What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs runs its own crawler and keeps a backlink index refreshed every 15 to 30 minutes. That data feeds Site Explorer, which shows any site's backlinks, organic keywords and estimated traffic, plus Keywords Explorer, Site Audit and Rank Tracker. Newer tools track how brands appear in AI answers, and Ask Ahrefs, an AI assistant, pulls reports for you.
Plans differ by limits rather than core tools: projects, history, tracked keywords and crawl credits grow from Lite to Advanced, and Lite caps each user at 1,000 credits a month. Ahrefs Free gives site owners Site Explorer and Site Audit on their own verified sites at no cost.
Who is Ahrefs best for?
Ahrefs is best for SEO specialists and agencies that research competitors' backlinks and keywords and track rankings and AI visibility.
Link builders and SEO consultants
Site Explorer shows any domain's backlinks, referring domains, anchors and lost links from Ahrefs' own index.
Content and SEO teams
Keywords Explorer, plus Content Explorer and keyword clusters on Standard, help plan pages around what people search.
Brands watching AI search
Brand Radar tracks mentions and citations in AI answers, and custom prompt packages start at $50 a month.
Site owners on a budget
Ahrefs Free audits your own verified sites and shows their backlinks and keywords at no cost.
What's included with Ahrefs?
Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Brand Radar for AI search, Web Analytics, and API and MCP access from Lite.
- Site Explorer
- Backlinks, organic keywords, top pages and estimated traffic for any domain or URL.
- Keywords Explorer
- Search volume, difficulty and keyword ideas; Standard adds AI suggestions, clusters and search intents.
- Site Audit
- Checks 170+ technical and on-page issues and tracks a Health Score over time.
- Rank Tracker
- Weekly position updates for 750 to 5,000 keywords, depending on the plan.
- Brand Radar
- Tracks brand mentions, citations and sentiment in AI chatbots, with your own prompts checked daily.
- API and MCP server
- Query Ahrefs data from your own code or an AI assistant, with 100 to 500 rows per request by plan.
- Web Analytics
- A free, privacy-focused traffic dashboard for your own sites that also shows AI referral traffic.
How much does Ahrefs cost?
Ahrefs Free covers your own verified sites; paid plans cost $29 a month for Starter, $129 for Lite, $249 for Standard and $449 for Advanced, with add-ons extra.
- 200 credits a month
- Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit and Rank Tracker
- Monthly billing only; no extra users or credits
- 750 tracked keywords and 6 months of history
- 1,000 credits per user; add up to 2 users at $40 a month each
- API and MCP access
- 2,000 tracked keywords and 2 years of history
- Unlimited credits; add up to 5 users at $60 a month each
- Content Explorer, Portfolios and Batch Analysis
- 5,000 tracked keywords and 5 years of history
- Unlimited credits; add up to 10 users at $80 a month each
- Looker Studio integration
Paying yearly saves up to 17%; switch to annual billing through support. Enterprise, with SSO, audit logs and unlimited history, is priced through sales. Add-ons cost extra: Content Kit from $99 a month, Report Builder $99, Traffic Analytics from $99, Brand Radar AI from $199 and custom AI prompt packages from $50. Ahrefs Free covers Site Explorer and Site Audit on your own verified sites, with no end date. There is no free trial, and refunds are rare. Full pricing on ahrefs.com. We checked these prices on .
How do readers rate Ahrefs?
No one has rated Ahrefs yet. Be the first.
Sign in to rate. One rating per account.
Ahrefs pros and cons
Its backlink index and competitor research are the best reasons to pay, but the price, credit limits and rough traffic estimates put off smaller users.
Pros
- Backlink and competitor data is the main reason people pay; SEOs on Reddit, Capterra and Trustpilot rate it above rivals for link research.
- Reviewers find the interface clear once learned, with quick jumps from a domain to its top pages, keywords, anchors and referring domains.
- Rank tracking and site audits sit in the same account as the research data, which teams say makes shared reporting easy.
- Ahrefs Free gives site owners audits and backlink data on their own sites, and several reviewers use it before deciding to pay.
Cons
- It is expensive: reviewers often say $129 a month is hard to justify for freelancers and small businesses, and extra seats add up quickly.
- Credit and usage limits frustrate users: Lite runs out of credits during heavy research, and some report automatic restrictions on unlimited plans.
