Semrush vs Ahrefs Comparison

first and foremost its cheaper than ahrefs, which is the main argument for anyone using semrush over ahrefs I believe, while it's still not to be considered cheap it's definitely on the cheaper side in terms of SEO software.

the data is worse than in ahrefs in my experience, ahreffs seems to be much more accurate and delivers much better metrics in my opinion.

If you're an advanced SEO and have time to watch a bunch of tutorials, this tool is great. I like the free webinars that SEMrush does and again, those are free. Before getting started I would check those out.

It has somethings that Ahrefs doesn't have, but Ahrefs has somethings that SEMrush doesn't. I would say the UI is getting better, but I still don't prefer it over Ahrefs.

My favorite function of this tool is the ability to see historic rankings of keywords.

The inconsistency with Ahrefs on overall domain keywords.

Oragnic research and competitors ad keywords.

The backlink profile doesn't even come close to that of ahrefs.

I love how I can spy on my competitors. I love going after their keywords. It helps me guide my clients in the right direction. I use the "competitor" look up to help people answer the "where do I start?" question.

Ahrefs just looks more inviting. It look more user friendly. Kinda like... SEMrush is like my wife. Ahrefs is my occasional side piece. At the end of the day, I'm always going back to my wife.

Hi Jonathan, thank you so much for your review! We are happy to be your 'SEO wife' :)

I've used over 5 other SEO solutions, and SEMRush dominates the market when it comes to intuitiveness, navigation, and just an overall user-friendly experience. Other solutions made us cross-eyed and confused, whereas SEMRush presents all of the information in a easy-to-digest and understand manner.

The only thing I miss from using Ahrefs is 'parent and sub topic' designations.

The projects area of the software. It allows us to monitor how all of our stores are doing locally.

Backlink quality - we use ahrefs for our backlink analysis bc semrush does not show us the quality needed.

SEMrush is comparable to ahrefs and Majestic but offers the same great all round marketing tools like ahrefs, i.e. more than pure SEO/technical. One of th ebiggest pros right now is they have a Google Data Studio connector which makes reports a breeze and saves tons of time.

There were a few small features missing for me because I'm used to ahrefs but I wouldnt count that as a strike against the tool.

I can trust KW difficulty. It is easy to spot high volume/low difficulty KW with some other software, only to find out, that true difficulty is way higher. SemRush is my golden standard to verify difficulty. I trust it.

AHREFs has more features to select from. I can to some crazy filtering to discover profitable niches.

Ease of use and number of tools available.

Create a tool that works similar to the ahrefs keyword so I can create similar articles that use the keywords with mid to low difficulty and a tool or content research to see the high ranking pages, that I can potentially recreate on that topic.

I liked that SEMRush shows all the necessary data such as traffic, keywords, graph, competitors, etc on the same page which makes navigation easier. Country based traffic data of SEMRUSH is more accurate than Aherfs which is a good point.

Keyword database of SEMRush needs to be increased. In addition, keyword sorting option could be improved like Ahrefs.

The reliable data and easy-to-use UI. The PPC keyword research is also the best in the industry.

The pricing. It is not as good as Ahrefs yet charges just as much or even more for most plans.

We are thankful for your review, Yassir, and we appreciate your feedback. With over 55 products and the most accurate data on the market, we feel our platform is competitively priced. We always welcome more specific details so that we can continue to improve our software! You can DM us on FB or Twitter or email mail@semrush.com

The clean interface, the scope of data you can obtain - but simply, it's ease of use in comparison to Moz and Ahrefs

The videos are poor. I watched the SEM rush tutorial, it lacked any kind of charisma and was really surface level. Then, I wanted to deep dive into Google ads, your course is terrible, I'm sure the man Is knowledgable but it was a video of him with small excerpts of the interface - it should be all a screen share with him in the corner - I understand the want for the videography and angles, the productivity youtube kind of effect, but it took away from the education to the point I had to quit. Actually teach, teach well - people will love it. Your whole education hub is well advertised and lacking for quality engaging content.

