Google Search Console vs Semrush
Pricing
Google Search Console: Free
Semrush: Free plan; paid from EUR 112.52/mo billed yearly (EUR 134 monthly)
Description
Google Search Console: Google's free service that shows how your site performs in Google Search: queries, clicks, indexing problems and links
Semrush: SEO and AI search suite for keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor analysis and brand visibility in AI answers
Pros
- Shows the queries, impressions, clicks and average position your pages get in Google Search
- Submit sitemaps and single URLs, and see which pages are indexed and why others are not
- Emails you when Google finds indexing, spam or other problems on your site
- Free plan with no credit card, and a 7-day free trial of paid plans
- Tracks how your brand appears in AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google
- An MCP connection brings Semrush data into your AI assistant
Cons
- Covers Google Search only, not Bing or AI assistants
- You must prove you own the site first, with a DNS record, an HTML file, a meta tag or a Google Analytics or Tag Manager tag
- Shows how people find you in search, not what they do on your site, so you still need an analytics tool
- Expensive for one person: the entry SEO plan is EUR 134 a month, or EUR 112.52 a month billed yearly
- The entry plan covers 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords; AI prompt tracking starts on Starter at EUR 158.40 a month billed yearly
Details
Search Console is Google’s own view of how your site appears in Google Search. It shows which queries bring people to your pages, how often you appear, your click-through rate and average position, and which pages Google has indexed. It also lists the sites that link to yours.
It costs nothing, and it is where Google reports crawling and indexing errors, Core Web Vitals problems and security issues such as hacking or malware.
You don’t need it to appear in Google, but you do need to verify that you own the site before it shows any data. You can do that with a meta tag on your homepage, an HTML file or a DNS record at your domain provider.
Semrush covers keyword research, backlink and competitor analysis, daily rank tracking and technical site audits, and it now also tracks how your brand shows up in AI answers and AI search.
It suits founders for whom search is the main growth channel and who will open it every week. Google Search Console, which is free, already covers your own site’s search data, so start there if you only need that.
Adobe completed its purchase of Semrush in April 2026. Semrush has told existing customers that their services and contracts are not changing for now.
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