Ahrefs vs. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 9.1 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
Screaming Frog
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
N/A
$149
per year
Pricing
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Paid Version
$149.00
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsScreaming Frog
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
Screaming Frog is a handy tool when it comes to performing technical SEO audits and improving technical aspects of SEO. But Ahrefs on the contrary is a strategic SEO tool that can help you do holistic SEO. This includes features like performing keyword research, building links, …
Chose Ahrefs
In my experience, Ahrefs and Semrush are both powerful tools for improving SEO and content marketing efforts. However, I chose to use Ahrefs over Semrush for a few reasons. Firstly, Ahrefs has a stronger focus on backlink analysis and identifying potential link building …
Chose Ahrefs
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 …
Chose Ahrefs
At the time, Ahrefs had the most robust link index. Majesitc was a close second, and Moz lagged far behind. Since then, Moz promoted a major update and expansion of their link index, and it now bears further research to determine which product would be better for our …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the most comprehensive tool we've used for providing SEO and performance analysis for our website clients. It's an essential part of our analytics stack, along with Google products. It doesn't require downloading and installing software, and it's more robust and user …
Chose Ahrefs
The way Ahrefs presents the data collected is much more intuitive and easy to understand than the way SEMRush offers it.
The interface of Ahrefs is more user-friendly than the one from SEMRush. I can get lost in the way SEMRush presents the data, and their help guides are not as …
Chose Ahrefs
You can dip deeper with Ahrefs Site Explorer's data. It is great for crawling websites, doing website audits too. For deep analysis and research, Ahrefs is a step ahead of its competitors. Ahrefs has many tools like site & keyword explorer, content explorer, rank tracker, site …
Chose Ahrefs
Betweem Moz, SEMRush, and Ahrefs - Ahrefs takes the cake. Though Moz is catching up with link data, their other toolsets do not provide enough useful data to make complex decisions. SEMRush is a close tie with Ahrefs and would definitely be on top of mind if I also managed PPC. …
Screaming Frog
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
I use Screaming Frog because it is a very powerful tool that is not prohibitively expensive. Moz is at the same price range but has lost some of its zing because they have upped the price for individual aspects. Buy a license from SF and that is it, done and dusted. I just wish …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Please note that, while Screaming Frog is a great tool for scanning the website all it is, is a tool that scans the website. For deeper analysis or for keyword analysis, please take a look at tools like Semrush and Ahrefs for your medium size business, or Conductor for a …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
I like that it's a desktop client actually. I like it that I can stop something myself, rather than have some bot out of my control tear into a web site, consuming all it's content.
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
The tools I mentioned are in the same space, tools for SEO, but aren't website scrapers like Screaming Frog. We haven't found another tool that we like as much for providing simple and straight forward insights about a website.
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
We tried also Netpeak Spider. Good alternative to Screaming Frog. Right now we are comparing these two because Spider can do almost everything that Screaming Frog does. A huge plus for Screaming Spider is that it's very stable; we work with very big projects with it (10-20 …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
We have a deep crawl integration with another tool and still find the information on DeepCrawl valuable because this tool is better at listing out reccomendations. However, Screaming Frog is easier to use, doesn't have limits on how many crawls it can run (on the Pro plan we …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog is a desktop application that uses your own resources to crawl a site (Processing, RAM, Connection speed). Deep Crawl is a cloud-based crawler, and probably the best cloud based crawler out there. DeepCrawl can gather A LOT of data, but it becomes expensive. The …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Moz's crawler is part of a larger, more expensive suite of proprietary tools. Screaming Frog is more affordable and does the job for those who don't need the other products offered by Moz. DeepCrawl makes some of the recommendations for you and is typically better for …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
ScreamingFrog is the foundation of any good SEO strategy because it identifies key elements that always fall under white-hat SEO tactics. It's so inexpensive for 2 licenses and the value it provides is being able to build properties that can grow organic web presence over time.
