Ahrefs vs Semrush

Ahrefs

A dedicated crawler with scheduled crawls, user-set limits, regex scoping and a JavaScript execution toggle is documented, and the crawl-credit mechanics are stated down to which HTTP status consumes them — limits I can hold a vendor to. What the captured pages don't show is issue categories with severity prioritisation, Core Web Vitals per template, or any log-file and Search Console comparison; the speed check runs through PageSpeed Insights only if you supply your own Google API key.

Semrush

The audit skill names real modules — crawlability and indexability, canonicals, structured data, mobile parity and rendering, Core Web Vitals judged at Google's own good marks at the 75th percentile — plus a prioritized fix list, and Enterprise mentions multi-million-page crawling. But no crawl page cap is published per plan, and we found no public information on scheduled crawl cadence, log-file comparison against what Google fetched, or regression detection between crawls.

Ahrefs

Volume, difficulty and intent filtering are documented, and seventeen SERP features are tracked with position tracking for those carrying URLs — more checkable detail than most vendors publish. But we found no public information on German-language data depth, topic clustering, content briefs or cannibalisation detection, so this reads as keyword research without the guidance layer.

Semrush

Volume, difficulty and CPC with SERP feature presence, a 30-day SERP volatility chart, keyword cannibalization analysis on higher tiers and keyword history back to January 2012 are all documented. We found no public information on intent classification, topic clustering, or the depth of German-language data specifically, which is what I read for here.

Ahrefs

The freshness statements are unusually holdable: fresh index data every 15–30 minutes, a complete database refresh of about two months, and crawl priority explained through their own metrics. We found no public information on a published index size, ranking frequency, country or device granularity, or historical retention — the only history statement is unlimited historical data reserved for the Enterprise plan.

Semrush

Index size and freshness are published — 26.4 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks, daily updates claimed, city-level grids at 1.5 km, monthly snapshots from 2012 — which is more accountability than most vendors offer. But we found no public information on collection methodology, lost-and-found link detection, or whether a customer's own tracking history is retained and exportable for the life of the account.

Ahrefs

A versioned API (3.0.0) is documented and the built-in assistant runs API queries and generates exports, which is a foundation a team could build on. But the vendor's own help pages state that white-labelling reports is not allowed, and we found no public information on API limits or credit costs per endpoint, Search Console or analytics integrations, or scheduled reporting.

Semrush

API v3 and v4 are documented with a checkable unit balance and per-endpoint costs shown where it counts — 20 API units per request on keyword metrics, a points-times-keywords credit formula on Map Rank Tracker, some methods consuming none. White-label reporting exists only as a paid add-on at €19.18/mo, tools with external users are routed to sales, and we found no public information on data-warehouse or BigQuery export.

Ahrefs

Exports exist through the interface and the built-in assistant, and an API is documented, but nothing captured shows bulk export of historical rankings or crawl results in open formats. Unlimited historical data is an Enterprise-plan feature, so history below it is capped, and we found no public information on retention or any grace period after cancellation.

Semrush

The terms commit to erasure no sooner than thirty days after termination, give a 30-day backup window after suspension, and API responses come in json or csv with read-only access to crawl snapshots. But API use is restricted to internal business purposes, caching beyond one month requires written consent, export consumes metered units, and we found no public information on bulk export of a customer's ranking and crawl history in open formats.

Ahrefs

The contracting entity is Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, with a US arm and a US-specific data processing addendum, and we found no public information on hosting location or data residency. The one checkable disclosure is a published sub-processor list with services and locations; everything else about where the data sits is unstated.

Semrush

The contracting entity is Semrush Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Boston, personal data may be transferred to the United States under Standard Contractual Clauses, hosting is unstated and the subprocessor list is absent. A Prague entity appears as joint controller, but we found no public information on any EU hosting option.

Ahrefs

Every tier carries a public monthly price from € 27 /mo up to € 1,394 /mo with the annual discount stated, which is more than most vendors show. But the invoice is not computable: additional users are described with plan-specific credit limits and no price, Starter and Lite are credit-metered without stated credit amounts, and we found no public information on VAT treatment — only the Enterprise plan states its annual commitment.

Semrush

Tier limits are public — 5 to 40 websites and 500 to 5,000 keywords tracked daily — and the add-ons carry exact figures (users "Starting at €43/mo", Base Report €9.59/mo, Pro Report €19.18/mo). But the captured pages give no base subscription price per tier, no crawl page caps, no overage rate and no cash price for an API unit, while fees are exclusive of taxes and an unused trial auto-charges.