Best Ahrefs Alternatives For 2027

Compare 10 Ahrefs alternatives for 2027 on backlink index size, link metrics, verified pricing and usage limits, from Semrush and Majestic to budget picks.

Ahrefs built its reputation on link data, and that reputation is still earned. Its own data page describes 35 trillion external backlink history records, 286 million referring domains after vetting, and a crawler that processes about 5 million pages every minute. For many SEO teams it remains the default tool for backlink research. The reasons people go shopping for Ahrefs alternatives usually have less to do with data quality and more to do with how access to that data is priced and metered.

As of October 2026, Ahrefs lists a Starter plan at $29 per month, Lite at $129 per month, Standard at $249, Advanced at $449 and Enterprise at $1,499 per month on an annual commitment. Annual billing saves up to 17%. The friction sits in the limits. Lite includes 1,000 credits per user per month, caps reports at 2,500 rows, keeps only six months of history and allows up to two extra users at $40 each. Unlimited credits start on Standard. Once pay-as-you-go is enabled, usage beyond plan limits is billed automatically, and add-ons such as Report Builder ($99 per month), Brand Radar AI (from $199 per month) and traffic reports ($99 per month) stack on top. A team that needs deep link exports and more than one seat can find the real bill well above the headline price.

This guide compares ten tools that buyers actually shortlist when they leave or supplement Ahrefs. Every price and limit below comes from each vendor’s own pricing or product page, checked in October 2026. Because Ahrefs’ biggest strength is link intelligence, we paid particular attention to backlink index size, link metrics, row limits and how each vendor meters usage. If you are weighing the two biggest suites head to head, our Ahrefs vs Semrush comparison goes deeper on that matchup.

Ahrefs Alternatives At A Glance

Tool	Starting Price	Best For	Standout Feature
Semrush	$139/mo ($117.33/mo annual)	Teams wanting one suite for SEO, PPC and AI search	Backlink database of more than 43 trillion links
SE Ranking	$129/mo ($103.20/mo annual)	Agencies and SMBs that want unmetered link research	Unlimited backlink research on every plan
Moz Pro	$49/mo (Starter); $99/mo Standard	Teams that report on Domain Authority	Link Explorer index of 45.5 trillion links
Majestic	$49.99/mo ($41.67/mo annual)	Link builders and link auditors	Trust Flow and Topical Trust Flow metrics
Serpstat	$50/mo	Small teams needing multiple seats cheaply	3 users on the $100/mo Team plan
Mangools	$30.50/mo ($18.85/mo annual)	Solo SEOs and bloggers	Majestic backlink data inside a simple bundle
SpyFu	$39/mo ($33/mo annual)	Competitor PPC and organic research	Unlimited searches and exports on Professional
Sistrix	EUR 119/mo	European in-house and agency teams	Visibility Index for domain trend tracking
Ubersuggest	$12/mo or $120 lifetime	Budget buyers and single-site owners	One-time lifetime payment option
Seobility	Free; paid from EUR 59.90/mo	Site audits plus routine backlink checks	Free-forever plan with daily backlink checks

Best Ahrefs Alternatives For 2027

1. Semrush — The Largest Advertised Backlink Database In An All-In-One Suite

Semrush is the closest like-for-like replacement for Ahrefs. It covers keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor traffic, PPC research and a growing set of AI search visibility tools. On link data specifically, Semrush says its backlink database holds more than 43 trillion backlinks and about 390 million referring domains, refreshed at least hourly. Its Authority Score blends link quality and quantity with organic traffic estimates and signals of link manipulation.

Semrush has reorganized its plans. The current SEO and AI search pricing lists an SEO plan at $139 per month ($117.33 per month billed annually), Starter at $199 ($165.17 annually), Pro+ at $299 ($248.17 annually) and Advanced on custom pricing. SEO and Starter monitor 5 websites and track 500 keywords daily; Pro+ raises that to 15 websites and 1,500 keywords. Additional users start at $45 per month. There is a free plan with 10 reports per day and a seven-day trial on paid plans.

Where Semrush beats Ahrefs is breadth: PPC and advertising research, content tooling and AI prompt tracking all live in one account, and its free plan is more useful for spot checks than the limited Ahrefs Free tier. Where it falls short is cost at scale. Seats and add-ons push the bill up much as they do with Ahrefs, so switching rarely saves money for a growing team. Semrush also does not list per-plan user counts or results-per-report limits on its pricing page, so confirm those before you buy. If competitor traffic estimates matter as much as links, read our Semrush vs Similarweb breakdown too.

Best for marketing teams that want one platform for organic, paid and AI search and are comfortable paying suite-level prices.

