âšď¸ Skipped - page is already crawled
| Filter | Status | Condition | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP status | PASS | download_http_code = 200 | HTTP 200 |
| Age cutoff | PASS | download_stamp > now() - 6 MONTH | 0.4 months ago |
| History drop | PASS | isNull(history_drop_reason) | No drop reason |
| Spam/ban | PASS | fh_dont_index != 1 AND ml_spam_score = 0 | ml_spam_score=0 |
| Canonical | PASS | meta_canonical IS NULL OR = '' OR = src_unparsed | Not set |
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| URL | https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/ |
| Last Crawled | 2026-04-10 02:54:43 (11 days ago) |
| First Indexed | 2024-02-09 10:05:12 (2 years ago) |
| HTTP Status Code | 200 |
| Meta Title | Ahrefs vs Semrush - the no Fluff Comparison Based on Over 10 Years of Experience |
| Meta Description | I've used tens of SEO tools over the years and can confidently say that Ahrefs and Sermush are the absolute leaders when it comes to all-in-one tools for SEO professionals. |
| Meta Canonical | null |
| Boilerpipe Text | Iâve been an avid user of Ahrefs since its launch in 2012. It used to be a pretty simple SEO tool back in the days. At the same time, Semrush started to emerge and in a few years both tools become the industry leaders (there was also SEOmoz but its market share has been declining since 2018, when their founder Rand Fishkin left the company, but thatâs
another story
).
Iâve used tens of SEO tools over the years and can confidently say that Ahrefs and Sermush are the absolute leaders when it comes to all-in-one tools for SEO professionals. There are other software for specific use cases, but these 2 are the most widely used and possibly the best ones.
Note:
this article is based on my own experience with these tools and it contains affiliate links. Read the disclosure
here
.
TLDR â Which SEO Tool is Better?
Both are decent and capable SEO tools. Ideally, If you have the budget, use them both. Alternatively, select the one that meets your core requirements.
Why choose Ahrefs
⢠More powerful backlink analysis features
⢠Decent keyword research tool, multiple search engines
⢠Global stats on reports
⢠Content Explorer
Why choose Semrush
⢠Superior reporting and alerts/triggers system
⢠Better PPC analysis options
⢠More powerful Site Audit tool
⢠Plenty of credits for monthly usage and more data overall
My take
:
Ahrefs
excels in specific
areas like backlink analysis and keyword research, while
Semrush
is a
better all-round
SEO tool with a superior reporting system, better organic position tracking and offers more data for analysis.
Companies Overview
Letâs have a quick look at both companies and their teams + revenue. One thing to note here is that Ahrefs has a significantly smaller team and usually donât have a huge advertising budget.
What bothers me lately about Ahrefs though, is the fact that theyâre trying to get more profit out of loyal customers, even though the company is bootstrapped and self sufficient.
Ahrefs
Semrush
Founded in
2012
2008
Headquartered in
Singapore, Singapore
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Company type
Private, bootstrapped
Public, stock symbol NYSE: SEMR
Founders
Dmitry Gerasimenko
Oleg Shchegolev, Dmitri Melnikov
Annual revenue
$100M+
$300M+
Avg. salary
$76K â $144K / year
$30K â $143K / year
Nr. of employees
50 â 200
1,000 â 5,000
Avg. employee tenure
2.2 years
2 years
Headcount growth in the last 6 months
8%
8%
Pros and Cons
Iâve highlighted the unique features of every tool and things that I like/dislike.
Generally, I find
Semrush
a
more capable
SEO solution, even though it lacks some specific features compared to
Ahrefs
(Content Explorer, dedicated broken backlink analysis, top organic pages line graphs, etc.).
I can somehow reproduce/workaround those options in Semrush and can live with that. At the same time, Semrush offers more data regarding: keyword intent, brand keywords, paid ads, log analyzer, etc.
Ahrefs is inferior when it comes to reporting/alerts and is much more restrictive with their credit system. If you use it regularly, you might need to buy more credits. Also, their data export limits are embarrassing, to say the least.
What I like at Ahrefs
Ahrefs Pros
+ Global stats for organic traffic
+ Free usage if you verify your website
+ Line graphs for top organic pages
+ Nr. of organic pages and traffic share
+ Great options for backlink analysis
+ Keyword research for multiple search engines
+ Content Explorer
What I donât like at Ahrefs
Ahrefs Cons
â Limited reporting
â Data export functionality and limits
â Too limited functionality in cheaper plans
â Site Audit tool is so so
â The new credit usage system is bad
â Poor PPC analysis options
Note
: Iâve removed this con for Ahrefs âNo brand/non brand break down, no intent infoâ as the team implemented these features recently. More on that in the Domain Overview section below.
What I like at Semrush
Semrush Pros
+ Great reporting system
+ Email alerts and triggers
+ Solid PPC analysis options
+ Brand/non brand, keyword intent, backlink network, etc.
+ Plenty of units for monthly usage
+ Decent Site Audit tool
+ Rank Tracker & Log File Analyzer
What I donât like at Semrush
Semrush Cons
â No global stats for organic traffic
â Poor UX, itâs overwhelming and hard to use
â Weak backlink analysis options
â Keyword research only for Google
â Limited historical data on organic research
â Customer support is average
Core Features
User Experience
Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers a pretty simple and straightforward interface. You can access pretty much every report in 1-2 clicks. I like the simplicity and usefulness of the presented data.
Recently, they started to make it more visually appealing (clearly getting inspiration from Semrush) and I donât necessarily like this trend. I need the SEO tool to be fast and useful, I donât care much about beautiful graphs.
Semrush
The tools is quite difficult to use â the number of options and displayed data might be overwhelming, especially for new users. To get to specific reports you have to click at least 2-3 times, itâs a bit challenging and at times annoying.
On the other hand the graphs look nice and give you a quick general overview of whatâs happening with the analyzed website. The UI looks good overall, but as I said Iâm not a fan of âvanityâ metrics and presentations.
Domain Overview
Note:
both tools have a domain rating/score system and call it differently. Ahrefs names it Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush names it Authority Score (AS).
Usually, the bigger the rating/score of a site, the more organic traffic it has. However, I only keep these metrics for reference. They donât directly influence your organic ranking in search engines.
Ahrefs
You get a quick overview of your domainâs performance in the
Dashboard
and also in the
Site Explorer â Overview
section when you open a specific project.
Here you have the main metrics at a glance:
Backlink profile â nr. of referring domains, backlinks
Organic search â nr. of keywords, traffic
Paid search â nr. of keywords, traffic
I like that you can see the global organic traffic value instantly. Even though itâs not an accurate metric, itâs good to have it there.
Below you get a bunch of other handy info and charts related to organic pages, backlinks, locations, competitors, etc.
Here, my favorite charts to look at are:
Organic traffic
Number of organic pages
Organic traffic share by pages
Update
: in 2024, Ahrefs introduced branded/non branded and search intent segmentation which are now available in Overview, Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer reports.
Thatâs a great addition, which addresses the previous disadvantages and makes the tool more capable in relation to Semrush. The team clearly hears the usersâs feedback and follows their competition.
Semrush
Once you get to the
Domain Overview
report (either by including your URL in the top search bar) or from your
Projects
section by opening your project then click on a widget and then go back to Domain Overview, you get a set of handy info.
This is the only report except Backlink Analytics, where you get
global
data for a website. All the other reports show you stats based on specific locations. Would be nice to have a global overview in the Organic Research and Advertising reports.
At the top, you get the main metrics:
Authority score
Organic traffic
Paid traffic
Backlinks
They also show you some engagement metrics like: bounce rate, average visit duration, pages per visit from the
Traffic Analytics
report which is unique to Semrush (no similar report is available in Ahrefs).
It shows you detailed stats on total visits, traffic sources, engagement metrics, devices, geographical locations and many more. Itâs like a lite version of Google Analytics based on Semrush estimates (shows you the accuracy of estimations).
Now getting back to Domain Overview. Below the main overview table you get plenty of charts and graphs about a websiteâs organic, paid and backlink performance.
Here, my favorite charts and data to look at are:
Traffic share by country
SERP features
Branded vs non branded traffic & keywords
Keywords by intent
Competitor performance graphs
Examples of ads
Organic Research
Ahrefs
The
Organic
search
section in
Ahrefs
is not that visual as in Semrush but itâs simple and straightforward. The section consists of the following sub-pages:
Organic keywords
Top pages
Organic competitors
Content gap
Organic keywords
The list of all organic keywords and a bunch in useful info like: URL, position, volume, search features, rich results, SERP overview, position history, etc.
The filter on top is handy if you want to display more granular data, for example: see keywords with low difficulty, specific search volume and position.
Top pages
This report shows you the top performing pages, the amount of organic traffic they generate and the top keywords. I like 2 things in this report:
Global filter
â you can view the global and regional performance of the organic pages (global view is not supported in Semrush at page level)
Keyword grouping
â you can see the top performing keywords by page, without leaving the report or opening a new tab
Organic competitors
See your top 5 organic competitors or add new competitors to compare the number of keywords, pages, traffic and more.
Content gap
This is actually a
keyword gap
report, showing you the keywords your competitors rank for and yours donât. You can add multiple competitors and choose to display keywords that are in top 10 positions.
Would be great to see the top competitor page for each keyword in this report, which is currently not possible.
Semrush
The Organic Research report in
Semrush
is more visual and displays more data than Ahrefs. It consists of multiple sub-pages, organized in tabs:
Overview
Positions
Position Changes
Competitors
Pages
Subdomains
Overview
A quick overview of the organic performance. Some of my
favorite graphs
and tables to look at are:
Branded/non branded traffic
Number of keywords by position
Top keywords
Keywords by intent
Top position changes
SERP features
Main organic competitors
By default, Semrush will show you the
organic performance by the number of keywords which is usually greater than the organic traffic
, so it might be confusing and you need to get used to it.
Another thing to note is that Semrush categorizes organic keyword by 3 criteria:
All
â all organic keywords
Organic
â only keywords that trigger regular search snippets
SERP features
â only keywords that trigger rick results like: sitelinks, featured snippets, image packs, people also ask, AI overviews and many more.
In the Search Features section you can see a visual graph with trends on how many keywords rank for those specific features and also can click on any feature to view the list of keywords.
Also, I find the filter by country a bit slow and the overall IU/UX quite heavy (you have to click a lot). On the other hand, I like that you can
add notes
and see the
timeline
of Google updates.
All the data is shown for the current day and you can only see historical data if you have a higher plan.
Positions
This is actually the Keywords report, displaying the top organic keywords and a bunch of other data like: intent, position, difficulty, volume, position trends, etc.
I particularly like the SERP preview feature which shows you a real snapshot of Google search results and highlights your ranking page. Itâs also useful that you can see the positions by organic keywords and SERP features.
Position changes
Shows you which keywords or SERP feature positions improved or declined. This report has been recently updated and displays a daily/monthly trend and top changes by pages.
There is no separate graph for new/lost keywords and these are mentioned in the table below in the
Difference
column. I find this a bit
confusing
.
