Top 14 Ahrefs Alternatives: Free & Paid Competitors for 2024

Ahrefs tops every list of best all-in-one SEO tools. It offers a lot of excellent features such as keyword explorer, site explorer, backlink checker etc.

Ahrefs has one of the largest keyword databases, with over 19.2 billion keywords that help you easily discover keywords in any niche.

But if you’re searching for a few other cheaper (or better) Ahrefs alternatives, this post is for you where you’ll find 14 of the best free and paid alternatives.

So without further ado, let’s find out the list of top Ahrefs competitors and similar to Ahrefs tool to use in 2024.

14 Best Ahrefs Alternatives for All SEOs, Marketers and Bloggers

I will explore the top alternatives to Ahrefs taking into account factors such as features, pricing, and ease of use.

If you are in a hurry, here are my top 3 recommendations:

Ahrefs AlternativesBest ForPricingStart Free Trial
SemrushKeyword Research, Competitor research, Rank Tracker, Backlink Analysis$129.95/month
SE RankingSEO/PPC research & Rank Tracking $55/month
SerpstatCompetitor research, Keyword Research, Rank Tracker, Backlink Analysis$59/month
Ahrefs alternatives

1. Semrush

Semrush is one of the best SEO tools and an alternative to Ahrefs. Semrush is used by more than 10 million people worldwide, and it has over 25 billion keywords in its arsenal.

I have been using the Semrush SEO tool for more than 8 years now, and I am extremely satisfied with it. If you’re looking for an all-in-one SEO toolkit, Semrush is the best choice for you.

It offers you a huge collection of SEO tools, including;

  • Keyword research
  • SEO reports
  • Brand monitoring
  • Backlink analysis (including the ability to find toxic links)
  • Site audits
  • Competitor analysis
  • And the list goes on

Here’s how the dashboard of Semrush looks like;

organic research data

Semrush features

  • Keyword research
  • Backlink audits and link building
  • Competitor research
  • PPC ads
  • Brand monitoring
  • Keyword rank tracking
  • Site audits and many more

6 Reasons to Use Semrush Over Ahrefs

So why pick Semrush over Ahrefs? Here are some of the biggest reasons.

why semrush over ahrefs

1. Massive keyword data: Semrush is one of the very few SEO tools that offers HUGE keyword data. It offers over 25 billion keywords from over 140 geodatabases. It also has keyword data from over 808 million domains.

No matter what industry you are in, there’s no shortage of finding better keywords using Semrush. It also provides you with an accurate keyword search volume so you can easily discover low, competitive keywords effortlessly.

2. Content Toolkit: Semrush offers a toolkit called the Semrush Content Platform to take your content marketing results to the next level. From topic research to content planning, writing, and optimizing content – it helps you with almost every content marketing-related task.

It gives you access to features like;

  • Topic Research
  • Marketing Calendar
  • SEO Writing Assistant for On-Page SEO
  • SEO Content Template
  • Content Audit
  • Post Tracking
  • Brand Monitoring

3. Position Tracking: you can get access to daily keyword data updates. You can easily track your keyword rankings and make changes to your posts accordingly.

You can get access to local-level volume data. What about Ahrefs? It doesn’t provide you daily data. You need to upgrade to Rank Tracker Pro (you need to spend more) after subscribing to any plan on Ahrefs.

So Semrush wins easily over Ahrefs!

4. Offers over 60 SEO tools under one roof: Semrush is used by over 10 million people for a reason: it offers you tremendous value for money. It gives you access to over 60 SEO tools ranging from organic research to traffic analytics to Keyword Magic tools, site audits, brand monitoring and so on.

If you have access to Semrush, you might not require any other SEO tool because you can get almost every SEO-related task done using the Semrush SEO toolkit.

5. SEO Reporting: You can’t create custom SEO reports using the Ahrefs SEO tool, but Semrush lets you easily create custom SEO reporting. You can create white-label SEO reports, branded reports and so on.

6. The ability to find and fix toxic backlinks: Ahrefs doesn’t offer any tool for you to find toxic backlinks. If your site has too many toxic links, it can hurt your search rankings. Fortunately, Semrush offers you a Backlink Audit tool to analyse your backlink profile. It also helps you easily discover toxic links on your site.

Here’s how it looks like;

backlink audit

So yes, Semrush is an amazing tool and better than Ahrefs (in most cases).

And… if you’re looking for free trial accounts of Semrush, check out the following sections.

Semrush Pricing

Semrush offers you the following 3 pricing plans.

1. Semrush Pro: This is great for bloggers and beginners which costs you $129.95 per month and gives you access to the following features.

  • 10,000 results per report
  • 3000 Reports per day
  • 5 Projects
  • 500 keywords to track
  • 100,000 crawl pages

2. Semrush Guru: This plan is suited for in-house SEO agencies, which cost you $249.95 per month and give you access to the following features.

  • 30,000 results per report
  • 5000 Reports per day
  • 15 Projects
  • 1500 keywords to track
  • 300,000 crawl pages

3. Semrush Business: This plan is great for agencies that cost you $499.95 per month and give you access to the following features.

  • 50,000 results per report
  • 10,000 Reports per day
  • 4 Projects
  • 6000 keywords to track
  • 10,00,000 crawl pages

You can get a 17% instant discount on all their annual plans. Also, Semrush offers a 7-day money-back guarantee, and you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel your Semrush account whenever you want.

Best suited for: Semrush is extremely useful for in-house SEO teams, website owners, small businesses, and digital marketing agencies. It gives you FULL access to over 60 SEO tools that can help you with almost EVERY single SEO task.

