Ahrefs vs. BrightEdge

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Ahrefs is an SEO tool providers. Ahrefs Site Explorer provides a suite of tools including a component for backlink & on-page SEO analysis, online brand mentions tracking, and domain comparison tool for competitor analysis, etc. They refer to themselves as “the largest index of live backlinks.”
$99
per month
BrightEdge
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
BrightEdge is an enterprise-level SEO (Search Engine Optimization) platform from the company of the same name in San Mateo, California. It includes customizable dashboards, reporting, forecasting, SEO recommendations, backlink management and competitive analysis. It covers local, global, mobile, social and content centric SEO. Presently BrightEdge's platform supports the marketing efforts of many well-brands, like Nike, Microsoft, and Netflix.N/A
Pricing
AhrefsBrightEdge
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsBrightEdge
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsBrightEdge
Considered Both Products
Ahrefs
Chose Ahrefs
The User Interface and usability of the tool makes it very pleasant experience to use on a regular basis. Keyword research and topical clustering on the fly is really easy with SERP overviews and competitor keywords/traffic insights. SEMrush is a little less user friendly and …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is easier to use, their features deliver understandable and logical recommendations, and in my opinion and most importantly — they list parent topics, which is huge when designing/redesigning a website.
Chose Ahrefs
It's competitive with SEMRush, Moz and other tools of that same ilk. It's great for serious SEO work - not at the Enterprise level - but at the small business, small agency level. I would not consider it competitive with BrightEdge, Conductor, SEOClarity, etc. - but it IS …
Chose Ahrefs
We found the user interface of Ahrefs slightly better than the rest. Also, the details involved in the outputs we more informative. For example, once an audit is done, the steps that are involved in fixing that issue are well explained in Ahrefs. Also, I found Ahrefs backlink …
Chose Ahrefs
Screaming Frog is a handy tool when it comes to performing technical SEO audits and improving technical aspects of SEO. But Ahrefs on the contrary is a strategic SEO tool that can help you do holistic SEO. This includes features like performing keyword research, building links, …
Chose Ahrefs
In my experience, Ahrefs and SEMrush are both powerful tools for improving SEO and content marketing efforts. However, I chose to use Ahrefs over SEMrush for a few reasons. Firstly, Ahrefs has a stronger focus on backlink analysis and identifying potential link building …
Chose Ahrefs
In my organizaion we are also using Semrush, but prefer Ahrefs as Semrush sometimes doesn't show keywords where there are low search rates.
Chose Ahrefs
With the digital initiatives we have currently underway, both are really valuable so we keep them both. The digital ecosystem changes so rapidly that only relying on one SEO tool is, in my opinion, not a great idea, as each has its own strengths and weaknesses. And the cost is …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs provides more accurate and important data compared to other services. It has become a very trusted service among the SEO community and collected tremendous amount of data over the years of operation. Ahrefs is designed to meet the needs of a very demanding SEO expert, …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best platforms available in the market dealing in developing online SEO tools and free educational material for marketing professionals. It has all the best features related to SEO and gives all the performance and analytics based on digital presence.
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the most comprehensive tool we've used for providing SEO and performance analysis for our website clients. It's an essential part of our analytics stack, along with Google products. It doesn't require downloading and installing software, and it's more robust and user …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is more flexible for a large organization and overall has more features than competitors packed within a single tool. Other tools just don't have as much ability as the Ahrefs tool does. We also found the UI to be overall better on Ahrefs and easier to understand than …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs has the best backlink data even compared to funded competitors. On top of that, their analysis and tutorials make it possible to get value easily. Monitoring your website, your competitors, and finding SEO opportunities is very easy and there are some sophisticated …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs is my clear choice when I need to better understand the link profile of my clients' websites as its database is unmatched. However, when it comes to keyword research, it is second only to SEMrush. I wouldn't say that it's worse than SEMrush as each is focused on …
Chose Ahrefs
I used to use Moz a lot and it is also a great tool. However, I found the Ahrefs UI was much friendlier and easier to navigate. I also like the specific use cases shown in the Ahrefs blog, which are much easier to follow and implement when using the Ahrefs tool itself. This …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs provides a lot more data, in a lot more detail - and tells you exactly why it matters.
