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Are you trying to decide between SpyFu and Semrush for your SEO needs? Both tools are widely used for improving search rankings and competitor analysis, but they offer different strengths.
In this “SpyFu vs Semrush” comparison, we’ll look at how they stack up in areas like keyword research, pricing, and ease of use.
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By the end, you’ll have a clearer understanding of which tool is the best fit for your business and marketing goals.
Here is a quick comparison between SpyFu and Semrush SEO Toolkit that’ll help you determine which tool is better.
Before we can dive deep into our comparison of SpyFu and Semrush, it will be better to take a quick look at the pros and cons of both. So here we go:
Despite sounding similar and having many overlapping features, SpyFu and Semrush are slightly different. Let’s learn more about both tools.
SpyFu is mainly a competitor research tool that is used by digital marketers to collect data through competitive intelligence and keyword research. The tool offers many of the features offered by Semrush, but its USP lies in the fact that you can use it to “spy” on the keywords used by your competition, whether it’s for PPC or SEO.
It allows you to look up any domain and quickly discover the keywords it has been ranking for and the backlinks it has received. It can also provide access to your competitors’ AdWords expenditure, ad variations, and historical ranking, as well as PPC ad data from the past 16 years.
Semrush is a complete SEO toolkit ideal for competitor analysis and all other SEO tasks, including link building, on-page SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing. You can simply analyze your competition and gain an edge using Semrush data, no matter what market you’re in.
Semrush is mostly used by digital marketers, professional bloggers, content creators (including social media), and large agencies. The tool is versatile but has a learning curve.
Now that you are aware of both platforms, let’s compare their major features in more detail. Each section will explore the strengths and weaknesses. The verdict in every section will decide which tool excels in certain fields.
User Interface
When it comes to using an SEO tool, having a refined user interface is a must. The platform shouldn’t be too complex to navigate or include messy menus to perform basic tasks. Let’s compare the user interface of SpyFu and Semrush.
SpyFu’s user interface is easy to navigate, and its dashboard provides a holistic overview of everything going on with your site. It tells you about the keywords you’re ranking for, the share of organic vs. paid traffic, keywords for which you made it to the first page, and keywords for which you slipped from the first page.
It also provides a way to export this information quickly. The other features of the tool are organized into numerous tabs in the main navigation bar. There’s also a search bar users can utilize to look up a phrase, domain, or URL.
Semrush also has one of the most polished and well-designed user interfaces in the SEO software space. The dashboard is well-organized and provides a quick view of everything that you should know about your site. Other features of the tool are organized in a left-hand-side menu.
Like SpyFu, there’s a search box that users can use to search for particular keywords or domains quickly. Much information is presented in visually appealing graphs and charts, making things easier to understand.
Both SpyFu and Semrush aim to provide accurate and up-to-date data to users, but they may differ in certain aspects of accuracy:
There are strengths and limitations to both tools’ data accuracy. Semrush likely has an edge for backlink indexing and competitor tracking, while SpyFu is more accurate for organic rankings and keyword volume.
Bonus: I have tested Semrush tools thoroughly for my basic and advanced SEO needs. You can check out the results and their accuracy here.
My Verdict
Semrush and SpyFu both have well-designed and user-friendly interfaces, but Semrush stands out with a more user-friendly design and a more visually appealing display of information.
Without relevant keywords, no one can build a proper SEO strategy. If you want to gain a competitive edge, you must have a list of performing keywords and phrases, including your competitors. Let’s check how both tools perform in this department.
SpyFu’s robust keyword research tool provides data on monthly search volume, number of clicks, cost per click, ranking difficulty, and more to help you find the best keywords for both organic and PPC search campaigns. It also allows keyword gap analysis for both types of search campaigns and historical data regarding the rankings of your competitors.
So far, so good. But one thing that’s slightly concerning about SpyFu’s keyword research is the size of its database. They are not very clear with their keyword database, as in some places, they claim to have billions of keywords and mention millions on other pages.
They don’t reveal specifically how many millions or billions of keywords are in the database, which plays a major role in the accuracy of keyword research data.
Semrush also provides all the data about your keywords, but it doesn’t stop there. It also provides semantically related keywords and contextual keyword suggestions that can be included in your content to improve your ranking potential. You can narrow your results by difficulty, number of words, whether you need a broad phrase or an exact match, and many other criteria. This is much better than SpyFu, whose filtering capabilities are limited.
