Ubersuggest vs. Semrush: Which Is Better for SEO?

Neil Patel
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Author: Neil Patel | Co Founder of NP Digital & Owner of Ubersuggest
Published August 21, 2024
A graphic that says "Ubersuggest vs Semrush: Which is Better For SEO?

Are you in the market for a new SEO tool? If it’s a case of Ubersuggest vs Semrush, you’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, I compare the key features and functionality of Ubersuggest, my SEO tool, with Semrush, one of the most popular SEO tools on the market.

I’ll look at how well each tool achieves the following SEO tasks:

  • Keyword research
  • Competitive analysis
  • Content ideas
  • Website audits
  • Backlink analysis

I’ll be as fair and honest as possible, giving you everything you need to make the best choice. So, without further ado, let’s dive in. 

Key Takeaways

  • Ubersuggest is a robust, affordable, and user-friendly SEO tool. It helps with keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, rank tracking, and more. Plans start at just  $29 per month, but you can buy a lifetime subscription for $290.
  • Semrush is an all-in-one digital marketing tool. It has a bunch of SEO features, but you can also use it for social media, paid ads, and market research. That makes the tool much more expensive, with monthly plans starting from $139.50.
  • Keyword research: Both tools have several keyword research features. Semrush gives users slightly more data, but Ubersuggest gives you a more concise and actionable report. 
  • Competitor analysis: Ubersuggest provides relevant competitor information you need to take action. That includes competitor keywords, backlinks, and domain authority. Semrush provides more detailed information.
  • Content ideas: Semrush has a slightly more advanced content ideation tool, but it can be overwhelming for users who just want an idea of how top-ranking content performs. Ubersuggest has the exclusive ability to show social shares for a given page.
  • Website audits: Ubersuggest has a more advanced site audit feature and is the only platform that analyzes desktop and mobile site speed. 
  • Backlink analysis: Both platforms have comparable backlink analysis reports. Semrush’s link opportunity tool can automate the process but may miss good link opportunities. 

Table of Contents

Ubersuggest vs. Semrush at a Glance

Let me start by introducing the two tools. 

First up, we have Ubersuggest

The Ubersuggest homepage.

Ubersuggest is a user-friendly and affordable SEO tool that helps you win the SEO game. It comes with a bunch of features, including:

  • Keyword ideas
  • Site audits
  • Backlink analysis
  • Competitor analysis

It’s everything a marketer needs without the bloated features of other tools. It also includes several free SEO tool features, including a rank tracker. 

Freelancers and small businesses love Ubersuggest for its simple, user-friendly interface. Anyone can use the platform, even people unfamiliar with internet marketing tools. 

Advanced SEO practitioners like the ease with which they can compare search data and find related keywords. I know how important these things are to an SEO campaign, so I’ve made it easy for someone to jump in and generate keyword ideas in seconds. 

Plans start from just $29 per month, with a 7-day free trial. Because I hate subscriptions, I also offer a lifetime deal. You can buy lifetime access to the Individual plan for just $290!

Now for Semrush

The Semrush homepage.

Semrush is a powerful and feature-packed all-in-one SEO tool. Seriously, it has an impressive number of features, including:

  • Competitor comparisons
  • Keyword research
  • Backlink analytics
  • Site audits
  • Local listing management
  • On-page SEO analysis
  • Online advertising tools
  • Social media trackers
  • Brand monitoring
  • Trend reports

There’s no denying Semrush has more features than Ubersuggest. But that makes navigating and getting to grips with the platform harder. 

It also makes the platform well-suited to large enterprise teams who want to use one tool for every digital marketing discipline, from SEO to paid ads to social media. 

All these features make Semrush more expensive than Ubersuggest. Semrush’s basic plan (Pro) costs $139.50 per month. If you have more than 15 projects or want to track thousands of keywords, you’ll need the Business plan, which costs $499.95 per month. 

Ubersuggest vs. Semrush: Which is Better For Keyword Research?

Keyword research is probably the most important SEO task you’ll use both tools to complete. So, let’s start here. 

Ubersuggest makes finding keywords easy. Enter a seed keyword into the Keywords Overview tab, and you get detailed results that include SEO metrics like:

  • Monthly search volume 
  • SEO difficulty
  • Paid difficulty
  • Average CPC
  • Search volume over time
  • Keyword ideas
  • Content ideas
Ubersuggest's Keywords Overview Interface.

Ubersuggest offers more detail on this page than a lot of other tools, including Semrush. It shows both paid and organic difficulty, for example, and SERP click data, so you can see how clicks are shared between organic and paid results. 

The Keyword Ideas tab lets you get hundreds of potential keyword ideas from a seed phrase. 

The Keyword Ideas interface.

Segment this list using the five buckets at the top of the page (suggestions, related, questions, prepositions, and comparisons). You can export the entire list in a CSV file or copy it to a clipboard. 

