We review pricing and features regularly, but check them on the official site before subscribing. How we review.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is one of the two big SEO suites on the market, best known for its backlink index, the most complete in the industry. It covers keyword research, competitor analysis, technical audits and rank tracking, and its Brand Radar module measures how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.
Pros
- The best backlink index on the market
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for your own verified site
- Brand Radar measures your visibility in AI answers
- A $29/month Starter plan for those who only need the basics
Cons
- No full free plan: the entire suite is paid
- Brand Radar's AI indexes cost extra ($199/month per platform)
- The good plans require an annual commitment
What Ahrefs is like in practice
Where it stands out
Its link index has no rival: it crawls more and updates sooner, so it sees links other tools take weeks to register. If your strategy depends on watching backlink profiles — yours or competitors' — that advantage is the entire reason to pay for it, and no cheap alternative matches it.
Where it falls short
It is expensive with no affordable entry tier, which leaves out small projects that only want rankings and technical errors. It caps by query credits, so working fast burns through your plan. And its search volumes in small Spanish niches are estimates worth cross-checking before trusting.
How its pricing works
Plans start high and scale by projects and credits. The honest question before subscribing is whether you will use the link analysis: if not, you are paying premium for features tools at a third of the price cover just as well. Search Console is still free and gives real data about your own site.
Is Ahrefs right for you?
Yes, if…
You do SEO professionally and link analysis is part of the job: it has the best backlink index there is. If you only want to monitor your own site, Webmaster Tools is free.
No, if…
You have a small project or a tight budget: the useful plans start at $129/month with an annual commitment, and the AI visibility modules cost extra.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ahrefs have a free version?
Not of the full suite. It offers standalone free tools and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools free for sites you own and verify. The cheapest paid plan is Starter at $29/month.
Ahrefs or Semrush?
Ahrefs leads on backlinks and link data; Semrush is broader on advertising, content and social media. For pure SEO they are equivalent; most professionals choose based on the module they use most.
What is Brand Radar?
The module that measures how your brand appears in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. It is available to all users, but the advanced AI indexes are billed separately.
Compare Ahrefs head to head
Pricing, features and limits of Ahrefs against its direct rivals.
Where Ahrefs appears
Rankings where we have picked this tool.