Ahrefs' entry plan now costs $129 a month if you pay annually, and $249 or $449 a month if you want the Standard or Advanced tier. That is a jump from the roughly $99 entry price older reviews still quote, and it is the reason "cheaper alternative to ahrefs" gets searched every day. If your budget is the whole problem, and not the data quality or the interface, there are real tools that cost a third of that and still cover 90% of what most people actually use Ahrefs for.
This is not another 17-tool megalist. It is seven tools worth your time if price is the deciding factor, what each one actually costs today, what you give up at that price, and a short answer for which one fits your specific situation.
Why Ahrefs Got More Expensive to Replace
Before the list: Ahrefs' current plans, verified on its live pricing page, are Lite at $129/mo, Standard at $249/mo, Advanced at $449/mo, and Enterprise at $1,499/mo (all billed annually; monthly billing costs more). There is also a lighter "Starter" tool at $29/mo that covers keyword research only, and a free "Ahrefs Free" tier with limited Site Explorer and Site Audit access.
That $129 floor is the number that matters here. If your team needs the full toolkit, backlinks, keyword research, rank tracking, and site audits, in one login, $129/mo is your baseline to beat. Every tool below is compared against that baseline, not the outdated $99 figure still floating around older comparison posts.
The 7 Cheaper Ahrefs Alternatives, Ranked by What You Actually Need
<mark class="km-highlight" style="--hl:#FEF08A;background:#FEF08A">The right cheaper alternative depends on which slice of Ahrefs you actually use</mark>, not on which tool has the longest feature list. Here is the honest breakdown.
1. SpyFu ($39/mo) — best if you mainly do keyword and competitor research
SpyFu's Basic plan is $39/month, less than a third of Ahrefs Lite. You get 10,000-row search results and exports, one live site-tracking project, 10+ years of historical data, and 5,000 weekly tracked keyword rankings. Its standout feature is competitive PPC and organic history: SpyFu shows a competitor's ad copy and keyword history going back years, which Ahrefs does not do at this depth. The trade-off is scale: 10,000 rows is a real ceiling once you are auditing large sites, and its backlink index is thinner than Ahrefs'.
Best for: solo marketers and small agencies whose main job is "what is my competitor ranking for and running ads on," not deep backlink audits.
2. Mangools ($30-37/mo) — best for beginners who find Ahrefs overwhelming
Mangools bundles keyword research (KWFinder), SERP analysis, rank tracking, and backlink data (LinkMiner) into one of the simplest interfaces in the category, at roughly a quarter of Ahrefs' entry price. The interface is the actual selling point here: Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer buries useful metrics in dense tables, while Mangools surfaces the same core numbers (search volume, keyword difficulty, SERP position) with almost no learning curve. The honest trade-off is database size. Mangools' keyword and link indexes are smaller than Ahrefs', so for aggressive competitive link research on a large site it will feel thin.
Best for: solo bloggers, small business owners, and anyone doing their first real keyword research who does not want a week of onboarding before the tool makes sense.
3. Ubersuggest ($12/mo) — best rock-bottom budget pick
Built by Neil Patel, Ubersuggest starts around $12/month, less than a tenth of Ahrefs Lite, and it has a genuinely useful free tier: basic keyword ideas and site audit checks with no card required. At $12/mo you get keyword suggestions, content ideas, and basic rank tracking. It will not replace Ahrefs for competitive research at scale (the backlink index is limited and update frequency is lower), but for someone just starting to take SEO seriously, it is hard to beat on price.
Best for: hobby sites, side projects, and anyone testing whether SEO tooling is worth paying for at all before committing to more.
4. SE Ranking ($129/mo Essential, but check the lower per-project tiers) — best all-in-one replacement
SE Ranking positions itself as a connected visibility platform, organic search, AI visibility tracking, site audit, and rank tracking in one ecosystem, and its Essential plan runs around $129/mo, matching Ahrefs Lite dollar-for-dollar but with white-label reporting and a 14-day free trial built in, both of which Ahrefs Lite lacks. Where SE Ranking is actually cheaper than Ahrefs is at lower usage tiers and on AI-search visibility tracking (showing up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews), a category most legacy tools including Ahrefs are still catching up on.
Best for: agencies that want white-label client reports and AI-visibility tracking without paying Ahrefs Standard or Advanced pricing to get them.
5. Moz Pro (from $49/mo) — best for a simpler learning curve at scale
Moz was one of the original SEO suites, and its Standard tier starts around $49/month, well under half of Ahrefs Lite, with a 30-day free trial (longer than most competitors offer). It still holds up for keyword research and site audits, and its long-standing Domain Authority metric remains widely recognized even outside SEO circles. The real trade-off: Moz's keyword and link index is smaller than Ahrefs', so link research depth is genuinely thinner.
Best for: small-to-mid sites that want an established, simpler-to-learn suite and do not need Ahrefs-level backlink depth.
6. Majestic (from $49.99/mo) — best if backlinks are 90% of your Ahrefs usage
Majestic does one thing, backlink analysis, and does it well, at less than half of Ahrefs Lite's price. It skips keyword research, rank tracking, and content tools entirely, so it is a specialist you pair with something else, not a full replacement. Its Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics are still widely cited in the link-building world specifically because Majestic has focused on nothing else for over a decade.
Best for: link builders and digital PR teams whose Ahrefs usage is almost entirely Site Explorer's backlink tab.