Semrush is also much more precise about the size of its keyword database and claims to have 21.1 billion keywords in its database. This lends credibility to the accuracy of its keyword research data.
My Verdict
While both Spyfu and Semrush are reliable keyword research tools, Semrush has a larger database size, and it also has better filtering options than SpyFu. This makes Semrush a better choice for keyword research.
Domain analysis is a crucial aspect of website optimization and competitor research. This process identifies the competitive gap between your website vs your competitors’. SpyFu and Semrush both include this feature in their inventory.
Primarily as a competitor research tool, SpyFu specializes in domain analysis. The platform extracts website data and compiles reports featuring metrics like:
As you can see, SpyFu quickly breaks down a competitor’s domain and provides a historical overview.
When you compare your domain with your competitors’, it demonstrates these sections as well:
Semrush’s Domain analysis gives you a 360-degree view of any domain compared to yours.
You can add up to 10 domains at a time and compare performance metrics like:
Semrush also displays sections similar to SpyFu when compared side by side with your competitors. However, SpyFu doesn’t show you the engagement metrics instantly unless you check each of them separately.
My Verdict
I will give 5 out of 5 to both platforms, as SpyFu and Semrush both provide key indicators of domains featuring the tiniest details.
Speaking of SEO, there are two things that matter the most: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. There’s also a third thing called Local SEO, which is a different kind of SEO than the traditional one that’s most popular. Let’s see how SpyFu and Semrush fare in these two areas.
Off-Page SEO Features
Off-Page SEO refers mainly to link building, content syndication, PR management, and other techniques that are leveraged off-site (i.e., on other websites) to increase the authority of your domain. Both Semrush and SpyFu include the following features to assist with it:
Backlink Checker In Semrush
However, Semrush also offers a number of other unique tools that are not in SpyFu to assist you with your off-page SEO. They include:
My Verdict
Both tools offer excellent off-page SEO tools that can help a user’s entire SEO strategy. However, Semrush provides some additional and unique features too that are missing from SpyFu, such as connection-building tools and monitoring tools. This makes it better than SpyFu.
On-Page SEO Features
Unlike off-page SEO, which requires most work to be done off the site on other websites, on-page SEO consists of things done on your site to boost the search rankings. Some of these features include:
Now the thing is, these features are completely missing from SpyFu, given its focus on competitor analysis. These are included only in Semrush, and they’re so crucial that sometimes they can be all the difference between your ranking on the first or second page of SERPs.
My Verdict
Semrush offers multiple on-page SEO tools, while SpyFu offers none. Therefore, Semrush is the clear winner here.
Local SEO Features
Semrush offers a variety of local SEO solutions, including local keyword tracking, listing management, and citation building.
SpyFu’s local SEO capabilities, on the other hand, are quite limited. There are no specific local SEO capabilities, to be precise, and whatever functionality you have is actually an extension of their keyword research, rank tracking, and competitor analysis tools. They explain that these features can be used well enough for local SEO, but it’s worth noting that they have not been made while keeping local SEO in mind, unlike Semrush. Moreover, some tools, like local listing management, are completely missing.
My Verdict
Semrush is a better fit for local SEO as it includes many tools and features dedicated specifically to the purpose, while SpyFu doesn’t offer any such tools or data.
SpyFu has more than 13 years of data on paid search campaigns of all popular websites. So the first strength of its PPC analysis capabilities is, of course, the sheer amount of data it has collected for the same. With data comprising 80 million domains and 5 billion search results, it’s capable of finding the finest keywords for PPC ad campaigns for any industry. Its keyword grouping feature also makes it easier for the user to organize keywords based on various categories.
Semrush is also quite reliable regarding PPC ad campaign data, and it has multiple tools to help analyze PPC ad campaigns and keywords. Those tools include:
My Verdict
Both SpyFu and Semrush have robust PPC analysis tools to help you analyze and run your PPC ad campaigns successfully. However, Semrush has more tools for the same, so it’s slightly better than SpyFu.
Rank tracking allows you to quickly track the SERP position of pages for a specific keyword. It is important that the tool display the recent position updates and rank history so users can find low-ranking pages and update them.
SpyFu generates “Groups” and “Keyword Universe” for your website, where you can see where certain pages are ranking for specific keywords.
What I like the most is that it clearly displays the rank and click changes over time. You can select one or multiple keywords to get a graphical overview of pages’ SERP positions and traffic. The only problem is that the metrics update every week, not daily.
Semrush offers an advanced rank tracker. Not only does it include standard ranking measures of every keyword, but also provides infographics and a complete table of all the pages and their ranking.
