Ahrefs vs Netpeak Software (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Netpeak Software grades higher than Ahrefs: 2.4 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Ahrefs grades higher on platforms. Netpeak Software grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Ahrefs
SEO toolset for backlinks, keyword research, audits and rank tracking
Netpeak Software
Desktop SEO apps: site crawler, bulk URL checker and link monitors
Which one is for you
Pick Ahrefs if
- Fits if most of your SEO time goes on backlinks and what's ranking for rivals
- Works for site owners who only need data on their own verified site, which Ahrefs Free covers
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want daily rankings, as Rank Tracker updates weekly on every plan
- Pricey if you're a small business, at about $107.50 a month for Lite even paid yearly
- Tight if you research a lot on Lite, where each user gets 1,000 credits a month; Starter gets 200
- Pricey if you add people: each plan has one user, and extras cost $40 to $80 a month, capped at 2, 5 or 10
- Watch out: AI writing tools start at $99 a month on top, and there's no trial of any paid plan
Pick Netpeak Software if
- Fits if you'd rather own a desktop crawler than rent a web suite, with lifetime licences from $496
- Works for checking hundreds of domains against Ahrefs or Moz metrics at once
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need rank tracking or keyword research, which none of the apps does
- Not for you if you're on a Mac and need Checker, as it runs on Windows only
- Tight if you want several apps, since each is bought separately and bundles are yearly only
- Watch out: Limonity Backlinks only watches links you add; it doesn't find new backlinks
- Pricey if you want Limonity On-Page, at $99 a month per user, and there's no web or phone version
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAAhrefsFair | 2.4GPANetpeak SoftwareFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DLite, the plan Ahrefs aims at small businesses, is $129 a month, or $1,290 a year (about $107.50 a month) with the yearly saving. That's nearly three times this category's middle, for one user. Starter is $29, but it's monthly only with 200 credits. | BGraded against other desktop crawlers. Spider Pro is $193 a year, about $16 a month, or $496 once for a lifetime licence. That's under Screaming Frog's $279 a year and close to Sitebulb Lite at $18 a month. Each other app is bought separately. |
| Free plan and trial | CAhrefs Free gives you Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for sites you can prove are yours, with 5,000 crawl credits a month. That covers your own site, but there's no keyword research or rank tracking, and no trial of the paid plans. | BFree editions of Spider and Checker with no time limit. Spider crawls up to 500 URLs with 5 threads, so a small site can live on it; Checker stops at 20 URLs. The paid apps get a 3-day trial. |
| Features | CIts own link index, Site Explorer for any domain, keyword research, audits for 170+ issues, AI prompt tracking, and API and MCP access from Lite. The gap is rank tracking: the listing says it updates weekly on every plan, and Lite caps reports at 1,000 credits a month. | CSpider does the crawling job fully, with JavaScript rendering, custom extraction, internal PageRank and white-label PDF audits, and Checker pulls 450+ metrics in bulk. But there's no rank tracking or keyword research, and Limonity Backlinks only checks links you add. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Credits, projects and crawl budgets take some learning before you know what each click costs you. | CNo rating on record. Install it and point it at a URL, but reading a crawl takes technical SEO knowledge, and scraping runs on regex, XPath or CSS selectors. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb plus a browser toolbar, linked to Search Console, Looker Studio and Google Business Profile, with an API and an MCP server from Lite. No desktop or phone app. | CPrograms for Windows and macOS, with Checker on Windows only, linked to Google Analytics, Search Console, Sheets, Drive, Ahrefs, Moz, Similarweb and Serpstat. Computers only, with no web or phone version. |
| Best for | backlink and competitor research | crawling sites from your own computer |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Ahrefs and Netpeak Software. How we grade
Price against what you get
Ahrefs starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Netpeak Software starts at $20 a month for each person and scores 2.0.
Ahrefs scores higher, and starts $9 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Ahrefs for less, and 8 score higher than Netpeak Software for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Netpeak Software can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- Ahrefs also covers keyword research and rank tracking.
- Netpeak Software also covers reports and internal linking.
At a glance
| Ahrefs | Netpeak Software | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month, billed monthly | $20 per user / month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | Ahrefs Free: Site Explorer, Site Audit (5,000 crawl credits a month per project) and Web Analytics for verified sites, plus the SEO Toolbar and 1 AI Content Helper doc a month. | Free editions of Netpeak Spider (500 URLs and 5 threads per crawl) and Netpeak Checker (20 URLs). The Limonity apps have no free edition. |
| Free trial | None listed | 3-day free trial of each app, and a 14-day money-back guarantee |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. | Netpeak LTD |
| Price read from | ahrefs.com | netpeaksoftware.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Ahrefs
- Rank Tracker updates rankings weekly on every plan the pricing page lists.
- Lite caps each user at 1,000 credits a month for reports; Starter has 200 and cannot add users or add-ons.
- Each plan includes one user; extra users cost $40, $60 or $80 a month and are capped at 2, 5 or 10.
- AI writing tools (Content Kit) start at $99 a month, and Project Boosts cost $20 or $200 a month per project.
Netpeak Software
- These are desktop apps for Windows and macOS with no web version, and Netpeak Checker runs on Windows only.
- Each app is bought separately; bundles of two or three apps are sold yearly only.
