Ahrefs vs Semrush
Ahrefs is a backlink and SEO suite; Semrush is a all-in-one marketing suite. 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 Semrush if…
You want one vendor for SEO, PPC, content, social and market research, and the budget matches.
At a glance
| Ahrefs | Semrush | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €119/mo Lite (€27/mo Starter); free tier available | $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project | 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 | Yes — 500 keywords daily on SEO/Starter, 1,500 on Pro+, 5,000 on Advanced | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Yes — Brand Radar, from the Lite plan | Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan | 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 | Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced | 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 — 5 sites on SEO/Starter, 15 on Pro+, 40 on Advanced | 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 — official remote server, OAuth or API key, listed in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity | 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 | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | Standard and Advanced plans; uncapped on Enterprise | Yes (Standard and Trends APIs) |
Full comparison
| Feature | Ahrefs | Semrush | SERP Checker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Google rank tracking | Yes — 750 tracked keywords on Lite, 2,000 on Standard, 5,000 on Advanced | Yes — 500 keywords daily on SEO/Starter, 1,500 on Pro+, 5,000 on Advanced | Yes — every plan |
| AI-visibility (AEO) in the same workspace | Yes — Brand Radar, from the Lite plan | Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan | 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 | Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced | 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) | Yes | Yes — every plan |
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented on the pricing page | Not documented on the pricing page | Yes — access-log ingest via the REST API, so Business tier; per-bot hits, crawled paths and refusals |
| Competitor gap analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes — every plan |
| GA4 + Search Console analytics | Yes (Search Console and GA integrations) | Yes (GA4 and Search Console integrations) | 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 / add-on | Yes (Business tier) |
| Interface languages | English-only interface | Multi-language interface (no Ukrainian UI) | EN / RU / UK / PL / SK / CS / DE (tracks any region) |
| REST API | Standard and Advanced plans; uncapped on Enterprise | Yes (Standard and Trends APIs) | Yes (Business tier) |
| MCP server (AI-agent native) | Yes — official remote server (100+ tools), Lite plan and up | Yes — official remote server, OAuth or API key, listed in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity | 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 — 5 sites on SEO/Starter, 15 on Pro+, 40 on Advanced | 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 | $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project | 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.
Semrush
Semrush publishes five tiers: Free, SEO at $139/mo ($117.33 annually), Starter at $199 ($165.17), Pro+ at $299 ($248.17) and Advanced at $549 ($455.67), with a seven-day trial and additional users from $45/mo. AI visibility is included on every paid plan at 50–200 prompts a day. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo. 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 Semrush does. Both of their recorded values are printed so you can check the claim.
| Ahrefs | Semrush | SERP Checker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-crawler log analytics | Not documented on the pricing page | Not documented on the pricing page | 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 / add-on | Yes (Business tier) |
FAQ
Is Ahrefs or Semrush 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. Semrush publishes $139/mo billed monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually); free plan with one demo project. SERP Checker publishes its pricing from $39/mo.
Do Ahrefs and Semrush 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. Semrush: Yes — AI visibility included on every paid plan Engines: Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini “and more”; 50 prompts/day on SEO and Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced. 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.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Semrush?
Yes. Semrush starts at $139/mo billed monthly. SERP Checker starts at $39/mo and covers the two jobs most teams actually buy a suite for: daily Google rank tracking and AI-answer visibility.
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Ahrefs review · Semrush review
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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.