For Google Ads, pick SpyFu if paid search research comes first: 10+ years of ad history (“Pro + AI” plan) and a Google Ads Advisor. Pick Semrush if you want to combine SEO and paid search in one suite, with its Advertising toolkit. Neither one tells you whether a keyword deserves your bid for your offer: that is what Should I Bid does.
Key takeaway: SpyFu and Semrush show what your competitors pay for; before you pay too, check that the keyword brings buyers for your offer, so you only pay for clicks that can convert.
We compared SpyFu and Semrush on what matters to a Google Ads advertiser. Five criteria: ad history, research into competitors’ paid keywords, keyword research and volumes, the bid decision for your offer, and SEO coverage. Behind them, one question decides where your budget goes: does this keyword bring buyers for what you sell?
We read both vendors’ official pages: features, documentation and pricing pages. The amounts we found are in the verified price table, with the date they were checked. What we could not judge: we did not open a paid account with SpyFu or Semrush for this page, and we did not measure how accurate their data is. A feature we could not verify gets no credit in the grid.
Should I Bid is our tool, and we scored it on the same criteria. It finishes third out of three, because it does no market-wide research and no SEO, and it wins only one criterion: the bid decision. One more limit we own up to: for plain search volumes, Google’s Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account, and on cost it beats us.
Prices checked on the vendors’ official pricing pages on .
| Tool | Ad history | Competitors’ paid keywords | Keyword research and volumes | Bid decision for your offer | SEO coverage | Total /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4.0 |
| SpyFu | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3.6 |
| Should I Bid (our tool) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2.6 |
Each tool gets a whole-number score from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Competitors’ paid keywords, keyword research and the bid decision count double: those are the jobs of an advertiser who plans or runs a campaign. Ad history and SEO coverage count once. Scores are based on the vendors’ official pages, read on the date shown in the price table, and a feature we could not verify gets no credit. Should I Bid is our tool, scored on the same criteria.
SpyFu is an SEO and PPC competitive intelligence tool, built first to show what your competitors do on Google Ads. You start from a competitor and see its PPC keywords and ads. Its strong point is history: SpyFu keeps competitors’ ads going back 10+ years. You can see how an advertiser’s copy changed over time, which helps when you write your own.
On Google Ads, SpyFu goes beyond observation. Its Google Ads Advisor suggests keywords based on competitors’ bidding history. It also recommends negative keywords, and its higher plans offer pre-built Google Ads campaigns. For a team that only runs paid search, it is a tool built around that job.
Its limit comes from where it starts: it looks at other advertisers. On the SEO side, we only verified rank tracking and reports. And its advice starts from competitors’ bids: it tells you what others buy, without judging what a click is worth for what you sell on today’s results page. Our SpyFu alternative for Google Ads page compares it with Should I Bid in detail.
Semrush is a broad suite that covers SEO and paid search in one tool. Its core is keyword research, with volumes and a search intent label for each keyword. It adds SEO and Ads competitor analysis, backlinks, site audits and rank tracking. A free keyword tool also gives volume, difficulty and intent.
For Google Ads, Semrush relies on an Advertising toolkit kept separate from its SEO side. That toolkit shows competitors’ paid keywords and ads. Its Ads History report, in Advertising Research, traces the history of their ads. So you get the same core research as with SpyFu, in a tool that also serves the SEO team.
Its strength for an advertiser is having everything in one place. The intent label helps you sort a list before you size it. It still describes the keyword: Semrush gives no per-keyword bid verdict for your offer. Our Semrush alternatives page reviews the other options, SEO tools included.
On paid search research, SpyFu and Semrush do the same core job. Both show your competitors’ paid keywords and ads, and both keep a history of their ads. To find out what a competitor bids on, either one will do. Our Google Ads competitor analysis tools comparison puts them neck and neck at the top.
They split on depth and on breadth. SpyFu leads with 10+ years of ad history and campaign-oriented tools. Semrush covers more ground, with volumes, intent and full SEO. If you only run Google Ads, SpyFu’s focus matters. If the same team also handles SEO, Semrush saves you a second tool.
On one point they still agree: neither one makes the call for you. They describe the market and the keyword. Neither gives a per-keyword bid verdict based on what you sell. Here is a summary of what they share and where they differ.
Seeing a competitor bid on a keyword does not prove the click will pay off for you. They may sell something else, with different margins. They may be paying for clicks that never convert. And today’s results page is not necessarily the one from last year.
