15 Best Ahrefs Alternatives & Competitors

Last Updated on February 27, 2024 by Ewen Finser

Ahrefs is clearly one of the market leaders when it comes to SEO tool suites. It’s certainly come a long way from a primarily backlink too back in the day.

However, as the functionality has increased, so too have the prices. What’s more, Ahrefs recently terminated their free plan, leaving many SEOs out in the dark. In fact, PRICE is one of the main reasons to consider opting for a different SEO solution.

But that’s not the ONLY reason. Depending on what your business is doing, Ahrefs might be only partially serving your needs.

So what are the best options to consider instead of Ahrefs? I asked myself this same question. Many hours (and spreadsheets) later, these were the top alternatives to Ahrefs based on my needs.

1. SEMrush: Best Overall (what I use)

Summary: Long considered THE go-to SEO suite, Ahrefs in many ways has tried to “one-up” SEMrush. That said, Ahrefs still has a ways to go to measure up when it comes to the depth of functionality offered by SEMrush. And SEMrush isn’t exactly resting on their laurels, constantly rolling out new features.

SEMrush Advantages

• More accurate keyword difficulty scores, particularly on the high and low ends (Ahrefs tends to lose reliability on either extreme).
• Best in class PPC tools for analyzing competitors (making SEMrush a MUST if you do anything with paid traffic).
• Unique Traffic Analysis feature (like SimilarWeb in many ways) to reverse engineer competitor referral traffic flows.
• On-page SEO optimization tools with in-depth content analysis (Ahrefs is limited here).
• Pricing scales better at higher tiers (mid-size teams, agencies, and enterprises).
• Great local SEO suite of tools (best in class, in my experience).

SEMrush Disadvantages

• Somewhat less in-depth backlink analysis compared to Ahrefs.
• Can be a bit pricey for solo operators.

SEMrush Prices: Pro plans start at $99/month, Guru Plans scale up to $199/month, and Business Plans cap out at $399/month. Custom pricing is available for Enterprise level users.

Further Reading:

• SEMrush vs Ahrefs Compared
• SEMrush vs Majestic Compared
• SEMrush vs LongTailPro Compared
• SEMrush vs SEOprofiler Compared
• SEMrush vs Moz Compared
• SEMrush vs SimilarWeb Compared
• Top SEMrush Alternative Tools

2. SEO Powersuite (LinkAssistant): Best for Teams & Agencies

Summary: SEO Powersuite is unique in that it’s an old fashioned software download. Don’t let this fact fool you into thinking it’s not current! The software suite syncs to the cloud and provides deep SEO audit functionality, ideal for getting a birds eye view of ALL of the things that need to be fixed on a website.

SEO Powersuite Advantages

• Stand alone downloadable software (no “uptime issues”).
• Comprehensive site audit functionality (with easy to read reports).
• Scalable pricing based on modules (you pay for what you use).
• Much less expensive, SEO PowerSuite yearly license fees of around $299 versus $999 for Ahrefs.
• Unlimited SEO projects (no tiered limits like Ahrefs).
• Unlimited tracked keywords (updated daily).
• No competitor analysis restrictions.
• Unlimited SEO data export functionality.
• Excellent autocomplete keyword research tool.
• Excellent site structure visualizations (crawl map).

SEO Powersuite Disadvantages

• Downloading softare means each license needs to be managed on each computer (no cloud access).
• Can take a bit longer than Ahrefs to complete crawls and various projects (software vs cloud).
• Not ideal for advanced real-time multi-user account collaboration (again, because of the local installs).
• Not ideal for low powered computers.
• More limited historical backlink data (although they are working on a backlink analysis feature here).

SEO Powersuite Prices: SEO Powersuite now has a “Forever Free Plan” with basic on-page and ranking data, then rises to $299 / year for the Professional Package (most users choose this), and finally $699 / year for the Enterprise Plan (adds white label reports and export data functionality).

Further Reading:

• SEO Powersuite vs SEMrush Compared

3. SpyFu: Best Historical SERP Data

Summary: SpyFu has a long history in the SEO community, dating back to the early 2000s. They are best in class for competitor research and are unique in that allow access to a database with over 15 years of historical SERP data. A great choice if you are in a competitive landscape.

