Ahrefs vs SE Ranking 👉 Comparison 2023

When it comes to all-in-one SEO services, the SE Ranking vs Ahrefs confrontation is inevitable. These platforms are very similar in terms of functionality, number of subscribers, and ratings on review platforms. They offer everything you need to promote your business online, so you won’t have to look for additional tools. 

But which service is better? Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, which are evident in different aspects of their work. To answer this question, you need to take a closer look at each feature of these web applications. In today’s review, we’ll look at the following modules:

• Rank Tracking;

• Keyword research;

• Backlink analysis;

• Technical site audit. 

Together, they form the core of internal and external optimization, allowing you to quickly and effectively improve the ranking of your website in the search engine. So, after defining the purpose and content of the review, let’s move on!

What Are SE Ranking and Ahrefs?

SE Ranking overview

The company was founded in 2013. It initially positioned its product as a comprehensive set of SEO tools. Looking ahead, we can say that this gives it a serious competitive advantage in the SE Ranking vs Ahrefs comparison. In recent years, the platform has managed to grow from a young and ambitious startup to one of the leaders in its segment with an audience of 800,000 subscribers. One of the reasons behind its success might be those users searching for Ahrefs alternatives, seeking more cost-effective solutions. 

One of the key SE Ranking values is affordable SEO optimization. And the company takes it very seriously. Firstly, it is constantly improving its web application interface, trying to make it understandable for beginners and business owners who do not want to dive too deeply into technical aspects. Secondly, the subscription to the service is relatively inexpensive — its cost is below the average market level. 

Therefore, SE Ranking can be described as an SEO platform for everyone — from a small store near your home to a multinational corporation. 

SE Ranking pros

• Powerful tools for all areas of website SEO;

• A user-friendly minimalistic interface, perfect for beginners;

• Affordable and flexible subscription plans;

• Extensive databases of keywords and backlinks;

• Possibility to create personalized subscriptions on request. 

SE Ranking cons

• More filters in some reports would be desirable;

• You’ll have to choose a top subscription to get access to the API. 

Ahrefs overview

If the name sounds familiar, don’t be surprised. It comes from the HTML tag used to create links. Indeed, when it was founded in 2011, Ahrefs was a specialized service for backlink analysis. 

The platform quickly earned a reputation as the best tool in its field, but its developers were not going to stop there. They gradually added new modules until they got a comprehensive SEO service. That is what led us to the Ahrefs vs SE Ranking comparison in 2023. 

Unlike its competitor, this app is aimed more at professionals from marketing agencies. It provides them with a number of unique features, but it’s not easy to take advantage of them because of its complicated and confusing interface. 

Ahrefs pros

• In-depth link mass analysis to build an effective link-building policy;

• The keyword research tool is very easy to use;

• The company provides quality technical support — quick and responsive;

• A user-friendly API provides quick and seamless integration with other tools;

• Possibility to work with mobile and desktop versions of the search engine. 

Ahrefs cons

• Confusing interface;

• Expensive subscription plans;

• Weak rank tracking and technical audit modules. 

Feature Comparison

Rank Tracking

SE Ranking 

At first glance, it may seem that SE Ranking and Ahrefs offer the same functionality. Judge for yourself — both services track your positions for certain keywords and offer comparisons with your competitors. They offer an extensive list of countries to research — SE Ranking is slightly ahead in this regard, but that’s not the point. In addition, both platforms work with Google’s mobile and desktop versions. 

But the longer you look at the ranking module, the more obvious it becomes that SE Ranking is superior to alternative services. Let’s start with the number of search engines. In addition to Google, you can use Bing and Yahoo in this app. They have a narrow target audience, yet some companies will find it useful to work with. 

SE Ranking also offers a local SEO feature. It means that you can granularize the data to a specific zip code when tracking the effectiveness of your marketing policy. Such granularity will be simply indispensable for small businesses that work with local consumers and are not going to go national or, even more so, global. 

Another advantage that makes the platform come out ahead in the SE Ranking vs Ahrefs comparison is the daily data update. It allows you to work in very dynamic market segments, which include innovative technologies, financial services, cryptocurrencies, etc. By getting up-to-date information in a timely manner, you will be able to make the right decisions and get out of crisis situations with minimal damage. 