An example shows the gap between what a competitor buys and what can pay off for you. As an illustration, take a Phoenix company that sells scheduling software to HVAC contractors. In SpyFu or Semrush, it sees a competitor showing up on 'hvac scheduling software' and on 'hvac technician salary'. If the first search shows vendor ads, comparison pages and pricing pages, the searcher wants a product. If the second shows salary sites and job listings, the searchers are job seekers, not business owners. Copying the competitor on both would mean paying for clicks with no buying intent.
That is the sorting Should I Bid does, keyword by keyword. The intent analysis reads the live Google SERP, organic results and ads, then an AI reads the pages that rank on it, plus an ad’s landing page when Google provides it. It weighs it all against what your business sells and computes a score out of 100: intent fit (40%), buying stage (30%), competitive signal (15%) and the commercial signal of the results page (15%), plus an alignment bonus of up to 15 points. At 70 or above, Bid. From 50 to 69, Test. Below 50, Skip.
You leave with a decision and what you need to apply it. The keywords you keep export to a Google Ads-ready CSV, in exact match. Each analysis also recommends negative keywords: the Skip keywords, in exact match, and phrase-match guardrails around the keywords you keep. If you start from scratch, Vision generates ideas from a product or a URL. The AI does the reading, which makes the work easy, and the decision stays yours. For agencies, multi-client management keeps each client separate.
Should I Bid also has its own research, narrower in scope. Its Competitors module, included in every plan and browsable with no credits and no Google Ads connection, shows the advertisers seen on your analyzed keywords, a profile of any domain, a 90-day gap with your declared competitors and the ads on searches that contain your brand. These are real ads captured on the Google pages the tool reads, each observation dated. They only cover keywords already analyzed: for a longer history, SpyFu and Semrush go further.
Should I Bid is neither an SEO suite nor market-wide research. It does no backlinks, no organic rank tracking and no technical SEO audit. It keeps no multi-year ad history and does not collect ads continuously: a keyword is refreshed when it is analyzed again. It does not estimate your competitors’ budgets or clicks either.
It is not a keyword database to browse by volume either. Vision generates ideas from what you sell, then sends them to analysis. A verdict is not a promise of results: a campaign also depends on the ad, the landing page, your bids and your targeting. If research or SEO is your main need, keep SpyFu or Semrush. The credit-based plans start with free analyses to try, no credit card and no commitment.
Most of the time, the right answer is a research tool plus Should I Bid. Research shows what others do, Should I Bid tells you what deserves your budget. Here is a workflow that holds up when you build or review a campaign. For the full method, our guide on whether to bid on a keyword walks through the checks to run before paying for a click.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| SpyFu | from $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: $39 per month billed monthly, $29 per month billed annually. “Pro + AI”: $59 the first month, then $119 per month ($89 annually). 30-day guarantee. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan with no credit card. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. Google requires entering billing information and completing account setup to access keyword ideas. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
It depends on how you work. If you only run Google Ads and your competitors’ ad history matters, SpyFu is the most direct choice: 10+ years of archives, a Google Ads Advisor and recommended negative keywords. If the same team also handles SEO, Semrush combines keyword research, volumes, backlinks, site audits and, with its Advertising toolkit, paid search research. Neither one gives a bid verdict for your offer.
Yes. The Ads History report, in Semrush’s Advertising Research, traces a competitor’s ad appearances over the last 12 months. SpyFu goes further back, 10+ years from its “Pro + AI” plan up, and that is its strongest point. If you want to see how an advertiser’s copy changed over a long period, start with SpyFu. If you want that research inside a suite that also covers SEO, Semrush is often enough.
Not as a verdict for your business. SpyFu suggests keywords based on competitors’ bidding history, with its Google Ads Advisor. Semrush labels the search intent of each keyword. Those are good leads, and they describe the market and the keyword. Should I Bid reads today’s SERP, weighs it against your offer and returns Bid, Test or Skip, with a score out of 100.
Partly. Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account: keyword ideas, volumes, CPC ranges and forecasts, with exact volumes reserved for accounts that spend. Semrush offers a limited free plan and a free keyword tool. At Should I Bid, free analyses let you try it with no credit card, and browsing the Competitors module uses no credits.
No, not for research and not for SEO. Should I Bid keeps no multi-year ad history and does no backlinks, rank tracking or technical audits. It handles a different step: deciding which keywords deserve your budget, based on today’s SERP and what you sell. You can keep your research tool and add Should I Bid to make the call, keyword by keyword.
No. Should I Bid, at shouldibid.app, is a Google Ads keyword analysis tool: it tells you, keyword by keyword, whether a bid is worth it for your offer. It has no link to ‘Should I Bid?’ (shouldibid.com), a bid evaluation service for construction contractors. The two only share a name.