ChatSEO vs SemChat: two conversational assistants, two ways to pay

Two chat assistants with the same promise

Disclosure first. I’m an affiliate of SemChat, not of ChatSEO, which has no affiliate link with us. We tested SemChat on a real site on October 29, 2026. ChatSEO was not tested in an account: everything here comes from its official pages, read the same day.

What is ChatSEO, and who makes it?

ChatSEO is an SEO assistant you talk to. You connect Google Search Console, ask a question, and get a list of actions ranked by impact. It’s published by GROW IT, a small French company founded in 2025, and its site runs in English and French. It targets solo founders and small teams who want Google traffic without becoming SEO experts.

Keep an eye on that “no credit card” line under the input field. The pricing page says something else, as you’ll see below.

What is SemChat, and why does Haloscan’s publisher matter?

SemChat does the same job: you type a sentence, it picks the right skill on its own and returns an action plan. It’s published by ARCHI301, in Nice, the company behind Haloscan, a French keyword database. That matters for one reason. Its publisher told us by email (October 29, 2026) that French data comes from Haloscan, while other countries use a mix of providers it doesn’t name. If your site targets the United States, you know less about where SemChat’s numbers come from.

ChatSEO vs SemChat: the fact table, as of October 29, 2026

Each cell comes from the tool’s dated fact sheet. “Not mentioned” means I didn’t read it on any official page, not that the feature doesn’t exist.

Where the data comes from: named sources, or Haloscan plus unnamed providers

ChatSEO tells you where its numbers come from. Volumes, difficulty, CPC, SERPs and backlinks come from DataForSEO. A site’s authority is Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. Answers are written by Claude, Anthropic’s model (help center and subprocessor page, October 29, 2026).

SemChat’s site names neither its data source nor its AI model. Haloscan covers France; elsewhere, the providers are unnamed.

Connectors and publishing in ChatSEO and SemChat

Here ChatSEO has a real lead. It publishes posts and pages to WordPress, as drafts or live, with author, categories and tags, and an optional plugin fills in the Yoast, Rank Math or AIOSEO fields (help center, October 29, 2026). Its pages don’t agree on other CMSs: the home page lists “WordPress, Shopify or Webflow”, while the help center says only WordPress can be connected today.

SemChat lists more connectors: Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Bing Webmaster Tools, Yandex Metrica, WordPress, Webflow, Slack and Notion, plus any MCP server. We only tested Search Console.

MCP and API: an official server at ChatSEO, an undocumented API at SemChat

ChatSEO’s official MCP server lives at api.chatseo.app/mcp. It has 38 tools and connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code without a key to copy. You need the Pro plan. Its REST API is described in OpenAPI, also from Pro.

SemChat has an API v1 with no public documentation, and no official MCP server of its own. It can, though, connect to other MCP servers.

Rank tracking and AI visibility: what each official site says

ChatSEO’s help center is clear: it doesn’t monitor answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Claude, and does no prompt tracking. Its pages disagree about rank tracking: one FAQ says it tracks positions around the clock, another page says it offers no automated daily rank tracking. For SemChat, rank tracking and AI visibility are unknown so far.

ChatSEO and SemChat for non-technical owners: ease of use

Both speak plain language. Both start from your Search Console. ChatSEO counts messages, which is easy to plan. SemChat shows a percentage, which is harder to predict but lets a short question cost little.

ChatSEO vs SemChat pricing

ChatSEO’s pricing file says: “Prices excl. VAT, in EUR (same amounts in USD).” Its Starter costs €29 a month, or €23.20 a month billed yearly, for 100 credits, and “1 credit = 1 message sent”. The plan list is on the ChatSEO pricing page.

SemChat’s pricing page reads: “Every feature, in every plan. Just pick your monthly usage.” Free costs €0, then Starter is €20 a month, Pro 5x €100 and Pro 20x €200. Our first invoice was €24 including VAT, so those are pre-tax prices too. Missing data: SemChat’s prices in US dollars (planned source: the pricing page read from the United States). Details on the SemChat pricing page.

A trial with a card, or a Free plan with no card

ChatSEO has no free plan, and its help center says so plainly. The way in is a 7-day trial with 30 credits. Your card is saved with Stripe, you get a reminder at least 3 days before the first charge, and you can cancel before then at no cost (pricing page and terms of sale, section 4.4).

SemChat says: “Try semchat with no credit card.” Be clear-eyed about what that buys you. On October 29, 2026, one full SEO audit of plugkit-avis.com used 100% of the Free plan’s monthly quota. The Free plan shows you how the tool answers; it won’t follow a site all month.

Credits per message, or a monthly quota

Ask a question, follow up, ask for a detail: that’s three ChatSEO credits. At SemChat, a short question takes a sliver of the quota and a full audit takes all of the Free plan’s month.

Refund windows and the SemChat promo code

ChatSEO refunds in full on request within 7 days after the first charge. SemChat’s terms give a new subscriber 30 days.

Through my link, you get 10% off for life if you subscribe within 2 weeks of signing up (email from Adrian Delmarre, Haloscan, October 29, 2026). The terms are on the SemChat promo code page.

Sources: the ChatSEO and SemChat pages we read

ChatSEO is described from its fact sheet of October 29, 2026, built only from its official pages: pricing, help center, terms of sale and the MCP page. Its help center is in French; quotes from it are translated. SemChat is described from its pricing page, its terms and our real test on October 29, 2026, with screenshots. Check prices again before you subscribe.

My ChatSEO review lists the other places where ChatSEO’s pages disagree, and the ChatSEO alternative guide covers other options. For SemChat in depth, my SemChat review tells the whole test. Still torn on ChatSEO vs SemChat? Ask yourself one thing: do you want to try without a card, or do you want the tool to publish for you?