It was easy to access the competitive comparisons, once I figured how to do it. I still can't find the SERP clicks estimation, even though one of SEmRush execs stated that its there. But, they didn't tell me how to access this.

SERP Click Estimation isn't there. Ahrefs and Moz has it in their keyword analysis and very easy to see.

Hi Jon, thank you so much for your review! If you are asking about the keywords driving clicks and getting traffic to your website -they can be found in Organic Traffic Insights tool --Keywords report, where you can switch between SEMrush insight and GSC data. If this is not what you are searching for, DM us to any social media platform with your question/ email us at mail@semrush.com and we will assist you!

Easy to use Perfect analytics Easy to find the competitors and tactics Vert easy to use Tactics and planning

very bad user experience Damn expensive it shows only one country in and to show many other countries its damn expensive

SEMRush is a quick and easy-to-use option for auditing basic on-page SEO, researching organic keywords and rankings, etc. It has a lot of features and you can get up and running very quickly.

SEMRush is very inaccurate in its estimates of search volume, CPCs, and some other projections. This is especially true when performing competitor research.

The dashboard is a great place from which to manage our SEO performance. By pairing SEMRush with other SEO tools we keep on top of our search rankings, identifying areas for improvement and monitoring our competitors. The domain overview is probably my favourite feature. Also, email updates on position changes and new links are handy too.

It took me a while to get used to using SEMRush and there are other features offered by the likes of Ahrefs that aren't included.

SEMrush is easy to use and quick to learn. For me, it works basically the same as Ahrefs but has a few extra features I find useful for content marketing.

I really hate how much this software costs for my small business, and it seems a little extortionate that the extra features (which make the software useful) cost more.

SEMRush does a deep dive in to the technical issues of you site to help you identify & resolve issues quickly. I wouldn't have know about half of the issues and just concentrated on keywords.

It does have a bit of a learning curve, but it's quite intuitive when you get into it.

I love SEMrush's SEO Writing Assistant tool- quite frankly, that's why I keep the software. I also like the new "Keyword Magic Tool" and backlink auditing functionalities.

Compared to other platforms, the data in SEMrush is not up to snuff. I frequently see "issues" in the site audit that I know are inaccurate. The numbers change significantly week to week, even when I don't make any changes to the site.

I use so many features of SEMrush every day. Unrivalled competitor analysis, accurate position tracking, keywords magic tool is really useful.

There isn't really anything I dislike - Moz and Ahrefs are better in some features but SEMrush is the best overall package in my opinion.

Hi, Stephen! Thanks for giving us this review. We are happy to hear that you enjoy using our tools!

I love that it is my go-to tool for well-done keyword research. It allows me to see competitor's domains on the spot

I don't like the interface, it's just not easy to use. They should make it more friendly.

Thanks for finding value in our tool, David! We love being your go-tool digital marketing software. If you have specific interface features you'd like to see updated, we welcome you to send the details to us on Facebook, Twitter, or email mail@semrush.com - thanks!

The versatility of the software is great, as many SEO’s know, ahrefs is better for back links but overall the versatility of SEMrush is better IMO. That is why we mainly use this.

The cost of adding users can get very expensive.

Good all-in-one tool. Getting a lot better a providing an accurate snapshot of a website's SEO performance and where there is room for improvement.

I find SEMrush to be useful in 80-90% of cases, but not so great for some more complex analysis pieces where something like Ahrefs or Screaming Frog is better suited.

The data which is provided by SEMRush can't be found elsewhere. Without SEMRush doing SEO would be next to impossible. SEMRush provides keyword data, backlinks, organic traffic and a lot more!

Compared to Ahrefs their link metric is weak which I think puts them in a bad state. Apart from this their overall User interface is a bit confusing but er get to used to it!

aHrefs is the industry standard for link research. In my mind, it's outpaced Moz, with high-quality link crawling and a robust feature set, and if it gets better with tracked keywords, can come for SEMRush too.

