Ahrefs vs Semrush is one debate that would probably never end. No matter how much you compare, you will be confused when you see different reviews on other websites because all of them have different views about different features. The more in-depth you go into this topic, the tighter it becomes to choose a winner.
As you know, these two tools dominate the SEO landscape. Not only are they dominating, but they are the favorites of most SEO analysts. Semrush has had the advantage of being the older tool and being a market leader for a much more extended period. However, the way Ahrefs has gotten itself to the top is tremendous.
The best suggestion any SEO professional would give you about these two tools is that you use both of them. However, many wouldn’t have the budget to go for both tools. Both the tools combined monthly would cost you around $200 that too just for the basic plan. So in case you don’t have the budget to have both of them, you will need to go for one, and this is where this comparison will guide you through.
A lot of people use SEO tools for various purposes, and you specifically need to know why you are going to need this SEO tool to find out who the real winner is. Both tools have their advantages and disadvantages; however, if you know precisely what you are looking for in your tool, choosing the right tool for you becomes much more straightforward.
To help you choose among the best SEO tool — Ahrefs vs Semrush, we have featured an in-depth comparison. We have done a comparison of these tools on various aspects including — keyword research, backlinks analysis, SEO auditing, pricing, customer support, and so on.
Read on to know, which one is the SEO tool for your online venture among Semrush and Ahrefs.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Quick Comparison
Here we have a quick comparison between Ahrefs and Semrush which help you to choose the best one for you.
| Features | Ahrefs | Semrush |
| Price | Start at $99/month | Start at $119.95/month |
| Free Trial | No free trial | 7 days of a free trial |
| Keyword Research Tool | Offers best accuracy data | Offers less accurate data |
| Marketing Features | Not so many tools are available | Offers many tools for marketers |
| Backlink Analysis | Multiple tools for backlink | Not good as Ahrefs |
| Competitor Analysis | Provide every data about your competitor | Offers in-depth competitor data |
| Best For | Digital marketers & SEO professional | SEO Specialist |
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Overview
Here we have given an in-depth comparison between Ahrefs vs Semrush. So let’s get dive in.
Ahrefs Overview:
Note: To get more details about Ahrefs, check out our detailed Ahrefs Review here.
Founded in 2011, Ahref proudly presents itself as a market leader in backlinks and keyword research. Having approximately 2.3 trillion backlinks, it places itself on the top 3 SEO tools on my list.
Not all prefer this tool because they don’t give a free trial like others, it has an expensive pricing plan as well, but it’s worth the features it presents. It is one cool tool as it provides keyword research for ten search engines, including the mighty Google. It supports research for nearly 171 countries as well.
Ahrefs permits you to work with a website that has more than 1000 pages. For specialists, Ahref offers more flexibility. The flexibility includes using mathematical symbols for various functions and HTTP status codes. You could call their site explorer a 3-in-1 since it’s a combination of usually what would be three separate features into one, organic traffic research, backlink checker, and paid traffic research.
The problems Ahrefs surveys your areas for include Irregular links, site speed, interrupting pages, HTML tags (missing, copy, and the size of Html tags), open graph and Twitter cards, duplicate pages, low-quality content, redirect links, heavy JavaScript, and several more.
Here are some of the best features from Ahrefs:
- An intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard.
- Alerts for various SEO aspects backlinks, mention, keyword opportunities, etc.
- A robust SITE EXPLORER to see in-depth search traffic and backlinks analysis.
- Easy to use CONTENT EXPLORER for content suggestions.
- A flexible search engine ranking tracker.
- Head-to-head domain comparison tool.
- In-depth reports with charts and graphs.
- A powerful SITE AUDIT tool for a complete crawl of your website.
This isn’t the end of the features list, Ahrefs has a lot to offer to help build profitable SEO campaigns.
Semrush Overview:
Being an all-in-one tool, this is the most elite among all SEO tools I would recommend to anyone, any day. It has a lot of advanced features as it gets updated now and then. Major SEO analysts will support this because of its ease of work features. Founded in 2008, it has been top-notch in the industry.
It has additional tools that can do backlink research, competitor research, auditing of sites, ranking, PPC ads, and much more. It’s an all-in-one package.
