In this paper we compare the notion of proper map in the category of topological spaces with that in the category of semialgebraic sets. To do this, we find some equivalence conditions for semialgebraically proper maps. In particular, we prove that a continuous semialgebraic map is semialgebraically proper if and only if it is proper. Moreover, we compare the semialgebraically proper map with the proper map in the sense of Delfs and Knebush [4].