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You’re facing a big decision: choosing the right SEO and marketing tool.
Ahrefs and SE Ranking are both powerful options, but which one truly fits your needs?
It’s tough to decide when both promise to boost rankings, improve website optimization, and streamline your SEO efforts.
Many marketers, agencies, and business owners struggle with this exact choice.
You need a platform that makes SEO easier, not one that adds unnecessary complexity.
In this article, we’ll compare Ahrefs vs SE Ranking side by side.
By the end, you’ll know which platform is the right fit for your growth strategy.
Ready to make a smart choice for your business? Let’s dive in.
Overview SE Ranking vs Ahrefs
We reviewed Ahrefs and SE Ranking based on their features, usability, and pricing.
This helped us see which one works best for SEO professionals, agencies, and content creators.
What is Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the most powerful and widely recognized all in one SEO platforms, trusted by marketers, agencies, content creators, and businesses of all sizes across the globe. At its core, Ahrefs is designed to help users improve search visibility, grow organic traffic, and make smarter content and marketing decisions.
The platform stands out for its industry-leading backlink database, advanced keyword research capabilities, and detailed competitive insights. With Ahrefs, you can track keyword rankings, run site audits, analyze competitors, uncover content gaps, and discover link-building opportunities all from a single dashboard.
What makes Ahrefs especially popular is its accuracy and scale of data. The tool crawls the web almost as actively as Google, giving SEO professionals reliable insights into backlinks, content performance, and keyword opportunities. Because of this, Ahrefs is considered an industry benchmark for serious SEO work, often used to shape strategies for both small websites and enterprise-level projects.
Key Features of Ahrefs
Site Explorer Get in-depth insights into any website’s performance. Analyze organic traffic, uncover the exact keywords a site ranks for, review paid search campaigns, and dive deep into backlink profiles to understand how competitors are building authority.
Keywords Explorer Access millions of keyword ideas with accurate search volume, keyword difficulty, clicks data, and advanced metrics. It supports multiple search engines, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Bing, making it versatile for different content strategies.
Site Audit Perform a comprehensive technical SEO audit to identify on page and structural issues like broken links, slow-loading pages, or crawlability problems. Ahrefs gives actionable recommendations to improve site health and overall performance.
Rank Tracker Monitor your keyword positions across different countries, devices, and search engines. Track progress over time, measure visibility against competitors, and receive detailed reports to guide optimization strategies.
Content Explorer Discover the most shared, linked, and high performing content in any niche. Use it to find trending topics, analyze what works in your industry, and generate ideas for content marketing and outreach campaigns.
Backlink Analysis Leverage one of the world’s largest and most up-to-date backlink databases. Identify referring domains, analyze anchor texts, track lost and new links, and uncover link-building opportunities to strengthen authority.
Competitive Research Compare multiple domains side by side to spot content gaps, keyword opportunities, and backlink strategies. This helps you understand competitor strengths and weaknesses while refining your own SEO campaigns.
Pricing for Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers four main subscription plans, each designed for different types of users. The Lite plan, starting at around $99 per month or $83 per month when billed annually (about $990 per year), is best suited for small businesses and solo site owners who need access to core SEO tools.
The Standard plan is priced at about $199 per month, or $166 per month on the annual plan (roughly $1,990 per year). It’s a popular choice for freelance SEOs and consultants who require more data, additional projects, and broader keyword tracking capabilities.
For larger teams, the Advanced plan costs around $399 per month, or $333 per month when billed annually (about $3,990 per year). This plan is ideal for in-house marketing teams or agencies that manage multiple websites and need more historical data along with higher usage limits.
At the top tier, the Enterprise plan is priced at approximately $999 per month, or $833 per month on the annual plan (around $9,990 per year). It is designed for large enterprises or agencies with extensive SEO requirements, offering maximum data capacity, project limits, and customization options.
