Ahrefs alternatives: how Ahrefs compares with five other SEO tools

How does Ahrefs' price compare with the alternatives?

Ahrefs Lite costs $129 a month for 750 tracked keywords, against $139 for Semrush's SEO plan, $129 for SE Ranking Core, $99 for Moz Pro Standard and $29 to $99 for Ubersuggest, as each vendor's pricing page listed them on 2 November 2026 and 1 November 2026. Ahrefs also sells a $29 Starter plan, but its pricing page states no tracked-keyword limit for it, so the table below compares the cheapest plan of each tool that does state one.

The headline price is only part of the cost. Ahrefs' cheaper plans cap usage with monthly credits, several features are paid add-ons, and extra users cost more on every suite. Our Ahrefs pricing breakdown adds those up plan by plan, and SEO tool pricing compared puts every vendor in one dated table.

Is there a free Ahrefs alternative?

Yes, for some jobs. Ahrefs itself offers Ahrefs Free, the renamed Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, for sites you verify, and MrKeyword's free tools check backlinks and authority for any domain with no sign-up. Neither replaces a paid Ahrefs plan for research on sites you do not own at Ahrefs' depth.

• Ahrefs Free (ahrefs.com/free): Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for websites you prove you own, with 1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once and 5,000 crawl credits per project a month. Ahrefs says it is not a trial. It does not let you research a competitor's backlinks or use Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker.
• MrKeyword's free backlink checker: enter any domain, a competitor's included, and see its strongest referring domains and the domains it gained or lost, with no account.
• MrKeyword's free domain authority checker: compares several domains' MrKeyword Link Authority, our own 0 to 100 score with its source and a confidence level. It is not Ahrefs Domain Rating, and the numbers will differ.
• Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools: free link reports for your own sites. Our guide on how to check backlinks walks through all of these.

Where Ahrefs is stronger: index size. Ahrefs runs its own web-wide crawler and backlink index, far larger than MrKeyword's. MrKeyword's link data is built from the Common Crawl domain-level web graph plus its own crawler, which is a sample of the web, not a full index. For a quick look at who links to a site, the free tools are enough; for a complete, page-level link audit of a large site, Ahrefs sees much more.

Where Ahrefs is stronger than its alternatives

Ahrefs is strongest where its own crawl is the product: backlinks, Domain Rating and research on domains you do not own. Before you switch, be honest about whether you rely on any of these.

• Backlink research. Ahrefs built its name on its link index and Site Explorer, and it remains the tool many SEOs open first for a competitor's links.
• Domain Rating. DR is Ahrefs' own score and is widely quoted in link building. Only Ahrefs shows it; our domain authority guide explains how DR, Moz DA and other scores differ.
• Keywords and content gaps. Keywords Explorer and Content Gap show what other sites rank for, which a Search Console based tool cannot.
• A free tier for owners. Ahrefs Free gives your own site's backlinks and an audit at no cost, which few suites match.

Where Ahrefs is weaker for some buyers: Rank Tracker updates weekly on every paid plan, the pricing page lists no free trial on paid plans, and the entry plans are metered by credits.

Ahrefs alternatives compared at a glance

The five Ahrefs alternatives below split into two groups: suites with their own web-wide data (Semrush, SE Ranking, Moz Pro, Ubersuggest) and a cheaper tool built on your own search data (MrKeyword).

Semrush

Semrush is the usual Ahrefs alternative for people who want one suite for SEO, competitor and advertising research. Its pricing page listed the SEO plan at $139 a month (5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily), with plans up to $299 and Advanced on request. Annual billing: up to 17% off, paid upfront for the year. Free option: free plan: 1 demo project and 10 reports a day, no card; paid plans come with a 7-day free trial.

Choose it over Ahrefs for daily rank tracking and wider marketing research in one place. Ahrefs is stronger if your own site's links are what you need, because Ahrefs Free covers them at no cost. Our Semrush vs Ahrefs comparison goes plan by plan.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking is the lower-cost suite with large daily rank tracking allowances. Its pricing page listed Core at $129 a month (10 projects, 2,000 keywords tracked daily) and Growth at $279, with Enterprise through sales. Annual billing: 20% off with annual billing. It offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card.