SpyFu Advantages

• Some of the deepest HISTORICAL SEO data for any tool we’ve tested (15+ years of SERP ranking changes).
• Excellent backlink analysis tools.
• Better built-in PPC analysis tools (paid traffic SEO).
• Built for competitor analyis and reverse engineering an SEO strategy.
• Professional Plan priced same as Basic Plan for the first month (to easily compare).
• Much more affordably priced than Ahrefs (get started for as low as $39/month).

SpyFu Disadvantages

• More limited organic keyword research functionality, with fewer native filtering options.
• No native broken link checker.
• No SEO toolbar.
• No free trial available.

SpyFu Prices: The cheapest “Basic Package” gets started at $39/month, then Professional Plan elevates to $78/month, and finally the Team Plan (best for agencies) caps out at $299/month. All fo the SpyFu pricing plans offer discounts if you pay annually instead of monthly.

Further Reading:

• SpyFu vs Ahrefs Compared
• SpyFu vs SEMrush Compared

4. Serpstat: Best Free Version

Summary: Serpstat is a great new up and comer SEO toolkit that mimics many of Ahrefs core features, but at a fraction of the price. If you want a full SEO suite without the big price tag, Serpstat is a very competent “downgrade”. It’s missing some features compared to Ahrefs, but for many marketers they don’t need what’s missing anyway.

Serpstat Advantages

• Serpstat offers a completely free version here (with some usage limits).
• Serpstat is MUCH more affordable, with plans starting at $50 / month for the Lite Plan.
• Unrestricted API access.
• On-Page SEO audit tools.
• Larger database of accurate international SEO data.
• Better multi account plans and price escalation for team members.

Serpstat Disadvantages

• No social media SEO or marketing tools.
• No SEO writing assistant or equivalent topical markups.
• Less track record in business.
• Limited link analysis tools.

Serpstat Prices: Plans start at $69 / month on the Lite Plan, then $149 / month for the Standard Plan, $299 / month for the Advanced Plan, and then $499 for the Enterprise Plan. The differences between all the plans are generally usage limits (e.g. searches per day) and user account limits for team members.

Further Reading on Serpstat:

• Full Serpstat Review
• Serpstat vs SEMrush Compared

5. SE Ranking: Best Affordable Paid Alternative

Summary: SE Ranking is another relative upstart, but it’s quickly gaining market share and adding features. It’s not quite as robust as Ahrefs yet, but it’s getting close and could be an excellent option if you only use specific features of Ahrefs (and are sick of overpaying for the whole suite)! 

SE Ranking Advantages

• Generally less expensive at every comparable tier compared to Ahrefs.
• Flexible custom pricing plan options (their team will work with you to “build” a plan if needed).
• Better and more relevant PPC insights (great if you do any paid media work).
• Flexible multi-account and multi-user rules, more generous than Ahrefs.
• Better social media integrations and visibility analysis views.
• More useful and accessible technical SEO audit tools .
• More streamlined, useful SEO dashboard view (not as cluttered and disjointed as Ahrefs).
• 2 week free trial, vs 1 week $7 trial for Ahrefs.

SE Ranking Disadvantages

• Less history & track record compared to Ahrefs.
• Fewer data visualization options & views.
• Backlink analysis tools are not as detailed or user-friendly.
• Fewer ways to filter, search, and view keyword research data.

SE Ranking Prices: SE Ranking offers a standard 3-tier pricing model. It starts at around $39/month for the Essential Plan, than about $87/month for the Pro Plan, and finally $191/month for the Business Plan.

They also offer some flexible “Custom Plans” if you want to work with their team. Definitely not something Ahrefs offers! 

Further Reading on SE Ranking:

• Full SE Ranking Review
• SE Ranking vs SEMrush Compared

6. Similarweb: Best Market Segment Data

Summary: Similarweb isn’t exactly an SEO suite, so it’s not a true alternative to Semrush, BUT it does offer deeper data insights and best in class traffic estimates (among MANY other data features). Similarweb is a great alternative to Semrush if you are really after full-spectrum competitive data and market insights.

Similarweb Advantages

• Excellent traffic analysis tools to reverse engineer referral (affiliate) flows to understand whats working.
• Industry leading market insights with granular filtering by market segments.
• Better at estimating OVERALL traffic flows (not just search or paid traffic) .
• Their market intelligence suite has a broader data array compared to Ahrefs for competitive market insights.

