Selecting between Semrush Starter and Professional+ comes down to 1 query: How a lot web optimization and AI visibility work does your group have to handle?
If you happen to already know you wish to monitor efficiency throughout conventional and AI search, Starter and Professional+ each cowl the necessities. The choice comes all the way down to the size you want, and the 2 plans are constructed to swimsuit completely different workloads.
This information breaks down thothese variations that can assist you select the plan that matches your group with out underbuying or paying for capability you gained’t use.
Semrush Starter vs. Professional+: Essential variations
Right here’s a fast comparability of the 2 Semrush plans:
|
Starter |
Professional+ |
|
|
Who it’s greatest for |
Freelancers, solopreneurs, and small in-house groups managing a handful of websites |
Increasing groups and small companies managing a number of shopper websites or model properties |
|
Worth (billed month-to-month) |
$199/month |
$299/month |
|
Worth (billed yearly) |
$165.17/month |
$248.17/month |
|
web optimization tasks (web sites to watch) |
5 |
15 |
|
Each day monitoring limits |
500 key phrases, 50 prompts |
1,500 key phrases, 100 prompts |
|
web optimization historic information |
Not included |
Month-to-month information again to 2012 |
|
Examine Domains report |
Not included |
Included, with as much as 5 domains without delay |
|
Multi-targeting in Place Monitoring |
Not included |
Included |
|
Key phrase cannibalization report |
Not included |
Included |
Semrush Starter covers the core web optimization and AI visibility instruments you must handle one essential web site plus a number of smaller or shopper properties. You’ll be able to monitor key phrases, examine opponents, and monitor AI visibility from one place.
Professional+ offers you a similar core capabilities, however with three occasions as many tasks and tracked key phrases. It additionally unlocks historic information, side-by-side area comparisons, multi-targeting, and key phrase cannibalization detection. For these causes, it’s typically chosen by companies and rising groups.
The only distinction is that this: Starter suits a centered web optimization + AI search operation. Professional+ helps groups able to scale their model visibility workflows to a number of markets or manufacturers.
Web site and monitoring limits
The comparability desk above offers you the numbers. However choosing the proper plan means understanding what these numbers seem like in apply.
Begin together with your energetic web sites or shopper accounts. Consider it much less because the variety of web sites you personal and extra because the variety of separate web optimization tasks you’re actively operating.
Starter allows you to create 5 web optimization tasks, whereas Professional+ will increase that restrict to 15.
web optimization Dashboard
Every web optimization challenge offers you a singular SEO dashboard the place you possibly can configure instruments akin to Web site Audit and Place Monitoring and monitor high-level metrics in a single view.

For a freelancer managing their very own website and a couple of or three shopper websites, Starter must be greater than sufficient to work comfortably. It could additionally match an in-house group chargeable for one major website and some secondary properties.
Nonetheless, when you’re already managing greater than 5 shopper accounts, manufacturers, or websites, Starter will put a tough ceiling in your workload. Professional+ offers you room for 15 tasks, so you possibly can add shoppers and develop your online business considerably with out worrying about operating out of capability.
Each day web optimization Place Monitoring and AI visibility monitoring
The following factor to think about is what number of every day key phrases and prompts you must monitor in Position Tracking.
Starter offers you 500 key phrases and 50 AI prompts to trace every day. Professional+ raises these limits to 1,500 key phrases and 100 prompts. To present you an thought of what that appears like, right here is an instance of a Place Monitoring marketing campaign monitoring 201 key phrases:

The Place Monitoring report charts every day visibility, estimated site visitors, and opponents, permitting you to remain on prime of the web optimization progress of your campaigns. AI Visibility Monitoring works equally: every day, you obtain an replace of how typically you could have been cited and talked about in AI solutions in your tracked prompts.
Each Semrush Starter and Professional+ provide you with roughly 100 key phrases and 10 prompts per website, when break up evenly throughout every plan’s full challenge allowance. For small web optimization applications, that’s sometimes sufficient to watch a centered group of precedence phrases. The restrict turns into extra restrictive if you begin monitoring long-tail variations, a number of product classes, or separate key phrase units for a number of shoppers.
The identical precept applies to AI prompts. Monitoring extra prompts isn’t at all times higher. A centered set of roughly 25 prompts can cowl branded, class, and competitor intent with out filling your reporting with noise. Semrush’s information to choosing AI search prompts to track might help you to construct a lean, related immediate record to profit from your allowance, whichever plan you select.
Evaluating the plans, Starter’s 50-prompt allowance is a robust match for one centered AI visibility program. Professional+ offers you extra room to divide your protection throughout merchandise, campaigns, or shopper accounts.
AI sentiment evaluation with Model Efficiency
To get a full image of AI visibility, you additionally have to understand how your model is being described by AI.
Each Semrush Starter and Professional+ additionally embrace Brand Performance, a separate AI visibility monitoring instrument that robotically tracks 200 prompts and studies on AI sentiment and share of voice.

This information updates weekly, so it offers a near-live evaluation of how your model is described and positioned in AI solutions, alongside the every day immediate monitoring.
There’s one vital constraint to think about: each Starter and Professional+ embrace Model Efficiency for a single model. Extra manufacturers price $99 every monthly on each plans. That is the one space the place Professional+ doesn’t scale past Starter — vital to bear in mind when you’re evaluating plans for an company or multi-brand enterprise.
Further options you get with Professional+
Along with greater limits for web site and model monitoring, a subscription to Professional+ consists of a number of instruments that Starter doesn’t, together with:
- The Examine Domains report
- web optimization historic information
- Multi-targeting in Place Monitoring
- The Key phrase Cannibalization report
Examine Domains report
Compare Domains allows you to benchmark as much as 5 domains, subdomains, subfolders, or URLs. From a single view, you possibly can analyze aggressive metrics akin to branded and non-branded site visitors, paid and natural efficiency, key phrase overlap, prime key phrase alternatives, and backlink developments.

