Ahrefs vs. RavenTools

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
RavenTools
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Raven Tools from the Tennessee company of the same name is Internet or search engine marketing optimization software consisting of popular tools targeted at SEO specialists who need research automation. To that end it contains the familiar set of website research and auditing, competitor monitoring, rank tracking, and also content investigation to see that material on the site is keyword-rich yet topically relevant. Social media and backlink checking tools facilitate outreach and drive traffic…
$49
per month
Pricing
AhrefsRavenTools
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Small Biz (2 users)
$49
per month
Start (4 users)
$109
per month
Grow (8 users)
$199
per month
Thrive (20 users)
$299
per month
Lead (40 users)
$479
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsRavenTools
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
AhrefsRavenTools
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.
RavenTools
Chose RavenTools
RavenTools created a stronger platform that allowed us to really streamline our processes and keep our clients happy by providing monthly insights to the progress, successes, and advantages of our team creating marketing and executing efforts. My agency had been long-time fans …
Chose RavenTools
I was with Web SEO tools for maybe a month before I cancelled and went over to RavenTools. I preferred RT immediately and five years later I am still using them. More cost-effective and their reporting tools were so much easier for my clients to understand - which to me was the …
Chose RavenTools
Many of the other tools I've tried have all usually had a particular segment or function that really sets them apart in that area. Many of these other tools are more expensive overall as well. RavenTools, for my business and client needs, has consistently provided the broadest …
Chose RavenTools
RavenTools is less expensive than other options such as Moz. While it doesn't offer the same degree of options as other tools, Raven can be a key component of any digital marketing campaign.
Chose RavenTools
As a user of Hootsuite Free for reporting and social media management, RavenTools is more robust and fully functional. RavenTools provides a simpler dashboard and interface. You have more control over reporting, analytics views, and it is more intuitive. The only advantages I …
Chose RavenTools
We use RavenTools because it is helpful to have the suite of products in one piece of software. In the past we used different software for social media management, another for site audits, a different one for backlink tracking and another one to monitor local search. Having all …
Chose RavenTools
RavenTools is a workable solution for companies with SEO needs but also needing to report on social activity and produce easy reporting. We initially bought it for SEO tracking but then needed to add Moz when RavenTools scrapped their ability to report on keyword rankings. Moz …
Chose RavenTools
We had selected RavenTools at the time because it was converting more sales. We had both Moz and RavenTools running. I went back to RavenTools once I started my own company in 2014, but after demoing out Moz and their current suite of tools, I was ready to make a jump. I think …
Chose RavenTools
I've never used any other product but I remember the reason we went with this product versus the other products we researched was because it offered a lot more tools for your money.
Chose RavenTools
Moz is much better at SEO analysis and keyword rank tracking, but it doesn't offer the kind of reporting aggregation that Raven does.
Chose RavenTools
ActiveCollab was okay for task management, but it doesn't hold a candle to all of the funtionality built into RavenTools. I feel like RavenTools is THE must-have tool for people in my industry.
Chose RavenTools
We selected RavenTools because it appeared very broad and robust, but upon using it on a regular basis, we realized that it was mostly just a loose conglomerate of data pulled from various sources. It doesn't cross analyze and it doesn't allow for the same flexibility in the …
Chose RavenTools
RavenTools, seoClarity, and BrightEdge are all ostensibly the same things—one-stop shops for SEO analysis of multiple domains. However, versus those other tools, RavenTools is a completely different beast. Its strength is in its reporting, which is modular and highly …
Chose RavenTools
I have used Majestic, Moz, and SEMrush for similar things and I like all these tools. I like majestic's interface best for competitive analysis and backlink exploration. I prefer some of Moz's tools to Raven, but Raven has the advantage of compiling data from all these …
Chose RavenTools
RavenTools is as solid as it comes when you're choosing a marketing application to suit a variety of needs. Since it is a web application it can be accessed anywhere, at anytime by the users you have in your account, just as long as they have internet access. A lot of choices …
Chose RavenTools
Conductor Searchlight - Heinous. The tool doesn't function well, not as responsive as RavenTools and other SEO suites I've used and it's far too expensive. Most people probably buy into it because they are fooled by the price thinking that they will get a tool that's worth that …
Chose RavenTools
Now in my current company, where we do not use RavenTools, the reporting process is very long and extensive. Our entry-level employees have to build out the reports themselves in excel rather than using a program and spending more time on insights.