Pros
Cons
What is SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an all-in-one cloud-based SEO platform that helps businesses, marketers, and agencies improve their online visibility. It offers tools for keyword rank tracking, website audits, backlink monitoring, competitor analysis, and on-page SEO checks. With SE Ranking, users can monitor keyword performance across search engines and locations, identify technical issues affecting their websites, and gain insights into competitors’ strategies.
The platform also provides detailed reporting features, making it especially useful for agencies managing multiple clients. In short, SE Ranking combines essential SEO functions into one platform, making it easier to plan, execute, and track digital marketing strategies.
Key Features
SE Ranking stands out as a complete SEO toolkit designed to simplify optimization for businesses and agencies. Its key features include accurate keyword rank tracking, in-depth website audits, backlink monitoring, competitor analysis, and customizable SEO reports. Together, these tools make it easier to improve search visibility and manage SEO campaigns effectively.
Rank Tracking Daily updates with desktop and mobile data across multiple search engines.
Keyword Research Access to billions of keywords with search volume, difficulty, CPC, and intent analysis.
Competitor Analysis Insights into competitor traffic, keywords (organic and paid), and backlink gaps.
Backlink Monitoring Track new and lost links, anchor text, do-follow ratio, and domain authority.
Website Audit Scan hundreds or thousands of pages for technical SEO issues, Core Web Vitals, and duplicate content.
On-Page SEO Checker Compare your page against top-ranking competitors and get actionable improvement suggestions.
Content Marketing Tools AI content writing, idea generation, topic planning, and plagiarism checks (Pro plan and above).
Keyword Grouper Clusters related keywords to avoid cannibalization and improve content strategy.
Custom Reports & Integrations White-label reports, Looker Studio connection, API access, and unlimited users on higher plans.
Pricing for SE Ranking
Essential Plan – $55/month ( $44/month if billed annually)
Includes: 1 manager seat, 5 projects, 500 keywords tracked daily, rank tracking, site audit, keyword & competitor research.
Pro Plan – from $95/month ($76/month if billed annually)
Includes: 3 manager seats, ~30 projects (varies by sub-tier), ~2,000 keywords tracked daily, API access, expanded data limits.
Business Plan – from $207/month ($167/month if billed annually)
Includes: 5 manager seats, unlimited projects, ~5,000 keywords tracked daily, historical data, dedicated support (larger sub-tiers available).
API-Only – $109/month ($87/month if billed annually)
Includes: direct access to SE Ranking data APIs (keywords, backlinks, SERP, audits).
Select Add-ons (examples)
AI Search from $69/month; Content Marketing from £28/month; Local Marketing from £8/month; Agency Pack $40/month (annual only).
Free trial available — try before you buy.
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison: SE Ranking vs Ahrefs
Choosing between SE Ranking and Ahrefs isn’t easy. Both tools are powerful, widely trusted, and designed to boost search visibility, improve website SEO, and streamline digital marketing workflows.
In this feature comparison, we’ll break down their capabilities, usability, and value, and also highlight where other tools fit into the picture. By the end, you’ll know which platform makes the most sense for your SEO strategy.
Keyword Research
SE Ranking: Provides detailed keyword research, including search volume, keyword difficulty, traffic forecasts, and competitor keyword insights. It’s great for agencies that need reliable rank tracking across multiple search engines and locations.
Ahrefs: Known for one of the largest keyword databases in the SEO industry. It not only provides search volume and difficulty but also offers click metrics, so you know how often people click search results. Ahrefs is considered on par with SEMrush for keyword depth.
Tools like SurferSEO and SnowSEO also support keyword clustering and AI-driven content optimization, but they don’t match Ahrefs’ scale of keyword data.
Content Optimization & On-Page SEO
SE Ranking: Offers on-page SEO audits, technical checks, and optimization suggestions. It integrates with Google tools to refine site content and ensure it’s search engine friendly.
Ahrefs: Strong in content gap analysis showing keywords competitors rank for but you don’t. However, it doesn’t provide native AI writing or direct on-page editing.
