in the image above, the summary provides a quick overview of the domain. It shows the data of domain authority, page authority, brand authority, linking domains, and ranking keywords.
- Rankings: This section lists the top-ranking keywords and URLs on the page with the monthly search volume. You can also check SERP reports individually for each keyword.
- Competition: In this section, you will see the top competitors competing for the same niche with their total ranking keywords, positions, PA, DA, and BA. Below that, you will find the graphical comparison between competitors vs your site for better analysis.
- Links: The links section explores the top pages, pages with 400 errors, discovered/lost linking domains, anchor text, and spam score.
My Verdict: In terms of data, the domain overview of both tools provides details on authority score, backlinks, and ranking keywords. However, Semrush adds more value with the monthly traffic estimation feature. You can’t get monthly estimates with Moz Pro until you connect your Google Analytics. Still, you won’t be able to use this feature for competitor research. So, Semrush has an edge over here.
Link Building Tool
Any kind of link-building is something I hate! But it’s a must in business, and your project won’t even succeed without reliable referrals. Fortunately, both tools have enough tools that you can explore and use to create strong link-building strategies.
Semrush features a bigger link index, giving you more options for backlinks if you spend most of your day focusing on link building.
Moreover, Semrush helps you to research and discover a wide range of backlink sources that are ideal for your website. It lets you engage in outreach and create new links to boost the authority and SEO of your domain. They also have dozens of filters you can apply to discover the backlinks you’re looking for.
There are several tabs in the backlinks section that can help you find effective backlinks that can actually affect your rankings, including overview (which gives you an idea of the type of a site’s backlinks profile), anchors, backlinks, referring IPs, referring domains, comparison, and indexed pages.
Moz gives you full control of link building. You can evaluate your existing link profile, keep track of your link-building efforts, and find link-building prospects.
The Link Overview tab analyses your backlinks, top valuable sites, referring domains, and anchor text to help you develop high-quality backlinks that will help you compete and succeed online.
Additionally, in fast and easy Link Tracking Lists, you can set specific goals, monitor your progress, and do analysis.
My Verdict: Your site’s performance and traffic highly depend on backlinks and inbound links coming from other websites. Moz and Semrush both show a complete backlink profile of any website. So it’s a tie.
Technical SEO & Site Audit
Site auditing is a crucial term for technical SEO. It instantly analyzes and evaluates how your site is performing on the search engine. Semrush and Moz both provide ultimate solutions for website auditing. On Semrush, it is labeled as ‘Site Audit,’ and you can explore the ‘Site Crawl’ section on Moz for the same.
Semrush’s Site Audit provides a complete overview of the site’s overall health. You can select the number of pages to be crawled in a single audit (up to 20k pages with paid plans).
Unlike Semrush, Moz instantly crawls all the pages with the Site Crawl tool. It categorizes all the issues with the exact numbers.
You can go through every issue one by one and fix them. But Semrush gets an extra point here for guiding users to resolve the issues instantly.
However, both web crawlers look out for the issues that may affect your page rankings and website health. It includes,
- Title, metadata, description
- Critical crawler issues
- Redirecting errors
- Thin content
- Invalid structure data items
My Verdict: Both site audit tools are capable of extracting issues that can potentially harm your overall authority and ranking. However, beginners can get instant solutions with Semrush.
PPC and Advertising Research
If we compare both tools — Semrush evaluates factors like competitors’ marketing approaches and PPC spending from critical perspectives.
The Semrush tool lets you investigate how much money your rivals spent on advertising and how much traffic they obtained from PPC. This provides you with a clear image before spending money on marketing your website.
If you want to go further, you may examine your rivals’ ad expenditure patterns throughout the year to optimize your budget. Semrush also has a market exploration option that gives information on specific topics to draw targeted audiences, industry demographics, and more.
The unique search skills of Moz enable you to conduct highly optimized PPC ads.
For instance, if you want to run PPC advertisements, you can create, add, and manage a list of keywords all in one place.
It provides hundreds of brilliant ideas to assist you in selecting better keywords and ranking among the top competitors. Metrics like search volume estimations might help you select high-quality keywords for your ads.
My Verdict: Moz doesn’t have a separate section for PPC advertising. The Keyword Explorer tool provides you with the bidding keywords with the difficulty and search volume. Semrush goes beyond the basic research and gives a clear picture of keywords and search volume, and suggests the best bidding strategy.
Customer Support & Resources
When it comes to the support and learning resources, Semrush again comes on top compared to Moz Pro.
Semrush offers multiple support channels, including live chat, email, and phone support. On the other hand, Moz only offers email and live chat support.
The live chat feature works when you are logged into your dashboard (for both). Here, you can put your queries and get answers from their support staff. However, Moz supports only the English language, whereas Semrush provides solutions in 13 different languages.
