Ahrefs alternative for rank tracking: when to keep Ahrefs and when to leave

Ahrefs vs SerpBeats: plans and limits side by side

If you are weighing an Ahrefs alternative, start with the numbers. This is what each company's own page showed on 4 November 2026. Prices are in dollars per month, without tax. Ahrefs shows monthly prices and says only that you "save up to 17%" if you pay annually, so the table uses the monthly numbers for both.

Sources: Ahrefs pricing and SerpBeats pricing, both checked on 4 November 2026. Ahrefs also lists a $29 Starter plan, but its page shows no Rank Tracker limit for it, so it is not in the table. It lists an Enterprise plan at $1,499 a month with an annual commitment, and a free plan with no Rank Tracker limit shown. "Verified" and "not verified" are the page's own words for websites. Prices change, so check its page before you decide. If you see a different number, tell us and we will fix it.

For 500 keywords you would pick Ahrefs Lite, which covers 750, at $129 a month. SerpBeats Scale costs $60 for 500, a gap of $69 a month, or $828 a year. For 200 keywords the numbers are $129 against $30. That gap is why SerpBeats works as an Ahrefs alternative for people who only track rankings.

What an Ahrefs alternative for rank tracking does not do

Ahrefs calls itself an "AI Marketing Platform Powered by Big Data". Its home page lists Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Content Explorer, Brand Radar and Prompt Tracking, with Rank Tracker as one tool among them. SerpBeats is not that whole platform. An Ahrefs alternative that only tracks rankings cannot replace the rest of it. Stay on Ahrefs if:

• You use its research tools every week. If Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer or Content Explorer are why you pay, rank tracking is a small part of the bill. SerpBeats has no backlink index and no large keyword database.
• You track 750 to 5,000 keywords in one place. Ahrefs lists 750, 2,000 and 5,000 on its three plans. Our biggest self-service plan has 500, and larger lists go through our Enterprise contact.
• You want AI visibility inside the same suite. Ahrefs lists Brand Radar and Prompt Tracking on its home page. SerpBeats tracks the Google AI Overview in every plan and brand mentions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity as a separate add-on.

When SerpBeats is the better Ahrefs alternative

The best Ahrefs alternative is the one that matches what you open each week. SerpBeats fits when:

• Rank tracking is what you open it for. You check where 30 to 500 keywords stand, and the rest of the toolset sits unused.
• You have a small site, a local business or a few clients. $10, $30 or $60 a month is a different budget from $129.
• You need many projects. Scale has 40 projects, each with its own country, city and device.
• You want daily positions, competitors and reports in one place. Keywords inside the top 40 are checked every day, competitors are tracked next to your own keywords, and PDF reports can be scheduled and emailed.
• You want Google Maps tracking for a local business. Maps tracking scans from 13 points around the business and is in every plan, for 5, 10 or 25 local keywords.
• You want to try first. The 7-day trial needs no card, and nothing is charged when it ends.

You can read what the tool does in detail on the rank tracker page.

How to switch to an Ahrefs alternative without losing your keywords

1. In Ahrefs, open Site Explorer, then Organic keywords, and export the list as CSV. SerpBeats reads Ahrefs CSV files, including the UTF-16 files Ahrefs makes.
2. Add a project in SerpBeats and choose the country, a city if you want one, and the device.
3. Import the file. TXT, CSV, TSV, XLSX and Search Console ZIP files up to 8 MB also work, and a pasted list with one keyword per line is fine.
4. Let both tools run for a week and compare the trend, not the exact number. Two tools rarely show the same position on the same day.
5. Keep Ahrefs for research and drop only the rank tracking if that is all you used it for. SerpBeats starts a keyword's history at its first scan, so export your old Ahrefs positions first if you need them.

If a different Ahrefs alternative suits you better, see the best rank tracking tools, and if you are also looking at Semrush, read the Semrush alternative page.

Frequently asked questions