Quick Summary: Surfer SEO vs Ahrefs
- Surfer SEO helps make your website better for search engines by suggesting keywords and helping you search for them.
- Ahrefs lets you see what your competitors are doing with their websites and find good keywords.
- Both Surfer SEO and Ahrefs help your website rank better in search engines.
- You can check links, edit content, track how well your site ranks, and more with their tools.
What Is Surfer SEO?
SurferSEO is an online tool that helps you plan out what to write for websites, landing pages, mobile apps, and ads. You can use it to make existing content better or plan new content.
Plus, Surfer has a feature that lets you create SEO-friendly content automatically, without needing a person to do it.
There are two main parts to Surfer: the part that does all the behind-the-scenes work (like analyzing lots of data to come up with ideas), and the part you see and use.
The behind-the-scenes part uses fancy technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning to look at tons of different things on the web. It then gives you ideas for keywords to target, strategies for your content, and checks to see how well your site is doing.
The part you use is the part that’s easy for you. With just a few clicks, you can make really good articles or ads that show up well on Google.
This means you don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out complicated stuff – you can focus on getting more people to visit your site, sign up, or buy things each week.
What Is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a really popular tool for improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. There are several tools included in Site Explorer, such as Content Explorer, Rank Tracker, Keywords Explorer, and Site Audit.
These tools help you understand how your website is doing and how you can make it better.
Ahrefs also gives you access to many other useful tools for different purposes. For example, there are tools for website owners, YouTube creators, people managing backlinks, those researching search engine results, owners of WordPress sites, and teams analyzing competitors.
Ahrefs has its own special software that looks at things like backlinks (links from other websites to yours), how your competitors are doing, and changes in popular keywords.
They also keep a big database of information about search engines and how they work, so you can always stay updated on the latest trends and strategies for SEO and SEM.
Feature Comparison: Surfer SEO vs Ahrefs
1. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is a helpful tool for making sure your website shows up well in search results. It has different tools that can boost how your site ranks, like a SERP analyzer, keyword finder, and content editor.
Before you start writing, you can use the SERP analyzer to see what people are searching for and what results show up. This helps you pick the best keywords to focus on.
The keyword research tool in Surfer SEO tells you how many times each month people search for certain words. It’s great for figuring out which keywords will get your website noticed in specific areas.
The content editor is really important too. It tells search engines what your page is all about, which helps with ranking.
It gives you tips on how to improve your content, like how many words to use and what topics to cover. Plus, it connects straight to Google Docs, making it easy to edit your content.
2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs has a tool called Site Explorer that’s really handy for comparing your website to others. You can see things like how much traffic your site gets and how many other sites are linking back to it.
With the organic traffic feature in Site Explorer, you can see what keywords your competitors are already ranking for.
This helps you figure out which keywords you should focus on for your own website. Plus, you can use the backlink checker to see how authoritative a website is based on the links it’s getting from other sites.
Ahrefs also has a keyword explorer tool that helps you find popular search terms in over 100 languages. It not only tells you how many times people search for a keyword but also shows you how likely people are to click on it.
Another important tool in Ahrefs is the Rank Tracker. It helps you see how well your strategies are working over time compared to your competitors from around the world. You can also get SEO reports regularly to keep track of your progress.
Features of Surfer SEO
SurferSEO has some really helpful tools if you’re working on improving your website’s visibility on search engines. Let me explain each feature and tell you all about how it can help:
1. Content Editor:
This tool lets you write new content or edit existing content. It gives you ideas for keywords to use, suggests terms that work well for SEO, checks for plagiarism, and keeps track of different versions of your content.
It also helps you plan out the structure of your articles to make them more SEO-friendly.
2. Surfer AI:
This is a special feature that uses advanced technology to write content for you. It’s like having an AI assistant that helps you create high-quality content quickly. It uses a mix of different techniques to make sure the content is top-notch and optimized for search engines.
3. Audit:
If you have old content on your website that needs updating, this feature comes in handy. It checks for any SEO mistakes and gives you suggestions on how to fix them.
You can also compare your content to your competitors’ to see how you stack up and make improvements accordingly.
4. Keyword Research:
This tool is great for figuring out what keywords to target in your content. It helps you see what your competitors are doing, find new topics to write about, and understand how difficult it might be to rank for certain keywords.
5. SERP Analyzer:
This feature lets you see how well different URLs are ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). You can look at what your competitors are doing or analyze high-authority websites to get insights.
It also helps you identify which keywords to focus on for better rankings. The report it generates gives you useful metrics like outside links, search visibility, and more to help you make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.