Competitors
Gives you a general overview of competitors based on the number of common organic keywords + shows you additional data about competitors like their traffic, paid keywords, traffic cost, etc. (you can export the list).
The list of competitors is pretty accurate, but it doesnât necessarily mean that these are your main competitors as they might rank for keywords that you donât rank for yet.
Itâs a good idea to use the Keyword Gap analysis to discover missed opportunities and potential new competitors.
Pages
Top pages by organic traffic and number of keywords. I like that it shows you the traffic difference compared to last month, but I donât like that you have to open a new tab to see organic keywords for every page.
Subdomains
Organic traffic and keywords by subdomains. I donât use this often as most of my projects have a subfolder URL structure.
Keyword gap
Unlike in Ahrefs, the
Keyword Gap
report in Semrush is more visual and shows you the exact pages that rank for those keywords. The export options are also
better
, as you can export the data in PDF, CSV and Excel.
It also works for paid keywords, which is a good addition.
Paid Search
Ahrefs
Historically, Ahrefs wasnât a tool created for paid keywords and ads research, but it time they added this functionality and improved it.
Even so, the report is pretty
limited
and consists of the following sections:
Paid keywords
Ads
Paid pages
Paid keywords
Top paid keywords and related data: traffic, CPC, triggered ads, difficulty, position, etc.
Ads
Examples of ads and associated pages, keywords and traffic.
Paid pages
The top performing paid pages and related data: cost, keywords, ads, etc. I like the line chart showing the evolution of paid pages, traffic, cost and keywords over time and the
Compare pages
option.
Semrush
The
Advertising Research
report in Semrush is more capable and offers more data related to paid keywords and ads. It consists of the following sections:
Positions
Position changes
Competitors
Ad copies
Ads history
Pages
Subdomains
Positions
Gives you a quick overview about a websiteâs advertising efforts (keywords, traffic, cost) and a list of paid keywords with ad previews on hover and plenty of data: CPC, traffic, position, volume, URL and many more.
Position changes
Unlike the Position changes report for organic keywords, this one shows you a graph for
new and lost paid keywords
(I would like the same graph for organic keywords).
Itâs pretty similar with the report above, but includes the changes in positions and the new/lost paid keywords graph.
Competitors
Top competitors based on common paid keywords, similar to the Organic research report. Allows you to export the data in PDF and CSV/Excel.
Ad copies
Examples of paid ads and associated paid keywords data + sorting by the number of keywords. Would be nice to have traffic data as well.
Ads history
This one shows you the evolution of paid keywords and ads over the last year. I find it useful, especially if you wan to see who is bidding on your brand terms. Itâs not available in Ahrefs.
Pages
Top pages by paid traffic, keywords and traffic share. Would be good to see the actual paid keywords from this page level report.
Subdomains
Paid traffic and keywords by subdomains. Not essential, but good to have.
Ads history (separate report)
This is a separate report â it shows you all the competing websites for a specific keyword for the last year.
PLA research
A separate report for Product Listing Ads (PLA) displaying similar info as in Advertising research report. Handy for ecommerce websites and businesses that use PLAs frequently. This is only available in Semrush.
Backlink Analysis
Ahrefs
Ahrefs shows you both Domain Rating and URL Rating in most of its
Backlink profile
reports, which is handy and gives you more insights at a higher level.
Letâs go through the main sections of the Backlink profile report.
Backlinks
One of my favorite reports. I like that you can group backlinks, show only 1 backlink per domain or all of them. The filters are really handy and powerful, you can filter pretty much everything including anchor text and target URL.
New/lost backlinks are available.
Note
that these are based on the first discovery date (the first time when ahrefs crawlers discovered the backlink).
Broken backlinks
Another great feature in Ahrefs. See all the broken links on your site with backlinks pointing to them. It used to be harder to display the list, so they did a separate report for that.
Itâs useful for link building and also for checking the broken pages on your site with backlinks, so you can redirect or restore them.
Referring domains
All domains pointing to your website and their relevant info. Props for
Best links
predefined filter and also for the
Links to target
column where you can see all the backlinks per domain without leaving the page.
Anchors
Similar to the report above, you can see the referring domains and backlinks based on anchor text, without leaving the page.
Referring IPs
See the number of backlinks based on website IPs and their respective subnet.
Link intersect
Find backlinks of your competitors where your website is not mentioned. I find this ahrefs report a bit limited, especially when you export the data. There is no info on every competitor backlink and the number of rows you can export is not enough with the smallest plan.
Semrush
Semrush
doesnât show
you the domain Authority Score in the
Backlink Analytics
report. The page Authority Score doesnât make a lot of sense to me as a separate metric, would be nice to have it at both domain and page level.
Letâs see the main backlinks related reports.
Backlink analytics
Itâs more visual than the one in Ahrefs, but less useful in my opinion. Network graph (shows you the backlink network) and Authority score (shows your siteâs authority) graph are nice though.
Like in Ahrefs you get the full set of backlink related reports:
Overview
Network graph
Backlinks
Anchors
Referring domains
Indexed pages (best pages by backlinks)
Competitors (common backlinks)
Outbound links
Referring IPs
I find the filters a bit limited, as you canât filter by specific values, for example by
Target URL
. Additionally, the user experience feels overwhelming, there is too much data which is not required.
You canât easily find the broken pages with backlinks. Itâs hidden under Indexed
Pages report
, you have to tick the
Broken Pages
checkbox.
In general, itâs a capable report but requires some workarounds to get the desired list of backlinks. You can pretty much achieve the same functionality as in Ahrefs, but it will take you more time to figure out.
Backlink audit
This is a unique tool only available in Semrush. It shows you the potentially harmful backlinks and groups them by
Toxicity score
: high toxic links are bad, potentially toxic links are more or less normal and non toxic links are ok.
Google will generally ignore backlinks from spam websites, but sometimes there might be some black hat techniques involved and you could use this report to get a general overview.
Itâs great that you can mark all potentially harmful links and assign different categories directly in Semrush:
remove, disavow or whitelist
. Then, you can start contacting sites to remove the bad links or export the backlinks and disavow them in Google Search Console.
The tool will automatically scan the backlinks and update the report on a permanent basis, sending relevant notification emails and displaying the trends in a visual way. I find this tool handy.
Link building tool
An automated tool to help you acquire backlinks based on keywords you want to target and your competitors backlinks. The system will give a comprehensive list of backlinks and tools to help you get them.
You can mark the backlinks as
âIn Progressâ
and
categorize
them by strategy type (for example directory listings). The system will offer you predefined outreach email templates and also the emails of the prospects.
You need to connect your email and start outreaching
directly
from Semrush. You can move the acquired backlinks to Monitor status to view the overall progress and measure your link building activity.
If youâre into link building and require an automated solution, this is definitely for you. I think itâs a good fit for both SEO professionals and web agencies.
Bulk analysis
Add the URLs of multiple websites and get comparison info on their backlinks, visits and authority score. I would prefer to also get the number of organic keywords and organic traffic, but thatâs optional.
Keyword Research
Ahrefs
Itâs called
Keyword Explorer
in Ahrefs and is an effective and easy to use keyword research tool. It support multiple search engines: Google, Bing, Youtube, Amazon, etc.
It shows you the keyword difficulty and an estimated number of required backlinks to rank in top 10 organic results, search volume, keyword ideas grouped by topics, SERP overview with top sites ranking for those keywords.
The filters are powerful and the SERP comparison feature is nice, but the paid keywords reports are quite weak.
Semrush
The
Keyword Research
tool in Semrush is powerful as well. It gives you a full overview for a keyword and plenty of keyword ideas to further research.
It only works for Google search engine, but I like that you get some extra info compared to Ahrefs, for example:
keyword intent,
keyword clusters
, SERP features, real SERP preview.
The reports related to paid keywords are more powerful than in Ahrefs and there is a separate tool for keyword lists management called
Keyword Manager
.
Another unique option â the keywords are clustered by the system when you export the keyword ideas and also in the Keyword Manager tool, which also shows you a visual representation of your keyword clusters.
Organic Rank/Position Tracking
Ahrefs
As you might expect, the
Rank Tracker
tool in Ahrefs is capable and provides a nice user experience. It shows you the position changes, ranking history, SERP features and many more.
Tags
are useful, as you can group the keywords by categories. Additionally, the
Pages
report shows you the top performing pages based on added keywords.
The
Competitors
section is also practical and gives a comparison against competitors. In addition, you can set up weekly/monthly email reports on your keywords performance.
Semrush
The
Position Tracking
report in Semrush is more capable and comprehensive. You might even find it a bit overwhelming, but once you use it for a while youâll probably like it.
It shows you the full picture related to your organic keywords performance + has some
unique reports
like: ranking distribution, featured snippets, keyword cannibalization, etc.
I particularly like the
alerts feature
which you can configure (for example: get an email alert when your keywords enter the top 10 organic positions) and the weekly
email reports
with the general performance.
The
Competitors
reports looks more appealing and you get some info on local search features like Local Map Pack. Moreover, there is a mobile app for organic position tracking for both iOS and Android.
Site Audit
Both Ahrefs and Semrush offer a Site audit feature which is convenient for general sitewide monitoring and top level technical issues. If you need a more in depth analysis, you would most probably need a site crawling tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.
Ahrefs
One handy option to mention in the Site Audit tool is the side by side comparison, where you can compare the content or HTML code of a page with a previous version.
To access this feature go to
Site Audit â Page Explorer
, then open any page from the list and click on
View source
. Select the date to compare and view the changes.
Semrush
Semrushâs Site audit tool feels easier to use and is more organized in my opinion. Also, the email alerts and reporting is a bit better, especially when it comes to SEO Issues.
AI Citations/Visibility
Both tools have launched AI visibility options for you to track your performance in chatbots and AI search.
Users search differently in chatbots, so currently itâs hard to track and understand how much traffic you get, what are the top prompts and whatâs the impact of AI search in general.
These estimations can give you a general idea of whatâs happening with your site in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, etc.
Ahrefs
It gives you some general info on AI citations in the Overview section. It shows 2 metrics:
Number of citations
Number of cited pages
Thatâs pretty much it. If you want more info, you have to buy the Brand Radar tool. It costs $560 / month for all supported platforms: Google AI Overviews and AI mode, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT.
You can also choose to pay per platform, which is $159 / month.
Semrush
They have a separate AI SEO tool, which is $99 / month and is integrated in the main interface. It covers Google AI mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and you donât have to pay separately for each platform.
The tool gives you lots of insights about your brand, its share of voice, domain/page citations, mentions, questions, sentiment and more. The results are more visual and quite easy to scan and understand.
I like the topic distribution option and query intent distribution, where you can see what are the main searched topics and the intent of the searches: education, comparison, purchase, etc.
The top prompts and their search volume are also nice to have.
I donât like the AI opportunities (suggestions) sections which is mainly fluff in my opinion.
Pricing Plans
Both Ahrefs and Semrush increased their prices in the last months, so price-wise the difference is not that significant.
For example, the cheapest Ahrefs plan was $89 / month and now is $129 / month and the cheapest Semrush plan was $129.95 / month and now is $139.95 / month.
Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs pricing is
confusing
to say the least. There are 4 pricing plans and the plans are limited by functionality and usage and export limits. Thatâs pretty much all you need to know.
If you pay yearly, you get 2 months for free. Here are the current plans:
Lite
Standard
Advanced
Enterprise
$129 / month
$249 / month
$449 / month
$1,499 / month
$1,290 / year
$2,490 / year
$4,490 / year
$14,990 / year
Best for: small businesses
Best for: SEO consultants
Best for: in-house teams
Best for: agencies
You can read more about the Ahrefs pricing plans and see why I think theyâre not optimal in the
Ahrefs Controversies
section below.
Ahrefs
doesnât provide a free trial
. The only option to test it for free is by verifying your site with them. In this case youâll get some limited statistics and access to basic tools.
Update:
in July 2024, they introduced the Starter plan for $29 / month for those who are just starting out and donât have large websites. It provides a limited set of tools and credits to use.
Backlinks explorer, SERP history, page inspect, local SEO and other options are not included in the Starter plan. You can only have 1 unverified project, meaning that you can only follow the progress of 1 competitor website.
Semrush Pricing
Semrush offers a free 7-day free trial by default. But if you
join here
, youâll get a 14-day free trial. Youâll need to add your credit card details though.
Semrush pricing plans are
simple, clear
and straightforward, compared to Ahrefs. They offer more units (credits) for reports and exports.
If you pay yearly, you can save up to 17%. There are 3 pricing plans:
Pro
Guru
Business
$139.95 / month
$249.95 / month
$499.95 / month
$1,407.96 / year
$2,499.96 / year
$4,999.92 / year
Best for: small businesses
Best for: agencies
Best for: enterprises
There are some upsells in the existing pricing plans, but they are clear and you mainly understand what you are paying for.
Letâs talk about some controversial stuff from both sides (none of them are ideal, so I just wanted to share my thoughts on some of their business practices).
Ahrefs Controversies
Price increase
In 2022, they have changed their pricing structure, moving to a
credit usage
and featured based system. It pissed off a lot of loyal customers, including me. Suddenly, after years of using the tool you had to pay more, for the same set of features and similar usage.
Instead of rewarding long time customers, they tax them and add some limitations. Of course, users will be upset and switch to other alternatives.
Credit usage
This credit system is not only expensive but also confusing as hell. They tried to act smart and sophisticated, inventing all kind of limits & tricks â shared pool of credits, no charges per audits and pagination and many many more.
Itâs just a mess, used to work fine, no credits just monthly payments. They said, that only 20% of users would be affected by this price change, but 500 credits per month is just not enough. Iâm not willing to pay them $35 / month for extra 500 credits and itâs not only about the money.
And they didnât really explain why they did this move, except some general fluff like this:
I fully understand how raising prices (and going usage-based) can upset a lot of customers. And yet that was a business decision that we had to go for and it turned out to be very healthy for the company. It will allow Ahrefs to keep making significant investments in tech and therefore continue improving our data and capabilities.
Tim Soulo of Ahrefs
It reads like:
we will charge you more to make more money and also fund our useless projects like Yep search engine.
FYI:
the company is bootstrapped and is doing well financially, making about $100M / year according to this internal
source
, so why this rush to earn more?
Even their endless tutorials and videos explaining the pricing plans are confusing. For example on
Lite
plan is says that
Page Inspect
feature is available, but when you watch the video the narrator says itâs only available in the Advanced plan.
As I said earlier, itâs a total mess, I donât want to spend so much time to truly understand this new pricing structure and remember: Iâm not a new users, Iâve been using the tool for years.
Update:
in June 2024, Ahrefs removed the credits limit for bigger plans (starting at $229 / per month), except the Lite plan, and for new users only.
Upsells
You used to get access to all tools with the cheapest plan. Now, theyâre limiting the functionality based on plans, not only on usage. You get less features if you pay less.
Always crying about Semrush
They spend too much time complaining about Semrush and their business practices, instead of improving their own product and moving along. The community responded accordingly, just read the comments on this tweet.
You aren't going to win customers by whining about the competition. Ditch the credit system & yep, fix your infrastructure reliability. This is what is costing you customers not semrush's failure to disclose.
â Kris Roadruck (@KrisRoadruck)
October 23, 2023
Yep search engine
They have
invested $60M
to create a new search engine with no major differentiators. The Yep search engine is already dead in my opinion, no one is going to use it. They should better focus on their core SEO product, which has issues: slow, limited reporting, login issues, keyword info accuracy, etc.
For privacy you have DuckDuckGo, for rewards you have Brave, for anything else you have Google /Bing or even Ecosia (if youâre all about the sustainable future).
Alternatively, if you need an AI powered search engine, you can try Perplexity which is doing a decent job lately.
Semrush Controversies
Backlinko acquisition
In January 2022, Semrush
acquired
Backlinko.com â a popular SEO education website created by Brian Dean. Iâve learned a lot from Brianâs website and he seemed like a genuine guy with a vast experience and knowledge.
In any case, the website is now under Semrush umbrella. It makes sense for Semrush to expand its business, but for me this acquisition looked weird, as it was one of the few independent sources of useful SEO info.
In August 2024, Brian Dean sold his second project called Exploding Topics to Semrush.
In October 2024, Semrush
acquired
Search Engine Land and while itâs a smart strategic move for them, I donât think itâs good for the community.
Influencer marketing
While itsâ a common business practice to pay influencers to promote your product, I donât necessarily like that Semrush invests in well known figures (who might not be that good at SEO, but are good at PR) to spread the word.
Commercially oriented
Itâs normal to run companies for profit. Over the years, the tool has grown tremendously and I think that itâs no longer guided by pure passion and enthusiasm. Itâs now a publicly traded company (NYSE: SEMR) and has to please its investors = generate profit.
Conclusion
The bottom line is pretty simple â if you have the budget use both Ahrefs and Semrush. If you donât have the budget and link building is not your top priority, then go for
Semrush
.
Thatâs it folks, I hope you found this resource useful. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. |
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# Ahrefs vs Semrush â the no Fluff Comparison Based on Over 10 Years of Experience
By [Ivor](https://wpindigo.com/author/basicsxpgmail-com/ "View all posts by Ivor") / [SEO](https://wpindigo.com/category/seo/) / Updated: August 29, 2025
Iâve been an avid user of Ahrefs since its launch in 2012. It used to be a pretty simple SEO tool back in the days. At the same time, Semrush started to emerge and in a few years both tools become the industry leaders (there was also SEOmoz but its market share has been declining since 2018, when their founder Rand Fishkin left the company, but thatâs [another story](https://sparktoro.com/blog/the-final-chapter-of-my-first-startup/)).
Iâve used tens of SEO tools over the years and can confidently say that Ahrefs and Sermush are the absolute leaders when it comes to all-in-one tools for SEO professionals. There are other software for specific use cases, but these 2 are the most widely used and possibly the best ones.
**Note:** this article is based on my own experience with these tools and it contains affiliate links. Read the disclosure [here](https://wpindigo.com/privacy-policy/).
Table of Contents
- [TLDR â Which SEO Tool is Better?](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#tldr--which-seo-tool-is-better)
- [Companies Overview](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#companies-overview)
- [Pros and Cons](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#pros-and-cons)
- [What I like at Ahrefs](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#what-i-like-at-ahrefs)
- [Ahrefs Pros](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#ahrefs-pros)
- [What I don't like at Ahrefs](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#what-i-dont-like-at-ahrefs)
- [Ahrefs Cons](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#ahrefs-cons)
- [What I like at Semrush](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#what-i-like-at-semrush)
- [Semrush Pros](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#semrush-pros)
- [What I don't like at Semrush](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#what-i-dont-like-at-semrush)
- [Semrush Cons](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#semrush-cons)
- [Core Features](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#core-features)
- [User Experience](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#user-experience)
- [Domain Overview](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#domain-overview)
- [Organic Research](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#organic-research)
- [Paid Search](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#paid-search)
- [Backlink Analysis](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#backlink-analysis)
- [Keyword Research](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#keyword-research)
- [Organic Rank/Position Tracking](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#organic-rankposition-tracking)
- [Site Audit](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#site-audit)
- [AI Citations/Visibility](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#ai-citationsvisibility)
- [Pricing Plans](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#pricing-plans)
- [Ahrefs Pricing](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#ahrefs-pricing)
- [Semrush Pricing](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#semrush-pricing)
- [Ahrefs Controversies](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#ahrefs-controversies)
- [Price increase](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#price-increase)
- [Credit usage](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#credit-usage)
- [Upsells](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#upsells)
- [Always crying about Semrush](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#always-crying-about-semrush)
- [Yep search engine](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#yep-search-engine)
- [Semrush Controversies](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#semrush-controversies)
- [Backlinko acquisition](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#backlinko-acquisition)
- [Influencer marketing](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#influencer-marketing)
- [Commercially oriented](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#commercially-oriented)
- [Conclusion](https://wpindigo.com/ahrefs-vs-semrush/#conclusion)
## TLDR â Which SEO Tool is Better?
Both are decent and capable SEO tools. Ideally, If you have the budget, use them both. Alternatively, select the one that meets your core requirements.
**Why choose Ahrefs**
**⢠More powerful backlink analysis features**
**⢠Decent keyword research tool, multiple search engines**
**⢠Global stats on reports**
**⢠Content Explorer**
[View site](https://ahrefs.com/)
**Why choose Semrush**
**⢠Superior reporting and alerts/triggers system**
**⢠Better PPC analysis options**
**⢠More powerful Site Audit tool**
**⢠Plenty of credits for monthly usage and more data overall**
[View site](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053)
**My take**: [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) **excels in specific** areas like backlink analysis and keyword research, while [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053) is a **better all-round** SEO tool with a superior reporting system, better organic position tracking and offers more data for analysis.
## Companies Overview
Letâs have a quick look at both companies and their teams + revenue. One thing to note here is that Ahrefs has a significantly smaller team and usually donât have a huge advertising budget.
What bothers me lately about Ahrefs though, is the fact that theyâre trying to get more profit out of loyal customers, even though the company is bootstrapped and self sufficient.
| | Ahrefs | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Founded in | 2012 | 2008 |
| Headquartered in | Singapore, Singapore | Boston, Massachusetts, US |
| Company type | Private, bootstrapped | Public, stock symbol NYSE: SEMR |
| Founders | Dmitry Gerasimenko | Oleg Shchegolev, Dmitri Melnikov |
| Annual revenue | [\$100M+](https://tech.ahrefs.com/how-ahrefs-saved-us-400m-in-3-years-by-not-going-to-the-cloud-8939dd930af8) | [\$300M+](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/semrush-holdings-inc-semr-reports-225626598.html) |
| Avg. salary | [\$76K â \$144K / year](https://sg.indeed.com/cmp/Ahrefs-Pte.-Ltd./salaries) | [\$30K â \$143K / year](https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Semrush/salaries) |
| Nr. of employees | 50 â 200 | 1,000 â 5,000 |
| Avg. employee tenure | 2\.2 years | 2 years |
| Headcount growth in the last 6 months | 8% | 8% |
## Pros and Cons
Iâve highlighted the unique features of every tool and things that I like/dislike.
