Why should you know about the best Ahrefs alternatives?
In today’s competitive market, the need for search engine optimization is at an all-time high.
And that only makes sense.
When done right, search engine optimization can help brands understand as well as reach new customers quickly.
However, SEO can be time-consuming and overwhelming at best. And Google’s constant algorithm updates don’t make things any easier.
But there’s good news.
There are a number of online tools—both free and paid, that you can delegate your SEO tasks to.
As you may already know, Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tools in use today. From backlink analysis to keyword research to competitor analysis, Ahrefs comes with a suite of spectacular features. These can help you boost your website’s traffic and ranking significantly.
That being said, Ahrefs can be a bit expensive for small businesses and freelancers.
So, in this article, we bring to you 19 of the best Ahrefs alternatives. While some of them offer better features, the rest are simply more cost-efficient.
The point being—there’s going to be something for everybody.
Let’s get started.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
Did you know that Google accounts for almost 89.74% of all the online searches done using search engines?
And even if you manage to get on the first page of Google, it’s the top positions that count. The first search result gets an average click rate of 27.6% and this number decreases drastically as you move down the page, reaching 2.4% for the 10th spot.
Image via Backlinko
These numbers only go to reiterate the importance of SEO for businesses.
If you don’t manage to cut through the internet noise, you will never be found by leads. And this is exactly why there is a growing demand for online SEO tools.
However, finding the right one for your needs will require some digging around.
So, we’ve handpicked 19 of the best Ahrefs alternatives that will improve your SEO and eventually your bottom line.
Continue reading this Ahrefs alternatives breakdown to discover their features, pros, cons, and more.
Image via Semrush
First on our list of Ahrefs alternatives has to be Semrush. Semrush positions itself as an online visibility management platform and is trusted by 10 million marketing professionals worldwide.
What’s so good about this tool, you may ask?
Let’s find out why Semrush is one of the best Ahrefs alternatives.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
This is one of the Ahrefs alternatives that comes with a free trial for 14 days. It also offers a free plan with certain limitations on your ability to pull out data. To make the most of the tool, consider subscribing to one of its three paid plans:
Image via Semrush
Tool Level
Usability
Case Study
Pro Tip: Join the Semrush All-Stars Facebook group for advanced marketing discussions and the opportunity to learn about upcoming Semrush features.
Image via Moz
Millions of digital marketing experts place their trust in Moz to rank first on the search engine results page. Founded in 2004, this Ahrefs alternative is especially useful if you work in a highly competitive field—for instance, travel.
This Ahrefs alternative allows you to learn everything about what your competitor is doing right (and wrong). Similar to Ahrefs, with Moz, you can even compare your visibility on Google with your competitors side-by-side.
Given the ease of SEO, MOZ is one of the best Ahrefs alternatives for beginners. Needless to say, Moz also comes with a range of other powerful features such as site audits, traffic analytics, keyword suggestions, etc.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Interested users can try this Ahrefs alternative for free for 30 days. Check out the pricing plans for Moz Pro below:
Image via Moz
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Use Moz’s “are questions” feature to find popular queries that you can then address in your blog posts. This will present you with several opportunities to get your content in the Google SERP’s Featured Snippets.
Image via Serpstat
Serpstat markets itself as an all-in-one SEO platform for professionals and ranks highly among the best Ahrefs alternatives. It is packed with several useful optimization features that are beneficial for digital marketing agencies, in-house SEO teams, SMBs, and enterprises alike.
Let’s find out what makes Serpstat such a good Ahrefs alternative.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
You can start using Serpstat for free and test out its features. Once satisfied, you can opt for one of the following paid plans:
Image via Serpstat
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: If you’re struggling to get acquainted with Serpstat’s many features, check out Serpstat Academy—a free learning center for new users, that will help you come off with flying colors.
Image via SE Ranking
Next up on our list of the best Ahrefs alternatives is SE Ranking. It is a comprehensive online solution for SEO and online marketing professionals. However, it’s not your usual SEO toolkit. It also comes with powerful social media analytics tools, giving users more bang for the buck.
Now, there’s a reason why over 1 million people worldwide use this Ahrefs alternative.
Let’s find out!
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
SE Ranking offers a 2-week free trial without the need for a credit card. Browse through its paid plans here:
Image via SE Ranking
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Consider delegating your social media marketing tasks to SE Ranking to make the most of your money.
Image via Mangools
Widely touted for its ease of use, visualizations, and spectacular UX, Mangools is a bit different from the rest of the Ahrefs alternatives.