- Limonity Backlinks monitors links you add yourself; it does not discover new backlinks to your site.
- There is no rank tracking or keyword research; the apps cover crawling, bulk URL checks and monitoring.
Key features
Ahrefs
- Site Explorer
- See the backlinks, organic keywords and top pages of any website, with history going back 6 months to 5 years by plan.
- Keywords Explorer
- Find keyword ideas with volume and difficulty; Standard and above add AI suggestions, clusters, search intents and translations.
- Site Audit
- Crawl your sites for 170+ technical and on-page SEO issues, using 100,000 to 1.5 million crawl credits a month by plan.
- Rank Tracker
- Track 750 to 5,000 keywords on the self-serve plans, with rankings updated weekly.
- Brand Radar and AI prompts
- Plans track 5 to 20 of your own prompts in AI chat tools daily. Brand Radar AI, for researching any brand's AI mentions, starts at $199 a month.
- API and MCP server
- Every plan from Lite includes API and MCP access, capped at 100 to 500 rows per request below Enterprise.
Netpeak Software
- Netpeak Spider crawler
- Crawls a site from your computer and flags 100+ technical issues, with JavaScript rendering through Chromium and several domains in one crawl.
- Scraping, PageRank and sitemaps
- Spider extracts data with up to 15 conditions (regex, XPath, CSS), calculates internal PageRank, and validates or generates XML and HTML sitemaps.
- White-label audit reports
- Exports a PDF technical audit with your logo and contacts, and sends reports to Google Sheets and Google Drive.
- Netpeak Checker
- Checks lists of URLs or domains against 450+ parameters from 25 services such as Moz, Ahrefs and Similarweb, and scrapes Google, Bing and Yahoo results.
- Limonity monitoring apps
- Limonity On-Page watches pages for changes and Limonity Backlinks rechecks links you list, running in the background on a PC or server.
Plans
Ahrefs
Ahrefs Free$0
Limited Site Explorer and Site Audit for websites you verify as yours. No Keywords Explorer or Rank Tracker.
Starter$29
per month, billed monthly
200 report credits a month, with Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker and Site Audit. Monthly only; no extra users or add-ons.
Lite$129
per month, billed monthly
1 user, 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history, 1,000 credits a month, 100,000 crawl credits, API and MCP access.
Standard$249
per month, billed monthly
1 user, 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history, unlimited credits, Content Explorer and keyword clusters.
Advanced$449
per month, billed monthly
1 user, 50 projects, 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history, 1.5 million crawl credits and Looker Studio integration.
Enterprise$1,499
per month, annual commitment required
From 3 users, 100 projects, unlimited history, uncapped API, SSO and audit log. Sold through sales.
Netpeak Software
Netpeak Spider Free$0
Desktop crawler limited to 500 URLs and 5 threads per crawl. Netpeak Checker's free edition stops at 20 URLs.
Netpeak Spider Pro$20
per user / month, billed monthly ($193 a year billed yearly)
Unlimited URLs, 200 threads, JavaScript rendering, white-label PDF audits, and GA and Search Console data. Also $496 once for a lifetime license.
Netpeak Checker Pro$28
per user / month, billed monthly ($269 a year billed yearly)
Bulk checks of 450+ parameters on unlimited URLs and SERP scraping on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Windows only; $690 for a lifetime license.
Limonity Backlinks$29
per user / month, billed monthly ($279 a year billed yearly)
Daily or weekly checks on unlimited projects and backlinks you add, with change history and alerts. $837 for a lifetime license.
Crawl & Check bundle$390
per year for Netpeak Spider and Netpeak Checker
Both Pro apps on a yearly plan at 15% off the $462 they cost apart. Other yearly bundles pair the Limonity apps with Spider or Checker.
Limonity On-Page$99
per user / month, billed monthly ($950 a year billed yearly)
Unlimited on-page monitoring of projects and pages, with email and desktop alerts on changes. $1,900 for a lifetime license.
Ways to pay less
Ahrefs
- Annual discount
Save up to 17% by paying annually
Ahrefs' pricing page offers up to 17% off for annual billing on Lite, Standard and Advanced. Existing monthly customers switch by contacting support.
Netpeak Software
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
Each app's plan page lists yearly billing at 20% off: Netpeak Spider Pro is $193 a year instead of $240.
- Lifetime license
Lifetime licenses from $496
Each app can be bought once for lifetime access: Netpeak Spider $496, Netpeak Checker $690, Limonity Backlinks $837 and Limonity On-Page $1,900.
- Other savings
15% off yearly bundles
Bundles of two or three apps are sold yearly at 15% off, such as Netpeak Spider with Netpeak Checker for $390 instead of $462.
- Other savings
80% off extra users
The pricing page says users beyond the first get 80% off on monthly and yearly plans.
- Other savings
Half off a first Limonity purchase
The Limonity On-Page and Limonity Backlinks plan pages show 50% off on the first purchase.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Ahrefs or Netpeak Software?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Ahrefs starts at $29 per month, billed monthly, and Netpeak Software starts at $20 per user / month, billed monthly. One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Ahrefs or Netpeak Software?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Ahrefs and Netpeak Software have a free plan.
Which platforms do Ahrefs and Netpeak Software run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Ahrefs lists a web app and a browser extension and only Netpeak Software lists macOS and Windows apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.