SISTRIX vs Semrush
Sabari Rohith
Last updated on
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The short answer
SISTRIX and Semrush are both SEO platforms built around tracking organic search visibility, but they come from very different starting points. SISTRIX was founded in 2004 in Bonn, Germany, and built its reputation on the proprietary Visibility Index, a composite score that’s become a de facto benchmark in DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and wider European SEO circles. Semrush was founded in 2008 in Moscow, later moved its HQ to Boston, and grew into a much broader all-in-one marketing suite covering SEO, PPC, content, social, and (as of its 2026 tiers) AI-visibility monitoring, before being acquired outright by Adobe in April 2026 for roughly $1.9B. SISTRIX starts at EUR119/mo and stays the narrower tool: it now ships its own AI-visibility suite and an influencer/creator database, but still has no dedicated PPC or ad-intelligence module. Semrush starts at roughly $117/mo (annual) and covers far more ground, but it also carries fresh ownership-transition risk that SISTRIX, as an independently owned company, does not. Both vendors’ public facts include real gaps and figures that vary by source, flagged plainly below rather than smoothed over.
If you want a single trusted visibility benchmark rather than a sprawling suite, prioritize mobile-SERP keyword depth, work mainly in European or DACH markets, and would rather stay with an independently owned vendor than one mid-acquisition, SISTRIX’s narrower product at EUR119/mo to EUR799/mo is buying focus, not fewer features you’d actually use.
If you need PPC/ad competitive research, content and AI-writing tools, and social media management alongside core SEO, want published USD pricing with monthly-billing flexibility, and value a far larger third-party review base, Semrush’s $117.33/mo entry tier up to $455.67/mo Advanced is the broader platform, now backed by Adobe’s resources post-acquisition.
At a glance
| SISTRIX | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2004, Bonn, Germany (Johannes Beus) | 2008, Moscow (Oleg Shchegolev, Dmitri Melnikov); HQ now Boston, MA |
| Category | SEO/AI-visibility & competitor-tracking specialist | All-in-one SEO, PPC, content, social, and AI-visibility suite |
| Starting price | EUR119/mo (Start) | $117.33/mo annual (SEO tier) |
| Ownership | Independently owned | Acquired by Adobe, April 2026 (~$1.9B) |
| Public rating | G2 4.4/5 (20 reviews); Capterra 4.5/5 (14 reviews) | G2 4.5/5 (3,434 reviews); Capterra 4.6/5 (2,325 reviews) |
| Best for | Focused SEO/visibility tracking, European/DACH strength | Broad marketing teams needing SEO plus PPC, content, and AI monitoring |
Vendor profile
SISTRIX
SISTRIX was founded in 2004 by Johannes Beus, who remains Founder and CEO, and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany. The company began as an SEO consulting shop before launching its flagship “SISTRIX Toolbox” product in 2008; no sistrix.com “About” page states an explicit founding date, so 2004 is corroborated by two secondary business databases (Tracxn and LeadIQ) rather than a primary source. Team size is reported anywhere from roughly 42 to 55-58 employees depending on the tracker and date, with no single authoritative figure. SISTRIX’s product is anchored by its proprietary Visibility Index, a composite metric tracking a domain’s organic-search visibility over time that’s widely referenced across European SEO. The vendor’s own (2022-dated) database comparison claims SISTRIX has more organic keywords than Ahrefs in every market analyzed and a mobile keyword database “10 to 50 times” larger than Semrush’s, based on a 30-domain comparison across the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France; that claim is self-published, not independently audited, and dated 2022, so it’s cited here with that caveat. SISTRIX’s product surface is narrower than Semrush’s, but less narrow than it was: alongside Visibility, Competitors, and Onpage it now ships an AI Visibility suite (AI Research, Prompt Monitoring, Prompt Database, an AI Visibility Index, and an AI Check brand-perception report released 30 July 2026) that tracks brand mentions across Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, plus an Amazon marketplace-SEO module and a Content Creator database of roughly 94 million Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok creator profiles. AI Visibility is currently included at no extra cost on every plan during beta, metered by prompts per month (100 on Start, 300 Plus, 600 Professional, 1,500 Premium). What SISTRIX still does not offer is a dedicated PPC/ad-intelligence module or a social-media publishing and management suite. Customer-story clients include ELP SA/cambiavalute.ch (a reported 300% visibility increase), Nucleus, Goethe University, and DWF; a logo wall on the same page also shows Amazon, Bosch, DHL, Decathlon, and eBay, but those logos aren’t attached to a specific named case study, so they’re listed here as customers rather than verified case studies.
