Dorqa vs Semrush
Semrush is a bigger, deeper product than Dorqa on almost every axis. But the plan they sell to freelancers does not include AI visibility at all, and that is the one thing this page is really about.
Monthly prices, read from semrush.com on 8 August 2026. Not the annual-billed figures.
You want AI visibility without moving up to a $199 plan, and you want trends, audience and video in the same subscription.
You need scale, AI sentiment and share of voice, or more than one seat.
Semrush's freelancer plan has AI visibility switched off
Their $139 plan is described on their own site as being for freelancers and small businesses. Four AI capabilities are listed on that plan card with a red cross against them. To get any of it you move to Starter at $199 a month.
Copied from Semrush's own plan card, read 8 August 2026.
Where each one actually wins
Compared against Starter, the cheapest Semrush plan that includes AI visibility, because comparing against a plan with it switched off would prove nothing.
Where AI visibility starts
Semrush shows lower prices by default because the page defaults to annual billing. These are the monthly figures, so they compare like for like with Dorqa.
Descriptions are the vendor's own, read from their pricing page.
Where Dorqa is the better choice
Same standard as the section below. These are claims about what Dorqa does that this tool does not, not claims about being better overall.
AI visibility on the entry plan
Semrush's $139 plan, the one they describe as for freelancers, lists four AI features as excluded. Dorqa includes answer engine tracking at $79. That is the clearest difference between the two products at the price a freelancer actually pays.
Six layers rather than SEO plus add-ons
Trends, audience, local and video are all in the one subscription. On Semrush several of those are separate products or higher tiers.
Live queries, not a prompt allowance
Starter gives 50 tracked prompts a day, which is generous. It is still an allowance. Dorqa queries directly and prints when each result was collected.
Built for one person managing clients
Semrush is priced and shaped for teams, with seats from $45. If you are the whole agency, you are paying for a structure you do not use.
Where Semrush is the better tool
This is the longer list, and on a straight feature count Semrush wins the comparison. If any of the following is central to your work, buy Semrush.
Once you are on a plan with AI, their allowance is large
Starter tracks 50 prompts daily and allows 300 AI visibility reports a day, rising to 100 prompts on Pro+ and 200 on Advanced. That is a serious allowance and considerably more generous than most of the AEO market.
AI sentiment and share of voice, which Dorqa does not have
AI brand sentiment analysis, AI share of voice and AI audience insights all ship from Starter. Dorqa reports who gets cited; it does not currently score how favourably a brand is described.
Scale, on every axis
100,000 pages crawled a month on the entry plan, 20,000 per site, JavaScript rendering from Pro+, 5,000 tracked keywords on Advanced, historical data, keyword cannibalisation, multi-location and multi-device tracking.
MCP access on every paid tier, and a team model
Semrush ships MCP access even on the $139 plan, plus additional seats from $45. Dorqa has no MCP server and no team seats. If more than one person needs the tool, that difference decides it on its own.
Every one of these is a separate screen in the app, on one project. 28 surfaces, named as they appear in the app.
Straight answers
Not on the plan they sell to freelancers. The $139 SEO plan lists four AI features as explicitly excluded: tracking performance in AI search, monitoring AI sentiment, AI visibility reports for any domain, and monitoring custom prompts. AI Visibility begins on Starter at $199 a month.
It depends what you want. If you want SEO tooling only, the $139 SEO plan is the comparison. If you want AI visibility at all, the comparison is Starter at $199, because that is the cheapest Semrush plan that includes it.
Monthly. Semrush shows $117.33, $165.17, $248.17 and $455.67 billed annually by default, against $139, $199, $299 and $549 month to month. This page uses the monthly column so it is compared like for like with Dorqa's monthly price.
Scale on every axis, AI sentiment and share of voice which Dorqa does not have at all, MCP access on every paid tier, and a proper team model with additional seats. If you need any of those, buy Semrush.
Read directly from semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search on 8 August 2026. Verify on their page before deciding on it.
Try it on a client you already have.
Free tier, no card. If you need Semrush's scale, keep Semrush.