Oleg and Dmitry started it as SEO enthusiasts who wanted to do something new and revolutionize the industry. They began by sharing this tool with their friends and known ones making people interested in their tool.
The tool has received awards such as the BEST SEO SOFTWARE suite by U.S search Awards 2019. This tool is widely available in 117 countries, suitable for enterprises where the pricing of the tool won’t matter much, but what matters is the result.
Here’s a list of our favorite features from Semrush:
- Get the best keywords, organic competitors, and position changes from competitors’ research.
- Budget your ads with advertising research.
- Conducting analysis as well as sourcing backlinks using the backlink tools.
- Long-tail keywords for better ranking
- Traffic analytics.
- Checking keywords with keyword difficulty.
- Domain vs domain comparisons.
- Organized and in-depth charts.
- A robust Keyword Magic Tool for getting millions of keyword ideas.
- An assistant for your SEO writing needs.
- Rank & Position tracking
- Site audit to maintain a healthy website
- Tracker for your social media handle.
- A content analyzer to check the score of your content.
There have to be valid criteria for making a good comparison, and you will find several standard features among the two tools, you will also know that everything has its pros and cons.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: The Best Keyword Research Tool?
Here we have compared Ahrefs and Semrush which one offers the best keyword research tool. Let’s have a look.
Semrush Keyword Research
Both Ahrefs and Semrush have made it to the top of the market because of their keyword research tool. Keyword research is an essential factor to be considered in SEO tools. Keywords do a great job of getting traffic and attracting the audience to your website; keyword research can be categorized to have the following features.
- Ascertaining an audience who is searching for a particular keyword
- Finding out the difficulty of ranking for that keyword
- Existing competitors ranking top on that keyword
- Getting recommendations for related keywords.
When it comes to keywords, you are just one click away from getting a million keywords on your screen. You will get info like search volume, a difficulty score of your keyword, current competitor rankings for the keyword, and a list of commonly related keywords.
Semrush offers an in-depth analysis of keyword research, which helps you get the best results. The metrics that Semrush displays include keyword difficulty, CPC, top-ranking pages, competition in paid search, similar keywords, ad copy, questions asked, and various other metrics and data.
The geolocation tool is something that Semrush excels in as it helps you carry out keyword research based on your location. Let’s try the Semrush Keyword research tool for the keyword “how to start a blog”
Ahrefs Keyword Research
Keyword Explorer is the tool available to you in Ahrefs for your keyword research. With the help of keyword explorers, you can rank yourself better with their long-tail keywords. The keyword analyzer enables you to generate marvelous keyword ideas, interpret their keyword difficulty, and calculate their traffic potential. Let’s make a search for the keyword “How to Start A Blog” and see what Ahrefs suggest:
One of the best features of the keyword explorer undoubtedly would be that they give you the keyword ranking based on clicks; this way, you will know which keyword gets how many clicks. There is an expanded option available with which you can get results of hundreds of different keywords.
Other than the keyword explorer, another great feature is the organic keyword. This helps you locate your organic keywords rank; they also give you an organic keyword report with the help of which you can go to a competitor’s site and reverse engineer it.
There is no doubt that Semrush offers more data about both SEO and PPC, which is why it would be a better tool for your keyword research.
Winner: Semrush
Ahrefs vs Semrush: The Best Backlink Checker Tool
Here we have compared Ahrefs and Semrush which one offers the best backlink checker tool. Let’s have a look.
Semrush Backlink Checker Tool
Backlinks are considered a pain by many SEO tools, and this is one of the essential features alongside keyword research. When it comes to backlinks, it’s challenging to choose a winner between both Semrush and Ahrefs. Most of the backlink tests conducted by various analysts show close results. Considering backlinks, Semrush has an extensive link index, which shows that it has invested a lot into link index and backlink analysis.
However, Ahrefs has a straightforward process that takes very few clicks for your backlinks checking, so you might even choose Ahrefs over Semrush to avoid having to click 50 times for checking backlinks.
For a long time, Semrush’s linking tool was a weak spot in its package. However, that’s not the case. In 2019, they updated, and what a significant update it was, they have come a long way in showing you your backlinks profile and your competitor’s backlinks.
