COMPARISON · Last verified: September 2026
Ahrefs vs Semrush
Ownership update
- Semrush is now an Adobe company: Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush Holdings on April 28, 2026. Semrush's customer FAQ said there would be no immediate changes to features, access, support or billing, and the plans compared below are still sold on semrush.com.
Two full SEO suites compared on verified pricing, data, rank tracking, AI search tracking and team costs.
🏆 Quick Verdict
Ahrefs (4.6/5 vs 4.5/5)
Both have a free tier; full plans from $129/mo (Ahrefs) vs $139.95/mo (Semrush), billed monthly
⭐ Strongest At
Every tool has one thing it does better than its competitors. Here is each one's honest edge:
Link and competitor research on its own crawl: a live backlink index that Ahrefs says refreshes every 15 to 30 minutes, with historical data and API access from the Lite plan up.
Breadth in one account: daily rank tracking, 50 to 200 daily AI prompts in Semrush One, and toolkits for ads, social, local SEO, content and PR.
📊 Quick Specs
Ahrefs vs Semrush: official demos
Watch each tool in action: official videos for Ahrefs and Semrush, side by side, before you decide.
Ahrefs
Semrush
Official videos via YouTube (Ahrefs; Semrush), embedded for reference. ToolChase does not host or claim these videos.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is an SEO and marketing platform built on its own crawler, which Ahrefs calls the world's second-most active. It describes its backlink index as the world's largest index of live backlinks, updated every 15 to 30 minutes. Its main tools include Site Explorer (backlinks plus organic and paid search traffic for any site), Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker and Brand Radar, which measures how often a brand is mentioned or cited in AI answers. Plans from Lite up also include Web Analytics, Report Builder, API and MCP access, and a beta Social Media Manager and GBP Monitor; Standard adds Content Explorer. Paid tiers run from Starter ($29/mo) to Enterprise ($1,499/mo), and Ahrefs Free, the renamed Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, covers websites you verify. The company, Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., is based in Singapore.
What is Semrush?
Semrush is an SEO and online visibility platform that has been an Adobe company since April 28, 2026. It sells an SEO plan ($139.95/mo billed monthly) and Semrush One, which combines the SEO and AI Visibility toolkits in Starter, Pro+ and Advanced tiers. Semrush reports 28.9 billion keywords in its Keyword Magic Tool and 142 regional keyword databases, Position Tracking updates rankings daily, and the backlink tools (Backlinks, Referring Domains, Backlink Gap and Backlink Audit) use a database Semrush puts at more than 43 trillion backlinks. The AI Visibility toolkit measures brand visibility in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Separate toolkits cover advertising on Google and Meta, social media, local SEO, content, AI PR, and Traffic & Market, which estimates any website's desktop and mobile traffic. MCP access comes with every SEO and Semrush One plan, and a free account allows 10 Analytics requests a day.
Key differences at a glance
Both cover backlinks, keywords, site audits, rank tracking and AI search. The differences that matter most are these:
- -- Rank tracking: Semrush's Position Tracking updates daily on every SEO and Semrush One plan; Ahrefs lists weekly Rank Tracker updates on every plan.
- -- Packaging: Semrush sells separate toolkits for ads, social, local SEO, content, PR and traffic data; Ahrefs folds Web Analytics, API and MCP access and a beta Social Media Manager into its plans and sells Content Kit and its AI Visibility Index as add-ons.
- -- Cheapest way in: Ahrefs Free for sites you verify, or Starter at $29/mo; Semrush has a free account (10 Analytics requests a day) and a 7-day free trial. Full plans start at $129/mo (Lite) and $139.95/mo (SEO), billed monthly.
- -- History and API: Ahrefs includes both from Lite; Semrush adds historical data at Pro+ ($299/mo) and API access at Advanced ($549/mo), with MCP access on every SEO and Semrush One plan.
- -- AI search: Semrush One includes 50, 100 or 200 daily prompts; Ahrefs includes 5, 10 or 20 and sells an AI Visibility Index of 454 million prompts from $199/mo.
