WhatWorkedSemrush vs WhatWorked Online: Which Fits Founders and Small Teams? (2026)
TL;DR: Semrush is a marketing department in a browser — 50+ tools spanning SEO, PPC, social, and content, from ~$139/month per seat. WhatWorked Online is deliberately narrower: 20 live lookups, AI-visibility checks, and a sourced case-study library, from $19. Choose by how much platform you'll actually use.
Where Semrush is genuinely better
- Breadth. PPC research, social scheduling, content optimization workflows, position tracking — if your team uses even half of it, the seat pays for itself.
- Continuous tracking. Scheduled rank tracking, site audits, and alerting; WhatWorked is on-demand.
- Enterprise workflows. Multi-seat teams, integrations, and reporting suites.
Where WhatWorked Online wins
- The price-to-usage ratio. Most founders use a $139 suite for keyword lookups, a competitor peek, and a monthly report — $19–59 covers exactly that here. The pricing has no seat math.
- AI visibility as a first-class citizen. Live ChatGPT/Perplexity brand checks (free to try), AI Overview citations, and LLM mention tracking. In our hotel-brand study, 56% of major brands were invisible in AI answers — a problem Semrush's classic reports don't surface.
- Proof next to data. Every metric is more useful with a play attached — 280+ sourced case studies are searchable beside the tools.
- Vertical market scans. Hotels, local packs, shopping, app stores — client-ready tables for niches, not just domains.
The comparison table
| Semrush | WhatWorked Online | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | ~$139/mo/seat | $19/mo (free tier available) |
| Model | Subscription + seats | Credits; cached lookups free |
| Rank tracking | Yes, scheduled | On-demand snapshots |
| AI visibility (ChatGPT/Perplexity) | Limited | Core feature, incl. free checker |
| Case-study library | No | 280+ sourced entries |
| Local/hotel/app market scans | Partial | Core feature |
| Best for | Marketing teams using the full platform | Founders, consultants, small agencies |
The honest bottom line
If your team genuinely works across PPC, social, and content ops daily, Semrush earns its price. If you're a founder or a small shop paying $139 to run $19 worth of lookups — that's the gap we built for.
Frequently asked questions
Does WhatWorked have rank tracking?
Not scheduled tracking — lookups are on-demand and cached. Many users snapshot rankings monthly, which credits make cheap; continuous daily tracking is a reason to keep a classic suite.
Can I use both?
Plenty do: one shared classic-suite seat for tracking, WhatWorked for daily lookups, AI checks, and client-facing market scans.
Run it yourself — free
20 live SEO tools, a free AI-visibility checker, and 280+ sourced case studies. Free tier, no card.