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Search for a free Ahrefs alternative and you keep running into trials or paid plans. You need something that can handle the work without another subscription bill.
Keyword research, backlinks, crawling, or page reporting? Use the task table to see where to start. The limits deserve a closer look, including lookup counts, crawl coverage, proof of ownership, and options for saving your work. The checklist should come before any paid upgrade to your stack.
Choosing an Ahrefs alternative free of monthly fees
An audit or backlink review of your own website is a good reason to open Ahrefs Free, formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Mangools is the pick for keyword research; for link analysis, open Moz Link Explorer. Your website or a competitor's? Competitor research rules out Ahrefs Free: access needs ownership verification, and competitor data isn't included.1
| Job to finish | Start with | First constraint to check |
|---|---|---|
| Audit your own website and review backlinks | Ahrefs Free | Ownership verification; monthly crawl credits and backlinks per report |
| Research related or competitor keywords | Mangools | Five lookups per 24 hours, with capped results per lookup |
| See search volume while reviewing Google results | Keyword Surfer | Requires the Chrome extension |
| Review link metrics for competitor research | Moz Link Explorer | 10 queries per month with a Moz Community account |
| Crawl a website | Screaming Frog SEO Spider | 500 URLs in the free version |
| Run a rank check alongside a crawl or backlink review | SEO PowerSuite | One project; projects and rankings cannot be saved |
| Compare your own pages' clicks over time | Search Console data in SEO Heatmap | Free for one Search Console property |
My recommendation: stick with the tool your current task needs until a limit gives you a reason to add another. Build your Ahrefs alternatives shortlist around separate jobs: finding keywords, researching backlinks, crawling sites, and reporting performance. A tool that handles one of those well may be little help with the others.
Separate a permanent plan from a trial
A permanent plan can still have tight usage limits. Ahrefs Free puts limits on usage and asks for verification, while Mangools restricts both lookups and keyword results. The access doesn't expire when a plan is free forever, though individual features can still have limits.
A free trial lets you try subscription features until its time runs out. Ahrefs doesn't even offer this option, which makes it even more important to correctly identify which alternatives fall into this bucket versus the next one.2 In the US, Semrush's paid plans have a seven-day trial.3 Plan an evaluation around it, rather than depending on it for ongoing work that needs to stay free.
Freemium with a real cap means permanently free, but limited to a small number of searches per day or a small crawl size, like Mangools' 5 daily keyword lookups.4 Read the reset period and the result cap together. Five lookups won't tell you much about the amount of research possible without knowing if reports are unrestricted or reduced to a short list.
For temporary access, decide which report you'll try and check the renewal terms before you start. A permanent plan earns a place in your routine by handling your usual workload, so put it through that test. Can you get to the report and make sense of it? You also need a way to keep the findings. That's how to judge the interface and learning curve. Those are different tests, even when both landing pages say “free.” Semrush's subscription documentation says exporting data is disabled during the trial period.3
Ahrefs' own free tools, now that Webmaster Tools is called Ahrefs Free
Ahrefs Free: Site Explorer and Site Audit for verified owners
Once you've verified website ownership, Ahrefs Free lets you into Site Explorer and Site Audit, though access is limited.1 Older guides may call it Webmaster Tools; the signup you're looking for now is Ahrefs Free.5
You get 5,000 crawl credits to use each month, while a report tops out at 1,000 backlinks.5 Site Audit checks for 170+ prebuilt SEO issues during a technical review.1 They're different units. Backlink rows belong to reports, crawl credits cover a month, and Site Audit's figure counts the checks it can run.
For the website you manage, verification opens up backlink data and the findings from Site Audit. Fixes affecting the sections you're working on take priority, rather than chasing an issue-count target. You'll need another tool for competitor research because these owner reports are about your website.
The Backlink Checker is a separate tool
Ahrefs also offers a free Backlink Checker.1 Don't confuse that individual tool with the verified-owner access in Ahrefs Free. Need Site Explorer and Site Audit reports for the website you own? That's the job for Ahrefs Free.