- Vendor
- SISTRIX (sistrix.com)
- Founded
- 2004, Bonn, Germany (Johannes Beus, Founder & CEO); flagship Toolbox launched 2008
- HQ
- Bonn, Germany
- Ownership
- Independently owned; no funding rounds or acquisition on record
- Team size
- Reported ~42 to ~58 employees depending on source and date; Tracxn lists 57 as of 31 May 2026
- Public rating
- G2 4.4/5 (20 reviews); Capterra 4.5/5 (14 reviews); TrustRadius 10/10 (7 reviews, small sample)
Semrush
Semrush was founded in 2008 in Moscow by Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitri Melnikov and is now headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, after its growth and 2021 IPO on the NYSE under the ticker SEMR. Team size is reported anywhere from roughly 1,600 (a 2024 estimate) to roughly 2,368 (a mid-2026 estimate), with meaningful disagreement between sources. The most consequential recent fact for buyers: Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush Holdings on April 28, 2026, for approximately $1.9B (about $12/share, all-cash), and Semrush is no longer an independently traded public company. Its product is being folded into Adobe’s “CX Enterprise” brand-visibility stack, a material ownership and roadmap change corroborated by both Adobe’s own newsroom and Semrush’s customer-facing FAQ on the deal, though that FAQ tells existing customers there will be “no immediate changes to your current services, agreements, or points of contact.” Product-wise, Semrush is a broad all-in-one marketing suite: SEO, PPC/ad competitive research, content marketing, social media, local SEO, site auditing, and, newly emphasized in its 2026 tiers, AI-visibility and AI-search monitoring for brand mentions across Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, included on every paid tier. Semrush’s homepage states a keyword database of 28B keywords across 142 geo databases, a vendor-stated figure that is not independently audited. Semrush’s own homepage logo wall names Amazon, Samsung, FedEx, Netflix, Shopify, Booking.com, Airbnb, P&G, Decathlon, TikTok, General Electric, and Dropbox as customers; as with SISTRIX’s logo wall, those logos are not attached to individual named case studies, so they are listed here as customers rather than verified case studies. The one named, vendor-published proof point on that page is a testimonial from James Roth, CRO at ZoomInfo, citing a 373% increase in share of voice.
- Vendor
- Semrush (semrush.com)
- Founded
- 2008, Moscow, Russia (Oleg Shchegolev, Dmitri Melnikov)
- HQ
- Boston, MA, USA
- Ownership
- Acquired by Adobe, April 28, 2026, for approximately $1.9B (~$12/share, all-cash); formerly public on NYSE (SEMR) since a 2021 IPO
- Team size
- Reported ~1,600 (2024 estimate) to ~2,368 (mid-2026 estimate), sources disagree
- Public rating
- G2 4.5/5 (3,434 reviews); Capterra 4.6/5 (2,325 reviews); TrustRadius 8.6/10 (760 reviews)
Pricing: what you'll actually pay
Both vendors publish self-serve pricing pages, verified live as of August 2026. SISTRIX bills exclusively in EUR with no published USD equivalent, while Semrush publishes native USD pricing with both monthly and annual options. Enterprise tiers on both sides are demo-gated and not itemized.
