{
    "title": "Ahrefs Alternatives 2027: 9 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/ahrefs/",
    "summary": "The best Ahrefs alternatives in 2027 are Semrush (best overall, $139/mo), OpenSEO (best open source, MIT) and Moz Pro (cheaper, $99/mo). Ahrefs itself starts at $129/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 6 more are compared below, including 2 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Ahrefs",
        "starting_price": "$129/mo",
        "free_plan": "Ahrefs Free: limited Site Explorer and Site Audit",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
        "pricing_url": "https://ahrefs.com/pricing"
    },
    "task": "AI SEO suite",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-11",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-11",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "Semrush",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$139/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "1 demo project, 10 reports a day",
            "best_for": "SEO and AI visibility in one suite",
            "difference": "Semrush SEO plan lists 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily at $139 a month, and its free tier is one demo project with 10 reports a day across tools.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.semrush.com/prices/",
            "website": "https://www.semrush.com/",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/semrush/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Moz Pro",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$99/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "small sites needing SEO basics",
            "difference": "Moz Pro Standard includes 1 user, 3 tracked sites and 400K crawled pages a month for $99, against Ahrefs Lite at $129 with 1,000 credits per user.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://moz.com/products/pricing",
            "website": "https://moz.com/products/moz-pro",
            "zekai_score": 7.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/moz-pro/"
        },
        {
            "name": "SE Ranking",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$129/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "agencies and in-house teams on a budget",
            "difference": "SE Ranking Core covers 10 projects and 2k daily-tracked keywords, and extra manager seats start at $16, where Ahrefs charges $40 a month per extra Lite user.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://seranking.com/subscription.html",
            "website": "https://seranking.com/",
            "zekai_score": 8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/se-ranking/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Mangools",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Not checked",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "solo SEOs wanting simple tools",
            "difference": "Mangools sells five narrow tools, KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner and SiteProfiler, and refreshes rank tracking weekly unless you pick the Agency plan.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://mangools.com/plans-and-pricing",
            "website": "https://mangools.com/",
            "zekai_score": 8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/mangools/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Conductor",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Not checked",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "enterprise content and SEO teams",
            "difference": "Conductor shows no prices; its Growth and Enterprise plans are sold by demo or sales contact, with limits counted in analyzed pages, drafts and tracked websites.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.conductor.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.conductor.com/",
            "zekai_score": 6.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/conductor/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Botify",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Not checked",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "large sites with crawl-heavy SEO",
            "difference": "Botify shows no plans or prices on its pricing page, only a demo request, and organises its product into AI Readiness, AI Visibility and AI Activation modules.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.botify.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.botify.com/",
            "zekai_score": 7.7,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/botify/"
        },
        {
            "name": "OpenSEO",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "MCP-ready SEO with pay-as-you-go data",
            "difference": "OpenSEO has no subscription: usage is billed by DataForSEO on your own key, and it includes keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks, site audits and AI visibility workflows.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/every-app/open-seo",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openseo/",
            "zekai_score": 8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openseo/"
        },
        {
            "name": "claude-seo",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "SEO audits inside Claude Code",
            "difference": "claude-seo is a Claude Code skill bundle with an optional Ahrefs extension, so it can sit on top of an Ahrefs account instead of replacing it.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/claude-seo/",
            "last_release": "2026-09-23",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/claude-seo/"
        },
        {
            "name": "open-seo-mcp-skills",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "SEO from your own GSC and GA4 data",
            "difference": "open-seo-mcp-skills answers SEO questions from your own Search Console and GA4 properties, so it has no competitor backlink index like the one Ahrefs sells.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/open-seo-mcp-skills/",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/open-seo-mcp-skills/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Ahrefs in 2027?",
            "a": "Semrush is the best overall Ahrefs alternative on this page ($139/mo). To self-host, OpenSEO is open source (MIT)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Ahrefs?",
            "a": "Yes. Ahrefs has a free plan: Ahrefs Free: limited Site Explorer and Site Audit. Paid plans start at $129/mo, checked on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Ahrefs?",
            "a": "Yes. OpenSEO, claude-seo, open-seo-mcp-skills are open source and free to self-host. Semrush has a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Ahrefs?",
            "a": "Moz Pro starts at $99/mo, against $129/mo for Ahrefs, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Ahrefs alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Moz Pro $495/mo, SE Ranking $645/mo, Semrush $695/mo, against Ahrefs $645/mo for Ahrefs. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, Semrush or Ahrefs?",
            "a": "Semrush SEO plan lists 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily at $139 a month, and its free tier is one demo project with 10 reports a day across tools. Choose Semrush if you want AI-visibility reports and custom prompt tracking bundled into the same subscription as keyword research. Stay with Ahrefs if you prefer Ahrefs' own crawler data, its Lite plan and a free tier on your verified sites."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Ahrefs?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Ahrefs Lite is $129 a month with 1,000 credits per user, 750 tracked keywords and 5 unverified projects; additional users cost $40 a month each up to 2 (11 Nov 2026); The pricing page says annual billing saves up to 17% but lists no yearly per-month prices, and states switching to annual is done through support (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is better than Ahrefs?",
            "a": "It depends on the job: Semrush for bundled AI-visibility tracking, SE Ranking or Moz Pro for lower-cost plans, and Conductor or Botify for enterprise sites."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/ahrefs/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}