Chose RavenTools
Having used RavenTools in two different positions the ease of use, ability to pull in PPC information and the flexibility to add information either via text, images or HTML set it apart from a lot of the other tools out there. It also was easy to set up, add, remove clients and …
Chose RavenTools
Well to be honest, we hadn't tried other solutions before RavenTools. Until we started with them we were doing all of our work the old fashioned way, pouring through code for on-site SEO problems and kicking out reports and/or screenshots of charts from other services depending …
Chose RavenTools
Very similar in a lot of regards. All a matter of preference and what you need.
Chose RavenTools
Moz, Searchlight, Wordstream, marketvibe
Chose RavenTools
I don't have a lot of experience with other tools although we have had a lot of demos of other products. We have often found that by utilizing features in Raven that we didn't know about we could have the same functionality without using another reporting tool. This allows us …
Features
AhrefsRavenTools
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
RavenTools
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Keyword analysis9.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Backlink management8.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Page grader5.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Site recommendations5.60 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Task management7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.5
Ratings
1% below category average
RavenTools
10.0
Ratings
27% above category average
Local SEO8.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Social SEO6.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile SEO6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Global SEO9.60 Ratings10.00 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
RavenTools
10.0
Ratings
17% above category average
Multi-domain support9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsRavenTools
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
AhrefsRavenTools
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsRavenTools
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.
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I would say RavenTools is most appropriate if you find you are spending a lot of time logging into different services and generating different reports from each. It's been a big time saver for us because we can compile all that data into one report and even generate a cover page and table of contents. This suite has also been beneficial for our sales team in that they we can provide detailed reports on the problems with their website before we even close the deal with them.
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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.
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  • Centralize data points and resources to a single area and platform for easy access and review
  • Visually present data to customers without being overwhelming or cumbersome in data overload
  • Automate basic reporting and data consolidation to free up time for focusing on more strategic activities or executing desired plans and activities.
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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.
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  • The analytics in the tool and the Google Analytics dashboard have been known to be out of sync, but this doesn't happen very often.
  • The reports occasionally have glitches, such as overlap of different modules.
  • The keyword tracking tool does not provide easy tracking of rankings over time.
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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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A year ago or so, Raven abandoned many of their organic rank reporting tools in an attempt to favor some Adwords intelligence. The market rebelled, as did I; in our desperation to find an alternative to Raven, none could be found and a great majority of users didn't want/need Adwords data. Months later, Raven reverted. I'd renew with Raven not just because nothing else cuts it, but because they are both trying to innovate, and listening to customers.
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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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Certain areas, Social Media scheduling, could stand to undergo a complete overhaul. However, most of the RavenTools interface is easy to use. You will not have any issues getting up and running and should there be an issue, the customer service is really good. They also continue to preform updates that make the usability even better
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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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RavenTools has some of the best Customer Support I have ever received. They are quick to respond and will keep you posted on the progress of your issue. You truly feel as if you are getting customized service. No human is perfect and I have had one situation in which I had to reach out multiple times, but overall I fully trust and approve of their process
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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.
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As a user of Hootsuite Free for reporting and social media management, RavenTools is more robust and fully functional. RavenTools provides a simpler dashboard and interface. You have more control over reporting, analytics views, and it is more intuitive. The only advantages I would say Hootsuite has is the ability to add apps that connect directly with other software and social media post management. Long story short, there is a reason I choose to put funds behind RavenTools vs. Hootsuite.
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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.
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  • RavenTools has absolutely improved the reporting we provide our clients. We used to be mashing together dissimilar Excel reports. Comparisons between time periods was difficult to present and graphs had to be created manually with lots of time spent formatting them correctly.
  • RavenTools has improved the efficiency with which we put together our reports. This frees us up to do more high-level thinking about recommendations and up-sell opportunities which ultimately leads to more revenue.
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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