Moz vs. Semrush: Which SEO Tool Should You Choose?

Digital marketers have at one point or another, either used or heard about Moz and Semrush. Both are among the cream of SEO tools. Because of that, it can be difficult to decide which SEO platform you should spend your hard-earned money on.

That’s why I’ve decided to take this challenge head-on and put both tools to the test to see which comes out on top.

It’s Moz vs. Semrush, let’s get started.

What is Moz and What Does It Offer?

Moz, a renowned SEO tool, offers a range of capabilities, including backlink analysis, site auditing, and keyword research. The best part? Moz offers substantial features in its free version.

Here are some of the tools you can leverage to enhance your website's search visibility:

• Link Explorer: Track your link profile, build high-quality backlinks, and gain a competitive edge in the digital landscape.
• Keyword Explorer: Discover the best keywords in your niche. It also helps uncover long-tail keyword opportunities to boost your content strategy.
• MozBar: This free Google Chrome extension lets you check a website’s Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA). It also provides instant on-page analysis, helping you fine-tune your website for SEO success.
• On-Page Optimization: Moz offers actionable insights to optimize your on-page elements. This includes titles, meta descriptions, and heading tags, ensuring full search engine optimization.

Want to know how well Moz compares to other SEO tools as well? Check out my comparison post of Semrush vs. Moz vs. Ahrefs.

What is Semrush and What Does It Offer?

Semrush is an all-in-one SEO tool known for its precise keyword search volume data. It offers comprehensive solutions to boost your overall online presence with SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and more.

The popularity of Semrush soars thanks to its remarkable features, including:

• Site Audit: Semrush provides a detailed site health check. It flags critical issues and suggests improvements for enhanced website performance.
• Position Tracking: You can monitor up to 500 keywords' rankings over time. Receive alerts for ranking changes and stay competitive.
• Backlink Audit: Identify and disavow toxic backlinks. This safeguards your website from penalties and maintains a healthy link profile.
• Competitor Analysis: Semrush lets you dissect competitors' strategies, find their best keywords, and gain insights to outperform them.
• Content Marketing Toolkit: Semrush provides topic research, SEO content templates, and post tracking. Create and optimize content that resonates with your audience and search engines.

If you’re looking for an in-depth review and guide on Semrush, check out my Semrush review.

Moz vs. Semrush: Comparing Their Key Features

When we look at the tools each platform provides, it's clear they each have their strengths and limitations. Some basic features overlap, particularly in SEO-related tools. These include keyword research, technical SEO, and backlink tools.

The largest difference between Moz and Semrush is Semrush’s social media toolkit and its on-page SEO features and SEO Writing Assistant.

Now, let's delve into a feature-based comparison of Semrush and Moz:

1. Keyword Research

Features	Semrush	Moz
Keyword Overview	YES	YES
Keyword Sorting & Comparison	YES	YES
Keyword Search	YES	YES

2. On-Page & Technical SEO

Features	Semrush	Moz
Website Analytics & Audit	YES	YES
SEO Content Template	YES	YES
Competitor Benchmarking	YES	YES

3. Off-Page SEO

Features	Semrush	Moz
Backlink Analytics	YES	YES
Backlinks Audit	YES	YES
Link Building	YES	YES
Position Tracking	YES	YES
Bulk Analysis	YES	YES

4. Local SEO

Features	Semrush	Moz
Listing Management	YES	YES
Review Management	YES	YES
Local Rankings	YES	YES

5. Advertising

Features	Semrush	Moz
Keyword Research	YES	YES
Keyword Grouping & Management	YES	YES
Competitor Research	YES	YES
Ad Builder	YES	NO

6. Content Marketing

Features	Semrush	Moz
Content Ideas & Topic Research	YES	YES
Market Research & Trends Analysis	YES	YES
Content Insights	YES	NO
SEO Writing Assistant	YES	NO
Post Tracking	YES	NO

7. Social Media Marketing

Features	Semrush	Moz
Social Media Management	YES	NO
Social Media Content Optimization	YES	NO
Performance Analysis & Benchmarking	YES	NO

Moz vs. Semrush: Pricing Plans Comparison

As one of the popular Semrush alternatives, Moz offers a similar straightforward pricing plan and structure. Both platforms have no hidden fees. They offer free trial options and a variety of plans designed to meet the specific requirements of digital marketers and businesses alike.