Pros:

  • All in one SEO toolkit where you can get access to almost all the SEO related tasks including keyword research, site audits, competitor research and so on
  • Easily discover toxic links and disavow them
  • It offers excellent keyword volume data (it is accurate and better than any other tool including Ahrefs)
  • You can effectively find all the technical and SEO related issues using their site audit feature
  • Compare your domain with up to 5 domains (and find who’s ranking well and who’s not)
  • Track your keyword rankings
  • Semrush is widely used by over 10 million people around the world
  • You can find and estimate traffic of any website in the world
  • You can easily find profitable keywords in any niche
  • Track your brand mentions
  • A great SEO toolkit which is mostly similar to Ahrefs (in terms of features)
  • Excellent SEO reporting as Semrush offers a ton of automated reports (you can also create branded and white label SEO reports)

Cons:

  • It takes some time to get used to all their SEO tools and their traffic predictions are sometimes inaccurate (especially for keywords with fewer searches)

Further Reading:

Grab a Semrush pro account free for 14 days

Visit this special link to grab your 14-day Semrush account for free (which is worth $129.95)

Once you click on the link, you’ll be taken to the following page;

semrush pro trial

Click on the “TRY IT FREE” button to continue.

create account

Enter your email and password to create your account.

You’ll now be taken to their payment page, where you need to enter your credit card details to get access to Semrush.

semrush pro

Make sure to enter your details, such as email, password, billing details, etc, to grab your Semrush Pro for free.


2. SE Ranking

If you’re looking for an all in one SEO toolkit at affordable prices, you can give a try to SERanking that starts at $55/month.

You get almost every feature ranging from keyword research to website audits to SEO competitor research.

Here’s how the SE Ranking dashboard looks like;

seranking dashboard

SERanking Features

  • Website audits
  • Monitor backlinks
  • Keyword grouper
  • SEO and PPC research
  • On-Page checker
  • Marketing plan
  • Custom SEO reporting
  • Social media analytics

Read: SE Ranking Review 2024: Is It A Game-Changing SEO Tool?

SE Ranking Pricing

SE Ranking offers you the following three pricing plans.

1. Essential: This is the cheapest plan and costs $55/ month. You get the following features.

  • Add 10 projects
  • Website audit for 100,000 pages
  • Track up to 750 keywords 
  • Monitoring for 17,500 backlinks
  • Check backlinks for 50 domains/day
  • 20 On-page audit

2. Pro: This plan costs you $109 per month. You get the the following features.

  • Add unlimited projects
  • Website audit for 250,000 pages
  • Track up to 2000 keywords. 
  • Monitoring for 30,000 backlinks
  • Check backlinks for 100 domains/day
  • 30 On-page audit

3. Business: This plan is best suited for businesses or agencies and costs $239/month. You get the following features.

  • Add unlimited projects
  • Website Audit for 700,000 pages
  • Track up to 2500 keywords. 
  • Monitoring for 90,000 backlinks
  • Check backlinks for 300 domains/day
  • On-page audit: 100 pages

You’ll be getting a 20% instant discount if you pay annually on ALL their plans.

Why choose SERanking over Ahrefs?

Affordability is one of the primary reasons to choose SE Ranking over Ahrefs. It offers up-to-date information, and you can access the historical data without even leaving the interface. 

From current search volume trends to daily keyword ranking updates, you can pretty much do every major SEO task using SE Ranking.

Best suited for: SE Ranking is one of the powerful all-in-one SEO toolkits that’s exclusively made for business owners, agencies and SEO specialists.

SERanking pros and cons

Pros:

  • Keyword rank tracker to track your keyword rankings
  • Website audit to find and fix your site issues
  • Backlink monitoring
  • On-page checker for better optimization of your posts and pages
  • Marketing plan
  • Keyword grouper
  • Keyword suggestion tool for keyword research
  • SEO/PPC competitor research
  • Backlink checker to build quality and relevant links

Cons:

  • Although their pricing plans are affordable when compared to tools like Ahrefs it’s not comprehensive as Ahrefs, Semrush and so on.

3. Serpstat

Serpstat is another all-in-one SEO platform that is similar to Ahrefs. You can use it to explore your competitors’ websites along with keyword research, rank tracking, content marketing ideation, content creation, search analytics, and so on.

The platform stands out for having the biggest keyword database for the USA and Europe and its own backlink index with no duplicates or trash domains.

Here’s what the Serpstat dashboard looks like;

Serpstat-dashboard

Serpstat Features

  • Rank tracking
  • Backlink analysis
  • Competitor research
  • Site audits
  • Keyword research
  • Keyword trends
  • Keyword clustering and text analysis
  • AI content tools
  • Batch analysis
  • Local SEO

Serpstat Pricing

You get the following 3 paid plans with Serpstat

1. Individual Plan: The individual plan costs $59/ month and provides the following features. 

  • 100 searches per day
  • 5 projects to track, analyze, and audit
  • 10,000 position checks per month
  • 30,000 pages to audit

2. Team Plan: The team plan costs $119/ month and provides the following features. 

  • 500 searches per day
  • 25 projects to track, analyze, and audit
  • 50,000 position checks per month
  • 150,000 pages to audit

3. Agency Plan: The agency plan costs $479/ month and offers the following features. 

  • 5000 searches per day
  • 250 projects to track, analyze, and audit
  • 500,000 position checks per month
  • 1.5 million pages to audit

You can get a 20% instant discount on all their annual plans.

Why choose Serpstat over Ahrefs?

If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to Ahrefs, Serpstat is an excellent choice for you as their pricing plans start at just around $59 per month (much cheaper when compared to the Ahrefs plans that start at $99/mon).

why use serpstat over ahrefs
  1. Affordability: Serpstat comes at a more budget-friendly price point compared to Ahrefs, making it a suitable choice for users with cost considerations.
  2. All-in-One Platform: Serpstat provides a comprehensive suite of SEO tools covering keyword research, site analysis, backlink analysis, and competitor research, similar to Ahrefs but at a potentially lower cost.
  3. User-Friendly Interface: Some users find Serpstat’s interface to be more intuitive and beginner-friendly, making it an attractive option for those who are new to SEO tools.
  4. Focused Features: If you specifically need features like rank tracking, keyword clustering, or content marketing insights, Serpstat might offer these at a competitive level.

Best suited for: Serpstat is a growth hacking tool that can be a perfect match for anyone: from freelancers up to large agencies and leaders in their industry. Serpstat specialists will provide you with the most appropriate conditions according to your tasks and needs.

