Ahrefs vs ontolo (2026): which should you pick?

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 ontolo if

• Fits if you need thousands of guest post and resource page targets at once
• Works for crawling prospect lists you've exported from Ahrefs, Moz or Majestic

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: the site hasn't changed since 2016, and sources it lists, like Google Plus and Vine, no longer exist
• Skip it if you want outreach in the same tool, as contacts are exported for use elsewhere
• Not for you if you want to try it first: there's no free plan or trial, only a 30-day money-back guarantee
• Pricey if you run small campaigns, at $97 a month, with Agency at $297
• Tight if you cancel partway through, as the terms rule out prorated refunds once a billing period starts

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.

ontolo

• The site has not been updated since 2016, and some listed sources, such as Google Plus and Vine, no longer exist.
• There is no free plan or trial; plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee instead.
• It finds and qualifies prospects but has no email outreach of its own; contacts are exported for use elsewhere.
• The terms rule out prorated refunds after a billing period starts, apart from charges made after a cancellation.

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.

ontolo

Prospects from 80+ sources

Searches more than 80 sources at once and expands a prospect type, such as guest posts, into 20 or more query variations behind the scenes.

Upload your own lists

Crawl prospect lists exported from Moz, Ahrefs, Majestic or anywhere else, uploaded as a CSV or plain text file.

90+ prospect types

Sorts pages into types across link building, content, social, community, advertising, affiliates, e-commerce and technical features.

Page-section parsing

Separates article text, comments and navigation, so a keyword in a footer does not count as a match and links are attributed to the right part of the page.

Contacts and link data

Collects email addresses, contact form URLs and social accounts per prospect, plus its followed and nofollowed outbound links.

Excel and CSV exports

Exports each search as a multi-tab, color-coded Excel workbook, or as a CSV.

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.

ontolo

• Pro$97

  per month for 1,000,000 URLs in your index

  Up to 200,000 new URLs crawled a day, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Agency$297

  per month for 5,000,000 URLs in your index

  Up to 1,000,000 new URLs crawled a day, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• CustomCustom

  Custom code and data work for problems the standard plans do not cover, by contacting the company.

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.

ontolo

No public discounts listed.