The accuracy of the data provided by SE Ranking is confirmed by cached versions of search engine pages. If you represent an agency and have a conflict with the customer, you can always prove your case. The better granularity of information should also be noted. SE Ranking shows pages that get to the TOP 1, 3, 5, and 10 results. Ahrefs, on the other hand, is limited to the top 3, 10, 50, and 100. That’s not bad either, but in a fiercely competitive environment, you may encounter information hunger. 

Ahrefs

Can we say that in the Ahrefs vs SE Ranking comparison, the former platform is far inferior to the latter? Not likely — we’ve already mentioned above that it perfectly copes with monitoring your optimization successes. Of course, it somewhat lacks granularity — we’d like to see both alternative search engines, local SEO, and more accurate segmentation of positions in the SERPs for the full picture. 

However, Ahrefs continues to be on the list of leaders for several years in a row for a reason. The platform helps you track the effectiveness of Google’s SERP snippets. It will advise you on how to improve this indicator. With its help, you will research specific queries to get to the section of FAQs. 

Ahrefs is also ahead of most alternative services by the convenience of sorting keywords. You have many filters at your disposal — by rank, SERP snippets, visibility level, traffic volume, and other important metrics. In addition, you can tag queries with custom tags so you can return to them with a single click. 

Ahrefs calculates your market share as well. By selecting a keyword, you can see the total amount of traffic and the share of each site that works on optimization in that segment. Statistics on the number of queries and pages can help you improve your strategy and make a leap forward. 

While all comprehensive SEO platforms send out reports in one form or another, we’d like to highlight Ahrefs’ success in this area. Unlike the site’s interface, its emails are very user-friendly. They are pleasing to the eye with their minimalistic design and informative nature. We hope that their example will inspire UX/UI designers to improve the web application. 

Verdict: SE Ranking wins

And there can be no disagreement here. As we compare SE Ranking and Ahrefs, we should note that the former has more features, a better granularity of statistics, and even additional search engines. In no way does this mean that Ahrefs does a bad job — it’s just that SE Ranking is a head above most of its competitors. 

Keyword research

SE Ranking 

There are about 5 billion searches in the platform’s database right now. This is far from a record-breaking figure, but SE Ranking is rapidly increasing it, coming close to recognized market leaders. 

The service provides standard functionality. If you select a keyword, you will get detailed statistics:

• The volume of paid and organic traffic;

• The complexity of optimization;

• Cost per click;

• Number of competitors;

• Dynamics of the number of queries and so on. 

However, when choosing Ahrefs or SE Ranking, we are still inclined towards the latter. The service is much easier to search for niche keywords in large market segments. Once you’ve selected a query, you can granularize it by getting the lists:

• similar keywords;

• related queries;

• low-frequency long-tail keywords. 

Each of these areas can be expanded even further by clicking the appropriate button at the bottom of the list. This allows you to find the shortest path to success, bypassing your competitors. In addition, the platform allows you to compile 60 customized keyword lists for each project. This will be handy for both large businesses and smaller companies who are trying out different approaches to forming their marketing policies. 

Evaluating the effectiveness of Ahrefs and SE Ranking, we would also like to highlight the role of the second service in setting up contextual advertising. By scrolling through the keyword query report to the end, you’ll get a detailed PPC analysis. It does not just show traffic volume and the average cost per click. You can see the details of the most effective ads from other companies to get the best ideas.

Ahrefs

The services in our review are trying to win customer loyalty in different ways, which makes the Ahrefs vs SE Ranking comparison even more interesting. Currently, the Ahrefs database is slightly larger — approximately 7 billion queries. Although in practice, you will not notice a particular advantage — the final lists of keywords will be very similar. However, the service developers rely on exclusive features that competitors, including SE Ranking, cannot offer. 

A very useful figure will be the ratio of clicks to impressions for certain keywords. And it demonstrates that Google’s SERP snippets are often more useful for consumers than for businesses. For example, with queries like “What is hydrogen” or “How many people live in London,” the number number of clicks is only 5-15% of impressions. People get all the necessary information already on the search results page — they are not motivated to click on links. 

Another important detail in Ahrefs statistics is the return rate (RR). It shows how often people return to the same search query over 30 days. With its help, you can estimate the likelihood of a repeat transaction. For example, people are more likely to return to search for tours than to search for real estate. As a result, you’ll be able to develop a more accurate and effective business plan. 

As we compare Ahrefs and SE Ranking, we can conclude that the former web application is slightly inferior in the granularity of results but provides you with unique insights. 

