Semrush vs Ahrefs

by Gralio Feb 19, 2025

Semrush and Ahrefs are both powerful marketing platforms, but they cater to different needs. Semrush is a better choice for businesses looking for a comprehensive suite of marketing tools, while Ahrefs is ideal for those who prioritize in-depth SEO and backlink analysis.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 5366 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 6 hours, 18 minutes of reading.

Semrush

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Ahrefs

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Semrush is an online visibility and marketing platform that helps businesses improve their online presence. It offers a wide range of tools for SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, social media management, and paid advertising. With a massive database, Semrush provides insights into keywords, backlinks, website traffic, and competitor strategies, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to enhance their online visibility and achieve marketing goals. Many Fortune 500 companies utilize Semrush's comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools.

Ahrefs is a suite of online tools designed to improve a website's search engine ranking and visibility. It provides data and insights on competitors, keywords, backlinks, and website content. Businesses use Ahrefs to research competitor strategies, discover relevant keywords, find link-building opportunities, audit their website for SEO issues, and track their ranking progress against competitors. Ahrefs is known for its large database and focus on data accuracy for marketing professionals.

Summary

Main difference

Semrush offers a broader suite of marketing tools, including social media management and paid advertising, while Ahrefs focuses primarily on SEO and backlink analysis. Ahrefs is known for its larger backlink database and more in-depth SEO analysis, while Semrush offers a wider range of features for overall online marketing strategies.

Relative strengths of Semrush (compared to Ahrefs)

Wider range of marketing tools beyond SEO, including content marketing, social media, and paid advertising.
Superior competitor analysis features, providing insights into competitors' strategies across multiple channels.
Generally perceived as easier to use, with a more intuitive interface.

Relative weaknesses of Semrush (compared to Ahrefs)

Smaller backlink database compared to Ahrefs, potentially limiting the scope of backlink analysis.
Less in-depth SEO analysis tools than Ahrefs, particularly for technical SEO and backlink audits.
More expensive than Ahrefs, especially for users who only need SEO tools.

Who is using Semrush and Ahrefs?

Kevin Indig

SEO Authority | Growth Advisor | Hypergrowth Partner

Gaetano Di Nardi

Growth Advisor for B2B SaaS Companies

Connor Gillivan

SEO expert; 7x Founder (Exit in 2019)

Anna York

Digital Marketing Consultant at Anna York Consulting

Brendan Hufford

SaaS Marketing - Growth through Content, Community & SEO

Show all 9 stacks

Olesia Krilyshyn

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Gaetano Di Nardi

Growth Advisor for B2B SaaS Companies

Connor Gillivan

SEO expert; 7x Founder (Exit in 2019)

Jake Ward

SEO expert; 150K LinkedIn followers

Andrew Charlton

SEO Consultant, Founder of SEO tool companies

Show all 13 stacks

Who should use Semrush VS. Ahrefs

Semrush is a leading online visibility and marketing platform that helps businesses optimize their online presence. Businesses of all sizes praise Semrush for its comprehensive suite of tools, including competitor analysis, keyword research, and site auditing. However, some users express concerns about the pricing. Ideal for businesses seeking improved online visibility and data-driven marketing decisions.

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool suite ideal for marketers, SEOs, and business owners aiming to boost online visibility and search ranking. Ahrefs offers comprehensive keyword research, backlink analysis, and site audit tools. Users praise its in-depth data but find the pricing high and customer support lacking.

Best fit for small, medium, and large businesses seeking to improve their online presence.
Ideal for E-commerce, Media & Entertainment, Marketing & Advertising, and Software companies.

Best for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
Ideal for E-commerce, Marketing & Advertising, and Software companies.

Semrush and Ahrefs features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Keyword Research

Supported

Semrush supports keyword research with tools and a large database.