Serpstat pros and cons

Pros:

  • Automatically identify your top competitors in SEO and PPC: enter your domain and get a full list of your most relevant competitors
  • You can perform batch analysis of up to 200 domains where you can research keywords and compare the rankings of multiple domains
  • Get search suggestions and keyword trends database for content creation
  • Create content from metatags to a full article with AI content tools
  • Research keywords and ads of your competitors
  • Quickly discover your competitor’s keyword rankings
  • Perform a site audit to find technical issues and recommendations for resolving them
  • Analyzing and comparing competitors’ backlink profiles, finding common and unique backlinks
  • Grouping keywords into clusters for easy content optimization

Cons:

  • Keyword data is not so much inaccurate such as keyword difficulty, keyword search volume, etc

More Information:


4. KWFinder

KWFinder is a set of tools from Mangools Tools that helps you easily discover profitable keywords along with competitor keyword research with low SEO difficulty. It offers an amazing keyword metric called KD (keyword difficulty), which lets you find and use low-competitive keywords.

Here’s how the keyword data looks like;

kwfinder data

KWFinder Features

  • Access to 2.5 billion keywords dat
  • Find search volume of any keyword
  • Discover question-based keywords
  • Find keywords CPC and PPC values
  • Identify keyword difficulty
  • Discover location-specific long-tail keywords
  • Gives you keywords from over 50,000 locations
  • Track keyword positions

Mangools SEO Tools Pricing

KWFinder is a part of the Mangools SEO tools, so you need to purchase the Mangools tool subscription in order to use the KWFinder.

The best part? With the Mangools SEO tools, you’ll get access to the following FIVE amazing SEO tools.

  1. KWFinder – used for keyword research
  2. SERPChecker – used for SERP analysis
  3. SERPWatcher – used for keyword rank tracking
  4. LinkMiner – used for backlink analysis
  5. SiteProfiler – used for SEO metrics & insights

Mangools offers you the following four pricing plans.

1. Mangools Entry: This plan costs $29 per month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • 25 keyword lookups per 24 hours
  • 50 Related keywords per search
  • 15 competitor keywords per search
  • 25 SERP lookups per 24 hours
  • 50 Tracked keywords daily
  • 25000 Backlinks rows per 24 hours
  • 10 site lookups per 24 hours

2. Mangools Basic: This plan costs you only $49 per month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • Keyword lookups per day: 100
  • 200 Keyword suggestions per search
  • Competitor keywords per search: 25
  • SERP lookups per day: 100
  • Tracked keywords daily: 200
  • Backlink rows per month: 100,000
  • Site lookups per day: 20 

3. Mangools Premium: This plan costs you $69 per month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • Keyword lookups per day: 500 
  • Unlimited keyword suggestions per search
  • Competitor keywords per search: Unlimited
  • SERP lookups per day: 500
  • Tracked keywords daily: 700
  • Backlink rows per month: 500,000
  • Site lookups per day: 70 
  • Simultaneous logins: 3  

4. Mangools Agency: This plan costs you $129 per month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • Keyword lookups per day: 1200  
  • Unlimited keyword suggestions per search
  • Competitor keywords per search: Unlimited
  • SERP lookups per day: 1200
  • Tracked keywords daily: 1500
  • Backlink rows per month: 1.2 million
  • Site lookups per day: 150  
  • Simultaneous logins: 10  

You can save up to 35% instant discount on all their annual plans. 

Why choose KWFinder over Ahrefs?

KWFinder and Mangools (KWFinder is a part of the Mangools SEO tools) offer you five powerful SEO tools that help you with all the major SEO-related projects.

Here are some considerations for choosing KWFinder over Ahrefs.

  1. Affordability: A KWFinder subscription starts at $29/month, making it an attractive option for users seeking cost-effective solutions.
  2. Keyword Research Focus: If your primary focus is on efficient keyword research and uncovering profitable keywords, KWFinder is designed with a user-friendly interface that emphasizes these aspects.
  3. Ease of Use: KWFinder is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a suitable choice for beginners or users who prefer a straightforward tool without overwhelming features.
  4. Mangools Suite Integration: KWFinder is part of the Mangools suite, allowing seamless integration with other tools in the suite for a more comprehensive SEO strategy.

Best suited: If you’re looking to find easy-to-rank keywords in any niche, KWFinder is the ULTIMATE keyword tool for you. At just $29 per month, you really can’t go wrong with the Mangools (including KWFinder) tools. It’s perfect for bloggers, and small businesses.

KWFinder pros and cons

Pros:

  • You can easily discover a ton of long tail keywords
  • Discover and analyse your competitor’s keywords
  • Google Suggest keyword source
  • You can quickly organize all your keywords with keyword lists
  • The ability to import keywords in bulk which is extremely useful when you conduct keyword research in batches
  • Local keyword research can be done
  • Offers you a keyword difficulty (KD) score which is helpful in finding low difficulty keywords to rank in Google search results
  • Search volume and keyword metrics
  • Offers you SERP analysis and SEO metrics
  • It is also considered as one of the best Keyword Planner alternatives

Cons:

  • Limited keyword lookups, competitor keyword search, site lookups, SERP lookups within 24 hours (even with their premium plans)

Read: Mangools SEO Tools Review with 40% OFF
Read: 10 Best KWFinder Alternatives (Free & Paid)
Read: KWFinder Review: Should We Try This Keyword Research Tool?


5. SpyFu

SpyFu allows you to delve into your competitors’ strategies by providing data on their keywords, ad campaigns, organic search performance and every ad variation in the last 17 years.

SpyFu is the most comprehensive competitor keyword research tool and a great alternative to Ahrefs.

Here’s how the SpyFu data looks like;

spyfu data

SpyFU Features

  • Easily track all of your keyword rankings
  • Use it for Adwords campaigns
  • PPC competitor research
  • Competitor keyword research tool
  • Easily check your competitor backlinks by keywords
  • The ability to perform influencer marketing

SpyFu Pricing

SpyFu has the following three pricing plans.