Verdict: SE Ranking wins

History shows that wars are won through logistics and comprehensive preparation, not single decisive battles. That’s why we like SE Ranking’s approach more. The service allows you to build a strong basis for successful management decisions. Of course, Ahrefs insights are important as well, but you should keep in mind that the perfect time to use them may not come. 

Backlink Analysis

SE Ranking 

A few years ago, it wouldn’t have been necessary to compare SE Ranking and Ahrefs in this regard. However, now, the multi-purpose set of SEO tools is ready to play in the same field as specialized services. Its database already contains more than 3 trillion links — an impressive figure by which it is not inferior to most competitors. 

However, we cannot say that you will find any unique advantages in the SE Ranking comparison with competitors. The service provides a standard data set:

• Number of links and unique domains;

• The level of trust of the entire resource and specific pages;

• The ratio of dofollow and nofollow tags;

• Domain rating in the Alexa database;

• Dates of first and last crawling. 

In general, this is enough to build an effective link-building policy. Still, we would like more. Some services can automatically generate individual insights and comprehensive strategies by analyzing competitors’ activities. SE Ranking does not give you that advantage. And in reality, the platform’s database is still lagging behind market leaders — you get 15-20% fewer results on average. 

Ahrefs

Finally, in the Ahrefs and SE Ranking comparative review, we came to the point where the former service can demonstrate all its advantages. And they start with the database, which has nearly 4 trillion links. Moreover, the platform demonstrates real superiority — having tested it on several popular resources, we received 10-15% more links than in the case of SE Ranking.

Ahrefs provides its users with a feature that allows them to look behind the veil of commercial secrecy. When you get your domain’s backlink report, you see a list of the top competitors. By selecting one of them, you can analyze their link-building strategy and find domains that are not yet covered by your company. This allows newcomers to repeat the success stories of the leaders, minimizing time, effort, and resources. 

You can get useful information from new link purchase charts as well. They help you identify problems at a glance. Looking at it, you will see at what point you lost your ranking due to technical problems, and at what point you acquired a huge mass of spammy links due to competitors’ machinations. 

Another good solution that distinguishes Ahrefs comparison against other SEO promotion platforms is a large number of filters in reports. For example, you can select only those links that are marked with the dofollow tag — SE Ranking does not provide such a feature. 

Verdict: Ahrefs wins

The results were not a surprise to us. As we compare SE Ranking and Ahrefs in the field of link building, we can only confirm the leadership of the latter. However, we should mention two aspects here. First, SE Ranking is quickly catching up with its older competitor, rapidly increasing the size of its database. Secondly, the excessive focus on one direction is detrimental to the others, which we will describe in more detail in the next section. 

Technical website audit

SE Ranking 

The most interesting aspect is that you don’t have to run this module manually. The service starts analyzing your site the moment you enter its URL. The process is done in the background and is quite fast. As an example, we took a 300-page site and received a detailed report in about 12-13 minutes. This approach can only be positively assessed — by the time you learn all the platform’s features and move on to the audit, everything will be done!

If you compare Ahrefs and SE Ranking, the claimed list of auditing features will be the same. Both services can detect over 120 problems, including:

• 404 errors and broken links;

• Duplicate headers and violations of page structure;

• Missing meta tags;

• Long page loads;

• Incorrectly filled sitemap and robots files;

• Negative UX factors;

• Problems with the code and scripts;

• Doorway pages without internal linking, and so on. 

But as we compare SE Ranking and Ahrefs, the first service demonstrates all the qualities inherent in the leader. During the analysis of identical pages, it reveals twice as many problem areas. At the same time, you get detailed instructions on how to eliminate these shortcomings, designed in the form of a list of tasks. 

The final report is minimalistic and informative. It evaluates the condition of your site on a 100-point scale. If you want, you can download it as a file to see all the details. 

Ahrefs

As we said before, in the Ahrefs vs SE Ranking comparison, the claimed features of both platforms are the same. However, the reality turns out to be more harsh with respect to the first service. 

The technical website audit is run manually. To do this, you need to open the appropriate module and click the button. The process also takes place in the background but takes much more time. The analysis of the site we took as an example lasted almost 40 minutes. 

When choosing Ahrefs or SE Ranking, we will definitely use the first option. The second also provides an informative, minimalistic report that can be downloaded or emailed. However, it has far fewer bugs! And these flaws are really present on the site and must be fixed. 