| SISTRIX | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | EUR119/mo (Start), 3 projects, 30,000 URLs crawled/mo | $117.33/mo annual (SEO tier), 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily |
| Mid tier | EUR239/mo (Plus, marked “popular”), 15 projects, 5-year history, 3 seats | $165.17-$248.17/mo (Starter/Pro+), 5-15 websites, 50-100 AI prompts/day |
| Top self-serve tier | EUR799/mo (Premium), 100 projects, unlimited export credits, VIP support | $455.67/mo (Advanced), 40 websites, 5,000 keywords, share-of-voice, API access |
| Enterprise pricing | Enterprise option referenced for custom needs but not itemized; Premium is the top self-serve plan | Custom / demo-gated; unlimited projects, multi-brand AI tracking, SSO, dedicated support |
| Upper mid tier | EUR419/mo (Professional), 40 projects, full 13-year history, full API access | $248.17/mo (Pro+), 15 websites, 1,500 keywords, historical data, content optimization |
| Billing currency | EUR only; no published USD tier | USD; monthly or discounted annual billing |
| Free trial | ✓ (“Test for free” on Start/Plus tiers) | Freemium/limited free tools; paid tiers require signup |
Capability comparison
Both tools track organic search visibility and competitor keywords as their core job. The gaps show up in product breadth, whether the vendor ships a single trusted composite metric or a wider toolkit, and now, ownership stability. SISTRIX wins on its Visibility Index, mobile-dataset depth (per its own dated claim), AI-prompt monitoring bundled free on every tier, and independent ownership; Semrush wins on product breadth, global keyword scale, and published USD pricing.
| Service | SISTRIX | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Proprietary composite visibility metric | ✓ (Visibility Index, DACH/European benchmark) | ✕ (no single equivalent metric; share-of-voice is closest analog) |
| Global keyword database scale | Partial (strong in Europe/DACH, narrower globally) | ✓ (28B keywords across 142 geo databases, vendor-stated) |
| Mobile keyword dataset depth | ✓ (claims a materially larger mobile dataset than Semrush; vendor claim, dated 2022) | Partial (coverage disputed by SISTRIX’s own dated comparison) |
| Dedicated PPC / ad-intelligence module | ✕ (not offered) | ✓ (dedicated advertising/PPC competitive research) |
| AI content writing/optimization suite | Partial (AI-assisted content module; no full long-form writer) | ✓ (AI-assisted content tools bundled from mid-tier plans) |
| AI visibility / AI search monitoring | ✓ (AI Visibility suite: AI Research, Prompt Monitoring, AI Check; free on all tiers in beta, 100-1,500 prompts/mo) | ✓ (AI visibility tracking on every paid tier, 50-200 AI prompts/day) |
| AI prompt volume included | Partial (100 to 1,500 prompts/mo by tier, free during beta) | ✓ (50 to 200 prompts/day from Starter up, materially higher volume) |
| Social media toolset | Partial (Content Creator: ~94M Instagram/YouTube/TikTok creator profiles; no publishing/management) | ✓ (full social publishing and management in the suite) |
| Marketplace (Amazon) SEO module | ✓ (dedicated Amazon keyword and content research) | ✕ (no equivalent Amazon marketplace module) |
| Full API access | ✓ (Professional tier and above) | ✓ (Advanced tier; API/MCP access from Starter up) |
| Published USD pricing | ✕ (EUR-only, no published USD tier) | ✓ (native USD pricing, monthly or annual billing) |
| Independent ownership (no acquisition risk) | ✓ (independently owned) | ✕ (acquired by Adobe, April 2026) |
Decision matrix - who fits which side
| Criterion | SISTRIX | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Need a single trusted visibility benchmark metric | ✓ | ✕ |
| Want the broadest all-in-one marketing suite (SEO + PPC + content + social) | ✕ | ✓ |
| Team focused mainly on European/DACH markets | ✓ | ~ |
| Need global keyword coverage across 142 geo databases | ~ | ✓ |
| Want dedicated PPC/ad competitive research | ✕ | ✓ |
| Need AI-search/AI-visibility monitoring built in | ✓ | ✓ |
| Need high-volume AI prompt monitoring (hundreds per day) | ✕ | ✓ |
| Want AI-visibility tracking bundled free with the base plan | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need a dedicated Amazon marketplace SEO module | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need social publishing and management, not just creator discovery | ✕ | ✓ |
| Prefer an independently owned vendor with no acquisition risk | ✓ | ✕ |
| Want the largest third-party review base | ✕ | ✓ |
| Need published USD pricing with monthly-billing flexibility | ✕ | ✓ |
| Prioritize mobile-SERP keyword depth | ✓ | ~ |
| Want the simplest tool with the lowest learning curve | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need integration with a broader creative/marketing stack (Adobe) | ✕ | ✓ |
Check = clear edge. Tilde = capable but not the stronger pick. Cross = outside the model.
