Ahrefs vs. BrightEdge vs. gShift (discontinued)

Ahrefs is a must have in the SEO toolbox. It is one of the leading tools in the industry for serious SEO research. It can do almost everything you need on the non-technical side of SEO. In my opinion, it is not great if you need a detailed technical tool that identifies errors and helps with fix suggestions. In that instance, I think there are better tools on the market. But - for content and keyword related tasks, I think it's must have.

Incentivized

BrightEdge is great for large companies and large SEO teams since it's pricey but worth it if you have a large team or organization using it. For small businesses, I would use a different tool like Semrush because of the price and the variety of tools it offers.

Incentivized

gShift's pace of development is pretty amazing and they are very responsive to enhancement requests and other feedback on their solutions. gShift is well-suited for an agency environment where multiple clients need the basics in keyword rankings and website analytics and PPC reporting integration. gShift is less suited for a large organizations with multiple properties or web presences that are all integrated but require silos for reporting purposes or any type of parent-child reporting relationship that necessitates reporting at the property level as well as summarized reporting for all properties.

Incentivized

• I have been using this platform in my organization to develop several SEO tools to help to grow our website much.
• It has all the main features which include competitor research, keyword research, website audit, content research, and rank tracking.
• I have been using all these functions in the organization for several purposes. It provides complete information and complete performance details of the SEO.
• It provides us the detailed keyword research with volume, CPC, and other information.

Incentivized

• Instant - Keyword research tool is by far our team's favorite item on the platform
• DataCube - We are able to uncover competitive gaps and hone in on specific sets of pages using filters containing our business product assortment attribute.
• Professional services have been attentive when asking for changes

• Bringing most of your applications to one platform.
• Managing Gmail Accounts.
• Bringing all your communication channels to one spot.
• Easy setup and account integration.

Incentivized

• Can't export graphs: some graphs within the tool would be useful as an export. Unfortunately, exporting them is not an option.
• No "blanket" reporting options: though Ahrefs is excellent for gathering and exporting intel/data, there are no blanket SEO reports provided. Exporting data is great, but simple report exporting would make it better.

Incentivized

• The storybuilder feature isn't anything outstanding. I feel like I can get the same type of data and format from Google Data Studio.
• I feel like the Hyperlocal feature is still very junior compared to other features. It provides you good insights, but you have to set all the data fields before you can get a picture as well as it doesn't really give you an idea of how you can improve.
• The mobile SEO solution is a good concept, but it needs some tweaks to be better, especially when building out a mobile story builder. Some of the data isn't simple to read and the mobile keywords functions don't also account for voice searches.

Incentivized

• Minor bugs and defects are an ongoing issue - for example, PDF export capability for custom dashboards seems to be down frequently. While these type of defects are always resolved in 1-2 weeks, the fact that some of them keep reoccurring is an ongoing frustration.
• Custom Dashboard functionality is limited to pre-set defaults as far as what data points or "beacons" as gShift calls them, that you could pull.

Incentivized

Their index is too vast to ignore when looking at a complete backlink profile. We find links in Ahrefs that do not appear in any other link detection tool. For this reason, it's a must for our agency to use for the foreseeable future. Plus, it's very affordable considering the data you get

I would renew, as I don't feel there is a product out there that would have the impact on our SEO efforts as effectively as BrightEdge. It provides the information I need and integrates with other tools like Google Webmaster Tools, to truly have the depth of information that makes their suggestions for SEO changes so valued.

Ahrefs is very easy to use - you can jump right in and understand most of the assets. Overall, the dashboard snapshots give a very good picture of inbound link activity. For deeper analysis of historical trends, the system can become cumbersome, making it hard to do full work without exporting and reformatting the data.

Because it depends on the feature, it's either easier or not to use. Some of them, not being particularly friendly, I no longer use, and I focus on the ones where insights are easy to understand and data seems well-elaborated.

Incentivized

Ahrefs has always been responsive when there's been a technical issue with the site. There are usually very little problems, but if there are, they announce it on their social media accounts which keeps its customers informed. Email support is prompt and the customer service people are very helpful, knowledgable and friendly.

Incentivized

This is a area where the BrightEdge team really shines. Their commitment to training and product support is unmatched not only for SEO platforms, but life in general. I often find myself wishing my internet provide and similar would go to BrightEdge for training on support and attitude. I would rank them an 11 if I could.

For the most part it was seamless. The load time of clients was a little long, but otherwise was quite easy.

Majestic and Ahrefs are really close in terms of tool. Ahrefs does offer competitive comparison and they do have a more up to date data base. Majestic however has a more comprehensive historical view of sites which is also extremely valuable. Majestic also offers a link velocity chart that is missing on Ahrefs. Ahrefs makes up for this with their links gained/lost calendar which Majestic is missing.

Incentivized

While relatively expensive, Brightedge really does offer the best quality product but just as importantly (if not more so) the level of client/agency support. We have biweekly training with the entire team to continually stay up to date on Brightedge's offerings and strategies. They also offer the ability to do ad hoc reporting using some of their tools that can help us win new business and recommend Brightedge to additional clients, expanding our business as well.

They are very different tools can't compare them.

Incentivized

• Ahrefs Site Explorer has helped with any comprehensive backlink analysis and backlink profile management we've had.
• Ahrefs Site Explorer has helped tremendously in getting manual penalties lifted for certain sites.
• Aherfs Site Explorer has been helpful in identifying 404 error pages.

Incentivized

• We have only started with BE a few months ago and so I don't have any hard numbers from an ROI perspective, but i can say that what we spent on BE is a fraction of what we were spending with agencies and we are actually getting results by doing this ourselves. From that perspective we have seen a cost savings.
• With focused SEO campaigns and projects we have been able to move the needle on our SEO rankings for specific products and services. This is going to have a great impact for us in 2019 as we have some specific product goals and campaigns for 2019 that we have been working to build up over the last couple months of 2018.

Incentivized

• We have been able to identify other keyword ranking opportunities and increase our on-site conversion rate.
• gShift has helped us prioritize content and discover content that is over-performing, and better optimize that content and use it for remarketing purposes.

Incentivized