Ahrefs Review - Features, Pricing & Deals

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset that helps businesses and marketers improve their online visibility. Since its launch in 2010, it has grown to serve millions of users, including major companies like Shopify, LinkedIn, and Adobe.

The platform offers essential SEO tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, and site auditing. Users can track their Google rankings, identify technical issues, and discover new content opportunities through its extensive database of over 15 billion web pages.

A standout feature is the Site Explorer, which lets you analyze any website's backlink profile and traffic patterns. The Keywords Explorer helps you find valuable search terms from a database of 12 billion keywords across 216 locations. For technical optimization, the Site Audit tool checks for more than 160 common SEO issues.

Plans start at $29 monthly for beginners, with more comprehensive options available for growing teams and enterprises. Each tier includes access to core features like rank tracking and site auditing, while higher tiers offer additional tools and expanded limits.

Regular data updates keep the platform current, with fresh backlinks added every 15 minutes and daily processing of up to 8 billion pages. The interface is straightforward, making it accessible for both newcomers and experienced SEO professionals.

• Site Explorer: Analyze comprehensive website performance by examining backlink profiles, site structures, and organic traffic across multiple search engines and platforms.
• Keywords Explorer: Access a massive database of 12 billion keywords across 216 global locations to discover valuable keyword opportunities with detailed difficulty scores and search volume insights.
• Rank Tracker: Monitor Google rankings for your website and competitors across 190 locations on desktop and mobile devices with real-time tracking and change alerts.
• Site Audit: Identify and resolve over 160 technical SEO issues, providing comprehensive insights into site speed, security, mobile-friendliness, and Core Web Vitals performance.
• Content Explorer: Search through 15.3 billion web pages to find content ideas, analyze performance metrics, and discover potential link-building opportunities.
• Backlink Checker: Explore an extensive backlink database updated every 15 minutes, offering detailed metrics like Domain Rating and link type analysis.
• Web Explorer: Analyze individual web pages for deep SEO insights, combining page-level metrics with comprehensive performance data.

• Starter Plan at $29 per month offers SEO beginners essential tools like Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, and Rank Tracker with 100 monthly credits.
• Lite Plan provides more advanced features at $129 monthly ($108 annually), supporting 3 users, 750 tracked keywords, and 500 credits per user.
• Standard Plan costs $249 monthly ($208 annually), ideal for freelancers with unlimited credits, 2,000 tracked keywords, and support for 6 users.
• Advanced Plan at $449 monthly ($374 annually) suits small marketing teams, offering unlimited credits, 5,000 tracked keywords, and support for 11 users.
• Enterprise Plan features custom pricing with unlimited projects, users, 10,000 tracked keywords, and additional enterprise-level capabilities.
• API Access Plans range from $500 monthly (500,000 API rows) to $10,000 monthly (30,000,000 API rows) for advanced data integration needs.

Ahrefs stands out from other SEO tools with its superior backlink database, which updates every 15 minutes. While SEMrush offers more marketing features beyond SEO, Ahrefs focuses on deeper SEO analysis. Ahrefs allows unlimited projects on most plans, making it popular with agencies handling multiple clients. Its keyword research also includes unique metrics like "traffic potential" that show how much traffic a page might get. The user interface is straightforward and less cluttered than competitors, which helps new users get started quickly.

The Starter plan gives you 100 credits per month, Lite offers 500 credits per user, while Standard and higher plans include unlimited credits per user. Credits are spent when you run reports or request new data. If you run out of credits on the Starter or Lite plans, you'll need to wait until they reset the next month or upgrade your plan. Some tools like Site Audit and Rank Tracker don't use credits at all. You can always see your remaining credits in your account dashboard.

Yes! Ahrefs Rank Tracker lets you monitor both your rankings and your competitors' across 190 locations worldwide. You can track keywords on both desktop and mobile devices, and set up alerts to notify you when rankings change. The Lite plan allows tracking up to 750 keywords, Standard supports 2,000, and Advanced offers 5,000. You can add multiple competitors to your projects to compare performance side-by-side. The tool also shows SERP features like featured snippets and image packs that appear for your tracked keywords.

Ahrefs recently added AI-enhanced keyword suggestions in Keywords Explorer to help with content brainstorming. They also offer an AI Content Helper as a paid add-on that analyzes search intent and suggests content improvements. This tool helps you create content that matches what Google expects for specific keywords. Unlike some competitors, Ahrefs focuses on using AI to improve SEO decisions rather than replacing human writers. Their AI tools aim to help you understand what to write about rather than writing the content for you.

Ahrefs' keyword data comes from their database of over 12 billion keywords across 216 locations. While no third-party tool has perfect accuracy compared to Google's own data, Ahrefs is considered among the most reliable. Their search volume estimates are based on clickstream data that tracks real user behavior. Many SEO pros find that Ahrefs' difficulty scores align well with real-world ranking challenges. For the most accurate data, it's smart to cross-reference with Google Keyword Planner if you have access, especially for high-stakes campaigns.