Ahrefs vs Rakko Keyword (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Rakko Keyword grades higher than Ahrefs: 2.6 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
Rakko Keyword grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
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
Rakko Keyword
Japanese keyword research with suggest data from five search engines
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 Rakko Keyword if
- Fits if you write for Japanese readers and want suggest data from Rakuten and Amazon
- Works for a budget of a few hundred yen a month, at ¥660 for Entry on yearly billing
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you can't read Japanese, as the site and support are in Japanese
- Not for you if you want to try paid features first, as there's no trial and no refund mid-term
- Tight if you pay monthly, since that costs twice the yearly rate, and plans can't be downgraded without cancelling
- Watch out: lookups through AI tools burn credits 5 times faster on Light, and the API needs Standard
- Tight if you stay free: 50 credits a week and no search volume at all
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAAhrefsFair | 2.6GPARakko KeywordGood | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | AEntry is ¥660 a month on yearly billing, tax included: a few dollars, and under 60% of this category's cheaper quarter. It's only 400 credits, though, the API waits on Standard at ¥2,475, and monthly billing costs double. |
| 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. | CA free plan with 50 credits a week, reset every Monday, for suggestions, competitor keywords (50 results) and rank checks to position 30. No search volume at all, which is the number you came for. |
| 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. | CSuggestions from five search engines, volume and difficulty, competitor keywords, headings from the top 20 results, rank checks, AI drafts and MCP. It covers the job, but for Japan: the site, support and keyword data are all aimed there. |
| 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. The tools are simple lookups, but the whole site is in Japanese, and each tool costs a different number of credits, so there's some working out to do. |
| 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. | BWeb only, with MCP for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, n8n and Dify from Light, and the API from Standard. Results go to Google Sheets or Excel. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | backlink and competitor research | keyword research for Japanese search |
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 Rakko Keyword. How we grade
Where they differ
- Ahrefs also covers rank tracking, site audit and backlink analysis.
At a glance
| Ahrefs | Rakko Keyword | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month, billed monthly | ¥660 per month, billed annually (¥1,320 billed monthly), incl. tax |
| 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. | 50 credits a week, reset each Monday, with suggest keywords and most research tools at lower output caps. No search volume data. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. | ラッコ株式会社 (Rakko Inc.) |
| Price read from | ahrefs.com | rakkokeyword.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.
Rakko Keyword
- The site, support and keyword data are aimed at Japan; prices are in yen including 10% consumption tax.
- There is no free trial of paid features, and cancelling mid-term brings no refund.
- Monthly billing costs twice the annual rate; plans can only be upgraded, not downgraded, without cancelling.
- Use through AI tools burns credits faster, 5 times on Light and 1.5 times from Standard, and the API itself needs Standard or above.
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.
Rakko Keyword
- Suggest keywords from five engines
- Pull search suggestions from Google, YouTube, Amazon, Rakuten and Bing; paid plans add search volume, difficulty and an expanded list of up to 10,000 or more.
- Competitor keyword research
- See which keywords and pages bring a site its search traffic, with estimated visits and trend charts; 50 to 10,000 results per lookup by plan.
- Headings and co-occurring words
- Extract the headings and the words used most by the top 20 results for a keyword, to plan an article's structure.
- Rank checks
- Check where up to 50 URLs rank for a keyword on Google or Yahoo, to position 30 on the free plan and 100 on paid plans, by region and device from Standard.
- Bulk search volume
- Look up current Google monthly volume, CPC and competition for a list of keywords at 0.02 credits each, with a minimum of 10 per request.
- AI article drafts and MCP
- Generate titles, headings and article text from the top results, and connect Claude, ChatGPT or n8n through MCP from Light or the API from Standard.
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.
Rakko Keyword
フリー (Free)¥0
50 credits a week for suggest keywords, competitor keywords (50 results), rank checks to position 30 and other basic lookups.
エントリー (Entry)¥660
per month for 400 credits, billed annually (¥1,320 billed monthly)
Search volume and difficulty, 800 competitor keywords per lookup, 1 user. A suggest search costs 1 credit, a site lookup 3.
ライト (Light)¥990
per month for 1,000 credits, billed annually (¥1,980 billed monthly)
1,000 credits, 2,000 competitor keywords per lookup and MCP access for AI tools at 5 times the web credit cost. No API.
スタンダード (Standard)¥2,475
per month for 3,000 credits, billed annually (¥4,950 billed monthly)
3,000 credits, 10,000 competitor keywords per lookup, API access, 100-URL bulk site checks and 5 simultaneous users.
プロ (Pro)¥4,950
per month for 6,300 credits, billed annually (¥9,900 billed monthly)
Standard's features with 6,300 credits a month and 10 simultaneous users.
エンタープライズ (Enterprise)¥9,900
per month for 13,500 credits, billed annually (¥19,800 billed monthly)
Standard's features with 13,500 credits a month and 25 simultaneous users.
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.
Rakko Keyword
- Annual discount
Half price with annual billing
Rakko Keyword's pricing page marks annual billing as 50% off: Standard is ¥29,700 a year instead of ¥4,950 a month.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Ahrefs or Rakko Keyword?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Ahrefs starts at $29 per month, billed monthly, and Rakko Keyword starts at ¥660 per month, billed annually (¥1,320 billed monthly), incl. tax.
Which has a free plan, Ahrefs or Rakko Keyword?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Ahrefs and Rakko Keyword have a free plan.
Which platforms do Ahrefs and Rakko Keyword run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Ahrefs lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. 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.