Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs: Which is Better For SEO?

Neil Patel
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post. If you want my team to just do your marketing for you, click here.
Author: Neil Patel | Co Founder of NP Digital & Owner of Ubersuggest
Published August 20, 2024
A graphic that says "Ubersuggest vs Ahrefs: Which is better for SEO?"

There are so many SEO tools at your disposal today.

The days of DIY SEO are long gone. In the increasingly competitive digital marketing environment, SEO tools are an integral part of any serious strategy.  The ones you use

should help you work smarter and not harder. But which ones are the best?

My tool, Ubersuggest, and Ahrefs are some of the most popular names in the space, so they are often compared to each other. 

When evaluating Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs, there are various functionalities to consider. Let’s take a closer look as we break down the differences between these two robust SEO tools.

Key Takeaways

  • Ubersuggest and Ahrefs both offer functionalities in keyword research, competitive analysis, content ideas, and backlinks analysis.
  • Ubersuggest is well-known for the power of its keyword research feature, while Ahrefs is especially known for its backlinks analysis capabilities.
  • There are other notable differences in the scale and depth of SEO analysis as well as user-friendlinessUbersuggest is generally considered more intuitive, while Ahrefs may take some time to learn.
  • Another main difference between Ahrefs vs. Ubersuggest is pricing, with Ubersuggest being more affordable. 
  • Ubersuggest may be better for freelancers or small businesses with limited budgets and employees, while Ahrefs may be preferable for businesses with more resources like dedicated SEO teams and a need for more advanced insights and capabilities. 
  • I recommend testing them both out to see which one aligns best with your SEO requirements.

Table of Contents

Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs at a Glance

To set the record straight, both of these are excellent options to add to your SEO toolkit. While there is some crossover in terms of features, there are also some significant differences.

Ubersuggest is known for its user-friendly format and dashboard. Information is presented in a clear, easy-to-grasp format, and tools are intuitive and easy to learn. It has a feature to track rankings and find ways you can improve your SEO.

Other important features include:

  • Site Audit, which instantly checks for any problems related to SEO.
  • Keyword Research, which you can use to find keywords, see keyword-related traffic to your site, look up traffic volume for keywords, and more.
  • Traffic Estimation, which provides historical traffic data, pages with the most SEO traffic, and other insights.
  • Backlinks, which shows you backlinks over time, referring domains’ domain authority, and a tool to compare your backlinks to those on a competitor’s site.

You can access basic functionalities with a limited scope for free. For the paid version, it’s very affordable, starting at just $290 for lifetime access.

The Ubersuggest interface.

Ahrefs offers similar functionalities but learning how to use them is more complicated. It also offers advanced features to dig deeper into your own SEO and competitors’ strategies, such as more insights into SEO performance and value on specific pages of competitors’ websites and the ability to track when your competitors publish new content. 

Ahrefs features in its interface.

Finally, it has features that help with organizing multiple campaigns and projects, including email alerts.

However, it’s more expensive, with pricing starting at $129/month. The cost is one of the main drawbacks, according to customer feedback.

To help you choose the one that’s right for your unique needs, I’ve compared the two tools, digging into the most important aspects of a SEO strategy.

Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs: Which is Better For Keyword Research?

With Ubersuggest, my goal is to make sure you get the insights you need as easily as possible. 

We kept the Keyword Research dashboard simple to navigate no matter what level you’re at in your SEO journey.

Type in keywords or competitor sites you want to analyze. You can see a general overview with the search volume, difficulty, cost per click, and search volume over time. You can also dive deeper into keyword suggestions, view keyword ideas visually, and explore keywords by traffic. 

I’m most excited about the new Labs feature, which includes a keyword generator that analyzes your site and competitor sites to come up with a list of keywords you should target. 

Ubersuggest's labs feature.

Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer is considered one of the top tools out there. Like Ubersuggest, it includes search volume, cost per click, and difficulty of keywords, as well as a Keyword Generator that provides recommendations with click-through rates and monthly search volumes. It also offers a detailed analysis of SERP results.

