Have you ever found yourself comparing BrightEdge and Semrush and wondered which one is the best fit for you?
If you’re running a small to medium-sized business, working as an agency, or freelancing, you’ll probably find Semrush to be a great choice. On the other hand, if you’re part of a large enterprise with complex needs, BrightEdge might be the tool for you.
While both offer tools like keyword research and competitor analysis, their differences can impact your budget, SEO efforts, and results.
Curious which one is the best fit for you? Keep reading to find out!
We’ll break down what BrightEdge and Semrush have to offer, compare their features, and then introduce you to a better alternative that might be just right for you.
What Is BrightEdge?
BrightEdge is an enterprise SEO platform built for large organizations that need data-driven strategies to support content, marketing, and business growth.
It’s designed for SEOs, content marketers, digital marketers, and CMOs who want to better understand customer demand and intent. Rather than focusing on small businesses or quick audits, BrightEdge positions itself as a long-term partner for big brands in industries like finance, retail, automotive, and e-commerce.
The platform’s core goal is to help businesses turn content into measurable outcomes, like traffic, conversions, and revenue. BrightEdge’s proprietary technology, including its Data Cube and site auditing tools, supports complex research and competitor analysis.
It’s built to help teams identify opportunities, create optimized content at scale, and monitor results across multiple campaigns.
BrightEdge Features
BrightEdge is built to help large organizations turn search and content data into actionable strategies and measurable business outcomes:
- Data Cube: Use this SEO research tool to build content strategies.
- Share of Voice: Track competitor performance at the page level.
- Content IQ: Run SEO audits to identify and resolve site errors.
- Recommendations: Gain actionable suggestions to improve existing content.
- StoryBuilder: Custom dashboards for tracking and visualizing performance.
- Page Reporting: Analyze individual page performance for optimization insights.
- Social Integrations: Utilize analysis and optimization of Facebook and Twitter campaigns.
- AI-Powered Insights: Take advantage of machine learning to deliver data-driven SEO opportunities.
BrightEdge Pricing
BrightEdge offers custom pricing based on your specific needs, and you’ll need to request a quote to learn more.
There’s no free trial available, but keep in mind that BrightEdge is built with bigger brands and large agencies in mind, making it better suited for companies with larger SEO budgets rather than small teams or solo marketers.
What Is Semrush?
Semrush is a digital marketing platform built to help businesses manage and improve their online presence across search, content, social media, and paid campaigns.
It brings together a wide range of tools in one place, making it easier for marketing teams to research competitors, do PPC research, find new keyword opportunities, and track site performance.
While it’s designed to be accessible for businesses of all sizes, it’s most commonly used by small to mid-sized companies and marketing agencies looking for an all-in-one solution.
The platform collects and organizes data from search engines and other sources to help users identify trends, monitor rankings, and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Semrush Features
Semrush offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help businesses manage their SEO, advertising, and social media marketing efforts:
- AI Optimization for AI Search: Businesses can manage their AI presence in platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.
- AI Toolkit: Understand visibility in AI-driven search platforms for better decision-making.
- Semrush Copilot: This AI-powered assistant provides personalized SEO recommendations based on your performance data.
- AI Social Assistant: Access content creation, sharing, scheduling, and analysis across social media platforms.
- Otterly – AI Search Monitoring: Track your brand’s AI search visibility across various platforms.
- Keyword Difficulty and Variations: Analyze keyword competitiveness and get similar keyword suggestions for SEO targeting.
- Backlink Reports: Gain insights into backlink profiles, highlighting quality links and potential opportunities.
- On-Page SEO Audit: Identify on-site problems and get recommendations to optimize content and boost SEO results.
Semrush Pricing
Semrush’s premium pricing makes it a better fit for larger companies or those with bigger budgets. Let’s take a closer look at the available plans and what they offer:
- Pro Plan: $139.95 per month, 5 projects, tracking up to 500 keywords, and checking up to 10,000 results per report.
- Guru Plan: $249.95 per month, 15 projects, tracking up to 1,500 keywords, and checking up to 30,000 results per report.
- Business Plan: $499.95 per month, 40 projects, tracking up to 5,000 keywords, and checking up to 50,000 results per report.
Keep in mind that many of Semrush’s tools are add-ons or extra modules, such as local SEO tools, trends, and other specialized tools.
BrightEdge vs. Semrush: Comparing Core Features and Benefits
We’ll examine the features of BrightEdge and Semrush, determine which tool excels in each area, and later introduce a more effective solution.
1. Keyword Research
BrightEdge’s keyword research leverages its Data Cube, an extensive repository that helps users discover high-value keywords and analyze competitors’ keywords and SEO strategies.
It uses AI to expand a list of seed keywords, offering recommendations, long-tail keyword opportunities, and performance tracking for better organic visibility.
