Ahrefs alternatives with prices and limits side by side

By Michael Nefedov, noetio · Updated 21 October 2026

Ahrefs Lite costs €119 a month for 750 tracked keywords. The cheapest Ahrefs alternatives are Otterly.AI Lite at €29 (AI answers only) and Mangools Basic at €61 (an SEO suite).

Which one to pick

Pick by the job you need done. Prices are monthly billing, in the currency each vendor shows.

• Only AI answersOtterly.AI Lite is €29 a month for 15 prompts a day. Ahrefs Lite gives 5. Writesonic Starter tracks 50 prompts a day and also writes articles.
• Daily keyword trackingSE Ranking Core tracks 2k keywords daily for €109 a month. Ahrefs updates weekly.
• A trial before you paySE Ranking has 14 days with no card. Semrush has a free plan and a 7-day trial. Ahrefs lists none for paid plans.
• A short keyword listMangools Basic is €61 a month (AIO + SEO bundle) for 200 tracked keywords.
• One person who wants research, audit, rank tracking and AI checks in one planKeep Ahrefs Lite It is €119 a month with 1 user, 750 tracked keywords and 6 months of history.

Ahrefs vs the alternatives

Ahrefs Lite at €119 sits above SE Ranking and Mangools on monthly price, but the limits differ.

• Entry plan of each tool, from its own page, 21 October 2026.
• Monthly column: the price if you pay month to month. Yearly column: the monthly equivalent when you pay for a year.
• Each price is in the currency its vendor page uses.

Prices: the vendor pricing pages linked in the first column, read 21 October 2026.

• The Ahrefs yearly figure sits in the pricing page data, not in visible text. The Ahrefs FAQ says switching to annual billing goes through support, so yearly may not be self-serve.
• Surfer and Writesonic show yearly prices first. Their monthly prices (Surfer Discovery €59, Writesonic Starter $99) are the ones each vendor lists for month-to-month billing.

Ahrefs pricing: every plan

Ahrefs has four core plans from €119 to €1,394 a month, and the limits step up with each.

Source: Ahrefs pricing, 21 October 2026.

• The Rank Tracker table says updates are weekly on all four columns. The Brand Radar table says AI prompts update daily.
• Ahrefs says one check is one prompt on one platform in one location, so 150 checks a month is the 5 prompts a day its Prompts row shows.
• Enterprise has two prices on the page: €1,394 a month in the visible text, and 929 a month (9,290 a year) in the pricing data behind the page. Ask Ahrefs which one applies before you budget.
• Non-verified projects and crawl credits: Lite has 5 and 100,000; Standard has 20 and 500,000; Advanced has 50 and 1,500,000.
• The page says paying annually saves up to 17%.

Starter is listed apart from the four plans, with no limits or terms on the pricing page. Ahrefs' own 2024 post, written when it cost $29, calls it a credit-based plan for light usage, says it cannot take add-ons and can only be renewed monthly.

Add-ons that change the bill

Add-ons can push an Ahrefs bill above the plan price.

• Brand Radar AI: from €179 a month, and it can be bought on its own (its FAQ says you also get an Ahrefs Free account).
• Custom prompt packages for your own AI prompts: Basic is €46.7 a month for 2,500 checks, Growth €93 for 7,000 and Scale €234 for 25,000. Overage is billed at the end of the month.
• Report Builder: €89 a month. A Content Kit starts at €89 a month.
• Pay-as-you-go credits: you are charged when you pass your plan limits.

What AI answer tracking can and cannot tell you is in SEO vs GEO.

What Ahrefs gives you: 14 core tools

Ahrefs lists 14 core tools in its footer, from Site Explorer to Report Builder.

The footer lists Brand Radar, Dashboard, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, GSC Insights, Content Explorer, Web Analytics, Bot Analytics, GBP Monitor, Social Media Manager, AI Content Helper and Report Builder.

The pricing page also lists API and MCP access on the core plans, and an add-on, Project Boost Pro, that auto-submits pages to IndexNow.

Where Ahrefs wins

Ahrefs puts research, audit, rank tracking and AI checks in every core plan, with plain terms.

• History grows with the plan: 6 months on Lite, 2 years on Standard, 5 years on Advanced.
• The pricing page lists API and MCP access on all three.
• No contracts. Cancel in Account Settings, and you drop to Ahrefs Free when the paid period ends.
• Ahrefs tracks AI prompts daily, which is the same cadence as the daily numbers at SE Ranking and Semrush.

Where Ahrefs falls short

Ahrefs Lite checks keywords only weekly, has few AI prompts and has no paid-plan trial.

• Rank tracking updates weekly on every plan, so Lite's 750 keywords are checked once a week. SE Ranking Core lists 2k keywords tracked daily and Semrush SEO lists 500 daily, so keyword counts across these tools are not the same thing.
• On AI prompts, Lite gives 5 a day against 100 a day on SE Ranking Core and 50 a day on Semrush Starter (see the Semrush page for the per-day table).
• There is no paid-plan trial, and refunds are not issued in general (monthly plans can ask if they did not use the service).
• On price, Lite at €119 is above SE Ranking Core (€109) and Mangools Basic (€61 for the AIO + SEO bundle) on monthly billing in euros. Mangools tracks 200 keywords against 750, so read the limits first.
• Lite has 1 user, and each extra user is €37.40 a month.

The 8 Ahrefs alternatives, one by one

The angle here is how often each tool refreshes data and what it charges for extra people.

Semrush

Best for: a suite with a free plan, a 7-day trial and daily keyword tracking.

