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
Conductor
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Conductor is an enterprise AEO platform that provides unified AEO & SEO intelligence, scaled AI content generation, and real-time website monitoring. From tracking visibility in LLMs to technical health and content optimization, Conductor’s platform empowers teams to increase authority and visibility in AI and traditional search and accelerate digital growth. Conductor states its current customers include global brands such as SAP, e.l.f Cosmetics, FedEx, and Mastercard.
N/A
SpyFu
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
SpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…
Ahrefs and SpyFu compliment each other. Ahrefs is better for backlinks and overall performance tracking. SpyFu is the leader for keyword analysis, especially with their combat tool. Conductor strives to replace or supplement Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics and build custom …
It's competitive with Semrush, Moz and other tools of that same ilk. It's great for serious SEO work - not at the Enterprise level - but at the small business, small agency level. I would not consider it competitive with BrightEdge, Conductor, SEOClarity, etc. - but it IS …
Owner, Cofounder, and Chief Creative Marketer and Strategist
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is easier to use, their features deliver understandable and logical recommendations, and in my opinion and most importantly — they list parent topics, which is huge when designing/redesigning a website.
It's very clear that Ahrefs has a larger database than their competitors. I never run into issues where this tool isn't able to evaluate keywords - even if they are very long tail niche keywords.
The link section of the tool is also very useful. Ahrefs is able to clean up the …
Ahrefs is one of the best platforms available in the market dealing in developing online SEO tools and free educational material for marketing professionals. It has all the best features related to SEO and gives all the performance and analytics based on digital presence.
SEMRush is the clear competitor and beats Ahrefs for keyword position tracking and keyword competitive analysis. However, Ahrefs is a clear winner in the quality and timeliness of their backlink database. Both should be used in conjunction.
Ahrefs is the best tool I've used for link building reporting; however, other tools are better suited for things like keyword position tracking, keyword research, etc.
I like these other softwares too. If you work in an agency you will likely have uses for many different platforms. I do like the way that ahrefs indexes and tracks links more than anything else I have used though. I think it is very effective with competitive research as well.
I have evaluated Ahrefs & BrightEdge and found them lacking in the information that Conductor can provide me as far as content development and keyword research. I currently use Semrush, but will not be renewing for the year since most, if not all, of the services provided by Sem…
Some of the main tools we have evaluated in addition and/or in lieu of Conductor include Semrush, for its keyword and content features, Ahrefs for its backlinking features, and ContentKing for its content performance and insight features. [I believe] using tools like Ahrefs …
I've used BrightEdge, Ahrefs, Semrush, Siteimprove, and a few others I can't think of the name right now. We didn't move from one to the other, this was always the tool I have used with this company.
I have used many SEO campaign platforms like Conductor. Conductor UX leads to a good SEO workflow for me. I don't really even understand why. I have used Semrush a lot, Ahrefs an awful lot, and BrightEdge a little, and I love doing SEO analysis in Conductor and spend way more …
Verified User
Manager
Chose Conductor
Our company has only used Conductor for the past 2 years.
I have been in SEO for over a decade, and in that time, I have used just about every tool on the market. Conductor is the tool we get the most useful insights from in the easiest way. The support and help we get from the Conductor team are one of the main reasons we ignore the …
We didn't use another product previously, we used an agency that did everything for us, so bringing Organic SEO in-house was why we went with Conductor. I have used other products in other roles and at other companies and each has its strengths. Conductor is good for large …
We moved to Conductor because the functionality matched what we were looking for. Price was not as much of a factor, thankfully, because Conductor is expensive.