Similarweb Disadvantages

• Not really and SEO suite (more of a competitor analysis / market analysis platform).
• Pricey, most plans require a custom quote and are multiple hundreds per month.
• Traffic estimates (and other estimates) are not always perfect (see our article on Similarweb accuracy).

Similarweb Prices: Similarweb’s pricing is as follows…

• Similarweb Starter Plan: $149/month
• Similarweb Professional Plan: $399/month
• Team Plan: Custom Quote
• Enterprise Plan: Custom Quote

Pricing Note: Similarweb used to be ALL quote based pricing plans, so the introduction of the starter plan and listed pricing is helpful and makes the suite more accessible to SMBs.

Further Reading on Similarweb:

• Top Similarweb Alternatives
• Similarweb vs Ahrefs Compared Directly
• Similarweb vs Google Analytics
• Similarweb vs Semrush
• Similarweb vs Comscore
• Similarweb vs Alexa (now deprecated)

7. SERPWoo: Best for Keyword Tracking

Summary: SERPWoo might not be the FIRST name that springs to mind when you think of SEO tools, but they are my favorite “dark horse” alternative to Ahrefs. Developed BY site builders, SERPWoo offers some of the best rank tracking and SERP change detection on the market. If you need something that is keyword and rank focused, SERPWoo is worth a try!

SERPWoo Advantages

• Unique, proprietary and highly accurate keyword competition scoring.
• Capable of change detection across ALL keywords a site is ranking for.
• Most in depth niche level keyword rank tracking to help see “winners” and “losers” from updates and changes.
• Unique Google Volatility Score for specific keyword sets (tracks volitality over time, so you know which industries are more susceptible).
• Better measures how strong or weak incumbent’s rankings are.
• Excellent repository of historical ranking data and trends.

SERPWoo Disadvantages

• Limited track record relative to Ahrefs.
• Small market share.
• Not a FULL SEO suite, mainly best for keyword tracking, competitor analysis and keyword research.

SERPWoo Prices: SERPWood has a 4-tier pricing structure based on keywords tracked, starting at $49.95 / month for 750 keywords, $99.95 / month for 2,000 keywords, $199.95 / month for 4,000 keywords, and $299.95 / month for 8,000 keywords.

8. Mangools (KWFinder): Best Cheap Keyword Research Alternative

Summary: KWFinder is part of the Mangools SEO suite, but can be used as a stand alone keyword research tool (limited free use to start).

Mangools KWFinder Advantages

• Fully free to use version (5 lookups every 24 hours).
• Paid tier starts at an affordable $29/month, which should be enough for most solo marketers with moderate daily use.
• Solid basic filtering options for niching down by intent profiles.
• A unique “autocomplete” function to pull in Google’s autocomplete suggestions.

Mangools KWFinder Disadvantages

• KWFinder is very specific to keyword research (which can be a good thing), but if you need additional features beyond this Mangools has some other add-on products / modules that are not quite as extensive as the full Ahrefs suite.
• KWFinder has some of the basic filters that Ahrefs has, but doesn’t have the more advanced filter logic and custom rules.
• No longer offers separate payment plans e.g. you pay for the full Mangools suite, not just KWFinder.

Mangools KWFinder Prices: Starts at $29/month for the basic Mangools plan (good for solo operators) and then scales to $49/month (more daily searches, uses), then $69/month for Premium (up to 500 keyword lookups + up to 3 users), and finally the Agency Plan for larger teams at $129/month.

All together, even their most expensive tier is competitive with Ahrefs lowest pricing tiers.

Further Reading: Mangools vs SE Ranking Compared.

9. Jaaxy: Best for Bloggers + Affiliate Marketers

Summary: Jaaxy is a keyword-forward SEO suite that I’ve played around with over the years. It’s not enough to be my default, but there’s a few things I like about their suite, namely their integration of keyword data AND trends data AND affiliate programs data.

Jaaxy Advantages

• Relatively affordable pricing plans starting at just around $49/month.
• Very unique affiliate program finder tool, the only SEO suite I know of that has this.
• Free plans with up to 30 searches to try it out.
• Good fit for affiliate marketers and bloggers.

