Ahrefs vs SpyFu (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SpyFu grades higher than Ahrefs: 2.2 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
SpyFu 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
SpyFu
Competitor research for SEO and Google Ads keywords and ad history
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 SpyFu if
- Fits if you buy Google Ads and want to see what competitors bid on
- Works for agencies building branded competitor reports for clients
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want to try before you pay, as there's no trial, only a 30-day money-back guarantee
- Skip it if you need daily rankings, since projects track weekly
- Tight if you're on Basic, with 1 user, 1 project, 10,000 rows per search and export, and site audits that stop at 500 pages a crawl
- Watch out: Pro + AI's $59 first month becomes $119 a month unless you pay $89 a month yearly, and extra users are $30
- Watch out: API use past the monthly credit, $40 on Pro + AI and $100 on Team/Agency, is charged to your card
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAAhrefsFair | 2.2GPASpyFuFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CBasic is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly), between the cheaper quarter of SEO tools at $21.75 and the middle at $39. It has 1 user and no API credit, and Pro + AI is $89 a month yearly or $119 monthly after a $59 first month. |
| 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 version with no time limit: search any domain or keyword and you see a limited set of results. Full results, exports and tracking are paid. There's no trial, just a 30-day money-back guarantee, which isn't the same thing. |
| 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. | CCompetitor PPC and SEO research, keyword ideas and grouping, rank tracking, backlinks, an AI site audit that writes fixes, and an API. Rankings update weekly, and Basic caps results and exports at 10,000 rows and its audit at 500 pages a crawl. |
| 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. You start by typing in a competitor's domain, but there are a lot of reports, and projects to set up before the tracking side tells you much. |
| 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 SpyFu GPT for ChatGPT, Google Sheets, Google Tag Manager and RivalFlow AI, plus an API from the Pro plans, billed by rows returned. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | backlink and competitor research | spying on rivals' Google Ads and SEO keywords |
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 SpyFu. 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. SpyFu starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Ahrefs for less, and 6 score higher than SpyFu 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
- SpyFu also covers reports.
At a glance
| Ahrefs | SpyFu | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month, billed monthly | $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 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 version with no time limit: search any domain or keyword and see a limited set of results. Full results, exports and keyword tracking need a paid plan. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. | SpyFu, Inc. |
| Price read from | ahrefs.com | spyfu.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.
SpyFu
- Pro + AI is $59 for the first month only, then $119 a month on monthly billing; yearly billing is $89 a month.
- There is no free trial; SpyFu offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, and refunds are requested through chat or email.
- Basic caps search results and exports at 10,000 rows, and its site audit stops at 500 pages a crawl.
- API use beyond the monthly credit ($40 on Pro + AI, $100 on Team/Agency) is charged to the card on file.
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.
SpyFu
- Competitor PPC research
- See the Google Ads keywords a domain buys, estimated clicks and cost per keyword, and the ad tests it has run over time.
- Competitor SEO research
- List the keywords a site ranks for, its top pages and its ranking history, and compare several domains to find keywords you are missing.
- Keyword research and grouping
- Generate keyword ideas filtered by volume, CPC and difficulty, and paste in a list to have it grouped with volume and CPC added.
- Rank tracking and projects
- Save keywords to a project per site to track rankings weekly, with labels, keyword groups and a daily summary dashboard.
- AI site audit
- Crawls a site for technical, metadata, content and linking issues and writes fixes for titles, descriptions and headings; plans include monthly AI credits.
- API and SpyFu GPT
- Pro plans and up include API access billed per rows returned, with a monthly credit; SpyFu GPT brings its data into ChatGPT.
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.
SpyFu
Basic$29
per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly)
10,000 rows per search and export, 1 tracking project, 5,000 weekly tracked rankings, 50,000 audit pages a month, 1 user. No API credit included.
Pro + AI$89
per month, billed yearly ($119 monthly after a $59 first month)
Unlimited results and exports, 10 projects, 15,000 tracked rankings, 500,000 audit pages, RivalFlow for 1 site, $40 of API credit. Extra users $30.
Team/Agency$187
per month, billed yearly ($249 billed monthly)
5 users, unlimited projects, 50,000 tracked rankings, 2 million audit pages, daily audits, RivalFlow for 5 sites and $100 of API credit.
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.
SpyFu
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Ahrefs or SpyFu?
As of Oct 23, 2026, they start at the same price. Ahrefs starts at $29 per month, billed monthly, and SpyFu starts at $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Ahrefs or SpyFu?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Ahrefs and SpyFu have a free plan.
Which platforms do Ahrefs and SpyFu 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.