Ahrefs built its name on backlink data and is now a full SEO suite: keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and AI search monitoring. It is priced like Semrush, starting at well over $100 a month, but with two differences that matter to a small business: a genuinely useful free plan for your own website, and a credit limit on the cheapest paid plan.
Prices below are Ahrefs' list prices in US dollars, as shown on its pricing page at the time of our last update.
Ahrefs pricing at a glance
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Tracked keywords | History | Credits per user |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Free | $0 | — | — | — | — |
| Starter | $29 a month | — | — | — | — |
| Lite | $129 a month | $1,290 a year ($108 a month) | 750 | 6 months | 1,000 |
| Standard | $249 a month | $2,490 a year ($208 a month) | 2,000 | 2 years | Unlimited |
| Advanced | $449 a month | $4,490 a year ($374 a month) | 5,000 | 5 years | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | $1,499 a month, annual commitment | — | From 10,000 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Ahrefs says yearly billing saves up to 17%. Lite, Standard and Advanced each include one user; Enterprise includes from 3. Ahrefs Free gives limited access to your own verified sites, and Starter is a lookup plan; both are covered below.
Ahrefs Free: start here
If you own the site, Ahrefs Free costs nothing. Once you verify ownership, it gives limited access to Site Explorer (up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once) and Site Audit (5,000 crawl credits a month per project), plus Web Analytics, the SEO Toolbar and a beta Social Media Manager. You can verify an unlimited number of websites.
It will not research competitors or new keywords for you, but for checking which of your pages rank and what is broken on your site, it covers a lot of what a small business needs.
Starter: $29 for occasional lookups
Starter is listed at $29 a month for looking up what people search and what competitors rank for. Ahrefs' announcement of the plan says it renews monthly only, that extra users, credits and add-ons cannot be bought on it, and that you cannot downgrade to Starter from Lite or a higher plan. Treat it as a way to run a handful of lookups a month, not a working SEO tool.
Lite: the small-business plan, with a credit cap
Lite costs $129 a month, or $1,290 a year. It includes:
- 750 tracked keywords, with rankings updated weekly, and 6 months of historical data.
- 5 projects for sites you don't own, and unlimited projects for verified sites.
- 100,000 crawl credits and 150 checks on AI prompts.
- API and MCP access.
- 1,000 credits per user.
The credit cap is the catch. Ahrefs charges credits when you open reports and request data in most core tools, so heavy keyword research can use up a month's allowance. The pricing page says pay-as-you-go credits, once you enable them, are charged automatically when you go over your plan's limits. If you leave them switched off, you simply stop until the allowance resets.
For a single business checking its rankings and doing keyword research a few times a month, Lite is usually enough. Lite tracks more keywords than Semrush's $139 SEO plan, which tracks 500, but Ahrefs updates rankings weekly on every plan, while Semrush tracks them daily.
Standard and Advanced
Standard costs $249 a month ($2,490 a year) and removes the credit cap: unlimited credits per user, 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history, 20 projects for sites you don't own and 500,000 crawl credits. It adds Content Explorer, Portfolios and Batch Analysis. Ahrefs describes it as the plan for freelance SEOs and consultants.
Advanced costs $449 a month ($4,490 a year) with 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history, 50 projects, 1.5 million crawl credits and a Looker Studio integration. Enterprise starts at $1,499 a month with an annual commitment.
First-year cost for one user
- Billed monthly
- Billed yearly
Show the numbers
| Billed monthly | Billed yearly | |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | $1,548 | $1,290 |
| Standard | $2,988 | $2,490 |
| Advanced | $5,388 | $4,490 |
Extra users and add-ons
| Plan | Extra users | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | Up to 2 more | $40 a month |
| Standard | Up to 5 more | $60 a month |
| Advanced | Up to 10 more | $80 a month |
Example: two people on Lite, billed monthly. ($129 + $40) × 12 = $2,028 for the first year, before taxes and any pay-as-you-go credits. The pricing page also warns that extra users who are not prepaid are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Add-ons listed on the pricing page:
- Report Builder: $99 a month (50 reports, 500 widgets, scheduling).
- Brand Radar AI: from $199 a month, for tracking how brands appear in AI answers.
- Custom prompt packages: $50, $100 or $250 a month for extra AI prompt checks.
- Project Boost: Pro at $20 a month per project, Max at $200 a month per project, for faster and always-on site audits.
No trial, no discounts, no contract
Ahrefs' FAQ says plainly that it never runs discounts, and there is no free trial: Ahrefs Free is the way to try it. There are no contracts or setup fees, and you can cancel at any time and keep your plan until the end of the period you paid for, after which the account drops to Ahrefs Free. To move to yearly billing, Ahrefs asks you to contact its support team. Ahrefs says it does not issue refunds in general; on a monthly subscription you can request one if you haven't used the service, and it may decline if your account shows material activity.
Cheaper Ahrefs alternatives
Prices are from each vendor's pricing page at the time of our last update.
| Tool | Cheapest full plan | Tracked keywords | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush SEO | $139 a month, or $117.33 a month billed annually | 500 | 7-day free trial; 3,000 reports a day |
| SE Ranking Core | $129 a month, or $103.20 a month billed annually | 2,000 | 10 projects; 14-day trial without a credit card |
| Moz Pro Standard | $99 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly | 300 | 3 tracked sites; a $49 entry plan for one website |
| Mangools Basic | $61 a month, or $452.40 a year billed annually | 200 | Rankings update weekly; 100 keyword lookups a day |
Semrush is the like-for-like alternative. It costs $10 a month more on monthly billing and about $118 more over a year on annual billing, but it has a free trial you can use before committing. See our Semrush pricing guide for its plans and refund rules.
SE Ranking matches Lite's price, tracks 2,000 keywords and lists unlimited keyword, competitor and backlink research on its pricing page. Mangools costs about a third of Lite and, like Ahrefs, updates rankings weekly; it suits a single business with modest research needs.
Is Ahrefs worth it for a small business?
Verify your site on Ahrefs Free first; it costs nothing and may be all you need. Pay for Lite when you need competitor and keyword research every month, and keep pay-as-you-go credits switched off until you know how fast you use them. If you would rather try before paying, Semrush's trial or SE Ranking's 14-day trial are the easier way in.