Unlike Ahrefs, it’s not a bunch of integrated features. Instead, it is a bundle of five completely different tools, viz. KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner, and SiteProfiler.
This Ahrefs alternative is trusted by big names such as Alexa, Skyscanner, Airbnb, and Adidas, and for good reason.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Interested users can use this Ahrefs alternative for free for 10 days. After the end of the free trial, you can subscribe to one of the following plans:
Image via Mangools
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Mangools comes with several special discounts for new users. While some of them are offered on occasions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you may also be lucky to get a special time-limited early-bird discount after registration.
Image via BuzzSumo
Unlike other Ahrefs alternatives mentioned in this list, BuzzSumo isn’t directly related to SEO and isn’t a full-fledged Ahrefs alternative. However, BuzzSumo is one of the best content marketing tools whose content ideas are effective.
Now, we know what you’re thinking—why does BuzzSumo make it to the list of best Ahrefs alternatives?
It’s simple. Content marketing and SEO are closely related to each other. If the content is the king, the content ideas generator should be the kingmaker.
After all, your site won’t rank if its content isn’t up to the mark, will it? Here are the reasons why this Ahrefs alternative is awesome for searching for content ideas and marketing.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Interested users can avail of a free trial for 30 days. Unlike most other Ahrefs alternatives, BuzzSumo also offers a free plan with the limitation of 10 searches a month. Check out its paid plans below:
Image via BuzzSumo
Tool Level
Usability
Case Study
Pro Tip: If you are only just starting with keyword research for your brand and need an Ahrefs alternative that’s simpler, stick to using BuzzSumo’s free account.
Image via SpyFu
Next up, let’s take a look at an intelligent Ahrefs alternative – SpyFu.
SpyFu is a competitive intelligence tool for local SEO and PPC which is why it features in our best Ahrefs alternatives list. As the name suggests, SpyFu helps you refine your online marketing strategy by ‘spying’ on your competitors and making their successes your own.
Here’s what makes it a solid alternative to Ahrefs:
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
This Ahrefs alternative comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. As for paid plans, there are three options:
Image via SpyFu
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: If a decent chunk of your work involves PPC campaigns or paid ads, invest in SpyFu without thinking twice. However, if you’re a blogger or SEO agency, consider other Ahrefs alternatives.
Image via GrowthBar SEO
If you're looking for a straightforward, no-nonsense Ahrefs alternative for your SEO needs, GrowthBar SEO is the tool you can count on.
GrowthBar SEO offers the most critical SEO data about any website in a clean dashboard. It’s built using open AI, meaning that the results and recommendations are as accurate as they can get.
This tool is also one of the most user-friendly Ahrefs alternatives and it can be used even by beginners.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
A 7-day free trial is available. Take a look at its paid plans:
Image via GrowthBar SEO
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Install GrowthBar SEO’s free Chrome Extension to unearth key SEO insights while surfing the web.
Image via DinoRANK
There’s a reason millions of digital marketing professionals and businesses trust DinoRANK to boost their Google traffic — and it’s because this Ahrefs alternative can help them achieve high visibility on Google without breaking the bank.
DinoRANK is an Ahrefs alternative that allows you to track your competitors' strategies and understand what they’re doing right (and wrong). Similar to Ahrefs or Semrush, DinoRANK lets you compare your Google visibility directly with that of your competitors.
Given its ease of use, DinoRANK is one of the best Ahrefs alternatives for beginners. It comes with a range of other powerful features, such as SEO site audits, keyword tracking, and content optimization powered by artificial intelligence.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Interested users can try DinoRANK with its flexible pricing plans. Check out the available pricing plans below:
Image via DinoRANK
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Leverage the Content Gap feature to identify and target keywords that your competitors rank for but you don’t. This allows you to “steal” traffic, improve your content strategy, and rank better thanks to higher expertise in the eyes of Google.
Image via WebCEO
Next on our list of the best Ahrefs alternatives is WebCEO, a cloud-based platform equipped with 22 SEO tools. It also offers a white-label service, allowing customers to fully customize reports to suit their needs.
WebCEO also offers collaborative features, making it perfect for large teams looking to streamline and synchronize their SEO efforts.
Another feature that makes WebCEO one of the best Ahrefs alternatives is the ability to manage multiple sites from a centralized portal. This saves you the hassle of having to log into different accounts every single time.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
WebCEO offers a free trial for 14 days. Check out its paid plans:
Image via WebCEO
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Check out WebCEO’s DIY SEO checklists to increase organic website traffic.
