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Ahrefs alternatives

By Udayan Ambwani, Co-founder & CTO · 30 Sept 2026

Teams usually look past Ahrefs over per-user fees and small AI prompt allowances, not over its data. We list the alternatives in the order our published scoring rules put them, with Veritas, our product, scored by the same rules.

SE Ranking homepage
SE Ranking homepage, 29 September 2026
Semrush homepage
Semrush homepage, 29 September 2026
Otterly.AI homepage
Otterly.AI homepage, 29 September 2026

The short answer

Stay on Ahrefs if its backlink index is the job; few tools publish anything comparable. Move when seats, AI prompts or drafting cost more than the data is worth to you.

  • SE RankingFor a full SEO suite that tracks 100 AI prompts a day for the same $129.$129/mo
  • SemrushFor the same breadth, with Content Creation and a trial of 7 days.$139/mo
  • Otterly.AIFor daily AI tracking for the whole team from $29 a month.$29/mo
  • VeritasOursFor drafts cited to your own documents, with keyword research, site audits and users included.$16/mo

How to choose an Ahrefs alternative

Few teams leave Ahrefs because the data disappoints. They leave because the bill grows around the data: Lite, Standard and Advanced include one user each, extras cost $40 to $80 a month, drafting needs the Content Kit from $99, and tracked AI prompts stay at 5, 10 and 20 until Enterprise. Work out which of those costs sent you looking, because each one points to a different replacement.

If seats or AI prompts are the problem and you still want a full suite, SE Ranking is the direct swap. Core costs the same $129 as Lite, yet refreshes 2,000 keywords daily across 10 projects, tracks 100 AI prompts a day and adds seats from $16. Semrush, at $139, suits teams that want the same research breadth with Content Creation, digital PR and a trial of 7 days, though its own AI tracking starts at $199.

If backlink research is most of the work, think hard before leaving. Ahrefs’ link index, at 35 trillion live backlinks and over a decade deep, is the one asset no other tool on this page sets a comparable figure against. A middle route is to hold on to Ahrefs Free, which shows up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords for verified sites, and move the daily work elsewhere.

If content was the reason you priced the Content Kit, a writing tool costs less. Frase runs research, briefs and drafting from $49 a month, with articles capped at 10, and adds a site audit. Veritas, our product, starts at $16, writes from documents you supply and cites each knowledge-based claim, alongside keyword research and site audits for the domains you work on. If Brand Radar is the only screen you open, Otterly.AI tracks 15 prompts daily from $29 with unlimited team members.

Price the switch by team rather than by plan. Lite with its two permitted extra users is $209 a month, while SE Ranking Core with two extra seats starts at $161. Ahrefs says it does not generally issue refunds, so time the move to your renewal date and export backlink lists and rank history first.

Ahrefs and 5 alternatives at a glance

SE Ranking and Semrush match Ahrefs’ full toolkit; Frase, Veritas and Otterly.AI cover parts of it for less, and only Semrush starts above Lite’s $129.

ToolBest forFromAI search score
SE RankingTeams that want a full suite with far more AI prompts at the same entry price$129/mo82
FraseTeams that used Ahrefs mostly to plan and write content$49/mo76
SemrushTeams that want the same breadth, with content creation in the same suite$139/mo73
VeritasOursTeams of up to five who want cited drafts, SEO research and AI visibility in one workspace$16/mo64
Otterly.AITeams whose main use of Ahrefs is Brand Radar$29/mo62
Ahrefs
The tool you are comparing against
Teams that live in backlink and keyword data and want AI visibility inside the SEO tool they already use.$129/mo59

From is the cheapest paid plan. The AI search score rates AI visibility and content features by our published rules; it is not a verdict on SEO depth.

Paying for Ahrefs mostly to plan content?

Veritas researches keywords, audits your site and drafts from your own documents, with every knowledge-based claim cited to its source. Users are included in the workspace price.

Start your 7-day free trial See pricing

Why teams look past Ahrefs

  • Lite, Standard and Advanced each include one user; extra users cost $40, $60 or $80 a month by tier.
  • Tracked AI prompts stay small until Enterprise: 5, 10 and 20 on Lite, Standard and Advanced.
  • Drafting sits in AI Content Helper, sold as the Content Kit add-on from $99 a month rather than in the base plans.
  • There is no free trial, and its pricing page says Ahrefs does not issue refunds in general.