2. SE Ranking — Unlimited Backlink Research At The Same Entry Price As Ahrefs Lite

SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO platform popular with agencies and small businesses. It reports a backlink database of 2.9 trillion backlinks, a crawler that processes 6 billion pages daily, and link metrics including Domain Trust, Page Trust and a toxicity score for spotting low-quality links. It also tracks new and lost referring domains across periods from 7 days to a year.

Pricing is simple. Core costs $129 per month, or $103.20 per month billed annually, with 1 manager seat and 2,000 daily tracked keywords. Growth costs $279 per month ($223.20 annually) with 3 seats, 5,000 tracked keywords and historical backlink data across the project lifetime. Enterprise is custom. Extra seats start at $16. Content Marketing and Local Marketing modules are available, an Agency Pack adds 30 client seats and white-label reporting for $69 per month on annual billing, and AI visibility tracking through SE Visible is included with 25 daily prompts. The 14-day trial requires no credit card.

The headline difference from Ahrefs is metering. SE Ranking lists unlimited backlink research on both Core and Growth, so you are not rationing credits or watching row limits the way Ahrefs Lite users do. Cheaper extra seats and three seats on Growth also help small teams. The trade-off is index size: 2.9 trillion backlinks is a large database, but Ahrefs and Semrush advertise far bigger link histories, and the Backlink Checker API is available only on Growth.

Best for agencies and in-house teams that run frequent link checks and want predictable monthly costs.

3. Moz Pro — Domain Authority And A 45.5 Trillion Link Index

Moz Pro is the home of Domain Authority, Page Authority and Spam Score, metrics many clients and publishers still use as shorthand for site strength. Its Link Explorer index lists 45.5 trillion links, 8.7 trillion URLs and 1 billion domains. Link Intersect compares up to five backlink profiles against yours to surface link gaps, and Moz has added AI visibility dashboards and prompt tracking across GPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode.

Moz lists an entry plan at $49 per month for individuals managing a single website. The main plans are Standard at $99 per month ($79 billed yearly), Medium at $179 ($143 yearly) and Large at $299 ($239 yearly). Standard includes 1 user, 300 tracked keywords, 5,000 backlink queries per month and 10,000 results per backlink query. Medium includes 2 users, 1,500 tracked keywords, 20,000 backlink queries and 40,000 results per query. Large includes 3 users, 3,000 tracked keywords, 70,000 backlink queries and 50,000 results per query. A free Moz account gives 10 Link Explorer queries per month, and a free trial of Moz Pro is offered.

Against Ahrefs, Moz wins on included seats (two on Medium, three on Large), lower annual pricing and a recognizable authority metric for client reporting. Results per backlink query on Standard (10,000) are well above the 2,500-row report cap on Ahrefs Lite. It falls short on keyword research volume at the low end: Standard includes only 150 keyword queries per month. Moz also notes that overages are not included, so heavy users need to plan around quotas.

Best for agencies and publishers whose clients or partners already speak in Domain Authority.

4. Majestic — A Dedicated Link Index With Trust Flow From $49.99 A Month

Majestic does one thing: backlink intelligence. It is not an all-in-one SEO suite, and that is the point for link builders who only use Ahrefs for Site Explorer. Majestic’s Fresh Index covers the past 120 days and lists about 188.6 billion unique URLs crawled. Its Historic Index lists about 4.5 trillion URLs crawled, with a date range running to March 2024 and a last update in May 2024. Its signature metrics are Trust Flow and Topical Trust Flow, which grade link quality and subject relevance.

Lite costs $49.99 per month or $499.99 per year, with 1 user, 1 million analysis units, 5,000 Site Explorer data rows and the Fresh Index only. Pro costs $99.99 per month or $999.99 per year, adds the Historic Index, raw data exports, Compare Sites, Clique Hunter, Backlink History and 30,000 data rows. The API plan costs $399.99 per month or $3,999.90 per year with 5 users and full API access. Prices exclude VAT, and Lite and Pro carry a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers.

Majestic beats Ahrefs on price for pure link work and on the depth of its link-quality scoring. Topical Trust Flow is useful for judging whether a prospective linking site is actually relevant to your niche. The gaps are clear: no comparable keyword research suite or site auditing, and the Historic Index has not been refreshed since 2024, so treat it as an archive rather than a live view.

Best for link builders, outreach teams and auditors who already have other tools for keywords and audits.

5. Serpstat — Three Seats For $100 A Month

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform covering keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, competitor research and backlink analysis. Its site lists 529 billion backlinks, 1.5 billion domains and 8.62 billion keywords in its databases.

Monthly pricing runs from Individual at $50 to Team at $100 (3 users), Team x2 at $169 (6 users) and Agency at $410 (30 users). Searches per day scale from 100 on Individual to 500, 1,000 and 5,000. Backlink reports return up to 2,000 results on Individual and 10,000 on the higher plans, and the Backlinks API and domain batch analysis start on Team. Annual billing is advertised at up to 27% off; the page lists savings amounts (for example $228 a year on Individual) rather than annual rates, so confirm the final figure at checkout. The 7-day trial requires a card and renews automatically.

