Semrush Reviews 1,278

DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY ANY PAYMENT DETAILS.
SEMRush will start taking money without any warnings that your free trial is expiring or issuing invoices in advance and they make it very difficult to cancel your subscription. Be very wary about signing up for 'free' trials because their emails announcing the end of the free trial period don't arrive - ironic for a digital marketing company. Nor do their emails to 'verify' your subscription cancellation. Their customer service is non-existent and they will not issue refunds. Caveat emptor.

I am absolutely furious with this company. You sign up for a 1-week free trial on the 15th February, they make it very unclear and confusing how you actually cancel your subscription in your account, then you forget to cancel by 24 hours, and they refuse to refund you when you raise a support ticket.

I raised a support ticket straight away on the 23rd February (24 hours late), explained that I had not used the service and simply forgot to cancel, and asked for a basic courtesy refund. They refused and hid behind a strict no refund policy.

It feels like they rely on people forgetting so they can take the full amount. Do not sign up for this company.

We have been using SEMrush in our workplace for 4 years, paying over £250 a month, and we will now be moving to a competitor (Ahrefs).

Single worst cancellation process I've seen to date.
You want to get sued in EU? Because that's how you get sued in EU.

So on 16th of february I took free trial, to test out semrush. Than I saw there are multiple layers of semrush, so I was testing different. On Tuesday 17th I requested call from support, which I got, but since I was in a meeting I said can we speak in 30 minutes.

She said no problem. Since I never received a call, on Saturday 21st of February I started chatting with them, what subscribtion I am on. And as seen in screen shot I was on 277€, but that was something I took accidentialy and got refunded this Monday, so my initial subscription which I was comftable paying was 190€ and this I don't want a discpute or refund.

Than two other payments hits. When I reached out to support for refund they said strict policy and I gave them screen shots where it's stated that what is showing I will be charged, yet I was charged additionaly 480€.

I submited all the screen shots from conversation and support sticking to refund policy.

Worst that I have ever seen for that type of service at that level of payments.

Strongly advising not to deal with them.

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I haven't received any reach out from you.

Textbook Adobe behavior.

I was a paying Basic Semrush subscriber at $139/month. I decided to try their Advertising toolkit with a 7-day free trial. Shortly after, on February 17th, I cancelled all my subscriptions. I went through their entire cancellation process — which is already ridiculously difficult to find and complete — and their own cancellation page confirms I have no active subscription.

Yet I was just charged for the Advertising toolkit $200 today. Why? Because apparently cancelling your Semrush subscription doesn't actually cancel your add-ons. They treat each toolkit as a separate subscription, but at no point during the cancellation process do they tell you this or give you the option to cancel everything together. As a paying customer giving them $139 a month, you'd think they'd have the decency to make this clear.

When I visited the Advertising section, there's no cancel button. When I visit the /cancel page, it says I have no subscription and just points me to an "extra tools" link. There is no self-service way to cancel the add-on — you're forced to go through support for something that should be a single click.

This is textbook dark pattern design. They make the cancellation flow feel complete so you walk away thinking you're done, while quietly continuing to bill you for add-ons with no obvious way to stop them.

Judging by the reviews here, I'm far from the only person this has happened to. Absolutely unacceptable.

They use illegal business practices to lock you in to your subscription. If you sign up with them, you will be left paying $200+ a month against your will. STAY AWAY, BUNCH OF THIEVES SCAMMERS

free trial experience. after confirmation that subscription is canelled, they charge me again after a year. considering legal action.

I don't even know where to begin to describe how disappointing and frustrating my experience with Semrush was. I was using the 7-day trial version, thinking it would be a useful tool for my work, and I was banned without warning!

Yes, you read that right. Banned! No explanation, no prior notice, simply the account deactivated. I was using the tool normally, following the instructions, and suddenly, poof, I can't access it anymore.

Apparently, they have a habit of disabling accounts for violating Terms of Service, but the most revolting thing is the lack of communication. How do you say we violated the terms if they didn't even have the decency to tell us what?

Semrush is proof that a powerful tool can be ruined by terrible customer service and arbitrary policies. Don't waste time and money with this company. Run away like the devil runs away from the cross!

Rating: 0/5 (and I would give less if I could)

This was genuinely one of the worst experiences I’ve had with a SaaS company.

I signed up for a 7-day free trial to test the platform, and within just 3 days I realized it wasn’t for me. The problem wasn’t just the tool; it was the way the company handles cancellations and refunds. The cancellation process is not straightforward, and the experience felt controlling and intentionally friction-heavy, like it’s designed to wear you down, so you give up.

