Ahrefs vs SpyFu: Which SEO Tool is Better One?

When you want to grow your online presence, bring visitors to your website, and boost your revenue, Ahrefs and SpyFu are two powerful tools you can consider. 

These are two prominent contenders in the market that offer a plethora of features to aid in crafting winning SEO strategies for achieving marketing success.

But which one reigns supreme? 

In this showdown, we will compare the strengths and weaknesses of Ahrefs and SpyFu, helping you determine which SEO tool aligns best with your goals and budget. 

No matter the business type you are running, if you want to enhance your website’s online presence, you need to consider SEO. 

Main Differences Between Ahrefs vs. SpyFu

Broken Link Checker:

Ahrefs has a broken link checker, which is useful for link-building strategies, but SpyFu lacks this feature.

SEO Toolbar:

Ahrefs offers an SEO toolbar feature, providing additional insights and data, while SpyFu does not have a toolbar extension feature.

Affordability:

SpyFu is affordable compared to Ahrefs, with the basic plans starting from just $39/month, whereas Ahrefs’ plans start at $99/month.

What Is Ahrefs and SpyFu?

SpyFu and Ahrefs are popular and powerful tools for competitive analysis and search engine optimization (SEO). They provide valuable insights and data to help businesses and marketers make informed decisions about their online strategies. 

The Main Features of Ahrefs

Site Explorer

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool is a powerful and comprehensive solution for competitor analysis and understanding a website’s organic traffic and backlink profile. It offers valuable insights and data that can help businesses and marketers make informed decisions and improve their own SEO strategies.

Here are some key features of Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool:

• Organic Traffic Analysis: Ahrefs provides data on the amount of monthly organic traffic a website receives. This information can give users an understanding of how successful a website attracts organic search visitors.
• Organic Keywords: Users can see the number of keywords a website ranks for in organic search results. This helps identify the website’s search visibility and the range of keywords it targets.
• Backlink Profile: The tool offers in-depth details about a website’s backlink profile, including the number of backlinks and referring domains. Backlinks are crucial for SEO, and knowing a competitor’s backlink sources can help identify potential quick backlink audit and link-building opportunities.
• Traffic Value: Ahrefs estimates the organic traffic value of a website, which can be a useful metric for understanding the potential value of the website’s organic search presence.
• Graphs for Data Visualization: Visual graphs help users understand the historical growth or decline of organic traffic and keyword rankings for the analyzed website.
• Pages Section: This feature allows users to see which specific pages on a website have the most backlinks and social shares. This information can be valuable for understanding what type of content attracts the most attention and backlinks.
• Outgoing Links: Users can view the websites to which the analyzed website links. Understanding outbound linking patterns can reveal valuable insights about the website’s content strategy and partnerships.

By leveraging the data and insights provided by Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, businesses and marketers can perform thorough competitor analysis, identify successful strategies used by competitors, and refine their own SEO and content strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer is indeed a powerful and comprehensive tool for keyword research. It offers a wide range of features and benefits that can help businesses and marketers discover the most relevant and valuable keywords for their SEO and content strategies. 

Here are some key features of Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer:

• Large Database: Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer is built on a massive database of over 7 billion keywords, and it’s regularly updated every month. This ensures that users have access to up-to-date and comprehensive keyword data.
• Global Coverage: The tool provides keyword data for 171 countries, making it suitable for businesses and marketers from all over the world. This allows users to find relevant keywords for their target markets, regardless of their location.
• Multiple Search Engines: Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer doesn’t only analyze keywords from Google but also includes data from 10 other popular search engines, including YouTube, Amazon, Bing, and Baidu. This broadens the scope of keyword research and enables users to find keywords for various platforms.
• Keyword Difficulty Score: The tool calculates a keyword difficulty score, which helps users identify the competitiveness of specific keywords. This feature is essential for finding keywords that are easier to rank for and can save time and effort in SEO efforts.
• Keyword Click Metrics: Ahrefs is one of the few tools that provide click metrics along with search volume. This data is valuable because it helps users understand how many clicks a keyword generates, giving a more accurate idea of its potential impact on website traffic.
• Keyword Lists: Users can easily save and organize their chosen keywords into lists, making it convenient to manage and revisit keyword research data.

By using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, businesses and marketers can conduct thorough and data-driven keyword research, identify valuable keyword opportunities, and optimize their SEO and content strategies for better visibility and organic traffic.

Site Audit [SEO Audits]

Ahrefs’ Site Audit is a valuable feature that provides a comprehensive SEO audit of a website’s SEO performance and helps identify areas for improvement. This tool is essential for both beginners and experienced SEO professionals, as it offers a detailed evaluation of various on-page and technical aspects of a website.

Here are some key features of Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

• Overall Website Score: After crawling all the pages on a website, Ahrefs’ Site Audit provides an overall score that reflects the website’s SEO health. This score is a quick way to assess the site’s current performance.