We switched from BrightEdge mainly due to my recommendation based on my past experience with Conductor. The main reason was the advancements in technology that Conductor had demonstrated during our initial conversations. We were certain that the tool simply had more to offer …
We switched to Conductor for several reasons: Explorer is a feature that other tools do not have. It is very helpful to be able to see how your website is working as a whole vs. just the keywords you are tracking. Content research was something that was missing from our …
We were looking for an SEO tool that could support us across all our 38 markets we operate in. Based on that requirement most tools already dropped off, except for BrightEdge and Searchmetrics. Searchmetrics and Conductor both provided insights for SEO and SEA, so therefore it …
I have used a lot of search platforms I just add a quick selection of a few. Although Conductor has replaced most of the tools I have used in the past quite adequately (Conductor is on par with Majestic in most respects), I do occasionally use Ahrefs (mainly for backlink …
BrightEdge was the tool we had. We felt that Conductor, however, was a much better fit for our internal needs, and spreading the best SEO practice to employees and sub-teams.
I have used BrightEdge in the past and it was quite complicated to understand how to we leverage it to get things done and see the impact from that. The high knowledgable experts Conductor has made the life of our SEO team much easier.
Prior to using Conductor we were not using anything really, just basing our research on google search and the analytics we get from Google analytics, our website. This has been a game changer for us.
I have used various SEO tools such as SEMRush, GeoRanker, Moz, SpyFu and Keyword Spy in parallel with one another to achieve my desired results. However, since switching to Conductor I was able to access most of the information I need (Keyword rank, Monthly search volume, …
We've evaluated multiple enterprise and SMB platforms in ecommerce and multi-location SEO. We switched from a very similar platform for the improvement in the quality and design of the reports our clients enjoy seeing, not realizing it was also chocked full of other tools like …
I wasn't the decision maker. I used BrightEdge in my previous company and overall is very similar to Conductor in terms of functionalities, but the customer support of Conductor is much more helpful.
Spyfu fails to hit the mark at least when it comes to SEO since both Ahrefs and Semrush has a bigger directory and fetches data from more countries than Spyfu does, however Spyfu offers a great deal when it comes to cost effective solution to almost every digital marketing …
Compared to Semrush or Ahrefs, neither of the competitors stacks up against SpyFu in terms of competitor insight of paid ad performance. It can even identify specific ad copy changes, which can be crucial for high-demand periods like Black Friday. In my opinion, SpyFu is an …
SpyFu is more cost-effective than both (Ahrefs and Semrush), but we have to compromise on the data's accuracy. However, the data reporting and user interface of SpyFu make it easy to decipher. For Paid Ads keyword lookup, we prefer SpyFu to any other tool maybe, because it's …
I use Ahrefs for Site audit, Keyword Research, Backlink analysis, and some parts of competitor analysis. SpyFu I always wanted to keep primary, but it's not doable with the limitation of their database, which forces me to use Ahrefs for that reason.
Verified User
Manager
Chose SpyFu
I've used Semrush as well. Semrush does organic SEO analysis better than SpyFu and backlink research. I find the data more intuitive. I much prefer SpyFu for their advertising/PPC analysis and use SpyFu when researching competitors' advertising campaigns. These are the main two …
SpyFu is a good tool and it certainly provides a good starting point for any basic PPC or SEO campaign. I dont believe it has the comprehensive features that a tool like Ahrefs has, as it doesnt have the granular data these tools possess. However, it is still well worth using …
It's a great little tool that offers pretty much everything you can get from Moz or Semrush at a fraction of the cost. My company uses a few different tools but I always come back to SpyFu because it is so easy to use and their build-in reporting is great.
Personally, the only tool I use as often as SEMRush. If you have the SEMRush paid version, I personally choose to use that over SpyFu. SpyFu is the best free search analytics tool online though. It has the greatest offerings in its free pack and allows you to have the most …
I would say that the above tools each offer their own unique skillset to be able to enhance what we find with SpyFu. For competitive analysis at a low cost point SpyFu really follows through on the promise of delivering actionable competitive insights with additional tools that …
I think that these are both really good products. If you are in an agency there is probably room for both in your budget because you will want to use them with different clients. If you are at a smaller company or a start up I would go with SpyFu. Much more affordable and very …
It's a key element to my Digital Marketing surveying efforts. Often it proves to have been more accurate, once I have access to Analytics tools such GA or SiteCatalyst, in comparison to its own competitor-set.