Moz is a nice tool - the UI is easier to navigate and there are more prompts for new users - but anyone doing serious work will do better with Ahrefs.
Chose Ahrefs
Sadly we are coming [to] terms that even trough there are more and more options that Ahrefs has they are still incomplete or not working good enough. And the most important options (like frequent updates on rankings) are behind the most expensive membership.

Right now we mainly …
Chose Ahrefs
Semrush and BuzzSumo are also good tools. Semrush is hardcore and technical; if you outgrew Ahrefs as an SEO practitioner and were doing intense work for one big client, I'd highly recommend it. BuzzSumo is more for a social media manager; it provides huge shortcuts for …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs has more features and more accurate data than its competitors. While both Moz and Majestic are great tools and can be used as complimentary to Ahrefs, if you have to choose one tool, definitely choose Ahrefs. It has the biggest database of links and better stats for …
Chose Ahrefs
Ahrefs Site Explorer gives us an easier way of obtaining backlinks when we're doing link building, whereas with other products I have a more difficult time finding viable backlinks. The keyword list you can export from Ahrefs is also a lot more clear than in other products …
Chose Ahrefs
The closest competitor to Ahrefs Site Explorer would likely be SEMRush. Ahrefs seems to have a significantly larger amount of data to work with. They claim that their service is powered by the second most active crawler in the world, next to Google.
BrightEdge
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge has better reports and customizable charts and is better for larger teams. Semrush, you have to pay per user, but it does give you access to a variety of tools. BrightEdge is more focused on SEO, but the tools they have are great, and some of them are the most …
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is much more advanced than Moz or SpyFu. The amount of tools is staggering and simply surpasses the others with their offering.
Chose BrightEdge
Overall the best tool I’ve used. Missing parts that I like from other tools like search intent category, content writing AI, etc. but as an experienced SEO I really love it.
Chose BrightEdge
Love the interface more, it’s more updated. A lot of cool features that are more easily accessible within BrightEdge. The customer success manager has been better than with seoClarity as well. We get meeting agendas, quick email responses, productive calls, and help with the …
Chose BrightEdge
I see a lot of similarities with the other two products. Personally, I think a big aspect of using BrightEdge is familiarity with the platform. Just like any of these SEO tools, the value from these comes with how efficient users can be with the interface. BrightEdge has a …
Chose BrightEdge
seoClarity was one platform that we would have transitioned to if they would have been able to provide a solution like BrightEdge Instant. Out of all the platforms we have evaluated, the one thing that keeps us coming back to BrightEdge is the robust amount of relevant keywords …
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge isn't cheap, and I've found that to be the biggest issue when compared to other platforms. That said, when you really dig into the features and benefits, it is the best value. It's the most comprehensive solution available. Aside from platform efficacy, the support …
Chose BrightEdge
While relatively expensive, Brightedge really does offer the best quality product but just as importantly (if not more so) the level of client/agency support. We have biweekly training with the entire team to continually stay up to date on Brightedge's offerings and strategies. …
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is a more robust program and offers better analytics in real time. It is worth the money if you are using it a lot. SEMrush offers a lot of great information and functionality, but it cannot offer the depth of BrightEdge. Ubersuggest is better for beginners or …
Chose BrightEdge
Multiple great experiences with the Client Success team. It always felt like they are an extension of the team that helps drive noticeable results.