Jaaxy Disdvantages

• No backlink analysis or off-page SEO tools.
• Somewhat data interface, feels a bit slower than Ahrefs.
• Pro plan and lower requires a lot of manual (slow) searches to reveal data.

Jaaxy Pricing: There’s a free trial for up to 30 searches, than $49/month for their Pro Plan and $99/month for their Enterprise Plan (Faster search, all automated with no “manual” clicks to return data).

10. Moz

Summary: Moz has a strange reputation in the SEO industry, once being one of the dominant early players before slowing down over the last 5+ years while Ahrefs and SEMrush ate into their market share. I’ve been giving them another look recently, however, as they’ve started re-investing back into their product suite (which always had good data and good bones).

Moz Advantages

• No overages or fine print charges like with Ahrefs (what you see on the pricing page is what you actually pay).
• Much more generous reporting limits and transparent messaging around this (unlike Ahrefs)
• Link database is deeper, more data sources.
• Entry level plan provides access to ALL suites (with limits) versus Ahrefs that doesn’t include many core features on entry level pricing.
• I personally prefer their content inventory views for more productive auditing and content updates.

Moz Disadvantages

• Very similar pricing plan to Ahrefs, so no initial savings.
• More limited customer support compared to Ahrefs, support requests take longer to be resolved.
• Keyword research is a bit more clunky with fewer, less accessible keyword filtering.

Moz Prices:

Further Reading: Moz vs Semrush Comparison.

11. Majestic: Best for Backlink Analysis

Summary: Majestic is an excellent alternative to Ahrefs if you are exclusively doing backlink analysis and running off-page link building campaigns. It’s tools are narrow in scope, but extensive in depth. It’s so good that OTHER SEO suites use their data.

Majestic Advantages

• Their link graph is extensive and incredibly detailed, best in class.
• I generally trust Majestic data more than any other platform for backlink analysis.
• Pricing starts at just $49/month which is considerably cheaper than Ahrefs entry level $99/plan.

Majestic Disadvantages

• Limited to just backlink analysis and related SEO metrics.
• If you need even 1-2 other core features (like keyword research or content gap analysis), Ahrefs or Semrush’s pricing starts to make more sense.

Majestic Prices:

Further Reading: Majestic vs Semrush Comparison.

12. KeywordTool.io

Summary: If you just need an affordable keyword research tool, KeywordTool.io is an affordable option worth checking out. I like the simple focus on “autocomplete” searches, as these are some of the better keywords to target anyway.

KeywordTool.io Advantages

• Fully featured free version for just a handful of keyword searches per day
• Features specific keyword research modules for YouTube, Instagram, Bing, Twitter, Play Store, Amazon, and eBay marketers.
• Extensive related keyword suggestion database
• Effective autocomplete default keyword settings set most beginners up for success

KeywordTool.io Disadvantages

• Has been known to overestimate search volume compared to peers
• Only good for keyword research
• Aggressive upsells if you stay on the “free” tier, I found it borderline unusable because of this at times

KeywordTool.io Prices: Prices start at $69 / month for the Pro Basic Plan, then $79 / month for the Pro Plus Plan, and finally $159 / month for the Pro Business Plan. The main differences between the pricing tiers are user accounts and number of keywords searched per day, with the Pro Business plan also opening up API access.

So What is the Best Alternative to Ahrefs?

So here’s my overall take on the top Ahrefs competitors:

Best OVERALL SEO Tool Suite: It has to be SEMrush here. They just have everything Ahrefs has, and then some more. Remember, you can get an extended 14-day trail with our link here.

That said, here are some specific use cases where you can get away with paying less:

• Best Ahrefs Alternative for Keyword Research: If all you need is something for straight keyword research, my pick is the affordable KWFinder by Mangools here.
• Best Ahrefs Alternative for Backlink Analysis & Competitor Analysis: In this case I strongly leans towards SpyFu here. They have decades worth of competitor data you can analyze. SEMrush does a great job here too, but SpyFu might be more affordable if this is all you need.
• Best Ahrefs Alternative for Rank Tracking: If the main functionality you need is to track rankings, SEMrush does a great job, but SerpWoo has the most in depth rank change sensors and tracking.
• Best Ahrefs Alternative for PPC / Paid Media: This might be a small subset of the audience, but I found SE Ranking to be more intuitive & useful here.