Moz’ Pricing Model

Plan	Monthly Price
Free	$0
Standard	$99
Medium	$179
Large	$299
Premium	$599

Moz offers a free 30-day trial and a set of free tools for all users.

Semrush’s Pricing Model

Plan	Monthly Price
Free	$0
Pro	$129.95
Guru	$249.95
Business	$499.95

If you decide to pay annually, Semrush offers a discount of up to 17%. Semrush also offers a free 7-day trial for their Pro plan. But with my link, you can try Semrush Pro for free for 14 days!

Value for Money Comparison Between Moz and Semrush

The value you get from Semrush and Moz depends on your specific needs and how well you use these tools. If you need a full set of digital marketing tools, including SEO, PPC, and content marketing, Semrush's pricing can be competitive. 

Moz's pricing may be attractive if you're mainly focused on SEO and analyzing websites. This is particularly relevant if you have a smaller website or a local business.

To decide which one is best for you, look at their features, what they can do, and their pricing plans.

Moz vs. Semrush: A Detailed Comparison of Their Features and Toolsets

Now that we’ve compared the basics, it’s time to dive deep into what each of these SEO tools has to offer.

Moz vs. Semrush: Website Audit

Site audits are the foundation of a healthy website. Both Semrush and Moz provide robust site audit features to identify and rectify technical issues that might be holding your website back.

These issues include common culprits like broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags. Let's look at how each tool tackles this critical aspect of website optimization.

Moz’s Site Crawl Feature

Moz's site audit feature called “Site Crawl” offers a comprehensive analysis of your website's health. It meticulously scans your site, pinpointing issues that could negatively impact your SEO efforts.

The features for site auditing include:

• Website analysis: Moz's Website Analysis feature conducts comprehensive scans for on-page and technical SEO concerns. It uncovers and provides insights into common issues, including broken links, absent meta tags, and duplicated content.
• Health assessment: It employs a Site Health scoring system, evaluating your website based on the quantity and severity of issues.
• Issue priority: Moz's Website Analysis includes a feature for prioritizing the issues we find. This helps you focus your attention on the most critical concerns that could have a substantial impact on SEO performance.
• Actionable guidance: You receive practical recommendations for addressing the issues found. Moz not only points out problems but also provides explanations and guidance on implementing best practices.

Moz generates detailed reports highlighting these issues. This aids in taking action to improve your website's performance. Below is a screenshot of Moz's user-friendly site audit interface.

But that’s not all.

Moz will not only detect issues but also provide you with insights into how you can address them. This includes any issues related to SEO and is great for users who aren’t experienced with SEO.

Semrush’s Site Audit Feature

Semrush's site audit is crucial. It carefully checks your website for better health and performance.

The features for site auditing include:

• Site Audit Tool: The Site Audit Tool helps identify any technical and on-page SEO problems that may be affecting a site’s performance. It’s able to find broken links, crawl issues, as well as duplicate content.
• Health score: After the Site Audit Tool scans your website, it will assign it a health score. The health score is an indication of how severe the issues on your website are.
• Recommendations: Apart from the health score, it’ll also offer suggestions and tips for fixing the issues that were found.

One great thing about Semrush is that it spots important technical issues like broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags.

It checks your website's overall SEO health. Plus, it looks at on-page issues that affect user experience and SEO. Semrush gives you detailed reports with practical advice to fix these problems.

Semrush's Site Audit tool doesn't stop at pointing out issues. It gives you a user-friendly dashboard to track your progress over time. This helps you see how well your SEO strategies are working and make improvements.

Which Tool is Better for Site Audits?

Both Moz and Semrush excel in site audits.

Moz's interface may be more user-friendly, while Semrush's tracking capabilities are a unique advantage. If you’re looking for a great beginner tool to start your SEO adventures, Moz is the tool for you.