Features of Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers several powerful features to help with SEO research and optimization. Let’s go through each one and explain how it can benefit you:
1. Dashboard:
This is like a control center where you can see an overview of all your website data. It gives you important metrics like domain rating, organic traffic, backlinks, and keywords.
This helps you get a quick snapshot of how your website is performing and where you might need to focus your efforts.
2. Site Explorer:
This tool is really useful for analyzing your own website or your competitors’. It provides detailed information about things like backlink profiles, organic traffic, website structure, and even paid traffic performance.
This helps you understand what’s working well and what could be improved on your website.
3. Keywords Explorer:
To attract more visitors to your website, you need to rank well for certain keywords. This tool helps you find the best keywords to target by showing you trending keywords, evergreen keywords, and phrases with high traffic potential but low difficulty. This can really boost your website’s visibility in search engine results.
4. Site Audit:
This feature helps you analyze your website’s SEO performance in detail. It checks for over 160 different issues related to things like page performance, HTML tags, content quality, and more.
By fixing these issues, you can improve your website’s overall SEO and increase its chances of ranking higher in search results.
5. Rank Tracker:
Keeping track of your website’s ranking in search engine results is crucial for staying ahead of the competition. This tool lets you monitor your own website’s ranking as well as your competitors’.
The tool can be customized to track specific criteria, including Google’s Featured Snippet, Sitelinks, etc. This helps you stay informed about any changes in your website’s ranking and take action to improve it.
6. Content Explorer:
This tool is perfect if you’re looking for inspiration for your website’s content or want to find top-performing content from which to get backlinks.
It helps you find popular content in various niches and gives you insights into its traffic and status. This can help you come up with new content ideas or find opportunities to improve your website’s backlink profile.
| Attributes | SurferSEO | Ahrefs |
| Free trial | None | Limited |
| Free SEO and SEM tools | None | 15+ free tools with no sign-up |
| User interface | Organized, clutter-free, and minimalist | Well-organized, clutter-free, minimalistic |
| Core SEO and SEM tools | Content Editor, Keyword Research, SEO Audit, Surfer AI, Surfy – AI assistant, Templates, and Custom Knowledge | Dashboard, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Content Explorer, and a set of 11 special tools for paid subscribers |
| Use case | Well-suited for basic to advanced SEO and SEM projects for digital marketing | It uses its own Surfer bot and crawler tools with limitations |
| User base | Over 15,645 paid customers from more than 159 countries | More than 40,000 subscribers according to 6Sense |
| Search engines supported | Limited and mostly for Google SERP | Supports 10 search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and more |
| Content templates | Three content templates when using Surfer AI for content generation: Blogs, Single product reviews, and Product roundups | No specific content templates |
| Content creation | Advanced content editor for semantic analysis and content ranking | Limited content creation capabilities |
| Keyword research context | Creates clusters of keywords for primary and related keywords in relevant groups | Basic keyword explorer showing all semantic keywords, People Also Ask questions, relevant URLs, etc. |
| Backlink Analysis | Limited functionality compared to Ahrefs | Robust backlink analysis tools with historical data |
| Integrations | Integrates with various CMS platforms and tools | Integrates with popular marketing and SEO tools |
| Site Audit | Provides basic site audit functionalities | Comprehensive site audit tools with detailed reports |
| Data on the website, the content, the backlinks, and the keywords | There are limitations to the tools it uses, such as Surfer bot and crawler | With a capacity of 5 million page crawls per minute, Ahrefs is the world’s 7th largest web crawler |
| AI usage | Extensive | Limited |
| Cost of ownership | Less than Ahrefs | More than Surfer |
| History | Basic log of usage | Stores activity history for 6 months, 2 years, 5 years, and unlimited years with varying pricing plans |
Comparison Of Pricing
1. Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs offers four main pricing plans, each designed to cater to different needs and levels of usage:
1. Lite Plan – $99 per month:
- Suitable for small businesses and hobby projects.
- Includes features like site explorer, keyword explorer, site audit, and rank tracker.
- Allows tracking of up to 500 tracked keywords and access to 5 projects.
2. Standard Plan – $199 per month:
- Ideal for growing marketing agencies and in-house marketers.
- Includes all features from the Lite plan, plus expanded usage limits.
- Allows tracking of up to 1,500 keywords, access to 10 projects, and more in-depth competitor analysis.
3. Advanced Plan – $399 per month:
- For larger teams and experienced SEO professionals.
- Offers higher usage limits, including tracking up to 5,000 keywords and access to 25 projects.
