Semrush Reviews 1,278

I am extremely disappointed with SEMrush. Although the product features themselves are fine, I have been trying to cancel my very expensive subscription since 5 November 2025 and have been blocked at every turn.

The online cancellation process brings me all the way to the final confirmation screen—and then fails. Every single time. They continue to charge my credit card despite repeated attempts to stop the service.

When I try to email support or use their chatbot, I am pushed right back into the same broken cancellation script. I even attempted to call them, navigated a long phone tree, and was finally met with a message saying they no longer accept phone calls. At this point, it feels deliberately obstructive.

This is unacceptable business practice. In my opinion, this borders on fraud, and I would strongly caution anyone considering a subscription. Until they fix their cancellation system and provide real human support, I cannot recommend SEMrush to anyone.

Semrush presents itself as a comprehensive SEO platform, but in practice it often fails to deliver value relative to its high cost. The cancellation process is extremely confusing and feels deliberately designed to cause users to remain subscribed. Even after selecting “cancel” inside the account dashboard, the subscription does not actually end—you must find and confirm a separate email. Many users will continue to be billed without realizing this.

After I informed Semrush that I would dispute the charges with my bank due to the unclear cancellation flow, they suddenly disabled my account. There were still two full weeks left before the next billing cycle, meaning they effectively took half a month of paid service without providing access. I stated clearly that I was too busy to call my bank immediately and would keep the subscription for one more month, yet they still cut off access and kept the payment.

Their customer support has not responded to my emails, and the lack of accountability is unacceptable for a company charging premium pricing. The interface remains cluttered, the data does not consistently align with Google Search Console, and many insights feel generic instead of actionable. Limits on keywords, projects, and reports are restrictive, and upselling is constant.

Overall, Semrush feels overpriced, non-transparent, and unprofessional. Small businesses and startups expecting straightforward billing, accurate data, and responsive support should be cautious before committing to this platform.

Where to start? As a small marketing agency in the UK we signed up for SEMrush in mid 2025. We were led to believe it is the best platform for SEO management for clients. The platform appears very dated and quite disjointed. Overall the user experience is not intuitive or pleasurable. There are countless upsells with the platform meaning that despite paying several hundred pounds a month more money is required for addons. This is not fair or ethical. But the main reason for the one star review is the customer service is truly dreadful. We accidentally clicked on one of the modules which charged us around £90. SEMrush refused to consider a refund despite me asking twice. As a result I decided to switch to AHRefs. To date I have sent at least 3 emails requesting cancellation and made several phone calls. The person on the phone confirmed they had received the requests and that they would action the cancellation. Despite following this up they to date have not stopped trying to take payments. Lloyds bank have blocked any payments thankfully. In short, this is a greedy money grabbing and dated platform that is best avoided. We have since achieved a first page on google within 4 months by applying core principles and using AI LLMs to do much of the same work.

Overpriced for what you actually get. Semrush charges premium rates for metrics and error reports you can find on other platforms at a fraction of the cost—or free. They nickel-and-dime you for basic flyover data that requires additional tools to make actionable. The mobile app is borderline useless.
I'll give them credit: the platform is reliable, and their educational content is solid. But that's not enough to justify the pricing anymore. Years ago, Semrush was one of the few games in town, and many of us built our workflows around it. At this point, switching feels like more hassle than it's worth—which I suspect is part of their retention strategy.
If you're new to SEO and evaluating tools for audits, competitor research, or keyword tracking, keep shopping. The Keyword Overview tool offers little depth for niche industries or anyone operating outside paid advertising. The Content tab is nearly unusable—I've gotten better results from free ChatGPT prompts.
Semrush is the Cadillac of SEO platforms in the worst sense: overpriced, coasting on brand recognition, and surrounded by competitors doing the same job for less. Still asking luxury prices for a product that's no longer leading the pack.

I was charged by Semrush without my authorization and could not get a refund. Very disappointing experience.

They charged my card within the 7 day "free trial" period. This is underhanded and the free trial promotion is misleading

I signed up for SEMrush’s free trial and filled out their cancellation form the very same day (which in itself was very difficult to find). I assumed that was enough - but apparently, you also have to click a confirmation link buried in a follow-up email. Because I missed that one extra step, I was charged $238.80 for a service I never used.

Customer support refused a refund because of a policy. It feels intentionally misleading - most people would assume submitting a cancellation form means you’ve cancelled.

This approach feels like a trap, not a professional customer experience.

SEMrush - if there is anything you can do to refund me, I would very much appreciate it - my account ID is 22928467.

I’m very disappointed with this service. I was charged for an automatic renewal even though I clearly stated that I couldn’t afford it. Despite explaining my situation, they refused any refund and showed no concern. I never received any prior notification that I would be charged, which is frustrating and stressful.

This is the first time I’ve experienced something like this with an app, and I cannot recommend this service. Customer support is rigid and inflexible, even in understandable situations

Unfair charging & errors
I have been using the platform for years but it is getting increasingly worse, the product does not give great insight and it's charging more and more for the same thing. Not only that, customer support is horrific and do not want to assist with anything. If you are paying a premium on a platform at least it should work. Go find a cheaper alternative!

this company design their platform in a way that you can not cancel your subscription . NEVER signup or register your card because they charge you illegaly without any possibility to cancel your plan directly from your panel. their free trail plans is TOTAL A TRAP.