For the resources, Moz offers a blog with step-by-step articles and a community forum with 500k digital marketers. You can sign up for free to get full access to the blog and community.
The same goes for Semrush. You can find detailed guides and tutorials on the Semrush blog without any sign up or subscribing to a plan. Marketing Scoop Podcast by Semrush is also a great starting point for new marketers and bloggers.
Pros & Cons
Here are a few pros and cons for Semrush and Moz.
Pros of Semrush
- Offers an exclusive free trial of 14 days [For DemandSage readers]
- Semrush has practically every feature needed for SEO, from keyword research to backlink analysis.
- It is an Award-winning Seo toolkit.
- Get a wealth of data, but its interface is organized logically, and graphs & data visualizations make it simple to analyze the metrics it offers.
- You can easily follow the instructions provided by its site auditing tool on how to make changes to your site’s technical SEO and on-page SEO.
- Provides deep and detailed keyword research and allows you to select the best ones for your niche.
Cons of Semrush
- Semrush offers data for only one search engine, i.e., Google.
- Many Semrush users have expressed disappointment with inaccurate information regarding ad spending, exports, and other issues.
Pros of Moz
- Moz offers a generous amount of monthly crawl limits
- It provides a special spam score feature to minimize spam links.
- The platform offers a longer period of free trial – 30 days
- It offers on-demand rank-tracking tools that you won’t get on Semrush
- This Seo tool provides a variety of SERP analyses.
- Moz has an excellent community and forum to get any queries answered.
Cons of Moz
- Compared to the Moz dashboard, Semrush offers more insightful information.
- Moz does not provide a user-friendly interface.
Pricing: Semrush Vs Moz
Here’s a quick comparison between Semrush and Moz pricing:
Semrush Pricing
Semrush offers 3 different plans for specific use cases, and you can choose which one you want to start with.
Check the complete Semrush pricing guide and find out which plan suits your business the best.
- Pro plan: This plan is ideal for beginners and startups and will cost you $119.95 monthly. The Pro plan offers 5 projects, 10,000 results per report, and 500 keywords to track.
- Guru plan: You will get this plan at $229.95 per month. This plan is best suited for mid-size businesses and agencies. Guru plan offers 15 projects, 30,000 results per report, and 1500 keywords to track.
- Business plan: The business plan is best for enterprises and large agencies. You can buy this plan at $449.95 per month. The business plan offers 40 projects, 50,000 results per report, and 5000 keywords to track.
- Custom Plan: If in case, you are not satisfied with the plans mentioned above, you can always contact their sales team to discuss a custom plan according to your requirements.
Bonus: Semrush’s upfront cost can be a little bit too much for beginners. You can save a few bucks using our special Semrush coupon codes on your selected plans.
However, if you want to try the Semrush toolkit without investing right away, you can take our exclusive 14-day free trial.
Moz Pricing
Moz offers 4 different pricing plans:
- Standard: The standard plan will cost you $99 per month. If you are a beginner, you can opt for this plan.
- Medium: Get this Medium plan at $179 per month. This plan will provide full access to its keyword research tools.
- Large: This plan is ideal for agencies and businesses. Purchase this Large plan of Moz at just $299 per month.
- Premium: You will get this plan at $599 per month. You can choose this plan if you are a big business or marketing agency.
A quick comparison between Semrush and Moz offerings:
| Feature | Semrush | Moz |
|---|---|---|
| Projects (Basic Plan) | Up to 5 projects | Up to 3 projects |
| Keywords (Basic Plan) | Track up to 500 keywords | Track up to 300 keywords |
| Users (Most Expensive Plan) | 1 user seat, additional at extra cost | Up to 5 users included, no extra cost |
| Additional Users Cost | $45/mo/user, $80/mo/user, $100/mo/user | Included in most expensive plan |
| Feature Updates | Regularly adds features and updates | Rarely adds features and updates |
| Number of Tools | Access to more than 50 tools | Offers only 6-7 tools |
My Verdict: Semrush’s Pro and Guru plans offer way much more value compared to Moz’s Standard plan. Most of the advanced features are only accessible with Moz’s expensive plans.
Related Read:
Which SEO Tool is Better — Semrush or Moz?
As mentioned above, I have been using Semrush for quite a time and I have had a great experience with this tool. After comparing it with Moz, there’s no reason to ditch Semrush for any good reason.
As per my analysis:
- Moz is recommended for small company owners or startups because of its beginner-friendly features.
- If you’re a blogger or digital marketer, Semrush can help you increase your search traffic.
However, both tools offer a free trial that allows you to test out their core features. You can try Moz for 30 days before paying for a paid subscription, whereas Semrush only offers a 7-day free trial. But with our partnership with Semrush, you can extend it to 14 days.
