What is Ahrefs used for?

Ahrefs is an SEO and marketing toolset used to analyze backlinks, research keywords and track rankings, and it now extends into visibility in AI search. It is a good fit for planning link building campaigns and researching keywords for content strategy.

Yes. Ahrefs has a free plan, and paid plans start at $29 per month.

Is Ahrefs open source?

No. Ahrefs is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Ahrefs include OpenSEO.

What are some alternatives to Ahrefs?

Ahrefs competes with Semrush, Moz and SE Ranking. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Ahrefs alternatives.

Ahrefs: features, pricing and alternatives

About Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a commercial SEO platform built on its own crawler and index of the web. Marketers use it to analyze backlinks, research keywords, audit sites, track rankings and study competitors, which makes it a common tool in agencies and in-house SEO teams.

The company now describes itself as an AI marketing platform, extending its data to help brands understand visibility in AI search and across content and social channels, in addition to traditional search results. It also runs a conference for search and marketing professionals. Ahrefs is a hosted subscription service with published pricing and no self-hosted option.

Key features

Backlink analysis for any website
Keyword research with difficulty metrics
Rank tracking across search engines
Site audits for technical SEO issues
Competitor and content research
Visibility tracking in AI search

Good fit for

→Planning link building campaigns
→Researching keywords for content strategy

Tags: seo; backlinks; keyword-research; rank-tracking; site-audit; competitor-analysis; marketing

Ahrefs: questions and answers

What is Ahrefs used for?: Ahrefs is an SEO and marketing toolset used to analyze backlinks, research keywords and track rankings, and it now extends into visibility in AI search. It is a good fit for planning link building campaigns and researching keywords for content strategy.
Is Ahrefs free?: Yes. Ahrefs has a free plan, and paid plans start at $29 per month.
Is Ahrefs open source?: No. Ahrefs is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Ahrefs include OpenSEO.
What are some alternatives to Ahrefs?: Ahrefs competes with Semrush, Moz and SE Ranking. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Ahrefs alternatives.