In short
- In Semrush vs Similarweb, Semrush is the tool for working on search: keyword research, backlinks, daily rank tracking and audits, from $139.95 a month.
- Similarweb is the tool for sizing up markets: visits, channels and audiences for 100 million+ websites, from $199 a month for one user, with SEO and AI tools on its $399 plan.
- Both estimate other sites’ traffic: Semrush from a panel of over 200 million users, Similarweb from four sources, including sites that share their own analytics.
- For your clients’ own sites you don’t need an estimate: Orbit counts their real visitors, searches and leads, free on every client site.
The short answer
Semrush helps you win in search; Similarweb shows how a whole market gets its visitors. One is a workbench, the other a research desk.
Pick Semrush if
- You do SEO for clients. Keyword research, backlinks, daily rank tracking and Site Audit come with every plan.
- Links are part of the job. 43 trillion backlinks, with a crawler reading about 10 billion pages a day.
- You want one login for every channel. Ads, local, social and traffic toolkits sit in the same account.
Pick Similarweb if
- You pitch or plan by market. Visits, engagement, channels and demographics for any site, with competitor alerts.
- You care where the numbers come from. Part of its data comes straight from sites and apps that share their own analytics.
- You study competitors’ ads. The Ads plan adds campaign creative, advertiser signals and ad spend, $649 a month.
Semrush’s Traffic & Market toolkit covers much of Similarweb’s ground inside Semrush. For clients’ own sites, neither estimate is needed; see where Orbit fits below.
Side by side
| Semrush | Similarweb | OrbitOurs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | |||
| Built for | Working on search: keywords, links, rankings, audits | Sizing up markets: visits, channels, audiences | Each client’s own site: search, visitors, leads, links, health and AI answers |
| Traffic data | Traffic & Market toolkit, $289 a month: visits by channel, AI included | On every plan: visits, engagement, channels and demographics | Real visitors on the client’s site, with people, AI assistants and bots counted apart |
| Where the numbers come from | A panel of over 200 million anonymous users, modelled by machine learning | Sites that share their analytics, a device network, partners and public data | Measured on the site itself, with Search Console pulled in every day |
| Coverage | 808 million domains, 142 country databases | 100 million+ websites and 4 million+ apps, 10 years of history | Every client site you connect, and research on any domain in any country |
| Search work | |||
| Keyword research | 28.8 billion keywords, on every plan | Keyword research and rank tracker from the $399 plan | Volume, difficulty and who ranks, next to the client’s own positions |
| Links and audits | 43 trillion backlinks; Site Audit on every plan | Site audit and backlinks from the $399 plan | Backlinks and a weekly health check per site, from Ascend |
| AI search | |||
| AI answers | 50 to 200 prompts tracked daily from Starter | 150 prompts tracked daily on ChatGPT, AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity | 15 buyer questions a week per site on ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode |
| Traffic from AI | AI as a traffic channel for any domain, in Traffic & Market | AI traffic to any site, on every plan with AI tracking | Visitors and leads from each assistant, on the client’s own site |
| For agencies | |||
| Users | One; extra users $45 to $100 a month | One on self-serve plans; teams on custom packages | Priced per client site, not per seat |
| From finding to result | Rankings tracked over time | Traffic trends and competitor alerts | Work drafted, published once approved, and measured against its starting point |
| Price | |||
| Per month | $139.95 to $549; Traffic & Market $289 | $129 to $649 for one user; less billed yearly | $149 for the agency, then $0, $49 or $199 per client site |
| To try it | Free plan with 10 reports a day; 7-day trial of Traffic & Market | Free trial on each self-serve plan | A free Scan of any site; Launchpad free on every client site |
The difference: your search or your market
Semrush is a workbench for search: which keywords to chase, who links to whom, where a page ranks today and what to fix on it. Its estimates of other sites’ traffic sit in a separate toolkit. Similarweb is a research desk for markets: how many people visit a site, through which channels, who they are, and how a whole category is moving. Its SEO and AI tools arrive with the $399 plan. Both describe sites from the outside; neither replaces counting the visitors on a client’s own site.
