Ahrefs vs. Monitor Backlinks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 8.8 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
Monitor Backlinks
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Monitor Backlinks, as its name implies, allows users to be notified when websites gain or lose backlinks, and also to understand what links are good for SEO.
$20
per month
Pricing
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
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
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
Very easy to use, user friendly and provides great insight.
Monitor Backlinks
Chose Monitor Backlinks
I used Ahrefs Site Explorer for two years, and it is a really good platform with lots of backlink tools. Ahrefs stacks up well against Monitor Backlinks, and it has slightly more features. I opted for Monitor Backlinks because it has a simple and streamlined dashboard and just …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.4
68 Ratings
8% above category average
Monitor Backlinks
9.6
2 Ratings
21% above category average
Keyword analysis9.365 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Backlink management8.866 Ratings10.02 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.764 Ratings9.32 Ratings
Page grader8.259 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Competitive analysis8.666 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.761 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Site recommendations7.558 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Task management7.831 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.5
60 Ratings
11% above category average
Monitor Backlinks
9.5
1 Ratings
22% above category average
Local SEO8.148 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Social SEO7.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile SEO8.745 Ratings00 Ratings
Global SEO9.454 Ratings10.01 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.5
57 Ratings
1% above category average
Monitor Backlinks
10.0
2 Ratings
17% above category average
Multi-domain support8.754 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.429 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
Small Businesses
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights
Score 9.9 out of 10
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.3 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.7 out of 10
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(73 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsMonitor Backlinks
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.
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Monitor Backlinks
Monitor Backlinks is perfect for any small business that has a website. Every website gets hit with spammy backlinks, and being able to identify and remove them is critical to online success, and in preventing the Google penalty. In addition, it helps SEOs locate good backlinks they might not know about, which can then be posted on social networks and social bookmarking sites to generate more referral traffic. I would not recommend Monitor Backlinks for a business that does not have a website, or for a business that only has a blog.
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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.
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Monitor Backlinks
  • It is highly recommended if you have a high ranking website that is prone to competitors building spam. It makes the process if identifying, tracking and disavowing spam links fast and easy.
  • It is a good tool to track positive mentions of your site as well and does a good job monitoring the reputation of your site by picking up mentions of your website across the web.
  • It's affordable for what it does compared to its competitors and its also very easy to use. But their customer service is always there to help out in case you need it.
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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.
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Monitor Backlinks
  • A great option would be to have the ability to create organic keyword ranks for keywords in specific categories, not just keywords for our entire website. Specifically, the ability to create custom lists for keyword groups. This would be a huge time-saver for SEOs whose websites have varied keyword groups.
  • Currently, I get email notifications from Monitor Backlinks once every week or so. These emails show new backlinks and any changes in existing backlink status. I log into the platform each morning to see what is going on, but a great addition would be real-time emails that alert you when a really low-quality backlink is uncovered.
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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
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Monitor Backlinks
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.
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Monitor Backlinks
No answers on this topic
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.
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Monitor Backlinks
They were fast, eager to help me out on my project and very knowledgeable on how to user their product and helping me to get up and running. This gave me the confidence to purchase the product and execute my projects knowing that I could ask for help whenever needed.
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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
Monitor Backlinks
I used Ahrefs Site Explorer for two years, and it is a really good platform with lots of backlink tools. Ahrefs stacks up well against Monitor Backlinks, and it has slightly more features. I opted for Monitor Backlinks because it has a simple and streamlined dashboard and just the right amount of tools and features I need.
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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.
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Monitor Backlinks
  • It's hard to gauge the effect of negative SEO attacks but they have the power to bring your whole site down, so having a tool like this setup is really priceless.
  • Their cost is also very affordable when compared to similar tools that do not have the same functionality or level of detail that they offer on their analysis so from that perspective is a savings right from the start.
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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