Supported

Ahrefs offers the Keyword Explorer tool, competitor analysis, and AI-powered suggestions to discover relevant keywords.
Competitor Traffic Analysis

Supported

Semrush supports competitor strategy analysis using traffic data and trend analysis over time.

Partially supported

Ahrefs offers competitor traffic analysis using historical organic search data, but lacks real-time daily/weekly traffic data. It provides trend analysis but not exact traffic figures.
Enterprise SEO Solutions

Supported

Semrush offers an Enterprise SEO platform with advanced features for large organizations.

Supported

Ahrefs provides advanced SEO solutions including keyword tracking, backlink analysis, site auditing, and competitor research suitable for large organizations.
Data-Driven Content Strategy

Supported

Semrush supports data-driven content strategy with keyword research, competitor analysis, and content effectiveness analysis.

Supported

Ahrefs helps develop data-driven content strategies through keyword research, competitor analysis, and performance monitoring.
Competitor Analysis

Supported

Semrush provides competitor analysis, offering insights into their sales and marketing strategies, technologies, keywords, and customer base.

Partially supported

Ahrefs provides insights into competitor keywords and content strategies, but not technologies or customer base.
SEO Tool Integration

Partially supported

Semrush integrates with SurferSEO, particularly through Surfer\'s Grow Flow tool, to access competitor backlink insights. It also integrates with AIOSEO, a WordPress plugin, for keyword assignment, SEO optimization, and advanced SEO edits. While Semrush integrates with various platforms and tools, there is no explicit mention of an Ahrefs integration in the provided sources.

Supported

Ahrefs supports integration with other SEO tools, including direct integration with Surfer SEO.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.64

Rather negative sentiment

-0.96

Strongly negative sentiment
Customer Service

+0.43

Rather positive sentiment

-0.86

Strongly negative sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.67

Rather positive sentiment

+0.44

Rather positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.55

Rather positive sentiment

+0.24

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Implementation

+0.19

Neutral sentiment

+0

Neutral sentiment
Scalability

-0.56

Rather negative sentiment

-0.6

Rather negative sentiment

Semrush and Ahrefs Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.64

See full Pricing page

No data

User sentiment

Strongly negative

-0.96

We couldn't find a pricing page for Ahrefs.

Semrush and Ahrefs review insights

5285 reviews analysed from and

Users love

SEMrush is great in that it provides not only insights and metrics but clear actions to improve a given page or an entire site!
Semrush takes 70% of the time off designing campaigns that rely on keywords, competitor behavior, or site insights.
I love the way how it shows the analytics of authority score as well as the detailed traffic report of the site.
Domain Overview, Technical SEO auditing, Keyword Research

In-depth backlink analysis is consistently praised by users.
Keyword research tools offer comprehensive data, including search volume and difficulty.
Site audit tool is very helpful in identifying and fixing technical SEO issues.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a valuable free resource.

Users dislike

The pricing for SEMrush can be steep, especially since the social media calendar posting feature, now costs an additional $29 per month.
SEMrush has a robust monetization system that adds up very quickly.
Price was a little high for the smallest package.
The cost - we used to be able to share accounts, but now have to register separate accounts for all users.

The pricing is very high and not very transparent.
The "Lite" plan is too limited, many key features are not included.
Users are reporting being moved off legacy plans to more expensive plans with no warning.
Customer support is slow and sometimes unhelpful.

Semrush and Ahrefs Ratings

G2

4.5/5

(2095)
Capterra

4.7/5

(2131)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(272)

G2

4.5/5

(550)
Capterra

4.7/5

(520)
TrustPilot

1.8/5

(81)
Glassdoor

4.9/5

(11)

Company health

Employee growth

13% increase in the last year

No data

Web traffic

5% decrease in the last quarter

11% increase in the last quarter

Financing

January 2018 - $40M

No data

How do Semrush's and Ahrefs' data-driven content strategies differ?