Inability to track keywords reliably means it's still catching up to SEMRush in some ways.

I love the technical site auditing tools in Ahrefs. It made it very easy to score, audit, and check fixes to my project websites.

Ahrefs also has some of the best backlink profile evaluation tools in the industry, although SEMRush makes disavowing & scoring toxic links somewhat easier. We ran into limitations when trying to add more projects that led to us switching to SEMRush.

I became a big fan of Ahrefs and its community, practically I replace Semrush of my top1 seo tool with Ahrefs, I still use both of them in fact I use Semrush, Aherfs, Moz, Raventools and Majestic. But Ahrefs is my favorite tool

Lack of technical analysis, Semrush has a better tools and options to manage technical aspect in the long run.

Ahrefs is a software that is better for keyword research. It is also easy to use and fast

Like semrush, ahrefs is also inexpensive. Apart from that I have no problem with this software

Appreciate the love, Siaka! ^^ Let us know if you have further questions, we're always here to help!

I think their biggest asset is their link identification and auditing tools. It makes it easy to find link building opportunities and identify new and lost links.

Keyword research tool needs some work. I still prefer SEMrush over ahrefs when it comes to keyword research.

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. Can you write us at support@ahrefs.com and help us understand what we lack keyword-research-wise? Thank you!

I find Ahrefs useful for analyzing the backlink profile of the competitors. It is handy for link building and link intersection. There are many other useful features as well that makes it a full suite of SEO tools from domain analysis to keyword research.

The keyword research tool does not provide any detailed info like other tools such as Ubersuggest and Semrush.

Kudos Khusbu! Would you mind telling us what detailed info other tools provide that we don't - please? In the meantime, please note that we have unique metrics that you won't find in any other keyword research tools, such as: - Traffic potential (shows you the traffic you'd get if you were to rank on position #1) - Parent topic (shows whether it's possible to rank for a broader keyword) In terms of unique keyword features, you can also benefit from: - Keyword ideas reports (Also rank for, Also talk about, Traffic share by page/domain) - SERP comparison tool (to compare the search intent of two different keywords) - Position and ad history Should you have further questions or want to locate the above features, don't hesitate to write us at support@ahrefs.com :)

This is a really powerful tool with powerful insights. A great alternative to others like SEMRush, Moz etc.

The UI can do with a birt of work - it is not as intuitive as it can be and takes some figuring out

I've only used the trial but the keyword search tool is really easy to understand, a lot simpler than let's say Semrush.

I can't really comment on this as I've only used the free trial.

It thrills us to know you find Ahrefs simple to use! :) Let us know if you have any further questions at support@ahrefs.com. Have a great day!

Ahrefs is a standard in SEO. I have been using it for 2 years already (switched over from SEMrush) and I love it. I have spent hundreds of hours, I run my entire agency on it. Overall a very solid tool. Compared to SEMrush (and reason why I still use Ahrefs) great dashboard, easy to use.

Since the new pricing model it's a pain. You are being charged "credits" for just breathing around the software. Logged into it 2 times, looked at a keyword ranking that's already generated and I "consumed" 8 credits. There is no exact grid to know what uses up your credits, not to mention I think it's silly to pay extra for seeing the HOMEPAGE (dashboard, which loads instantly) or doing your regular...

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Sorry to see you disappointed, Ramona! Contrary to popular belief, this pricing change was not made ad-hoc. In fact, we studied the usage patterns of our paying customers and designed it in such a way where 80% were barely affected, while the remaining 20% were affected to a varying degree, based on how much they use the platform. We also allow grandfathered users (like yourself) to keep their...

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Backlink tracking, competitor analysis, and SEO auditing is great with Ahrefs. Ahrefs is, besides SEMRush one of the most comprehensive software for SEO.

It is way too expensive as a SaaS software. There are competitors and even free versions of tools that does all of what Ahref does separately/individually. Ahref just combines it all together.