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Ahrefs vs. SEMrush: Which SEO Tool is Right for You?

by Jaume Ros

So, as you can imagine, in this blog post, we’re going to start off with the price. We’re taking a look at Ahrefs and SEMrush here.

Pricing Overview

  1. Ahrefs: Starting at $120 a month (around 120 euros).
  2. SEMrush: Starting at $139 a month (approximately 134-135 euros).

The base plan for both of these tools is super expensive, and we’re going to dive into what all that means. To compare the value we’re getting with both of these tools, I’ll be comparing all the different tools inside of Ahrefs and SEMrush against the tool that I built, Clicks.so, which starts at $25 a month. That’s a sixth of the price of these other very popular, very expensive tools.

Value for Money

Now, how far does this pricing of $130 a month for either of these tools go? First, let’s break it down:

  1. Ahrefs: 500 credits per user. This whole credit thing has been quite famous in the SEO world. Famously, you click on anything, you accidentally update a report, apply a filter, and you lose a credit. People are running out of credits super quickly, to the point that there are even memes out there.

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"Y'all got any more of them credits?"

In comparison, SEMrush has a more lenient credit system. I’ve actually never run out of credits or hit any type of limit, so on that front, in terms of what you get for the price, SEMrush probably takes the lead here.

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Core Features of SEO Tools

Let’s talk about the four core features that we like to see inside of an SEO tool:

  1. Keyword Research
  2. Site Analytics (Competitor Analysis)
  3. Backlink Analytics
  4. Site Audits

These are the four main things that you need to run an SEO campaign, whether for yourself, for your client, or for anyone else.

Data Comparison

Now, let’s start off by taking a look at their data because SEMrush claims that they have 25 billion keywords in their database, 808 million domains, and 43 trillion backlinks. So, in theory, the more data we have, the better decisions we can make with that data. If we’re paying all that money every month, we better have as much data as possible.

In comparison, Ahrefs has:

  1. 28.7 billion keywords
  2. 35 trillion backlinks

These numbers are absolutely massive, and they’re more than enough for 99% of websites and SEO use cases. So, not much that we have to worry about.

Feature Breakdown

Keyword Research

Let’s take a look at what keyword research looks like inside of Ahrefs.

  1. We have the search volume, keyword difficulty, traffic potential, global search volume, and related keywords.
  2. SEMrush doesn’t have the fluctuations of the results inside of the SERP, which I think is super cool.

In Ahrefs, we can see if someone just shoots up randomly, and we want to know exactly what they’re doing and why they’ve shot up.

Ahrefs vs. SEMrush Keyword Research

Here’s how SEMrush stacks up:

  1. Similar interface with volume, keyword difficulty, and related keywords.
  2. Clicks on keywords to get a quick overview without diving deep into another keyword.

Now, if we compare this to Clicks.so, we have pretty similar reports for a sixth of the price.

  1. Clicks.so:
  2. Volume: 8.1
  3. Difficulty, average CPC, historical volume, related keywords, and a live SERP overview.

What we really care about is the quality of the keyword ideas and how in-depth those ideas are.

Competitor Analysis

Moving on to competitor analysis or site analytics, you get a nice overview with a lot of different reports.

  1. Ahrefs:
  2. 880,000 in monthly organic traffic.
  3. SEMrush:
  4. 1.2 million monthly organic traffic.
  5. Clicks.so:
  6. 2 million in monthly traffic.

As we can see, all these tools provide estimates based on the keywords they’re ranking for.

In terms of keywords:

  1. Ahrefs: 150,000
  2. SEMrush: 250,000
  3. Clicks.so: 130,000

Clicks seems to have slightly fewer keywords than Ahrefs for this specific website.

Backlink Analytics

Now, let’s take a look at the backlink side of things.

  1. Ahrefs: Domain rating of 71.
  2. SEMrush: Authority score of 55.
  3. Clicks.so: Domain power of 36.

The actual referring domains and number of backlinks are decently similar:

  1. Ahrefs:
  2. 6.2k referring domains, 47k backlinks.
  3. SEMrush:
  4. 20k referring domains, 180k backlinks.
  5. Clicks.so:
  6. 16k referring domains, 60k backlinks.

Site Audits

Site audits are essential when you’re doing any type of SEO strategy.

  1. Clicks.so:
  2. Provides a comprehensive view of errors, warnings, and specific URLs that need attention. For example, pages missing an H1 tag.
  3. SEMrush:
  4. Offers an in-depth site audit with detailed information on issues like 404 errors.
  5. Ahrefs:
  6. Has a very detailed audit with external redirects and subtitle changes, which is interesting for website health checks.

Additional Tools

Lastly, let’s discuss the extra tools you get when using these platforms.

  1. Ahrefs: Has content explorers, but many features are hidden behind additional pricing, which can be frustrating.
  2. SEMrush: Offers a vast array of tools including local SEO, advertising, and social media marketing.

Conclusion: Which Tool Should You Choose?

Overall, here’s the breakdown:

  1. If you don’t care about credits and are willing to pay a bit more, I would recommend Ahrefs for the highest quality data.
  2. If you’re focused on SEO and want to incorporate other types of marketing, SEMrush is a great option, especially for $140 a month.
  3. However, if you’re starting out and want to try SEO without a heavy investment, then Clicks.so is the way to go. You can get started for just $25 a month and have access to the four main core functions that you get with the larger tools.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll see you in the next one!

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