Generally, I find [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053) a **more capable** SEO solution, even though it lacks some specific features compared to [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) (Content Explorer, dedicated broken backlink analysis, top organic pages line graphs, etc.).
I can somehow reproduce/workaround those options in Semrush and can live with that. At the same time, Semrush offers more data regarding: keyword intent, brand keywords, paid ads, log analyzer, etc.
Ahrefs is inferior when it comes to reporting/alerts and is much more restrictive with their credit system. If you use it regularly, you might need to buy more credits. Also, their data export limits are embarrassing, to say the least.
### What I like at Ahrefs
### Ahrefs Pros
\+ Global stats for organic traffic
\+ Free usage if you verify your website
\+ Line graphs for top organic pages
\+ Nr. of organic pages and traffic share
\+ Great options for backlink analysis
\+ Keyword research for multiple search engines
\+ Content Explorer
### What I donât like at Ahrefs
### Ahrefs Cons
â Limited reporting
â Data export functionality and limits
â Too limited functionality in cheaper plans
â Site Audit tool is so so
â The new credit usage system is bad
â Poor PPC analysis options
**Note**: Iâve removed this con for Ahrefs âNo brand/non brand break down, no intent infoâ as the team implemented these features recently. More on that in the Domain Overview section below.
### What I like at Semrush
### Semrush Pros
\+ Great reporting system
\+ Email alerts and triggers
\+ Solid PPC analysis options
\+ Brand/non brand, keyword intent, backlink network, etc.
\+ Plenty of units for monthly usage
\+ Decent Site Audit tool
\+ Rank Tracker & Log File Analyzer
### What I donât like at Semrush
### Semrush Cons
â No global stats for organic traffic
â Poor UX, itâs overwhelming and hard to use
â Weak backlink analysis options
â Keyword research only for Google
â Limited historical data on organic research
â Customer support is average
## Core Features
### User Experience
#### Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers a pretty simple and straightforward interface. You can access pretty much every report in 1-2 clicks. I like the simplicity and usefulness of the presented data.
Recently, they started to make it more visually appealing (clearly getting inspiration from Semrush) and I donât necessarily like this trend. I need the SEO tool to be fast and useful, I donât care much about beautiful graphs.
#### Semrush
The tools is quite difficult to use â the number of options and displayed data might be overwhelming, especially for new users. To get to specific reports you have to click at least 2-3 times, itâs a bit challenging and at times annoying.
On the other hand the graphs look nice and give you a quick general overview of whatâs happening with the analyzed website. The UI looks good overall, but as I said Iâm not a fan of âvanityâ metrics and presentations.
### Domain Overview
**Note:** both tools have a domain rating/score system and call it differently. Ahrefs names it Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush names it Authority Score (AS).
Usually, the bigger the rating/score of a site, the more organic traffic it has. However, I only keep these metrics for reference. They donât directly influence your organic ranking in search engines.
#### Ahrefs
You get a quick overview of your domainâs performance in the **Dashboard** and also in the **Site Explorer â Overview** section when you open a specific project.
Here you have the main metrics at a glance:
- Backlink profile â nr. of referring domains, backlinks
- Organic search â nr. of keywords, traffic
- Paid search â nr. of keywords, traffic
I like that you can see the global organic traffic value instantly. Even though itâs not an accurate metric, itâs good to have it there.
Below you get a bunch of other handy info and charts related to organic pages, backlinks, locations, competitors, etc.
Here, my favorite charts to look at are:
- Organic traffic
- Number of organic pages
- Organic traffic share by pages
**Update**: in 2024, Ahrefs introduced branded/non branded and search intent segmentation which are now available in Overview, Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer reports.
Thatâs a great addition, which addresses the previous disadvantages and makes the tool more capable in relation to Semrush. The team clearly hears the usersâs feedback and follows their competition.
#### Semrush
Once you get to the **Domain Overview** report (either by including your URL in the top search bar) or from your **Projects** section by opening your project then click on a widget and then go back to Domain Overview, you get a set of handy info.
This is the only report except Backlink Analytics, where you get **global** data for a website. All the other reports show you stats based on specific locations. Would be nice to have a global overview in the Organic Research and Advertising reports.
At the top, you get the main metrics:
- Authority score
- Organic traffic
- Paid traffic
- Backlinks
They also show you some engagement metrics like: bounce rate, average visit duration, pages per visit from the **Traffic Analytics** report which is unique to Semrush (no similar report is available in Ahrefs).
It shows you detailed stats on total visits, traffic sources, engagement metrics, devices, geographical locations and many more. Itâs like a lite version of Google Analytics based on Semrush estimates (shows you the accuracy of estimations).
Now getting back to Domain Overview. Below the main overview table you get plenty of charts and graphs about a websiteâs organic, paid and backlink performance.
Here, my favorite charts and data to look at are:
- Traffic share by country
- SERP features
- Branded vs non branded traffic & keywords
- Keywords by intent
- Competitor performance graphs
- Examples of ads
### Organic Research
#### Ahrefs
The **Organic** **search** section in [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) is not that visual as in Semrush but itâs simple and straightforward. The section consists of the following sub-pages:
- Organic keywords
- Top pages
- Organic competitors
- Content gap
##### Organic keywords
The list of all organic keywords and a bunch in useful info like: URL, position, volume, search features, rich results, SERP overview, position history, etc.
The filter on top is handy if you want to display more granular data, for example: see keywords with low difficulty, specific search volume and position.
##### Top pages
This report shows you the top performing pages, the amount of organic traffic they generate and the top keywords. I like 2 things in this report:
- **Global filter** â you can view the global and regional performance of the organic pages (global view is not supported in Semrush at page level)
- **Keyword grouping** â you can see the top performing keywords by page, without leaving the report or opening a new tab
##### Organic competitors
See your top 5 organic competitors or add new competitors to compare the number of keywords, pages, traffic and more.
##### Content gap
This is actually a **keyword gap** report, showing you the keywords your competitors rank for and yours donât. You can add multiple competitors and choose to display keywords that are in top 10 positions.
Would be great to see the top competitor page for each keyword in this report, which is currently not possible.
#### Semrush
The Organic Research report in [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/1897772/13053) is more visual and displays more data than Ahrefs. It consists of multiple sub-pages, organized in tabs:
- Overview
- Positions
- Position Changes
- Competitors
- Pages
- Subdomains
##### Overview
A quick overview of the organic performance. Some of my **favorite graphs** and tables to look at are:
- Branded/non branded traffic
- Number of keywords by position
- Top keywords
- Keywords by intent
- Top position changes
- SERP features
- Main organic competitors
By default, Semrush will show you the **organic performance by the number of keywords which is usually greater than the organic traffic**, so it might be confusing and you need to get used to it.
Another thing to note is that Semrush categorizes organic keyword by 3 criteria:
- **All** â all organic keywords
- **Organic** â only keywords that trigger regular search snippets
- **SERP features** â only keywords that trigger rick results like: sitelinks, featured snippets, image packs, people also ask, AI overviews and many more.
In the Search Features section you can see a visual graph with trends on how many keywords rank for those specific features and also can click on any feature to view the list of keywords.
Also, I find the filter by country a bit slow and the overall IU/UX quite heavy (you have to click a lot). On the other hand, I like that you can **add notes** and see the **timeline** of Google updates.
All the data is shown for the current day and you can only see historical data if you have a higher plan.
##### Positions
This is actually the Keywords report, displaying the top organic keywords and a bunch of other data like: intent, position, difficulty, volume, position trends, etc.
I particularly like the SERP preview feature which shows you a real snapshot of Google search results and highlights your ranking page. Itâs also useful that you can see the positions by organic keywords and SERP features.
##### Position changes
Shows you which keywords or SERP feature positions improved or declined. This report has been recently updated and displays a daily/monthly trend and top changes by pages.
There is no separate graph for new/lost keywords and these are mentioned in the table below in the **Difference** column. I find this a bit **confusing**.
##### Competitors
Gives you a general overview of competitors based on the number of common organic keywords + shows you additional data about competitors like their traffic, paid keywords, traffic cost, etc. (you can export the list).
The list of competitors is pretty accurate, but it doesnât necessarily mean that these are your main competitors as they might rank for keywords that you donât rank for yet.
Itâs a good idea to use the Keyword Gap analysis to discover missed opportunities and potential new competitors.
##### Pages
Top pages by organic traffic and number of keywords. I like that it shows you the traffic difference compared to last month, but I donât like that you have to open a new tab to see organic keywords for every page.
##### Subdomains
Organic traffic and keywords by subdomains. I donât use this often as most of my projects have a subfolder URL structure.
##### Keyword gap
Unlike in Ahrefs, the **Keyword Gap** report in Semrush is more visual and shows you the exact pages that rank for those keywords. The export options are also **better**, as you can export the data in PDF, CSV and Excel.
It also works for paid keywords, which is a good addition.
### Paid Search
#### Ahrefs
Historically, Ahrefs wasnât a tool created for paid keywords and ads research, but it time they added this functionality and improved it.
Even so, the report is pretty **limited** and consists of the following sections:
- Paid keywords
- Ads
- Paid pages
##### Paid keywords
Top paid keywords and related data: traffic, CPC, triggered ads, difficulty, position, etc.
##### Ads
Examples of ads and associated pages, keywords and traffic.
##### Paid pages
The top performing paid pages and related data: cost, keywords, ads, etc. I like the line chart showing the evolution of paid pages, traffic, cost and keywords over time and the **Compare pages** option.
#### Semrush
The **Advertising Research** report in Semrush is more capable and offers more data related to paid keywords and ads. It consists of the following sections:
- Positions
- Position changes
- Competitors
- Ad copies
- Ads history
- Pages
- Subdomains
##### Positions
Gives you a quick overview about a websiteâs advertising efforts (keywords, traffic, cost) and a list of paid keywords with ad previews on hover and plenty of data: CPC, traffic, position, volume, URL and many more.
##### Position changes
Unlike the Position changes report for organic keywords, this one shows you a graph for **new and lost paid keywords** (I would like the same graph for organic keywords).
Itâs pretty similar with the report above, but includes the changes in positions and the new/lost paid keywords graph.
##### Competitors
Top competitors based on common paid keywords, similar to the Organic research report. Allows you to export the data in PDF and CSV/Excel.
##### Ad copies
Examples of paid ads and associated paid keywords data + sorting by the number of keywords. Would be nice to have traffic data as well.
##### Ads history
This one shows you the evolution of paid keywords and ads over the last year. I find it useful, especially if you wan to see who is bidding on your brand terms. Itâs not available in Ahrefs.
##### Pages
Top pages by paid traffic, keywords and traffic share. Would be good to see the actual paid keywords from this page level report.
##### Subdomains
Paid traffic and keywords by subdomains. Not essential, but good to have.
##### Ads history (separate report)
This is a separate report â it shows you all the competing websites for a specific keyword for the last year.