1. Basic plan: This plan costs $39/month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • 10k rows search results
  • 10k rows data exports
  • 100 domain overview PDF’s
  • 250 sales leads and domain contacts
  • 5k weekly tracked keyword rankings
  • 6 months historical data

2. Professional plan: This is the most recommended plan that costs $79/month. You’ll get the following features;

  • Unlimited search results
  • Unlimited data exports
  • Unlimited domain overview PDF’s
  • 500 sales leads & domain contacts
  • 15k weekly tracked keyword rankings
  • 10+ years historical data
  • 10k API rows returned
  • Custom branded reporting

3. Team plan: This plan costs $299/month, and you’ll get the following features.

  • Unlimited search results
  • Unlimited data exports
  • Unlimited domain overview PDF’s
  • 2000 sales leads & domain contacts
  • 40k weekly tracked keyword rankings
  • 10+ years historical data
  • 10k API rows returned
  • Custom branded reporting

Why choose SpyFu over Ahrefs?

Looking for the cheapest yet extremely powerful Ahrefs alternatives? Then, SpyFu is just for you as it offers unlimited SEO and PPC data and their pricing plans start only at $39 per month. 

You’ll also get a ton of amazing features with SpyFu, such as;

  • Unlimited search results (except basic plan)
  • Unlimited data exports (except basic plan)
  • Unlimited domain overview (except basic plan)
  • Track keyword rankings
  • Custom branded reporting 
  • Unlimited backlinks searches (except basic plan)
  • Competitors’ results and many more

Best suited for: For website owners, SEOs and small businesses on a tight budget looking for a reliable yet powerful SEO toolkit, SpyFu is a great choice. You can grab their pricing plans starting at just $39 per month (which is 3 times cheaper than other SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz etc)

SpyFU Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Perform detailed keyword research and discover all your competitors keywords
  • Track your keyword rankings easily
  • Monitor your paid and SEO rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo
  • Track all of your competitors and download their PPC along with SEO keywords
  • Analyze backlinks quickly
  • Affordable pricing options when compared to other premium tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush
  • The ability to build custom reports
  • You can also get unlimited access to last 17 years of historical keyword data

Cons:

  • It only shows you PPC details of Google Ads and no Facebook, Bing or other PPC ad platforms

Want to Read More?


6. WebCEO

WebCEO offers you a full-fledged collection of several SEO tools that can be used for keyword research, SEO audits, keyword rank tracking, backlink analysis, lead generation, white reports and so on.

Here’s how its interface looks like;

webceo

WebCEO Features

  • Rank tracking
  • Keyword research
  • Technical audit
  • Seo analysis
  • Backlink checker
  • Traffic analysis
  • Social analytics
  • Quick domain analysis

WebCEO Pricing

WebCEO offers you the following four pricing plans.

1. Solo plan: This plan costs $37/month and provides the following features;

  • 1 project
  • 100 keywords
  • 1,000 pages audited
  • 1,000 backlinks analyzed
  • 15 keywords for competitor analysis

2. Startup plan: Costs you $99 per month and provides the following features;

  • 5 project
  • 600 keywords
  • 5,000 pages audited
  • 10,000 backlinks analyzed
  • 30 keywords for competitor analysis

3. Agency: This plan costs $99 per month, which follows the “pay as you go” model. You get the following features;

  • Unlimited projects @ $2/active project/mo
  • Unlimited keywords @ $4/1,000 rank queries
  • Unlimited pages audited
  • Unlimited backlinks analyzed @ $0.4/1,000 backlinks found
  • Unlimited keywords for competitor analysis @ $0.1/ keyword or phrase

4. Corporate plan: This plan you $299 per month and provides the following features;

  • 30 project
  • 2400 keywords
  • 150,000 pages audited
  • 180,000 backlinks analyzed
  • 50 keywords for competitor analysis

You can save 16% instantly on all their plans if you go with their annual plans.

Why choose WebCEO over Ahrefs?

WebCEO offers you 23 amazing SEO software tools that help you with almost every SEO campaign, such as keyword research, keyword ranking tracking, in-depth SEO audits, and more. 

Best suited for: The WebCEO toolkit is perfectly useful for bloggers, website owners, freelancers, in-house SEO teams and agencies who are looking for affordable SEO tools.

WebCEO pros and cons

Pros:

  • Access to local rank tracking
  • You can integrate their tools with Google Analytics & Search Console easily
  • The ability to perform in-depth keyword research
  • Mobile optimization check to find whether your site is properly optimized for mobile or not
  • Page Speed test to help you find your page loading times
  • Competitor metrics to analyse your competitors
  • Automatic report emailing
  • Social media popularity analysis
  • Internal links optimization
  • Access to email alerts

Cons:

  • Limits are limited (be it keyword usage, SERP scan depth etc)

7. BuzzSumo

If you want to quickly discover content ideas for your business and discover highly influential people, such as bloggers & influencers in your niche, BuzzSumo is the best tool for you.

To put it simply, BuzzSumo is a great Ahref competitor that can be used as a research and monitoring tool that helps you find the most popular content in every industry and identify influencers.

Here’s how it looks like;

buzzsumo interface

BuzzSumo Features

  • Find top-performing content in any niche
  • Domain reports
  • Influencer searches
  • Backlinks (discover content with backlinks)
  • Question analyzer
  • YouTube analyzer
  • Top author search

BuzzSumo Pricing

BuzzSumo offers you the following four pricing plans. 

1. Content creation: This plan costs $99/month and offers the following features

  • Unlimited content searches
  • Set up 2 custom alerts to get notifications of media mentions.
  • Content analyzer
  • Trending feeds
  • Question analyzer

2. PR & comms: This plan costs $299/month where you get everything in the content creation plan, along with the following features

  • Setup 5 custom alerts
  • Media database & outreach
  • Coverage reports
  • Slack integration

3. Suite: This plan costs $499/month where you get everything in the PR & comms plan, along with the following additional features

  • Setup 10 custom alerts
  • YouTube analyzer
  • Advanced chrome extension
  • Article uploads

4. Enterprise: This plan costs $499/month, where you get everything in the suite plan, in addition to the following features.

  • Setup 50 custom alerts
  • RSS Feed
  • Granular Location Search
  • Early Access To New Features

You can save 20% instantly on all their plans if you go with their annual plans.