If you have some SEO experience and want an all-in-one tool, choose Semrush. It's the best for serious SEO improvement.

Moz vs. Semrush: Keyword Research

Keyword research is the bedrock of any successful SEO strategy. Moz and Semrush offer powerful tools to help you discover relevant keywords for your content.

You get information about keyword search volume, keyword complexity, and related terms. This makes it easier to customize your content strategy for better search engine visibility.

Moz’s Keyword Research Features

Moz's keyword research tool is a treasure trove of data. It offers in-depth insights into keyword performance and competition.

Some features include:

• Keyword Explorer: Simplify keyword research and discover relevant keywords with ease. It also helps assess their trends and competitiveness.
• Keyword metrics: Access essential keyword data, including CPC, search volume, and competition metrics. This helps you fine-tune your SEO and PPC strategies.
• Keyword Gap Analysis: Gain insights into how your keywords compare to competitors, identifying opportunities and content gaps.

The Keyword Explorer lets you take a deep dive into keyword analytics. It furnishes abundant data, including keyword volume, difficulty, top-ranking pages with the keyword, and related keywords.

You also get a SERP analysis, which provides valuable insights as to why certain pages rank higher for a keyword.

Semrush’s Keyword Research Features

Semrush's keyword research tool is renowned for its extensive keyword database. It reveals keyword metrics and offers insights into your competitors' keyword strategies.

• Keyword Magic tool: Simplifies keyword research. It helps you find relevant keywords and analyze trends including long-tail keywords. It also assesses keyword competitiveness with difficulty scores.
• Keyword analytics: Provides in-depth keyword analytics including CPC metrics. You can track your competitors’ ranking positions and search performance.
• Keyword Gap analysis: Lets you compare your domain's target keywords with those of your competitors.
• Keyword trends: Helps you monitor keyword popularity and historical keyword data.
• Local SEO keywords: Helps you find location-specific data and track local trends.

Imagine having a powerful tool at your fingertips that simplifies keyword research. With Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool, you can effortlessly discover the perfect keywords.

It's like having a keyword treasure map. Find the gems you need, uncover trends, and identify those hidden long-tail and related keywords. Plus, it gives you a competitive score, helping you navigate the keyword jungle.

Ever wonder how your keywords stack up against your competition?

Semrush's Keyword Gap tool paints a clear picture. It's like a keyword mirror, reflecting your domain's keywords alongside your competitors. This comparison unveils keyword opportunities and content gaps you can address.

Which Tool is Better for Keyword Research?

For keyword research, Semrush takes the win.

Semrush excels in keyword research boasting the largest keyword database on the market. In the Keyword Magic Tool, you have access to an extensive keyword database, surpassing 25.2 billion keywords.

The extensive variety of keywords offers a wealth of ideas for your SEO and PPC campaigns. This positions Semrush as the leader in keyword suggestions and insights.

Moz vs. Semrush: Backlink Data

Backlink data plays a pivotal role in understanding and enhancing your website's online presence. Both Moz and Semrush offer powerful tools designed to help you analyze your link profile and build backlinks that matter.

Moz’s Link Building Features

Moz's Link Explorer provides a comprehensive view of your website's backlink portfolio. It meticulously examines various aspects. This offers valuable insights into your backlinks' quality and relevance.

Some of these features include:

• Referring Domains: Moz's Backlink Explorer allows you to discover the domains linking to your website. What sets Moz apart is its ability to assess the authority and relevance of these domains.
• Anchor Text: The anchor text used for acquiring backlinks is a critical factor influencing your website's SEO. Moz offers an in-depth anchor text analysis to help you tailor your strategy for optimal results.
• Toxic Backlink Identification: Moz helps identify harmful backlink elements. This keeps your link profile clean and SEO-friendly.

Moz's backlink exploring features also provide a historical record of your backlinks, allowing you to track changes and make data-driven decisions.

With detailed breakdowns of referring domains and anchor text distribution, Moz empowers you to fine-tune your backlink strategy for maximum SEO impact.