- -- Seats: both include one user on each self-serve plan; Ahrefs extra seats cost $40 to $80/mo with a cap per plan, and Semrush's cost $45 to $100/mo.
- -- Score: Ahrefs rates 4.6/5 in our review; Semrush rates 4.5/5.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Here is how Ahrefs and Semrush compare on the capabilities and limits that affect daily work, using each vendor's own figures:
Pricing comparison
Ahrefs includes one user on Lite, Standard and Advanced. Billed monthly, Lite is $129/month, Standard $249 and Advanced $449; billed annually, they cost $1,290, $2,490 and $4,490 a year (up to 17% less). Extra users cost $40/mo each on Lite (up to 2), $60/mo on Standard (up to 5) and $80/mo on Advanced (up to 10). Enterprise is $1,499/month with an annual commitment, or $14,990 a year billed annually; it starts at 3 users and adds uncapped API access, SSO and audit logs. Starter at $29/month is a light-use plan that renews monthly only and cannot take extra users or credits. Ahrefs says it never runs discounts and does not provide free trials.
Semrush also includes one user on each self-serve plan. Billed monthly, the SEO plan is $139.95/month and Semrush One costs $199 (Starter), $299 (Pro+) or $549 (Advanced); billed annually, those are $117.33, $165.17, $248.17 and $455.67 a month (up to 17% off). Extra users cost $45/mo on SEO and Starter, $80/mo on Pro+ and $100/mo on Advanced, plus $99 per user for AI Visibility access on Semrush One. Other toolkits are priced separately: AI Visibility $99/mo per domain, Traffic & Market $289/mo, Local $30 or $60/mo per location, Content $60/mo, Social from $20/mo, Advertising from $99/mo and AI PR from $149/mo. Enterprise pricing is custom.
What the entry plans buy. Ahrefs Lite gives 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords (weekly updates), 6 months of history, 100,000 crawl credits, 1,000 credits per user a month, 5 tracked AI prompts, and API and MCP access. The Semrush SEO plan gives 5 monitored websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, 100,000 pages to crawl a month, 3,000 Analytics reports a day and MCP access; historical data waits for Pro+. Semrush users share the account's limits, while Ahrefs Lite counts credits per user.
Worked example: a five-person team, billed monthly. Ahrefs Lite tops out at three users, so the team needs Standard: $249 plus four seats at $60 is $489/month. Semrush SEO is $139.95 plus four seats at $45, or $319.95/month; Pro+, the first Semrush tier with historical data, is $299 plus four seats at $80, or $619/month. For one user on annual billing, Ahrefs Lite ($1,290 a year) costs a little less than Semrush SEO (about $1,408).
Pros & Cons
Ahrefs
- Ahrefs Free gives permanent, no-card access to data on sites you verify
- Historical data on every plan from Lite
- API and MCP access included from Lite
- Live backlink index that Ahrefs says refreshes every 15 to 30 minutes
- Brand Radar's index covers six AI platforms, and custom prompts add Claude
- No free trial of paid plans, by Ahrefs' own statement
- Rank Tracker updates weekly
- Lite includes 1,000 credits per user a month (more cost $50 per 500, billed monthly) and allows at most 3 users
- Starter renews monthly only and cannot add users or credits
- Content Kit (from $99/mo) and the AI Visibility Index (from $199/mo) cost extra
Semrush
- Daily rank tracking on every SEO and Semrush One plan
- Semrush One bundles 50 to 200 daily AI prompts with the SEO tools
- Toolkits for ads, social, local SEO, content, PR and traffic data under one login
- MCP access on every SEO and Semrush One plan
- 7-day free trial and a free account
- Historical data starts at Pro+ ($299/mo)
- API access requires Advanced ($549/mo)
- Toolkits add up: Traffic & Market is $289/mo, licensed per user
- Billed monthly, the SEO plan ($139.95/mo) costs more than Ahrefs Lite ($129/mo)
- The free account is capped at 10 Analytics requests a day
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Ahrefs if you:
- → Spend most of your time on link building, backlink research or competitor research
- → Want historical data and API access without paying for a top tier
- → Want free, ongoing data on your own verified sites before you pay
- → Need a low-cost plan for occasional checks ($29/mo Starter)
Choose Semrush if you:
- → Report rankings to clients or stakeholders and want daily updates
- → Run paid search, social, local or PR work alongside SEO in one account
- → Want AI prompt tracking at volume in the same subscription (50 to 200 a day)
- → Want to try the paid tools free for seven days before committing
Bottom Line
Both are complete SEO suites with free tiers and close entry prices ($129 vs $139.95 a month, billed monthly), so choose by workflow. Ahrefs (4.6/5) suits SEO specialists and agencies built around links and research, with historical data and API access from Lite. Semrush (4.5/5) suits marketing teams that want daily rank tracking, bundled AI prompt tracking and toolkits for ads, social, local and PR. For five users billed monthly, Semrush SEO is cheapest at $319.95 a month, and Ahrefs Standard ($489) costs less than Semrush Pro+ ($619) once historical data matters.
Frequently asked questions
Ahrefs vs Semrush: which is better in 2026?
It depends on your work. Ahrefs suits SEO specialists and agencies focused on backlinks and research, with historical data and API access from its $129/mo Lite plan. Semrush suits marketing teams that want daily rank tracking, AI prompt tracking bundled in Semrush One, and toolkits for ads, social, local SEO and PR. Ahrefs scores 4.6/5 in our review and Semrush scores 4.5/5.
Is Ahrefs or Semrush cheaper?
For one user, Ahrefs Lite ($129/mo billed monthly, or $1,290 a year) costs slightly less than the Semrush SEO plan ($139.95/mo billed monthly, or $117.33/mo billed annually), and Ahrefs also sells a $29/mo Starter plan. For five users billed monthly, Semrush SEO costs $319.95/mo, Ahrefs Standard $489/mo and Semrush Pro+ $619/mo, because each of these plans includes one user and extra seats cost $45, $60 and $80 a month.
Does Ahrefs or Semrush have a free plan or free trial?
Both have a free tier. Ahrefs Free needs no credit card and gives Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for websites you verify; Ahrefs says it does not provide free trials. The Semrush free account allows 10 Analytics requests a day, one website and 10 tracked keywords, and the SEO, Starter and Pro+ plans come with a 7-day free trial.
Which has better backlink data, Ahrefs or Semrush?
Both vendors claim the largest index. Ahrefs calls its index the world's largest index of live backlinks, updated every 15 to 30 minutes, with 35 trillion external backlinks in its history. Semrush reports more than 43 trillion backlinks and about 10 billion pages crawled a day. The figures are labeled differently, so compare both tools on your own domain and a competitor before you buy.
Which is better for tracking visibility in AI search?
Semrush includes more tracked prompts: Semrush One tracks 50, 100 or 200 prompts daily and measures visibility in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Ahrefs includes 5, 10 or 20 daily custom prompts, which can also cover Copilot and Claude, and sells its AI Visibility Index of 454 million prompts from $199/mo.
Is Semrush still available now that Adobe owns it?
Yes. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush Holdings on April 28, 2026, and Semrush still sells its SEO plan, Semrush One tiers and toolkits on semrush.com. Its customer FAQ said there would be no immediate changes to features, access, support or billing.
How many users do Ahrefs and Semrush plans include?
One on each self-serve plan, while Ahrefs Enterprise starts at 3 users. Ahrefs sells extra seats at $40/mo on Lite (up to 2), $60/mo on Standard (up to 5) and $80/mo on Advanced (up to 10). Semrush charges $45/mo on SEO and Starter, $80/mo on Pro+ and $100/mo on Advanced, and adding the AI Visibility toolkit for an extra Semrush One user costs $99 more.