RankWhy vs Semrush
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Semrush: The other large SEO suite, with AI-visibility tracking in every plan and a paid MCP server. RankWhy answers "why do these pages rank, and what is mine missing?" with evidence per claim, on your own DataForSEO account, and writes from your facts. This page puts the two side by side. Every figure about Semrush names the page it was read from and the day (last checked 2026-11-05); where a page did not say, the row says so. If something here is out of date, tell us and it will be corrected with the date.
Semrush plans, as published
- SEO $139 a month ($117.33 yearly), Starter $199 ($165.17, adds MCP access and 50 AI prompts daily), Pro+ $299 ($248.17), Advanced custom; a Free plan with 10 reports a day. (semrush.com, read 2026-11-05)
- 7-day free trial. (semrush.com, read 2026-11-05)
Row by row
| Question | RankWhy | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Price and what it buys | Free during the beta, no card. Google data runs on your own DataForSEO account (a top-20 SERP is about $0.002 at list price, shown per run); AI steps use credits (300 on sign-up). | From $139 a month for 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords; MCP from the $199 plan. (semrush.com) |
| Cost of 30 articles a month | About 30 SERP reads on your DataForSEO account (around $0.06 at list price) plus the writer's credits; no subscription. | Content optimization on Pro+; article counts not stated on the prices page. (semrush.com) |
| Where the Google data comes from | DataForSEO on your key, named on every number, with the fetch time; every paid SERP is kept as a snapshot you can re-read. | Semrush's own databases. (semrush.com) |
| Keyword research | Seed expansion on named channels (Labs suggestions, ideas, related, autocomplete with its prefix, People also ask, also-rank-for, competitor gap, Trends rising), each row with its origin; your Search Console import joined when you have one. | Keyword Magic and the rest of the suite; limits by plan. (semrush.com) |
| Writing: facts and sources | The writer states only the facts you gave (Truth Ledger), the facts read from your own pages with the sentence quoted, and numbers three ranking domains agree on with quote and URL; everything else is a placeholder. Every outbound link is fetched and checked. | Not stated on the pages we read (prices page, 2026-11-05). |
| What a refresh does to your page | Measures your page against the pages that rank (Outrank Diff) and writes a new draft beside it; nothing on your site is overwritten. | Nothing is written to your site. (semrush.com) |
| Publishing | Drafts only: WordPress and Ghost drafts, a signed webhook to your own endpoint, an Atom feed. Nothing is published without you. | Not stated on the pages we read (prices page, 2026-11-05). |
| Backlinks | None, on purpose: no exchange, no network, no purchased links. Referring-domain counts come from your own DataForSEO Backlinks data. | Analysis; link building is a separate Digital PR offer we did not read. (semrush.com) |
| Audit of pages that already rank | Site Guard, free: from your Search Console import, pages earning fewer clicks than their position should (against your own click-through curve), title and description lengths, queries split between pages with a winner and a redirect list; fixes are suggestions you apply. | Site Audit and Position Tracking in every paid plan. (semrush.com) |
| AI answers | Asks Google itself (AI Overview from the SERP, AI Mode) on your key and names every cited page; counts shown with the sample size. | AI-search tracking and AI-visibility domains in every plan, 50 prompts daily on Starter. (semrush.com) |
| AI agents | Remote MCP server with OAuth 2.1 and scopes (read, research, write), 36 task-shaped tools with a cost line, a Claude Code plugin, and the same tools in the account's copilot, which asks before anything that spends. | "Semrush MCP isn't free": needs a Semrush One, SEO Classic or Trends API subscription, 50,000 units included. (semrush.com) |
| Who owns the content | You. RankWhy claims no rights in what it writes for you and does not train on it. | Not stated on the pages we read (prices page, 2026-11-05). |
| Your CMS login | Stored only if you turn on unattended drafts (AES-256-GCM), used to create drafts, deleted when you switch it off; otherwise used once for the request and dropped. | Not stated on the pages we read (prices page, 2026-11-05). |
| Trial and refunds | Nothing to refund: the beta is free and your DataForSEO spend is yours, shown per run. | 7-day trial; refund terms not on the prices page. (semrush.com) |
What Semrush does better
- Everything an SEO team tracks, in one suite, with AI visibility built in.
- A free plan for a quick look.
- Add-ons for agencies and reports.
Where RankWhy says no on purpose
Publishing live without you. RankWhy makes drafts (WordPress, Ghost, your webhook, a feed) and stops. A page goes live when a person has read it.
Backlinks. RankWhy builds, exchanges and buys no links. Google's spam policies list "excessive link exchanges" and "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" among link schemes (developers.google.com, read 2026-11-05). Referring-domain counts in RankWhy come from your own DataForSEO Backlinks data and are shown as numbers, never a score.
Composite scores. No content score, no authority score, no "opportunity" number without a formula; every figure keeps its source and date.
What to know before you buy Semrush
- MCP costs extra on top of the plan. (semrush.com, read 2026-11-05)
Sources
- https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (read 2026-11-05)
- https://www.semrush.com/mcp/ (read 2026-11-05)
RankWhy's column comes from our documentation and pricing as of 2026-11-05.
Questions
Is RankWhy a Semrush alternative?
No, it is the smaller tool for one question at a time: why these pages rank and what yours is missing, with the evidence shown. Semrush is the suite you track a whole program in.