Semrush’s Link Building Features

Semrush's backlink analysis features provide you with a thorough understanding of your website's link profile. You get access to the link building tools required to make informed decisions.

See how you can use Semrush to build high-quality backlinks for your website in the video below:

Features related to backlinking include:

• Backlink Audit: Semrush's Backlink Audit tool simplifies the process of identifying potentially harmful backlinks. It's a powerful resource for maintaining a clean and SEO-friendly link profile. 
• Referring domains: It allows you to explore the domains linking to your website, offering insights into their authority and relevance metrics.
• Anchor text analysis: Like Moz, Semrush offers a comprehensive anchor text analysis for your acquired backlinks.
• Competitor backlink analysis: One of Semrush's standout features is its ability to compare your link profile with that of your competitors.

Semrush’s Link Building Tool is where Semrush outperforms Moz. The Link Building Tool, designed for ease of use, simplifies the process of building backlinks. It's user-friendly, even for beginners.

After creating your project, which includes linking your domain, you can provide a list of keywords you would like to build links for.

From there, Semrush will provide a huge list of possible prospects, keywords, and competitors. It also provides you with contact information where possible along with a dashboard for prospect outreach.

Which Tool is Better for Backlink Data?

Both Moz and Semrush offer advanced insights into your backlinks and a wealth of features and capabilities to enhance your website's link profile.

Moz stands out for its historical record of backlinks and prioritization of SEO impact.

On the other hand, Semrush's Backlink Audit feature simplifies the process of maintaining a clean link profile. It helps you identify and manage toxic backlinks, ensuring a healthy link profile.

Moz vs. Semrush: Social Media Performance Analysis

Social media analysis is crucial in digital marketing. Both Moz and Semrush provide insights into your social media performance.

Moz’s Social Media Analytics Features

Moz provides a basic view of your social media analytics regarding how much traffic you drive to your website from social channels. It does so by linking your Google Analytics account. However, its analytics are limited and it doesn’t replace a social media management tool.

You can also make use of Moz’s keyword research tool to search for keywords to use on different social platforms.

Semrush’s Social Media Analytics Features

Semrush’s Social Media Toolkit offers comprehensive social media analysis, ensuring you have a 360-degree view of your content performance.

Some of its key features include:

• Social Dashboard: Tracks social engagement metrics, providing you with insights into how your content is resonating with your audience. It covers likes, shares, comments, and more, helping you fine-tune your content strategy.
• Social Poster: Lets you schedule posts on your Facebook Business, Instagram Business, and X profiles. You can use its Chrome extension to share articles on social media.
• Social Tracker: Assists you in tracking the growth of your social media following, giving you the data necessary to make informed decisions.
• Social Analytics: Offers an in-depth analysis of various social platforms, enabling you to optimize your strategies across different networks. Whether you're focused on Facebook, Twitter (now X), Instagram, or others, Semrush provides the insights you need.
• Social Inbox: Offers a single inbox for all your connected social accounts.

Semrush's user-friendly Social Dashboard simplifies the process of tracking and enhancing your social media performance over time. It's a powerful tool to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and make continuous improvements.

It also allows you to schedule and manage your campaigns through an intuitive content calendar.

Its social inbox lets you reply to messages and comments from all your linked social platforms. This makes engaging with your followers much easier. It also lets you find posts where people mention your brand.

Which Tool is Better for Social Media Analysis?

Semrush takes the win.

Moz doesn’t have a dedicated social toolkit and the basics it provides are only good for identifying social traffic to your website. But it won’t replace any sort of social media management software.

Semrush offers a robust social media toolkit filled with social tools including scheduling, optimizing, and tracking engagement of your social campaigns. This makes Semrush a valuable asset for your digital marketing efforts. 

Moz vs. Semrush: Competitive Research

Competitive research is an important part of any successful digital marketing strategy. Understanding how you stack up against your competitors, what strategies they're using, and where you can gain an edge is essential.

Both Moz and Semrush offer powerful competitive research tools. Let's explore these features to see which tool gives you the upper hand.

Moz’s Competitive Research Features

Moz's competitive research capabilities provide valuable insights into your competition's online presence.

