--- title: "Free Ahrefs alternative | SEO Skill" description: "Free Ahrefs alternative: free backlink, keyword and traffic tools, plus your own Search Console data in your AI agent. Compare features and price." canonical: "https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/ahrefs" language: "en" --- # Free Ahrefs alternative Ahrefs is a paid SEO and marketing suite built on its own web crawler and 10+ years of web data, with a free account for verified sites. SEO Skill is free: web tools for the everyday lookups, and your own Search Console, Google Analytics and keyword data in your AI agent. [Get started free](https://seoskill.dev/account) Run it in a terminal, then sign in with Google. Or run it on your machine Installs the CLI, signs you in and adds the skill to your agents. Site crawls and Bing data run this way, on your own machine. A crawl fetches many pages, and Bing blocks our hosted server. ## At a glance The four things most people compare first, from each product's own pages. ### SEO Skill Free use Every on-demand tool, no usage cap Paid $50 a month per site, for the weekly audit Works in web chat Yes Get started Free web tools with no account, or one URL in your AI agent ### Ahrefs Free use Free account, verified sites Paid $29 a month (Starter) Works in web chat Yes, on Lite and higher plans Get started Create an account ## Free tools for the jobs you use Ahrefs for No account and no key. Each one opens in your browser. [ ### Backlink checker See the sites that link to a domain or page, with anchor text, followed links and a year of history. Open the backlink checker](https://seoskill.dev/tools/backlink-checker)[ ### Domain Rating checker Check Domain Rating by Ahrefs for any website. Open the Domain Rating checker](https://seoskill.dev/tools/domain-rating-checker)[ ### Competitor keyword research See the keywords a competitor ranks for, or the sites that compete with any domain. Open competitor keyword research](https://seoskill.dev/tools/competitor-keyword-research)[ ### Website traffic checker Estimate a website's monthly organic traffic, ranking keywords, and position changes by country. Open the website traffic checker](https://seoskill.dev/tools/website-traffic-checker) ## Pick Ahrefs if From Ahrefs's own pages. - you need a large backlink index from a crawler the company runs itself. - you want a free account for your own verified sites with no trial clock and no card. - you want Search Console history kept past Google's 16 months next to Ahrefs' own data. - you want its MCP server in Claude or ChatGPT on the web, and already pay for Lite or above. ## Pick SEO Skill if Free SEO tools in your browser, and your own search data in your AI agent. - You want the everyday lookups for free: backlinks, Domain Rating, competitor keywords, SERPs and traffic estimates, with no account. - You want your AI agent to answer from your own Search Console and Google Analytics data, not only from an index estimate. - You already pay for keyword data: SEO Skill uses your own DataForSEO or Ahrefs key, so you pay that provider and nothing on top. - You want a weekly crawl, daily index checks and drop alerts for $50 a month per site, with no seats to buy. ## Side by side Every fact we compared, with Ahrefs's taken from the sources at the end of this page. SEO SkillAhrefs Get started SEO Skill: Use the free web tools with no account. For your own data, add https://seoskill.dev/mcp to your AI agent and sign in with Google (read only). Ahrefs: Create an Ahrefs account. Ahrefs Free needs no credit card and has no trial period, but Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics only work on websites you verify. Paid plans are bought by card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay). Ahrefs says it does not run discounts or free trials. Enterprise needs a talk with sales and an annual commitment. What it does SEO Skill: Free web tools: backlink checker, Domain Rating, competitor keywords, SERP checker, traffic estimates, robots.txt, sitemap, schema and more. In your AI agent: Search Console reports (quick wins, low CTR, striking distance, content decay, cannibalization, traffic drops), page checks, index checks, before and after comparisons, and keyword research with your own key. A site crawler and internal links in the CLI. Ahrefs: Site Explorer (backlinks and organic keywords), Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Competitive Analysis, SERP history, Brand Radar for AI prompts, Web Analytics, Report Builder, Social Media Manager (beta) and more on higher plans. API and MCP access come with Lite and up. The hosted MCP server uses API units from the plan: 200,000 on Lite, 800,000 on Standard, 2M on Advanced. Data SEO Skill: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, URL Inspection, Clicky, and DataForSEO or Ahrefs with your own key. Bing Webmaster Tools in the CLI. Free Domain Rating by Ahrefs on research rows. Ahrefs: Ahrefs' own crawler and web index, Ahrefs keyword database, Google Search Console (verified projects), Ahrefs Web Analytics (its own analytics script), Brand Radar AI