Why choose BuzzSumo over Ahrefs?

If you want to create top-notch content, get unlimited blog post ideas, monitor your performance and discover influencers in your niche, BuzzSumo is the perfect choice for you.

On the other hand, Ahrefs is renowned for its robust backlink analysis, keyword research, and comprehensive SEO features. If your primary focus is on SEO and in-depth website analysis, Ahrefs should be the preferred choice.

Best suited for: BuzzSumo is ideal for content marketers and SEOs who want to monitor their content’s performance, find influencers in any niche, and get unlimited ultimate content ideas.

BuzzSumo pros and cons

Pros:

  • Extremely easy to use (even for beginners)
  • The ability to easily find top performing content ideas in almost any niche
  • The ability to monitor your brand online
  • You can easily find influencers in any industry
  • Access to question analyzer where you can find the most popular questions asked on the forums, Quora and son on
  • The ability to search back between 1 and 5 years on their Content Search & Analysis reports
  • Compare and analyze domains
  • Find the top authors for any topic or domain
  • You can run unlimited Content Research and Influencer searches
  • Access to alerts where you can easily monitor your brand, competitors, backlinks and keywords

Cons:

  • Their pricing plans are expensive (similar to Ahrefs pricing though, but Ahrefs offers a wide range of SEO tools when compared to the limited tools offered by BuzzSumo)

8. Raven Tools

Raven Tools is a combination of several amazing SEO tools ranging from rank tracking to competitor research to link building manager. If you’re looking to get access to white-label SEO reports and an amazing set of SEO tools, you should definitely consider Raven Tools.

Here’s how the SEO metrics on Raven Tools look like;

raven seo metrics

Raven Features

  • Site audits
  • Marketing reports
  • Data connectors
  • Keyword research
  • Rank tracking
  • Social media reports
  • Backlink analysis

Raven Tools Pricing

Raven Tools offers you the following five pricing plans.

1. Small Biz: This plan costs $49/month and offers the following features

  • 50k monthly pages crawl
  • 1,500/month keyword SERP tracking
  • 25,000 monitored links
  • 2 campaigns/domains

2. Start: This plan costs $109/month and offers the following features.

  • 400k monthly pages crawl
  • 15,000/month keyword SERP tracking
  • 50,000 monitored links
  • 20 campaigns/domains

3. Grow: This plan costs $199/month and offers the following features.

  • 2 million monthly pages crawl
  • 20,000/month keyword SERP tracking
  • 75,000 monitored links
  • 80 campaigns/domains

4. Thrive: This plan costs $299/month and offers the following features.

  • 5 million monthly pages crawl
  • 25,000/month keyword SERP tracking
  • 100,000 monitored links
  • 160 campaigns/domains

5. Lead: This plan costs $479/month and provides the following features.

  • 7 million monthly pages crawl
  • 30,000/month keyword SERP tracking
  • 150,000 monitored links
  • 320 campaigns/domains
  • Access to 40 users

You will get up to 30% instant discount on all their plans if you go with their annual plans.

Why choose Raven Tools over Ahrefs?

If you’re looking for an all-in-one SEO toolkit to perform in-depth SEO and SEM competitor research, Raven Tools is a great choice for you.

Here are some considerations for choosing Raven over Ahrefs;

  1. All-in-One Marketing Platform: Raven Tools offers a comprehensive suite that goes beyond SEO, incorporating features for social media management, content marketing, and advertising. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution for multiple aspects of digital marketing, Raven Tools may be a suitable choice.
  2. Social Media Management: you get social media management features that allow you to schedule posts, track social engagement, and manage multiple social accounts. If social media is a significant part of your marketing strategy, Raven Tools can be a valuable asset.
  3. Client Reporting: Raven Tools emphasizes client reporting, enabling you to create customizable and white-labeled reports. This feature is beneficial for agencies or marketers who need to present data to clients in a professional and branded format.
  4. Competitor Research: Similar to Ahrefs, Raven Tools provides competitor research features, allowing users to analyze competitors’ strategies, keywords, and backlink profiles.
  5. Customizable Dashboards: you can create customizable dashboards in Raven Tools, tailoring the interface to display the metrics and insights most relevant to your specific needs.

Best suited for: Raven Tools is best suited for agencies, in-house marketers, small businesses, and freelancers. It’s also an affordable SEO toolkit as its pricing starts only at $49/mo.

Raven’s pros and cons

Pros:

  • Access to website audits
  • Backlink analysis where you can get access to backlink tools
  • Rank tracking for tracking your keywords
  • Marketing reports
  • Competitor research to analyse any competitor in the world
  • Link building manager
  • Keyword rank checker to check your keyword rankings
  • Access to automated social media marketing reports for Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

Cons:

  • Definitely, their pricing plans are expensive although you get access to tools like Keyword Rank Position Checks, Majestic Backlink and LinkSpy analysis units etc


9. Wordtracker

If you are serious about finding traffic-generating keywords and looking to generate more traffic to your site, Wordtracker is for you. You can also better understand what your target audience is looking for using this tool.

Here’s how it looks like;

wordtracker interface

Wordtracker Feature

  • Discover profitable new market niches
  • In-depth keyword research
  • Build and save projects and lists
  • Competitor keyword research
  • SERP preview

Wordtracker Pricing

Wordtracker offers you the following three pricing plans.

1. Bronze plan: This plan costs $27 per month and offers the following features

  • 1000 keyword results
  • 10 domain competitors
  • 7 territories

2. Silver plan: This plan costs $69 per month and offers the following features

  • 1000 keyword results
  • 20 domain competitors
  • 15 territories

3. Gold plan: This plan costs $99 per month and offers the following features

  • 2000 keyword results
  • 50 domain competitors
  • 200+ territories

You can get up to 40% instant discount if you go with their annual billing cycle. You can also try any Wordtracker plan for 4 days at $1.

Why choose Wordtracker over Ahrefs?

Wordtracker is widely used for finding low competitive and profitable keywords in almost any niche. It also helps you easily discover exactly what keywords your competitors are using.