Moz offers:

• Competitive analysis: Moz enables you to compare your website's performance with that of your competitors. It helps you identify areas where you're excelling and where there's room for improvement.
• Competitor link analysis: Provides a detailed analysis of your competitor's backlink profiles. This reveals their linking strategies and potential link-building opportunities for your website.
• Competitor keyword analysis: Understanding which keywords your competitors are targeting can be a game-changer. Moz helps you uncover these keywords, assess their competitiveness, and strategize accordingly.
• Content gap analysis: Discover content gaps between your website and your competitors. Identify topics and keywords they're covering that you might be missing.

Moz is an excellent option for competitive analysis. It even offers a free SEO competitive analysis tool. Although basic, the fact that it is free, without even registering an email, is a plus.

Moz’s competitor keyword analysis shows keywords your competitors are ranking higher for than you. It will also display your current rank.

You can also use the Site Overview tool to get in-depth analytics on a competitor’s website. You can find the number of keywords they rank for, their page and domain authority, and top-ranking keywords.

Semrush’s Competitive Research Features

Semrush's competitive research features offer a holistic view of your competition's digital marketing strategies.

This includes:

• Competitive Overview: Semrush provides an in-depth look at your competitors' online presence, highlighting their organic and paid search visibility, traffic sources, and more.
• Competitor SEO analysis: Dive into your competitors' SEO strategies to understand their top-performing keywords, backlink profiles, and on-page optimizations.
• Paid advertising insights: Explore your competitors' paid advertising strategies, including ad copy, landing pages, and keywords, to gain inspiration for your own campaigns.
• Content gap analysis: Semrush identifies content gaps between your website and your competitors, helping you prioritize content creation and optimization efforts.
• Competitive social media analysis: Understand how your competitors are performing on social media, including their engagement, posting frequency, and top-performing content.

The Organic Research tool is your gateway to understanding and dissecting the strategies of your top competitors. This feature unveils their organic search tactics, revealing the keywords they target, their traffic sources, and even their paid advertising approaches.

Another essential feature is the Backlink Gap tool. Backlinks are a cornerstone of SEO, and this tool helps you explore your competitors' link profiles.

The Keyword Gap tool provides a strategic edge by identifying gaps in your content compared to your competitors. It generates a list of keywords that your competitors are ranking for, but you're not.

Which Tool is Better for Competitive Research?

Both Moz and Semrush offer robust competitive research features, making it challenging to declare a clear winner.

The choice between the two depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you prioritize an established authority metric like Domain Authority (DA) and lean toward a straightforward interface, Moz might be your choice.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a solution that lets you conduct competitive research based on keyword rankings and backlinks, Semrush could be the ideal solution.

Moz vs. Semrush: How Good is Their Customer Support?

Customer support is a critical aspect of any digital marketing tool. Both Moz and Semrush offer support services to assist users in getting the most out of their platform subscriptions.

Moz’s Support Services

Moz provides a range of support options to help users navigate their platform effectively, which include:

• Help center: Moz's Help Hub is a comprehensive resource that contains FAQs, articles, and guides that can help you use it better.
• Community Q&A: Moz maintains a thriving community where users can ask questions, share insights, and seek advice from fellow marketers. This is an excellent resource for getting practical solutions and best practices.
• Email and live chat support: You can reach out to Moz's support team via email or a live chat for more personalized assistance. This is ideal for specific queries or troubleshooting issues.
• Webinars and training: Moz offers webinars and training sessions to help you master their tools and stay updated with industry best practices. These sessions provide hands-on guidance.

Moz's support ecosystem is designed to cater to users at all levels of expertise, ensuring that everyone can access the help they need.

Semrush’s Support Services

Semrush also offers a variety of support options to meet users' needs and provide a seamless experience. These include:

• Knowledge Base: It is a repository of articles and guides that cover different aspects of the platform. It's a valuable resource for finding answers to common questions.
• Semrush Academy: It offers free online courses and certification programs that help you develop your digital marketing skills. It's an excellent resource for self-guided learning.
• Email and live chat support: You can contact Semrush's support team via email or live chat for assistance with platform-related inquiries.

