In case you are reading this, you are likely to be aware that Ahrefs is a highly powerful instrument in the SEO world, but many users today are actively searching for the best Ahrefs alternatives. It is authoritative, famous, and can be referred to as one of the best tools to use in inspecting backlinks and keywords. But it is becoming more costly as well.

To a substantial number of freelancers, small business owners, and agencies, the increasing prices and the bewildering credit structure are compelling them to seek lower prices, pushing interest toward the best Ahrefs alternatives across the SEO community. You, at least, are not alone. The global market of SEO software is expanding at an accelerated rate and is estimated to be approximately 85 billion dollars in 2025, and will increase significantly in the coming decade.

Why the shift? Ahrefs currently has an index of over 456 billion pages and 28 billion keywords, but people are discovering that they do not necessarily need this kind of data to rank a blog post or a local business location. Considering that more than 60 percent of agencies have less than $1,000 monthly fees for their services, it is not always logical to spend $130-250 to have a single software subscription.

You may prefer to save money, you may not want to have usage limits, or you may simply want an easier-to-use tool. This guide has it all.

Ahrefs and Its Role in SEO  

We should first have an idea of what Ahrefs really does before we consider alternatives, so you are aware of what you are sacrificing. Ahrefs was initially primarily a backlink analysis tool to know who is linking to your site, as well as your competitors.

With time, it has turned into an all-inclusive SEO suite. Today it can:  

• Scan your site to identify the technical flaws that damage your rankings.  
• Keyword search to know what your customers are looking at.  
• Monitor your Google standings to know whether you are rising or falling.  
• Research content on what is trending in your niche.  

Ahrefs Pricing Explained (Why It is so Expensive)?  

Ahrefs is not cheap since it operates on a web crawler that constantly scans the whole internet. It owns servers, data centers, and storage systems, which are comparable to search engines such as Bing or Yahoo.  

Their pricing model also possesses the so-called Credit System, which is frustrating to many users:  

• Lite Plan (~$129/month): Very limited. Simply by clicking around reports, you can use up your credits.  
• Standard Plan (~$249/month): More affordable, yet too expensive to use when running a solo business.  
• Enterprise: Thousands of dollars every month.  

The big data infrastructure of Ahrefs is what you are paying for. When you do not require petabytes of data, then you are basically paying for a gym membership, though you are going to use the treadmill.

Why People Look for Ahrefs Alternatives.  

There is no alternative that will be found just because it is cheaper.

When it comes to finding an alternative, it will be about the perfect fit. Some of the reasons why people are moving away are as follows:  

1. Hidden costs of credits  

It is as though you have subscribed to Netflix, but you can only view five movies in a month. Each report or filter requires the use of a credit. The cost of running out is more, or it takes a month.  

2. Overwhelming features  

Ahrefs can give a novice a feeling that he/she is in the cockpit of a fighter jet when he/she just wish to write a blog post. The charts, graphs, and metrics they have are too many to be basic SEO success.  

3. Budget constraints  

When you are a startup or a freelancer making 500 out of a customer, spending 129 on a tool is a huge chunk of the money, which is why many look toward the best Ahrefs alternatives that offer better value. Users desire those tools that will provide them with unlimited searches or a large data quota at a fixed rate.

Are there any free alternatives to Ahrefs?  

The short answer is: Yes and No.  

No, there exists no single free tool that would do all the things that Ahrefs does, such as backlinks, keywords, site audit, rank tracking, etc., all in one.  

Yes, you can substitute Ahrefs with several free potent tools from Google. In case you do not mind having two or three tabs rather than a single dashboard, then you can do 90 percent of the work at no cost.  

• Keywords: Google Keyword Planner.  
• As a technical SEO tool, Google Search Console.  
• For trends: Google Trends.  

These will be outlined in the list below.

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Comparison Table: Ahrefs vs Best Alternatives.  

This is a brief preview to assist you in determining the right tool that suits your requirements.