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog's combination of capabilities and pricing beats competitors. DeepCrawl & Moz beats out Screaming Frog when it comes to being able to access and store data since it is web-based and Screaming Frog data is stored locally. Otherwise, Screaming Frog is my go-to …
Chose Screaming Frog SEO Spider
DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog are complementary tools in my opinion. DeepCrawl is better for tracking progress over time while Screaming Frog is better for day to day adhoc requests. I use and recommend both. Both are more robust than the solutions offered by all in one …
Features
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.8
72 Ratings
1% above category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
7.0
53 Ratings
10% below category average
Keyword analysis9.569 Ratings7.020 Ratings
Backlink management9.070 Ratings5.023 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.868 Ratings7.09 Ratings
Page grader6.162 Ratings8.022 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.170 Ratings8.527 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics6.965 Ratings9.153 Ratings
Site recommendations5.961 Ratings8.624 Ratings
Task management7.033 Ratings3.09 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
6.9
63 Ratings
9% below category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
7.5
37 Ratings
1% below category average
Local SEO7.151 Ratings5.017 Ratings
Social SEO6.248 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Mobile SEO6.247 Ratings8.323 Ratings
Global SEO8.257 Ratings8.629 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.0
60 Ratings
5% below category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
7.5
42 Ratings
12% below category average
Multi-domain support7.657 Ratings8.831 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.429 Ratings6.235 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Conductor
Conductor
Score 9.2 out of 10
Conductor
Conductor
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(77 ratings)
9.1
(55 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(5 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(5 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
7.9
(18 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Likelihood to Recommend
Ahrefs
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.
Read full review
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is well suited to auditing brand new websites, when you need a quick, holistic view of the websites technical issues. Its great for providing a top line view of a websites architecture, perhaps for a new business approach where you need to assess the scale of work to maintain a website. Its also a useful tool in situations where you might need to see whether a large scale change in the website has taken place, you can see word counts, pages and their https response codes. Screaming Frog may be less useful if you need an idea of the customer experience on a website, it doesn't really provide information that helps assess how fast a website loads, what issues might come up when trying to convert or faults with the payment process. Screaming Frog is largely a technical SEO focused tool, it also can't assess the quality of a websites, layout or the quality of the content used on the website. As mentioned, its niche, but very useful within that niche.
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Pros
Ahrefs
  • 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.
Read full review
Screaming Frog
  • Crawling client sites of up to thousands of pages. Gives you almost every tool that you need to do a proper SEO audit.
  • Custom extractions using CSSpath, Xpath, or Regex. I'm not even a techy, but their support section here is a huge help with the provided examples.
  • Customer service and support - Dan is ALWAYS very prompt to respond with helpful answers on Twitter if needed.
Read full review
Cons
Ahrefs
  • 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.
Read full review
Screaming Frog
  • Requires Java. This isn't a huge deal as many computers already have it installed, but it's yet another 3rd party component.
  • The free version has a crawl limit of 500 pages per site. This is fine for smaller sites, but if you're running a big e-commerce site then you'll need to pay for Pro version.
  • The user interface isn't very pretty. This is an analytics tool so it doesn't really have to be, but it might be helpful for improving the overall user experience.
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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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Screaming Frog
The tool has become integrated into our teams daily workings and I have yet to find a tool other than scremaing frog to replicate all of our use cases for it. It's a great tool and we're sticking with it
Read full review
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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Screaming Frog
The main problem of Screaming Frog SEO Spider is it being an offline software which limits itself to a single pc and that creates problem when multi user agents want to get involved or even work on it, it’s a difficult task to collaborate on it and do research for keywords at one place
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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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Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a relatively primitive system, and doesn't need to be supported by devs or other software. Screaming Frog does interface directly with some programs that are most needed (Google Analytics, Search Console, Page Speed Insights), so that's convenient. It isn't widely supported by other programs, but it also doesn't need to be.
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Implementation Rating
Ahrefs
No answers on this topic
Screaming Frog
If the software was a little easier to use for beginners, there really wouldn't be an issue
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Alternatives Considered
Ahrefs
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.
Read full review
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is probably the best non-client facing SEO audit tool in terms of technical SEO. There are other tools on the market that do a more complete job of keyword tracking, competitive analysis, and backlink profiles...however, for analyzing the technical SEO health of any website, Screaming Frog is the best
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Return on Investment
Ahrefs
  • 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.
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Screaming Frog
  • Increased employee efficiency - We spend many less hours tracking down and reporting simple meta tags.
  • Better Client Servicing - We are able to ensure we have a total look at a client's site before we recommend anything.
  • True Pricing Structure - We are able to more accurately predict how much help a client may need based on factors such as size of site, number of redirects, proper use of meta tags, etc.
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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