• SEO Issue Detection: The tool identifies potential SEO issues on the website, such as missing HTML tags, social media tags, and other technical problems that may affect search engine rankings.

• Recommendations for Improvement: Ahrefs offers actionable recommendations to address the detected issues, helping website owners and SEO professionals prioritize tasks and make necessary optimizations.

• Integration with Google Analytics and Search Console: Users can integrate their own Google Analytics and Google Search Console data with Ahrefs, enabling them to consolidate and analyze all relevant website data in one place.

• Comprehensive Checks: The Site Audit tool examines various aspects of a website, including performance, content quality, localization, backlinks, outbound links, and resource usage. This ensures a thorough evaluation of the website’s overall SEO performance.

• In-Depth Analysis: For advanced users, Ahrefs’ Site Audit allows for an in-depth analysis of over 100 different data points on each page of the site. This level of detail provides a more precise picture of any issues and allows for fine-tuning SEO strategies.

By using Ahrefs’ Site Audit, website owners and SEO professionals can pinpoint areas of improvement, address technical SEO issues, and optimize their websites to achieve better search engine rankings and overall performance.

Rank Tracker

Experience the power and precision of Ahrefs’ cutting-edge Rank Tracker tool. Seamlessly monitor your website’s rankings over time and gain a crystal-clear understanding of how it stacks up against your competitors.

With the Rank Tracker, you’ll effortlessly spot the keywords that propel you forward and those that need attention, ensuring you always stay on the winning track.

Uncover hidden opportunities and competitive challenges with the ‘share of voice’ function. By peeking behind the curtains of rival websites, you’ll sharpen your competitive edge and enhance your digital performance.

Content Explorer

Unlock the treasure trove of high-performing content in your niche with Ahrefs’ content explorer tool. 

Getting started is a breeze; just input a relevant keyword for your niche, and the content explorer will reveal the top-ranking pages for each keyword. 

Gain insights about the champions of your industry and learn from their success to elevate your own content to new heights.

To find content that attracts valuable backlinks, the tool offers powerful filters. Easily sift through the results, filtering out pages with a low number of backlinks, and pinpoint those opportunities that could be yours for the taking. 

With this newfound knowledge, you can craft content that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best and beckons backlinks from all corners of the web.

SEO Toolbar

Discover Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar – a Chrome or Firefox extension that provides instant SEO metrics for any website you visit without leaving your current page. 

Get key insights like Ahrefs Domain Rating, URL Rating, Ahrefs Rank, backlinks, referring domains, estimated organic search traffic, and ranking keywords. 

Plus, see an overlay on Google SERPs to assess the difficulty of ranking in the top 10 for any search. Effortless, efficient, and essential for your SEO success.

Pros and Cons of Ahrefs

Pros:

• Comprehensive data on backlinks and keywords.
• Powerful site audit feature for on-page SEO improvements.
• Accurate keyword analysis with click metrics.
• In-depth competitor analysis.
• Helpful for finding link building opportunities.
• User-friendly interface.
• Frequent data updates.

Cons:

• Relatively expensive pricing.
• Steep learning curve.
• Limited historical data.
• Keyword tracking limitations.
• Focus primarily on backlinks.
• Varying geographical coverage.

The Main Features of SpyFu

Domain Overview Tool

SpyFu’s Domain Overview tool is your gateway to uncovering your competitors’ marketing secrets, including staying updated on the latest digital marketing trends. It presents valuable data, revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and identifies opportunities to outperform them in the search engine results.

Gone are the days of drowning in data. SpyFu does the heavy lifting, providing you with a clear and concise overview of your competitors’ PPC and SEO performance, including their latest wins and losses. 

With this powerful tool, you can strategically position yourself for success in the digital landscape.

Keyword Research

SpyFu’s user-friendly interface allows you to enter a keyword and gain valuable insights instantly. Discover the monthly search volume, estimated clicks, and a plethora of related keywords and questions to unleash your website’s true potential.

But that’s just the beginning! Delve deeper into the strategies of your competitors as SpyFu reveals recommended AdWords buys and showcases successful advertisers and their best ads. Learn from the best and identify fresh opportunities for your own ad campaigns.

As you dig in further into the search results to uncover the top 50 organic results for your selected keyword. Understand your competitors better with insights on monthly organic clicks, domain strength, ranked keywords, and outbound links.

 Armed with this knowledge, you can chart a course to surpass their success.

Yet, there’s more to explore. SpyFu’s Keyword research tools provide historical performance data, revealing advertiser history, ranking trends, and the most valuable backlinks that will boost your website’s search engine rankings.

As you explore the landscape of keyword opportunities, SpyFu’s Keyword research tools become your trusted companion. Organize your discoveries into lists, creating a roadmap for your website’s ascent to greatness.

Backlink Checker

SpyFu’s Backlink checker tool is your secret weapon to unlock the best backlinks that will elevate your website’s search engine rankings. 