Strengths & tradeoffs
Both tools do the core job of organic-search visibility tracking competently. The real differences are product breadth, review-base scale, and now, ownership stability, and each side wins rows the other does not.
| Axis | SISTRIX | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Core visibility metric | Proprietary Visibility Index, a de facto DACH/European benchmark | No direct equivalent; share-of-voice is the closest analog |
| Product breadth | Narrower: SEO visibility, competitors, onpage, AI visibility, Amazon, creator discovery; no PPC module | Broad: SEO, PPC, content, social publishing, AI-visibility monitoring |
| AI-search monitoring | Full AI Visibility suite, free on all tiers in beta, 100 to 1,500 prompts/mo | AI visibility on every paid tier, 50 to 200 prompts/day (far higher volume) |
| Mobile keyword depth | Claims a materially larger mobile dataset (vendor claim, dated 2022) | Disputed by SISTRIX’s own dated comparison |
| Geographic strength | Concentrated in Europe/DACH | Global reach; 28B keywords across 142 geo databases (vendor-stated) |
| Pricing/currency | EUR-only, no published USD tier; reviewers call out cost as a barrier | Native USD pricing, monthly or annual; more entry-price options |
| Ownership stability | Independently owned since 2004 | Acquired by Adobe, April 2026 (~$1.9B); roadmap folded into Adobe’s CX Enterprise stack |
| Review-base size | Small: 20 (G2), 14 (Capterra), 7 (TrustRadius) | Large: 3,434 (G2), 2,325 (Capterra), 760 (TrustRadius) |
| Learning curve | Simpler, focused surface for visibility tracking only | Steeper; TrustRadius reviewers rate “ease of use” as its lowest-scoring dimension (7.9/10 vs 8.6/10 overall) |
| Reported reliability issues | Reviewers note pricing feels high relative to value | Reviewers flag historical-data stability and support/refund-policy complaints |
| Named customers | Case studies: cambiavalute.ch (reported 300% visibility increase), Nucleus, Goethe University, DWF; logo wall adds Amazon, Bosch, DHL, Decathlon, eBay | Homepage logo wall: Amazon, Samsung, FedEx, Netflix, Shopify, Booking.com, Airbnb, P&G, Decathlon, TikTok, GE, Dropbox; named testimonial from ZoomInfo’s CRO (reported 373% share-of-voice increase) |
Ratings & track record
| Metric | SISTRIX | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating (as reported) | 4.4/5, 20 reviews | 4.5/5, 3,434 reviews |
| Capterra rating | 4.5/5, 14 reviews | 4.6/5, 2,325 reviews |
| TrustRadius rating | 10/10, 7 reviews (small sample) | 8.6/10, 760 reviews |
| Founded | 2004, Bonn, Germany | 2008, Moscow (HQ now Boston, MA) |
| Ownership | Independently owned | Acquired by Adobe, April 2026 (~$1.9B) |
| Team size (reported) | ~42 to ~58 (Tracxn lists 57 as of May 2026) | ~1,600 (2024) to ~2,368 (mid-2026), sources disagree |
| Notable signal | Proprietary Visibility Index cited widely across European SEO | Now integrating into Adobe’s CX Enterprise brand-visibility stack |
