Ahrefs starts at $108 a month, which adds up to about $1,200 a year for a plan designed for small businesses. If you’re a freelance SEO consultant or run an enterprise, you'll be shelling out anywhere between $2,400 to $14,990 per year.
Having used Ahrefs for nearly eight years across freelance and full-time content marketing roles, I understand why you might choose it over other SEO tools. Ahrefs has come a long way since its days as a link-building tool ten years back. Today, it packs a lot of features like site audit, AI content grader, and Pages 2.0 report.
But let’s address the big question: is Ahrefs worth it? Spoiler alert: I won’t give you the classic ‘it depends’ answer we often hear in most SEO and content marketing conversations.
For context, some users noted a 29% price increase earlier this year, which probably makes you think about potential future price hikes. On the flip side, Ahrefs launched a more affordable Starter plan, which gives you 100 credits for $29 every month.
While you can continue using their free webmaster tools, what should you evaluate when considering an upgrade? Continue reading my deep dive for those very answers.
Ahrefs ranks #14 according to G2’s Fall 2024 Grid Report for SEO tools. Buyers are encouraged to consider individual needs when making purchase decisions.
Skip this section if you aren’t new to SEO.
Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free trial. Comparing Ahrefs' free SEO tools with the paid versions isn’t really fair. Most of the free tools they offer are for simple tasks beginners may find useful. But if you’re hoping to get serious work done, these free tools won’t take you far.
| Features | Free Tools | Paid Plan |
| Dashboard | ||
| Site explorer | ||
| Keyword explorer | ||
| Site audit | ||
| Rank tracker | ||
| Competitive analysis | ||
| SERP history | ||
| Page inspect |
Ahrefs offers eight free SEO tools:
As you can see, these tools are quite limited. That said, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools gives website owners limited free access to site explorer and site audit features. Let’s get to the good part and see if the paid plans are worth your money.
G2 users admire Ahrefs’ site explorer, backlink checker, competitive analysis, keyword explorer, site audit, and opportunities features. I totally agree—these features are a goldmine for SEO and content marketing professionals who need data to figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs fixing. Let’s see how these features can help you:
This is the section where you land after logging into Ahrefs. Site explorer analyzes a website’s organic traffic, total keywords, and backlinks. The best part of this feature is that it compiles all this SEO data into a single dashboard.
One thing I really like about site explorer is how it gives location-specific traffic insights. Plus, I can connect these insights with content changes and algorithm updates, shown by green circles and "a" symbols on the timeline.
Site explorer also shows you organic keywords by intent, lists your top organic competitors, and categorizes crawled pages with their HTTP codes.
“Ahrefs offers a lot of features with an abundance of data to help better analysis, such as the Site Explorer tool to see where a site stands in its overall performance, the Keyword Explorer tool to find trending low competition keywords to work on, the Site Audit feature to audit how effective the efforts are and to identify gaps, and the Rank Tracker tool to see how the site is performing in comparison to competitors.”
- Ahrefs Review, Jayant G., Search Engine Optimization Analyst
The Backlink checker does what it says; it shows you the complete backlink profile of a website.
Most SEO tools offer something similar, but I like the variety of filters you can use here. For example, you can filter backlinks by types, DR of websites from where they come, traffic of referring domains, anchor text, and even by date range.
“I cannot not mention the backlink profile. This tool is excellent for checking the quality and quantity of backlinks both for my website and my competitors. Seeing the link growth over time, the top referring domains, and the overall backlink profile helps me fine-tune my link-building strategies.”
- Ahrefs Review, Sanjay G., Content Strategy Head
This feature helps with a content gap analysis of your website by comparing what your competitors rank for versus what you don’t. Enter your website’s domain and one or two competitor URLs to get started.
The content gap report offers a ton of data, but you must know why you’re doing the competitive analysis in the first place. That’s when you can use the different filters like SERP features, keyword difficulty, keyword, and search volume in the right way.