Update:
Even after Semrush's reply to my review, I'm not able to cancel the subscription, I sent request to admin@semrush, Support@semrush, help@semrush , etc... , no one resolve the problem yet, you know why?? because Semrush payment process is fully a TRAP. you mentioned:" Once you submit the request, you'll confirm via email, then you will receive an email confirmation shortly after." but there is NOT such an ability to submit request for cancelation which is ILLEGAL due to USA, UK and EU payment regulations.

the software is good but be careful, they have very deceptive billing practices.

I signed up to test Semrush for a short personal project and ended up not using the platform at all. I’m not a business, and I completely forgot to cancel the trial before it renewed. When I reached out to support, they confirmed I hadn’t used the service but still refused to offer any refund or goodwill gesture.

I fully understand companies have policies, but it’s disappointing that Semrush isn’t willing to show any flexibility or customer care for an honest mistake — especially when the subscription went totally unused. For a company of this size, a simple courtesy refund would have gone a long way.

Right now, it feels like they’re more interested in enforcing rules than supporting customers. Definitely not the experience I expected, and it’s made me reconsider using them in the future.

We’ve used Semrush Pro for several years, mainly to monitor site health and keyword rankings. The core product is strong and, for us as a B2B SaaS, it’s been a useful “all-in-one” SEO dashboard.

We did, however, run into a serious issue with billing. Two add-ons – SERP Gap Analyzer and Local Pro – ended up on our account without any conscious approval from management. There was no PO or budget approval, and no clear itemised renewal invoice showing that these small monthly charges would roll into a much higher annual renewal. When the subscription renewed, our bill jumped to around $3,500, with $1,440 of that for add-ons we had never knowingly ordered or meaningfully used.

My initial experience with support was frustrating: the focus was very much on internal refund policy rather than on the lack of informed consent, and cancelling the add-ons in the interface was confusing.

After further escalation and some back-and-forth, Semrush did ultimately remove the add-ons and issue full account credits for the $1,440 in question. That resolution is appreciated, and it’s only fair to acknowledge that they did eventually do the right thing once the issue was fully understood.

My advice to other customers would be:

Lock down who can enable App Center add-ons.

Check the Subscription / Payments area regularly and look for add-on items.

Ask for clear, itemised renewal information before large annual charges are taken.

Overall, the product itself is good and we continue to get value from the core Pro features, but Semrush could make add-on visibility, cancellation and renewal communication much clearer for business customers.

They are the industry leader for a reason. I have been using them for 11+ years and highly recommend!!!!

DO NOT SIGN UP!!!! I signed up for 7 day free trial, cancelled but that didn't work but was not told... I then got billed £150 a month for 3 months before I noticed.... They then refused to pay me back me - very annoyed

I hate semrush for awful service.

Even 1-star is too much.

Cancelled well before renewal to bring our subscription into line with our year-end and resubscribe after an acquisition of a competitor.

Their system apparently eats cancellation requests unless you jump through an extra confirmation hoop that they don’t consistently send. I have now went through cancellation 3 times and only once got their mystery email to re-re-re-confirm we really did want to cancel.

When the renewal charge hit anyway, I had to chase support in circles just to be told “policy says no refund,” even though the mess came from their own broken workflow.

If you’re thinking of signing up, be warned: cancelling requires detective-level attention, and even then you will still get billed.

Billing and support experience is a joke.

Come April, they will loose 4 user accounts paying £2500 each, but they don't care.

I’ve been using SEMrush for nearly 10 years. It’s on the pricier side, but the platform itself is excellent. This would be a 5-star review, but the customer service is lacking. I have a larger account and still don’t know who my rep is, no one ever reaches out.

DO NOT sign up for the 7 day free trial. They will NOT refund you the money even in exenuating circumstances. My credit card was charged $220 USD for a month's worth of servcies, and it's not even my website. It's for a client's! Her fater had to go in for Emergency surgery so she had to fly accross the country to see him which delayed me getting the SEO services sorted for her website including signing her website up for Semrush's free audit tool. Even though I explaind the situation and why it happened with Emergency Surgeries and such they were unwilling to issue me a refund. Do yourself a favour and use another service. They are scamming soo many people!!!

Extremely disappointing experience.

My SEMrush subscription auto-renewed without any advance notice, including no reminder that the renewal date was approaching and no communication about a very substantial price increase. I only discovered a charge of around $2,500 on my credit card the following day.

I immediately contacted SEMrush to cancel and request a refund. They refused, repeatedly quoting their terms and conditions. I specifically asked them to provide evidence that they had sent any renewal notification or price-increase warning. They were unable to provide any.

This is the part I find most concerning: a company of this size should be fully transparent about renewals, especially when the cost increases significantly. Instead, the renewal went through silently, and the only response I received was a copy-and-paste of their policy.

I’ve now raised a chargeback with my credit card provider and will let them investigate further.

My advice? Check your billing settings very carefully and be aware that SEMrush does not send renewal reminders or pricing-change notifications. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend them.