Both vendors’ Capterra pages were fetched live on 7 August 2026 and confirmed at 4.5/5 across 14 reviews for SISTRIX and 4.6/5 across 2,325 for Semrush. The G2 and TrustRadius review pages returned HTTP 403 to automated fetches, so those figures come from search-indexed snapshots rather than a first-hand confirmed page, and should be re-checked live before you rely on them. On review volume Semrush is overwhelmingly ahead across every platform, which tracks with its much larger, longer-established user base. SISTRIX’s scores are respectable but rest on samples in the single or low double digits, so a perfect TrustRadius score of 10/10 on 7 reviews carries far less statistical weight than Semrush’s 8.6/10 on 760. Reviewers on both sides flag real friction: SISTRIX users call out pricing as high relative to value, while Semrush users cite a steep learning curve and historical-data-stability complaints. Semrush’s April 2026 acquisition by Adobe is the single biggest fact to weigh going forward, since it changes the vendor’s roadmap and pricing risk profile in a way SISTRIX, as an independently owned company, doesn’t share.
Both tools’ data is sourced from publicly available information, verified against vendor pricing pages, vendor product and changelog pages, and third-party review platforms on 7 August 2026. Every pricing figure above was confirmed by a live fetch of sistrix.com/pricing and semrush.com/prices on that date. Direct G2 and TrustRadius review-page fetches returned HTTP 403 for both vendors; those ratings come from search-indexed snapshots and should be re-checked live before relying on them, while both Capterra figures were confirmed live. Team size figures are flagged where sources vary rather than resolved to a single number. SISTRIX’s mobile-keyword-dataset claim is vendor-published and dated 2022; it has not been independently re-verified. Keyword-database and geo-database counts for both vendors are vendor-stated and not independently audited. SISTRIX’s AI Visibility suite is in beta and bundled free at time of writing; that may change. This comparison is independent; we take no affiliate or referral fees from either vendor.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SISTRIX and Semrush?
Is SISTRIX better than Semrush?
Which is cheaper, SISTRIX or Semrush?
Does either tool include PPC or AI-search monitoring?
Does Semrush's Adobe acquisition affect buyers?
Which tool has the better third-party rating?
Sources and references
- SISTRIX homepage (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX pricing (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX customer stories (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX keyword database comparison (dated 2022) (accessed August 2026)
- G2: SISTRIX reviews (accessed August 2026)
- Capterra: SISTRIX reviews (accessed August 2026)
- TrustRadius: SISTRIX reviews (accessed August 2026)
- Tracxn: SISTRIX company profile (accessed August 2026)
- LeadIQ: SISTRIX employee directory (accessed August 2026)
- The Org: Johannes Beus (SISTRIX Founder & CEO) (accessed August 2026)
- Semrush homepage (accessed August 2026)
- Semrush pricing (accessed August 2026)
- Wikipedia: Semrush (accessed August 2026)
- G2: Semrush reviews (accessed August 2026)
- Capterra: Semrush reviews (accessed August 2026)
- TrustRadius: Semrush reviews (accessed August 2026)
- Revelio Labs: Semrush employee estimates (accessed August 2026)
- Adobe Newsroom: Adobe completes Semrush acquisition (April 2026) (accessed August 2026)
- Semrush: customer FAQ on the Adobe acquisition (accessed August 2026)
- AEOEngine: third-party SISTRIX vs Semrush comparison (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX AI Visibility module (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX changelog: AI Check brand perception (July 2026) (accessed August 2026)
- SISTRIX Content Creator (influencer database) (accessed August 2026)
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