SE Ranking vs Ahrefs
By Udayan Ambwani, Co-founder & CTO · 7 Oct 2026
SE Ranking and Ahrefs both start at $129 a month and cover the same core SEO jobs: keyword research, backlinks, rank tracking and site audits. They differ in what else the price buys.
The verdict
SE Ranking gives more for the money: 100 AI prompts a day, daily rank updates and cheap seats. Ahrefs is the pick for backlink depth, Claude and Copilot tracking, and a security review.
Choose SE Ranking if
You want AI tracking volume, daily rank updates and cheap seats at $129.
Choose Ahrefs if
Backlink research is the job, or procurement needs ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
How to choose between SE Ranking and Ahrefs
At $129 a month the two entry plans cost the same, so the choice rests on what that money buys. SE Ranking Core spends it on allowances: 2,000 keywords tracked daily across ten projects, 100 AI prompts a day and seats from $16. Ahrefs Lite spends it on data: 35 trillion live backlinks with more than ten years of history and 28.7 billion filtered keywords across 217 locations.
SE Ranking fits anyone who reports rankings to clients or managers often. Rankings refresh every day, local SEO covers three locations with listings across 100+ directories, and white-label reporting is available through its Agency Pack. Ahrefs updates rankings weekly on every plan, tracks local results by city and ZIP without managing listings, and its help centre says reports cannot be white-labelled.
Ahrefs fits teams whose work is link building, competitor research or data piped into other systems. Its index carries over a decade of backlink history, Site Audit tests for more than 170 issues, and Ahrefs names ISO 27001 and SOC 2 in its own trust centre, which helps with a procurement review. SE Ranking offers 5.5 billion keywords and a backlink checker, and lists no security certification.
Getting started differs as well. SE Ranking offers a trial of 14 days without a card. Ahrefs has no trial and, by its pricing page, generally no refunds, but its free plan lets you verify your own site and see 1,000 of its backlinks and keywords, which is enough to judge the data on a domain you know.
Seats widen the gap as the team grows. Three people cost $161 a month on SE Ranking Core and $209 on Ahrefs Lite, which caps extra users at two. A fourth person means $177 on SE Ranking, or a move to Ahrefs Standard at $429 with three users added at $60 each.
Feature by feature
What each tool does today, on the plans named in each row. Not described means the vendor’s pages do not mention it, which is not the same as the product lacking it.
SE Ranking wins on allowances, with daily rankings, 100 AI prompts and $16 seats; Ahrefs wins on data depth, Claude and Copilot tracking and a listed ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
| Feature | SE Ranking | Ahrefs |
|---|---|---|
| SEO data | ||
| Keyword database | 5.5B keywords | 28.7B filtered keywords |
| Backlink data | Backlink checker | 35T live backlinks |
| Rank tracking updates | Daily | Weekly |
| AI search and writing | ||
| AI prompts on the entry plan | 100 a day | 5, one platform |
| AI writing | AI writer | AI Content Helper, add-on |
| Access and buying | ||
| Additional users | From $16 a month | $40 to $80 a month |
| API and MCP | On Core and Growth | From Lite |
| Security certification listed | No trust page found | ISO 27001 and SOC 2 |
| Free way to start | 14 days, no card | Free plan, own sites |
What some rows meanThe plan or limit behind a cell, where it needs saying
- Backlink data. Ahrefs reports more than ten years of backlink history.
- Rank tracking updates. SE Ranking tracks 2,000 keywords a day on Core; Ahrefs Lite tracks 750, updated weekly.
- AI prompts on the entry plan. Ahrefs checks each prompt on one platform daily; more platforms means fewer prompts or a prompt package.
- AI writing. Ahrefs sells AI Content Helper in the Content Kit add-on from $99 a month.
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AI answer tracking
The two approach AI tracking in opposite ways. SE Ranking gives Core 100 daily prompts spread over AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, with no add-on required. Ahrefs Brand Radar reaches seven surfaces including Claude and Copilot, but Lite’s 150 monthly checks cover 5 prompts on one platform, and every extra platform eats into that allowance.
Over a year, 10 prompts cost $1,548 on SE Ranking and $2,988 on Ahrefs, which needs Standard for that many. Tracking 50 prompts keeps SE Ranking at $1,548 and pushes Ahrefs to Enterprise, $17,988. Five people tracking 100 prompts pay $2,316 with SE Ranking, a volume no published Ahrefs plan covers.
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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 plan | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Perplexity | AI Overviews | AI Mode | Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SE Ranking Core | Included | Not on this plan | Included | Included | Included | Included | Not on this plan |
Ahrefs Lite | you choose | you choose | you choose | you choose | you choose | you choose | you 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, Ahrefs.
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.
| Tool | Getting started1 seat, 10 tracked prompts, 1 brand | One marketer, one brand1 seat, 50 tracked prompts, 1 brand | Team of five, one brand5 seats, 100 tracked prompts, 1 brand | Agency, three brands10 seats, 300 tracked prompts, 3 brands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | $1,548lowest | $1,548lowest | $2,316lowest | $4,344lowest |
| Ahrefs | $2,988 | $17,988off scale | No published fit1 | No published fit1 |
- 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, Ahrefs.
What would change our verdict
- Ahrefs raising the AI prompt allowance on Lite and Standard, which is the widest gap between the two on this page.
- SE Ranking adding Claude or Copilot to its AI tracking, or publishing a security page, which would remove Ahrefs’ main advantages here.
Questions people ask
Is SE Ranking or Ahrefs better?
For AI tracking volume, daily rank updates and team pricing at $129, SE Ranking. For backlink research, a wider choice of AI engines and a security review, Ahrefs.
Which is cheaper?
Both start at $129 a month on prices read in September 2026. At that price SE Ranking includes 100 AI prompts a day, daily rank tracking and extra seats from $16; Ahrefs includes 5 prompts, weekly rank updates and extra users from $40.
Does SE Ranking track Claude?
No. Its AI tracking covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Ahrefs Brand Radar can check Claude, at 8 checks per update, and Copilot.
Each tool’s full review
Every feature, price, pro and con for each tool, each fact linked to the vendor page it came from, is on that tool’s own review page.
- SE Ranking reviewSEO suite with AI visibility
- Ahrefs reviewSEO suite with AI visibility
How the scores are calculatedThe arithmetic behind each score
| Tool | Weighted score | Criteria scored | Strongest criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | 86 | 7 of 8 | Refresh frequency |
| Ahrefs | 59 | 7 of 8 | Refresh frequency |
Eight rules, each applied to the published facts in the reviews and weighted to a total out of 100. The rules and weights are set out in our methodology.
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
- 7 October 2026Published.
Sources
The pages behind this comparison, most recently read 29 September 2026. Each tool’s review dates its own sources.
- SE Ranking: Academy · AI Visibility Tracker · Free Tools · Homepage · Pricing
- Ahrefs: Academy · AI Content Helper · Brand Radar · Free · Homepage (ahrefs.com) · Homepage (trust.ahrefs.com) · Is there any way to brand… · Keywords Explorer · New features february march 2026 · New Features May 2026 · Pricing · Product announcement ahrefs adds youtube and… · Rank Tracker · SEO MCP · Site Audit · Site Explorer
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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