Pricing
| Tool | Price |
|---|---|
| Semrush | $139.95 to $549 a month for one user, extra user $45 to $100Source, checked 6 Oct 2026 |
| Similarweb | $199 to $649 a month for one user ($125 to $542 billed yearly)Source, checked 6 Oct 2026 |
| OrbitOurs | $149 a month for the agency, then $0, $49 or $199 per client siteSee pricing |
For one researcher who needs search and traffic data: Semrush Pro+ with Traffic & Market is $588 a month ($299 plus $289). Similarweb’s Competitive Intel, SEO & AEO plan is $399 a month, or $333 billed yearly. A second Semrush user costs $45 to $100 a month; Similarweb sells teams a custom package.
Where Orbit fits
Semrush and Similarweb look at the web from outside. For the sites you run, Orbit looks from inside: the visitors who really came, the searches that brought them, the leads they became, and the work that moved those numbers.
Real visitors, not estimates
People, AI assistants and bots counted apart, free on every client site.
Search history that lasts
Every search a site shows up for, kept past Google’s 16 months.
Proof per task
On Zenith, every finished task is measured against where it started.
Similarweb vs Semrush: whose traffic numbers to trust?
Both estimate the traffic of sites they don’t run, from different sources. Semrush models its numbers from a panel of over 200 million anonymous internet users in more than 190 countries. Similarweb blends four sources: sites and apps that share their own analytics, a network of devices using its products, data partners, and public data. Similarweb cites a SparkToro study that found its numbers the closest to Google Analytics.
Treat both as estimates, best for comparing sites with each other over time. For your clients’ own sites, skip the estimate: Orbit’s analytics counts the real visitors, with people, AI assistants and bots kept apart, free on every client site, and Search shows every Google search that found the site.
Is Similarweb an SEO tool?
Partly. Its $199 Competitive Intelligence plan covers traffic, engagement, audiences and channels. Keyword research, rank tracking, site audit and backlinks come with the $399 plan, which also adds AI visibility. Semrush works the other way round: SEO on every plan, and traffic estimates in a separate Traffic & Market toolkit at $289 a month.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEO Intelligence | $129 | $99 a month | AI brand visibility, 150 prompts, AI traffic |
| Competitive Intelligence | $199 | $125 a month | Traffic, engagement, audiences, channels, competitor alerts |
| Competitive Intel, SEO & AEO | $399 | $333 a month | Adds keyword research, rank tracker, site audit, backlinks and AI visibility |
| Competitive Intel, SEO & AEO & Ads | $649 | $542 a month | Adds ad creative, campaigns and ad spend |
Semrush vs Similarweb for AI search
Similarweb tracks 150 prompts a day on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity, and shows how much traffic AI assistants send to any site. Semrush tracks 50 to 200 prompts a day from its Starter plan, and its Traffic & Market toolkit counts AI as a channel for any domain.
For a client, the useful version is narrower: the questions their buyers ask, and what those answers sent to their site. Orbit asks 15 such questions a week per client site on ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode, and counts the visitors and leads each assistant sends. The best AI visibility tools compares the trackers built for this, and Orbit vs Semrush covers the rest of the client work.
How we checked
Every fact about Semrush and Similarweb comes from the vendor’s own website, read on 6 Oct 2026: its pricing page where it publishes one, otherwise its help pages and announcements. Each price links to the page it came from, in US dollars as the vendor states them.
Orbit is our own product, and the page says so wherever it appears. Its prices come from our pricing page. Prices change; if you spot one that has, tell us and we correct the page.
Written by
Leon Missoul, Founder
I started the web agency Luniq in 2025 and built Orbit from the software we used to keep our clients’ sites growing after launch. I write about search, AI answers and how to prove what website work earns.