Ahrefs vs. SE Ranking

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
SE Ranking
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
An SEO toolset for agency and in-house pros.
$55
per month
Pricing
AhrefsSE Ranking
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
ESSENTIAL
$55
per month
PRO
$109
per month
BUSINESS
$189
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsSE Ranking
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSE Ranking’s subscription plans come with generous data limits. They are also extremely flexible—users can pay for the exact amount of features and data they need. The platform’s variety of subscription options makes it easy for users to scale as their data needs grow.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsSE Ranking
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the oldest of the tools and its index is gigantic in comparison. It also distinguishes between live and historical links which is important for determening the current value of a website.

It lacks some of the onsite auditing tools which Serpstat Moz and even SE Ranking
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
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
After trying multiple premium and more affordable all-in-one SEO tools, alike, I'm confident that Ahrefs Site Explorer is the best value for the money with the most useful data for my SEO content projects.
SE Ranking
Chose SE Ranking
SE Ranking is better than Serpstat or MOZ or Ahrefs when it comes to tracking keyword rankings, but it lacks in every other SEO category, such as onsite and offsite SEO metrics, content analysis, etc...

It's a good choice for agencies that are interested in tracking keywords for …
Chose SE Ranking
Backlink checker seems to be far less thorough than Ahrefs. It's also less thorough than Screaming Frog. But we got it for rank tracking and it does as a decent job at that.
Chose SE Ranking
SE Ranking is way more budget-friendly and suitable for less demanded SEO projects.
Chose SE Ranking

The interface is much more friendly. The databases for the backlinks database seems to be bigger and more qualitative.


Chose SE Ranking
We chose SE Ranking because of the price as it was very affordable and also helped us cover our needs.
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
AhrefsSE Ranking
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Users of both Ahrefs and SE Ranking have noted their utility for content analysis and competitive research. Reviewers of Ahrefs often mention its ability to provide detailed backlink profiles and keyword tracking, which is helpful for understanding a site’s SEO performance. However, SE Ranking users speak highly of its comprehensive suite of SEO tools that goes beyond backlink analysis to include features like social media management and on-page checker.

 

While both products have proven to be useful for SEO professionals, each caters to different aspects of user needs in the realm of SEO. Ahrefs has been praised for its robust data and ease of use, particularly when managing multiple websites. On the other hand, SE Ranking customers appreciate its flexibility and affordability, making it a popular choice for small businesses and beginners starting out with SEO. They also value its keyword rank tracking feature, which allows for granular analysis of website performance.

 

In terms of technical SEO, reviewers remark on the sophisticated site audit tool that Ahrefs offers, which provides a deep dive into technical issues affecting a website’s SEO. In contrast, users of SE Ranking laud its user-friendly interface and the ability to gauge the overall health of a website through its website audit feature. However, they also appreciate the competitive research capabilities of both tools, with customers of SE Ranking noting its competitive analysis provides insights into a competitors’ SEO strategy.

Features
AhrefsSE Ranking
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.5
68 Ratings
9% above category average
SE Ranking
8.0
16 Ratings
3% above category average
Keyword analysis9.365 Ratings8.09 Ratings
Backlink management8.866 Ratings7.416 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.764 Ratings8.115 Ratings
Page grader8.259 Ratings7.811 Ratings
Competitive analysis8.666 Ratings8.115 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.761 Ratings8.116 Ratings
Site recommendations7.558 Ratings8.512 Ratings
Task management7.831 Ratings7.910 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.6
60 Ratings
12% above category average
SE Ranking
8.3
14 Ratings
9% above category average
Local SEO8.148 Ratings8.311 Ratings
Social SEO7.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile SEO8.745 Ratings8.312 Ratings
Global SEO9.454 Ratings8.313 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
SE Ranking
8.5
14 Ratings
1% above category average
Multi-domain support8.754 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.429 Ratings8.513 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsSE Ranking
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
AhrefsSE Ranking
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(73 ratings)
8.1
(16 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.3
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
7.3
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsSE Ranking
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
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a fantastic tool if you are a marketing agency or freelancer looking for a single tool for the majority of your SEO work. It also includes B2B tools like their lead generation widget and white label reports that can help you generate new leads for your business. It would get 10 stars if their database was larger to accommodate research for small geographic areas, but they are always expanding their database so it may just be a matter of time. Research SE Ranking has pricing plans available for every budget.
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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.
Read full review
SE Ranking
  • Rank racking. It’s really important for us that the ranks are tracked accurately.
  • Monitoring of changes made on the website. We’ve found this feature really useful.
  • Reports. This includes auto reports and manuals. We can easily and quickly create reports to check our SEO progress month by month.
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
SE Ranking
  • I really don't think SE Ranking has many flaws. They are also rolling out an app at the moment - SE Ranking Pro - need to test that one.
  • Some more video tutorials on the site on how to use some tools would be helpful.
  • More in-system popups would be more helpful too.
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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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SE Ranking
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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SE Ranking
They had a huge update recently and the platform is now even better. Although not all the tools are yet in the new design.
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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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SE Ranking
The support is great but they don't have 24/7 support. And time zones can also be an issue sometimes. On the other hand there are plenty of guides and videos around to get yourself started. I never really needed support for "big" issues. And the help I got was good enough.
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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
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is better than Serpstat or MOZ or Ahrefs when it comes to tracking keyword rankings, but it lacks in every other SEO category, such as onsite and offsite SEO metrics, content analysis, etc... It's a good choice for agencies that are interested in tracking keywords for their clients, but other than that it underperforms in every other SEO category.
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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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SE Ranking
  • The website "health" report has allowed us to fix things that Google might find strange or cause us to lose rankings, which has been very helpful.
  • It's given us more visibility into what exactly our SEO management company is doing and how they are performing, and if things are changing or not. It's very easy to see right from the dashboard.
  • Being able to see how our competitors stack up against us has helped us know where to improve, what to focus on, and how to be even better.
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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

SE Ranking Screenshots

Screenshot of SE Ranking main dashboardScreenshot of SE Ranking keyword researchScreenshot of SE Ranking website auditScreenshot of SERP CompetitorsScreenshot of Organic SERP HistoryScreenshot of Content tool