##### PLA research
A separate report for Product Listing Ads (PLA) displaying similar info as in Advertising research report. Handy for ecommerce websites and businesses that use PLAs frequently. This is only available in Semrush.
### Backlink Analysis
#### Ahrefs
Ahrefs shows you both Domain Rating and URL Rating in most of its **Backlink profile** reports, which is handy and gives you more insights at a higher level.
Letâs go through the main sections of the Backlink profile report.
##### Backlinks
One of my favorite reports. I like that you can group backlinks, show only 1 backlink per domain or all of them. The filters are really handy and powerful, you can filter pretty much everything including anchor text and target URL.
New/lost backlinks are available. **Note** that these are based on the first discovery date (the first time when ahrefs crawlers discovered the backlink).
##### Broken backlinks
Another great feature in Ahrefs. See all the broken links on your site with backlinks pointing to them. It used to be harder to display the list, so they did a separate report for that.
Itâs useful for link building and also for checking the broken pages on your site with backlinks, so you can redirect or restore them.
##### Referring domains
All domains pointing to your website and their relevant info. Props for **Best links** predefined filter and also for the **Links to target** column where you can see all the backlinks per domain without leaving the page.
##### Anchors
Similar to the report above, you can see the referring domains and backlinks based on anchor text, without leaving the page.
##### Referring IPs
See the number of backlinks based on website IPs and their respective subnet.
##### Link intersect
Find backlinks of your competitors where your website is not mentioned. I find this ahrefs report a bit limited, especially when you export the data. There is no info on every competitor backlink and the number of rows you can export is not enough with the smallest plan.
#### Semrush
Semrush **doesnât show** you the domain Authority Score in the **Backlink Analytics** report. The page Authority Score doesnât make a lot of sense to me as a separate metric, would be nice to have it at both domain and page level.
Letâs see the main backlinks related reports.
##### Backlink analytics
Itâs more visual than the one in Ahrefs, but less useful in my opinion. Network graph (shows you the backlink network) and Authority score (shows your siteâs authority) graph are nice though.
Like in Ahrefs you get the full set of backlink related reports:
- Overview
- Network graph
- Backlinks
- Anchors
- Referring domains
- Indexed pages (best pages by backlinks)
- Competitors (common backlinks)
- Outbound links
- Referring IPs
I find the filters a bit limited, as you canât filter by specific values, for example by **Target URL**. Additionally, the user experience feels overwhelming, there is too much data which is not required.
You canât easily find the broken pages with backlinks. Itâs hidden under Indexed **Pages report**, you have to tick the **Broken Pages** checkbox.
In general, itâs a capable report but requires some workarounds to get the desired list of backlinks. You can pretty much achieve the same functionality as in Ahrefs, but it will take you more time to figure out.
##### Backlink audit
This is a unique tool only available in Semrush. It shows you the potentially harmful backlinks and groups them by **Toxicity score**: high toxic links are bad, potentially toxic links are more or less normal and non toxic links are ok.
Google will generally ignore backlinks from spam websites, but sometimes there might be some black hat techniques involved and you could use this report to get a general overview.
Itâs great that you can mark all potentially harmful links and assign different categories directly in Semrush: **remove, disavow or whitelist**. Then, you can start contacting sites to remove the bad links or export the backlinks and disavow them in Google Search Console.
The tool will automatically scan the backlinks and update the report on a permanent basis, sending relevant notification emails and displaying the trends in a visual way. I find this tool handy.
##### Link building tool
An automated tool to help you acquire backlinks based on keywords you want to target and your competitors backlinks. The system will give a comprehensive list of backlinks and tools to help you get them.
You can mark the backlinks as **âIn Progressâ** and **categorize** them by strategy type (for example directory listings). The system will offer you predefined outreach email templates and also the emails of the prospects.
You need to connect your email and start outreaching **directly** from Semrush. You can move the acquired backlinks to Monitor status to view the overall progress and measure your link building activity.
If youâre into link building and require an automated solution, this is definitely for you. I think itâs a good fit for both SEO professionals and web agencies.
##### Bulk analysis
Add the URLs of multiple websites and get comparison info on their backlinks, visits and authority score. I would prefer to also get the number of organic keywords and organic traffic, but thatâs optional.
### Keyword Research
#### Ahrefs
Itâs called **[Keyword Explorer](https://ahrefs.com/keywords-explorer)** in Ahrefs and is an effective and easy to use keyword research tool. It support multiple search engines: Google, Bing, Youtube, Amazon, etc.
It shows you the keyword difficulty and an estimated number of required backlinks to rank in top 10 organic results, search volume, keyword ideas grouped by topics, SERP overview with top sites ranking for those keywords.
The filters are powerful and the SERP comparison feature is nice, but the paid keywords reports are quite weak.
#### Semrush
The **[Keyword Research](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/1897772/13053)** tool in Semrush is powerful as well. It gives you a full overview for a keyword and plenty of keyword ideas to further research.
It only works for Google search engine, but I like that you get some extra info compared to Ahrefs, for example: **keyword intent,** **keyword clusters**, SERP features, real SERP preview.
The reports related to paid keywords are more powerful than in Ahrefs and there is a separate tool for keyword lists management called **Keyword Manager**.
Another unique option â the keywords are clustered by the system when you export the keyword ideas and also in the Keyword Manager tool, which also shows you a visual representation of your keyword clusters.
### Organic Rank/Position Tracking
#### Ahrefs
As you might expect, the **Rank Tracker** tool in Ahrefs is capable and provides a nice user experience. It shows you the position changes, ranking history, SERP features and many more.
**Tags** are useful, as you can group the keywords by categories. Additionally, the **Pages** report shows you the top performing pages based on added keywords.
The **Competitors** section is also practical and gives a comparison against competitors. In addition, you can set up weekly/monthly email reports on your keywords performance.
#### Semrush
The **Position Tracking** report in Semrush is more capable and comprehensive. You might even find it a bit overwhelming, but once you use it for a while youâll probably like it.
It shows you the full picture related to your organic keywords performance + has some **unique reports** like: ranking distribution, featured snippets, keyword cannibalization, etc.
I particularly like the **alerts feature** which you can configure (for example: get an email alert when your keywords enter the top 10 organic positions) and the weekly **email reports** with the general performance.
The **Competitors** reports looks more appealing and you get some info on local search features like Local Map Pack. Moreover, there is a mobile app for organic position tracking for both iOS and Android.
### Site Audit
Both Ahrefs and Semrush offer a Site audit feature which is convenient for general sitewide monitoring and top level technical issues. If you need a more in depth analysis, you would most probably need a site crawling tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.
#### Ahrefs
One handy option to mention in the Site Audit tool is the side by side comparison, where you can compare the content or HTML code of a page with a previous version.
To access this feature go to **Site Audit â Page Explorer**, then open any page from the list and click on **View source**. Select the date to compare and view the changes.
#### Semrush
Semrushâs Site audit tool feels easier to use and is more organized in my opinion. Also, the email alerts and reporting is a bit better, especially when it comes to SEO Issues.
### AI Citations/Visibility
Both tools have launched AI visibility options for you to track your performance in chatbots and AI search.
Users search differently in chatbots, so currently itâs hard to track and understand how much traffic you get, what are the top prompts and whatâs the impact of AI search in general.
These estimations can give you a general idea of whatâs happening with your site in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, etc.
#### Ahrefs
It gives you some general info on AI citations in the Overview section. It shows 2 metrics:
- Number of citations
- Number of cited pages
Thatâs pretty much it. If you want more info, you have to buy the Brand Radar tool. It costs \$560 / month for all supported platforms: Google AI Overviews and AI mode, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT.
You can also choose to pay per platform, which is \$159 / month.
#### Semrush
They have a separate AI SEO tool, which is \$99 / month and is integrated in the main interface. It covers Google AI mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and you donât have to pay separately for each platform.
The tool gives you lots of insights about your brand, its share of voice, domain/page citations, mentions, questions, sentiment and more. The results are more visual and quite easy to scan and understand.
I like the topic distribution option and query intent distribution, where you can see what are the main searched topics and the intent of the searches: education, comparison, purchase, etc.
The top prompts and their search volume are also nice to have.
I donât like the AI opportunities (suggestions) sections which is mainly fluff in my opinion.
## Pricing Plans
Both Ahrefs and Semrush increased their prices in the last months, so price-wise the difference is not that significant.
For example, the cheapest Ahrefs plan was \$89 / month and now is \$129 / month and the cheapest Semrush plan was \$129.95 / month and now is \$139.95 / month.
### Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs pricing is **confusing** to say the least. There are 4 pricing plans and the plans are limited by functionality and usage and export limits. Thatâs pretty much all you need to know.
If you pay yearly, you get 2 months for free. Here are the current plans:
| Lite | Standard | Advanced | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| \$129 / month | \$249 / month | \$449 / month | \$1,499 / month |
| \$1,290 / year | \$2,490 / year | \$4,490 / year | \$14,990 / year |
| Best for: small businesses | Best for: SEO consultants | Best for: in-house teams | Best for: agencies |
You can read more about the Ahrefs pricing plans and see why I think theyâre not optimal in the **Ahrefs Controversies** section below.
[View Ahrefs pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing)
Ahrefs **doesnât provide a free trial**. The only option to test it for free is by verifying your site with them. In this case youâll get some limited statistics and access to basic tools.
**Update:** in July 2024, they introduced the Starter plan for \$29 / month for those who are just starting out and donât have large websites. It provides a limited set of tools and credits to use.
Backlinks explorer, SERP history, page inspect, local SEO and other options are not included in the Starter plan. You can only have 1 unverified project, meaning that you can only follow the progress of 1 competitor website.
### Semrush Pricing
Semrush offers a free 7-day free trial by default. But if you [join here](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/2113973/13053), youâll get a 14-day free trial. Youâll need to add your credit card details though.
Semrush pricing plans are **simple, clear** and straightforward, compared to Ahrefs. They offer more units (credits) for reports and exports.
If you pay yearly, you can save up to 17%. There are 3 pricing plans:
| Pro | Guru | Business |
|---|---|---|
| \$139.95 / month | \$249.95 / month | \$499.95 / month |
| \$1,407.96 / year | \$2,499.96 / year | \$4,999.92 / year |
| Best for: small businesses | Best for: agencies | Best for: enterprises |
There are some upsells in the existing pricing plans, but they are clear and you mainly understand what you are paying for.
[View Semrush pricing](https://semrush.sjv.io/757O9O)
Letâs talk about some controversial stuff from both sides (none of them are ideal, so I just wanted to share my thoughts on some of their business practices).
## Ahrefs Controversies
### Price increase
In 2022, they have changed their pricing structure, moving to a [credit usage](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6061657-about-ahrefs-usage-based-pricing) and featured based system. It pissed off a lot of loyal customers, including me. Suddenly, after years of using the tool you had to pay more, for the same set of features and similar usage.
Instead of rewarding long time customers, they tax them and add some limitations. Of course, users will be upset and switch to other alternatives.
