Ahrefs vs Authoritas - Alternative or complimentary SEO tools

Summary of Ahrefs vs Authoritas

So, if you’ve been a Ahrefs user for some time and you’re now considering alternative SEO tools then you’ve come to the right place.

If you are looking to completely replace Ahrefs in your SEO software technology stack then we can show some viable alternative contenders and why you might want to consider trying Authoritas in your next beauty parade.

Perhaps you are pretty happy with most aspects of Ahrefs and you are just looking for a few new or different SEO tools and insights that Ahrefs is missing?  If this is the case, then you will probably want to read our review of common features, as well as unique features of both platforms.  Hopefully, this will help you easily compare and find a few complementary Authoritas tools that will be good substitutes or additions to what you already have in your SEO tools arsenal.

What is Ahrefs?

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Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool that helps you track your website’s backlinks and SEO performance and like most SEO tools is designed to help you get better rankings for your website and allows you to see how your website’s competitors are performing.  Ahrefs has a range of free tools as well as a range of paid subscription packages that give you access to its 5 principle SEO tools.

What is Authoritas?

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Authoritas is also a cloud-based search engine optimization (SEO) platform that helps SEO professionals drive natural search visibility and revenue by fixing SEO issues and capitalising on SEO opportunities. It covers all the essential SEO tools you would expect to find (keyword rankings, keyword research, site crawling, backlink analysis, etc) and a few unique features you might not have expected.

Alternatives to Ahrefs

Well, if you’ve subscribed to Ahrefs then you will already know that it’s a comprehensive SEO platform powered with a rich source of big SEO data covering keywords, content and backlinks.  It’s got a comprehensive range of features and has a good track record and reputation in the industry.  But is it right for everyone?  (Possibly not if you’ve arrived on this page) 🙂

Tl;dr. Authoritas is a viable alternative to Ahrefs offering you a comprehensive range of accurate SEO tools and data, but at a price point that gives you double the number of projects and keyword rankings, so you can do more for less.  Ahrefs has a larger keyword database than Authoritas (or any other SEO tool for that matter).  It probably has the largest in the industry after its latest round of updates in February 2022.  Authoritas arguably has more SEO tools to help you focus on the most important priority areas which will generate the greatest ROI on your SEO efforts.

Similar SEO tools to consider

There are hundreds of different SEO tools that focus on one aspect of SEO, whether that’s a tool for keyword research, backlink analysis or SEO testing.  Many of these are complementary to Ahrefs or indeed Authoritas.  But it’s beyond the scope of this review to compare each and every one.  So, here instead is a list of comprehensive, seasoned SEO platforms at a similar price point that you could consider when you are thinking about replacing Ahrefs.

1. Semrush- read our in-depth comparison
2. Authoritas – read on below to see how we compare to Ahrefs

Ahrefs vs Authoritas Comparison

Both Ahrefs and Authoritas offer a wide range of features and SEO tools to help you improve your SEO. But which one is right for you? Here is a detailed comparison of Ahrefs and Authoritas.

Common Ahrefs & Authoritas SEO Features

• Keyword Rankings with Universal Search Results and User Intent.  Although, Authoritas uses a real browser to get the most accurate results and can even deliver hyperlocal results to a building level using a decimal latitude and longitude

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• Keyword research – both have extensive keyword databases.  But at the time of writing Ahref’s keyword database is much larger than Authoritas, which tends to focus on commercial keywords.  We do not plan to get caught in a keywords arms race (we’ll leave that to Ahrefs and SEMRush- after all, how many keywords can you really optimise for at once?). Authoritas’ approach is more customised to the needs of major eCommerce sites and large websites and is focused on creating a customised view of a market by crawling all key competing pages to discover all keyword niches and then summarising the best opportunities to prioritise for your market

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• Keyword Search Volume and Demand Data – Ahrefs uses its own search volumes derived from clickstream data; Authoritas uses AdWords search volumes.

• Backlink analysis – Ahrefs has built its own database of ~1.9 trillion backlinks.  Authoritas gives you firehose access to the Majestic database which also has over ~1.1 trillion URLs in its live index and ~18 trillion unique URLs in its historic index (We still believe this offers the best combination of comprehensive coverage of the whole web coupled with regular fresh updates with new links).

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• Competitor analysis – Ahrefs allows you to analyse performance against 5  competitors and its competitive gap analysis tool allows you to find keywords that these competing sites are ranking for and you are not.  Authoritas allows you to track 25 competitors per project and its Content Strategy module does competitive gap analysis across your top 100 competing sites giving you a complete industry analysis and recommendations for optimising existing pages and creating new content across potentially millions of keywords.