Chose BrightEdge
I found BrightEdge to be more intuitive to use and that the onboard training offered matched my team's learning style. They are an innovative SEO leader that takes time, energy, and effort to learn your unique business and challenges. Purchasing an enterprise level SEO platform …
Chose BrightEdge
All SEO tools offer something a little different but BrightEdge comes pretty close to having everything I need. I can track links, review technical issues, and assign them to my staff. Reporting is top-notch too. I chose them because of my familiarity with them on the …
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is much more powerful, but more costly. We simply decided that we needed to move to a more enterprise-level tool. Another huge benefit of BrightEdge is that you have a dedicated rep that is always just a phone call or an email away to help you. We've really …
Chose BrightEdge
I haven't used any other products like BrightEdge, although my colleague has and he seems to think BrightEdge is the number 1 product for all things 'SEO'.
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is easier to use compared to Conductor. seoClarity was my second option, but I only had a demo and haven't worked with it deeply. It seemed like a good tool. Botify looked like it was better for Technical SEO and looks more advanced for that feature, but it didn't …
Chose BrightEdge
While they all do some of what BrightEdge does, they come nowhere near to everything BrightEdge can do. These tools are all very high level and simple, whereas BrightEdge gives SEO professionals a much more in-depth insight which enables us to take actions or make changes …
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is superior to Moz in a few different ways:
  • More tasking and automation features are available in BrightEdge.
  • Storybuilder reporting suite is more robust than Moz reporting
Chose BrightEdge
Moz is a good tool to start with, and I've used it with very small companies that are starting SEO essentially from scratch and don't want to have much of an initial cost outlay. BrightEdge is far more robust functionality-wise, especially when it comes to rank tracking and …
Chose BrightEdge
We were using agencies for this work in the past and we were not having the feedback and help that we had been expecting from them. We were just paying money with getting nothing in return. We decided to bring this in-house and because of a past relationship with BrightEdge …
Chose BrightEdge
Brightedge was much more informative than Spyfu and we are in constant contact with our BrightEdge Rep.
Chose BrightEdge
We evaluated several products. BrightEdge is much more robust. The customer support is outstanding. It's like having an additional employee.

However, it is rather expensive compared to alternative platforms.
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge is much more user-friendly than SearchMetrics. The platform can be adopted at a much quicker rate by team members that arent SEOs.
Chose BrightEdge
BrightEdge stacks up against competitors because of the quality of the direction given to optimize content. It actually tell you which keyword/paragraph/h1/h3 add and where to match within a market opportunity or a competitor similar content, always considering the SERP and the …
Features
AhrefsBrightEdge
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
BrightEdge
7.4
Ratings
4% below category average
Keyword analysis9.50 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Backlink management8.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking9.40 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Page grader5.20 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics7.90 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Site recommendations5.50 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Task management7.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.5
Ratings
1% below category average
BrightEdge
9.0
Ratings
17% above category average
Local SEO8.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Social SEO6.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile SEO6.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Global SEO9.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.9
Ratings
5% above category average
BrightEdge
9.0
Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-domain support9.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsBrightEdge
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.5 out of 10
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsBrightEdge
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsBrightEdge
Likelihood to Recommend
It gives the best report to us which helps us to find the opportunity to build backlinks. Another main feature that makes Ahrefs a safe and sound approach to SEO is that it provides information about duplicate content, URLs, redirects along with other errors that can be dangerous to the website.
Read full review
BrightEdge has been a long-standing partner with us. I have had 10 years of experience with using their platform. It is a very large robust platform that allows us to find the information we need and quickly. Unfortunately with the company being so large, they are unable to make quick changes and customers suggested enhancements as quickly as other platforms.
Read full review
Pros
  • Their backlink database is still one of the most up to date we've seen when compared to similar tools.
  • The user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn.
  • They provide you with a lot of great information and the ability to set a date range can really help you narrow things down.
Read full review
  • Strong analytics
  • Integrates with other tools
  • Instant provides real time research, ranking and recommendations
  • The Client Success team is truly an extension of my team with experts in the industry to help support our team and growing the organic channel
  • Education and career growth opportunity—constantly providing ways to connect with others in the industry, user groups, events, and conferences
  • Onboard process is very thorough and customized
Read full review
Cons
  • Ahrefs Site Explorer provides an overview of domain health and the issues that can be fixed, and sometimes the suggested "critical issues" can be an astronomical number and not accurate.