For example, if I’m working on a featured snippet project, it makes sense to track which keywords my competitors use to drive traffic from featured snippets and AI overviews (AIOs). I’m not saying you have to write using these keywords. But if you already have content targeting them, it might be worth optimizing them to rank for featured snippets or AIOs.
This is perhaps the most commonly used tool by beginners and pros alike. Keyword research tool lets you analyze keywords, their search volumes, CPC, CTR, and the history of SERP positions.
I love how Ahrefs has evolved over the past few years to provide more keyword data. You can filter keywords by parent topic, check how their search volumes have changed over the last year, see their traffic potential, and even assess their intent.
Another standout feature for me is the ability to compare today’s SERP with what it looked like three or six months ago. It works great when you’re trying to figure out whether your article traffic has dropped due to intent shifts or competitor advancements.
You can also use AI to find pain points, technical concepts, and subtopics related to your topics.
Keyword explorer helps find data on specific keywords but doesn’t automatically discover new keywords to target.
“I like how Keyword Explorer provides the keyword with its difficulty and click ratio. Click ratio is very important for us; it's the true metric that helps us understand whether to make it a primary or secondary keyword.”
- Ahrefs Review, Nitin R., Vice President SEO
Ahrefs’ site audit features crawls and scans your website pages for over 170 technical and on-page issues, including core web vitals, indexability, social tags, redirects, and JS/CSS issues. In the end, you get a health score that shows the proportion of error-free internal URLs on your site. You also get recommendations on fixing technical and on-page SEO issues.
My take on it? You don’t have to be in technical SEO to get the most out of the site audit feature. I recently used the site audit to find and fix pages with broken links and 404 errors as part of an interlinking project.
“I've never seen such an in-depth yet easy-to-understand breakdown of my website's health. From performance issues to broken links, from security issues to content quality, Ahrefs' site audit tool gives me a detailed report with suggestions for fixes. It's almost like having a personal SEO consultant!”
- Ahrefs Review, Sanjay G., Content Strategy Head
When you enter a website URL in Site Explorer, you’ll come across the Opportunities feature on the left panel. This section shows you low-hanging fruit keywords, featured snippet opportunities, content with declining traffic, and so much more.
This feature comes in handy when I want to quickly evaluate different opportunities before pursuing them.
Enough about the good stuff; let’s look at where Ahrefs falls short.
The infamous credit system, along with high pricing and poor customer support, seems to be the top reasons why G2 users dislike Ahrefs. Let’s break these down.
Ahrefs tracks data usage with credits. All tools except Site Audit and Rank Tracker consume 1 credit when you access reports, apply filters, or request new data. Standalone tools like Batch Analysis, Page Inspect, and Looker Studio also use credits when you access them.
All pricing plans, except the Lite plan, come with unlimited credits. On the Lite plan, you get up to 500 credits per user each month, and if you go over that limit, you’ll be charged extra.
For users on the Lite plan, additional credits cost:
Many users aren’t big fans of this credit system, especially agencies managing multiple accounts.
“The credit system is not ideal for agency users. I have a yearly subscription of $1990, but it would cost me an additional $500 to $600 per month, resulting in a total cost of around $8000 per year. With this budget, there are many other options available in the market. It wouldn't cost as much even if I choose to use 2 to 3 tools simultaneously.”
- Ahrefs Review, Yannick X., Small Business
Users find Ahrefs’ pricing models complex because of the credit system. Some have also noted that Ahrefs' prices are relatively higher than those of other SEO tools available on the market.
“It's pricing is always changing. After being forced to migrate from a legacy account, I migrated to a more expensive plan. After a few weeks of using it, I realized I couldn't use to tool anymore because I hit my usage limit. That limit? 600 events a month.
I've never used a tool that is this expensive and has a basic usage limit. I pay over $2,000 a year to be heavily restricted in the usage of the tool. How am I expected to drive value and learn new features and functionalities of the tool if I can't even use it to the day-to-day requirement level?”
