Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz are the three best-known paid SEO platforms. All three do keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking and site audits, so on a feature checklist they look almost identical. The real differences are in where each one is strongest, how much it costs once you add users, and which kind of team it suits.
Short answer: Semrush is the broadest all-in-one marketing suite, Ahrefs is the favourite for backlink and competitor research, and Moz is the most approachable, with AI search tracking included on every plan. The cheapest way into any of them is Ahrefs Starter, at $29 a month. Below is the detail behind that, so you can match a tool to what you actually need, or decide you don't need one yet.
Prices and plans change often. Everything here was checked against each company's pricing page in October 2026; confirm before you buy.
Ahrefs vs Semrush vs Moz at a glance
| Ahrefs | Semrush | Moz Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best known for | Backlink and competitor research | Breadth: SEO, PPC, content, local and AI search in one place | Ease of use and Domain Authority |
| Entry price (monthly) | $29 Starter; $129 Lite | $139 SEO plan | $99 Standard |
| Free option | Ahrefs Free (data for sites you verify) | 7-day trial only | Free tools (MozBar, limited Link Explorer) |
| Free trial of paid plans | No | Yes, 7 days | Yes, on the Medium plan |
| Authority metric | Domain Rating (DR) | Authority Score (AS) | Domain Authority (DA) |
| AI search tracking | Brand Radar (paid add-on for full AI coverage) | Built into the SEO + AI Search plans, from $199 | Built into every plan, from $99 |
Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz pricing (October 2026)
Ahrefs
| Plan | Monthly | Users | Projects | Tracked keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29 | 1 | n/a | n/a (keyword and competitor research only) |
| Lite | $129 | 1 (+$40/mo each, up to 2 more) | 5 | 750 |
| Standard | $249 | 1 (+$60/mo each) | 20 | 2,000 |
| Advanced | $449 | 1 (+$80/mo each) | 50 | 5,000 |
| Enterprise | $1,499 (annual commitment) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual billing saves up to 17%. History depth grows with the plan: six months on Lite, two years on Standard, five on Advanced. The Brand Radar AI add-on for tracking brand mentions across AI assistants starts at $199/month. Source: ahrefs.com/pricing.
Semrush
Semrush reorganised its plans in 2026 around a standalone SEO plan and "SEO + AI Search" bundles. Many older comparisons still quote the retired Pro, Guru and Business tiers.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Projects | Tracked keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | $139 | $117.33 | 5 | 500 |
| Starter (SEO + AI Search) | $199 | $165.17 | 5 | 500 |
| Pro+ (SEO + AI Search) | $299 | $248.17 | 15 | 1,500 |
| Advanced (SEO + AI Search) | $549 | $455.67 | 40 | 5,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Historical data and the API sit in the higher tiers. Source: semrush.com/prices.
Moz Pro
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Users | Tracked sites | Keywords/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $99 | $79 | 1 | 3 | 300 |
| Medium | $179 | $143 | 2 | 10 | 1,500 |
| Large | $299 | $239 | 3 | 25 | 3,000 |
Moz marks Medium as its most popular plan, and it is the only one with a free trial. Source: moz.com.
What you'll really pay
The headline price is rarely the final price.
Two things push it up:
- Users. The entry plans include a single user. A three-person team on Ahrefs Lite pays $129 + 2 × $40 = $209/month; on Semrush's SEO plan, $139 + 2 × $45 = $229/month. Semrush's per-user price rises with the plan: $45 on SEO and Starter, $80 on Pro+ and $100 on Advanced, so it more than doubles on the higher tiers. Moz builds extra seats into its larger plans instead, with two users on Medium and three on Large.
- Add-ons. AI visibility tracking, extra projects, local SEO and content tools are often separate line items.