• The SEO plan is €134.21 a month (€112.52 billed yearly) and lists 500 keywords tracked daily across 5 websites. Starter at €190.84 adds 50 AI prompts a day.
• Semrush has a free plan (1 demo project, 10 reports a day) and a 7-day trial on paid plans, which Ahrefs does not match.
• Extra users start at €43 a month.
• Semrush says you can cancel, downgrade or upgrade at any time unless you signed custom terms.

Details: Semrush alternatives.

SE Ranking

Best for: daily tracking of 2k keywords for €109 a month, with a 14-day trial and no card.

• Core is €109 a month or €87.20 billed yearly for 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2k keywords and 100 AI prompts tracked daily.
• Growth is €235 monthly (€188 yearly) for 30 projects, 3 seats, 5k keywords and 250 prompts.
• Payments are non-refundable unless the service was not delivered as promised.
• Against Ahrefs Lite, Core is €10 lower on monthly billing and about €12 lower on yearly billing (€87.20 against the €99 Ahrefs shows).

Mangools

Best for: a small site that tracks 200 keywords, from €61 a month.

• Basic is €61 a month or €37.70 yearly (AIO + SEO bundle) and tracks 200 keywords, updated weekly like Ahrefs.
• Premium is €81 (700 keywords) and Agency is €141 (1,500 keywords, daily updates).
• A free account needs no card, and a full refund is possible within 48 hours of payment.

See Mangools alternatives.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Best for: crawling a site next to Ahrefs. Free up to 500 URLs.

• A crawler to put next to the Ahrefs Site Audit, not instead of the platform. A licence costs $279 per year and lasts one year.
• Ahrefs counts audit work in crawl credits (100,000 a month on Lite); Screaming Frog counts URLs per crawl.

For what to check in a crawl, see the technical SEO audit checklist.

Surfer

Best for: writers who score documents: Discovery covers 10 a month on monthly billing.

• Discovery is €49 a month billed yearly or €59 month to month (10 documents on monthly billing, 120 on the yearly card; 10 tracked pages).
• Standard is €99 yearly (€119 monthly), Pro €182 (€219) and Peace of Mind €299 (€359).
• An AI Search Analytics plan is €82 yearly (€95 monthly) and tracks 50 prompts a day.
• You cancel by turning off auto-renew and keep access until the paid period ends. Trial terms are not on the pricing page.

Frase

Best for: one site that wants articles and audits at $49 a month, with a 7-day trial.

• Starter is $39 a month billed yearly or $49 month to month, for 1 seat, 1 site, and 10 articles and 50 audit pages a month.
• Professional is $103 yearly or $129 monthly, with 3 seats and 5 sites.
• A free 7-day trial needs no card. Starter holds at its monthly limits instead of billing extra.

Otterly.AI

Best for: tracking AI answers only, from €29 a month.

• For AI answers only, tracked daily. Lite is €29 a month, or €25 billed annually, for 15 search prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with unlimited team members.
• Premium is €489 (€422 yearly) for 400 prompts.
• The cards show euro in a German browser; the page meta description says "Lite Plan starts at $29/month". The FAQ offers monthly or annual subscriptions and says you cancel in account settings.
• The closest Ahrefs product is Brand Radar, from €179 a month, so compare it with Otterly, not with the whole Ahrefs plan.

Writesonic

Best for: AI tracking, articles and audits in one plan, $79 a month billed yearly.

• Starter is $79 a month billed annually, or $99 month to month.
• It tracks 50 prompts and 50 answers a day across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
• It adds 15 AI articles and 10 site audits (100 pages each) a month for 1 user.
• Starting needs no card, and the FAQ promises a 7-day refund.

How to pick an Ahrefs alternative

Start from your trial, keyword, AI and seat needs, then check each plan limit.

More comparisons: Semrush alternatives, Mangools alternatives, Frase alternatives, Writesonic alternatives, Profound alternatives and all SEO tool alternatives.

Where Compass fits

Compass is the AI SEO agent we are building, and it is not open yet.

It is designed to start with sites whose code lives in a Git repo, with each change sent as a pull request or draft for you to approve. More: AI SEO tools by the job they do and the AI SEO agent page.

Sources

All read on 21 October 2026 in a browser with a German IP. Prices are as shown there.

1. Ahrefs, Plans & pricing, ahrefs.com/pricing (plans, limits, add-ons, FAQ; the yearly and Enterprise figures come from the page data).
2. Ahrefs, home page, ahrefs.com (core tools list).
3. Ahrefs blog, “Ahrefs’ $29 Starter plan”, 2 September 2024, ahrefs.com/blog/starter-plan/.
4. Semrush, Plans & Pricing, semrush.com/prices/.
5. SE Ranking, subscription page, seranking.com/subscription.html.
6. Mangools, Plans & pricing, mangools.com/plans-and-pricing.
7. Screaming Frog, SEO Spider pricing, screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/pricing/.
8. Surfer, Pricing, surferseo.com/pricing/.
9. Frase, Plans and pricing, frase.io/pricing.
10. Otterly.AI, Pricing, otterly.ai/pricing.
11. Writesonic, Plans & Pricing, writesonic.com/pricing.

Questions

More alternatives pages

• Semrush alternatives
• Mangools alternatives
• BrightEdge alternatives
• Conductor alternatives
• Profound alternatives

Turn your next topic into a useful page

Compass reads your website, helps you plan relevant topics and creates sourced article drafts. Review and approve the work, then send it to a connected CMS or export it.

Written by Michael Nefedov, founder of noetio. Updated 21 October 2026.