Tool	Best For	Key Strength	Pricing (Starting)	Free Plan	Ideal User
Ahrefs	Backlinks & deep SEO	Largest backlink index, strong keyword data	~$129/month	❌ No	Advanced SEOs, link builders
Semrush	All-in-one marketing	SEO + PPC + Content + Social tools	~$129.95/month	❌ No	Agencies, pro marketers
Ubersuggest	Budget SEO	Simple keyword & content ideas	~$21/month	✅ Limited	Bloggers, freelancers
Google Keyword Planner	Keyword volume	Direct data from Google	Free	✅ Yes	Beginners, advertisers
Google Search Console	Site performance	Real clicks & impressions	Free	✅ Yes	All website owners
Google Trends	Trend analysis	Seasonal & rising topics	Free	✅ Yes	Content writers
Moz Pro	Clean SEO data	Domain Authority, on-page SEO	~$49/month	❌ No	Consultants, local SEO
SE Ranking	Value for money	Flexible pricing, white-label reports	~$52/month	❌ No	Small & mid agencies
Serpstat	Keyword gaps	Missing keywords & clustering	~$50/month	❌ No	Growth hackers
Mangools	Long-tail keywords	Easy UI, accurate keyword difficulty	~$24.65/month	❌ No	Bloggers, affiliates
SpyFu	Competitor spying	PPC & keyword history	~$39/month	❌ No	PPC-focused marketers

10 Best Ahrefs Alternatives (Free & Paid Tools Compared)

The following are the best tools that would be used instead of Ahrefs based on their strengths.

1. Semrush (Top Paid Alternative).

Semrush is regarded as the largest competitor with Ahrefs and is commonly selected as one of the best Ahrefs alternatives due to its versatility as an SEO tool. Whereas Ahrefs has a great deal on backlinks, Semrush deals with much more of digital marketing. It does not just consider SEO; it is also useful in paid advertising, social media, and content marketing. It contains much information in the interface, but tends to be easy to use by marketing departments that require presenting results to customers.

It has a massive database and can update the keyword information more quickly than most of its competitors. In case Ahrefs is a specialist, Semrush is a generalist capable of doing much.

Key Features:

• Domain Overview: How competitors acquire organic traffic and paid ads.  
• Keyword Magic Tool: Idea Generator of Millions of Keywords.  
• Site Audit: Discovers over 130 technical and SEO errors on your site.  
• Writing Assistant: Assists you in writing search engine-friendly content immediately.  
• Social Media Toolkit: Plan and monitor the feeds on various social sites.  

Where it can Replace Ahrefs: It can fully compete with Ahrefs in Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, and Site Auditing. It is also superior to Ahrefs when it comes to paid advertisements and local SEO information.  
Pricing: Starts at $165 per month.  
Best Suited for: Marketing companies and individuals seeking a single application in SEO, advertisements, and social media.  
Website: semrush.com

2. Ubersuggest (Less expensive Alternative)

Ubersuggest is a marketing tool created by Neil Patel, a marketing expert, and developed in such a way that any user can easily use the tools of SEO, making it one of the best Ahrefs alternatives for beginners. It simplifies the process of using big tools and provides you with only the information necessary to rank: keyword ideas, content ideas, and simple site audits. The interface is attractive, easy to use, and user-friendly, ideal for beginners.

It lacks the huge backlink database that Ahrefs offers, but it offers a sufficient amount of data for small to medium-sized businesses to identify competitors and identify good keywords. It is the champion of SEO tools of the people.

Key Features:

• Keyword Discovery: Displays the volume of search, difficulty, and CPC of raw keywords.  
• Top SEO Pages: Displays the pages of the competitors that receive the highest traffic.  
• Site Audit: This is a basic health check that informs you about what to do to rectify the problems.  
• Daily Keyword Tracking: Tracks your desktop and mobile.  
• Chrome Extension: See SEO information on searches on Google.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: Excellent Keyword Research and Simple Competitor Analysis. It is not that in-depth in terms of backlink research, but it includes the basics of the same.  
Pricing: Starts at $21 per month. A lifetime deal is likely to be about $209.  
Best suited for: Bloggers, writers, freelancers, and small business owners who operate on tight budgets.  
Website: ubersuggest.com

3. Free Keyword Research (Google Keyword Planner).

Most other tools use this as the primary source of data, which is why it often supports many of the best Ahrefs alternatives in keyword research. GKP helps Google Ads advertisers; however, it can be helpful to SEOs as well. Since the information is direct from Google, it is precise in search trends. It does not provide a “Keyword Difficulty” rating, such as Ahrefs, but informs you of the number of people searching a query as well as the amount of money advertisers will pay to advertise it.

