I can 100% agree with you that choosing the best SEO & PPC tool among them is a daunting task. They offer the best in class features and utilities to grow your business. Moreover, the feature set of both the software is somewhat similar. This makes it even more difficult to decide which one to pick for your business growth. Don’t worry! I have cracked the code… I have personally gone forward and signed up for these services to test out their performance, accuracy of their data, features, pricing, and pros & cons. So, by the end of this SEMrush vs SpyFu comparison review, you will be able to decide which software would be perfect for your needs. But before skinning down the software, let’s talk about –

What Does SpyFu Do?

SpyFu is an online software that uncovers the marketing strategy of your competitors. It shows you important competitor metrics like top keywords, rankings, backlinks, PPC AdWords data, and tons of other features too. As difficult and tedious as it may sound but believe me, all you have to do is enter your competitor’s domain or URL and the rest will be taken care of by SpyFu. SpyFu claims to index over 7 billion results of approximately 102 million domains. So you should not worry about its accuracy. Also, because of its top-notch service, SpyFu has been highly rated on G2 Crowd and even bagged a PC Magazine’s Editor Choice award.

What Does SEMrush Do?

SEMrush, on the other hand, is a complete SEO and PPC toolkit that offers multiple features like keyword tracking, SEO audit, organic research, content research, market research, and also, competitor research. Since it offers so many features, each feature has its own dedicated modules. This ultimately boosts the usability of SEMrush as a whole. Talking about its history, having started in 2008, it has crawled its way to become one of the leading SEO software of the digital world. I could safely say that SEMrush is like a swiss knife for digital marketing. You would be amazed to know that it is currently catering to 5+ million users and keeps a track of 19 billion keywords and 760 million domains. Because of this, It is widely used by bloggers, SEO agencies, eCommerce businesses, and major enterprises like Quora, HP, eBay, etc. Great..!! We have covered the basic introduction of SpyFu & SEMrush. Now, it’s time for us to compare them in detail.

Analyzing SpyFu vs SEMrush Features

The best way to differentiate and derive a conclusion about which one is best among Spyfu & SEMrush is through feature comparison. Since there are several features offered by both the SEO tools, I would be talking about the ones that are the most notable and highly used. And, I would also make sure to list the features that are exclusively offered by either of them. With that being said, let’s talk about the first feature –

1. Competitor Analysis

One of the most significant features that make SpyFu different from SEMrush is competitor analysis. They both offer a competitor analysis feature that uncovers various strategies used by them. Although, their approach towards analyzing competitors is very different. Here is the general overview for this feature –

1.1 SpyFu Competitor Analysis

As said earlier, SpyFu is an online competitor analysis tool for SEO and PPC. This means that competitor analysis is the primary selling point of SpyFu. Also, since it is the main characteristic, you could assume that the competitor analysis provides by it is of the highest quality. However, in order to use this feature, you must already know who are your close competitors. And, once you know them, all you have to do is enter their URL in Spyfu and discover their organic traffic, top keywords, top pages, ranking history, backlinks, and some more relevant competitors. SpyFu is also well equipped to provide insights on unique metrics like overlapping keywords, an estimate of monthly clicks, and monthly value of clicks. In totality, this is the best competitor analysis tool you can acquire.

1.2 SEMrush Competitor Analysis

When it comes to the analysis of your competitors, SEMrush has a different approach when compared with SpyFu. Unlike SpyFu, SEMrush first allows you to discover your close competitors and then offers you the option to analyze them. So, even if you don’t know who your competitors are, SEMrush could be used to discover or find them out by entering your own domain. And, once you have a list of your competitors, you can track their organic & paid traffic, rankings, top keywords, top pages, and their backlinks. Now, when I compared the competitor insights of SEMrush with SpyFu, I found out it to be fairly comprehensive and thorough. In addition to this, SEMrush also provides some unique insights like the keywords gap, backlinks gap, etc. These metrics can allow you to find out where your SEO or PPC campaigns are lacking. Verdict – Hands down, SEMrush has a better and more thorough competitor analysis feature. But you should know that SEMrush has a certain plan-specific restriction on the competitor analysis feature. On the other side, SpyFu allows you to analyze and track unlimited competitors. 

2. Keyword Research

The keyword research feature is the most sought-after feature in every SEO software.  In order to excel in the game of SEO or PPC, you must use/target the right keywords in your campaigns by using an accurate keyword research tool. Therefore, it is logical to explore this feature in the battle of SpyFu vs SEMrush.