Here are some factors to consider Wordtracker

  1. Focus on Keyword Research: Wordtracker is primarily designed for keyword research, and if your main focus is on discovering and analyzing keywords, it offers a more streamlined and specialized approach compared to Ahrefs.
  2. Long-Tail Keyword Emphasis: Wordtracker places emphasis on long-tail keywords, providing insights into less competitive and more specific search terms. If targeting long-tail keywords is a crucial aspect of your SEO strategy, Wordtracker may be beneficial.
  3. Affordability: Depending on your budget constraints, Wordtracker might be more cost-effective for users seeking robust keyword research without the extensive features of Ahrefs.

Best suited for: Wordtracker is useful for anyone who’s looking to spy on their competitors’ keywords, perform in-depth PPC and SEO analysis, and get useful data from Google. It is also an affordable keyword research tool that helps you get data from multiple sources, including Wordtracker, Google, YouTube and Amazon.

Wordtracker pros and cons

Pros:

  • Keyword tool which helps you easily find new keywords for your market
  • Inspect tool which helps you quickly discover your competitors’ keywords
  • Niche explorer that helps you identify trending keywords for any niche
  • Custom reports so you can get the top keywords for any search engine and country
  • The ability to find competitors’ keywords, in-depth PPC and SEO insights

Cons:

  • Not as fully comprehensive as other competitor research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and so on

10. Moz Pro

There are a ton of bloggers and SEOs who use Moz tools for checking metrics like DA and PA every single day.

If you’re in search of premium alternatives to Ahrefs, Moz stands out as the ultimate choice. Moz offers a premium SEO toolkit that aids in site crawling and auditing, identifies link-building goals, and explores on-page optimization opportunities.

Here’s how the Moz interface looks like;

moz pro interface

Moz Pro Feature

  • Keyword research
  • Save keyword lists
  • Track keyword rank
  • Site audit
  • Optimize your pages with page optimization score
  • Find link building opportunities
  • Create custom reports and many more

Moz Pro Pricing

1. Standard: This plan costs $99/month and offers the following features;

  • 3 campaigns
  • 300 keyword rankings
  • 150 keyword queries per month
  • 100,000 pages crawled/week
  • 5000 backlinks queries/month

2. Medium: This plan costs $179/month and offers the following features.

  • 10 campaigns
  • 1500 keyword rankings
  • 5000 keyword queries per month
  • 500,000 pages crawled/week
  • 20,000 backlinks queries/month

3. Large: This plan costs $299/month and provides the following features;

  • 25 campaigns
  • 3000 keyword rankings
  • 15,000 keyword queries per month
  • 1.25M pages crawled/week
  • 70,000 backlinks queries/month

4. Premium: This plan costs $599/month and offers the following features;

  • 50 campaigns
  • 4500 keyword rankings
  • 30,000 keyword queries per month
  • 2M pages crawled/week
  • 100,000 backlinks queries/month

You will get a 20% instant discount on all the Moz Pro plans if you go with their annual plans.

Why choose Moz Pro over Ahrefs?

Moz Pro offers one of the biggest backlink databases, and it also offers a wide range of SEO tools such as keyword research, site audits, link explorer, etc.

Here are some factors to consider in Moz Pro;

  1. Comprehensive SEO Toolkit: Moz Pro provides a comprehensive set of SEO tools, including site audits, keyword research, rank tracking, and backlink analysis. If you’re looking for an all-in-one SEO solution, Moz Pro might be a suitable choice.
  2. Page Optimization Suggestions: Moz Pro offers on-page optimization suggestions, helping users enhance their content for better search engine visibility.
  3. Backlink Analysis: While Ahrefs is renowned for its backlink analysis, Moz Pro also provides robust features for analyzing and tracking backlinks.

Best suited for: Moz Pro is best suited for small businesses, in-house SEO experts, and agencies that are looking for all-in-one SEO tools to grow their business and organic rankings.

Moz Pro pros and cons

Pros:

  • You can easily rack any site’s organic visibility in SERPs
  • Assess all the desktop and mobile visibility of your site
  • Target highly profitable keywords
  • Access to link profile analysis where you can also discover link opportunities from competitors
  • You can easily track overall organic visits along with organic rankings
  • Find out any site’s domain authority (DA) and page authority scores easily
  • Made by SEO experts for SEOs
  • They have a HUGE SEO community where you can get a ton of information and insights on using the tool

Cons:

  • Access to fewer features than the remaining tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush etc
  • A bit difficult for beginners to use and get used to their tools

Recently Updated:


11. Ubersuggest

If you are looking for a freemium alternative to Ahrefs, Ubersuggest is a great choice for you. Although it doesn’t offer as extensive data as Ahrefs or Semrush but it’s a decent tool for those who are looking for affordable SEO tools.

The latest version of Ubersuggest also lets you see how many people search for a keyword on a mobile device versus a desktop device which is really an incredible feature.

Here’s how its interface looks like;

ubersuggest interface

Ubersuggest feature

  • Keyword rank tracking
  • Site crawling
  • Site audits
  • Optimize your pages for SEO
  • Find link building opportunities
  • Keyword Research
  • Backlink Research
  • SEO Toolbar

Ubersuggest Pricing

Ubersuggest currently has the following three pricing plans.

1. Individual plan: This plan costs 12/month( $120 for a lifetime account) and provides the following features;

  • 150 searches/day
  • 1 domains
  • 125 tracked keywords/domain
  • 5 competitors/domain
  • 20k keyword suggestion/month
  • Site audit 1k pages/week

2. Business plan: This plan costs 20/month ($200 for a lifetime account) and provides the following features;

  • 300 searches/day
  • 7 domains
  • 150 tracked keywords/domain
  • 50k keyword suggestions/month
  • Site audit 5k pages/week
  • 10 competitors/domain

3. Enterprise plan: This plan costs 40/month ($400 for a lifetime account) and offers the following features

  • 900 searches/day
  • 15 domains
  • 300 tracked keywords/domain
  • 15 competitors/domain
  • 100k keyword suggestion/month
  • Site audit 10k pages/week
  1. Individual plan costs you $12 per month (just $120 for a lifetime account, no monthly fees), which is great for people managing up to 3 websites
  2. A business plan costs you $200 per month (just $120 for a lifetime account, no monthly fees), which is great for people managing up to 7 websites
  3. Enterprise plan costs you $400 per month (just $120 for a lifetime account, no monthly fees), which is great for people managing 8+ websites

Why choose Ubersuggest over Ahrefs?

