Ahrefs vs Semrush: Which Should You Choose in 2026?
Ahrefs and Semrush side by side, with Timothe's Growth Calendar as a third column. Every verdict and price below is verified against each company's official pages.
The short answer
Both are research suites, and the money buys data on either side. The cleanest split is the entry price and the trial: Ahrefs has a $29 Starter plan but no free trial at all, only a permanently free tier for sites you verify ownership of. Semrush has no equivalent cheap tier, starting at $117.33 a month billed yearly ($139 month to month), but it does offer a 7-day trial, once per toolkit, with a card.
They differ most on whether the suite also produces content. Semrush writes articles through the Content Toolkit, a separate $60 a month subscription that includes 5 SEO-boosted articles a month and publishes into WordPress. Ahrefs does not write articles on any plan: its writing surface is AI Content Helper, an editor that grades and rewrites text you already have, sold from $99 a month, and nothing in Ahrefs publishes to a CMS. If one subscription has to cover research and drafting, that is Semrush.
Neither writes on a schedule, and neither puts citations or real screenshots into a draft. That is where Timothe's Growth Calendar sits: it plans months of topics as clusters and writes them on their dates, with sources and screenshots already in place. It does not replace the rank tracking, site audits, or AI mention tracking that both of these do.
Feature comparison
 |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning & research | |||
| Topic cluster planning | YesKeyword clusters, Standard and up | YesKeyword Strategy Builder | Yes |
| Real-time SERP research | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in keyword research | Yes28.7B keywords, 217 locations | YesCore product | Yes |
| Writing & drafts | |||
| Writes the article for you | NoOutline and paragraph generators only | YesContent Toolkit, a separate $60/mo subscription | YesIncluded in the plan |
| Scheduled autopilot writing | NoNo article generation to schedule | NoOn demand only | Yes |
| Answer-first (AEO) article structure | PartialEditor guidance, paid add-on | YesContent Toolkit only | Yes |
| Source citations in drafts | No | NoLinks are a manual step | Yes |
| Automatic internal linking | PartialSite Audit suggests links for live pages | NoManual, per their guide | Yes |
| Real screenshots in articles | No | NoAI images and stock | Yes |
| Brand voice settings | YesBrand Kit in AI Content Helper | YesUp to 50 brand voices | YesWriting and image style |
| Platform & measurement | |||
| API and AI-agent (MCP) access | YesAPI and MCP, Lite and up | YesMCP from Starter, API on Advanced | YesMCP live |
| Auto-publishing to your CMS | NoWriting helpers only | YesWordPress, up to 100 sites | YesWordPress and Ghost |
| Keyword rank tracking | Yes750 to 5,000 keywords by plan | Yes500 to 5,000 keywords daily | No |
| Technical site audit | Yes170+ issues | YesEvery plan | No |
| AI mention tracking | YesBrand Radar, 7 AI platforms | YesStarter and up | No |
| Content scoring for drafts you write | YesAI Content Helper, from $99/mo | YesContent Score | No |
| Free trial | NoNo trial, free tier only | Yes7 days, card required | Yes3 days |
Last verified: Ahrefs 2026-08-05, Semrush 2026-08-04
Which one to choose
Choose Ahrefs if
You want the widest research access for the lowest entry price, and you are content to write elsewhere. Starter is $29 a month, MCP and the REST API come with every paid plan from Lite up, and Brand Radar tracks brand mentions across seven AI platforms. Accept that there is no trial and no CMS publishing, and that a finished article is moved to your site by hand.
Choose Semrush if
You want one vendor to cover research and drafting, and you want to try before paying. Plans run $117.33 to $455.67 a month billed yearly, the Content Toolkit adds writing for $60 a month with WordPress publishing to up to 100 sites, and the 7-day trial lets you see it first. Budget for the toolkits separately: each one is its own subscription.
Consider Growth Calendar if
Your problem is that the articles do not get written, not that you lack data. Growth Calendar plans months of topics as clusters and writes them on schedule, with source citations, internal links, and real screenshots in every draft. It has no rank tracking, no site audit, and no AI mention tracking, so it sits beside one of these rather than replacing it.
Plans and prices
Ahrefs plans
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/mo | No articles. Keyword and competitor research only: 200 credits a month, 250 rows per report, 50 tracked keywords. You write everything. |
| Lite | $108/mo billed yearly ($129/mo monthly) | No articles. Research and monitoring for 5 projects and 750 tracked keywords. Writing help is the AI Content Helper add-on, from $99 a month for 50 documents you write yourself. |
| Standard | $208/mo billed yearly ($249/mo monthly) | No articles. Same job, wider limits: 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, plus Content Explorer and keyword clusters. The articles still come from you or your writer. |
| Advanced | $374/mo billed yearly ($449/mo monthly) | No articles. 50 projects, 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history. The step up is data depth, not content. |
Ahrefs's pricing and features change; check their official site for the latest. Visit Ahrefs
Semrush plans
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | $117.33/mo billed yearly ($139/mo monthly) | No articles: keyword research, position tracking, and site audit only. Writing is sold separately |
| Starter | $165.17/mo billed yearly ($199/mo monthly) | No articles either; the step up is AI visibility tracking and MCP access, not writing |
| Pro+ | $248.17/mo billed yearly ($299/mo monthly) | No articles; the step up is capacity plus optimization for drafts you write yourself |
| Advanced | $455.67/mo billed yearly ($549/mo monthly) | No articles; the step up is API access and larger tracking quotas |
| Content Toolkit (Base) | $60/mo billed yearly | 5 SEO-boosted articles a month written by their AI (10,000 standard AI drafts), 10 extra boosts for $30 a month. Billed on top of any plan above |
Semrush's pricing and features change; check their official site for the latest. Visit Semrush
The same budget, in shipped articles
Growth Calendar plans are sized in finished SEO articles per month, with research, planning, writing, images, and screenshots included.
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Compare plans
The numbers behind each plan, side by side.
Free $0/mo | Starter $29/mo | Pro $59/mo | Max $99/mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Credits | ||||
Monthly credits Reset at the start of each billing cycle | Not included | 4,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
Buy extra credits Purchased credits never expire | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Scale monthly credits | Not included | Not included | Not included | Up to 5x |
Free trial First subscription only. Card required. | Not included | Not included | 3 days | 3 days |
Growth CalendarPaid plans | ||||
AI SEO articles 600 credits each, including research and images | Not included | 1 articles/wk | 4 articles/wk | 8 articles/wk |
Topic cluster planning | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Run it from chat with an AI agent | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
MCP connection Drive it from Claude Code, Codex, and other MCP clients | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Scheduled publishing runs | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Keyword ResearchPaid plans | ||||
Keyword searches 50 credits each | Not included | 80 searches/mo | 200 searches/mo | 400 searches/mo |
Related keywords Up to 700 per search | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Search volume, CPC, and competition | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
12-month search trend | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
SERP results for the seed keyword | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Country and language targeting | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Image and video generationPaid plans | ||||
Image generation From 16 credits per image | Not included | 250 images/mo | 625 images/mo | 1,250 images/mo |
Video generation From 200 credits per 5-second 720p clip | Not included | 20 videos/mo | 50 videos/mo | 100 videos/mo |
Premium image and video models | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Image editing | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Everything else | ||||
Free tools that cost no credits No usage limits | Included | Included | Included | Included |
Team members | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Security controls and audit log Rolling out | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
Support | Community | Chat | Chat | Priority |