# Ahrefs, Semrush and other SEO subscription suites

> Good data behind an expensive subscription. For audits and research, pay per call instead.

- Verdict: Skip
- Vendor: Various
- Layer: [Business tools](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/layers/business/index.md). Job: SEO suites
- Last reviewed: 26 October 2026, by Nicolas Dao (Cloudless Labs, Sydney)
- Web page: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/seo-suites/. The whole stack in one file: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md

Ahrefs and Semrush are good tools with good data. They're also extremely expensive, and what I hate most is the model: a subscription, charged every month, whether you ran one audit that month or none.

For what I do, audits of a site and research on keywords, competitors and backlinks, [DataForSEO](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/dataforseo/index.md) gives me the data per call, for pennies, and an agent does the work the dashboard used to do. It doesn't replace everything they do, so credit where it's due: a marketing team that lives in rank tracking and reports every day gets real value from the interface, and if a client already pays for one, use it.

## Use it when

- A marketing team that works in the dashboards every day: the reports, the rank tracking and the interface are the product, and DataForSEO has none of them.
- The client already pays for one: use it, and don't add a second source of numbers.

## Don't use it when

- Occasional audits and keyword research: you pay every month for the few days you use it.
- Agent-driven SEO: DataForSEO is an API first, priced per call. Semrush only lists API access on its Advanced plan, at a custom price.

## Pricing

Monthly subscriptions. Ahrefs from $129 (Lite) to $449 (Advanced) a month, $1,499 for Enterprise, extra users $40 to $80 a month each. Semrush from $139 (SEO) to $299 (Pro+) a month billed monthly, extra users from $45 a month.

## In my words: what hurts

- Extremely expensive.
- A subscription, charged whether you use it that month or not.

## Gotchas, with fixes

- **Gotcha:** The price is per user: every extra seat is another $40 to $80 a month on Ahrefs, or from $45 on Semrush.
  **Fix:** Keep one seat for the person who lives in it, and give everyone else the reports. Or run the research through DataForSEO and share the agent's write-up.
- **Gotcha:** Ahrefs' Lite plan caps usage at 1,000 credits per user, and limits history to 6 months.
  **Fix:** Check the plan's limits against the work before you buy. For a one-off audit, a few dollars of DataForSEO calls is the cheaper path.

## Use instead

DataForSEO, pay as you go, with an agent doing the research.

## Alternatives

- [DataForSEO](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/dataforseo/index.md): Audits, keyword research, rankings and backlinks, paid per call.

## Where it fits

- [SEO audits and keyword research](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/use-cases/seo/index.md): don't. Ahrefs and Semrush: good data, but an expensive subscription you pay every month, whether you ran one audit or none. DataForSEO gives the same kind of data per call, for pennies. Instead: [DataForSEO](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/dataforseo/index.md).

## Sources

- [Ahrefs pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing)
- [Semrush pricing](https://www.semrush.com/prices/)

## Related

- [Business tools](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/layers/business/index.md): every tool in this layer, with its verdict
- [The whole stack in one file](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md): every use case and tool, for questions that span many
- [Map of every Markdown file on cloudlesslabs.com, with what each one answers](https://ask.cloudlesslabs.com)