Ahrefs vs Otterly.ai
Ahrefs is a backlink and SEO suite; Otterly.ai is a AI-visibility tracker. Below they are compared row by row on the thirteen things buyers in this category actually ask about — with SERP Checker in the third column, because the honest answer to “which of these two” is sometimes “neither”.
Quick answer
Start with Ahrefs if…
Backlinks are the job: Ahrefs’ index is the reason to buy it and nothing here replaces that.
Start with Otterly.ai if…
You want the cheapest way to start tracking AI-search visibility ($29/mo).
At a glance
| Ahrefs | Otterly.ai | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €119/mo Lite (€27/mo Starter); free tier available | $29/mo (15 prompts, 4 engines) | From $19/mo — 7-day trial + free one-off audit at /audit |
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes — 750 tracked keywords on Lite, 2,000 on Standard, 5,000 on Advanced | No (AEO only) | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Yes — Brand Radar, from the Lite plan | Yes (core product) | Yes — same workspace, every paid plan from $19/mo |
| AI engines tracked | Brand Radar AI surfaces; tracked AI prompts capped at 5 (Lite), 10 (Standard), 20 (Advanced), custom prompts are paid add-ons from €46.7/mo | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot bundled; Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are paid add-ons | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews — all 6 in the AEO module, no per-engine add-on |
| Multi-client agency workspace | 5 projects on Lite, 20 on Standard, 50 on Advanced; extra seats €37.4–€74.8/mo each | Yes (agency partner programme) | Yes — 1 client on the $19 Monitor or $39 AI Visibility tier, 3 on Starter, 15 on Pro, 50 on Business |
| MCP server (AI-agent native) | Yes — official remote server (100+ tools), Lite plan and up | Yes — read-only, Standard tier and up, request-capped | Yes — queried with a REST API key, so Business tier |
Where the two actually differ
1 of the 13 compared rows come out differently for these two tools. The rest they answer the same way, so they will not decide anything for you.
| Ahrefs | Otterly.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes — 750 tracked keywords on Lite, 2,000 on Standard, 5,000 on Advanced | No (AEO only) |
Full comparison
| Feature | Ahrefs | Otterly.ai | SERP Checker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes — 750 tracked keywords on Lite, 2,000 on Standard, 5,000 on Advanced | No (AEO only) | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Yes — Brand Radar, from the Lite plan | Yes (core product) | Yes — same workspace, every paid plan from $19/mo |
| AI engines tracked | Brand Radar AI surfaces; tracked AI prompts capped at 5 (Lite), 10 (Standard), 20 (Advanced), custom prompts are paid add-ons from €46.7/mo | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot bundled; Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are paid add-ons | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews — all 6 in the AEO module, no per-engine add-on |
| Technical SEO audit | Yes (Site Audit) | Content/GEO audit + crawlability checker; AI-crawler Agent Analytics in closed beta | Yes — every plan |
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented on the pricing page | Agent Analytics — closed early access, event-metered (200k–1M/mo on higher tiers) | Yes — access-log ingest via the REST API, so Business tier; per-bot hits, crawled paths and refusals |
| Competitor gap analysis | Yes | AI share-of-voice only | Yes — every plan |
| GA4 + Search Console analytics | Yes (Search Console and GA integrations) | CSV exports + Looker Studio connector | Yes — verified first-party GA4/GSC data from the Pro tier ($158/mo); CSV/JSON export plus a Looker Studio connector (source in integrations/, one-time deploy to your own Google account) |
| White-label client reports | Not documented on the pricing page | Higher tiers | Yes (Business tier) |
| Interface languages | English-only interface | 65+ countries, any language (interface English only) | EN / RU / UK / PL / SK / CS / DE (tracks any region) |
| REST API | Standard and Advanced plans; uncapped on Enterprise | Standard tier and up (2,000–5,000 requests/mo) | Yes (Business tier) |
| MCP server (AI-agent native) | Yes — official remote server (100+ tools), Lite plan and up | Yes — read-only, Standard tier and up, request-capped | Yes — queried with a REST API key, so Business tier |
| Multi-client agency workspace | 5 projects on Lite, 20 on Standard, 50 on Advanced; extra seats €37.4–€74.8/mo each | Yes (agency partner programme) | Yes — 1 client on the $19 Monitor or $39 AI Visibility tier, 3 on Starter, 15 on Pro, 50 on Business |
| Entry price | €119/mo Lite (€27/mo Starter); free tier available | $29/mo (15 prompts, 4 engines) | From $19/mo — 7-day trial + free one-off audit at /audit |
Pricing
Ahrefs
Ahrefs publishes Starter at €27/mo, Lite at €119/mo, Standard at €229/mo, Advanced at €419/mo and Enterprise at €1,394/mo on an annual commitment, with up to 17% off annual billing. Brand Radar is included from Lite but tracks only 5–20 AI prompts; more are add-ons from €46.7/mo, and Brand Radar AI is a separate product from €179/mo. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo with AI visibility included. See /pricing.