- Additional features include content explorer and in-depth historical data analysis.
4. Enterprise Plan – $999 per month:
- Designed for large organizations with extensive SEO and data needs.
- Provides the highest limits with tracking for up to 10,000 keywords and access to 100 projects.
- Includes features like API access, enhanced user management, and advanced customer support options.
Each plan offers a 7-day trial for $7, allowing users to test the features before committing to a full subscription.
2. Surfer SEO Pricing
1. Essential Plan – $89 per month
- Designed for small business owners and freelancers.
- Includes writing and optimizing up to 30 articles.
- Offers 20 Auto-Optimize runs.
- Features: Content Audit, Topic Explorer, Humanize 50,000 words, Unlimited AI detection, and the ability to invite 2 team members.
2. Scale Plan – $129 per month
- Ideal for mid-sized agencies and marketing teams.
- Supports writing and optimizing up to 100 articles.
- Provides 40 Auto-Optimize runs.
- Includes: Content Audit, Topic Explorer, Humanize 50,000 words, Unlimited AI detection, Audit, and the option to invite 5 team members.
3. Scale AI Plan – $219 per month
- Best for agencies and teams looking to scale up with AI.
- Allows for writing and optimizing up to 100 articles, with the ability to generate up to 10 AI articles ready to rank.
- Comes with 80 Auto-Optimize runs.
- Features: Content Audit, Topic Explorer, Humanize 50,000 words, Unlimited AI detection, Audit, and 5 team member invites, plus an onboarding call.
4. Enterprise Plan – Custom pricing (contact sales)
- Suitable for large agencies and marketing teams.
- Custom number of articles and AI-generated ready-to-rank articles.
- Custom Auto-Optimize runs.
- Includes all features: Content Audit, Topic Explorer, Humanize a custom number of words, Unlimited AI detection, Audit, Custom team size, Personalized onboarding, Priority support, SERP Analyzer, White Label, API, and SSO (coming soon).
Additionally, there is an option to buy add-ons and AI packages at any time for $19 each, with discounts available for bulk purchases.
| Plan | Suitable For | Description |
| Ahrefs | ||
| Lite | Just starting out or small projects | Basic SEO tools for beginners or small-scale projects. |
| Standard | Freelancers or small agencies | More features for individuals or small agencies managing multiple clients. |
| Advanced | Dedicated marketing teams | Comprehensive SEO tools for teams with a focus on SEO strategies. |
| Enterprise | Large agencies or enterprises | Custom solutions for organizations with complex SEO needs and requirements. |
| SurferSEO | ||
| Essential | Small businesses and freelancers | Basic SEO tools suitable for individuals or small businesses. |
| Scale | Mid-sized agencies and marketing teams | More features and capacity for mid-sized agencies and teams. |
| Scale AI | Agencies and teams leveraging AI for content | AI-powered tools for content creation and optimization. |
| Enterprise | Large agencies and marketing teams | Tailored solutions with advanced features and customization for large organizations. |
FAQs
🔥Which tool is better for on-page SEO?
SurferSEO: Excellent, specialized in on-page SEO with detailed content analysis and recommendations. Ahrefs: Good, but more general SEO features, not as focused on on-page optimization.
🚀Which tool has better customer support?
SurferSEO: Good support with focus on chat and email. Ahrefs: Excellent support with email, chat, and comprehensive help documentation.
✨Which tool has better reporting capabilities?
SurferSEO: Provides detailed content reports. Ahrefs: Offers highly detailed and customizable reports across various SEO aspects.
❓Can I manage my SEO for multiple websites?
SurferSEO: Yes, allows managing SEO for multiple websites. Ahrefs: Yes, suitable for managing multiple websites with its comprehensive toolset
Quick Links:-
Conclusion: Ahrefs vs. Surfer SEO: Which Is Better?
SEO campaigns are super important in digital marketing because they help bring more people to your website.
I use both Surfer SEO and Ahrefs because they each have their own good and not-so-good parts. But which one I use depends on what I need and how much money I have.
In the end, whether you pick Surfer SEO or Ahrefs, you’ll get tools that help you understand things like where your website links are coming from, how well your pages are ranking, and what keywords to focus on.
Using both Surfer SEO and Ahrefs together is great because they help me figure out how to make my website better for search engines like Google.
Surfer SEO helps me make sure my content is easy for search engines to understand, while Ahrefs helps me see where I can improve my website’s overall performance.
So, by using both, I can make sure I’m covering all my bases and increasing my chances of getting more visitors to my site.