One of the major reasons to use Ubersuggest over Ahrefs is it is EXTREMELY cheap. Did you know that you can grab the Ubersuggest starter plan for only $120 (that too for a lifetime, no monthly fees required!).

So if you’re on a tight budget and looking for a decent SEO toolkit for SEO purposes, Ubersuggest is a great deal for you.

why use ubersuggest over ahrefs

Best suited for: Ubersuggest is perfectly suited for website owners, marketers and small businesses with tight budgets.

Ubersuggest pros and cons

Pros:

  • Offers a free version (its premium plans are also affordable)
  • Generate a lot of keyword ideas you want no matter what niche you are in
  • Extremely easy to use as it has a great user interface
  • You can search by a country which is great for local SEO research
  • You can easily see the age range of the searchers or how many times they click on the paid results versus SEO results
  • Gives you a ton of information such as SEO Difficulty Score, Search Volume, SERP Results, Keyword Filters and so on

Cons:

  • The data (keyword data or search volume) is not much accurate when compared to other paid tools including the remaining alternatives to Ahrefs mentioned here

Read: Ubersuggest vs Semrush: Which SEO Tool Is Worth Every Penny in 2024?
Read: BEST Ubersuggest Alternatives for 2024


12. Keywordtool.io

If you want to find long tail keywords for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo or social platforms like YouTube, Instagram etc, KeywordTool.io can be a great tool for finding keywords.

Here’s how its interface looks like;

keywordtool interface

KeywordTool.io Features

  • Keyword research tools for Google, Bing, YouTube
  • 100% accurate search volume
  • Get search volume data
  • Build keyword lists
  • Bulk search volume analysis
  • Accurate search volume for YouTube, Amazon and eBay keywords
  • Level of competition on Google Ads
  • Suggested bid on Google Ads
  • API access
  • Export all the data into Excel or CSV file

KeywordTool.io Pricing

Although KeywordTool.io is free to use, if you want more details and data, you should go with their Pro plans which are available in three pricing plans.

1. Pro Basic: This plan costs $69/month, and you get the following features.

  • Search volume data
  • Competitor keyword analysis
  • Generates 2x more keywords
  • Bulk search volume analysis to generate 7000 keywords per day
  • Access to 1 user account

2. Pro Plus: This plan costs $79/month, and you get the following features.

  • Search volume data
  • CPC data
  • Google Ads competition data
  • Competitor keyword analysis
  • Generates 2x more keywords
  • Bulk search volume analysis to generate 35,000 keywords per day
  • Access to 5 user accounts

3. Pro Business: This plan costs $159/month, and you get the following features.

  • Search volume data
  • CPC data
  • Google Ads competition data
  • Competitor keyword analysis
  • Generates 2x more keywords
  • 50 API requests
  • Bulk search volume analysis to generate 70,000 keywords per day
  • Access to 10 user accounts

You can get up to 20% instant discount on all their plans if you go with their annual plans.

Why choose KeywordTool.io over Ahrefs?

Here are some of the incredible features to consider KeywordTool.io;

  1. Simplicity and Focus: KeywordTool.io is known for its simplicity and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for users with various levels of experience in SEO. If you prefer a tool that is straightforward and focuses specifically on keyword research, KeywordTool.io may be a suitable choice.
  2. Google Autocomplete Data: KeywordTool.io uses Google Autocomplete data to provide insights into the search queries that users are entering into the Google search bar. This can be valuable for discovering long-tail and user-generated keywords.
  3. Multilingual Support: KeywordTool.io supports multiple languages, allowing users to conduct keyword research for different regions and audiences. If you have a global or multilingual focus, this feature can be beneficial.

KeywordTool.io pros and cons

Pros:

  • You can get up to 750 long tail keyword suggestions for every search term in any niche you are in
  • Unlike Keyword Planner or other similar free keyword research tools, KeywordTool.io is mostly reliable
  • You don’t even have to create an account to use this tool and it’s absolutely for free
  • You can also get questions for your desired keywords (extremely useful if you want to rank for featured snippets or “People also search for” section)
  • You can also get prepositions for your selected keywords

Cons:

  • Search volume, trends, competition and CPC data is only available in their PRO version (using free account, you can only get long tail keyword suggestions)
  • It’s only meant for keyword research and it’s NOT an all in one SEO toolkit unlike Ahrefs, Semrush etc.

Best Free Ahrefs Alternatives

Here are some free alternative options to Ahrefs.

13. Google Keyword Planner

If you’re using Google Ads or thinking about using PPC ads to find relevant keywords to grow your business, Google Keyword Planner is worth giving a try. If you’re looking for a free alternative to Ahrefs just for the keyword research part, Keyword Planner can be a great choice for beginners.

It’s a keyword research tool developed by Google and completely free to use (you just need to login using your GMail account). Here’s how it looks like;

Google Keyword Planner data

Google Keyword Planner feature

  • Keyword Research
  • Search Volume Data
  • Keyword Trends
  • Bid Estimates
  • Keyword Grouping
  • Location and Language Targeting
  • Historical Metrics
  • Ad Position Estimates

Google Keyword Planner Pricing

Google’s keyword planner is completely free to use. You can create an account with your Google account to start using it for free.

Why choose Google keyword planner over Ahrefs?

If you’re looking for free Ahrefs alternatives, Google keyword planner is exclusively for you. Although it doesn’t provide extensive data, it’s a decent keyword tool for beginners. 

Best suited for: If you’re a blogger or small business owner who’s looking for a FREE tool to find keywords for your website, you should definitely try Google Keyword Planner. Not only is it free to use, but it also gives you a ton of keyword suggestions from Google search.