7. Google Search Console + a free crawler — best if your budget is genuinely $0
Google Search Console is free and gives you your own actual ranking, impression, and click data straight from Google, which is more reliable than any third-party estimate. Pair it with Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs crawled) for technical site audits, and you cover real ranking data plus technical health for zero dollars. What you lose entirely: competitor backlink data, competitor keyword research, and any rank tracking for keywords you do not already rank for.
Best for: anyone auditing only their own site, not researching competitors, who does not need a paid tool at all yet.
Cheaper Ahrefs Alternatives Compared
| Tool | Starting Price | What You Keep | What You Give Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| SpyFu | $39/mo | Competitor PPC + organic history, keyword research | Row limits, thinner backlink index |
| Mangools | $30-37/mo | Simple interface, keyword + SERP + backlink basics | Smaller keyword/link database |
| Ubersuggest | $12/mo | Keyword ideas, basic audits, free tier | Limited backlink depth, slower updates |
| SE Ranking | ~$129/mo (lower tiers cheaper) | White-label reports, AI-visibility tracking | Price parity with Ahrefs at top tier |
| Moz Pro | $49/mo | Simpler UI, Domain Authority metric | Smaller index than Ahrefs |
| Majestic | $49.99/mo | Deep backlink specialization (Trust Flow) | No keyword research or rank tracking |
| GSC + Screaming Frog | Free | Real ranking data, technical crawls | No competitor data at all |
The Question None of These Answer: What Happens After the Data?
Here is the part that a pure price comparison misses. Every tool above, Ahrefs included, does the same job: it tells you something is wrong. A page dropped in rankings. A competitor outranks you for a keyword. A backlink disappeared. None of them do anything about it. You still export the data, write a ticket, brief a writer, rewrite the page, and manually publish the fix, then hope someone remembers to check if it worked.
That gap, detection without action, is what Murkuz is built to close. Instead of stopping at a report, Murkuz auto-detects declining pages and content decay straight from your Google Search Console data every morning, generates a contextual task with the recommended fix already attached, uses AI grounded in your own brand voice to draft the rewrite, and pushes it live to WordPress, Webflow, or Framer with one click. Then it tracks the ranking recovery and attributes it to the specific fix, not a vague traffic chart. If price is genuinely your constraint, Murkuz's Starter plan comes in under Ahrefs Lite's current $129/mo (see pricing), and it does not stop at telling you what is wrong.
That does not make Ahrefs or the tools above bad choices. If deep backlink research or a massive keyword database is your actual job, several of the tools above (or Ahrefs itself) still do that specific thing better than a detect-and-fix platform will. But if what you actually want out of "an Ahrefs alternative" is to spend less time exporting spreadsheets and more time seeing pages recover, that is a different question than "which tool is cheapest," and worth asking before you commit a year of billing to any one option.
How to Pick Without Overthinking It
Match the tool to the one thing you actually do most often in Ahrefs:
- Mostly keyword research? Start with Ubersuggest ($12/mo) or Mangools ($30-37/mo) depending on how much you want a bigger keyword database.
- Mostly competitor and PPC research? SpyFu ($39/mo) is built around exactly that.
- Mostly backlink audits and link building? Majestic ($49.99/mo) alone, paired with a free crawler, covers it.
- Mostly agency client reporting? SE Ranking's white-label options are worth the price parity with Ahrefs.
- Mostly your own site's technical health and rankings? Google Search Console plus Screaming Frog costs nothing and gives you the most accurate data available, since it comes directly from Google.
- Want the tedious follow-through handled too? That is the one job none of the above do, and it is worth checking Murkuz's workflow if manually acting on reports is the actual bottleneck, not the reports themselves.
Whichever you pick, do not buy a year up front on your first month. Every tool on this list, including Murkuz, offers a trial or low-cost entry point specifically so you can confirm it covers your real workflow before you commit to annual billing.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Ahrefs?
Google Search Console is the most reliable free option for your own site's data, and Screaming Frog covers technical audits for free up to 500 URLs. Ubersuggest also has a genuinely usable free tier for basic keyword ideas. None of these give you competitor backlink data at Ahrefs' depth for free.
What is the most affordable SEO tool that still does real keyword research?
Ubersuggest, at roughly $12/month, is the cheapest paid option that covers keyword research, content ideas, and basic site audits in one place.
Can I use Ahrefs for free?
Yes, in a limited way. Ahrefs Free gives you restricted access to Site Explorer and Site Audit for your own verified site, and Ahrefs Starter (a lighter keyword-focused tool) runs $29/month if you need slightly more without the full Lite plan.
Who are Ahrefs' main competitors?
Semrush and SE Ranking are the closest like-for-like alternatives in scope and price tier. Moz, Majestic, Mangools, SpyFu, and Ubersuggest compete on specific slices (keyword research, backlinks, or budget) rather than matching Ahrefs feature-for-feature.
Why did Ahrefs get more expensive?
Ahrefs' current published pricing (Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, all billed annually) reflects added categories like AI visibility and Brand Radar tracking layered onto the original SEO toolkit. Older reviews citing a roughly $99 entry price are describing a previous pricing structure.
Junaid Khalid is the founder of Ertiqah and the builder of Murkuz. He has run SEO as the first growth channel across his own SaaS products, which is the reason Murkuz is built to fix ranking drops, not just report them.