2.1 SpyFu Keyword Research

SpyFu not only allows you to discover the top keywords of your competitors but it also enables you to find out important metrics for any keywords. In order to find out metrics like keyword volume, competition, top domain, etc. you’d have to enter it in the search box. After this, SpyFu will return all the required keyword metrics. This tool is also capable of showing data for mobile & desktop along with the SERP screenshot. Moreover, SpyFu can also help you tap into the PPC world by uncovering important metrics. One of the best characteristics of SpyFu is that it does not limit you on the number of keyword searches. In simple words, it means that you can research unlimited keywords with it.

2.2 SEMrush Keyword Research

When it comes to keyword research, no other tool can beat SEMrush. Such is the power and efficiency of this keyword research tool. It has managed to attain the title of the best keyword research tool with the help of its keyword database. As said earlier, SEMrush has one of the biggest keyword databases consisting of 19 billion keywords. SEMrush allows you to enter any keywords and then it does the magic. After entering, it provides details on important metrics like keyword volume (region-specific and global), average CPC costs, ad copies of the query, number of results, etc. In addition to this, SEMrush is also capable of discovering “long tail keywords”. It also provides keyword suggestions based on broad match and exact match. And, not to forget, you can also find out mobile and computer SERP results too for keywords. Verdict – According to me, there isn’t any better keywords research tool than SEMrush. But then again, it imposes a plan-specific keyword research limit on you. While in the case of SpyFu, you can research unlimited keywords without any restrictions.

3. Rank & Position Tracking

In order to succeed in your digital marketing endeavors, you must be able to track your performance. This performance tracking mainly relates to how well your SEO and PPC campaigns are performing. And, this can be done with the help of rank or position tracking features. Now, it’s time for us to cover the rank & position tracking feature in this SEMrush vs SpyFu review.

3.1 SpyFu Rank Tracking

It’s fairly safe to say that SpyFu is well equipped to provide insights on the SERP rankings of your competitor. But that’s not the end of it. You can also track the ranking for your own domain too. For this, you’d have to add your domain under the project, add the keywords whose ranks that you’d want to track and the rest will be taken care of by SpyFu. After this, it will methodically update you every week about the growth or decline of your ranks for Google and Bing search results. One characteristic that amazed me the most is the ability of SpyFu to show 9 years worth historical SERP rankings. If you’d ask me, it is considered gold for SEO and PPC campaigns.

3.2 SEMrush Position Tracking

Just like all the other features, SEMrush aces the position tracking feature too. You could track the position of any keywords that either corresponds to you or your competitors. It is considered to be highly useful in tracking your positions regionally, nationally, or globally. Another great aspect of SEMrush’s position tracking feature is that it allows you to discover local, national, or global competitors. Unlike SpyFu, SEMrush enlightens you about the change in your rankings on a daily basis. This is valid for mobile as well as desktop SERPs. However, SEMrush lacks in providing the historical data for the keywords ranking. Also, it would revert with data if your keyword ranks in top 100 Google results. Verdict – Clearly, SEMrush offers the best position tracking feature and all the correlated attributes irrespective of its limitations. On the other hand, SpyFu offers similar data but with slightly fewer elements.

One of the most important aspects of successful SEO growth is backlinks. Many SEO gurus and Google itself have confirmed that this factor plays a vital role in ranking your websites or blogs. Hence, it would be wise to keep a tab on your and also your competitor’s backlink profile. You should be also able to track new and lost backlinks too. Let’s further analyze Spyfu vs SEMrush on the basis of the backlink analysis feature.

SpyFu has a very unique approach towards backlink analysis. Instead of providing you the list of backlinks for your own domain, it shows the backlink profile of your competitors. You can either directly enter the URLs of your competitors to check their backlinks or you can type in a keyword. With the keyword method, SpyFu will return with top SERP pages along with their backlink profiles. Since you are allowed to research unlimited competitors, you are technically able to analyze unlimited backlinks. However, you should know that the backlink database of SpyFu is significantly smaller than SEMrush.

SEMrush once again comes out on top with flying colors when it comes to backlink analysis. It allows you to find out your own backlinks and also of your competitors’. To find out your own backlink profile, you’d have to add your domain under the project. After that, SEMrush will update you about the new and lost backlinks once every 2 weeks. In addition to this, SEMrush also facilitates Google Search Console integration. This would enable SEMrush to calculate the toxic score of a backlink. If you found it to be highly toxic, SEMrush would offer you the option to disavow it. Apart from this, you should be relieved to know that SEMrush has a bigger database of 1 billion backlinks. This ensures higher accuracy in backlink analysis reports. Verdict – SpyFu does not stand a chance against SEMrush when it comes to backlink analysis. SEMrush is far superior to SpyFu in terms of this.