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• SEO auditing – Ahrefs has a website auditor and crawler.  It analyses pretty much the same basic technical and content SEO issues as Authoritas’ crawler.  The Content 360 module from Authoritas joins-up website crawl, keyword ranking and analytics data in one view so you can get a consolidated view of your technical SEO issues and can prioritise actions using keyword or analytics data.  Ahrefs has similar advanced filters that allows you to do the same.  Ahrefs has more charts visualising these technical SEO audit issues, to see this in Authoritas you need to sync crawl data with Google Big Query and use its Google Data Studio templates for SEO.

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• Both tools have a range of advanced filters to allow a technical SEO team to drill-down to specific types of problems.  E.g. You can also use advanced search operators, such as allintitle: inpagebody: to search for specific text found on pages or to search for specific pages that meet other criteria
• Traffic analysis – both platforms integrate with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
• Platform APIs – both SEO tools have APIs that allow you to suck data out of their databases into your own BI or data visualisation tools
• Platform exports in .csv – Both platforms let you download data.  Authoritas does not limit this or charge you for additional rows over your allowance – downloads are unlimited.
• Alerts – You can set alerts to notify you of changes to key SEO metrics and data, such as ranking changes in both platforms
• Dashboards – you can create multiple dashboards to keep track of your SEO projects

Ahrefs Unique Features

• Paid search data – Ahrefs gives you information about who is competing in paid search with your brand.  This includes details about the advertisements your competitors are running, the keywords they are bidding on, when they appeared and which landing pages they are targeting. Authoritas provides information about the presence of Ads and Shopping results in the SERP in the Keyword Ranking module and offers access to the full SERP for each keyword in Big Query or via its standalone SERPs API

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• Size of its Keyword Database – Ahrefs claims to have 19 billion keywords in 243 countries and 10 search engines.  This powers its flagship Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer products.
  
• Content Explorer – this product is based on its Content Index of 10 billion pages.  An impressive resource which allows you to see by keyword which articles are performing well organically and in terms of social and backlink popularity.  This gives you a range of sites to target or content ideas to write about.

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Authoritas Unique Features

• User Intent signals for keyword research –  The majority of keywords have a blend of intent from Navigational to Informational, Research oriented or Transactional in nature.  Authoritas gives users a score across this spectrum which helps you filter the billions of possible keywords out there to a focused list of keywords with real commercial relevance and potential.

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• New: “Smell of the SERP” – our SERP Landscape tool can help you understand whether you have the correct type of content to rank in the SERPs.  It does this by analysing the top organic 10 page types and comparing the differences with your page
• Google Big Query integration and synchronisation – Authoritas syncs your essential SEO data to Big Query so you can mash it up with other internal business data and data from other marketing tools, e.g. AdWords campaign performance data.  We sync ranking data, analytics, Google Search Console, full SERP results, crawler, share of search and backlink data to your Big Query account giving you peace-of-mind and granular access to all your data
• Google Data Studio Integration – Both platforms make it easy for you to export data for SEO reporting and storytelling in Google Data Studio. But, the depth offered by Authoritas in this area is unparalleled – here’s an example of our advanced Google Data Studio templates for SEO

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• Multinational Google Data Studio templates for MNEs managing many international sites or hundreds of sites across a country (see example)
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• Hyperlocal Keyword Ranking visualisations (see example)
• Advanced Keyword Ranking – We track a greater number of Universal SERP features than any other tool, including industry specific ones such as Stock prices, hotel and travel guides
• Custom Exports – we have created a range of custom data exports for large in-house and agency teams – there is no additional charge for these downloads or artificial row limits
• Big data-science-driven Content Strategy tool that does Competitive gap analysis at scale for your whole industry – if you have a large site and want to get even larger then you won’t have seen anything like this before.  It’s also ideal for analysing a country prior to international website expansion
• A strategic focus on SEO tools for major eCommerce sites.  Key unique features here include integration with Site Search and Merchandising technology from companies such as GroupBy, the ability to create SEO friendly landing pages at scale, automatic creation of metadata and eCommerce summary text and buyers guides
• Standalone SERPs API – If you have your own internal dashboards or digital marketing tools then you can get fresh data on-demand from our SERPs API.  Oh, and we also return User Intent and Smell of the SERP data
• AI Content Assistant – Improve the efficiency of your SEO and editorial teams by using the power of AI to write quality content for you.  From automating unique Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions, to writing buying guides and ecommerce summary text for PLPs (Product Landing Pages) and generic and ‘How to?” style article outline drafts.  Producing quality content at scale just got a lot easier.

Ahrefs Price Comparison

Authoritas gives you a comprehensive range of SEO tools and at least twice as many keyword rank checks per day.  At the entry-level Authoritas includes 7 times more daily rank checks, in the mid-tier it’s double and at the Agency level it’s 3x more than Ahrefs.  It’s also free to get started!  In our opinion, you can achieve as much with Authoritas but for less.

Ahrefs offers a wide range of pricing plans, starting with the Lite package at $99/month, the Standard at $179/month, Advanced at $399/month and Agency at $999 per month.  You can also have a 7 day trial for $7.