For pure on-page optimization, Tools like SEOPress (WordPress plugin) and SEOmatic (popular with developers) are better choices. Tools like SurferSEO or InLinks take it further by blending AI-driven content scoring with semantic SEO.
Backlink & Competitor Analysis
SE Ranking: Provides backlink monitoring, including new lost links, anchor text analysis, and basic competitor comparisons. Good for agencies that want clear reporting.
Ahrefs: Famous for its backlink database and competitor analysis. Ahrefs crawls billions of pages daily, making it the go-to tool for link building strategies.
Tools like LinkWhisper specialize in internal linking, while InLinks focuses on entity-based SEO. Both can complement SE Ranking or Ahrefs in different ways.
Rank Tracking & Domain Analysis
SE Ranking: Highly accurate rank tracking across Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more. Provides domain trust scores, visibility metrics, and regional localized rank tracking.
Ahrefs: Offers reliable rank tracking but it’s not the platform’s strongest feature. Agencies often use SE Ranking for daily rank tracking because it’s more cost-effective at scale.
Neither SEOPress nor SEOmatic offer built-in rank tracking, but they integrate well with third-party tools like SE Ranking.
Reporting & Customization
SE Ranking: Excels with white-label reporting. Agencies can generate branded reports for clients covering rankings, traffic, backlinks, and site health.
Ahrefs: Provides dashboards and exportable data, but its reporting options are less flexible compared to SE Ranking.
SEOPress provides customizable meta tags and schema within WordPress but not advanced client-ready reports.
Ease of Use & Scalability
SE Ranking: User-friendly for beginners but also scalable for agencies. It works well for freelancers, SMBs, and growing digital marketing firms.
Ahrefs: More advanced with a learning curve, but extremely powerful once mastered. Best suited for SEO professionals, analysts, and larger marketing teams.
Tools like SnowSEO and SurferSEO are easier to use for content marketers focused on writing, while Ahrefs and SE Ranking serve SEO strategists who need deeper data.
What To Look For When Choosing Between SE Ranking & Ahrefs
Your goals:
If you want an end-to-end SEO suite with rank tracking, audits, competitor insights, and reporting, SE Ranking is the better fit.
If you need the industry’s strongest backlink database and competitor keyword analysis, Ahrefs is unbeatable.
Budget vs value:
SE Ranking offers affordable subscription tiers, making it accessible to agencies and freelancers.
Ahrefs is more expensive but provides unmatched backlink and keyword data.
Ease of use vs depth:
SE Ranking is cloud-based, intuitive, and beginner-friendly.
Ahrefs offers deeper insights but requires time to master.
Rank tracking & reporting:
SE Ranking is built for detailed, daily tracking and white-label reporting.
Ahrefs has rank tracking but isn’t as flexible for client reporting.
Scalability:
SE Ranking scales well for agencies with multiple sites.
Ahrefs scales for enterprise-level SEO research and link building.
Integrations & ecosystem:
SE Ranking integrates with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and more.
Ahrefs works as a standalone powerhouse but lacks broader ecosystem integrations.
Other tools worth considering: SEOPress (for WordPress SEO), SEOmatic (for developers), SurferSEO/SnowSEO (for AI-driven optimization), InLinks (semantic SEO), and LinkWhisper (internal linking).
Final Verdict
- Ahrefs is the best choice if your focus is backlink analysis, competitor research, and keyword depth. It’s ideal for large businesses, professional SEOs, and teams needing the most reliable link-building data.
- SE Ranking is the smarter option if you want a budget-friendly, all in one SEO platform that covers keyword tracking, technical audits, reporting, and scalability for agencies.
Bottom line: There’s no universal winner. If you want simplicity, affordability, and end to end SEO management, go with SE Ranking. If you need enterprise-level backlink power and deep competitor insights, choose Ahrefs.
And if you’re exploring other platforms, don’t miss comparisons with SEOPress, SEOmatic, SurferSEO, InLinks, SnowSEO, and LinkWhisper, since each brings unique strengths to your SEO toolkit.