Keyword visualization is a unique Ubersuggest feature that visually breaks down suggested keywords by questions (how, what, who, where, etc.)

Ubersuggest's keyword visualization ability.

The Keywords by Traffic feature allows you to quickly find competitor keywords. Just enter a domain, and Ubersuggest will rank keywords by estimated number of visits. 

The Keywords by Traffic feature of Ubersuggest.

The Keyword Overview feature on Semrush is very similar to Ubersuggest, showing you volumes, difficulty, average CPC, and trend data. It also shows you the keyword’s intent, a SERP analysis, and a list of related keywords. 

Semrush's Keyword Overview function.

The Keyword Magic tool turns seed keywords into thousands of suggestions you can filter similarly to Ubersuggest. There’s no visualization tool or pre-segmented lists like on Ubersuggest. 

One unique feature of Semrush is the Keyword Strategy Builder. This AI-powered tool builds a map of pillar pages and related subpages from a handful of seed keywords. This can serve as a sort of basis for you to build a keyword strategy from depending on what you are targeting, going a bit more detailed than Ubersuggest’s related KWs and questions.

Semrush's Keyword Strategy Builder function.

While Semrush provides slightly more keyword data, you have to search for it. Ubersuggest tells you everything you need to know on the Keywords Overview page and makes it easy to build a list of related keywords without switching between different features.  

Ubersuggest vs. Semrush: Which is Better for Competitive Analysis?

Competitor research lets you peek behind the curtain of your rival’s SEO efforts to steal what’s working and capitalize on their weaknesses.  

Ubersuggest lets you do this in a couple of ways. 

First, the Keywords by Traffic report lists your competitor’s keywords. You can sort them by volume, estimated number of visits, search difficulty, and position. You can even filter by location if you only compete with a site in a specific location. 

Ubersuggest's Keywords by Traffic feature.

Second, you can use the Traffic Overview feature to get a snapshot of your competitor’s SEO efforts. It shows:

  • A monthly traffic estimation
  • Total organic keywords
  • Domain authority
  • Backlinks
  • Top pages
  • Top keywords
  • Rankings
Ubersuggest's Traffic Overview feature.

You can even use data on the Keywords Overview tab to quickly get the lay of the land for a particular keyword. 

Basic data on Ubersuggest's Keywords Overview tab.

As you can see above, the feature displays the average number of backlinks and Domain Authority for sites ranking on page 1. 

Sermrush has several competitor research features. First is Domain Overview, which provides a slightly more detailed report than Ubersuggest’s Traffic Overview report. 

Semrush's Domain Overview feature.

The tool’s Organic Research feature offers more detailed SEO analysis, showing keyword trends, the share of keywords by intent, position changes, and SERP features. This may be useful to enterprise SEO practitioners, but it might be overkill for small business owners who just need pertinent details like keywords and backlinks. 

You can use the tool’s Traffic Analytics feature if you want even more traffic-related data. But that requires an additional subscription, which would bring the total monthly cost of the tool up to $428.95. 

So, while Semrush provides more competitive data, you’ll pay a lot more. 

Ubersuggest vs. Semrush: Which is Better For Content Ideas?

I know how important content creation is to your SEO efforts. That’s why content ideation is a core part of my tool. 

On Ubersuggest, you can see content ideas at the bottom of the Keywords Overview report. Unlike Semrush, we’ve included Facebook and Reddit shares and Pinterest pins for each page to show which ideas currently drive the most engagement. 

Ubersuggest's content ideas feature.

You can see the full report under the Content Ideas tab. Here, you can sort and filter content ideas by visits, backlinks, social shares, and more. It’s a great way to understand the intent of keywords and find an angle that resonates with consumers. 

The Keyword Overview report on Semrush provides a SERP analysis, allowing you to see which kinds of content rank in the top 10 results.

The Keyword Overview report from Semrush.

Otherwise, you can use the Content Marketing feature to compile topic research. This brainstorms dozens of topics from a seed idea, along with search volumes and top-ranking content. 

But it can be overwhelming. Here’s what I see when I use “Digital Marketing” as a seed word:

Semrush's Topic Research feature.

You get even more information and the top-ranking headlines when you click “Show more”:

Additional features from Semrush's Topic Research feature.

If you want to generate more topic ideas than you could hope to write, Semrush is probably your best bet. But I prefer Ubersuggest’s focused nature and the fact that I can quickly gauge topics’ virality potential. 

Ubersuggest vs. Semrush: Which is Better For Website Audits?

Improving your website’s technical and on-page performance can lead to a serious boost in rankings. So, how well does each tool help you audit your site?

Ubersuggest does a great job of analyzing your site’s SEO health in an easy-to-read report. Enter any URL in the Site Audit tool (your own or your competitors), and you’ll get key insights, including: 

  • An on-page SEO score
  • Estimated monthly organic traffic
  • Organic keywords
  • Backlinks
Ubersuggest's Site Audit feature.