Both Semrush and Ahrefs offer data-driven content strategies based on keyword research and competitor analysis. However, Semrush emphasizes content effectiveness analysis, providing insights into how well content performs. Ahrefs focuses on backlink analysis and technical SEO, informing content strategy by identifying link-building opportunities and areas for website improvement that can boost content visibility.

Which product provides better competitor analysis for enterprise SEO?

Both Semrush and Ahrefs offer robust competitor analysis features. However, Semrush provides a broader suite of marketing tools beyond SEO, including content marketing and paid advertising analysis, which can give a more holistic view of a competitor's strategy. While Ahrefs is known for its in-depth backlink analysis, Semrush's wider dataset and additional features make it slightly better for enterprise SEO competitor analysis, offering a more complete picture of the competitive landscape.

What are the advantages of Semrush?

Semrush offers a broader suite of tools encompassing SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, social media management, and paid advertising, making it a more comprehensive platform than Ahrefs, which primarily focuses on SEO. Semrush also caters to a wider range of marketing needs beyond SEO, potentially offering a more integrated approach for businesses seeking a single platform for multiple marketing activities. User reviews highlight Semrush's actionable insights and clear recommendations for website improvement.

What are the disadvantages of Semrush?

Semrush's pricing is a common complaint among users, described as expensive and lacking transparency. Users also mention a robust monetization system that can lead to unexpectedly high costs. Additionally, while Semrush offers a wide range of features, its scalability receives negative feedback, suggesting potential limitations for growing businesses.

Alternatives to Semrush and Ahrefs

Similarweb

Similarweb is like a giant spyglass for the internet. It helps you understand what people are doing online, so you can make smarter decisions for your own website and marketing. Want to know who your competitors are online? Similarweb shows you. Want to see which websites are sending traffic to your competitors (so you can try to get them to send traffic to you)? Similarweb shows you that too. You can even see what keywords people are using to find your competitors, and which online ads are working best for them. Basically, if you want to know how your website stacks up against the competition and find new opportunities to grow online, Similarweb gives you the information to do it.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO software suite designed to help businesses improve their search engine rankings. It offers a wide range of tools, including keyword research, competitor analysis, website audits, backlink monitoring, and rank tracking. SE Ranking is known for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive set of features, making it suitable for both SEO beginners and experienced professionals. It aims to provide actionable insights and data-driven recommendations to optimize website content, improve visibility, and attract more organic traffic.

Dragon Metrics

Dragon Metrics is a global SEO software platform designed to help businesses improve their search engine rankings. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including rank tracking, competitor analysis, reporting, and technical SEO auditing. Dragon Metrics is known for its in-depth data, user-friendly interface, and global coverage, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes looking to boost their online visibility. It promises simplified reporting, clear insights, and ultimately, better rankings.

Serpstat

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO toolkit designed to give businesses a competitive edge online. It helps you track your website's performance in search engines, analyze competitors, research valuable keywords, and develop an effective content strategy. Serpstat offers tools to audit your website, identify technical issues, and track your progress over time. Its features include competitor analysis, keyword research, content creation and analysis, and search engine results page (SERP) tracking. Serpstat is used by businesses of all sizes who want to improve their online visibility and attract more customers.

Ranktracker

Ranktracker is a cloud-based SEO tool that helps businesses improve their search engine rankings. It offers a suite of features including keyword research, competitor analysis, and rank tracking. Ranktracker allows you to monitor your website's ranking position for chosen keywords across multiple search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. It also helps identify technical SEO errors on your website and provides recommendations to fix them. Ranktracker is designed for both small businesses and large agencies looking to improve their online visibility and get more traffic.

SpyFu

SpyFu is a search marketing tool that helps you understand your competitors' online strategies. It shows you the keywords they use for SEO and advertising, their ad campaigns, and even their estimated budget. You can use this information to improve your own website ranking, find new customers, and make sure you're ahead of the competition.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

How are we doing?

Is this information helpful to you? Is there anything we are missing?

Did this help you select your product?

Other issues? Vote & Let us know