Semrush vs Ahrefs: Two Indexes, Two Ways of Reading a Market
Semrush vs Ahrefs ends level: no tagged review counts for either, so both sit at the site average of 7.6. Semrush lists a 7-day free trial; Ahrefs Starter is $29 a month against $139.95 for Semrush SEO.
Semrush7.6
vs
Ahrefs7.6
Every score on this page validated by the site owner · latest validation Oct 16, 2026 · How we score
Semrush and Ahrefs, side by side
Neither card is tinted: the scores are less than 0.3 points apart, or the tagged reviews are too few to compare them.
- Trial 7-day free trial against none for Ahrefs
Pick Semrush if you want 50 AI prompts tracked a day on the Starter plan.
- Price $29 a month against $139.95
Pick Ahrefs if you want the $29 Starter plan, with 200 credits a month.
Line by line
A value is marked only when it is clearly higher: by 0.3 on the score or 0.5 on a dimension, with at least 30 tagged reviews behind each of the two values. The fifth dimension changes with the category and stays out of this table.
| Semrush |
Ahrefs |
|
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 7.6* | 7.6* |
| Four dimensions, same grid | ||
| Ease of setup | 8.4* | 8.4* |
| Feature depth | 7.5* | 7.5* |
| Value for money | 8.3* | 8.3* |
| Support quality | 7.3* | 7.3* |
| Price and plan | ||
| Entry price | $139.95/mo | $29/mo |
| Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial | No free trial |
| Fit | ||
| Team size | Solo · Team · Agency | Solo · Team |
| Public reviews | 7,700+ | 1,600+ |
* Under 10 tagged reviews: the score is weighted toward the site average; with none, it comes from the averages of the tools we score.
Semrush is a general-purpose tool: its public review count covers every use; tagged reviews about other uses are left out of its scores.
Ahrefs is a general-purpose tool: its public review count covers every use; tagged reviews about other uses are left out of its scores.
Team size comes from tagged reviews, or from the vendor's own pages when reviews name none.
Neither is clearly higher on our grid: Semrush 7.6, Ahrefs 7.6 overall. Entry prices: Semrush $139.95/mo, Ahrefs $29/mo.
Entry prices read on each vendor's public pricing page; the older of the two readings dates from Sep 29, 2026. Some of these prices have not been read again for 6 months. Check the vendors' pages before you buy.
What separates the two, in the tagged reviews
Semrush vs Ahrefs pricing: $139.95 against $29 for the first paid plan
Prices were read on the vendors' pricing pages between Sep 29 and Oct 4, 2026. Semrush's SEO plan costs $139.95 a month, or $117.33 a month billed annually, and covers 5 websites; Semrush also lists a Free plan at $0 for 1 website. Ahrefs's Starter plan costs $29 a month for 200 credits a month and renews monthly only. Ahrefs lists a Free account with limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit.
Semrush publishes a 7-day free trial; Ahrefs states it offers none
Semrush publishes a 7-day free trial, read on Sep 29, 2026, and its help center adds that data export is disabled during a trial and that each trial can be activated once per account. Ahrefs's help center states that it does not provide free trials and points to its free account instead, also read on Sep 29, 2026. For Ahrefs at $29 a month, the free account is the way to test the data before paying.
Ahrefs vs Semrush competition research: paid data and AI tracking
Both pages were read between Sep 29 and Oct 4, 2026. Semrush lists competitor analysis covering traffic, rankings, ads and AI citations, plus AI visibility tracking; its Starter plan at $199 a month tracks 50 prompts a day. Ahrefs lists Site Explorer, which shows the organic and paid traffic of any website, and Brand Radar for AI visibility; its Starter plan costs $29 a month.
Ahrefs vs Semrush reviews: no tagged review counts, both at the site average
No tagged review counts for Semrush or Ahrefs, so both sit at the site average of 7.6 and the page names no winner. The limits differ instead, read between Sep 29 and Oct 5, 2026: Semrush's SEO plan tracks 500 keywords across 5 websites, while Ahrefs's Starter plan caps at 200 credits a month and cannot buy extra credits or users.
Before you choose
This page reads no figure on index size or freshness for either tool, so it does not rank them. Both list backlink analysis.
Semrush SEO is $139.95 a month for 5 websites; Ahrefs Starter is $29 a month for 200 credits. The two measure plans differently, and both sit at the site average of 7.6, so the page names no winner.
Both list it: Semrush shows how competitors run their ads, and Ahrefs shows the paid traffic of any website and its competitors' ads. The pages give no depth figure for either, and both sit at the site average of 7.6.
The pages read give no per-comparison limit on competitor domains for either tool, so this page states none. It compares plans by websites for Semrush (5 on SEO) and by credits for Ahrefs (200 on Starter).
Semrush names agencies in its audience and lists 15 websites on Pro+ at $299 a month; Ahrefs names agencies too, with 200 credits a month on Starter and unlimited credits on Standard.
Both list it: Semrush tracks 50 AI prompts a day on Starter at $199 a month, and Ahrefs lists Brand Radar. The pages give no result figure for either, and both sit at the site average of 7.6, so the page ranks neither.
Where to go next
Each tool's review and alternatives, the pages this duel links to, and the method.