Authoritas offers a similar range of competitively priced plans.  You can start for free with 1 site and 1,000 keyword rank credits per month.  Paid plans start with the Essentials plan at $99/month, Advanced at $399/month and Expert from $799 per month.  Customisable plans are also available.

The major pricing axes are based on a combination of features and usage allowances.

Ahrefs vs Authoritas Pricing

The table below directly compares advertised pricing packages from Authoritas against Ahrefs. You can also look at our other SEO tool review pages to compare Ahrefs with even more SEO tools.

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We think Ahrefs is pretty good value for money considering the depth of data and quality of tools on offer.  We also like to think we offer a complementary set of tools and data at even better price points.

Ahrefs usage limitations

So bear in mind though, that unlike Authoritas, Ahrefs has usage limits in place on around 25 to 30 different features or reports – certainly too many to list in this table!  These cover things such as how many pages you can crawl per month, to how many domains you can crawl per week.  You might find it difficult to keep track of this especially when you have multiple users, as some limits are weekly, some are monthly; some are limits to exports per report, some are limits to exports per month!

With no complex feature related usage limits (other than projects, users and keywords which almost every tool uses) Authoritas offers great value for money.  We also offer a ‘Price guarantee’ that we will beat any comparable, competitive quote by at least 10% and we offer you a no-quibble 30 day money back guarantee.

Ahrefs User Reviews and Customer Satisfaction

Ahrefs has thousands of satisfied customers.  But, if you are reading this page then perhaps you find it a bit too overwhelming and you are considering alternatives or another toolset to use alongside it?

It has great reviews across all the major SaaS software review sites and the common Pros and Cons we see listed are:

Pros:

1. Ahrefs is a very comprehensive backlink analysis tool that can help you identify and track your website’s backlinks.
2. The tool also offers a variety of other features such as content research, competitor analysis, and keyword research.
3. Ahrefs is a paid tool, but it offers a 7-day trial so you can test out the features before you commit.

Cons:

1. Ahrefs can be a little expensive for small businesses and individual bloggers.
2. The tool can be a little complex for beginners.
3. The data can be a little overwhelming at first.

(N/B: Obviously no software provider stands still, and like us, Ahrefs is constantly working on improving all aspects of their software).

• Ahrefs scores 4.8 on Software Suggest
• Ahrefs scores 8.9/10 on Trust Radius – Authoritas scores 8.1/10 on TrustRadius
• Ahrefs scores 9.5 and has a 95% customer satisfaction rating on FinancesOnline Reviews – Analytics SEO (official company name for Authoritas) scores 7.8 and 99% for customer satisfaction.
• Ahrefs scores 4.7/5.0 on Capterra and Authoritas scores 4.0/5.0 on Capterra.

• Ahrefs scores 5.0/5.0 on SoftwareAdvice.

(Data correct as of 24/02/22).

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Ahrefs FAQs

We’ve put together a list of short answers to the most common questions users have about Ahrefs and how it stacks up against other leading SEO tools.‍

What Is Ahrefs?

It is an all-in-one SEO platform for digital marketers. The company offers a range of data and tools to help website owners optimize their websites.

Which is better Ahrefs or Semrush?

That’s really a matter of personal preference and what exactly you need to achieve.  Ahrefs now claims to offer more data, whilst Semrush have a wider selection of tools beyond SEO, including lead generation tools for agencies and social media tools.  It’s also not necessarily the right question – as there may be SEO software out there that is better suited to your needs, e.g. Authoritas, Moz, Searchmetrics to name a few.

Is Ahrefs worth the money?

If you can afford to pay $99 per month, then it’s likely that you will get real business value from this low-level investment in Ahrefs or any similarly priced SEO tool.  If you cannot afford to pay $99 per month and see an ROI, then you probably have systematic issues with your business.

Can I use Ahrefs for free?

At the time of writing there is not a free version of Ahrefs.  It does offer some free SEO tools such as a backlink checker, broken link checker, keyword generator and webmaster tools, but there is a requirement to purchase a subscription to use its flagship tools.

Is Ahrefs safe?

As far as we know, “Yes”. The toolset is robust and they have been building the company for many years. They seem like they have a friendly team that doesn’t bite!

Is Ahrefs better than Moz?

This depends on your exact requirements. If you value the community and some well thought-out simple SEO tools then you might prefer Moz; if you value more advanced integration of tools and filtering then you might prefer Ahrefs. If you are looking for the right combination of both, then you might like to try Authoritas.

How reliable is Ahrefs?

They’ve been around in the SEO industry for many years.  They are serious players and their toolset has a good reputation.

What is similar to Ahrefs?

If you’ve heard of or used Ahrefs then you will almost certainly have heard of Moz and Semrush. There are also a range of other SEO tools for professionals that you might want to consider such as Authoritas.

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