Features
Ahrefs
Conductor
SpyFu
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.1
72 Ratings
6% above category average
Conductor
8.7
282 Ratings
13% above category average
SpyFu
6.6
52 Ratings
15% below category average
Keyword analysis
9.769 Ratings
9.5267 Ratings
7.052 Ratings
Backlink management
9.270 Ratings
8.394 Ratings
6.040 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking
8.768 Ratings
8.9252 Ratings
6.044 Ratings
Page grader
6.962 Ratings
9.3133 Ratings
7.829 Ratings
Competitive analysis
9.270 Ratings
8.1268 Ratings
7.051 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics
7.465 Ratings
9.7253 Ratings
7.232 Ratings
Site recommendations
7.061 Ratings
7.7265 Ratings
6.031 Ratings
Task management
7.033 Ratings
8.1102 Ratings
6.120 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
6.7
63 Ratings
12% below category average
Conductor
8.8
249 Ratings
16% above category average
SpyFu
5.8
39 Ratings
26% below category average
Local SEO
7.051 Ratings
9.0200 Ratings
5.033 Ratings
Social SEO
6.048 Ratings
7.935 Ratings
5.028 Ratings
Mobile SEO
6.047 Ratings
9.7217 Ratings
8.029 Ratings
Global SEO
7.657 Ratings
8.4210 Ratings
5.035 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
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.
Conductor is a great tool to use when we're planning and optimizing content around specific trends. It also helps us track our on-going performance as well, which is great to help us improve. Conductor is less ideal for content that has a quick turnaround time or pieces where SEO isn't a priority, also if you're looking to manage content publishing directly. It's more useful when it comes to strategy and optimization for in-depth pieces.
If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.
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.
When I need to quickly determine what Google features our keywords are ranking for: Featured Snippets, Carousels, Rich Snippets, Sitelinks, PAA boxes, etc.
The ability to create highly customizable dashboards that provide a one-page view of insights for the specific web properties you are tracking.
A content guidance tool that is unmatched by any other product available in the market.
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.
Backlink tracking/reporting (would like to see backlinks more easily and maybe backlink opportunities if possible)
Custom content briefs (right now I move the brief from the platform version into our own in-house Word doc template because it is more detailed. Would love to be able to customize the brief that is set up within Conductor so that we can do it all in one place.)
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
Conductor enables high-value SEO activity. There are a lot of moving parts in SEO and I'm always open to products that fit our requirements, but Conductor has built a stronger argument for its value after we subscribed than it had when we subscribed -- that's rare.
Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.
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.
I check features like the InsightStream every Monday to monitor any major losses or gains in performance. These are easily digested and save me tons of time searching for these insights manually. If there's anything "worth calling home about" I can easily add insights into a workspace and create a report to communicate these results. It's super easy to use Conductor with a team and across departments.
SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack
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.
The Conductor support team is excellent, especially our Customer Success manager. Our monthly calls to review our wins, losses, and key takeaways for the next steps are incredibly helpful, and Conductor's platform provides not only an organic search tool for our company but also a learning resource via our Customer Success calls.
SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.
Our in house SEO manager trained everyone. It was easy to learn and he was well versed with the product. Any questions we had he was able to answer or reach out to support to find the answer
I definitely recommend their professional services for getting started. It got our account 90% of the way to where we needed to be in order to gain value from it. In fact, I'd suggest that with few exceptions (such as, you have a staff that is already familiar with the platform and doesn't need any help), the quick start services over the first 30-90 days should be a standard part of onboarding with any new client. It definitely got us to the point of gaining ROI from the solution and, in turn, will make it easier to justify renewal and continued investment in it.
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.
We didn't use another product previously, we used an agency that did everything for us, so bringing Organic SEO in-house was why we went with Conductor. I have used other products in other roles and at other companies and each has its strengths. Conductor is good for large enterprises
I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.
Conductor helped us aim at low hanging fruits for quick wins, which increased our traffic
With Conductor's tool, it was easy to look at general keywords where we were already ranking, but not good enough, and then focus around what we could do to increase our positioning
All this extra traffic, gave us more leads, therefore more sales!