Ahrefs vs Semrush vs Moz: where each one is strongest
Ahrefs: backlinks and competitor research
Ahrefs built its reputation on its link index, and backlink analysis is still what most people buy it for. Site Explorer shows who links to any domain, which pages attract the most links, and which competitors' content earns traffic you don't. Content Explorer (Standard and up) is useful for finding topics that attract links in a niche.
Choose Ahrefs if link building, digital PR or detailed competitor research is central to your work. There's no free trial on paid plans, so the $29 Starter plan is the cheapest way to test the data.
Semrush: the widest toolkit
Semrush, which now brands itself on its own site as an Adobe company, covers more ground than either competitor: keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and backlinks, plus advertising research, local SEO, content tools and (since its 2026 restructure) AI search visibility in its SEO + AI Search plans. For an agency or in-house marketer who would otherwise juggle several tools, that breadth is the main selling point.
Choose Semrush if you run SEO and paid search together, manage many clients, or want daily AI search tracking without a separate subscription. The 7-day trial makes it easy to evaluate properly.
Moz: approachable, with AI tracking included
Moz has long been the most beginner-friendly of the three, with clear explanations and a gentler interface. Its Domain Authority score is the most widely quoted of the authority metrics. At $99, its entry plan costs more than Ahrefs Starter but less than Ahrefs Lite or Semrush's SEO plan, and it is the only entry plan of the three with AI search tracking included. Its data is generally considered less extensive than Ahrefs' or Semrush's for large-scale competitive research.
Choose Moz if you're learning SEO, managing a small number of sites, or want AI search tracking at the lowest price.
Semrush vs Ahrefs: the head-to-head
Most people searching this comparison have already set Moz aside. On the five things that usually decide between the other two:
- Link index. Backlink data is why most Ahrefs customers pay for it, and link builders treat it as their reference. Semrush's link tools are capable, as one part of a much wider suite.
- Keyword research. Both have large keyword databases and strong research tools. Semrush ties keyword data to its advertising research; Ahrefs keeps its focus on organic search.
- PPC and advertising data. Semrush's clearest advantage. Its advertising research shows competitors' paid keywords and ads next to the SEO data, and if you run paid search, this alone can settle it.
- AI search tracking. Semrush includes it from the $199 Starter plan, with 50 custom prompts tracked daily. Ahrefs Lite tracks 5 AI prompts; fuller coverage means the Brand Radar AI add-on at $199/month on top.
- Cost for a three-person team. Ahrefs Lite: $209/month. Semrush SEO: $229/month, or $199 + 2 × $45 = $289/month on Starter if you want the AI tracking.
For organic SEO and link building, Ahrefs. For SEO alongside paid search, or AI tracking without an add-on, Semrush.
DR vs Authority Score vs DA: what the numbers really mean
Each tool rates domains from 0 to 100: Ahrefs' Domain Rating, Semrush's Authority Score and Moz's Domain Authority. They're useful for comparing sites quickly, but keep three things in mind:
- They are not Google metrics. Google doesn't use any of them. They are each company's estimate of a site's link strength, built from that company's own crawl.
- They disagree with each other. The same site can score very differently across the three, because each tool sees different links and weighs them differently.
- They can be gamed. Large numbers of low-quality links can inflate a score without making a site any more trustworthy to Google.
Use them to compare sites within the same tool, never across tools, and never as a goal in themselves.
AI search tracking in Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz
All three now track how brands appear in AI assistants, and Moz is the cheapest way to do it.
Moz includes AI tracking on its $99 entry plan, with 150 tracked prompts. Semrush's cheapest plan with AI features is Starter at $199, with 50 custom prompts: the $139 SEO plan has no AI analysis at all, and every AI row on Semrush's own comparison table is a cross for that plan. Ahrefs charges $199/month for Brand Radar AI on top of a paid plan.
Moz's AI features by plan, as of October 2026:
| Plan | AI Visibility Dashboards | Tracked prompts | AI Content Briefs/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 3 | 150 | 2 |
| Medium | 6 | 300 | 10 |
| Large | 12 | 600 | 50 |
Every Moz plan also includes AI Overviews by keyword, AI prompt suggestions and four tracked AI models: GPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
The catch is frequency. Moz tracks prompts weekly, while Semrush's custom prompts give daily AI rankings. Moz is cheaper per prompt, and Semrush is more frequent.