Unfortunately, Ahrefs loses out to most services in terms of technical audit quality. It helps to fix only critical errors that affect the performance of the page. However, many factors that determine the site’s ranking remain unseen by its crawler. 

Verdict: SE Ranking wins

This is what we meant when we talked about the disadvantages of excessive focus on one direction. In the SE Ranking vs Ahrefs comparison, SE Ranking lags behind Ahrefs in terms of link building quality but is ahead in all other features. Its superiority is particularly noticeable when we look at the technical audit modules of the two platforms. 

Comparison of other features

In doing research for the SE Ranking vs Ahrefs review, we found that both services provide content marketing modules to their subscribers. Their objectives are the same — to help marketers generate ideas for new text content and quickly fill sites to reach the top of search engines. But there are fundamental differences in the approach to implementation. 

Ahrefs simply gives you hints. Its crawler analyzes popular pages and shows which topics can lead you to success. It also evaluates the impact of textual content on external optimization, that is, on the increase in link mass and on increasing the authority level of the domain. 

If you compare Ahrefs vs SE Ranking, the latter will offer much more. This service uses AI, which generates topics and researches keywords for them. It generates ready-made briefs for copywriters, reducing time and increasing the efficiency of SEO optimization. 

SE Ranking can analyze content that is already on your site. The platform makes recommendations on how to change the number and density of keywords, as well as the number of words in text content. 

Price comparison

SE Ranking 

The company stays true to its mission — to make SEO accessible to everyone. That’s why it sets moderate subscription prices:

• The Essential plan with one user account, 10 projects, analysis of 5 competitors, and monitoring of 750 keywords per day is suitable for freelancers and small businesses. The cost starts at $55 per month.

• A Pro subscription has been created for mid-sized companies and novice marketing agencies. It includes three users, 10 competitors, and 2,000 queries per day. The cost is $109 per month.

• Large businesses can take advantage of the Enterprise subscription. It includes 5 users, 20 competitors, and 5,000 keywords per day. The cost is $239 per month. 

When we compare SE Ranking pricing vs Ahrefs pricing, we should clarify that with SE Ranking, the subscription cost will be indicative. If you are not satisfied with the standard subscription format, you can always contact the developers and get a customized offer. This is perfect if you want to focus on one particular optimization area. For example, you only need one user account to monitor many keywords. 

Ahrefs

The platform was created for professionals, so there’s no loyalty to beginners. The following subscription plans are available to you, which differ not only in research limits but also in functionality:

• Lite — basic modules, 5 projects, 750 keywords. Cost — from $99 per month.

• Standard — complete link-building functions, including competitor analysis. Historical data for 6 months, 20 projects, and 2,000 keywords. Cost — from $199 a month;

• Advanced — Google Data Studio integration and 2 years of historical data. 50 projects, 5,000 keywords. Cost — from $399 per month.

• Enterprise — customized terms, including access to APIs and historical data without time limits. 100 projects, 10,000 keywords. Cost — from $999 per month. 

Comparing Ahrefs pricing vs SE Ranking pricing, we should note the non-transparency of the former. The problem is that the subscription price does not include some important details. For example, you will have to pay extra for additional users and daily data updates even in the most expensive plan!

Verdict: SE Ranking wins 

If you are faced with a choice — SE Ranking or Ahrefs, your wallet will vote for the first option. Subscriptions to this service are cheaper with similar conditions. Plus, you won’t have to pay extra for access to vital features like link building and historical data analysis. 

Conclusion

The main conclusion from our review is that popularity and credibility do not always mean an appropriate level of quality. After comparing Ahrefs vs SE Ranking, we were surprised to find that the former platform lags behind its competitor in almost all parameters. It remains on the list of leaders due to its reputation, but it is time for developers to think about its comprehensive modernization. 

Today, we can recommend Ahrefs to those who have chosen link building as the main element of their marketing strategy. In this regard, the platform is truly unrivaled. But you have to pay for everything — full link analysis is only available with an advanced subscription starting at $199 per month. Whether such an amount is reasonable for a small business is a question to which there is no definite answer. 

A review of SE Ranking vs Ahrefs shows that the first service leads in terms of almost all features. It conducts high-quality technical audits, recommends the most promising keywords, and provides in-depth analytics when tracking rankings. Its advantages also include a user-friendly, minimalistic interface and affordable subscription prices. 

In the end, we confidently award the win to SE Ranking. This platform has already managed to surpass many prominent competitors and is moving steadily toward leadership in the segment of comprehensive SEO tools.