Ahrefs vs Moz Pro
Both are SEO tools aimed at marketers, freelancers, agencies and site owners. They differ most on backlink data, value for money and keyword research.
At a glance
| Ahrefs | Moz Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 81/100 Higher | 77/100 |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Paid from | £23/mo (about $30.41) monthly; keyword and competitor research only | $49/mo (about £37.07) monthly; for a single website |
| Positioning | full suite | full suite |
| Launched | 2011 | — |
| Best for | Anyone whose SEO work centres on links and competitor research. | Small businesses and marketers who want an established SEO suite with AI-search tracking at a mid-range price. |
Where each one leads
| Dimension | Ahrefs | Moz Pro | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Value for money | 2/5 | 3/5 | Moz Pro |
| Keyword research | 5/5 | 4/5 | Ahrefs |
| Free plan | 3/5 | 2/5 | Ahrefs |
| Rank tracking | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Site audits | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Breadth of features | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Backlink data | 5/5 | 4/5 | Ahrefs |
| AI-search tracking | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
Scores are 1–5 per dimension. Ahrefs leads on 3 dimensions, Moz Pro on 1. The overall figure weights these for SEO tools generally — see methodology.
Pricing
Plans are listed per tool rather than paired row by row — tiers rarely line up, and putting one vendor's second plan beside another's implies an equivalence that is not there.
| Tool | Plan | Per month | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Free | Free | your own sites only |
| Starter | £23 | monthly; keyword and competitor research only | |
| Lite | £99 | monthly; 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history | |
| Standard | £199 | monthly; 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history | |
| Advanced | £359 | monthly; 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history | |
| Moz Pro | Starter | $49 | monthly; for a single website |
| Standard | $99 | monthly; $79/mo billed yearly | |
| Medium | $179 | monthly; $143/mo billed yearly | |
| Large | $299 | monthly; $239/mo billed yearly |
Pricing checked 23 September 2026 and 24 September 2026 against each vendor's own pricing page. Ahrefs: Shown to UK visitors in GBP. Annual billing saves up to 17%. Enterprise needs an annual commitment. Moz Pro: Billed in USD. Yearly billing saves 20%. Where the two bill in different currencies, conversions use the European Central Bank reference rate.
Verdict
Ahrefs
- +Its backlink and site data come from what Ahrefs describes as the world's second-most active web crawler.
- +A genuinely useful free plan for sites you own, and a £23 Starter plan for light keyword research.
- +API and MCP access included on every paid plan from Lite upwards.
- −Lite is £99 a month with only six months of historical data and one user.
- −Additional users cost £32–£64 a month each depending on plan.
Moz Pro
- +Standard and above track AI visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
- +Standard tracks 3 sites and 300 keywords and crawls 400,000 pages a month.
- +A $49 Starter plan for a single website, and a free trial on Medium.
- −Standard includes one user; a second needs Medium, at $179 a month.
- −AI content briefs are capped at 2 a month on Standard and 10 on Medium.
Common questions
Is Ahrefs cheaper than Moz Pro?
Ahrefs starts at £23/mo (about $30.41; monthly; keyword and competitor research only), and Moz Pro starts at $49/mo (about £37.07; monthly; for a single website) — so Ahrefs is the cheaper entry point. Converted at the European Central Bank reference rate. Compare what each includes at that tier, and what it renews at, rather than the headline figure alone.
Does Ahrefs or Moz Pro have a free plan?
Ahrefs has a free plan, and Moz Pro has no free plan.
Which is better, Ahrefs or Moz Pro?
On our weighted scoring across the use cases in this category, Ahrefs comes out ahead overall. The honest answer is that it depends on the use case — the tables above break the score down by dimension so you can weight it to your own priorities.
Other comparisons
Sources & verification
- ahrefs.com — checked 23 September 2026Ahrefs Free covers data for sites you own; researching competitors needs a paid plan.
- api.frankfurter.app — checked 24 September 2026European Central Bank reference rate, published via Frankfurter.
- moz.com — checked 24 September 2026No free Moz Pro plan; Medium has a free trial. Moz also offers separate free SEO tools.