It empowers you to identify links that are already boosting other sites, target common links from your competitors, and filter results to find specific page types like blogs or forums.

Discover pages that Google recognizes as authoritative on the subject, giving you clear targets for obtaining high-quality backlinks.

But that’s not all – SpyFu goes the extra mile in backlink outreach. Not only does it help you find the right websites to target, but it also provides valuable contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses, and social media profiles of site owners. With everything at your fingertips, you can effortlessly reach out to potential link partners.

Prioritize your efforts with SpyFu’s rating system, which allows you to focus on targeting the highest-rated sites first. Maximize your outreach effectiveness and watch your website climb the ranks with the power of SpyFu’s Backlink checker tool.

Rank Checker 

Uncover a treasure trove of historical keyword insights, gaining a strategic advantage like never before.

SpyFu’s Rank Checker reveals the captivating tale of your competitors’ keyword journeys. Witness their rise and fall, learning from their past successes and failures. 

By understanding their strategies, you can use them in the future, securing your rightful place at the top of the search results.

But that’s not all – SpyFu’s Rank Checker goes beyond keyword history. You can effortlessly track page rankings for not just blogs but also product pages, unlocking valuable data for e-commerce success. With an array of powerful filters, you’ll unmask the true contenders in the competitive arena, empowering you to make informed decisions and devise winning strategies.

The magic lies in understanding the past to shape the future. SpyFu’s Rank Checker equips you with the knowledge to optimize your SEO efforts and stay ahead of the curve. By analyzing the journey of keywords and the pages that matter, you’ll carve a path to success that others can only dream of.

With SpyFu’s Rank Checker, the future of your website’s rankings is yours to shape. Illuminate your SEO strategy with the wisdom of the past, outrank your competition, and ascend to new heights in the search engine realm. 

SEO and PPC Reports

Tailor your reports to unravel exactly what you need, whether it’s assessing your site’s organic presence or adopting a more focused approach.

With SpyFu, the possibilities are endless. Unearth opportunities to surpass your competitors, strategically leveraging your domain’s strengths while addressing areas for improvement. 

The custom reports guide your path to SEO and PPC greatness, providing invaluable insights to boost your digital performance.

Optimize your PPC campaigns with ease. SpyFu’s reports recommend the best keywords for you to purchase, enabling you to get ahead of the competition and capture your target audience. Safeguard your budget by employing negative match to weed out underperforming keywords, ensuring every penny spent delivers maximum impact.

The key to SEO and PPC triumph lies in the details. Embrace the custom reports from SpyFu, and watch your website soar to new heights. Armed with data-driven decisions, you’ll rise above the competition and leave a lasting mark in the digital landscape.

Pros and Cons of SpyFu

Pros

• Comprehensive competitor analysis for SEO and PPC strategies.
• Customizable reports for in-depth insights.
• Uncover keyword opportunities and weaknesses.
• Recommendations for effective keyword purchases.
• Identify competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.

Cons

• Pricing may be on the higher side for some users.
• Limited historical data for certain metrics.
• Steeper learning curve for beginners.
• Data coverage may vary for specific regions.
• More focused on competitor analysis, less emphasis on content research.

Ahrefs vs SpyFu: Pricing

Ahrefs Pricing

Ahrefs offers four pricing plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Agency.

• Lite: $99/month; limited historical index and broken pages access; alerts on a monthly basis; 5 projects, 750 keywords, 25,000 pages/month.
• Standard: $199/month; full features; alerts on a weekly basis; 20 projects, 2000 keywords, 50,000 pages/month.
• Advanced: $399/month; full features; 50 projects, 5000 keywords, 250,000 pages/month.
• Agency: $999/month; full features; 100 projects, 10,000 keywords, 5M pages/month.

SpyFu Pricing

SpyFu offers three main plans: Basic, Professional, and Team.

Basic Plan

•  $39/month
• 6 months historical data
• 250 sales leads
• 5k weekly tracked keyword rankings
• 10k row search results.

Professional Plan

• $39/month
• 10+ years historical data
• 15k weekly tracked keyword rankings
• 500 sales leads
• API access
• unlimited search results
• custom branded reporting.

Team Plan

• $299/month
• 10+ years historical data
• custom branded reporting, 5 user logins.
• 40k weekly tracked keyword rankings
• 2000 sales leads and domain contacts
• Unlimited search results, API access

30-day money-back guarantee available.

The Verdict: Ahrefs vs SpyFu – Which One Is Better?

Both Ahrefs and SpyFu offer valuable features for SEO strategy, but Ahrefs takes the lead due to its extensive feature set and backlink-building capabilities. However, Ahrefs’ higher pricing might be a concern for budget-conscious users. 

If you’re on a tighter budget, SpyFu is the answer. It provides robust PPC and organic research tools, although it may lack some advanced features of Ahrefs. 

Ultimately, both tools offer excellent value for different user needs and budget constraints.