Ahrefs results for the keyword "scuba diving equipment."

The drawback? While Ahrefs may provide a more advanced analysis, the interface is not as user-friendly as Ubersuggest, so you’ll have to spend some time figuring it out. While there are resources out there from Ahrefs itself and third-parties to get you started, Ubersuggest is more accessible, especially for SEO newcomers.

Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs: Which is Better for Competitive Analysis?

Ubersuggest lets you enter a competitor website into its keyword research tool, which will automatically bring up additional competing websites and the keywords they use. You can click on each competitor to see the common keywords they rank for, estimated traffic, and where there are keyword gaps you can fill.

Competitve results in Ubersuggest.

This can show you where you stand in relation to competitors and suggest some tactics and opportunities for increasing your search engine results. 

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer functionality is similar, but it goes into more depth. It includes both organic and paid traffic and allows users to filter for easy-to-rank-for keywords to help prioritize SEO efforts. 

Ahrefs' site explorer feature.

Other features of note when comparing Ahrefs vs. Ubersuggest include Ahrefs’ ability to identify the top-performing pages on competitor websites, the value of those pages, and the top-performing keywords on those pages. You can even compare the competitor site performance at two different points in time to explore their tactics for growth.

Finally, the site structure report enables you to reverse-engineer a competitor site so you can mirror or learn from their strategies and potentially outdo their SEO performance.

Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs: Which is Better For Content Ideas?

Content development is one of the most important elements of SEO. When you develop high-quality content that fills a need your target audience has, it can help you build credibility and trust as well as bring in traffic.

Ubersuggest’s Content Ideas functionality shows you the top content with your chosen keywords, providing useful insight into which topics currently resonate with users It shows the estimated number of visits to that page and number of backlinks. It also helpfully shows the number of shares on Facebook and Reddit and re-pins on Pinterest, suggesting which topics are more likely to get traction on social media. 

The Ubersuggest Content Ideas feature.

When you enter a keyword into Ahrefs’ Content Explorer, it comes up with the top content associated with it, as well as traffic, social shares, and domain ratings, similar to Ubersuggest. You can also use a filter to find topics that generate the most links and monitor your competitors’ publishing frequency. 

Ahrefs Content Explorer.

While Ubersuggest’s content research tool is easy to use and comprehend, Ahrefs offers a bit more depth and specificity. So when comparing Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs in this area, you need to evaluate how many content ideas you need to gather, and how much data supports those ideas. A smaller business may not have the content needs of an enterprise-level business to keep pace with competition. 

Ubersuggest vs. Ahrefs: Which is Better For Website Audits?

Ubersuggest’s Site Audit tool shows where your site needs cleanup at the page level and where you can make adjustments. It’ll show you issues such as pages that are missing metadata, that have low word counts, or are lacking an H1 heading. This makes it easy to make adjustments where needed. 

Ubersuggest's Site Audit tool.

It also shows a few aspects of technical SEO, such as load time of your site and how long it takes for it to respond to visitors’ interactions.  These can help you identify any issues that might be affecting your Core Web Vitals, metrics that measure the real-world user experience on your site.

Again, it’s very easy to navigate this aspect of Ubersuggest so you can take action as needed.

Ahrefs’ Site Audit goes a bit further. Among other functions, it can analyze:

  • Overall site health and provides a health score, reflecting the percentage of URLs that do not have errors.
  • SEO and technical on-page errors, which are split into three groups: Error, Warning, and Notice. This helps you prioritize the most severe issues. 
  • Security issues like missing HTTPS.
  • Site architecture, such as insufficient internal links.

The Page Explorer tool allows users to get granular into SEO issues, down to looking at the source code to compare crawls over time. It also allows for more flexibility and customization via advanced filters—but it’s more complicated to use.

Ahrefs Page Explorer results.

Ubersuggest has a pretty robust backlinks analysis tool. The overview section gives a comprehensive snapshot of backlinks, including domain authority, referring domains, number of backlinks, and the number of backlinks over time. 