For everything Ahrefs does well, read our Ahrefs review.

The SEO toolkit: Ahrefs and each alternative

What each tool gives you for classic SEO, as its own pages describe it. A tick is included, a dashed circle is included with a limit the cell names, and a dash means the vendor’s pages do not describe it.

Rank tracking is where Ahrefs trails: Lite updates 750 keywords weekly, while SE Ranking refreshes 2,000 and Semrush 500 every day on their entry plans.

ToolKeyword dataBacklinksRank trackingSite auditAI writing
SE Ranking5.5 billion keywordsBacklink checkerDaily, 2,000 keywords on CoreWebsite auditAI writer
FraseSERP research into briefs, not a keyword databaseLink gaps with drafted outreachRanking decay alerts (Content Guard)Site AuditAI agent, 10 to 100 articles a month
SemrushOver 27.3 billion keywordsBacklink AnalysisDaily, 500 keywords on SEOTechnical Site AuditContent Creation
VeritasOursVolume, CPC and difficulty from DataForSEOBacklink monitoring on BusinessPosition history on every planGraded for Google and AI crawlersDrafts cited to your own documents
Otterly.AINot describedNot describedAI answers onlyContent Audit with crawlability checksBriefs, not full drafts
Ahrefs28.7 billion filtered keywords35 trillion live backlinksWeekly, 750 keywords on Lite170+ SEO issuesContent Kit add-on, from $99/mo

AI answer tracking

Ahrefs’ Brand Radar reaches seven AI surfaces, but Lite’s 150 monthly checks stretch to only 5 prompts on one platform each day. SE Ranking gives 100 prompts a day across five engines for the same $129, Semrush 50 across five from $199, and Otterly.AI 15 prompts on four engines from $29, with Claude, Gemini and AI Mode sold as add-ons.

Frase tracks from its $49 Starter plan, where ChatGPT is the only engine confirmed, and Veritas checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews every two weeks from Growth at $78. The gap widens with volume: one marketer tracking 50 prompts pays $588 a year on Frase, $1,548 on SE Ranking and $17,988 on Ahrefs, which needs Enterprise to reach that number.

Veritas’s price includes keyword research, site audits, AI visibility on four engines and cited drafting.Start a 7-day trialSee pricing

Engine by engine, and what tracking costs a yearWhich engines each tool covers on its tracking plan, and the yearly cost for four team sizes

Which engines each tool covers

On the cheapest plan that tracks AI answers. Most vendors list more engines than that plan includes, so this is what you get at the price shown, not the brochure maximum.

Tool and planChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexityAI OverviewsAI ModeCopilot
SE Ranking
Core
IncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedNot on this plan
Frase
Starter
IncludedNot on this planNot on this planNot on this planunclearunclearNot on this plan
Semrush
Starter
IncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedunclearunclear
VeritasOurs
Growth
IncludedNot on this planIncludedIncludedIncludedNot on this planNot on this plan
Otterly.AI
Lite
Includedadd-onadd-onIncludedIncludedadd-onIncluded
Ahrefs
Lite
you chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou chooseyou choose

A tick is included. Add-on means an extra monthly fee. You choose means the plan lets you pick a limited number of platforms from this list. Unclear means the vendor’s wording does not say.

The plan behind each row, and what changes on higher plans, are on each tool’s review: SE Ranking, Semrush, Ahrefs and Veritas.

What AI answer tracking costs a year

These setups price one thing: tracking how AI assistants answer about you, for a given number of prompts and people, over twelve months. They are not the cost of the SEO toolkit, which is in the table above. Where no published plan fits, the note says why instead of guessing.

ToolGetting started1 seat, 10 tracked prompts, 1 brandOne marketer, one brand1 seat, 50 tracked prompts, 1 brandTeam of five, one brand5 seats, 100 tracked prompts, 1 brandAgency, three brands10 seats, 300 tracked prompts, 3 brands
Otterly.AI$348lowest$2,268$2,268$5,868
Frase$588$588lowest$2,244lowest$5,328
VeritasOurs$936No published fit1No published fit1No published fit1
SE Ranking$1,548$1,548$2,316$4,344lowest
Semrush$2,388$2,388$7,428No published fit1
Ahrefs$2,988$17,988No published fit1No published fit1
  1. 1No published plan tracks the prompts this setup needs; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.