That is particularly helpful for companies pitching a potential shopper.
By including a prospect’s area together with 2–four actual opponents, you get an in depth report that exhibits the place the prospect is main , and the place it’s falling behind.This provides you a clearer story to build your pitch, and present your prospect their wins and alternatives.
In-house groups can use the identical report back to benchmark their website towards market leaders, examine a brand new competitor, or evaluate separate model properties.
Starter doesn’t embrace a restricted model of the report. If common side-by-side aggressive benchmarking is a part of your workflow, Professional+ is the clear selection.
Study extra in regards to the obtainable comparisons within the Compare Domains guide.
web optimization historic information
Along with reside information, the Professional+ plan offers web optimization historic information again to 2012, letting you look again at modifications in rankings, site visitors, and key phrase efficiency.
Whereas Starter exhibits you what’s occurring now together with your website’s web optimization, Professional+ exhibits you ways and why the positioning obtained there.

That is helpful for companies managing a number of shopper accounts or in-house SEOs who have to help their technique with historic proof. That context helps flip a report from a snapshot of the present second right into a extra substantial and informative evaluation. As an alternative of merely noting that one thing modified, you possibly can clarify the possible causes to shoppers or senior management.
Historic information is very priceless when evaluating a brand new prospect or competitor website whose inside analytics you possibly can’t entry. For instance, if their estimated natural site visitors dropped with out clarification 6 months in the past, web optimization historic information can evaluate the timing with their key phrase rankings or any Google algorithm updates at the moment, and diagnose the trigger.
Historic information can be helpful throughout onboarding a brand new shopper and understanding the previous habits of their website. You’ll be able to examine earlier rankings, determine seasonal patterns, see the place opponents gained floor, and perceive which methods produced motion earlier than making your first advice.
web optimization historic information is out there in Area Overview, Natural Rankings, Key phrase Overview, and Key phrase Hole.
Discover out extra with our information to using Semrush historical data.
Multi-targeting in Place Monitoring
For companies serving quite a few places, multi-targeting allows you to monitor a number of targets per challenge and regulate visibility in additional areas. A goal could be any location, machine sort, language, search engine, or AI platform the place you monitor key phrases or prompts.

For instance, when you run a neighborhood enterprise, it’s vital to understand how effectively it ranks in its residence location. However when you serve clients in close by cities, you’ll additionally want to watch visibility in these areas.
Multi-targeting allows you to add every space as a separate goal throughout the identical challenge, preserving every thing in a single place. With out multi-targeting, you would wish to create a separate challenge for every goal, and deplete your obtainable challenge slots quicker.
With multi-targeting, you possibly can monitor the identical key phrases throughout four distinctive places, monitor places all the way down to the postal-code stage and evaluate their visibility facet by facet, or monitor ChatGPT, AI Mode, and Google search inside a single challenge.
Multi-targeting could be helpful even for companies that don’t function a number of bodily places. It permits you to use machine varieties as targets, so you possibly can evaluate visibility for desktop and cellular outcomes.
Discover out extra with our multi-targeting guide.
Key phrase Cannibalization report
Keyword cannibalization occurs when a number of pages in your website goal the identical key phrase. As an alternative of 1 robust web page incomes visibility, your rankings could shift between a number of URLs.
That may break up your website’s authority and make it more durable for anyone web page to rank constantly.
TheKeyword Cannibalization report throughout the Place Monitoring instrument identifies these pages so you possibly can handle the problem and enhance your visibility.

When auditing a brand new shopper website or challenge, a Key phrase Cannibalization report is usually a supply of fast wins, serving to you to optimize your website and rank higher for its goal key phrases.
The report presents affected pages and key phrases so that you see precisely which URLs are competing throughout a number of key phrases.
You’ll be able to then prioritize points with essentially the most site visitors potential and resolve whether or not to consolidate pages, alter their focusing on, or strengthen the web page you wish to rank.
Starter doesn’t embrace the Key phrase Cannibalization report. You’ll be able to nonetheless examine competing pages manually, however Professional+ surfaces the issue immediately, making it simple to fold into your web optimization workflow.
Which do you have to select: Starter or Professional+?
When selecting which Semrush plan is the suitable one for your online business, your present workload ought to drive the choice. Starter offers a centered group loads of energy with out pointless capability. Professional+ offers a busier operation the size and deeper evaluation required to deal with extra work from the identical place.
Select Starter if:
- You need core web optimization and AI visibility capabilities with out paying for additional capability you gained’t use
- You deal with 5 or fewer websites or markets
- You don’t want to trace greater than 500 goal key phrases
- You’re simply getting began with AI visibility and solely want to trace 50 prompts or fewer per day
- You don’t presently want historic information, side-by-side area comparisons, multi-targeting, or a devoted cannibalization report
Select Professional+ if:
- You handle web optimization and AI visibility for greater than 5 websites, shoppers, or markets
- You have to monitor broad key phrase portfolios throughout a number of properties
- You repeatedly pitch new enterprise and want quick aggressive benchmarks
- You wish to analysis previous web optimization efficiency of your websites, shoppers or opponents
- You use throughout a number of places or want to match units or search engines like google and yahoo
- Key phrase cannibalization is a part of your web optimization workflow
Evaluation the Semrush pricing options and select the plan that matches the work already in entrance of you.
Prepared to check out a Semrush plan?