The case for Serpstat is seats per dollar. Three users for $100 a month compares well with Ahrefs, where Lite includes one user and charges $40 for each extra. Serpstat also includes API credits on Team and above. The trade-off is index scale: 529 billion backlinks is a fraction of what Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz advertise, so expect thinner coverage on smaller or newer sites.

Best for small teams and agencies that need several logins and moderate link data on a tight budget.

6. Mangools — Majestic Link Data Inside A Five-Tool Bundle Under $20 A Month

Mangools bundles five tools: KWFinder for keywords, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher for rank tracking, SiteProfiler and LinkMiner for backlinks. LinkMiner draws on Majestic’s Fresh and Historic indexes, so link data comes from a specialist provider. Every plan now also includes AI Search Watcher with 500 monitored prompts, and API and MCP access are included.

Mangools Basic costs $30.50 per month or $226.20 per year ($18.85 per month). Premium costs $40.50 monthly or $316.20 per year ($26.35 per month). Agency costs $70.50 monthly or $586.20 per year ($48.85 per month). Backlink allowances are 100,000, 500,000 and 1.2 million per month, keyword research runs at 100, 500 and 1,200 requests per 24 hours, and rank tracking covers 200, 700 and 1,500 keywords. Basic allows no extra seats; Premium allows 3 and Agency 5. Mangools offers a free account and a 48-hour money-back guarantee.

Mangools beats Ahrefs on price and ease of use by a wide margin, and limits reset every 24 hours rather than draining a monthly credit pool. It cannot match Ahrefs on depth: there is no full site audit crawler of the kind Ahrefs Site Audit provides, rank tracking updates weekly except on Agency, and the interface is built for quick lookups rather than large-scale link exports.

Best for bloggers, affiliate site owners and freelancers who need good keyword and link data without enterprise pricing.

7. SpyFu — Unlimited Searches And Exports On A $79 Plan

SpyFu focuses on competitor research for both organic search and Google Ads, showing which keywords rivals rank for and bid on and how that has changed over years. It also includes backlink searches and weekly rank tracking.

Basic costs $39 per month, or $33 per month billed annually, with 10,000 search result rows, 10,000 export rows, 10,000 backlink searches and 5,000 weekly tracked rankings. Professional costs $79 per month, or $58 per month billed annually, with unlimited search results, exports and backlink searches, 15,000 weekly tracked rankings and API access. Extra users cost $15 on Basic and $30 on Professional. SpyFu offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

For buyers frustrated by Ahrefs credits and row caps, SpyFu Professional’s unlimited searches and exports are the main draw, and its long PPC keyword history is something Ahrefs does not emphasize. Where it falls short is link depth and analysis: SpyFu does not publish an index size comparable to the figures Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz share, and its link tooling is lighter than a dedicated backlink suite.

Best for PPC managers and competitive researchers who want unmetered exports and treat backlinks as a secondary need.

8. Sistrix — Visibility Index Tracking With Up To 12 Users Per Plan

Sistrix is a German SEO platform best known for its Visibility Index, a long-running score that tracks how a domain’s search visibility moves over time. Its toolset covers domain and competitor analysis, keyword research, crawling, content tools, Amazon marketplace analysis and a backlink index that draws on Sistrix’s own data plus Majestic and other partners. AI Check and prompt tracking are currently free in all plans, in beta.

Pricing is in euros, plus taxes. Start costs EUR 119 per month with 1 user and 1,000 export and API credits per week. Plus costs EUR 239 with 3 users and 10,000 credits. Professional costs EUR 419 with 6 users and 30,000 credits. Premium costs EUR 799 with 12 users and 100,000 credits. Extra users cost EUR 24.90 on Plus and above, and USD billing is available only on Enterprise. There is a 14-day free trial.

Sistrix beats Ahrefs on included users (3 on Plus, 6 on Professional) and on visibility trend reporting, which is valuable for diagnosing algorithm updates. It falls short for US-focused link builders: Sistrix does not publish a backlink index size, its pricing page does not state in text which plans include the Links module, and Start has no API. Ask sales to confirm link access before committing.

Best for European agencies and in-house teams that care most about visibility trends across Google markets.

9. Ubersuggest — A $120 Lifetime Plan Instead Of A Subscription

Ubersuggest is a budget SEO tool covering keyword research, site audits, rank tracking, competitor analysis, backlinks and newer AI search visibility features across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overview.

Monthly plans cost $12 for Individual (1 user, 1 project), $20 for Business (2 users, 7 projects) and $40 for Enterprise (5 users, 15 projects). Lifetime plans are a one-time $120, $200 or $400. Backlink rows are 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000, with 3 years of link history and 30 days of new and lost links. Reports per day are 150, 300 and 900. Monthly plans have a one-time 7-day free trial, and lifetime purchases are non-refundable. Ubersuggest says it has no API plans.