Further down the page, you’ll find a list of SEO issues—these flag errors such as pages without an H1 heading and missing meta descriptions.

There’s also a site speed test to see how well your site meets Google’s Core Web Vitals

Ubersuggest's ability to track site speed.

You can toggle between a desktop test and a mobile test to ensure you optimize both versions. 

Semrush has a dedicated Site Audit tool that works similarly to Ubersuggest. 

Here’s the result I get when I audit my site:

Semrush's Site Audit tool.

It’s very similar both in terms of the score and the information it shows. 

Backlinks are a core part of every good SEO strategy. You need a tool that helps you understand your site’s backlink profile and mine those of your competitors for link opportunities. 

Ubersuggest gives you all the information you need in two reports. The Backlink Overview report shows a wealth of information for any site, including:

  • Domain authority
  • Total referring domains
  • Total backlinks
  • New and lost referring domains
  • Anchor text


You’ll notice there are also rankings for each of the headline metrics:

Ubersuggest's Backlinks Feature.

At the bottom of the report, you can filter every backlink by domain authority, page authority, whether it’s follow or no follow, and several other characteristics. You can export everything to a CSV file. 

The Backlink Opportunity tool makes mining your competitor’s backlinks easy. Add one or more competing domains, and the report will serve up a list of referring domains that link to at least one of your rivals. 

The Backlink Opportunity section of Ubersuggest.

Semrush’s Backlink Analytics report works in a similar way. Enter a domain, and you get a concise overview of:

  • Referring domains
  • Total backlinks
  • Monthly visits
  • Authority score
  • New and lost backlinks
  • Top anchor text

The interface looks similar, too:

Semrush's Backlink Analytics report.

Semrush’s Link Building Tool is a slightly more advanced version of the Backlink Opportunity tool in Ubersuggest. 

Enter your domain name, and Semrush will automatically generate up to 2,000 potential prospects for each domain, as well as information about each target and automated outreach. 

Semrush's Link Building Tool.

Source: Semrush

In some ways, it’s great that Semrush does the hard work for you. But remember, it generates this list automatically and may miss low-hanging opportunities that can quickly boost your backlink profile. 

Between doing my own research and trusting a tool, I know which option I’d pick. 

Which Is The Better SEO Tool?

Choosing between Ubersuggest and Semrush will come down to your business, needs, and goals.

If you’re working on a tight budget, Ubersuggest is the best value tool. For the cost of one of Semrush’s monthly plans, you can get a lifetime subscription.

That won’t be a problem for enterprise companies, however, which may enjoy the vast features Semrush includes. Managing paid ads, social media, and SEO with one tool is much easier. 

But so many features can be overwhelming for people just starting with SEO or small businesses who only need core SEO features. In that case, Ubersuggest’s intuitive layout and accessible design make it a winner. 

You have to remember that no SEO tool is perfect. Even if a tool has the biggest backlink and keyword database on the market, it’s still estimating performance.

Action is what matters. So, with that in mind, I recommend choosing the tool you’ll want to use every day and the one that helps you get the information you need fast. 

FAQs

Is Ubersuggest better than Semrush?

Ubersuggest is easier to use, more intuitive, and cheaper than Semrush. It gives you all the features you need to do SEO successfully (keyword research, backlink analytics, content ideas, website audits, and competitor research) without any extra features. 

Semrush does offer additional features and adds depth to some SEO reports, though. You can use Semrush to track social media performance, for example, and get more detailed competitor research.

Is Ubersuggest good for SEO?

Ubersuggest is a good SEO tool for almost any level of practitioner. It’s perfect for beginner SEOs or small business owners who don’t want to be overloaded with data or complicated reports. The intuitive layout and user experience make Ubersuggest’s data much more actionable than other tools, letting you spend less time in the tool and more time putting insights into practice.

Why is Semrush so expensive?

Semrush is much more expensive than Ubersuggest and other SEO tools because of all the additional features you get. It’s not just an SEO tool, but an all-in-one digital marketing platform with paid advertising, social media, competitor research, and market research features.

Is Ubersuggest free?

Ubersuggest plans start at $29 per month. There is a free 7-day trial, however, so you can explore the platform before choosing a monthly or lifetime plan. 

You can also use Ubersuggets’ free Chrome extension to find monthly search volume, CPC, and competitor data from your browser.

Conclusion

So, who do you think wins in the battle of Semrush vs Ubersuggest? 

While Semrush certainly has more features, I value my time and my money more. Not only is Ubersuggest cheaper, but it’s easier to use and it provides the actionable information I need to improve my rankings without me digging through a dozen reports. 

With that said, the final decision is ultimately going to rest on your preferences and needs. Both Ahrefs and Ubersuggest have a free 7-day trial today, so give both a spin and start enhancing your SEO strategy today.

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Neil Patel

About the author:

Neil Patel

Co Founder of NP Digital & Owner of Ubersuggest

He is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

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source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ubersuggest-vs-semrush/