It is not as visually oriented, and it is more clinical than paid tools, yet it is totally free if you have a Google Ads account (free to create).

Key Features:

• Search Volume Data: Precise monthly search indicators of Google.  
• Forecasts: The future performance of keywords.  
• Related Keywords: Google will give you some keywords that you have not thought of.  
• Bid Estimates: The Estimates of the commercial value of a keyword (high bid = high value).  
• Location: Filtering Zoom in on keyword data for particular cities or regions.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: It substitutes the data on search volume and new topic ideas on the Keywords Explorer feature.  
Pricing: Free.  
Best Suited for: New users and those who are just interested in getting the raw data without paying, which is offered by Google.  
Website: ads.google.com

4. Google Search Console (Best Free performance tool).

This tool is necessary in case you have a site and is often used alongside the best Ahrefs alternatives for accurate performance tracking. Google Search Console (GSC) will assist you in monitoring, maintaining, and correcting the presence of your site in the Google search results. Whereas Ahrefs estimates the traffic, GSC displays the actual traffic in terms of clicks and impressions to your site. This informs you whether Google cannot read your pages or if security issues are involved.

This is the best place to find the truth in relation to the performance of your site, since it is an official source of truth as given by the search engine itself. It does not examine competition, but, on its part, is invincible on your site.

Key Features:

• Performance Report: Displays the precise number of clicks, impressions, and average ranking position.  
• Index Coverage: This is a message that gives you the pages that Google has indexed.  
• URL Interrogation: Determine whether a particular page is in good health and mobile.  
• Core Web Vitals: The tool for analyzing your site’s speed and user experience.  
• Links Report: Displays the best sites that link to you and your internal links
• Links Report: This will show you the best sites that link to you and your links internally.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: Substitutes Ahrefs Site Audit and Rank Tracker in your own projects.  
Pricing: Free.  
Best suited for: All single website owners.
Website: search.google.com/search-console

5. Google Trends (Best for Trend Analysis)

SEO is a matter of timing, and Google Trends is the timing guru, which makes it one of the most practical Ahrefs alternatives for trend analysis. This tool indicates the number of individuals who search for a term within a period of time. Ahrefs may claim that a keyword is searched 1000 times in a month, but Google Trends will reveal whether those 1000 searches are in December (seasonal) or the topic is becoming less popular.

It is ideal to plan content and hot news. It allows you to juxtapose two issues and understand which ones people are more interested in. It is easy, graphics, and it will make you not write about what people are no longer interested in.

 Key Features:

• Trend Graphs: These are lines that indicate the interest with the passage of time (last hour and last 5 years).  
• Regional Interest: Which topics are the most popular (i.e., California vs)? New York  
• Investigations Apparent Surging Topics: discover the hottest topics suddenly surging.  
• Comparison Tool: It allows a comparison of up to 5 terms, anddetermines which one wins.  
• Search Trends in Real Time: Search What searchers are currently searching.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: Substitutes the Ahrefs Content Explorer trend data.  
Pricing: Free.  
Best suited for: Content writers, journalists, and market researchers.  
Website: trends.google.com  

6. Moz Pro  

Moz is a renowned and one of the oldest names in the SEO field and is often counted among reliable Ahrefs alternatives for long-term SEO work. They developed the measure of the Domain Authority (DA), which is used by many people nowadays. The Moz Pro is highly informative and user-friendly. It concentrates on clean data and assists in enhancing the on-page SEO. Their Keyword Explorer is also reputed to be easy to use and provide excellent suggestion of questions. Even though its crawler is not as quick as Ahrefs, Moz is efficient in local search and business directories. It is not as much like dumping data as it is being guided.

Key Features:

• Domain Authority (DA): The most common tool for measuring the power of the site.  
• Link Explorer: Disavow, take a look, and see what spammy links are on your backlinks.  
• On-Page Grader: Scan a page and receive a grade and advice to fix it.  
• Keyword Explorer: The words are ranked based on Difficulty, Opportunity, and Potential.  
• Moz Local: (Add‑on) very powerful when it comes to local business listing management.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: Good substitute to Site Audits and Keyword Research, particularly to users who care about the metric precision of their results rather than its sheer volume.  
Pricing: Starts at $49/month.  
Best suited for: SEO consultants and amateurs who need a stable and consistent tool.  
Website: moz.com  

7. SE Ranking  

SE Ranking is regarded as the most suitable tool at the moment in terms of value for money and is often listed among the best Ahrefs alternatives for budget-conscious users. It has high-end features that compete with Ahrefs and Semrush at a lower price. It is also unique due to its flexible pricing, whereby once you check ranks in a week rather than on a daily basis, you will pay less. It offers a full package: keyword research, competitor analysis, backlinks, and a so-called White Label option to agencies to brand reports. Its interface is simple, contemporary, and highly user-friendly, and thus popular with expanding agencies.