The obvious win over Ahrefs is cost: a year of Ahrefs Starter costs more than an Ubersuggest Individual lifetime plan. The shortfall is just as obvious. Backlink rows top out at 10,000, there is no API and Ubersuggest says its data comes from multiple third-party providers rather than its own crawler. It is a lightweight tool, not a replacement for Ahrefs in a link-heavy workflow.

Best for small business owners and solo site owners who want basic SEO data at the lowest possible price.

10. Seobility — A Free-Forever Plan With Daily Backlink Checks

Seobility is a German SEO suite built around site auditing, with rank tracking, keyword tools and a backlink checker that shows referring domains, follow and nofollow ratios, link ratings and anchor text. Paid plans add long-term backlink monitoring, competitor analysis and link building ideas.

The Basic plan is free forever with 1 project, 10 tracked keywords and 5 backlink checks per day. Premium costs EUR 59.90 per month (EUR 575.04 per year), Professional EUR 99.90 (EUR 959.04 per year, up to 3 users) and Agency EUR 209.90 (EUR 2,015.04 per year, unlimited users). Annual billing saves 20%, prices are plus VAT, USD and GBP pricing is available, and every paid plan has a 14-day free trial. Daily backlink checks scale to 50, 100 and 200 on the paid plans.

Seobility beats Ahrefs on entry cost, generous user counts on its Agency plan and a free tier that is useful for routine checks. It falls short on link intelligence: Seobility does not publish its backlink database size, and the tool is clearly audit-first rather than link-first.

Best for small businesses and agencies that need strong technical audits plus routine backlink monitoring.

How To Choose An Ahrefs Alternative

Which Data Do You Actually Use?

Pull up your last three months of Ahrefs activity and note which tools you opened. If it was mostly Site Explorer and backlink reports, a link specialist such as Majestic, or a link-heavy suite such as Moz Pro or SE Ranking, will cover most of your work for less. If you lived in Keywords Explorer, Site Audit and Rank Tracker as well, you need a full suite, which narrows the field to Semrush, SE Ranking, Moz Pro, Serpstat and Sistrix.

How Much Does Backlink Index Size Matter For You?

Index size figures are not directly comparable. Vendors count different things (live links, historical records, crawled URLs) and filter spam differently. Still, the gap between a tool advertising tens of trillions of links and one advertising hundreds of billions is real, and it shows up most on small or new sites where every referring domain counts. For link audits, disavow work or competitor gap analysis on niche sites, favor Semrush, Moz Pro, SE Ranking or Majestic. For checking the profile of large, established domains, smaller indexes are usually fine.

How Is Usage Metered?

This is where many Ahrefs users feel the pinch, and it is where alternatives differ most. Ahrefs Lite meters by monthly credits and caps report rows. Moz meters by backlink queries per month. Mangools and Serpstat reset limits every 24 hours. SE Ranking lists unlimited backlink research, and SpyFu Professional lists unlimited searches and exports. If your workload spikes around audits or client onboarding, daily resets or unlimited plans are easier to live with than a monthly pool.

How Many Seats Do You Need?

Ahrefs Lite, Standard and Advanced each include one user, with extra users at $40 to $80 per month depending on the plan. Several alternatives bundle seats: Moz Medium includes 2, Serpstat Team and SE Ranking Growth include 3, Sistrix Professional includes 6 and Seobility Agency includes unlimited users. For a team of three or more, seat pricing can matter more than the base plan price.

Do You Need AI Search Visibility Tracking?

Ahrefs sells Brand Radar AI as an add-on from $199 per month. Semrush, SE Ranking, Moz, Mangools, Ubersuggest and Sistrix now include some form of AI prompt or visibility tracking in their plans, though volumes and update frequency vary widely. If generative engines are part of your reporting, check prompt limits closely. Our guide to GEO vs SEO explains how the two disciplines overlap and where they split.

Conclusion

Ahrefs is still one of the strongest sources of link data available, and few teams leave because the data is poor. They leave because credits, row caps, single-user plans and add-ons make the real cost hard to predict. The right alternative depends on which of those pain points hurts most.

For a full suite with a comparable or larger advertised link database, Semrush and Moz Pro are the closest matches. For unmetered link research at a similar entry price, SE Ranking stands out. Link builders who only need backlink intelligence should look hard at Majestic, while Mangools, Serpstat, SpyFu, Ubersuggest and Seobility cover lighter needs at lower prices. Sistrix fits European teams that track visibility across markets.

Most of these vendors offer a free plan, free trial or money-back window. Run the same three or four domains you know well through two or three shortlisted tools, compare referring domain counts and report limits side by side, and let your own data decide.