Otterly.ai
Otterly.ai's $29/mo tier is the cheapest AEO entry point in the category, but it covers 15 prompts on four engines and does no Google rank tracking; Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are paid add-ons, and serious use jumps to $189/mo. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo with six engines and Google rank tracking in the same plan. See /pricing.
What neither of them does
Derived from the same two columns above: rows where SERP Checker ships the capability outright and neither Ahrefs nor Otterly.ai does. Both of their recorded values are printed so you can check the claim.
| Ahrefs | Otterly.ai | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented on the pricing page | Agent Analytics — closed early access, event-metered (200k–1M/mo on higher tiers) | Yes — access-log ingest via the REST API, so Business tier; per-bot hits, crawled paths and refusals |
| White-label client reports | Not documented on the pricing page | Higher tiers | Yes (Business tier) |
| REST API | Standard and Advanced plans; uncapped on Enterprise | Standard tier and up (2,000–5,000 requests/mo) | Yes (Business tier) |
FAQ
Is Ahrefs or Otterly.ai cheaper?
Ahrefs does not publish self-serve pricing (€119/mo Lite (€27/mo Starter); free tier available), so the two cannot be compared on a public number. Otterly.ai publishes $29/mo (15 prompts, 4 engines). SERP Checker publishes its pricing from $39/mo.
Do Ahrefs and Otterly.ai both track AI answers?
Ahrefs: Yes — Brand Radar, from the Lite plan Engines: Brand Radar AI surfaces; tracked AI prompts capped at 5 (Lite), 10 (Standard), 20 (Advanced), custom prompts are paid add-ons from €46.7/mo. Otterly.ai: Yes (core product) Engines: ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot bundled; Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are paid add-ons. SERP Checker tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews in the same workspace as Google rankings.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Ahrefs for AI visibility?
Yes. Ahrefs includes Brand Radar from €119/mo Lite but caps it at 5 tracked AI prompts, with more sold as add-ons from €46.7/mo. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo and does not meter prompts per engine.
Does Otterly.ai track Google keyword rankings?
No — Otterly.ai is AI-search monitoring only. SERP Checker tracks both AI-visibility and classic Google rankings, plus technical audits and analytics, in one workspace.
Related comparisons
AccuRanker vs Ahrefs · AccuRanker vs Otterly.ai · Ahrefs vs AthenaHQ · Ahrefs vs BeVisible · Ahrefs vs Mangools · Ahrefs vs Nightwatch
Ahrefs review · Otterly.ai review
See all 91 comparisons · All tool reviews · All alternatives · Free tools
Or track Google and AI search in one tool
Rank tracking, AI-answer visibility across six engines, technical audits, AI-crawler analytics and white-label reports — from $39/mo, published pricing, free audit first.
Run the free auditSources
https://ahrefs.com · https://otterly.ai
Competitor pricing and features are taken from their public pages as of July 2026 and may change — verify on their site before deciding. Where a vendor's docs were unclear we say so rather than guess. Every value in the tables above is a figure recorded from the vendor's own public pages, not an estimate. Product and company names are the trademarks of their respective owners.