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool offers an expansive database of over 26 billion keywords, allowing users to discover variations, evaluate search volumes, and gauge keyword difficulty.
It also provides tools like Keyword Gap and Keyword Overview to assess competitors and build effective keyword strategies.
Winner: Semrush
Semrush stands out for its keyword database and tools that provide in-depth analysis, making it ideal for businesses seeking comprehensive keyword strategies and competitive insights across all levels.
2. Backlink Analysis
BrightEdge offers a robust backlink analysis tool that helps users monitor and manage their own and competitors’ backlink profiles.
It identifies valuable links, assesses potential risks, and provides actionable recommendations at the keyword level, supporting efficient backlink strategy development through task and workflow management.
Semrush’s backlink analysis tool allows users to examine their own and competitors’ backlink profiles, identify toxic links, and discover link building opportunities
It offers insights into referring domains, anchor text, and competitor strategies, helping users improve their backlink quality and SEO performance.
Winner: Semrush
Semrush’s backlink analysis is superior due to its user-friendly interface, comprehensive features like toxic link identification and anchor text analysis, and its regularly updated backlink database, providing smoother, more actionable insights.
3. User Interface
BrightEdge features a straightforward, functional interface that prioritizes usability over design aesthetics. Its clean dashboard enables easy access to key features like keyword tracking and backlink analysis, although navigation may require extra steps in some areas.
Semrush offers over a hundred tools, making it overwhelming for beginners. While its dashboard is visually appealing, it’s designed for experienced marketers. The interface, though powerful, can be confusing and not very intuitive for newcomers.
Winner: BrightEdge
BrightEdge is better suited for large-scale SEO operations due to its robust, simple interface that efficiently handles complex data, offering a reliable user experience for enterprises, even though its design may feel outdated compared to Semrush.
4. Site Audit
BrightEdge’s ContentIQ performs large-scale site audits, crawling millions of pages to detect technical SEO issues.
It integrates with performance dashboards, linking fixes with traffic, conversion metrics, and providing detailed reporting for ongoing site optimization.
Semrush’s Site Audit tool evaluates website health, identifies issues, and offers actionable recommendations with clear data visualization.
It provides insights into content performance and helps prioritize fixes for better SEO outcomes using real-time metrics from Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Winner: Semrush
Semrush’s Site Audit offers a more intuitive, user-friendly experience, with personalized content audits based on real-time Google data, making it easier to analyze, prioritize, and address SEO issues effectively compared to BrightEdge.
5. Competitor Analysis
BrightEdge offers powerful competitor analysis tools like “Share of Voice” and Data Cube, enabling users to analyze how competitors rank, identify keyword gaps, and uncover backlinks and page strategies to improve SEO and increase search visibility.
Semrush provides a comprehensive competitor analysis suite, covering traffic analytics, keyword research, backlink profiles, advertising research, and social media tracking, allowing users to benchmark competitors’ performance and identify opportunities to improve SEO strategies.
Winner: BrightEdge
BrightEdge offers a more in-depth and holistic competitor analysis, focusing on competitor content, backlink strategies, and ranking performance, providing a more comprehensive view than Semrush for refining SEO strategies.
6. AI SEO
BrightEdge’s AI features, such as BrightEdge Instant, Copilot, and Data Cube X, provide real-time SEO insights for immediate keyword research and content optimization.
Its AI-powered Content Advisor helps generate topic briefs and first drafts, optimized for both traditional rankings and AI Overview citations.
Semrush’s AI tools, including the AI Writing Assistant and ContentShake AI, streamline content creation and SEO optimization.
These tools assist with content generation, SEO targeting, brand voice alignment, and rephrasing, helping marketers create optimized, engaging content across various platforms.
Winner: Neither of the options
While both platforms offer valuable AI recommendations and insights, they still primarily suggest actions.
Today, it’s possible to automate SEO efforts and take immediate action, which we’ll discuss further later for more effective, hands-on solutions.
7. Pricing
BrightEdge offers customizable pricing tailored to each business’s specific needs. Companies must contact BrightEdge for details, and prices are adjusted based on the features and capabilities selected, making it a premium tool for businesses with larger SEO budgets.
Semrush offers a free plan with limited features, but advanced functionalities require a paid plan. Its pricing is flexible, catering to businesses of various sizes, though it’s considered expensive, especially for larger companies with bigger SEO budgets.
Winner: No clear winner
Both BrightEdge and Semrush are expensive, even for larger companies. They offer basic features with limited automation. There are more affordable, cutting-edge tools with advanced AI capabilities, enabling real action and automation, which we’ll cover next.