Weekly data is enough for watching how your visibility trends over months, or for a monthly client report. Daily data earns its price when you're testing changes and want to see their effect within days, or following a launch or a reputation problem as it unfolds.
These tools measure whether you're mentioned. Before paying to measure that, check the basics that decide whether AI assistants can read your site at all. Are their crawlers allowed in? Is your content visible without JavaScript? Do your pages identify who publishes them? The free AI Visibility Checker tests all of that in seconds.
When free tools are enough
Many small sites don't need a paid platform yet.
A free stack covers more than people expect:
- Google Search Console: the only source of real Google data: the queries you rank for, clicks, impressions, indexing problems and Core Web Vitals.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: the same for Bing, whose index also feeds other search and AI products.
- Ahrefs Free: Ahrefs data, including backlinks and site audit, for sites you verify you own.
- UtilLab's Website Auditor: a free on-page, technical, speed, AI-search and security audit of any page, with a PDF report. It doesn't include a backlink or keyword database.
- UtilLab's XML Sitemap Checker: validates your sitemap and exports every URL.
Free tools also cover two of the highest-value jobs in SEO without any subscription: getting your robots.txt right and running a content audit of the pages you already have.
A reasonable rule: start free, and upgrade when you find yourself needing competitor backlink data, large-scale keyword research or tracking hundreds of keywords.
Which should you choose?
- Freelancer or small business, one or two sites: start with Search Console plus free tools. If you need a paid tool, Ahrefs Starter at $29 is the cheapest way in.
- Link builder or content-led SEO: Ahrefs.
- Agency or marketer running SEO and PPC together: Semrush.
- Brand that needs to track AI search visibility: Moz if weekly data is enough and budget matters; Semrush's SEO + AI Search plans if you need daily data; Ahrefs with Brand Radar if you already live in Ahrefs.
- Beginner learning SEO: Moz, for the gentler learning curve.
If you can, trial two before committing.
If I had to pick one
Semrush, on the $199 Starter plan.
For a small team doing SEO in 2026, AI search visibility has become something you track alongside rankings, and Starter is the cheapest plan that puts keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and daily AI prompt tracking behind one login. Ahrefs has the better link data. Matching Semrush's AI coverage there means adding Brand Radar at $199/month, which more than doubles the cost of Lite. Moz is cheaper for AI tracking, and its weekly checks suit reporting well, but when I change a page I want to see the effect within days.
It would be the wrong pick for three kinds of people:
- Link builders. Ahrefs' backlink data is worth more to you than daily AI rankings.
- One small site on a tight budget. Ahrefs Starter at $29, plus Search Console, covers the essentials.
- Agencies sending monthly AI visibility reports. Moz gives you three times the tracked prompts (150 against 50) for about half the price.
Frequently asked questions
Is Semrush or Ahrefs better?
Neither is better overall. Ahrefs is usually preferred for backlink and competitor research; Semrush for breadth, PPC research and built-in AI search tracking. Your main use case decides it.
Is Moz still worth it in 2026?
For beginners, yes: it's easy to learn, and every plan now includes AI search tracking. Teams doing heavy competitive research usually outgrow it.
Does Google use Domain Authority or Domain Rating?
No. DA, DR and Authority Score are third-party estimates created by Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush. Google uses its own systems.
Can I do SEO without a paid tool?
Yes, especially for a small site. Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and free audit tools cover the essentials. Paid tools mainly add competitor data and scale.
Which has a free trial?
Semrush offers a 7-day free trial, and Moz offers a free trial on its Medium plan. Ahrefs has no free trial on paid plans, but its $29 Starter plan and Ahrefs Free are low-risk ways to try its data.