Ubersuggest's Backlinks analysis tool.

You can dig into new and lost referrals to see which pages are popular as well as potentially identify issues that are causing lost links.

Advanced filters let you winnow down to find specific types of links, such as by referring domain or domains with certain extensions.

There’s also an export function if you want to play with the data further.

The ability to export backlinks results with Ubersuggest.

To be honest, Ahrefs offers seriously stiff competition when it comes to backlinks. It’s widely considered the best backlinks tool available, in part because it updates the index every 15 minutes.

The basic tools are similar to Ubersuggest’s, but where Ahrefs really shines is in the advanced features. You can research your competitors’ most linked-to pages and use that info to develop your own linkworthy content. 

Other useful functions include a “404 not found” filter to find highly linked-to broken pages on any website to develop a broken link-building project. You can also find spammy or unnatural links pointing to your website that you may need to address.  

Ahrefs' Backlinks Explorer feature.

What’s The Better SEO Tool?

Both Ubersuggest and Ahrefs are big names in SEO and have strong and weak points.  Which one is better really depends on the size of your business and the nature of your SEO strategies and needs.

One of the main differences between Ahrefs vs Ubersuggest is that Ubersuggest is a more user-friendly tool that’s easier to learn. Ahrefs can often go deeper into SEO functions, but the interface is more complex.

Ubersuggest’s keyword analysis is second to none, while Ahrefs’ backlinks analysis features are some of the best in the business.

Pricing is another key differentiator—Ubersuggest lets you use its features for free, up to a point, making it a great option for freelancers or small businesses that need more of a general overview into their SEO performance and what competitors are doing. Ahrefs may be better for larger and more mature businesses that need more advanced SEO insights.

If you have the budget and other resources, you could also use both tools together to see where you can maximize opportunities.

FAQs

Is Ubersuggest as good as Ahrefs?

Ubersuggest and Ahrefs have different strengths. Ubersuggest is known for its ease of use and its strong performance in keyword research, while users love Ahrefs for its advanced backlinks analysis and ability to dig deeper into SEO health.

Is Ubersuggest good for SEO?

Ubersuggest offers powerful tools to support better SEO, including a strong keyword research tool, competitor analysis, backlinks analysis, and site audit capabilities. Together, they provide a comprehensive view of SEO for improvement and optimization.

Is Ubersuggest or Ahrefs better?

The question of which is better depends on different factors, including organizational maturity and size. Smaller companies and freelancers may appreciate the user-friendliness and affordable cost of Ubersuggest, while larger companies with a larger SEO team may have more resources to take advantage of Ahrefs’ advanced capabilities.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing an SEO tool, it’s essential to consider the overall value of each and whether the tools and functionalities align with your needs for SEO ranking strategies

Smaller organizations may not need all the bells and whistles of Ahrefs, making Ubersuggest the smart choice. Plus, the platform’s user-friendly and intuitive interface offer additional advantages.

Other organizations, like agencies, may have more resources to put toward SEO, making Ahrefs the better option. Larger websites may also call for more advanced tools to uncover insights and opportunities to get more traffic.
My main tip for evaluating Ahrefs vs. Ubersuggest: Make sure you test out all the features with a free or trial account before diving in.

Consulting with Neil Patel

See How My Agency Can Drive More Traffic to Your Website

  • SEO - unlock more SEO traffic. See real results.
  • Content Marketing - our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
  • Paid Media - effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Ubersuggest

Unlock Thousands of Keywords with Ubersuggest

Ready to Outrank Your Competitors?

  • Find long-tail keywords with High ROI
  • Find 1000s of keywords instantly
  • Turn searches into visits and conversions

Free keyword research tool

Neil Patel

About the author:

Neil Patel

Co Founder of NP Digital & Owner of Ubersuggest

He is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Follow the expert:

Share

Neil Patel

source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ubersuggest-vs-ahrefs/