Image via SEOquake
SEOquake ranks highly among the best free Ahrefs alternatives. It’s an easy-to-use browser plugin that gives detailed SEO-related information on any website. It’s been downloaded more than 3,000,000 times, and here’s why you should too.
On top of being one of the most user-friendly Ahref’s alternatives on this list, SEOquake features unique capabilities. For example, there’s an SEO showdown feature you can use to compare multiple domains and URLs. You can then export this data to create a detailed report.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: If you’re on the lookout for a free Ahrefs alternative that analyzes websites and their backlinks quickly, SEOquake is what you need.
Image via Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is one of the most affordable yet value-packed Ahrefs alternatives in the market that help digital marketers to rank top on the search engine. Starting at just $12 per month. You will struggle to find an SEO tool with a better price tag.
This reliable Ahrefs alternative also has a competitive free-forever plan. By simply creating an account, you will gain access to features like daily rank tracking, keyword research and suggestions, and personalized SEO recommendations which are a boon for content marketing.
Prices aside, Ubersuggest is also an ideal Ahrefs alternative because it offers great performance. Here are some of its key features.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Ubersuggest’s offers a 7-day free trial on its paid plans. If you’re pleased with the performance, you can upgrade to one of these paid plans:
Image via Ubersuggest
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Sign up for the lifetime package to get better value for your money. The lifetime plans are much cheaper than other Ahrefs alternatives on the market!
Image via Majestic
Majestic is one of the Ahrefs alternatives focused on backlink profile analysis. This is the tool you want to go for if your primary focus is to get comprehensive link intelligence.
As a reliable Ahrefs alternative, this software solution generates critical link intelligence metrics like trust flow, topical trust flow, citation flow, visibility flow, and flow metric scores. This data gives you a wholesome picture of every link pointing to a particular website.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Majestic has three paid plans. You can also choose between a monthly and annual billing cycle. Of course, you’ll save more cash if you go for the latter.
Image via Majestic
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Consider Majestic if your work revolves around backlink analysis or link building. Otherwise, you should go for one of the more comprehensive Ahrefs alternatives.
Image via SEO Powersuite
SEO Powersuite is one of those Ahrefs alternatives that give you all the SEO tools you need at a fraction of the cost as that of Ahrefs. It has all the key features of Ahrefs including rank tracking, backlink profile analysis, keyword research, site audit, competitor analysis, and SEO reports.
However, unlike other Ahrefs alternatives, SEO Powersuite is not a cloud-based tool.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
This advanced Ahrefs alternative has a limited Free Forever plan. You must upgrade to the premium plans to access more features. There are two packages to choose from:
Image via SEO PowerSuite
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Check out the SEO Powersuite knowledge base for training materials on how to get the most out of this software.
Image via Keyword Planner
Go with this free Ahrefs alternative if you are interested in the keyword research element of Ahrefs. It’s also an ideal option if you don’t have any budget to spare for keyword research.
Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool and a good Ahrefs alternative offered by Google and its search volume data is accurate. It helps you discover new keywords and phrases and shows the estimated monthly organic traffic of those keywords.
You may also like the Google Keyword Planner for the simple fact that it shows bid estimates for each keyword. This is helpful if you’re planning on running ad campaigns.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Use Keyword Planner’s “Top of Page Bids” to identify lucrative keywords. Keywords with the highest bids tend to convert better, so you should try to rank for those.
Image via Raven Tools
Raven Tools is one of the few Ahrefs alternatives on this list that packs all the features of Ahrefs. This platform has everything from a site auditor and SERP rank tracker to a backlink checker and keyword research tool.
Let’s go through the Raven Tools’ features which makes it a great Ahrefs alternative.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Raven Tools offer monthly and annual billing options. Annual billing is cheaper, helping you save up to 30%. Here are the various plans that it offers:
You can purchase the Google Data Center tool separately. It starts at $60/month, allowing you to manage up to 20 accounts.
Image via Raven Tools
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: If you feel confused or overwhelmed with the tools, head over to the resources section. You will find video tutorials on how to use every tool and feature that this platform offers.
Image via cognitiveSEO
As one of the more expensive Ahrefs alternatives, cognitiveSEO offers plans starting from $90 per month. The price shouldn’t put you off, though, because the platform has quite the collection of SEO and marketing tools.
Let’s take a look at some of the top features that make it one of the best Ahrefs alternatives.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
As one of the best Ahrefs alternatives, cognitiveSEO has three payment plans with both monthly and annual billing options. Here are the various plans that it offers:
Image via cognitiveSEO
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Take advantage of the free trial to test this software solution before investing in it. If you don’t like what it has to offer, consider other cheaper Ahrefs alternatives.
