6 Best Ahrefs Alternatives in 2026

Every figure below comes from the vendor's own pricing, data and help pages, checked on 12 October 2026, in US dollars before tax. Index sizes are as each vendor states them; they are counted differently and are not directly comparable. Treat everything as 'as of October 2026'.

What Ahrefs costs today

Lite is $129 a month for 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords and one user with 1,000 credits a month; Standard $249 (20 projects, 2,000 keywords, unlimited credits); Advanced $449 (50 projects, 5,000 keywords); Enterprise $1,499 a month with an annual commitment. Extra users are $40 a month on Lite, $60 on Standard, $80 on Advanced and $100 on Enterprise. Rank Tracker updates weekly on every plan. A $29 Starter plan covers light, credit-based use, and Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) audits and monitors sites you can verify. Ahrefs says it never runs discounts and offers no trial, and that it does not issue refunds in general. It states 35 trillion backlinks in its history and an index updated every 15 to 30 minutes.

At a glance (as of October 2026)

The alternatives, one by one

Semrush: the closest like-for-like suite

The SEO plan is $139 a month ($117.33 billed annually) for 5 websites and 500 keywords; Semrush One plans add AI visibility tracking from $199 (Starter), with Pro+ at $299 and Advanced at $549. Position Tracking updates daily, which is the biggest practical difference from Ahrefs for agencies reporting rankings. Semrush states 43 trillion+ backlinks across 800 million+ domains and more than 28 billion keywords across 142 databases. One user per plan; extra users from $45. There is a 7-day trial with exports disabled, and a free plan. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush on 28 April 2026. Best for: teams that want the broadest toolkit, with local, content and market traffic toolkits on the same account. Limit: per-seat, per-report and per-toolkit costs add up.

SE Ranking: more projects for the price

Core is $129 a month ($103.20 billed annually) for 10 projects, 2,000 keywords tracked daily and 100 AI prompts; Growth is $279 ($223.20) for 30 projects and three manager seats. SE Ranking states 2.9 trillion backlinks indexed, and its backlink page gives two different domain counts (428 million domains indexed and 411 million referring domains). It includes a backlink gap analyzer and API credits on every plan. Its FAQ says its search volume figures trail Semrush's and Ahrefs'. 14-day trial without a card. Best for: agencies that want daily tracking across many client sites. Limit: payments are non-refundable.

Majestic: link data and nothing else

Lite is $49.99 a month or $499.99 a year with the Fresh Index only; Pro is $99.99 or $999.99 and adds the Historic Index, backlink history, Compare and custom reports; the API plan is $399.99 a month with 5 users. When we checked, Majestic's Fresh Index showed about 546 billion URLs found (186 billion crawled) for 14 June to 12 October 2026. Its Historic Index was last updated on 23 March 2024, so it is not current. Lite and Pro carry a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers. Best for: link builders who want link metrics without paying for a suite. Limit: no keyword research, rank tracking or AI features are stated.

Serpstat: the low-cost all-rounder

Individual is $69 a month or $50 billed annually (5 projects, 100 searches a day, 2,000 rows per backlink report, daily rank tracking); Team is $129 or $100 (unlimited projects, 3 users, 10,000 rows per backlink report, API). Serpstat states its backlink index differently on different pages (529 billion on its homepage, 1 trillion on its API page), so test link coverage for your own niche. 7-day trial with a $1 card verification that is returned. Best for: freelancers who want keywords, links and daily rankings in one cheap plan. Limit: backlink rows are capped per report, and payments are non-refundable.

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass: desktop backlinks

SEO SpyGlass is SEO PowerSuite's backlink tool. On its own it is $129 a year (Professional) or $259 (Enterprise); the full suite with Rank Tracker, WebSite Auditor and LinkAssistant is $349 a year. SEO PowerSuite states 6.5 trillion backlinks in its index with 12 months of backlink history. The free edition is limited to 1,100 backlinks and one project. Its return policy says it gives no refunds. Best for: consultants who want backlink research on their own machine for a yearly fee. Limit: annual billing only.

Google Search Console: free, for sites you own

Search Console is a free service. Its Links report shows top linked pages, top linking sites, top linking text and internal links for verified sites, but Google says it is a sample, not a complete list; tables show up to 1,000 rows and some exports reach 100,000 rows. Best for: checking your own and your clients' links at no cost. Limit: no competitor data.

Pick by why you are leaving Ahrefs

Link data and AI answers

Backlinks still matter for search, but AI assistants also lean on what other sites say about you: reviews, comparisons and forum threads that get cited. Ahrefs sells Brand Radar from $199 a month for AI visibility research; Semrush and SE Ranking include AI prompt tracking in some plans. Fenn does a different job: it asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok your buyers' questions, shows which sources each one cites and who it names instead of you, and drafts the fixes and pages you are missing for you to approve and publish. It has no backlink index or keyword research, so it sits beside one of the tools above. Plans start at $29 a month, set up after a demo.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Ahrefs?

For sites you own, Ahrefs Free and Google Search Console's Links report are both free. For competitor link data, every paid alternative here costs money; SE Ranking and Semrush offer trials, and Majestic offers a 7-day money-back guarantee on Lite and Pro.

Is Semrush better than Ahrefs?

They are close. As of October 2026, Semrush updates rank tracking daily and offers a trial; Ahrefs updates rank tracking weekly, offers no trial and is often chosen for link research. Compare both on your own clients' niches.

Does Ahrefs have a free trial?

No. Ahrefs says it offers no trial and never runs discounts. Ahrefs Free and a $29 Starter plan are the low-cost ways to try parts of it.

What is the cheapest backlink checker?

Among paid tools, Majestic Lite at $49.99 a month and Serpstat Individual at $50 a month billed annually are the lowest entry prices here; SEO SpyGlass is $129 a year. For your own sites, Search Console is free.