Ahrefs vs. Moz Link Explorer

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
Moz Link Explorer
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Link Explorer from Moz is a link building utility, replacing the former Open Site Explorer. Moz describes Link Explorer as a highly accurate link tool that lets users check the backlink profile and Domain Authority of any site. Moz was acquired by iContact in June, 2021.
$99
per month
Pricing
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Moz Pro
$99
per month
Moz Link Explorer
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
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
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
We found the user interface of Ahrefs slightly better than the rest. Also, the details involved in the outputs we more informative. For example, once an audit is done, the steps that are involved in fixing that issue are well explained in Ahrefs. Also, I found Ahrefs backlink …
Chose Ahrefs
Sadly we are coming [to] terms that even trough there are more and more options that Ahrefs has they are still incomplete or not working good enough. And the most important options (like frequent updates on rankings) are behind the most expensive membership.

Right now we mainly …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs has the best backlink data even compared to funded competitors. On top of that, their analysis and tutorials make it possible to get value easily. Monitoring your website, your competitors, and finding SEO opportunities is very easy and there are some sophisticated …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs has more features and more accurate data than its competitors. While both Moz and Majestic are great tools and can be used as complimentary to Ahrefs, if you have to choose one tool, definitely choose Ahrefs. It has the biggest database of links and better stats for …
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 …
Chose Ahrefs
Generally these two products offer the same features, but Ahrefs updates far faster meaning their metrics are more relevant.
Chose Ahrefs
This was our internals score based on a bunch of factors. These will obviously vary depending on need:
Ahrefs -93
Majestic - 87
Chose Ahrefs
Honestly, we use all three of them. The truth is that not one of them is perfect and we want a complete view of a client backlink profile. We really like ahrefs for the price point and the freshness of their index as mentioned earlier. Their interface is not as user friendly as …
Moz Link Explorer
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Ahrefs is much more comprehensive than Open Site Explorer. If you are in need of a deep backlink analysis there are better options out there for your money. If you need a quick look at the state of a client's backlink profile than OSE is for you. It will give you the top …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Ahrefs is an awesome tool and, I'd say, more in-depth than Open Site Explorer. It tends to give more detailed lists of inbound links. But, we use Open Site Explorer because we use other tools in Moz Pro. We track our domain authority (a Moz concept) and we use the MozBar to …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
I think Moz Link Explorer is a great add-on to the overall Moz tool, but compared to Ahrefs, it’s not as robust because Ahrefs' main focus is on the backlink profile. I like SEMRush’s function of being able to reach out to websites directly from the platform and track all of …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.4
68 Ratings
8% above category average
Moz Link Explorer
8.1
8 Ratings
4% above category average
Keyword analysis9.365 Ratings8.35 Ratings
Backlink management8.866 Ratings9.07 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.664 Ratings8.36 Ratings
Page grader8.159 Ratings7.55 Ratings
Competitive analysis8.566 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.761 Ratings8.56 Ratings
Site recommendations7.558 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Task management7.831 Ratings5.96 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.5
60 Ratings
11% above category average
Moz Link Explorer
7.4
7 Ratings
3% below category average
Local SEO8.148 Ratings8.36 Ratings
Social SEO7.946 Ratings7.55 Ratings
Mobile SEO8.745 Ratings7.55 Ratings
Global SEO9.454 Ratings6.54 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
Moz Link Explorer
7.2
5 Ratings
16% below category average
Multi-domain support8.754 Ratings5.55 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.429 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
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
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(73 ratings)
8.0
(9 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
7.6
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsMoz Link Explorer
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
iContact
It is helpful if you are trying to understand where a site stands in terms of the links coming to it from different websites. It is less helpful in terms of providing specific actions or steps to take to get more links. However, it is a part of a larger Moz package so other areas provide information that can help there.
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
iContact
  • Moz Link Explorer has a straightforward and easy to use interface. It’s very simple to navigate and understand the data.
  • The anchor text tool gives you an idea of the most widely used anchor texts other websites use when linking to your site. It can raise a red flag when too many sites are linking to you using exact match keyword anchor texts.
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
iContact
  • You need to subscribe to Moz Pro to get all features, which is pricey if you aren’t using the tool regularly.
  • I’ve found that competitor tools give larger lists of inbound links.
  • You’ll need some understanding of how SEO works to maximize the tool. Would non-SEO specialists understand the difference between domain authority and page authority, or the difference between follow back, and non-follow backlinks? Moz offers lots of training resources, but it takes time to learn what you need.
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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
Read full review
iContact
No renewal is necessary with the free version!
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.
Read full review
iContact
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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iContact
I put a middling score here because of the difference in support between the free and premium uses. The Free tool was a great service, but there wasn't much support. It was tool that was intended to have a skilled SEO utilize it and save time. The Premium version has great support, but also offered more information so that skilled SEOs and novices alike could benefit from the tool.
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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
iContact
Ahrefs is much more comprehensive than Open Site Explorer. If you are in need of a deep backlink analysis there are better options out there for your money. If you need a quick look at the state of a client's backlink profile than OSE is for you. It will give you the top metrics you are looking for and then some. I find OSE to be more user-friendly than competitors
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
iContact
  • This has allowed me to bring more traffic to our website.
  • This has increased our clients.
  • This has increased our Domain Authority over 10.
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