Image via Linkody
Linkody is one of the Ahrefs alternatives that focus on backlink analysis. This is an ideal option if you want a simple tool to support your link-building campaigns.
Linkody lets you in on your competitors link building strategies. The tool displays links pointing to your competitors and not you. It also shows the competitor’s pages attracting the most backlinks. Use these insights to improve your link-building strategy.
In addition to helping you build links, this Ahrefs alternative also shows potentially harmful links and initiates the process of disavowing them.
Linkody’s disavow feature lets you set parameters to detect and catch suspicious links. You can use the spam score to identify harmful links, for example. Once the links are identified, the tool will add them to a disavow file which you can then upload on Google’s disavow software.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Linkody is an affordable backlink checker. Check out its monthly plans:
Image via Linkody
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: Take advantage of the competitor analysis tool to keep track of what other businesses in your industry are doing.
Image via AnswerThePublic
If you’re looking for Ahrefs alternatives that offer keyword research and content ideation, AnswerThePublic may be the right choice.
This tool helps users understand what questions and topics people are searching for online. It provides insights into the search queries people use on search engines, particularly focusing on question-based queries.
Although the approach AnswerThePublic takes is slightly different from Ahrefs, it has some unique features.
It presents keyword suggestions in a visual format. They’re organized into different categories based on question words. AnswerThePublic also helps you identify long-tail keywords and content ideas based on the questions people ask.
Take a look at the features, pros, and pricing to see if it is the Ahrefs alternative to invest in.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Here are the monthly plans:
Image via AnswerThePublic
Tool Level
Usability
Pro Tip: You can create new content by getting alerts on new queries related to your brand, product or keyword.
Q1. Is there a free alternative to Ahrefs?
A. Yes. SEO tools such as Semrush, BuzzSumo, and SEOquake are great Ahrefs alternatives that come with free and paid plans.
Q2. Which is better Ahrefs vs Semrush?
A. Both Ahrefs and Semrush are great SEO tools with their own pros and cons. However, Semrush also provides data relating to PPC, giving users more bang for the buck. What’s more, Semrush is much more generous in terms of the number of reports that can be generated each day.
That being said, you must assess your needs closely before choosing one of the two Ahrefs alternatives.
Q3. How do I get a free Ahrefs account?
A. Ahrefs neither offers a free trial nor a free plan. However, if you pay annually, you can enjoy 2 months for free on whichever plan you choose.
Q4. Which is the best SEO tool?
A. Some of the best SEO tools (both free and paid) are:
Q5. What is Ahrefs and how does it work?
A. Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset that offers features such as SERP analysis and traffic analytics. Ahrefs crawls the entire web 24/7 and has the world’s largest third-party database of search queries. It has a solid backend infrastructure that can help you up your SEO game.
Another cool Ahrefs feature is site audit. It scans your website and points out things you can fix, like broken links or slow-loading pages. All this info helps you make better decisions to grow your site. It’s a go-to tool for anyone serious about improving their online presence.
Q6. Who is Ahrefs’ biggest competitor?
A. Some of the top Ahrefs competitors are:
Q7. What is SEO and how does it work?
A. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on helping a website or piece of content rank higher on Google. SEO can be categorized into two buckets—on-page SEO and off-page SEO, both of which can help your website rank better.
Search engines rank websites based on factors like keywords, backlinks, and site speed. SEO involves optimizing keywords, fixing broken links, and ensuring fast load times for better rankings.
Q8. How do I optimize my website?
A. Some ways to optimize your website are as follows:
Q9. Can I do SEO myself?
A. Yes. You can definitely do SEO yourself. However, a quick and effective way to get started is by investing in an SEO tool. There are several free and paid online tools you can pick from.
Q10. What are some of the best SEO tools for businesses?
A. Some of the best SEO tools you can use for your business are as follows:
Clearly, there are several free and paid Ahrefs alternatives you can choose from.
When zeroing in on a tool, make sure you look into the exact features you need.
Some people want tools only for keyword research, while some are primarily concerned with competitor research.
Remember that given the huge number of top SEO tools available, you can find one that is equipped to meet your needs as well as your budget.
Simply be patient, do your research, and keep this listicle of Ahrefs alternatives handy.
Most importantly, keep in mind that SEO is the Swiss army knife of digital marketing. Do it right, and you’ll see your business reach new heights. Optimize your site using search engine optimization to improve visibility and drive more targeted traffic.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
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