### Credit usage
This credit system is not only expensive but also confusing as hell. They tried to act smart and sophisticated, inventing all kind of limits & tricks â shared pool of credits, no charges per audits and pagination and many many more.
Itâs just a mess, used to work fine, no credits just monthly payments. They said, that only 20% of users would be affected by this price change, but 500 credits per month is just not enough. Iâm not willing to pay them \$35 / month for extra 500 credits and itâs not only about the money.
And they didnât really explain why they did this move, except some general fluff like this:
> I fully understand how raising prices (and going usage-based) can upset a lot of customers. And yet that was a business decision that we had to go for and it turned out to be very healthy for the company. It will allow Ahrefs to keep making significant investments in tech and therefore continue improving our data and capabilities.
>
> Tim Soulo of Ahrefs
It reads like: ***we will charge you more to make more money and also fund our useless projects like Yep search engine.***
**FYI:** the company is bootstrapped and is doing well financially, making about \$100M / year according to this internal [source](https://tech.ahrefs.com/how-ahrefs-saved-us-400m-in-3-years-by-not-going-to-the-cloud-8939dd930af8), so why this rush to earn more?
Even their endless tutorials and videos explaining the pricing plans are confusing. For example on **Lite** plan is says that **Page Inspect** feature is available, but when you watch the video the narrator says itâs only available in the Advanced plan.
As I said earlier, itâs a total mess, I donât want to spend so much time to truly understand this new pricing structure and remember: Iâm not a new users, Iâve been using the tool for years.
**Update:** in June 2024, Ahrefs removed the credits limit for bigger plans (starting at \$229 / per month), except the Lite plan, and for new users only.
### Upsells
You used to get access to all tools with the cheapest plan. Now, theyâre limiting the functionality based on plans, not only on usage. You get less features if you pay less.
### Always crying about Semrush
They spend too much time complaining about Semrush and their business practices, instead of improving their own product and moving along. The community responded accordingly, just read the comments on this tweet.
> You aren't going to win customers by whining about the competition. Ditch the credit system & yep, fix your infrastructure reliability. This is what is costing you customers not semrush's failure to disclose.
>
> â Kris Roadruck (@KrisRoadruck) [October 23, 2023](https://twitter.com/KrisRoadruck/status/1716463663752556728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
### Yep search engine
They have [invested \$60M](https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/03/yep-search-engine/) to create a new search engine with no major differentiators. The Yep search engine is already dead in my opinion, no one is going to use it. They should better focus on their core SEO product, which has issues: slow, limited reporting, login issues, keyword info accuracy, etc.
For privacy you have DuckDuckGo, for rewards you have Brave, for anything else you have Google /Bing or even Ecosia (if youâre all about the sustainable future).
Alternatively, if you need an AI powered search engine, you can try Perplexity which is doing a decent job lately.
## Semrush Controversies
### Backlinko acquisition
In January 2022, Semrush [acquired](https://investors.semrush.com/news/news-details/2022/Semrush-Acquires-Backlinko.com-Adds-500K-in-Monthly-Traffic/default.aspx) Backlinko.com â a popular SEO education website created by Brian Dean. Iâve learned a lot from Brianâs website and he seemed like a genuine guy with a vast experience and knowledge.
In any case, the website is now under Semrush umbrella. It makes sense for Semrush to expand its business, but for me this acquisition looked weird, as it was one of the few independent sources of useful SEO info.
In August 2024, Brian Dean sold his second project called Exploding Topics to Semrush.
In October 2024, Semrush [acquired](https://searchengineland.com/semrush-acquires-search-engine-land-447555) Search Engine Land and while itâs a smart strategic move for them, I donât think itâs good for the community.
### Influencer marketing
While itsâ a common business practice to pay influencers to promote your product, I donât necessarily like that Semrush invests in well known figures (who might not be that good at SEO, but are good at PR) to spread the word.
### Commercially oriented
Itâs normal to run companies for profit. Over the years, the tool has grown tremendously and I think that itâs no longer guided by pure passion and enthusiasm. Itâs now a publicly traded company (NYSE: SEMR) and has to please its investors = generate profit.
## Conclusion
The bottom line is pretty simple â if you have the budget use both Ahrefs and Semrush. If you donât have the budget and link building is not your top priority, then go for [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053).
Thatâs it folks, I hope you found this resource useful. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.
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| Readable Markdown | Iâve been an avid user of Ahrefs since its launch in 2012. It used to be a pretty simple SEO tool back in the days. At the same time, Semrush started to emerge and in a few years both tools become the industry leaders (there was also SEOmoz but its market share has been declining since 2018, when their founder Rand Fishkin left the company, but thatâs [another story](https://sparktoro.com/blog/the-final-chapter-of-my-first-startup/)).
Iâve used tens of SEO tools over the years and can confidently say that Ahrefs and Sermush are the absolute leaders when it comes to all-in-one tools for SEO professionals. There are other software for specific use cases, but these 2 are the most widely used and possibly the best ones.
**Note:** this article is based on my own experience with these tools and it contains affiliate links. Read the disclosure [here](https://wpindigo.com/privacy-policy/).
## TLDR â Which SEO Tool is Better?
Both are decent and capable SEO tools. Ideally, If you have the budget, use them both. Alternatively, select the one that meets your core requirements.
**Why choose Ahrefs**
**⢠More powerful backlink analysis features**
**⢠Decent keyword research tool, multiple search engines**
**⢠Global stats on reports**
**⢠Content Explorer**
**Why choose Semrush**
**⢠Superior reporting and alerts/triggers system**
**⢠Better PPC analysis options**
**⢠More powerful Site Audit tool**
**⢠Plenty of credits for monthly usage and more data overall**
**My take**: [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) **excels in specific** areas like backlink analysis and keyword research, while [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053) is a **better all-round** SEO tool with a superior reporting system, better organic position tracking and offers more data for analysis.
## Companies Overview
Letâs have a quick look at both companies and their teams + revenue. One thing to note here is that Ahrefs has a significantly smaller team and usually donât have a huge advertising budget.
What bothers me lately about Ahrefs though, is the fact that theyâre trying to get more profit out of loyal customers, even though the company is bootstrapped and self sufficient.
| | Ahrefs | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Founded in | 2012 | 2008 |
| Headquartered in | Singapore, Singapore | Boston, Massachusetts, US |
| Company type | Private, bootstrapped | Public, stock symbol NYSE: SEMR |
| Founders | Dmitry Gerasimenko | Oleg Shchegolev, Dmitri Melnikov |
| Annual revenue | [\$100M+](https://tech.ahrefs.com/how-ahrefs-saved-us-400m-in-3-years-by-not-going-to-the-cloud-8939dd930af8) | [\$300M+](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/semrush-holdings-inc-semr-reports-225626598.html) |
| Avg. salary | [\$76K â \$144K / year](https://sg.indeed.com/cmp/Ahrefs-Pte.-Ltd./salaries) | [\$30K â \$143K / year](https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Semrush/salaries) |
| Nr. of employees | 50 â 200 | 1,000 â 5,000 |
| Avg. employee tenure | 2\.2 years | 2 years |
| Headcount growth in the last 6 months | 8% | 8% |
## Pros and Cons
Iâve highlighted the unique features of every tool and things that I like/dislike.
Generally, I find [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053) a **more capable** SEO solution, even though it lacks some specific features compared to [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) (Content Explorer, dedicated broken backlink analysis, top organic pages line graphs, etc.).
I can somehow reproduce/workaround those options in Semrush and can live with that. At the same time, Semrush offers more data regarding: keyword intent, brand keywords, paid ads, log analyzer, etc.
Ahrefs is inferior when it comes to reporting/alerts and is much more restrictive with their credit system. If you use it regularly, you might need to buy more credits. Also, their data export limits are embarrassing, to say the least.
### What I like at Ahrefs
### Ahrefs Pros
\+ Global stats for organic traffic
\+ Free usage if you verify your website
\+ Line graphs for top organic pages
\+ Nr. of organic pages and traffic share
\+ Great options for backlink analysis
\+ Keyword research for multiple search engines
\+ Content Explorer
### What I donât like at Ahrefs
### Ahrefs Cons
â Limited reporting
â Data export functionality and limits
â Too limited functionality in cheaper plans
â Site Audit tool is so so
â The new credit usage system is bad
â Poor PPC analysis options
**Note**: Iâve removed this con for Ahrefs âNo brand/non brand break down, no intent infoâ as the team implemented these features recently. More on that in the Domain Overview section below.
### What I like at Semrush
### Semrush Pros
\+ Great reporting system
\+ Email alerts and triggers
\+ Solid PPC analysis options
\+ Brand/non brand, keyword intent, backlink network, etc.
\+ Plenty of units for monthly usage
\+ Decent Site Audit tool
\+ Rank Tracker & Log File Analyzer
### What I donât like at Semrush
### Semrush Cons
â No global stats for organic traffic
â Poor UX, itâs overwhelming and hard to use
â Weak backlink analysis options
â Keyword research only for Google
â Limited historical data on organic research
â Customer support is average
## Core Features
### User Experience
#### Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers a pretty simple and straightforward interface. You can access pretty much every report in 1-2 clicks. I like the simplicity and usefulness of the presented data.
Recently, they started to make it more visually appealing (clearly getting inspiration from Semrush) and I donât necessarily like this trend. I need the SEO tool to be fast and useful, I donât care much about beautiful graphs.
#### Semrush
The tools is quite difficult to use â the number of options and displayed data might be overwhelming, especially for new users. To get to specific reports you have to click at least 2-3 times, itâs a bit challenging and at times annoying.
On the other hand the graphs look nice and give you a quick general overview of whatâs happening with the analyzed website. The UI looks good overall, but as I said Iâm not a fan of âvanityâ metrics and presentations.
### Domain Overview
**Note:** both tools have a domain rating/score system and call it differently. Ahrefs names it Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush names it Authority Score (AS).
Usually, the bigger the rating/score of a site, the more organic traffic it has. However, I only keep these metrics for reference. They donât directly influence your organic ranking in search engines.
#### Ahrefs
You get a quick overview of your domainâs performance in the **Dashboard** and also in the **Site Explorer â Overview** section when you open a specific project.
Here you have the main metrics at a glance:
- Backlink profile â nr. of referring domains, backlinks
- Organic search â nr. of keywords, traffic
- Paid search â nr. of keywords, traffic
I like that you can see the global organic traffic value instantly. Even though itâs not an accurate metric, itâs good to have it there.
Below you get a bunch of other handy info and charts related to organic pages, backlinks, locations, competitors, etc.
Here, my favorite charts to look at are:
- Organic traffic
- Number of organic pages
- Organic traffic share by pages
**Update**: in 2024, Ahrefs introduced branded/non branded and search intent segmentation which are now available in Overview, Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer reports.
Thatâs a great addition, which addresses the previous disadvantages and makes the tool more capable in relation to Semrush. The team clearly hears the usersâs feedback and follows their competition.
#### Semrush
Once you get to the **Domain Overview** report (either by including your URL in the top search bar) or from your **Projects** section by opening your project then click on a widget and then go back to Domain Overview, you get a set of handy info.