A one-off link check will show you what the Backlink Checker returns before you work it into your routine. Does it show the links and metrics your decision needs?
Mangools free vs. Ahrefs Free: what you can finish
On Mangools' free plan, you get five lookups per 24 hours. Each lookup returns 15 related keywords and five competitor keywords.4 Signing up doesn't require a credit card.6 For a broad research project, it's a tight fit; exploring keyword ideas for a small topic shortlist is more realistic.
On a website you've verified, Ahrefs' owner plan lets you examine backlinks and audit findings instead. Use the table to choose your starting tool.
| Your next task | My starting pick | How to keep the task within scope |
|---|---|---|
| Find related terms for a content brief | Mangools | Choose seed topics before spending lookups; review the capped suggestions |
| Inspect keywords associated with a competitor | Mangools | Start with the competitor most relevant to the brief; expect five competitor keywords per lookup |
| Investigate your own backlink profile | Ahrefs Free | Work from a report of up to 1,000 backlinks |
| Review your own audit findings | Ahrefs Free | Plan crawls around the 5,000-credit monthly allowance |
Before drafting the keyword brief, take a look at the search results themselves. Do the topics and formats of the ranking pages match the content you have planned? Let SERP analysis shape that brief, because search volume alone won't tell you what to write.
Keyword Surfer for search volume beside Google results
Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome extension that shows search volume beside Google results.7 It requires no account. Use it when you want to check volume while reviewing the results page without opening another research dashboard.
Review the ranking pages alongside the volume data. Note the search intent and content format in your brief, so keyword research ends with a writing decision.
Ubersuggest: test the limited tier before building around it
Ubersuggest has a free tier with limits. Its homepage also promotes a lifetime deal you buy with a one-time payment.8 No recurring subscription doesn't make the deal free, since you still have to buy it. That purchase needs its own budget, apart from the tools that cost nothing to use.
Try the limited tier on the specific research task you need to finish. Your account shows the allowance; check it against the results you need to finish the brief. At checkout, read which features and usage allowances the lifetime purchase includes before buying it.
Backlink research with Moz Link Explorer
A Moz Community account gets you access to Moz Link Explorer, with 10 free queries available each month.9 You get Link Intersect, Spam Score, Linking Domains, and Domain Authority, as well as anchor text to review. Keep the link review focused, or a long competitor list will use up your monthly queries.
For link building, my first stop is a domain that ranks for the topic at hand. Use linking domains and anchor text to spot promising pages. An outreach list comes later, after you've visited them. Keep the findings you'll refer to later; otherwise, a follow-up question may burn another lookup on the same target.
Contacting a site takes more than a metric. The number only tells you where to begin looking. Look at the topic, the content around a possible link, and how well your link would fit. Our Moz alternatives guide compares more of the tools you could choose.
Crawling and rank checks: where desktop limits bite
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog's free tier caps at 500 URLs per crawl.10 This crawler runs on your desktop. A paid license removes the cap, though allocated memory still sets a limit. How far did the crawler get? That's what you need to know before judging the website as a whole.
The area you're working on is where the crawl should begin. A crawl stopped by the cap means either narrowing its scope or finding room for more URLs. Our Screaming Frog alternatives guide compares crawler options by setup and site size.
SEO PowerSuite: rank checks versus saved rank tracking
You run SEO PowerSuite on your desktop, with versions for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Free Forever lets you run one project and check rankings, but neither can be saved. You also get analysis of 1,100 backlinks and can monitor one competitor per project, alongside a 500-URL crawl and audit.11 The catch for ongoing rank tracking is saving: try working without it before you commit to the free tier.
