SEMrush Alternatives & Competitors

Levin named Moz as a direct competitor and noted that Rand Fishkin, who ran Moz, publicly praised SEMrush's growth rate. According to Levin, Moz reached a peak of approximately $100 million in revenue but had declined to roughly $70 million in revenue by the time it was being sold. These figures are Levin's characterization of a competitor and are not Moz-confirmed data.

SEMrush evaluated but declined to bid on the Moz acquisition. Levin said the deal would have been dilutive because combining a fast-growing business with a sizable but declining one would reduce the combined growth rate, which is the primary valuation driver for a small-cap public company. He also noted that SEMrush looked at the Optimizely transaction but was not actively involved in that process.

Levin described HubSpot as a complementary company he would like to acquire but acknowledged it is far larger than SEMrush. He characterized the markets above and below SEMrush in the funnel, including web analytics and CRM, as dominated by much larger incumbents, making acquisitions of non-leaders in those categories difficult to justify.