prompt data, Social media channels (Social Media Manager) Where you use it SEO Skill: Your browser for the web tools. Claude Code, Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Le Chat and any remote MCP client for your own data. Ahrefs: Web app, SEO Toolbar (browser extension), Claude Web, Claude Desktop, Claude Mobile, Claude Code, Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Web, Lovable, n8n, Manus, Mistral's Le Chat, OpenClaw In Claude or ChatGPT on the web SEO Skill: Yes Ahrefs: Yes, on Lite and higher plans Free SEO Skill: Every on-demand tool, with no usage cap and no time limit. Ahrefs: Ahrefs Free is a permanent free account with no credit card. It gives limited Site Explorer and Site Audit access for verified websites (unlimited verified sites, 5K crawl credits a month per project, 1K backlinks and keywords visible at once), Web Analytics up to 1M events per project, Social Media Manager (unlimited in beta), 1 free AI Content Helper doc a month and the SEO Toolbar. No API or MCP access. Paid plans SEO Skill: The weekly site audit is $50 a month per site: weekly crawl, daily Google index checks, stored history, drop and return alerts, and a Monday email and webhook. Cancel any time. Ahrefs: Starter $29 a month. Lite $129 a month (1 user, 6 months of history, 750 tracked keywords). Standard $249 a month (2 years of history, 2,000 tracked keywords). Advanced $449 a month (5 years of history, 5,000 tracked keywords). Enterprise $1,499 a month with an annual commitment. Extra users cost $40, $60, $80 or $100 a month each by plan. Paying annually saves up to 17%. Prices in USD. Add-ons include Content Kit from $99 a month, Report Builder $99 a month, Traffic Analytics $99 a month and Project Boosts from $20 a month per project. Can it change your site SEO Skill: Read-only Google sign-in. Your agent can start the paid audit for a site, which returns a Stripe Checkout link for you to open. Ahrefs: Some. Social Media Manager can publish and schedule social posts. The Project Boost Pro and Max add-ons can auto-submit URLs to IndexNow, and Max adds Patches. No Google Search Console write actions are stated. Your data SEO Skill: Search Console and analytics rows are fetched on each request and never stored, except what the paid weekly audit keeps for its sites. Your linked accounts and saved keys are kept, encrypted. Ahrefs: Yes for Search Console. Ahrefs imports up to the last 16 months of GSC data and keeps storing it for as long as the account stays connected. Its help page says GSC data is only shown to you and people you give access, and that it is used, without identifying your site, to improve Ahrefs' search volume estimates. Google Analytics storage not stated. History SEO Skill: Google's 16 months, read live. With the weekly audit, crawl and index history for the sites you audit. Ahrefs: Ahrefs data history depends on plan: 6 months on Lite, 2 years on Standard, 5 years on Advanced, unlimited on Enterprise. Search Console history grows past 16 months while connected. Licence SEO Skill: Hosted service, with the CLI and local MCP server open source (Apache 2.0) Ahrefs: Hosted service ## Move from Ahrefs in a few minutes Nothing to migrate: SEO Skill reads your accounts live. When you are done, remove Ahrefs from your agent and revoke its access. - [Add SEO Skill to your agentUse the setup box above, or the steps for your client on the integrations page.](https://seoskill.dev/integrations) - ### Check your access Ask "list my Search Console properties". Every Google account you link shows up. - [Add your research keySave a DataForSEO or Ahrefs key on your account page if you use keyword research.](https://seoskill.dev/account) - ### Keep what you still need Projects and history you built in Ahrefs stay there. SEO Skill reads Search Console live, so you can run both while you decide. ## More comparisons Other ways to give your agent search data, next to SEO Skill. [ ### AccuRanker Free: No. Paid: $249 a month (Professional). Free AccuRanker alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/accuranker)[ ### AnswerThePublic Free: Free, 3 searches a day. Paid: US$20 a month (Starter). Free AnswerThePublic alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/answerthepublic)[ ### Majestic Free: Free account, limits not stated. Paid: $49.99 a month (Lite). Free Majestic alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/majestic)[ ### Mangools Free: Free plan, 5 lookups a day. Paid: $61 a month (Basic). Free Mangools alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/mangools) ## Questions about Ahrefs Sources for Ahrefs, read 3 November 2026: [Plans, prices, limits, add-ons, API and MCP from Lite, no trials, payment methods](https://ahrefs.com/pricing), [Ahrefs Free tools, limits, no credit card](https://ahrefs.com/free), [MCP clients, Lite and up, API units, OAuth keys](https://docs.ahrefs.com/en/mcp/docs/introduction), [Search Console import, storage beyond 16 months, data use](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/5311821-how-do-i-see-my-google-search-console-performance-in-ahrefs).