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.
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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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