Finding where to cancel wasn’t intuitive, and the account area is hard to navigate. I shouldn’t have to hunt through menus or hoops to stop recurring billing. Even Semrush’s own cancellation instructions describe a process that pushes you into a cancellation request/form flow rather than a simple “cancel” button, and they warn that if you don’t do it exactly right (logged in, answering all questions, etc.), your cancellation may be denied. That is ridiculous for something as basic as ending a subscription.

Then the billing/refund part got worse: I canceled, yet my card was still charged, and now I’m dealing with the headache of getting my money back. On a free trial, that should be the easiest customer support situation on earth: “You canceled and barely used it—refund issued.” Instead, it turned into policy games and obstacles.

And here’s the part that really sealed it for me: after this happened, I looked around and saw many other customers reporting the same kind of issue—trial converting to a charge, refunds being refused, and frustration over how cancellation and “refund windows” are handled.

Bottom line: if you’re considering Semrush, understand what you’re signing up for. The product may be popular, but the customer experience around cancellation/refunds feels hostile, and once they’ve charged you, it feels like you’re stuck fighting policy instead of getting help.

I would not recommend this company based on how they treat trial users and how difficult they make it to cleanly exit.

I had a very disappointing experience.

Money was withdrawn from my account without my explicit authorization, and I requested a refund within less than 24 hours of the charge. Despite this, my refund request was denied.

Customer support has been extremely frustrating. I was passed from one representative to another without receiving a clear or fair resolution. No one took real responsibility for the issue.

I did not use the program at all, yet they refused to consider this in their decision. The handling of the situation felt impersonal and rigid, with no real willingness to review the case properly.

Very disappointing customer care and billing practices. A charge was processed without my clear consent. I contacted support immediately (within 24 hours) requesting a refund, but the request was refused.

Customer service repeatedly redirected me between different agents without providing a concrete solution. It felt like the goal was simply to close the case rather than fairly address the issue.

I never used the service, yet this was completely disregarded. Extremely poor handling of billing disputes.

Scam website, absolutely to be avoided.
I signed up for the trial period and, like almost everyone here, I was charged for a so-called widget that I supposedly purchased (I didn’t purchase any widget). They’re not even able to tell me which widget I allegedly “subscribed” to, yet they charged me €200 just 24 hours after the start of the trial period. Stay away :)

7-Day Trial Cutoff:
Signed up February 4 for a 7-day free trial. On February 11 (Day 7), the account automatically converted to a paid Pro plan and I was charged USD 222.88.

Zero Flexibility:
Refund was denied despite immediate same-day cancellation. Once the charge posts, there appears to be no discretion — even if you cancel within minutes on the final day of the advertised trial.

Lack of Support:
After requesting escalation, the (human) representative reiterated policy and ended the chat conversation.

Professional Perspective:
I work in SEO and was genuinely reconsidering this tool to simplify workflows. Instead, the experience created unnecessary stress and billing issues. If you are considering Semrush, know that there are alternatives — including Google Search Console and other SEO platforms — that provide solid functionality without this level of subscription friction.

Expensive, no easy way to cancel, no button.

Customer support was quick to respond and effective

I just got hit with a $725.38 charge I never intentionally agreed to. Here's what happened:
SEMrush emails me daily about "issues" with my website — most of which aren't actual problems. Today, one of those emails led me through what felt like a simple onboarding flow for SEMrush Local: adding logos, photos, selecting business categories, managing profiles across platforms like Google.
Standard setup stuff. Click, click, click.
Buried in that flow — in what I can only describe as size-10 fine print, positioned exactly where you'd click to continue through routine prompts — was an agreement to be charged $725.38. No clear pricing page. No "are you sure?" confirmation. Just a charge buried beneath momentum they intentionally built.
I'm now demanding a full refund.
This is predatory UX design. They lead you through low-stakes actions to build clicking momentum, then slip an expensive commitment into the same pattern. If I — someone who works in marketing and deals with digital tools daily — missed it, plenty of others will too.
If you use SEMrush, slow down and read every single line before you click. Their pricing is already steep for what they deliver. This takes it to another level.

Works well and nice support. Will try the product a bit more later on

Ridiculously expensive. Tried the trial middle tier and still half of the functionality had further paywalls. Can't be bothered dealing with such a money grabbing model. Cancelled immediately and will look at ahrefs.

Activated 7-day trial.
Used it for 2h and forgot to cancel.

Refund policy says money back if requested in 7 days after payment.
Asked for the refund, they say it's not for monthly subscriptions.
Used 2h worth of a one month's resources and they still can't refund me.

Never going to use this again.
Never goint to recommend it to anyone.

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.