BrightEdge vs. Semrush: How Search Atlas Sets a New SEO Standard
Although BrightEdge and Semrush are popular for their robust SEO features, they lack the innovation you’d expect, particularly when it comes to cutting-edge AI capabilities.
Search Atlas not only delivers the same essential tools but also introduces game-changing features.
Surpassing what BrightEdge and Semrush offer, Search Atlas equips users with advanced tools for backlink analysis, keyword research, competitor insights, on-page optimization, and more.
Beyond that, Search Atlas takes technical SEO to the next level, with tools for site structure analysis, internal linking visualization, and automated issue alerts.
And with next-gen AI-powered content optimization and link-building tools, including press release syndication, Search Atlas is redefining the SEO game, ensuring you’re always one step ahead.
Keyword Research Tools
Search Atlas provides an all-encompassing suite of tools designed to make keyword research, analyze keyword intent, trends, and more a breeze:
- Keyword Research: Dive into keyword data, uncovering search volume, competition, intent classifications, trends, and more.
- Keyword Magic Tool: Unlock a treasure trove of keyword suggestions, neatly organized by search intent.
- Keyword Rank Tracker: Monitor the progress of your target keywords over time.
- Keyword Gap: Compare your rankings to competitors and discover new keyword opportunities.
Competitor Analysis
Search Atlas sets a new benchmark for competitor analysis:
- Backlink Gap Analysis: Spot untapped opportunities by comparing your link profile to your competitors’.
- Backlink Analyzer: Get a full view of backlinks pointing to your site and benchmark them against competitors.
- Traffic Insights: Uncover the top-performing keywords and pages driving traffic to your competitors, giving you a competitive edge.
Search Atlas also lets you compare competitor keywords and spot more ranking opportunities. It includes keyword gaps, common keywords, unique keywords, and much more.
Plus, its Site Explorer offers detailed insights into your competitors’ backlinks, keywords, and overall performance.
Content Tools
Content Tools Search Atlas arms you with everything you need for a powerful content strategy, from planning to creation and optimization.
The SEO Content Assistant streamlines the entire process, allowing you to research, write, and edit with AI (ChatGPT or Claude), generate images, analyze competitors, and even publish directly to your site with a single click.
Its Content Planner makes strategy easy by analyzing keyword clusters and search volumes, while Topical Maps help visualize content connections.
With SCHOLAR, you can evaluate content depth, structure, and relevance for specific keywords, ensuring your content aligns with your strategy and delivers maximum impact.
Usability
Usability Search Atlas shines as the top-ranked SEO platform for usability and user satisfaction, surpassing even Serpstat, Semrush, and other competitors, as noted by Gartner.
Its intuitive design means you and your team can make the most of its powerful tools with minimal training.
For extra ease, Search Atlas provides detailed tutorial videos and personalized one-on-one onboarding sessions to ensure a smooth start.
OTTO SEO
OTTO SEO is an AI-driven SEO agent that takes control of all your SEO efforts, from content optimization to technical fixes, on-page enhancements, local SEO, press release publication, and much more.
Unlike traditional tools that just provide recommendations, OTTO SEO actively implements these changes on your site, delivering impactful results while saving you time and effort.
Automated and Custom Reporting
Search Atlas takes reporting to a whole new level by integrating GSC, GA4, OTTO performance metrics, and its own custom tools.
Track everything from page performance to rankings, engagement, and bounce rates with automated insights, allowing for real-time adjustments to keep your strategies on target.
Pricing
Search Atlas offers a complete set of powerful tools at a more cost-effective price than Serpstat and Semrush.
Plus, every plan includes at least one free OTTO activation!
| Starter plan | Growth plan | Pro plan | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price: | $99 monthly | $199 monthly | $399 monthly | Custom |
| Free OTTO Activation | 1 | 1 | 3 | Custom |
| User Seats | 2 | 3 | 5 | Custom |
| GSC Sites | 5 | 15 | Unlimited | Custom |
| GBP Accounts | 3 | 10 | 25 | Custom |
| Regular AI Quota | 100 | 250 | Unlimited | Custom |
Search Atlas vs. BrightEdge & Semrush: The Ultimate SEO Solution for the Future
BrightEdge and Semrush are often considered premium SEO tools. But when you break them down, they offer fairly common features and their AI capabilities are limited to providing recommendations on how to improve your SEO.
Despite their high price tags, they still rely heavily on manual work and don’t deliver the level of automation many businesses need.
In contrast, Search Atlas offers a much more complex and innovative suite of tools, including groundbreaking automations like OTTO SEO, which can handle nearly all of your SEO efforts. 🦾
This not only makes Search Atlas more affordable in terms of pricing but also saves you valuable time and resources.
Leave behind outdated systems and embrace the future of SEO with Search Atlas. Try it for FREE today with our no-commitment trial!