It gives you options to know other backlink metrics and link attributes (follow, nofollow), backlink types (text, image, etc.), categories of referring domains, and top anchors, among others you, can also know your competitor’s backlinks. Type the competitor’s domain name in the search box, and you will get a detailed report of their backlink analysis.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker Tool
If you are an Ahrefs user, you probably know how much time you spend on-site Explorer. It gives you a lot of other features, but most importantly, the site explorer provides a detailed analysis of your backlink profile and your competitor’s profile.
Ahrefs has been the leader in backlink analysis for a long time, whereas its competitor Semrush has recently come up. The site explorer lets you check the backlinks of a particular website and enables you to link the profile of specific URLs. Even the tool offers more details such as the history and timeline of backlinks, check the reference below.
Ahrefs is the better choice for you when it comes to backlinks. However, Semrush has a more significant link index. Ahrefs has been into backlinks for quite a lot of time, and they have excellent accuracy and user interface, which are 2 of the three most important factors when it comes to backlinks. Ahref also has the ease of operating advantage wherein the process of accessing backlinks is way more straightforward than that compared to Semrush.
Winner: Ahrefs
Ahrefs vs Semrush: The Best Tool for Technical SEO Audit
Here we have compared Ahrefs and Semrush which one has the best technical SEO audit. Let’s have a look.
Semrush SEO Audit Tool
Auditing is not as important as keyword research and backlinking to many, but it still plays a significant role in your website’s ranking. Crawling, indexing, and rendering are the three main aspects of this sidelined tool that help you a better rank. It is essential to carry out a technical SEO audit from time to time as you need to adapt to the SEO changes. When it comes to site audits, both tools have good results.
In the Semrush tool, SEO audit is one of the most used tools, and this tool helps you analyze the health of your sites by conducting various tests. It lets you know about the current issues on your website and helps you rectify them. This helps in the process of higher rankings when it comes to SERPs.
The tool contains over 130 checks when it comes to SEO issues, and it does a complete analysis of your site. You get a health score on your website. This health score is determined based on the ratio of the issues found on your website to the number of performed checks. The SEO audit tool given by Semrush alleviates the work by conducting a thorough audit furnishing an elegant and susceptible way to comprehend the report for you.
To get a good audience response, you need to have a good website. This auditing feature on Semrush helps you to get away with all the errors that might be existing on your website.
Ahrefs SEO Audit Tool
The Ahrefs site audit is the latest addition to their tool. Compared to Semrush, Ahrefs analyzes nearly 100+ issues on your website. Here you not only get your health score, but you also get all your key data in charts for better analysis, and you also get all the possible SEO issues that prevail on your site and recommendations to fix them.
Among the two, Semrush definitely wins here, and the site auditing tool is much faster and more accurate, as well as more criteria for judgment than that Ahrefs.
Winner: Semrush
Ahrefs vs Semrush: The Rank Tracking Analysis
Here we have compared Ahrefs and Semrush, which one offers the best rank tracking analysis. Let’s have a look.
Semrush Tracking Analysis
Rank tracking is the whole point of going through an SEO tool, and you want your website to always rank at the top. This helps you measure the quality of your content and the impact of the work that you have done. You can also track where your competitors rank in the SERPs.
Both the competitors provide you with the Position ranking tool. Semrush, with its position ranking tool, lets you add all the keywords that will help you get a higher ranking on the search engine, as well as it has a location tool that provides rankings based on the geographical position of the viewers.
It’s simple, and you just have to add the location of the place concerning which you would want to rank your content. With the position tracking report, you get to know the three primary metrics concerning the keywords you have mentioned: the position of your website, estimated traffic, and the negative impact you may have.
Ahrefs Tracking Analysis
When it comes to Ahrefs, you are given the freedom to add up to five competitors against whom you can compare your rankings based on organic search. The major positioning features being the same as other SEO tools and Semrush, you can measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns as well. There is a feature that lets you fine-tune your campaigns according to your competitor’s visibility as well.
When it comes to position tracking, Semrush surely beats Ahrefs with a right margin as they have additional features like visibility score and update their tracked keywords every day. In contrast, Ahrefs updates it only once a week or sometimes twice a week. So if you are someone who wants to stay on top of the rankings, Semrush is your go-to tool.
Winner: Semrush
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Content Marketing
In this section, we have compared content marketing offered by Ahrefs and Semrush. Let’s have a look.