For a check finished in one session, you can work around this by recording the findings yourself. Reopening projects or following ranking changes calls for a plan with saving, so evaluate those options. Rank checks tell you where you stand now; they don't leave you with a saved history of changes.11
An SEO stack for your next task
Ahrefs Free is a starting point for investigating backlinks and Site Audit findings on a website you manage. A desktop crawl helps when you want to examine a particular section. Putting together a content brief? You'll have to read the search results yourself, even with keyword ideas from Mangools or search volume from Keyword Surfer. Moz Link Explorer is the choice when you're examining competitors' links.
Your reports need accompanying notes: the pages awaiting review, what you've found, and which changes you plan to make. After a change, that page's click trend belongs in your reporting so you can follow the work you've done. Google Search Console Help recommends filtering and grouping performance reports by page, country, and date.12
Watch for vendor content posing as independent testing
Check the publisher before trusting a “best alternative” ranking of SEO tools. Find out who owns the domain, which product leads the list, and what the ownership or affiliate disclosure says. Vendor comparisons can help you compare features, though their recommendations come from someone trying to sell you a product.
A screenshot or first-person account alone doesn't establish that a review is independent. Find out which plan the test used and if its task matches yours. A screenshot of subscription features won't answer whether the no-cost tier can finish your work.
Check what supports the case study's result
A claimed result needs enough detail to check: which website, over what period, and measured how? Before attributing it to a tool switch, ask about other changes made during that period. An unsourced percentage calls for a closer look at the claim; it isn't a prediction for your pages.
This comparison deserves that scrutiny too. We own SEO Heatmap, and we're recommending it here for page-click reporting. For backlinks, keywords, or crawling, let the features your task requires determine which tool you choose. The publisher's ranking shouldn't do your testing for you.
Ahrefs pricing in October 2026: when should you upgrade?
Paying starts to make sense when the same task keeps running into a plan's limits. You might need extra keyword lookups or crawl coverage, or the ability to save projects and ranking history. Put the blocker in writing before shopping for plans; you'll have something specific to check the upgrade against.
At $29/month, Ahrefs Starter gives you limited access to the tools. Lite costs $129/month on monthly billing, and Ahrefs advertises savings of up to 17% with annual billing.13 None of Ahrefs' paid tiers offers a free trial.
| Ahrefs plan | US price | Billing scope |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/month | Monthly |
| Lite | $129/month | Monthly; annual billing saves up to 17% |
| Standard | $249/month | Monthly |
| Advanced | $449/month | Monthly |
| Enterprise | $1,499/month | Annual commitment |
The October 2026 price ladder gives you a budget reference; you'll still need to check what each plan includes and allows. Starter buys you access of its own. It isn't a Lite trial. Is your report included? That's the question to settle before choosing Starter's limited access.
At $349/year on a one-year plan, SEO PowerSuite Professional gives you the option to save desktop work.11 Saving and reopening projects need to matter enough to you to justify that yearly spend. Check what Mangools or Ubersuggest is currently offering before you commit. Even a lifetime deal belongs in your budget, despite having no monthly payment.
Test your stack on one real task before committing
Do the setup first. For your own pages, that means verifying the website in Ahrefs Free and connecting your Search Console property before testing. Use work that's already waiting, such as a content brief, a backlink review, or an audit, as your test. Record where you ran into limits, along with any findings you could retain. Will teammates use this regularly too? Have each of them work through it before choosing the tool.
Keep this checklist handy while you work:
- Your task belongs in one of these groups: keyword research, backlink analysis, crawling, rank checks, or page-click reporting.
- Website or Search Console property access has to be in place wherever the work requires it.
- Read the reset period and result cap, not just the word “free.”
- Are you looking at the right pages, keywords, or competitor for this job?
- For recurring reports or rank tracking, confirm that the crawl covers what you need and that you can save the work.
- Your notes should capture the findings and the page change you'll make next.
- When a limit prevents completion, find out if the paid plan would remove that particular obstacle.
- Paying should wait until you've read the publisher's ownership disclosure and checked the price.
Only the tools that help you finish belong on your daily checklist. Before you consider more SEO tools, work out which step failed if you couldn't finish the task. “I need saved ranking history” is a useful buying requirement; “I need something like Ahrefs” is still a search query.