 Key Features:

• 100% Accurate Tracking of Ranks: Checks your positions in terms of keywords anywhere around the globe.  
• Website Audit: Atechnicall audit that crawls 1,000 pages in a short amount of time.  
• Backlink Monitoring: Monitoring of your backlinks and any loss of backlinks is alerted.  
• Marketing Plan: This is a list of SEO activities specific to your site (good for beginners).  
• Social Media Management: Social channel auto-posting and analytics.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: Substitutes much of the functionality of Ahrefs (Tracking, Auditing, Research) at approximately half the price.  
Pricing: Begins with pricing of about $52/month (depends on how often tracking takes place).  
Best suited for: Agency-based and in-house/company SEO departments (small to mid-size).  
Website: seranking.com  

8. Serpstat  

Serpstat started as a very basic tool for researching keywords, but it has been expanding to become one of the favorite Growth Hacking Tools in Eastern Europe and later globally. It is a good and cheap alternative that is data-loving. Among the features is the highlight of the site feature known as Missing Keywords that displays precisely which keywords your competitors are ranking that you are not ranking. It also provides us with Batch Analysis that helps to conduct numerous domains simultaneously. It is slightly as technical as Ubersuggest yet not as overwhelming as Ahrefs, which makes it the right compromise.  

 Key Features:

• Competitor Analysis: Comfortable analysis of competitor traffic and advertisement strategy.  
• Keyword Clustering: Autoclusters Keywords in topic clusters (saves an enormous amount of time).  
• Text Analytics: It is an AI tool that suggests words to be included in your work.  
• Lost Keys: Discover holes in your content strategy in real-time.  
• Batch Analysis: Prepare measures on 100 domains at a time.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: A good alternative to Keyword Research and Competitor Gap Analysis.  
Pricing: Starts at $50/month.  
Best Suited for: Technical SEOs and growth hackers who wish to be efficient.
Website: serpstat.com

9. Mangools (KWFinder)

Mangools is not an individual tool, but rather a collection of 5 so-called mini-apps, the most well-known of which is KWFinder, and it is often considered among the best Ahrefs alternatives for keyword-focused SEO. It is the most beautiful and best-designed SEO tool in the market. Mangools will be your favorite if you despise spreadsheets and complicated dashboards. KWFinder is also excellent when it comes to identifying so-called Long-Tail Keywords, i.e., those that are specific, low-competition, and that are easy to gain ranking.

It provides you with an extremely precise score of Keyword Difficulty. Tools to track the rank ( SERPWatcher ) and backlink analysis ( LinkMiner ) are also included in the suite; their superpower is Keyword Research.

Key Features:

•  Keyword Finder: The long-tail keywords that are easy to rank and highly accurate.  
• SERP Checker: Use this site to analyze the search results of Google on any location to find out who you are competing with.  
• SERP Watcher: Monitors your ranks using the single index of Dominance.  
• Browser Extension: It is a little gadget that allows you to check traffic in your search engine.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: It is the most appropriate replacement for the Keywords Explorer component of Ahrefs, particularly when it comes to locating low-hanging fruit.  
Pricing: Starts at $24.65/month.  
Best suited for: Bloggers, affiliate marketers, and design-conscious users.  
Website: mangools.com  

10. SpyFu (Best in Competitor Espionage)

Given that Ahrefs is the library of SEO statistics, SpyFu is the industry detective in disguise and is often mentioned among the best Ahrefs alternatives for deep competitor analysis. This tool, as the name implies, is full of spying on your competition in order to know specifically what is working with them. Whereas Ahrefs provides general information, SpyFu is more detailed regarding the history of the past marketing strategies of your competition.

It is known to reveal to you not only the keywords that a particular site currently ranks on, but also all of the keywords they have purchased on Google AdSense in the past 15-years. It eliminates the guesswork in SEO because you can immediately download the most profitable keywords and ad copy of your competitors.