Bars share one scale across the whole table, so cost growth shows as well as rank. A figure far above the rest is marked off scale.

The plan, seats and add-ons behind every figure are worked through on each tool’s review: SE Ranking, Semrush, Ahrefs and Veritas.

Each alternative against Ahrefs

What you gain and what you give up with each, against Ahrefs. Each tool’s full, sourced review is on its own page.

SE Ranking

Best for teams that want a full suite with far more AI prompts at the same entry price.

SE Ranking homepage
Full SE Ranking review

SE Ranking is the switch for teams whose Ahrefs bill is driven by people and prompts. Core costs the same $129 as Lite but tracks 2,000 keywords daily across 10 projects, includes 100 AI prompts a day across five engines, and adds manager seats from $16 rather than $40. It covers local SEO for three locations and more than 100 directories, where Ahrefs tracks rankings by city and ZIP but manages no listings, and white-label reports come with its Agency Pack.

What you give up: data depth. Its keyword database holds 5.5 billion keywords against the 28.7 billion Ahrefs filters, and link builders will miss Site Explorer’s 35 trillion live backlinks. Brand Radar can also reach Claude and Copilot, which SE Ranking’s tracking leaves out. Its trial of 14 days needs no card, so run your own link reports in it before cancelling.

Frase

Best for teams that used Ahrefs mostly to plan and write content.

Frase homepage

Frase fits the team that opened Ahrefs to plan articles and then wrote them somewhere else. It starts at $49 a month, billed monthly. A search query becomes a brief, the brief becomes an AI draft written with your brand in context, and the draft is tuned for Google and for AI citation before going out to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity, Wix or FraseCMS. Content Guard flags pages that are losing rankings, and a site audit and link gaps with drafted outreach are included. Unlike Ahrefs, it offers a trial of 7 days with no card.

What you give up: Frase keeps no keyword database or backlink index, so research ends in briefs and link work stops at gaps and outreach. Each plan limits articles, to 10, 40 or 100 a month, and Starter’s AI tracking confirms only ChatGPT. Keep Ahrefs Free for your own sites if you still want link data.

Semrush

Best for teams that want the same breadth, with content creation in the same suite.

Semrush homepage
Full Semrush review

Semrush matches Ahrefs on breadth and differs on cadence. Position Tracking refreshes daily from the $139 SEO plan, covering 500 keywords across five websites, where Ahrefs updates 750 keywords weekly on Lite. It also brings what Ahrefs sells separately or leaves out: Content Creation inside the suite, Semrush Local for listings, branded reports through Pro Report at $20 a month each, and a trial of 7 days. Its AI tracking covers 50 prompts a day from Starter, ten times Lite’s allowance.

What you give up: API access waits for the $549 Advanced plan, while Ahrefs opens its API on Lite, and AI tracking costs $199 a month rather than $129. Each extra user is $45 to $100 by plan. Link builders will also miss Site Explorer’s decade of backlink history. Switch for daily rankings and client reporting; stay for link research.

VeritasOurs

Best for teams of up to five who want cited drafts, SEO research and AI visibility in one workspace.

Veritas homepage
Our write-up of Veritas

Start a 7-day trialSee pricing

Veritas is ours, and it answers a different complaint about Ahrefs: paying per person, then paying again to write. Starter is $16 a month, Growth $78 with three users and Business $125 with five, with no seat fees on top. Every plan drafts from a knowledge graph built on your own documents and attaches a numbered citation to each knowledge-based claim, beside keyword research, keyword gap, a site audit graded for Google and AI crawlers, and Search Console data. Ahrefs sells drafting separately, in the Content Kit from $99.

What you give up: the 35 trillion live backlinks and the market-wide keyword index. Veritas researches the domains you work on, monitors backlinks only on Business, and has no API or MCP server, where Ahrefs includes both on Lite. Its AI tracking re-checks every two weeks rather than daily. Choose it if Ahrefs mostly fed your content plan.

Otterly.AI

Best for teams whose main use of Ahrefs is Brand Radar.