Semrush Content Marketing:
Semrush can create content based on the relevant data, it also discovers how products help you to consolidate and analyze your data. Semrush also allows you to:
- Find a topic
- Prepare a brief
- Analyze mentions
- Write & optimize
- Measure results
- Improve content
With these features, you can grow and improve your business.
Ahrefs Content Marketing:
Ahrefs content marketing helps you to attract, convert, retain, and engage customers that you may not reach. Here we have listed how Ahrefs does content marketing:
- Build credibility and engage the audience
- Build retention and loyalty
- Attract potential customers and create awareness
- Convert customers
The above ideas give you the best start.
Winner: Semrush
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Pricing & Plans
Here we have compared Ahrefs and Semrush pricing plans. Let’s dive into it.
Semrush Pricing Plan:
Note: Want to try Semrush for free, check out our Semrush Free Trial here.
Pricing is similar for both of them; however, when the price is comparable, you can compare the value it offers for your money. Being market leaders, these two tools have used the freedom to make their pricing plans elite.
Semrush is considered the most expensive in the market. Semrush has made three different plans available to its users, mainly Pro, Guru, and Business.
The pro plan is rather expensive for all the necessary features, the price ranging from $83 if billed per annum and $99.95 if you consider a payment monthly. Though expensive, it’s the right choice for freelancers, marketing startups, and house marketers with a lower budget.
The Guru plan has a few more additional features than the pro plan, and it costs you $191.62 per month if billed annually.
The business plan is the ultimate. It offers all the essentials you need to have a complete SEO TOOL. Enterprises mostly use it.
Ahrefs Pricing Plan
Ahrefs has a paid trial system that anyone can purchase for just $7. This will give you essential tools to check if you want to buy the tools or not. They have separated their plans into 4, Lite, standard, advanced, and agency plans.
The lite plan starts at $83 per month if paid annually and $99 if paid every month with the most basic features.
The standard plan costs $166 per month when paid yearly, and it’s the most availed plan. It has additional features of a new index, a historical index, and broken pages.
The advanced plan is priced at $333 per month, and it has all the features of the standard plan but with extended limits.
The plan is priced at gold, starting from $833 for agencies with unlimited features and inexhaustible limits.
Semrush helps you save about 16% with their annual billing, whereas Ahrefs gives more savings at a 20% discount annually. If you can afford it, I would recommend you to buy both the tools as they have their features as you know they say, owning the top 2 is better than just holding the best. However, if your budget doesn’t permit you to do so, you should surely go for Semrush as it is worth every penny.
Winner: Semrush
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Customer Support
Customer support is another essential factor you need to consider before purchasing an SEO tool. This is mainly because, in a technological world, there is always room for errors. Your tool might crash, or you might lose data and things like that, this is where a quick customer support team can help you.
Ahrefs Customer Support
Ahrefs has a little chat box at the bottom that lets you put your queries. It is not a live chatbox; however, the average response could take about 10 to 15 mins.
Semrush Customer Support
Semrush has a more complicated process when it comes to customer support, and you will have to fill in details like the type of query, check the terms and conditions, and be able to ask your question to them. The chat takes about 15- 30 mins on average for a response.
Winner: Ahrefs
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Additional Features (FREEBIES INCLUDED)
As we have made an in-depth comparison of the main features, there are quite a few unique features these tools have that add to their list of pros, The one main feature that lets Ahref stand out compared to other SEO tools is its content explorer. Whenever you type in any topic, you get results of additional content that has already performed well in terms of shares, backlinks, ads, etc. There are many other mini-features that Ahrefs has such as they help you in broken link building, which enables you to save dozens of hours trying to fix it.
Semrush also has a lot of cool features that Ahrefs doesn’t have. The most significant advantage they have over Ahrefs is their complete paid search software suite, whereas Ahrefs has zero features for PPC. Semrush, because of its PPC competitor analysis, helps you get the best out of your Google ads campaigns.
If you are a lot into local SEO, then Semrush helps you with the listings tools it has so that you can easily set up your NAPs.
When you look at cool features, Semrush deservingly is the winner for the unique features it offers that not only Ahrefs but a lot of competitors don’t have.
Semrush Customer Reviews:
“Semrush is like a keyword research tool, Google Trends, Moz, Hootsuite, and SimilarWeb in one.”