Key Features:

• PPC Competitor Research PPC Research: View all the keywords your opponent has ever purchased through Google Ads.  
• SEO Competitor Analysis: View all the organic keyword positions of your competitor and their history.  
• Combat Capabilities: A Venn diagram indicating keywords you share with your competitor (and where you are losing).  
• Unlimited Data: On the paid plans, unlike Ahrefs, SpyFu provides unlimited search and data downloads.  

Where it can replace Ahrefs: It is a better substitute for the site explorer and competitor analysis features of Ahrefs when applied to a paid ad (PPC), as well as search engine analysis.  
Pricing: It begins with $39/month (reduced promo deals are usually available).  
Best suited for: marketers and companies that have a strong habit of competitor research and Google AdSense.  
Website: spyfu.com  

Ahrefs vs Semrush: Which one is better?  

It is the largest controversy in the SEO business. They are both titans, though they have slightly different masters.  

Feature	Ahrefs	Semrush
Primary Strength	Backlink analysis	All-in-one digital marketing
Keyword Research	Very strong	Very strong (larger variety)
Backlink Database	Bigger & deeper	Slightly smaller
Site Audit	Good	More detailed & beginner-friendly
Rank Tracking	Credit-based	Unlimited (plan-based)
PPC & Ads Data	Limited	Excellent
Social Media Tools	❌ Not available	✅ Available
Credit System	✅ Yes (restrictive)	❌ No
Ease of Use	Better for experts	Better for teams & beginners
Pricing	~$129/month	~$129.95/month
Best For	Link builders, advanced SEOs	Agencies, full-stack marketers

The Verdict:  

• Select Ahrefs when you are more interested in link building, and you are not a beginner in technical SEO knowledge of SEO.  
• Select Semrush when you want to have an all-in-one SEO, Content, and Social Media tool, and hate using credits.  

How to Choose the Best Ahrefs Alternatives Tool

Category	Best Tool	Why This Tool Works
Best for Beginners	Ubersuggest	Simple interface, easy keywords, and basic site audits
Best Free Option	Google Search Console	Real data from Google, shows clicks, errors, and performance
Best for Keyword Research	Mangools (KWFinder)	Finds easy long-tail keywords with low competition
Best All-in-One Tool	Semrush	SEO, PPC, content, and social tools in one dashboard
Best Budget Tool	SE Ranking	Powerful features at a lower price with flexible plans
Best for Competitor Research	SpyFu	Reveals competitor keywords and ad history
Best for Local SEO	Moz Pro	Strong local SEO tools and Domain Authority insights
Best for Trend Analysis	Google Trends	Real data from Google shows clicks, errors, and performance

Conclusion  

Ahrefs is an excellent tool, which is no longer the sole player in the field, and choosing among the best Ahrefs alternatives is now all a matter of who you are:

• In the Low-End: Ubersuggest or Mangools. They will provide 80 percent of the power at 20 percent of the cost.
• To the “Free” Seeker: Learn how to use Google Search Console + Google Keyword Planner. It is a little more manual labor, but free.
• Switch to Semrush: For the Pro Marketer. You can have more (such as social media and PPC tools) at approximately the same cost without the irritating credit limits.

It is not the tool but the strategy of SEO. Select the one in accordance with your workflow and budget, and begin ranking!

FAQs  

Does it have a totally free competitor to Ahrefs?  

There is no single free tool that has the same capabilities as Ahrefs. Nevertheless, the free combination of Google Search Console (to monitor the health of the site) and Google Keyword Planner (to plan the keywords) will address the majority of the basics.  

Semrush or Ahrefs: Which is cheaper?  

On paper, they look similar (~$130/mo). Semrush is, however, cheaper in reality since it provides much more data and capabilities without the rigid credit usage restrictions that make Ahrefs users upgrade.  

Is Ubersuggest sufficient for SEO?  

Yes, for 90% of users. Ubersuggest offers all the needed information (keywords, mistakes, rankings) to achieve success without an enterprise-level solution, which is what a small business, a blogger, or a freelancer will need.  

Why is Ahrefs so expensive?  

Ahrefs has its own huge web crawlers and data centers, where they scan the entire internet. You are the one paying the colossal price of storage and processing of petabytes of live data.