Apart from the basic landscape and overview, you can view
The best part of Semrush’s rank-tracking tool is that it updates the data every 24 hours, so you will be able to see the position changes every day.
My Verdict
SpyFu delivers a great distribution of keywords and their historical rank changes. However, it misses other crucial features and fails to update the data daily. Comparatively, Semrush provides daily reports, analytics, and other ranking features.
SpyFu Report Sample
SpyFu and Semrush both offer powerful reporting and analysis features for your website. SpyFu’s reporting functionality is built on top of 2 metrics mainly: SEO analytics and PPC analytics.
The reports generated by it include all the relevant data, such as keywords for which you moved up, keywords for which you moved down, how many clicks you received, etc. The reports can also be white-labeled if you’ve got a plan higher than their basic plan.
Traffic Analytics In Semrush
Semrush is also capable of generating detailed reports on what’s going on with your site and SEO campaigns. However, its reports are more detailed in nature and include a larger number of metrics than SpyFu reports. They’re also more visually appealing as they use more graphs and charts to explain the data than SpyFu reports.
Some of the data included in Semrush reports include the movement of your site in SERPs, the traffic you received, the traffic share of different sources, the share of organic vs. paid traffic, and so on. White labeling is allowed in Semrush, too, but only in their most high-end plan.
Semrush can also be integrated with Google Analytics to include GA data in your reports. Finally, the ability to generate custom reports is also provided.
My Verdict
Semrush is a better choice than SpyFu regarding reporting and analytics because it is integrated with Google Analytics and provides more detailed insights in a visually appealing manner.
In addition to the regular features explained in the other categories of this comparison, Semrush also has some other features that must be mentioned. They include:
None of these features or other unique tools are available in SpyFu, so there is little to tell about it on this criteria.
My Verdict
Semrush offers more additional features than SpyFu, so it has a clear edge when it comes to features other than core SEO.
When talking about customer support, SpyFu offers it in 3 ways. You can chat with them on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm; or if chat is not your thing, then you can call them at the phone numbers provided on their official website. Lastly, they also provide you with a contact form on their site through which you can write to them about your issues.
Semrush provides you with a contact form and also live chat support. They generally get back to you within one business day over email, and chat support is usually instant without long delays and waiting times. You can also reach them by the official contact numbers on their website during weekdays.
Both Semrush and SpyFu have response times of 24 – 48 hours, which means that both of them are quick enough to respond to their customers’ queries.
My Verdict
The customer support facilities of both SEO suites are at par with each other. Both of them offer their services on weekdays, and both respond to queries in a reasonable time period, so no clear winner here.
Semrush offers access to more tools and features for professionals, while SpyFu focuses on individuals. That’s why there’s a major gap between pricing tiers and their upfront costs. You can see it yourself.
SpyFu used to offer three plans to its users. Recently, they removed the team plan from their page for undisclosed reasons. Now, they offer only a Basic and Pro plan to their users. Here’s what the new pricing looks like:
SpyFu also offers a free plan that allows you to use its basic tools with limited functionality. However, you will require a paid subscription for extensive keyword and competitor research.
Though it doesn’t offer a free trial, both plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can use its tools without worrying about any financial risks.
Semrush SEO Toolkit offers three plans for individuals, mid-size businesses, and large businesses. All the plans are available in monthly and annual subscriptions.
The platform offers a free trial on its Pro and Guru plans for new users. Apart from that, you will also get a 7-day money-back guarantee on all its plans.
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Note: If you are new to the platform, I have created a step-by-step guide to claim Semrush’s 14-day free trial. You can check it out.
Semrush, on the other hand, offers a slightly better proposition despite being costly. It offers a 14-day free trial instead of any money-back guarantee, so you can figure out its offerings and their alignment with your goals at zero risk.
My Verdict
SpyFu provides some of the best features at a low price, but Semrush is more comprehensive and advanced with its analytics and reports. If budget is not a concern, you should go for Semrush. Otherwise, you can also choose SpyFu to get started.
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As per my tests, Semrush clearly outperforms SpyFu in various fields. It is also important to note that SpyFu is not a complete SEO tool that offers an all-around solution for professional bloggers and marketers. In contrast, Semrush is built for this sole purpose.
Before I wrap up, here’s my verdict:
Also, Semrush offers a free trial on its paid plans, so I would suggest you check its major features before purchasing one of them. SpyFu doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can still use major tools (limited access) with its free plan.
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