SEO
Ahrefs vs Semrush
Ahrefs if your work is links, competitor content and keyword research, and you want the cleanest data. Semrush if you also run paid search, manage local listings, or need one dashboard a client can read.
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Ahrefs or Semrush — which should you use?
Ahrefs if your work is links, competitor content and keyword research, and you want the cleanest data. Semrush if you also run paid search, manage local listings, or need one dashboard a client can read. Ahrefs starts at Starter tier around $49/month; Lite around $249/month (free tier: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for sites you verify, covering your own crawl and backlinks.); Semrush starts at Pro tier around $140/month (free tier: Free account with roughly ten searches a day.). Prices are list prices and change, so check the vendor pages before buying.
Last updated 3 August 2026
These are the two default answers, and both are expensive enough that most small teams should only have one. The honest position is that either will do 90% of the job for a business under a few hundred thousand monthly visits.
The gap is in breadth versus depth. Ahrefs concentrates on organic search and its crawler; Semrush spans organic, paid, local, social and PR, with each module a little shallower.
Side by side
Ahrefs and Semrush in short.
Ahrefs
SEO suite built around its own web crawler, with the best-regarded backlink index.
- Free
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for sites you verify, covering your own crawl and backlinks.
- Paid from
- Starter tier around $49/month; Lite around $249/month
Good at
- Backlink index is the most complete of the mainstream tools, and its crawler is second only to search engines in size
- Site Explorer and Content Gap are faster to get a real answer from
- Free Webmaster Tools covers your own domain properly
Weak at
- Credit-based limits on lower tiers frustrate heavy users
- Thin on paid search and local SEO
Semrush
Broad marketing suite: organic, paid, local listings, social and content tools.
- Free
- Free account with roughly ten searches a day.
- Paid from
- Pro tier around $140/month
Good at
- Paid search data — competitors' ad copy and spend estimates — has no real equivalent in Ahrefs
- Local listing management and Position Tracking with local grids
- Broad enough that one subscription serves a whole marketing team
Weak at
- Backlink data is good but still second to Ahrefs
- Extra seats and add-ons push the bill up fast
The differences
Where they actually diverge.
| Feature | Ahrefs | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Backlink index | Best in class | Good |
| Keyword data | Strong, clean UI | Strong, more filters |
| Paid search intel | Minimal | Extensive |
| Local SEO | No | Yes, listings and grid tracking |
| Free option | Webmaster Tools for verified sites | Limited free searches |
Pick one
Which one fits you.
Choose Ahrefs if
- Links and content are the strategy
- You want fewer, cleaner numbers rather than more dashboards
- You'll use the free Webmaster Tools on your own site alongside
Choose Semrush if
- You run Google Ads as well as SEO
- You manage local listings or multiple locations
- Clients need broad reports covering more than organic
When neither is the answer
Under 5,000 monthly visitors, Google Search Console plus a free rank checker tells you almost everything either tool would. Spend the £130 a month on writing instead.
Questions
Common questions.
Can I get by with the cheap tiers?
Ahrefs' Starter tier suits a solo founder checking a handful of sites. Semrush's Pro tier limits projects and keywords, which bites once you track more than one site seriously.
Are their traffic estimates accurate?
They're modelled estimates from clickstream data and ranking positions, not measured traffic. Use them to compare sites against each other, not as absolute numbers.
Prices are list prices published by each vendor and change often — check the linked pricing pages before you buy. We take no affiliate commission and nobody pays to appear here.
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