Choose it over Ahrefs if you track many keywords across client sites and want daily updates for the price of Ahrefs Lite. Ahrefs is stronger for backlink depth. Read SE Ranking vs Ahrefs for team costs and limits side by side.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is the alternative for teams whose reports quote Domain Authority. Its pricing page listed plans from $49 a month for one website to $299, with Standard at $99 (300 tracked keywords) and 20% off the base plan when you pay yearly. A free Moz Community account with limited MozBar, Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer access lets you see DA without paying.

Choose it over Ahrefs if Moz DA is the number clients ask for, or for a lower entry price on a suite. Ahrefs is stronger on keyword and content research for other domains. Our Ahrefs vs Moz page explains DR vs DA, and Moz alternatives looks at the same field from Moz's side.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest, from Neil Patel's company, is the low-cost suite in this list. Its pricing page states a range of $29 to $99 a month across its plans, covering 1 to 15 projects across the three plans and 125 to 300 tracked keywords per project, updated weekly. It offers a limited free account and a 7-day free trial on monthly plans.

Choose it over Ahrefs for basic keyword ideas, an audit and weekly rank tracking on a small budget. Ahrefs is stronger on link data depth and report detail. Our Ubersuggest vs Ahrefs comparison sets the two side by side, and Ubersuggest alternatives covers where people go next from it.

MrKeyword

MrKeyword is a cheaper Ahrefs alternative for the weekly work on sites you own: it reads your Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools data, crawls your site, and keeps a daily history. It does not resell Ahrefs' or any other vendor's data. Our page on what MrKeyword is lists each feature and where its data comes from.

• Rank tracking from the average positions Search Console and Bing report for your verified site, by device and country, with a wrong-page flag. See rank tracking.
• Keyword research with monthly search volume fetched from Google Keyword Planner through the official Google Ads API, labelled with its source (free keyword research tool).
• Links: MrKeyword Link Authority and a backlink checker built on its own crawl and web graph, with the source on every referring domain.
• A site audit from its own crawler, and an MCP server so Claude or Cursor can answer questions from the same data.
• Pricing: Free covers 1 website, 25 tracked keywords and 100 audit pages a month. Starter is $10 a month for 1 website and 500 tracked keywords; Growth $19 for 3 websites and 1,500; Agency $49 for 10 websites and 5,000. Yearly billing is ten times the monthly price. See pricing.

Where Ahrefs is stronger: Ahrefs DR, a far larger link index, keyword research into any site's rankings, and rank tracking for keywords that do not appear in your own Search Console. Our Ahrefs alternative page sets out that trade in more detail.

What is the cheapest alternative to Ahrefs?

For your own site, the cheapest alternative to Ahrefs is free: Google Search Console plus Ahrefs Free and a free tool on top of them. Among the paid suites here, Ubersuggest listed the lowest prices. Our affordable SEO tools comparison covers more low-cost plans. Which one is enough depends on the job:

1. If you only need your own backlinks

   Use Ahrefs Free and the Search Console Links report. Both cost nothing for sites you verify.

2. If you need your own rankings, clicks and audits

   Google Search Console is free. MrKeyword's Free plan adds a daily history, tracked keywords and a 100-page audit, and paid plans start at $10 a month.

3. If you need competitor research on a budget

   Ubersuggest's plans start lower than the big suites, and Ahrefs' own $29 Starter plan is another entry point with tight credit limits.

4. If you need a full suite

   Compare Ahrefs Lite ($129) with Semrush's SEO plan ($139), SE Ranking Core ($129) and Moz Pro Standard ($99) on the limits you will actually use: tracked keywords, sites, users and credits.

Which Ahrefs alternative should you choose?

Pick by the question you need answered each week, not by the length of the feature list. For a wider field, see our best SEO tools comparison.

Many teams combine the two kinds: a suite for link and competitor work, and Search Console data for the weekly view of their own sites.

What MrKeyword does not do

MrKeyword is not a drop-in replacement for Ahrefs if you depend on Ahrefs' own data.

• It does not show Ahrefs DR or URL Rating. Its Link Authority is its own score and will not match DR.
• Its link data is far smaller than Ahrefs' index: a sample built from the Common Crawl web graph and its own crawler.
• It does not check live search results; your positions come from Search Console and Bing for sites you verify.
• It does not list every keyword a competitor ranks for the way Ahrefs' Site Explorer does.
• It cannot import your Ahrefs history; you connect Search Console and MrKeyword starts its own daily copy.

If you are comparing rank trackers specifically, see the free rank trackers compared.

Questions and answers