SEO Heatmap is worth trying for page reporting. Its click heatmap covers each page over 16 months, the period Search Console holds. We own the product. You can connect one Search Console property for free, with a paid plan needed for more. Pages losing clicks deserve a closer look in that view before you choose content changes or begin an audit.
Frequently asked questions
Which free SEO tool is best for replacing Ahrefs?
For your own website's backlinks and audit findings, there's Ahrefs Free. Keyword research points you to Mangools, while link analysis points you to Moz Link Explorer. The job in front of you should decide the tool. Bring in another tool only for a specific limit that keeps the job unfinished.
Can I get Ahrefs for free without a paid trial?
Yes. Once you've verified a website, Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) gives you limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit. The cap is 1,000 backlinks in each report, plus 5,000 crawl credits per month. There's no free trial for Ahrefs' paid tiers, and limited tool access through Starter costs $29/month.
Can I use Ubersuggest for free, or do I need its lifetime deal?
Ubersuggest's free tier has limits, but the lifetime deal isn't required to use it. Lifetime access, though, is a separate purchase with a one-time payment. Try finishing the task on the limited tier first. If you're going to pay, confirm the features and allowances included.
What's the best free keyword research tool to start with?
Mangools is the starting choice for related or competitor keywords; for search volume alongside Google results, use Keyword Surfer. No credit card is needed for Mangools' five lookups per 24 hours. Each lookup includes 15 related keywords and five competitor keywords. Keyword Surfer is a Chrome extension that requires no account.
Why can't Ahrefs Free show me competitor data?
Ahrefs Free is limited to the website whose ownership you verify and provides no competitor data. Use Mangools for competitor keyword research or Moz Link Explorer for competitor link analysis. Moz's allowance is 10 queries per month with a free Moz Community account.
Why isn't SEO PowerSuite's free tier enough for ongoing rank tracking?
You can check rankings on the free tier, but the projects and ranking history can't be saved. You get one project, with a 500-URL crawl and audit and analysis of 1,100 backlinks. You can also monitor one competitor per project. Checks you finish in one sitting can work here, though recurring reports call for a closer look at saving options.
When does a paid plan become worth the cost?
If you keep hitting the same limit before finishing your work, a paid plan may be worth considering. That could mean more keyword lookups or a larger crawl, or the ability to save projects and ranking history. An upgrade is only worth committing to after a test shows it removes that limit.
Should I question a vendor's top-ranked alternative?
The seller is doing the recommending if its own product gets the top spot. Domain ownership and the disclosure are part of the check, along with the plan in the screenshots and the work tested. You need the website, timeframe, and measurement method before you can put any trust in that result.
After an audit or content update, each page's click trend is something you can track in SEO Heatmap. One Search Console property costs nothing, so adding this reporting to your stack doesn't mean another monthly fee.
Sources (13)
SEO Heatmap Knowledge relies on primary sources: Google's documentation, web standards, peer-reviewed research, and vendors' own pages for their pricing and features. Our editorial standards
- Ahrefs. “Ahrefs FAQ.”
- Ahrefs. “Do you offer any discounts or free trials?”
- Semrush. “Semrush Subscription plans & Toolkits.”
- Mangools. “KWFinder: Free Keyword Research & Analysis Tool.”
- Ahrefs. “Ahrefs Free Account.”
- Mangools. “Start Your Free+, No Credit Card Required.”
- Surfer. “Keyword Surfer Extension Explained.”
- Ubersuggest. “Ubersuggest: Free Keyword Research Tool.”
- Moz. “Free Backlink Checker - Moz Link Explorer.”
- Screaming Frog. “Screaming Frog SEO Spider Website Crawler.”
- SEO PowerSuite. “Choose your SEO PowerSuite license.”
- Google Search Console Help. “How are you performing on Google?”
- Ahrefs. “Plans & Pricing.”
