Ahrefs

All-in-one SEO toolset

From $29/mo 💰 Deals Available

About Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the SEO professional's weapon of choice, offering the internet's second-largest web crawler (after Google) with 400 billion pages indexed. Its killer feature is backlink analysis—see who links to any website, analyze anchor text, and identify link-building opportunities. Beyond backlinks, Ahrefs excels at keyword research with accurate search volumes, SERP analysis showing ranking difficulty, and competitor analysis revealing their top pages. The credit-based pricing (2025) gives flexibility—Starter ($29, 1 project) covers hobbyists, while Standard ($208, 20 projects) serves agencies. Site Audit crawls your site for technical SEO issues, and Rank Tracker monitors keyword positions. Ahrefs is an investment (no free tier), but for serious SEO work, it pays for itself by helping you rank higher and drive organic traffic.

Key Features

Site Explorer for backlink analysis

Keywords Explorer with 13B+ keywords

Site Audit for technical SEO

Rank Tracker for position monitoring

Content Explorer for content research

Competitor analysis tools

SERP analysis and ranking difficulty

Link intersect for opportunities

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Most comprehensive backlink database
• Accurate keyword data and metrics
• Intuitive interface and workflows
• Excellent educational resources
• Fast crawler updates frequently
• Strong historical data

Cons

• Expensive for beginners ($108+ realistically)
• No free tier—must pay to try fully
• Learning curve for all features
• Credit system can be confusing
• Affiliate program exists but not heavily promoted
• Overkill for simple sites

Best For

SEO agencies managing clients Content marketers doing keyword research SaaS companies building organic growth Affiliate marketers finding opportunities Anyone serious about ranking on Google