Otterly.AI homepage

For a team whose Ahrefs use has shrunk to Brand Radar, Otterly.AI does that one job with more room. Lite tracks 15 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot for $29 a month, and Standard tracks 100 for $189, where Ahrefs Lite’s checks stretch to 5 prompts on one platform. Team members are unlimited on every plan, against $40 to $80 for each extra Ahrefs user, and Standard adds API and MCP access alongside prompt research and content audits.

What you give up: everything else Ahrefs does. Otterly.AI describes no keyword research, backlink data or search rank tracking, and its only crawl is a content audit with crawlability checks. Claude, Gemini and AI Mode each cost extra, with Claude alone adding $29 to $439 a month by plan. Pair it with Ahrefs Free if you still need link data for your own sites.

Switching from Ahrefs

  1. 01Export backlink lists, tracked keyword history and audit results before cancelling; history does not transfer between tools.
  2. 02List the Ahrefs reports your team opens every week. That list, not the feature catalogue, is what the replacement has to cover.
  3. 03Recreate Brand Radar prompts word for word so the new tool’s AI visibility baseline is comparable.
  4. 04Rebuild any API or MCP workflows against the new tool before you cancel.
  5. 05Run both tools side by side for one reporting cycle so rank and traffic trends overlap before you switch.

What would change our verdict

  • Ahrefs raising the tracked AI prompt allowance on Lite and Standard, which is the main gap against SE Ranking at the same price.
  • Ahrefs including AI Content Helper in its base plans instead of selling it as the Content Kit add-on.

Questions people ask

What is the best Ahrefs alternative?

It depends on the job Ahrefs was doing. For the same breadth of SEO data, Semrush. For a full suite with far more AI prompts at the same entry price, SE Ranking. For content planning and drafting, Frase. For cited drafts, SEO research and AI visibility in one workspace with users included, Veritas.

Is there a cheaper Ahrefs alternative?

On prices read in September 2026, SE Ranking Core matches Ahrefs Lite at $129 a month but tracks 100 AI prompts a day and charges $16 for an extra seat, and Frase starts at $49. Otterly.AI covers AI tracking alone from $29.

Does any alternative have a bigger backlink database?

This page does not rank backlink indexes, because vendors count them differently. Ahrefs reports 35 trillion live backlinks on its Site Explorer page. If backlink depth is the job, test Ahrefs and Semrush on your own domains before choosing.

What do I lose if I leave Ahrefs?

Mostly data depth. Site Explorer reports 35 trillion live backlinks with more than ten years of history, and Keywords Explorer filters 28.7 billion keywords. If historical backlink research drives your link building, keep Ahrefs, or keep Ahrefs Free for the sites you own beside a cheaper suite.

Which Ahrefs alternative suits an agency?

On published plans, SE Ranking: extra seats start at $16 a month against $40 to $80 on Ahrefs, Growth includes three manager seats, and it offers white-label reporting. Semrush is the choice when an agency needs deeper keyword data and digital PR as well.

Head to head

Veritas vs SemrushVeritas vs FraseVeritas vs Otterly.AISemrush vs Ahrefs
How we chose4 tests every alternative had to pass
  • The data you actually query. Ahrefs’ index is its strength. Count how often your team uses market-wide backlink and keyword data before paying for it, and what you would lose without it.
  • AI visibility at your price. How many prompts and engines the plan you would buy actually tracks, and how often.
  • Content in the same tool. Whether drafting is included, sold as an add-on, or needs another product.
  • Price for your team size. Per-user fees change the comparison more than headline plan prices.
How we researched this pageMethod and the update log

How we researched this page

Every fact about another tool comes from that vendor’s own pages, or from a press report where we say so, listed under Sources with the date we read them. Where a vendor does not describe something, we say so rather than guess.

The scores and cost figures on this page are calculated, not assigned. Our full methodology sets out every rule, what each criterion is worth, and where our evidence runs out.

Disclosure. Veritas is our product. It appears on this page because it competes in this category, and we have tried to state its limits as plainly as anyone else’s. If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to support@getveritas.io and we will correct it and note the change in the log.

Update log

  1. 30 September 2026Published.

Sources

The pages behind this comparison, most recently read 29 September 2026. Each tool’s review dates its own sources.

The same jobs in Veritas, our product

Keyword researchSite auditBacklinksLocal SEOPlans and pricing

How this page was made. Veritas is our product. Every fact about another tool is checked against that vendor’s own pages, and scores and costs are calculated by our published rules.

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