Ahrefs vs Semrush

Ahrefs

Site Audit is documented as a genuinely configurable crawler — day, time and timezone scheduling, JavaScript execution behind a toggle, custom URL list uploads, regex include/exclude, ignore-robots control and HTTP-authenticated crawling — with PageSpeed scores flagged when low, though the user must supply their own Google API key. We found no public information on log-file or Search Console comparison against what Google fetched, structured-data validation, or issue prioritisation by traffic impact, so the evidence describes a well-configured crawler rather than a diagnosis.

Semrush

The audit module list runs from crawlability and indexability through Core Web Vitals with Google's published good and poor cutoffs at the 75th percentile, structured data, canonicals, mobile parity and rendering, and internal linking, with a prioritized fix list and multi-million-page crawling documented for Enterprise. We found no public information on log-file analysis, crawl-budget analysis, or regression detection between crawls, so I stop short of the top of the range.

Ahrefs

Keywords Explorer is documented with volume and CPC accuracy statements, difficulty, search-intent filtering, Parent Topic, volume forecasting and a long tracked list of SERP features including AI Overview, with position tracking for features that carry URLs. For what sits above that — competitor gap analysis, content briefs with entity coverage, cannibalisation detection, and any statement of German-language data depth — we found no public information.

Semrush

Volume, difficulty, CPC, rich SERP-feature detail across a database of over 26 billion keywords, monthly snapshots documented back to 2012-01, and cannibalization analysis named in plan limits put this above mid-range. We found no public information on topic clustering, content briefs with entity coverage, or intent classification, and nothing in the captures speaks to the depth of German-language data specifically.

Ahrefs

The backlink side is unusually accountable: refresh every 15–30 minutes, a full database cycle of about two months, and crawl priority and update speed explained as functions of their own Domain and URL ratings. We found no public information on index size, rank tracking frequency, or country and device granularity, and historical retention is tier-gated in the captured pages — unlimited historical data appears as an Enterprise feature.

Semrush

They publish their own numbers — 26.4B keywords, 43T backlinks, 808M domain profiles, 142 geo databases — with daily updates, city-level and desktop/mobile granularity, and honest methodology notes like the average-position cap at 21 and unpersonalized results. We found no public information on a backlink refresh cadence, lost-and-found link detection, or ranking history retained and exportable in full for the life of the account.

Ahrefs

There is a real, versioned Rank Tracker API at version 3.0.0, and the Enterprise plan advertises uncapped access and custom endpoints — more than a CSV button, but not yet a data source. We found no public information on API credit costs per endpoint, data-warehouse or BigQuery export, or Search Console and analytics integration, and the vendor states that at present reports cannot be white-labelled.

Semrush

This is the good stuff: per-endpoint credit costs published — 20 API units per request, some endpoints flagged as consuming no units, Map Rank Tracker credits priced as points times keywords — with a checkable unit balance, versioned v3 and v4 APIs with v3 deprecation announced, white-label Pro Report with client share links, and Google Analytics and Search Console integrations. Two things hold it back: we found no public information on data-warehouse or BigQuery export, and the terms restrict API use to internal business purposes with external-user tools routed to sales.

Ahrefs

Export exists but is metered: help documentation ties exports to per-plan row limits, and unlimited historical data plus higher data-export limits are presented as Enterprise features, so multi-year rankings appear tier-gated rather than the customer's by default. We found no public information on retention of the archive after cancellation or any grace period during which it stays retrievable.

Semrush

The terms give thirty days after suspension notice to back up data, a stated minimum of thirty days before post-termination erasure, and an API that returns json and csv — but exit support in the captured pages ends there.

Ahrefs

The contracting entity is Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, and we found no public information on data residency or hosting location. A published sub-processor list with services and locations, plus an available data processing agreement, lifts this just above the floor for a non-EU chain with nothing European evidenced.

Semrush

The contracting entity is Semrush Inc., a Delaware corporation in Boston, the privacy policy documents transfers to the United States under Standard Contractual Clauses, and we found no public information on EU hosting or a subprocessor list for the service itself — the named processors cover the vendor's own storefront and analytics. A Prague entity appears as joint controller, which keeps this a point above the floor.

Ahrefs

Every tier is public — € 27 /mo Starter through € 1,394 /mo Enterprise with annual commitment required — with monthly billing, a save up to 17% annual option, and the credit rules documented: Starter and Lite are credit-limited, crawl credits only count internal HTML pages returning a 200, and each subscription except Enterprise includes one user. The invoice stays partly unknowable because we found no public information on the price of an additional user, API credit costs, overage rates or VAT treatment, and historical data is priced only implicitly through the Enterprise tier.

Semrush

The pricing pages state per-plan keyword and website limits, additional users starting at €43/mo, report addons at €9.59/mo and €19.18/mo, taxes exclusive, and a per-request API cost of 20 units — enough to price most of an invoice. The captured pricing pages give plan limits without a headline subscription price, and we found no public information on per-tier crawl limits or overage rates, so the full annual cost is not computable from public pages alone.