  • For certain features on Ahrefs Site Explorer, there can a more elaborate description/guide on how to utilize the feature.
Read full review
  • The storybuilder feature isn't anything outstanding. I feel like I can get the same type of data and format from Google Data Studio.
  • I feel like the Hyperlocal feature is still very junior compared to other features. It provides you good insights, but you have to set all the data fields before you can get a picture as well as it doesn't really give you an idea of how you can improve.
  • The mobile SEO solution is a good concept, but it needs some tweaks to be better, especially when building out a mobile story builder. Some of the data isn't simple to read and the mobile keywords functions don't also account for voice searches.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Their index is too vast to ignore when looking at a complete backlink profile. We find links in Ahrefs that do not appear in any other link detection tool. For this reason, it's a must for our agency to use for the foreseeable future. Plus, it's very affordable considering the data you get
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BrightEdge has provided our company with more than any other tool/platform could dream of. We've been extremely happy with its use, and have really tailored our strategies and internal workflow around the data in BrightEdge. I could not imagine having a successful, streamlined SEO service without BrightEdge
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Usability
Ahrefs is very easy to use - you can jump right in and understand most of the assets. Overall, the dashboard snapshots give a very good picture of inbound link activity. For deeper analysis of historical trends, the system can become cumbersome, making it hard to do full work without exporting and reformatting the data.
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Easy-to-use and intuitive design make using the BrightEdge platform a joy. Yes, I have familiarity with it and know where to go but there are definitely not a ton of extraneous bells and whistles or unnecessary tools which is part of the brilliance of their UX. Sometimes I get hung up on where keywords and keyword groups are under settings but it is typically because I am moving too quickly, and not because they've moved it.
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Support Rating
Ahrefs has always been responsive when there's been a technical issue with the site. There are usually very little problems, but if there are, they announce it on their social media accounts which keeps its customers informed. Email support is prompt and the customer service people are very helpful, knowledgable and friendly.
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This is a area where the BrightEdge team really shines. Their commitment to training and product support is unmatched not only for SEO platforms, but life in general. I often find myself wishing my internet provide and similar would go to BrightEdge for training on support and attitude. I would rank them an 11 if I could.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
For the most part it was seamless. The load time of clients was a little long, but otherwise was quite easy.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
It's competitive with Semrush, Moz and other tools of that same ilk. It's great for serious SEO work - not at the Enterprise level - but at the small business, small agency level. I would not consider it competitive with BrightEdge, Conductor, SEOClarity, etc. - but it IS competitive and on par with the tools that are one level below those big enterprise tools.
Read full review
BrightEdge has better reports and customizable charts and is better for larger teams. Semrush, you have to pay per user, but it does give you access to a variety of tools. BrightEdge is more focused on SEO, but the tools they have are great, and some of them are the most accurate and thorough.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Ahrefs has helped save hours of work because it functions as an all-in-one SEO tool. Before Ahrefs, I would have to switch toolsets multiple times, compile the reports, then organize data. Ahrefs as an all in one helped managed the chaos that having too many tools create.
  • Backlink data is crucial to predicting content success. Ahrefs has provided us with better backlink data, allowing our predictions to be more accurate.
  • Ahrefs has helped us cut away from having another rank tracker subscription. Their rank tracking tool is good enough to not warrant a dedicated rank tracker, helping us save on costs.
Read full review
  • SEO as best source of deals in Q1 2024.
  • An increase of organic traffic of 30% after using Brightedge to identify keywords to build articles for a blog.
  • 20% increase in visits to listings of or marketplaces after refining descriptions with the right keywords.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ahrefs Screenshots

Screenshot of Analyze backlinks and keywords of any website to find opportunities for your organic traffic growthScreenshot of Check your website for 100+ pre-defined SEO issuesScreenshot of Get relevant keyword ideas supported by accurate SEO metricsScreenshot of Find the most shared and linked-to content on any topicScreenshot of Track your and your competitors' search rankings