Additional Features Of SEMrush & SpyFu

At this point in SpyFu vs SEMrush comparison review, we have covered those features that are offered by both the software. But it would be unfair to both of the tools if I do not mention some of the unique features offered by them. Hence, here’s a brief run-down of some dedicated features –

Exclusive Features Of SpyFu

Unlimited competitor analysisLimitless keyword researchNo limits on data exportingUnlimited backlink searchesTracking of Ad placementsHistorical data of 10 yearsGraphical representation of rankings

Exclusive Features Of SEMrush

Content marketing toolTopic researchBrand monitoring moduleTechnical SEO site auditingSocial media monitoringAd builder & display advertisingProduct Listing AdsCPC MapMarket explorerSEO writing assistant

And, apart from these, there are tons of other features. As you can see, SEMrush reigns supreme in terms of the availability of features. These features in totality make SEMrush one of the complete SEO software. Now, you would be wondering that the availability of these features can result in complex usability. Meaning, it would be difficult for a beginner to start using SEMrush. Let me assure you that it is definitely one of the most simple SEO software I have used. Each of the features or modules can be accessed from the sidebar with just a single click. And, as I have mentioned earlier, each feature has its own dedicated area. Talking about SpyFu, yes, it is very simple to use too. But that is because it does not have so many features. With that being said, it’s time for –

SEMrush vs SpyFu Pricing Analysis

According to me, the pricing for both the SEO and PPC tools has been logically curated. It appears to be perfectly justified and well balanced, given the availability of feature sets and usage limits. Having said that, this review of SpyFu and SEMrush would be incomplete if I do not talk about their pricing.

SpyFu Pricing

SpyFu offers 3 different pricing plans with monthly and yearly subscriptions. You should know that it does not offer any free trial to its users. There are only premium plans but with 30 days money-back guarantee.

Basic – This plan would cost you $39/month ($33/month when charged annually). You are allotted unlimited competitor search, data export, and search results. Also, you get 5,000 weekly tracked keyword ranking and 10,000 top lists results.Professional – It would cost you $39/month for the first month and $78/month thereafter ($58/month when billed yearly). It offers everything in the Basic plan and the weekly tracked keyword ranking & top lists results limit is increased to 15,000 & 50,000 respectively. Custom reports and APIs are also introduced in this plan.Team – If you want 5 user access, you can secure this plan at $299/month ($199/month when billed yearly). You can also get 40,000 weekly tracked keyword ranking and 75,000 top lists results along with 10,000 API rows worth of data.

SEMrush Pricing

SEMrush, on the other hand, provides a 7 days free trial to explore the software. After that, it offers you 3 different pricing plans with monthly or yearly billing cycles and access to all the features but with certain restrictions. However, the refund policy only lasts for 7 days from the date of your purchase.

Pro – The Pro plan comes with a price tag of $99.95/month ($83.28/month when billed yearly). In this plan, you can acquire 10,000 results per report, manage 3 projects with 500 keywords tracking limit. Other features are also included.Guru – It would cost you $199.95/month ($166.62/month with annual billing). Here, in this plan, you can manage 15 projects with 1,500 keywords tracking limit, 30,000 results per report, and other features.Business – Finally, the Business plan is chargeable at the rate of $399.95/month ($333.28/month with annual billing). The limits are increased to 25 projects with 5,000 keywords tracking limit, 50,000 results per report, and all the other features.

Since SEMrush has the bigger array of features, I encourage you to check out its pricing and feature limits in detail. After that, just like me, you would realize that in spite of being expensive (than SpyFu), its pricing is well justified. Now that we have covered every important aspect of SEMrush vs SpyFu review, it’s finally the time for –

Final Verdict – Winner Of SpyFu vs SEMrush

After personally testing out both the software myself, I strongly believe that SEMrush is superior to SpyFu in every way possible. SEMrush covers all the aspects of an SEO and PPC campaign and evidently leaves no stones unturned. While on the other hand, SpyFu focuses on discovering the SEO & PPC strategies of your competitors. You could very easily see that SEMrush offers better flexibility and independence. In the case of SpyFu, you’d have to rely on the strategies used by your competitors. So if I were you, I would blindly trust and go with SEMrush. However, if you are running low on budget, it would be OK to use SpyFu for some time. Either way, no matter what choice you make in the end, both of these tools will help you grow. Lastly, if you think that I have missed something important in this SpyFu vs SEMrush review or have some queries about them, feel free to drop them in the comments section. Browse More:

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