- Ahrefs Review, Levi O., Associate Director, Content Marketing
Users also cite a lack of empathetic customer service as another reason they dislike Ahrefs. Some reviews point out that users couldn’t reach their CSMs when they needed help.
“If you made your account over two weeks ago, you are locked out of new features under the same plan at the same price. The lady from the live chat insisted the only way to fix it was to cancel our account and start a new one.
This is insane. Are new features being locked out from existing subscribers at the same level? At previous positions, I was able to use the beta version of new features. Now, I can't even get what I paid for.
Customer service was of absolutely no help. Just the same circles over and over. And when I tried to reach out to the support email, it just took me to the same exact person who refused to help us.”
- Ahrefs Review, Brandon S., Search Engine Optimization Manager
Ahrefs offers four pricing options: Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise.
While Ahrefs continues to be a popular choice among content marketing and SEO professionals, G2 users also recommend tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, Moz Pro, and SE Ranking.
No, Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free trial, which can make it challenging for new users to determine whether it’s the right fit for them.
Ahrefs isn’t a free SEO tool. However, website owners can access Ahrefs Webmaster tools like Site Explorer and Site Audit for free.
According to a study conducted by AuthorityHacker, Ahrefs has an average discrepancy of 22.5% and 0.99 correlation with Google Search Console (GSC) data. This shows that Ahrefs’ quality of search traffic estimations is at par with GSC.
If you’re just looking at price, Ahrefs comes out cheaper if you pay annually. Semrush costs $117.33 a month, while Ahrefs costs $108 per month on a yearly plan.
Ahrefs offers in-depth backlink analysis, content gap identification, and keyword research, while Semrush provides robust features for SEO, PPC, social media management, and competitive analysis. I feel Ahrefs suits content marketers focused on organic growth, whereas Semrush is best for agencies managing multiple aspects of digital marketing.
Moz is cheaper than Ahrefs. On a yearly plan, Ahrefs costs $108 per month, while Moz starts at just $39 per month. While both SEO tools focus on Google, Moz also provides you with data from search engines like Yahoo and Bing.
A 2022 study by Tylor Hermanson and his team found Ahrefs ranked for twice as many keywords as Semrush, which itself had more than double the keywords of Moz. For Tylor’s clients, Ahrefs delivered nearly five times the amount of ranking keywords compared to Moz.
Ahrefs and Moz offer comparable entry-level pricing. Semrush's entry-level plan is slightly higher at $117.33 per month. I'd recommend focusing on your specific needs and budget while comparing Ahrefs with other SEO tools.
Ahrefs is safe for improving website visibility and organic traffic. However, depending on the credit card you use, it may ask for the last four digits of your Social Security number when you create an account. This can be an issue if you're using a company card.
I promised I wouldn’t give you the classic “it depends” answer. So, let's cut to the chase: Ahrefs is worth the investment if it aligns with your goals and team structure.
Any investment in content marketing tools is only worthwhile if it helps you improve the metrics that matter most to your business.
So, here’s what you should ask yourself: who on your team will actually use Ahrefs, and how? If your answer doesn’t involve at least two people, you might be better off sticking with Google Search Console and Google Keyword Planner.
But if you’re thinking about getting Ahrefs for a team of writers, content strategists, and SEO specialists, you’ve got to ask yourself a few questions. Is your team aligned on goals to fully benefit from Ahrefs' offerings? Do you need comprehensive data beyond what free tools provide? Do you have the budget to support a long-term subscription? Do you have the metrics to measure success with Ahrefs? Can Ahrefs integrate smoothly into your current workflow?
If you answered yes to all of the above, go for it! But if budget is a sticking point, plenty of alternatives offer similar competitive insights to help you drive SEO results.
Check out six AIO strategies that your SEO and content marketing team can use to drive traffic to your website.
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