This is the only report except Backlink Analytics, where you get **global** data for a website. All the other reports show you stats based on specific locations. Would be nice to have a global overview in the Organic Research and Advertising reports.
At the top, you get the main metrics:
- Authority score
- Organic traffic
- Paid traffic
- Backlinks
They also show you some engagement metrics like: bounce rate, average visit duration, pages per visit from the **Traffic Analytics** report which is unique to Semrush (no similar report is available in Ahrefs).
It shows you detailed stats on total visits, traffic sources, engagement metrics, devices, geographical locations and many more. Itâs like a lite version of Google Analytics based on Semrush estimates (shows you the accuracy of estimations).
Now getting back to Domain Overview. Below the main overview table you get plenty of charts and graphs about a websiteâs organic, paid and backlink performance.
Here, my favorite charts and data to look at are:
- Traffic share by country
- SERP features
- Branded vs non branded traffic & keywords
- Keywords by intent
- Competitor performance graphs
- Examples of ads
### Organic Research
#### Ahrefs
The **Organic** **search** section in [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) is not that visual as in Semrush but itâs simple and straightforward. The section consists of the following sub-pages:
- Organic keywords
- Top pages
- Organic competitors
- Content gap
##### Organic keywords
The list of all organic keywords and a bunch in useful info like: URL, position, volume, search features, rich results, SERP overview, position history, etc.
The filter on top is handy if you want to display more granular data, for example: see keywords with low difficulty, specific search volume and position.
##### Top pages
This report shows you the top performing pages, the amount of organic traffic they generate and the top keywords. I like 2 things in this report:
- **Global filter** â you can view the global and regional performance of the organic pages (global view is not supported in Semrush at page level)
- **Keyword grouping** â you can see the top performing keywords by page, without leaving the report or opening a new tab
##### Organic competitors
See your top 5 organic competitors or add new competitors to compare the number of keywords, pages, traffic and more.
##### Content gap
This is actually a **keyword gap** report, showing you the keywords your competitors rank for and yours donât. You can add multiple competitors and choose to display keywords that are in top 10 positions.
Would be great to see the top competitor page for each keyword in this report, which is currently not possible.
#### Semrush
The Organic Research report in [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/1897772/13053) is more visual and displays more data than Ahrefs. It consists of multiple sub-pages, organized in tabs:
- Overview
- Positions
- Position Changes
- Competitors
- Pages
- Subdomains
##### Overview
A quick overview of the organic performance. Some of my **favorite graphs** and tables to look at are:
- Branded/non branded traffic
- Number of keywords by position
- Top keywords
- Keywords by intent
- Top position changes
- SERP features
- Main organic competitors
By default, Semrush will show you the **organic performance by the number of keywords which is usually greater than the organic traffic**, so it might be confusing and you need to get used to it.
Another thing to note is that Semrush categorizes organic keyword by 3 criteria:
- **All** â all organic keywords
- **Organic** â only keywords that trigger regular search snippets
- **SERP features** â only keywords that trigger rick results like: sitelinks, featured snippets, image packs, people also ask, AI overviews and many more.
In the Search Features section you can see a visual graph with trends on how many keywords rank for those specific features and also can click on any feature to view the list of keywords.
Also, I find the filter by country a bit slow and the overall IU/UX quite heavy (you have to click a lot). On the other hand, I like that you can **add notes** and see the **timeline** of Google updates.
All the data is shown for the current day and you can only see historical data if you have a higher plan.
##### Positions
This is actually the Keywords report, displaying the top organic keywords and a bunch of other data like: intent, position, difficulty, volume, position trends, etc.
I particularly like the SERP preview feature which shows you a real snapshot of Google search results and highlights your ranking page. Itâs also useful that you can see the positions by organic keywords and SERP features.
##### Position changes
Shows you which keywords or SERP feature positions improved or declined. This report has been recently updated and displays a daily/monthly trend and top changes by pages.
There is no separate graph for new/lost keywords and these are mentioned in the table below in the **Difference** column. I find this a bit **confusing**.
##### Competitors
Gives you a general overview of competitors based on the number of common organic keywords + shows you additional data about competitors like their traffic, paid keywords, traffic cost, etc. (you can export the list).
The list of competitors is pretty accurate, but it doesnât necessarily mean that these are your main competitors as they might rank for keywords that you donât rank for yet.
Itâs a good idea to use the Keyword Gap analysis to discover missed opportunities and potential new competitors.
##### Pages
Top pages by organic traffic and number of keywords. I like that it shows you the traffic difference compared to last month, but I donât like that you have to open a new tab to see organic keywords for every page.
##### Subdomains
Organic traffic and keywords by subdomains. I donât use this often as most of my projects have a subfolder URL structure.
##### Keyword gap
Unlike in Ahrefs, the **Keyword Gap** report in Semrush is more visual and shows you the exact pages that rank for those keywords. The export options are also **better**, as you can export the data in PDF, CSV and Excel.
It also works for paid keywords, which is a good addition.
### Paid Search
#### Ahrefs
Historically, Ahrefs wasnât a tool created for paid keywords and ads research, but it time they added this functionality and improved it.
Even so, the report is pretty **limited** and consists of the following sections:
- Paid keywords
- Ads
- Paid pages
##### Paid keywords
Top paid keywords and related data: traffic, CPC, triggered ads, difficulty, position, etc.
##### Ads
Examples of ads and associated pages, keywords and traffic.
##### Paid pages
The top performing paid pages and related data: cost, keywords, ads, etc. I like the line chart showing the evolution of paid pages, traffic, cost and keywords over time and the **Compare pages** option.
#### Semrush
The **Advertising Research** report in Semrush is more capable and offers more data related to paid keywords and ads. It consists of the following sections:
- Positions
- Position changes
- Competitors
- Ad copies
- Ads history
- Pages
- Subdomains
##### Positions
Gives you a quick overview about a websiteâs advertising efforts (keywords, traffic, cost) and a list of paid keywords with ad previews on hover and plenty of data: CPC, traffic, position, volume, URL and many more.
##### Position changes
Unlike the Position changes report for organic keywords, this one shows you a graph for **new and lost paid keywords** (I would like the same graph for organic keywords).
Itâs pretty similar with the report above, but includes the changes in positions and the new/lost paid keywords graph.
##### Competitors
Top competitors based on common paid keywords, similar to the Organic research report. Allows you to export the data in PDF and CSV/Excel.
##### Ad copies
Examples of paid ads and associated paid keywords data + sorting by the number of keywords. Would be nice to have traffic data as well.
##### Ads history
This one shows you the evolution of paid keywords and ads over the last year. I find it useful, especially if you wan to see who is bidding on your brand terms. Itâs not available in Ahrefs.
##### Pages
Top pages by paid traffic, keywords and traffic share. Would be good to see the actual paid keywords from this page level report.
##### Subdomains
Paid traffic and keywords by subdomains. Not essential, but good to have.
##### Ads history (separate report)
This is a separate report â it shows you all the competing websites for a specific keyword for the last year.
##### PLA research
A separate report for Product Listing Ads (PLA) displaying similar info as in Advertising research report. Handy for ecommerce websites and businesses that use PLAs frequently. This is only available in Semrush.
### Backlink Analysis
#### Ahrefs
Ahrefs shows you both Domain Rating and URL Rating in most of its **Backlink profile** reports, which is handy and gives you more insights at a higher level.
Letâs go through the main sections of the Backlink profile report.
##### Backlinks
One of my favorite reports. I like that you can group backlinks, show only 1 backlink per domain or all of them. The filters are really handy and powerful, you can filter pretty much everything including anchor text and target URL.
New/lost backlinks are available. **Note** that these are based on the first discovery date (the first time when ahrefs crawlers discovered the backlink).
##### Broken backlinks
Another great feature in Ahrefs. See all the broken links on your site with backlinks pointing to them. It used to be harder to display the list, so they did a separate report for that.
Itâs useful for link building and also for checking the broken pages on your site with backlinks, so you can redirect or restore them.
##### Referring domains
All domains pointing to your website and their relevant info. Props for **Best links** predefined filter and also for the **Links to target** column where you can see all the backlinks per domain without leaving the page.
##### Anchors
Similar to the report above, you can see the referring domains and backlinks based on anchor text, without leaving the page.
##### Referring IPs
See the number of backlinks based on website IPs and their respective subnet.
##### Link intersect
Find backlinks of your competitors where your website is not mentioned. I find this ahrefs report a bit limited, especially when you export the data. There is no info on every competitor backlink and the number of rows you can export is not enough with the smallest plan.
#### Semrush
Semrush **doesnât show** you the domain Authority Score in the **Backlink Analytics** report. The page Authority Score doesnât make a lot of sense to me as a separate metric, would be nice to have it at both domain and page level.
Letâs see the main backlinks related reports.
##### Backlink analytics
Itâs more visual than the one in Ahrefs, but less useful in my opinion. Network graph (shows you the backlink network) and Authority score (shows your siteâs authority) graph are nice though.
Like in Ahrefs you get the full set of backlink related reports:
- Overview
- Network graph
- Backlinks
- Anchors
- Referring domains
- Indexed pages (best pages by backlinks)
- Competitors (common backlinks)
- Outbound links
- Referring IPs
I find the filters a bit limited, as you canât filter by specific values, for example by **Target URL**. Additionally, the user experience feels overwhelming, there is too much data which is not required.
You canât easily find the broken pages with backlinks. Itâs hidden under Indexed **Pages report**, you have to tick the **Broken Pages** checkbox.
In general, itâs a capable report but requires some workarounds to get the desired list of backlinks. You can pretty much achieve the same functionality as in Ahrefs, but it will take you more time to figure out.
##### Backlink audit
This is a unique tool only available in Semrush. It shows you the potentially harmful backlinks and groups them by **Toxicity score**: high toxic links are bad, potentially toxic links are more or less normal and non toxic links are ok.
Google will generally ignore backlinks from spam websites, but sometimes there might be some black hat techniques involved and you could use this report to get a general overview.
Itâs great that you can mark all potentially harmful links and assign different categories directly in Semrush: **remove, disavow or whitelist**. Then, you can start contacting sites to remove the bad links or export the backlinks and disavow them in Google Search Console.
The tool will automatically scan the backlinks and update the report on a permanent basis, sending relevant notification emails and displaying the trends in a visual way. I find this tool handy.
##### Link building tool
An automated tool to help you acquire backlinks based on keywords you want to target and your competitors backlinks. The system will give a comprehensive list of backlinks and tools to help you get them.
You can mark the backlinks as **âIn Progressâ** and **categorize** them by strategy type (for example directory listings). The system will offer you predefined outreach email templates and also the emails of the prospects.
You need to connect your email and start outreaching **directly** from Semrush. You can move the acquired backlinks to Monitor status to view the overall progress and measure your link building activity.
If youâre into link building and require an automated solution, this is definitely for you. I think itâs a good fit for both SEO professionals and web agencies.
##### Bulk analysis
Add the URLs of multiple websites and get comparison info on their backlinks, visits and authority score. I would prefer to also get the number of organic keywords and organic traffic, but thatâs optional.
