Ahrefs vs. BuzzSumo

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Ahrefs is an SEO tool providers. Ahrefs Site Explorer provides a suite of tools including a component for backlink & on-page SEO analysis, online brand mentions tracking, and domain comparison tool for competitor analysis, etc. They refer to themselves as “the largest index of live backlinks.”
$99
per month
BuzzSumo
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
BuzzSumo is an influencer marketing platform focused on influencer location, author reports, content analysis for locating trends, and domain comparisons, useful for competitor analysis. The analysis engine is intentioned to track and optimize content marketing efforts. BuzzSumo was acquired by Brandwatch, which is now a Cision company (acquired February 2021).
$159
per month
Pricing
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Content Creation
$199
per month
PR & Comms
$299
per month
Suite
$499
per month
Enterprise
$999
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
We use a suite of tools on my team, but Ahrefs is my daily tool because it has the richest feature-set and the best link index I've found. The crawler is also faster than other tools I've used.
Chose Ahrefs
I think when it comes to keyword tracking, Ahrefs is not as good BrightEdge, but Ahrefs Site Explorer trumps BrightEdge when it comes to anything backlink related. I would use Ahrefs Site Explorer for backlink analysis, identifying 404 error pages, examining anchor texts, and …
BuzzSumo
Chose BuzzSumo
Buzzsumo is probably the best tool when it comes to social shares. Other tools like Ahrefs and Mention can get you similar data, but those tools have other focuses (social mentions and baclinks). If you want accurate social share counts for your blog and other companies, …
Chose BuzzSumo
We still use Semrush for our SEO and content department and don't use BuzzSumo much for social media these days so what BuzzSumo does for our agency it does better than the competitors and that's primarily advanced monitoring and the relevant data associated with placements …
Chose BuzzSumo
Buzzsumo is really easy to understand and does give a clear insight on trends and subjects to keep an eye on. It's a general tool that not only keeps up with keywords but with the subject in general, which is very convenient. Also, it doesn't need a big tutorial to get through, …
Chose BuzzSumo
I have found Buzzsumo to be great regarding its social aspect (finding influencers, popular content and getting shares), but in order to reach out to influencers you need to use other tools.

Also, Buzzsumo can be used to find socially popular content but other tools might be …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AhrefsBuzzSumo
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.5
68 Ratings
9% above category average
BuzzSumo
-
Ratings
Keyword analysis9.365 Ratings00 Ratings
Backlink management8.966 Ratings00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.764 Ratings00 Ratings
Page grader8.259 Ratings00 Ratings
Competitive analysis8.666 Ratings00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.761 Ratings00 Ratings
Site recommendations7.558 Ratings00 Ratings
Task management7.931 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.6
60 Ratings
12% above category average
BuzzSumo
-
Ratings
Local SEO8.148 Ratings00 Ratings
Social SEO7.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile SEO8.745 Ratings00 Ratings
Global SEO9.454 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.6
57 Ratings
2% above category average
BuzzSumo
-
Ratings
Multi-domain support8.854 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.429 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Small Businesses
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights
Score 9.9 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.3 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.7 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(73 ratings)
9.4
(34 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
8.4
(7 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsBuzzSumo
Likelihood to Recommend
Ahrefs
It gives the best report to us which helps us to find the opportunity to build backlinks. Another main feature that makes Ahrefs a safe and sound approach to SEO is that it provides information about duplicate content, URLs, redirects along with other errors that can be dangerous to the website.
Read full review
Cision
Pros
  • The real-time data unmatched and Buzzsumo is continually improving their tools and dashboards every year (we've noticed that their team listens to suggestions and often implements new features based on how our industry is evolving).
Cons
  • The price is a little steep for us. We are a small advertising agency and have a lot of tools to consider to improve our efficiency. We just wish it was a little less expensive.
Read full review
Pros
Ahrefs
  • Backlink data: Ahrefs continues to provide the best backlink data in the industry when compared to other tools. Other players are playing catching up, but as a first mover, Ahrefs is ahead of the game by far.
  • Keyword data: Ahrefs provides extremely valuable keyword data. Though I rank them second in this category, the data that they provide is comparable to the first ranked player.
  • Content Explorer: I don't think other industry tools (SEO specific) has a content explorer as useful as Ahrefs. Their content explorer works great for identifying top content and trends for multiple industries.
  • Rank Tracker: This rank tracker is better than the average tracker and Ahrefs provides a large limit for tracked keywords. Though they have moved away from daily updates, the rank tracker is great for bench marking progress.
Read full review
Cision
  • Monitors for client PR placements and notifies via email and Slack alerts
  • Helps us research potential journalists writing about the topics relevant to our clients
  • Displays trending web and social content clearly with relevant metrics
  • Allows us to view what's working for our clients' competitors in the media
Read full review
Cons
Ahrefs
  • Anchor text alert notifications for a specific domain would be nice to have.
  • Would also be nice to set a specific client domain and then be able to pick 5 competitor sites to compare it to instead of entering in the client site and then 4 competitors to compare.
  • Adding emails to forward the exports to from running a report would be good too.
Read full review
Cision
  • Although I think it's hard, I'd like to see it being used for other mediums as well such as Twitch, etc.
  • It could have better backlink data to include more backlinks that each content piece has.
  • One or two more pricing tiers might work.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Ahrefs
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
Read full review
Cision
No answers on this topic
Usability
Ahrefs
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.
Read full review
Cision
The interface is a little clunky for me, especially on mobile. However, the directions are clear and it didn't take long for me to figure out how to use it. I just wish that things were a little more streamlined.
Read full review
Support Rating
Ahrefs
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.
Read full review
Cision
The support we have received over the years has been wonderful. They have definitely demonstrated excellent customer service. We find the chat support to be the quickest and most useful for the day-to-day questions. A rep always responds very timely, answers our questions, and sends a follow-up to ensure we're maintaining success
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Ahrefs
I think when it comes to keyword tracking, Ahrefs is not as good BrightEdge, but Ahrefs Site Explorer trumps BrightEdge when it comes to anything backlink related. I would use Ahrefs Site Explorer for backlink analysis, identifying 404 error pages, examining anchor texts, and exploring top content. However, I would utilze BrightEdge for keyword and ranking information
Read full review
Cision
Buffer is a tool that can be very useful for certain uses of Twitter, but in reality, it is very limited when you want to demand a little more. The pros actually weigh a lot, but the serious limitations in several regards do not allow us to give it a higher mark.
I consider that Buffer is a very useful tool that allows you to have an active presence on social networks without having to be glued to them all day. There are others, among which Hootsuite stands out.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Ahrefs
  • Identify the most effective keywords for content creation and optimizing existing content, which can help to increase organic traffic to your website.
  • Track backlinks, monitor the competition, and identify potential link building opportunities, which can help to improve your search engine rankings.
  • Analyze the top-performing pages on any website, which can help to optimize your own content and improve user experience.
Read full review
Cision
  • It has had a positive return as it has allowed us to create better content and gain popularity online.
  • Though the cost is relatively high in my opinion, it has allowed us to make better organic content than we would have paid this cost on ads.
  • Helps us find influencers for campaigns.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ahrefs Screenshots

Screenshot of Analyze backlinks and keywords of any website to find opportunities for your organic traffic growthScreenshot of Check your website for 100+ pre-defined SEO issuesScreenshot of Get relevant keyword ideas supported by accurate SEO metricsScreenshot of Find the most shared and linked-to content on any topicScreenshot of Track your and your competitors' search rankings