Semrush's support infrastructure is designed to empower users with the knowledge and assistance they require to get SEO done like a pro. It caters to both beginners and experienced marketers.

Which SEO Tool Offers Better Support Services?

Semrush offers more resources to help users navigate the platform but both platforms provide robust support options.

Moz ensures that users can access the help they need and it excels in its community engagement.

Semrush offers extensive educational resources through Semrush Academy, making it an excellent choice for self-guided learners and beginners.

Moz vs. Semrush: Pros & Cons

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using each of these SEO tools ー Moz and Semrush.

Pros of Moz

• Domain Authority: Moz's Domain Authority is a well-recognized metric for assessing website quality and authority.
• On-Page analysis: Moz offers comprehensive on-page SEO analysis, helping you optimize your website.
• Keyword Explorer: Simplifies keyword research and provides data on trends and competitiveness.
• Link Analysis: Moz's link analysis tools assist in backlink profile analysis and link-building opportunities.
• SEO tracking: It tracks your keyword rankings over time, allowing you to monitor your SEO performance.

Cons of Moz

• Limited features: Moz's features are primarily focused on SEO and lack the breadth of Semrush's offerings.
• Pricing: Moz’s Standard plan isn’t much cheaper than Semrush’s Pro plan. However, with fewer tools available than Semrush, it can be relatively expensive.

Pros of Semrush

• Comprehensive suite: Offers a wide array of digital marketing tools, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media.
• Keyword Magic tool: Boasts a massive keyword database and a user-friendly tool for keyword research.
• Backlink analysis: Provides in-depth backlink analysis and identifies toxic backlinks.
• Technical SEO audit: Helps optimize your website for on-site SEO factors.
• Competitor analysis: Excels in competitive research, offering insights into competitors' strategies.
• Semrush offers a free, but limited version if you’re looking for a free or affordable SEO tool.

Cons of Semrush

• Pricing: Semrush's pricing can be steep for smaller businesses or individual users.
• Learning curve: The wealth of features in Semrush can be overwhelming for beginners.

Customer Ratings & Reviews of Moz vs. Semrush

If you’re still not sure which SEO tool you want between Moz and Semrush, there are plenty of online user reviews to help you as well.

What Users Say About Moz

Moz has an excellent rating of 4.4 stars on G2 with over 300 reviews.

User reviews rated:

• Overall ease of use: 8.7
• Quality of support: 8.7
• Ease of setting up: 8.9

Users love Moz’s browser plugin which offers a quick DA and PA score for any website you are on. Its strong Technical Auditing features help you quickly get your website optimized for search engines.

Some users have mentioned that Moz is a bit expensive, especially the lower-tiered plans which offer limited access.

What Users Say About Semrush

Semrush boasts a stellar 4.5-star rating on G2 from over 1800 reviews.

User reviews rated:

• Overall ease of use: 8.4
• Quality of support: 8.6
• Ease of setting up: 8.6

Most reviews highlight Semrush’s versatility, boasting a large variety of SEO and related features for a great price. Users also note that their support team is top-notch, helpful, and quick to respond.

Reviews do show that there is a bit of a steeper learning curve than other platforms, especially with such a large toolset on offer. This might overwhelm beginners.

Which SEO Tool Should You Choose? Is It Moz or Semrush?

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, selecting the right toolkit can make all the difference. Moz and Semrush, two industry heavyweights, offer an array of powerful features to fuel your online success.

Moz excels in providing detailed website health checks and is an attractive option. This is especially true for smaller websites and local businesses. It's a go-to resource for in-depth SEO analysis.

On the other hand, Semrush shines with its versatile competitive analysis features, empowering you to outrank your competitors. Its extensive keyword research, backlink analysis, and content gap tools are valuable too.

The choice ultimately depends on your specific needs and goals. Moz may be your preference for focused SEO and website analysis, while Semrush is the leader in comprehensive competitive analysis.

What’s your favorite SEO tool and why? I’d like to know in the comments below.