Google Keyword Planner pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easily find the keywords that are most relevant
  • Gives you suggested bid estimates for each keyword (that way you can easily find out your ad budget if you’re looking to promote using PPC ads)
  • You can estimate average monthly search for each keyword
  • You can also find how competitive a keyword is

Cons:

  • Most of the keyword data is not accurate as most of the paid tools
  • The biggest disadvantage is its average monthly searches feature as it doesn’t show accurate results (just gives you an estimate search volume)

14. Keyword Surfer

Keyword Surfer is a FREE Chrome extension that can be used for content and keyword research. It gives you access to important keyword metrics such as search volume, CPC, competition data, and more.

Here’s how it looks like;

keyword surfer interface

Keyword Surfer Features

  • Keyword data from over 70 countries
  • Discover the domain’s monthly traffic, content word count, etc
  • Find great content and keyword ideas in any niche
  • Discover monthly search volumes

Keyword Surfer Pricing

Keyword Surfer is totally free to use forever!

Why choose Keyword Surfer over Ahrefs?

The #1 reason over 200,000 people use Keyword Surfer is it’s free and helps you perform keyword research inside Google Search. 

Best suited for: Keyword Surfer is extremely useful for bloggers, content marketers and SEOs who are looking to find keywords on the go.

Keyword Surfer pros and cons

Pros:

  • 100% free to use
  • Access to CPC data
  • Discover “People Also Search For” data along with search volume
  • You can use the tool on the go while browsing on Google (using its free browser extension)

Cons:

  • Can be used only for keyword research (not an all in one SEO toolkit like Ahrefs or Semrush)

Read: Ahrefs Review: Is It the ONLY SEO Tool You Need in 2024?


FAQs

Here’s a list of some of the frequently asked questions about Ahrefs alternative SEO tools.

Is Ahrefs free?

No, Ahrefs is NOT a free tool. It’s a premium SEO tool. If you want to learn why your competitors are getting top rankings in Google (everything from finding keyword data to backlinks), you can use Ahrefs.

Is Semrush free?

No, Semrush is not a free tool. It’s a premium SEO tool being used by over 10 million people.

What’s the best free keyword research tool?

There are a ton of keyword research tools out there, but there are only a couple of free tools that are actually worth spending your time. They include;

→ Ubersuggest (freemium)
→ KeywordTool.io
→ Google Keyword Planner

Which SEO tool is best?

If you’re looking for the best SEO tool, we HIGHLY recommend Semrush, as it provides you 60+ SEO tools. It is also the most popular SEO toolkit used by over 10 million people worldwide and offers amazing tools like keyword magic, organic research, site audits, and more.

Which is better Ahrefs vs Semush?

Semrush is a powerful SEO toolkit when compared to Ahrefs, as Semrush offers you over 60 SEO tools under one roof. But Ahrefs is a bit cheaper when compared to Semrush as Ahrefs pricing plans start at $99/mo whereas the Semrush pricing starts at $129.95/mo.

Can I use Ahrefs for free?

Although Ahrefs doesn’t offer any free trials, you need to grab their premium plans (starting at $99/mo) to get access to all their features. You can also use Ahrefs backlink checker for free (with limited features) that you can use to check the backlinks of any website.

Check out a few more ultimate SEO tools alternatives:


Final Thoughts

If you are looking for the best SEO tool alternative to Ahrefs, then Semrush is the best option because it offers superior features and more comprehensive data.

You can try Semrush with its 14-day free trial before committing to a subscription. This allows you to assess its capabilities and determine whether it aligns with your needs or if another tool better suits your requirements.

If you’re seeking a budget-friendly alternative, consider exploring options like Serpstat and SE Ranking.

Did you find the above-mentioned Ahrefs alternatives helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

About Author
Anil Agarwal is the Founder of Bloggerspassion. He is a full-time blogger and SEO expert who has been helping people build profitable blogs for over a decade Now. He has been featured in Over 100 Publications including Forbes, The HuffPost, HubSpot, Shopify, Semrush, Kinsta, Bluehost, Hostinger and G2.com etc. Know more about Anil Agarwal from here.

Reader Comments (10)

  1. I wait for a long time for the alternative of the Ahrefs app. Thanks for the great collection of 15 alternative sites, and most of them have the free SEO tool. I really like it so much!

    Reply
  2. Hey ,
    Fantastic article! I really enjoyed this article,Really like this article.I have been losing traffic within the past couple of weeks and I have been looking for other ways to promote my blog posts.
    I hope that you will produce more useful contents in future. I follow your blog regularly. I hope this post will help all bloggers to choose the best tool.

    Thanks so much for the help. Happy Blogging ?

    Reply
  3. Hello Anil,
    Thanks for sharing this post. Although SEMrush and Ahrefs are two of the best SEO tools but these Ahrefs alternatives are no less in competition. When we talk about a free keyword research tool, I totally agree with you that UberSuggest is the preferred choice.

    Reply
  4. Great, SEMrush is the best tool I ever used. its give lots of tools and feature to do Keyword Research, Topic research and lots of other.

    Thanks for sharing these all Awesome ahrefs alternatives.

    Regard
    Ranjit verma

    Reply
  5. Hi Anil Sir,

    You have literally shared awesome content here. I personally love SEMrush and Ahrefs much but as I think there are no tools which will give the accurate data.

    The only thing we should do is self research and analyse by getting ideas from the tools.

    Reply
  6. Wow. A great article. We all are looking for ahref ‘s alternative tool. The 15 tools, you mentioned here are amazing and yes free. A nice collection of SEO tools. Thanks

    Reply
  7. Hi Anil
    Thanks for the list. It was much required for people who don’t want to directly buy Ahrefs subscription. Mostly the people who like to do more research and find a good alternative to ahrefs that actually serves the purpose (like me) would love it.

    Reply
  8. Hi Anil,

    Your list of alternative SEO tools for Ahrefs are astonishing. I have used several of them including Spyfu. In fact, although the other tools will show you relevant keywords your competitors are ranking for, SpyFu goes deeper into the meat to give you a comprehensive data with graphs. I’m happy you added it to the list.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

semrush offer
137 Shares