” Source Of G2 Crowd “
” I’ve been using Semrush for 7+ years now and heavily rely on it to help me move whatever site I’m working on the top of Google”
” Marketing Suite”
” We choose Semrush because the keyword tracking was much more accurate than our previous tool the interface was very intuitive”
” Search Engine Optimization”
“Our overall organic traffic increased sevenfold with blog traffic making up over 75% of the visit Semrush allowed us to optimize and run our content strategy without needing an army of SEO experts”
” Content Marketing”
“When you are at the table with a general manager they just want to know the market share. Market Explorer is the perfect tool to quickly
show what our brand’s role and classification inside the market are”
” Market Research”
” Semrush has been pivotal in helping me better understand the competitive landscape of my ad campaign. I have been able to close the gaps between my organic and paid effort, thus fully distributing my budget and tactics”
” Advertising ”
” Semrush Social Media toolkit is the best in the business. I’m using this tool to great effect, and it has helped to increase my visibility on social media”
” Social Media “
Ahrefs Customer Reviews:
” When it comes to backlink analysis Ahrefs is my#1 go-to tool. If you are serious about SEO you need Ahrefs.
” Pro SEOs “
” Ahrefs Simply rocks your SEO and reveals tons of marketing opportunities in a few clicks”
” Content Marketing “
” Ahrefs is my favorite tool to find an awesome content idea with a lot of traffic and business potential. It is easy to use and makes my life easier.”
” Bloggers”
Testimonials On Semrush vs Ahrefs
what user is saying
Ahrefs User Support
Semrush User Support
Ahrefs vs Semrush Pros & Cons:
In this section, we have compared the pros & cons of both Ahrefs and Semrush. So let’s see the battle of pros & cons between Ahrefs and Semrush.
Pros & Cons of Ahrefs:
Here we have listed the pros and cons of Ahrefs. Let’s have a look.
Pros:
- Ease of use
- Traffic growth analysis
- Organic search data
- Carry out the broken link analysis
- Check website health with site audit
- Integration with Google data is best
Cons:
- Little bit expensive
- No free trial
- Customer support needs to improve
Pros & cons of Semrush:
Here we have listed the pros & cons of Semrush. Let’s have a look.
Pros:
- Easy organic research
- Analyze multiple websites
- Increase in social media presence
- Guidance of On-page SEO
- CPC map
- Identify toxic data
Cons:
- Inaccuracy in Ad spend data
- The keyword difficulty tool is not so worthy
Should I Go With Ahrefs or Semrush:
Ahrefs and Semrush both provide excellent suits which are adding and improving new features from time to time. So you can’t go wrong with Ahrefs or Semrush.
Choose Ahrefs If:
- If you have more interest in the keyword, click data or then the keyword volume.
- If you don’t want to expand PPC Campaign.
- If you want to explore more content analysis and competitor content.
Choose Semrush If:
- If you have an interest in powerful and quickly delivered performance data.
- If you want to expand the PPC campaign along with the organic campaign.
- If you want more information on how to improve the site technically.
Related Read:
Conclusion: Ahrefs vs Semrush 2024
Now that you have read and understood the comparison of both tools, you know it’s time to choose the ultimate winner. It’s always a fierce battle between these two tools, but as per the tests and research I have conducted, the clear winner would be Semrush.
The tool is a way to advance more than anything in the market. It is an all-in-one package tool that offers you value for your buck. You can surely check out their website for a free trial and use it based on your use if you like the basic features it is offering. However, if you want to experiment with Ahrefs, then you can take a 7-day trial, it won’t cost you a lot. My suggestion would be to take a trial of both tools for your satisfaction and a better understanding of the tool.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
Ahrefs is a site audit tool that helps you to analyze a website for common SEO, notify for lost or new backlinks, and also help you to track your keyword ranking.
Ahrefs offers 7 days of paid trial to its user to get to know about its features, but you can cancel at any time.
Semrush is one of the best tools that marketers in following services like keyword research, content marketing, campaign management, SEO, competitive research, PPC, and SMM.
Semrush comes with better features and is a good value for money, whereas Ahrefs has good UI/UX as compared to Semrush. Both are really good tools in the SEO field.
Semrush accepts all payment types: Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Union Pay, Check, Money Order, and Wire Transfer.