- Traffic and keyword estimates can be far from real numbers; users say they help for comparison but not as a measure of a site's actual audience.
- Add-ons and pay-as-you-go overages push the bill above the plan price, and some users report charges they did not expect.
How do I connect Ahrefs to my AI agent?
Ahrefs MCP is Ahrefs's official MCP server. Add it to your agent once, then ask it to pull keyword, backlink and ranking data from Ahrefs.
Connects your agent to your Ahrefs account, so you can research keywords, check who links to a site and track search performance without opening the dashboard.
$ claude mcp add --transport http ahrefs https://api.ahrefs.com/mcp/mcp
Claude Code connects to Ahrefs over the web.
Ahrefs's setup guide covers the sign-in.
Then ask your agent
- Runs
- On the web
- Sign-in
- See guide
- Checked
- Answered 13 Nov
- Guide
- ahrefs.com
What are the best Ahrefs alternatives?
Rush Analytics for cheaper rank tracking, DiagnoSEO for a low-cost all-in-one toolkit, and SEO Utils for a one-time desktop license.
Rush AnalyticsFreemiumChoose it when rank tracking, site audits and keyword research matter more than a backlink index; plans start at $24 a month.
DiagnoSEOFreemiumChoose it when you need audits, keyword research and backlink checks on a small budget, from $9 per user a month.
SEO UtilsPaidChoose it when you would rather pay $69 once for a desktop app and bring your own DataForSEO account than pay every month.
SemrushFreeChoose it when you want SEO, PPC and content tools in one suite, with a free account of 10 reports a day; paid plans start at $139 a month.
Questions about Ahrefs
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is an SEO and marketing platform built on its own web crawler and index, used by marketers and agencies to research competitors, backlinks and keywords, audit sites and track rankings and AI visibility.
Who is Ahrefs for?
Ahrefs is best for SEO specialists and agencies that research competitors' backlinks and keywords and track rankings and AI visibility.
Is Ahrefs free?
Partly. Ahrefs Free is a no-cost plan with no end date for website owners: Site Explorer and Site Audit work on sites you verify, alongside Web Analytics, the SEO Toolbar and one AI Content Helper document a month. Researching other sites needs a paid plan.
How much does Ahrefs cost?
Ahrefs's paid plans are Starter at $29 per month, Lite at $129 per month, Standard at $249 per month and Advanced at $449 per month.
Does Ahrefs have an MCP server?
Yes. Ahrefs MCP is Ahrefs's official MCP server, so agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and GitHub Copilot can pull keyword, backlink and ranking data from Ahrefs. Ahrefs runs it on the web.
What are the best Ahrefs alternatives?
The closest alternatives on Recaply are Rush Analytics, DiagnoSEO, SEO Utils and Semrush.
Where can I try Ahrefs?
On its official website, ahrefs.com.
Does Ahrefs have a free trial?
No. Ahrefs does not run free trials or discounts. The closest options are Ahrefs Free for your own verified sites, or the $29 Starter plan, which renews monthly with no contract and can be cancelled at any time.
What are Ahrefs credits?
Ahrefs spends credits when you open reports and request data in most core tools. Starter includes 200 a month and Lite 1,000 per user, while Standard and higher plans have unlimited credits. Site Audit and Rank Tracker use their own limits instead.
Can I get a refund from Ahrefs?
Usually not. Ahrefs says it does not issue refunds in general; on a monthly plan you can ask if you have not used the service, but it may refuse if the account shows real activity. Cancelling keeps access until the paid period ends.
Can I use Ahrefs data in Claude or other AI assistants?
Yes. Lite and higher plans include API and MCP server access, so an AI assistant can query Ahrefs data directly. Each request returns up to 100 rows on Lite, 250 on Standard and 500 on Advanced.
Our verdict
Ahrefs is worth the money if backlink and competitor research is a daily part of your work.
Its own crawler and 494 billion-page index give it link data that users rate above rivals, and Lite adds API and MCP access.
- Skip it for
- Site owners and small businesses that only need data on their own site, which Ahrefs Free or a cheaper tool covers.
- Check first
- Check Lite's credit and user limits, and which add-ons you need, before you commit.
Moz
OpenSEO
Mangools
Ubersuggest
Ahrefs Letaido
Keyword Insights