Ahrefs vs Built For SEO

Ahrefs is a web and API platform for SEO research, including keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, backlink analysis and competitor research. It also provides content tools, AI assistants and MCP access. Content Explorer can find web mentions and link prospects, while AI Content Helper supports content improvement. The free plan provides site data and fixes with limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit. Paid plans start with Starter at $29 a month. Lite costs $129 a month and includes five projects, 750 tracked keywords, 100,000 monthly crawl credits and one user; its Site Audit allowance has a 25,000-page project maximum. Annual payment saves up to 17%. Enterprise costs $1,499 a month and requires an annual commitment; it includes SSO, two-factor authentication, ISO27001 certification, access management, audit logs and unlimited additional users. Ahrefs says its web index contains 170 trillion pages, tracks 41.9 billion keywords and filters 28.7 billion keywords; AhrefsBot crawls 8 billion pages daily. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in Singapore. Multilingual support is available five days a week.

Built For SEO is a web SEO platform for agencies, consultants and in-house teams, combining Google data, DataForSEO tools and AI insights. Its daily rank tracking covers desktop and mobile across 190+ countries and includes historical ranking trends. Map Grid displays local rankings across geographic areas, and OAuth connections link Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and Google Business Profile. Other features include keyword and competitor research, on-page audits, citation discovery, reputation management and backlink analysis. The AI assistant can use project context such as rankings, Search Console performance, local visibility and traffic trends to answer questions. Starter is free forever with one project and Google integrations; rank tracking, keyword research, local SEO tools, AI features and reporting are paid features. Paid plans start at $12.49/mo (annual) and include a 14-day trial, with a payment method collected through Stripe when the trial begins. DataForSEO requires a user-provided API key, and those usage costs are paid directly to DataForSEO. The product is in Early Access. The maker says OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest using AES-256, data travels over HTTPS, and row-level security limits database access to users' own data.