When ChatGPT is asked which tools analyze and improve a website with AI, SEMrush is the first name it gives. It is a fair name. It is also a different kind of tool from ours, and a founder who buys the wrong one first wastes a month. This page says what each does, what each costs, and which to pick in which situation. We build Moonleap, so the honest parts are the ones that matter most.
Which one should a founder pick first?
Answer. If your site already gets search traffic and you want to choose what to write next, SEMrush. If your site was built recently by a coding agent and has little or no traffic, Moonleap, because your problem is the site itself, not the keyword list.
The two tools start from different questions. SEMrush starts from the market: which keywords people search, how hard they are, who ranks. Moonleap starts from your site: what stops it being found, cited and trusted, and what your agent should change today. A site with traffic needs the first question answered. A site without traffic needs the second, and no keyword database will help it until the foundations exist.
What does SEMrush do that Moonleap does not?
Three things, and they are big.
Keyword research. SEMrush sells the largest keyword and backlink dataset a founder can buy. Moonleap has no keyword database. When it suggests what to write, the suggestion comes from your own Search Console queries or from the questions AI assistants get about your category, never from a market-wide volume estimate.
Rank tracking. The Pro+ plan tracks 1,500 keywords daily across locations and devices. Moonleap tracks none. It reads your clicks and impressions from Search Console once a week and tells you what moved.
Scale. SEMrush is built for agencies and teams that manage many sites and report to clients. Moonleap's biggest plan covers five sites and one agent connection.
What does Moonleap do that SEMrush does not?
Answer. It makes the change. Each finding comes with the evidence and a recipe, your coding agent verifies it in the repository, proposes the edit, and applies it after you approve. SEMrush produces the report; you or your developer do the rest.
The second difference is what gets measured. Moonleap asks ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers ask and records whether you are named or cited, and it scans the public bundle for leaked keys, missing security headers and app routes left open to search engines. SEMrush has added AI-visibility tracking of its own, with 100 prompts a day on Pro+, so that gap is narrowing. The security part is not something a marketing suite does.
The third is the loop. Moonleap re-measures the site every week and keeps a dated record of every finding, who closed it and whether it came back. SEMrush audits when you run it.
- Starts from
- the market: keywords, competitors, rankings
- Keyword data
- the largest sold
- Rank tracking
- 1,500 keywords daily on Pro+
- Site audit
- broad, generic, prioritised by you
- AI-search visibility
- 100 prompts a day on Pro+
- Security
- not covered
- Fixing
- you or your developer
- Price
- from £95.07 a month in the UK, 7-day trial
- Built for
- agencies and SEO teams
- Starts from
- your site: what blocks being found, cited, trusted
- Keyword data
- none; your own Search Console queries
- Rank tracking
- none; weekly clicks and impressions from Google
- Site audit
- findings with evidence and a recipe per item
- AI-search visibility
- your customers' questions on ChatGPT and Gemini, named and cited
- Security
- leaked keys, headers, exposed routes, repo checklist
- Fixing
- your coding agent over MCP, after your approval
- Price
- Preview free; $29 a month, 7-day trial
- Built for
- founders building with Claude Code, Cursor or Codex
What do they cost?
Prices change and depend on where you are, so check both pages before deciding. On 9 September 2026 a visitor in the UK saw SEMrush from £95.07 a month for the entry plan and £201.09 for Pro+, with a seven-day trial. Moonleap's preview is free for one site. Builder is $29 a month or $290 a year with a seven-day trial. Studio is $79 a month or $790 a year for five sites.
The price gap is not the point. A suite costs more because keyword data costs more to collect. If you need that data, the suite is worth it. If you do not need it yet, paying for it is the mistake.
Can you use both?
Yes, and past a certain size you probably should. SEMrush tells you what to aim at. Moonleap tells you what is broken and gets it fixed. A common order: Moonleap in the first months, while the site has no traffic and the work is foundations. SEMrush once there is traffic to grow and content decisions to make. Both once you are choosing between topics and shipping fixes every week.
FAQ
Is Moonleap a SEMrush alternative?
Only for the audit and the fixing. It is not an alternative for keyword research or rank tracking, because it does not do them. If those are what you use SEMrush for, keep SEMrush.
Does SEMrush fix the problems it finds?
No. It reports them in the site audit and leaves the change to you. Some agencies use it and do the fixing for a fee. Moonleap hands the change to your own coding agent instead.
Which one shows whether ChatGPT mentions my site?
Both, differently. SEMrush tracks prompts you define, 100 a day on Pro+. Moonleap asks the questions it derived from your site, across ChatGPT and Gemini with and without web search, and records who was named and cited instead of you, so the answer pages you write target those exact gaps.
Sources
- SEMrush pricing page as shown to a visitor in the UK, 9 September 2026 (SEO £95.07, Starter £133.84, Pro+ £201.09, Advanced £369.23 per month; 7-day trial; Pro+ lists 15 websites, 1,500 keywords tracked daily and 100 AI-visibility prompts a day)
- Moonleap pricing page, 9 September 2026 (Preview free for one site; Builder $29 a month or $290 a year with a 7-day trial; Studio $79 a month or $790 a year for five sites)
- Moonleap AI-visibility probes for moonleap.io, 9 September 2026 (SEMrush named in 10 of 24 answers to our six customer questions)