Start with the seven-day free trial: the pricing FAQ confirms you can cancel, upgrade or downgrade at any time, so pressure-test the 500-keyword and 5-project limits before money leaves your account. Pay annually if you are staying — the SEO plan drops from $139 to $117.33 a month (about $260 back per year), Starter from $199 to $165.17 (roughly $406 saved), Pro+ from $299 to $248.17 (about $610), and Advanced from $549 to $455.67 (over $1,100 a year, the full 17% haircut). Buy seats, not duplicate plans: an additional user starts at $45 a month, so two people on one SEO plan cost about $162 monthly versus $278 for two separate subscriptions — a saving of over $1,300 a year. Match the tier to project counts rather than the marketing label: SEO and Starter both cap at 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords, so only step up to Pro+ when you genuinely need 15 projects, historical data or content optimisation, and to Advanced only for API access, share of voice or 40 projects. Skip the reporting add-ons until a client actually asks — Base Reports are $10 a month and white-label Pro Reports $20, which agencies recoup and solo operators rarely do; the same logic applies to the $90 a month Lead Generation listing, which only pays for itself if you sell services. Semrush rarely discounts list prices beyond the annual rate, but there is a custom-plan route on the Advanced tier and an Enterprise demo path — if you need more than 40 projects or full LLM coverage (Grok and Claude included), asking sales for custom terms beats stacking add-ons. Finally, keep the free account alive during any pause: 10 reports a day and one demo project cost nothing while you decide whether to resubscribe.