### Keyword Research
#### Ahrefs
Itâs called **[Keyword Explorer](https://ahrefs.com/keywords-explorer)** in Ahrefs and is an effective and easy to use keyword research tool. It support multiple search engines: Google, Bing, Youtube, Amazon, etc.
It shows you the keyword difficulty and an estimated number of required backlinks to rank in top 10 organic results, search volume, keyword ideas grouped by topics, SERP overview with top sites ranking for those keywords.
The filters are powerful and the SERP comparison feature is nice, but the paid keywords reports are quite weak.
#### Semrush
The **[Keyword Research](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/1897772/13053)** tool in Semrush is powerful as well. It gives you a full overview for a keyword and plenty of keyword ideas to further research.
It only works for Google search engine, but I like that you get some extra info compared to Ahrefs, for example: **keyword intent,** **keyword clusters**, SERP features, real SERP preview.
The reports related to paid keywords are more powerful than in Ahrefs and there is a separate tool for keyword lists management called **Keyword Manager**.
Another unique option â the keywords are clustered by the system when you export the keyword ideas and also in the Keyword Manager tool, which also shows you a visual representation of your keyword clusters.
### Organic Rank/Position Tracking
#### Ahrefs
As you might expect, the **Rank Tracker** tool in Ahrefs is capable and provides a nice user experience. It shows you the position changes, ranking history, SERP features and many more.
**Tags** are useful, as you can group the keywords by categories. Additionally, the **Pages** report shows you the top performing pages based on added keywords.
The **Competitors** section is also practical and gives a comparison against competitors. In addition, you can set up weekly/monthly email reports on your keywords performance.
#### Semrush
The **Position Tracking** report in Semrush is more capable and comprehensive. You might even find it a bit overwhelming, but once you use it for a while youâll probably like it.
It shows you the full picture related to your organic keywords performance + has some **unique reports** like: ranking distribution, featured snippets, keyword cannibalization, etc.
I particularly like the **alerts feature** which you can configure (for example: get an email alert when your keywords enter the top 10 organic positions) and the weekly **email reports** with the general performance.
The **Competitors** reports looks more appealing and you get some info on local search features like Local Map Pack. Moreover, there is a mobile app for organic position tracking for both iOS and Android.
### Site Audit
Both Ahrefs and Semrush offer a Site audit feature which is convenient for general sitewide monitoring and top level technical issues. If you need a more in depth analysis, you would most probably need a site crawling tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.
#### Ahrefs
One handy option to mention in the Site Audit tool is the side by side comparison, where you can compare the content or HTML code of a page with a previous version.
To access this feature go to **Site Audit â Page Explorer**, then open any page from the list and click on **View source**. Select the date to compare and view the changes.
#### Semrush
Semrushâs Site audit tool feels easier to use and is more organized in my opinion. Also, the email alerts and reporting is a bit better, especially when it comes to SEO Issues.
### AI Citations/Visibility
Both tools have launched AI visibility options for you to track your performance in chatbots and AI search.
Users search differently in chatbots, so currently itâs hard to track and understand how much traffic you get, what are the top prompts and whatâs the impact of AI search in general.
These estimations can give you a general idea of whatâs happening with your site in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, etc.
#### Ahrefs
It gives you some general info on AI citations in the Overview section. It shows 2 metrics:
- Number of citations
- Number of cited pages
Thatâs pretty much it. If you want more info, you have to buy the Brand Radar tool. It costs \$560 / month for all supported platforms: Google AI Overviews and AI mode, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT.
You can also choose to pay per platform, which is \$159 / month.
#### Semrush
They have a separate AI SEO tool, which is \$99 / month and is integrated in the main interface. It covers Google AI mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and you donât have to pay separately for each platform.
The tool gives you lots of insights about your brand, its share of voice, domain/page citations, mentions, questions, sentiment and more. The results are more visual and quite easy to scan and understand.
I like the topic distribution option and query intent distribution, where you can see what are the main searched topics and the intent of the searches: education, comparison, purchase, etc.
The top prompts and their search volume are also nice to have.
I donât like the AI opportunities (suggestions) sections which is mainly fluff in my opinion.
## Pricing Plans
Both Ahrefs and Semrush increased their prices in the last months, so price-wise the difference is not that significant.
For example, the cheapest Ahrefs plan was \$89 / month and now is \$129 / month and the cheapest Semrush plan was \$129.95 / month and now is \$139.95 / month.
### Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs pricing is **confusing** to say the least. There are 4 pricing plans and the plans are limited by functionality and usage and export limits. Thatâs pretty much all you need to know.
If you pay yearly, you get 2 months for free. Here are the current plans:
| Lite | Standard | Advanced | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| \$129 / month | \$249 / month | \$449 / month | \$1,499 / month |
| \$1,290 / year | \$2,490 / year | \$4,490 / year | \$14,990 / year |
| Best for: small businesses | Best for: SEO consultants | Best for: in-house teams | Best for: agencies |
You can read more about the Ahrefs pricing plans and see why I think theyâre not optimal in the **Ahrefs Controversies** section below.
Ahrefs **doesnât provide a free trial**. The only option to test it for free is by verifying your site with them. In this case youâll get some limited statistics and access to basic tools.
**Update:** in July 2024, they introduced the Starter plan for \$29 / month for those who are just starting out and donât have large websites. It provides a limited set of tools and credits to use.
Backlinks explorer, SERP history, page inspect, local SEO and other options are not included in the Starter plan. You can only have 1 unverified project, meaning that you can only follow the progress of 1 competitor website.
### Semrush Pricing
Semrush offers a free 7-day free trial by default. But if you [join here](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/2113973/13053), youâll get a 14-day free trial. Youâll need to add your credit card details though.
Semrush pricing plans are **simple, clear** and straightforward, compared to Ahrefs. They offer more units (credits) for reports and exports.
If you pay yearly, you can save up to 17%. There are 3 pricing plans:
| Pro | Guru | Business |
|---|---|---|
| \$139.95 / month | \$249.95 / month | \$499.95 / month |
| \$1,407.96 / year | \$2,499.96 / year | \$4,999.92 / year |
| Best for: small businesses | Best for: agencies | Best for: enterprises |
There are some upsells in the existing pricing plans, but they are clear and you mainly understand what you are paying for.
Letâs talk about some controversial stuff from both sides (none of them are ideal, so I just wanted to share my thoughts on some of their business practices).
## Ahrefs Controversies
### Price increase
In 2022, they have changed their pricing structure, moving to a [credit usage](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6061657-about-ahrefs-usage-based-pricing) and featured based system. It pissed off a lot of loyal customers, including me. Suddenly, after years of using the tool you had to pay more, for the same set of features and similar usage.
Instead of rewarding long time customers, they tax them and add some limitations. Of course, users will be upset and switch to other alternatives.
### Credit usage
This credit system is not only expensive but also confusing as hell. They tried to act smart and sophisticated, inventing all kind of limits & tricks â shared pool of credits, no charges per audits and pagination and many many more.
Itâs just a mess, used to work fine, no credits just monthly payments. They said, that only 20% of users would be affected by this price change, but 500 credits per month is just not enough. Iâm not willing to pay them \$35 / month for extra 500 credits and itâs not only about the money.
And they didnât really explain why they did this move, except some general fluff like this:
> I fully understand how raising prices (and going usage-based) can upset a lot of customers. And yet that was a business decision that we had to go for and it turned out to be very healthy for the company. It will allow Ahrefs to keep making significant investments in tech and therefore continue improving our data and capabilities.
>
> Tim Soulo of Ahrefs
It reads like: ***we will charge you more to make more money and also fund our useless projects like Yep search engine.***
**FYI:** the company is bootstrapped and is doing well financially, making about \$100M / year according to this internal [source](https://tech.ahrefs.com/how-ahrefs-saved-us-400m-in-3-years-by-not-going-to-the-cloud-8939dd930af8), so why this rush to earn more?
Even their endless tutorials and videos explaining the pricing plans are confusing. For example on **Lite** plan is says that **Page Inspect** feature is available, but when you watch the video the narrator says itâs only available in the Advanced plan.
As I said earlier, itâs a total mess, I donât want to spend so much time to truly understand this new pricing structure and remember: Iâm not a new users, Iâve been using the tool for years.
**Update:** in June 2024, Ahrefs removed the credits limit for bigger plans (starting at \$229 / per month), except the Lite plan, and for new users only.
### Upsells
You used to get access to all tools with the cheapest plan. Now, theyâre limiting the functionality based on plans, not only on usage. You get less features if you pay less.
### Always crying about Semrush
They spend too much time complaining about Semrush and their business practices, instead of improving their own product and moving along. The community responded accordingly, just read the comments on this tweet.
> You aren't going to win customers by whining about the competition. Ditch the credit system & yep, fix your infrastructure reliability. This is what is costing you customers not semrush's failure to disclose.
>
> â Kris Roadruck (@KrisRoadruck) [October 23, 2023](https://twitter.com/KrisRoadruck/status/1716463663752556728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
### Yep search engine
They have [invested \$60M](https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/03/yep-search-engine/) to create a new search engine with no major differentiators. The Yep search engine is already dead in my opinion, no one is going to use it. They should better focus on their core SEO product, which has issues: slow, limited reporting, login issues, keyword info accuracy, etc.
For privacy you have DuckDuckGo, for rewards you have Brave, for anything else you have Google /Bing or even Ecosia (if youâre all about the sustainable future).
Alternatively, if you need an AI powered search engine, you can try Perplexity which is doing a decent job lately.
## Semrush Controversies
### Backlinko acquisition
In January 2022, Semrush [acquired](https://investors.semrush.com/news/news-details/2022/Semrush-Acquires-Backlinko.com-Adds-500K-in-Monthly-Traffic/default.aspx) Backlinko.com â a popular SEO education website created by Brian Dean. Iâve learned a lot from Brianâs website and he seemed like a genuine guy with a vast experience and knowledge.
In any case, the website is now under Semrush umbrella. It makes sense for Semrush to expand its business, but for me this acquisition looked weird, as it was one of the few independent sources of useful SEO info.
In August 2024, Brian Dean sold his second project called Exploding Topics to Semrush.
In October 2024, Semrush [acquired](https://searchengineland.com/semrush-acquires-search-engine-land-447555) Search Engine Land and while itâs a smart strategic move for them, I donât think itâs good for the community.
### Influencer marketing
While itsâ a common business practice to pay influencers to promote your product, I donât necessarily like that Semrush invests in well known figures (who might not be that good at SEO, but are good at PR) to spread the word.
### Commercially oriented
Itâs normal to run companies for profit. Over the years, the tool has grown tremendously and I think that itâs no longer guided by pure passion and enthusiasm. Itâs now a publicly traded company (NYSE: SEMR) and has to please its investors = generate profit.
## Conclusion
The bottom line is pretty simple â if you have the budget use both Ahrefs and Semrush. If you donât have the budget and link building is not your top priority, then go for [Semrush](https://semrush.sjv.io/c/3451470/995972/13053).
Thatâs it folks, I hope you found this resource useful. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. |
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