Review Time
Absolutely terrible customer service and predatory billing practices. I signed up for a 7-day free trial to test the platform. I forgot to cancel it, and the very next day, they automatically charged my card $200 for a monthly subscription.
I contacted support immediately (less than 24 hours later), explaining that I do not want the service, I have zero usage on the account, and I requested a simple refund. Their support team (Nadia and Anna) completely refused, hiding behind a strict 'no refunds for monthly plans' policy.
Good companies will issue a courtesy refund when a customer clearly made a mistake and hasn't used the product. Semrush would rather force a $200 charge down your throat for a service you aren't using. If you sign up for a trial, be warned: they are waiting for you to forget so they can trap your money. I am now forced to file a chargeback through my bank. Avoid them!
Textbook Adobe behavior.
I was a paying Basic Semrush subscriber at $139/month. I decided to try their Advertising toolkit with a 7-day free trial. Shortly after, on February 17th, I cancelled all my subscriptions. I went through their entire cancellation process — which is already ridiculously difficult to find and complete — and their own cancellation page confirms I have no active subscription.
Yet I was just charged for the Advertising toolkit $200 today. Why? Because apparently cancelling your Semrush subscription doesn't actually cancel your add-ons. They treat each toolkit as a separate subscription, but at no point during the cancellation process do they tell you this or give you the option to cancel everything together. As a paying customer giving them $139 a month, you'd think they'd have the decency to make this clear.
When I visited the Advertising section, there's no cancel button. When I visit the /cancel page, it says I have no subscription and just points me to an "extra tools" link. There is no self-service way to cancel the add-on — you're forced to go through support for something that should be a single click.
This is textbook dark pattern design. They make the cancellation flow feel complete so you walk away thinking you're done, while quietly continuing to bill you for add-ons with no obvious way to stop them.
Judging by the reviews here, I'm far from the only person this has happened to. Absolutely unacceptable.
7-Day Trial Cutoff:
Signed up February 4 for a 7-day free trial. On February 11 (Day 7), the account automatically converted to a paid Pro plan and I was charged USD 222.88.
Zero Flexibility:
Refund was denied despite immediate same-day cancellation. Once the charge posts, there appears to be no discretion — even if you cancel within minutes on the final day of the advertised trial.
Lack of Support:
After requesting escalation, the (human) representative reiterated policy and ended the chat conversation.
Professional Perspective:
I work in SEO and was genuinely reconsidering this tool to simplify workflows. Instead, the experience created unnecessary stress and billing issues. If you are considering Semrush, know that there are alternatives — including Google Search Console and other SEO platforms — that provide solid functionality without this level of subscription friction.
Rating: 3/10 (9/10 for the tool, -100/10 for subscription)
I chose Semrush after testing several alternatives (Serpstat, SimilarWeb, Ahrefs). From a pure functionality standpoint, it seemed decent and user-friendly. I thoroughly tested it during the trial week.
Here's where the fun begins.
Trial ends, they charge $199 for the SEO subscription - totally fine, I expected and agreed to this.
But wait, there's more!
A couple hours later, another $289 vanishes from my account for some mystery feature called "Traffic & Metrics" that I didn't even know existed, never tested, and definitely didn't want. Sure, I might have accidentally clicked something during onboarding (their UI is a goddamn minefield), but there was a totally unclear indication this would auto-charge me $289.
I immediately contacted support, explaining I don't need this feature and requesting a refund. Their response? "Sorry bro, we only refund annual subscriptions."
Cool policy, guys. Really pro-consumer.
The Irony: A company that teaches people how to attract customers has clearly mastered the dark arts themselves - particularly the "f**ck your users and take their money" playbook. The most disgusting part? Automatic subscriptions you didn't ask for + zero ability to cancel the charge = legalized theft.
Semrush should create a new guide series:
"How to f**ck Your Users and Sleep Well at Night: A Comprehensive Fraud Guide"
"Dark Patterns 101: Making Cancellation Impossible"
"The Art of Hidden Charges: A Semrush Masterclass"
In other words - Do NOT subscribe to their paid plans unless you enjoy financial surprises. If you must use them, watch every single click like your bank account depends on it - because it does. They'll screw you faster than you can say "chargeback."
The tool itself? 9/10.
The subscription practices? Minus infinity.
Stay away from their subscription. These people have perfected the art of user exploitation.
The customer service is extremely poor. I canceled my free trial within the trial period, yet I was still charged. The support team has been unhelpful, making me go through unnecessary steps to retrieve my money. I have had no success in getting back the hundreds of dollars I lost. I strongly advise against using their services; they seem untrustworthy and deceitful.
My business, which had been active for 8 years and accumulated over 100 reviews, photos, and posts, was deleted. It's been 3 weeks, and the situation remains unchanged. It feels like they just take your money and leave you with unresolved issues.
I encountered significant frustration while trying to cancel my subscription. I made attempts to cancel before the renewal charge, yet I was still billed and denied a refund. The cancellation process was particularly aggravating. The system repeatedly sent the same automated email without progressing to the next step. At no point did the service clearly indicate that these email responses were AI-generated, which is misleading and a waste of time. The process only advanced after I specifically requested to speak with a representative, a detail not clearly mentioned in the cancellation procedure. Despite following the necessary steps and trying to cancel in good faith before the charge, I was refused a refund. While the platform may have its merits, their cancellation policy, lack of transparency regarding automated communications, and refusal to refund despite timely attempts to cancel are significant concerns. I highly advise reading the fine print and exercising caution before subscribing.
I rely on this service to discover optimal keywords, track my performance, keep an eye on competitors, and make informed decisions. It brings all my SEO requirements into a single platform, removing the hassle of using various tools. Occasionally, I also utilize its audit feature.
This business operates in a deeply unethical manner. They promote a 7-day free trial but charge over $200 before the trial ends and then deny any refund requests. I strongly advise anyone thinking about using this service to steer clear. If they truly believed in their product, they wouldn't resort to such tactics. There are far superior tools and companies that uphold ethical standards.
For over three months, I have been attempting to cancel my subscription. I have requested cancellation multiple times and received confirmation emails, yet my card continues to be charged, including a recent charge, despite no longer using the service. The only feedback I received from the support team was that I 'did not complete a final step' from a confirmation email. It is unacceptable to charge a customer who has clearly requested cancellation and ceased using the service. This experience feels unfair and misleading. I cannot recommend the service based on how this situation was managed.
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Semrush is a leading online visibility management SaaS platform that enables businesses globally to run search engine optimization, pay-per-click, content, social media, and competitive research campaigns and get measurable results from online marketing. Semrush offers insights and solutions for companies to build, manage, and measure campaigns across various marketing channels. Semrush, with over 87,000 paying customers.
Semrush in numbers:
- 808M desktop domain profiles and 32.1M mobile domain profiles
- Over 43 trillion backlinks and over 25 billion URLs crawled per day on average
- Over 24.3 billion keywords and 20M ideas for a single keyword
- 30% of Fortune 500 companies use Semrush as their go-to marketing tool
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