Ahrefs vs. Yoast

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Ahrefs is an SEO tool providers. Ahrefs Site Explorer provides a suite of tools including a component for backlink & on-page SEO analysis, online brand mentions tracking, and domain comparison tool for competitor analysis, etc. They refer to themselves as “the largest index of live backlinks.”
$99
per month
Yoast
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Yoast offers a set of tools developed by Joost de Valk and team, founder of yoast.com and Wordpress enthusiast. These tools are designed to help content rank higher and are subsumed under the Yoast Complete pack, which includes Video SEO for rank climbing with embedded videos in a Wordpress site, WooCommerce SEO for the WP ecommerce plugin, News SEO for rank climbing in Google news, Local SEO for (as the name implies) climbing in local listings with more complete information so can be located…
$118.80
per year
Pricing
AhrefsYoast
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Premium
$118.80
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsYoast
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsYoast
Features
AhrefsYoast
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
Yoast
7.4
Ratings
4% below category average
Keyword analysis9.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Backlink management8.50 Ratings9.00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking9.40 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Page grader5.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.40 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics7.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Site recommendations5.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Task management7.00 Ratings2.00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.5
Ratings
1% below category average
Yoast
5.0
Ratings
41% below category average
Local SEO8.30 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Social SEO6.10 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Mobile SEO6.10 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Global SEO9.60 Ratings6.00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.9
Ratings
5% above category average
Yoast
8.7
Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-domain support9.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.40 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsYoast
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Conductor
Conductor
Score 8.6 out of 10
Conductor
Conductor
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsYoast
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsYoast
Likelihood to Recommend
It gives the best report to us which helps us to find the opportunity to build backlinks. Another main feature that makes Ahrefs a safe and sound approach to SEO is that it provides information about duplicate content, URLs, redirects along with other errors that can be dangerous to the website.
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For quick WordPress installations and configurations, Yoast is fast to set up and helps guide you through the common configuration options. It tries to be helpful whether you are coming at things from a technical or non-technical background. The emphasis on white hat SEO topics like improved content, keywords, descriptions, and titles is really appreciated by someone like me who doesn't utilize gray and black hat SEO tactics.
If you are an SEO expert, and you want finite control of each individual aspect of your site, Yoast, like most plugins, engines, tools, etc, hides a lot from you or gives you limited options. It really is meant for someone who wants to apply a general strategy to a whole site. That being said, you can manage Yoast per page on a WordPress site, but even then, I know some SEO experts prefer other tools that are meant for very specific purposes.
Overall, Yoast is the best plugin for SEO in WordPress when applied as a whole.
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Pros
  • Their backlink database is still one of the most up to date we've seen when compared to similar tools.
  • The user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn.
  • They provide you with a lot of great information and the ability to set a date range can really help you narrow things down.
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  • Readability - makes it easy for you to assess the reading level of your piece to ensure it is correct for your intended audience.
  • SEO tips - red/orange/green traffic light system to provide tips on what aspects need improving to be SEO-focussed.
  • Redirect tool - easy, automated detection and setup.
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Cons
  • Ahrefs Site Explorer provides an overview of domain health and the issues that can be fixed, and sometimes the suggested "critical issues" can be an astronomical number and not accurate.
  • For certain features on Ahrefs Site Explorer, there can a more elaborate description/guide on how to utilize the feature.
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  • Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugin is really good at copy and link scanning and optimizing, however, I have not been able to find any assistance on image optimization on our pages and posts. That would be a good update!
  • Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugin is good at ranking pages and posts individually. I would like to see an overall dashboard of your entire website/blog's SEO health according to the software.
  • N/A
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Likelihood to Renew
Their index is too vast to ignore when looking at a complete backlink profile. We find links in Ahrefs that do not appear in any other link detection tool. For this reason, it's a must for our agency to use for the foreseeable future. Plus, it's very affordable considering the data you get
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I see no reason to discontinue using Yoast as it has been very beneficial for my website and my business.
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Usability
Ahrefs is very easy to use - you can jump right in and understand most of the assets. Overall, the dashboard snapshots give a very good picture of inbound link activity. For deeper analysis of historical trends, the system can become cumbersome, making it hard to do full work without exporting and reformatting the data.
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It's super easy to use. Really, it requires little-to-know tutorials or walkthroughs at all — it explains everything you need to know in the description and tooltips built straight into the tool. I've never had to google a how-to or tutorial to use Yoast — it just works, and it works well
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Support Rating
Ahrefs has always been responsive when there's been a technical issue with the site. There are usually very little problems, but if there are, they announce it on their social media accounts which keeps its customers informed. Email support is prompt and the customer service people are very helpful, knowledgable and friendly.
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I gave it a 4 just because it is helpful if you are just getting started with SEO, it guides you and shows you what you need to do in order for your website to be up and running properly. As a seasoned SEO analyst I wouldn't recommend it just because I can do things better my way.
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Alternatives Considered
It's competitive with Semrush, Moz and other tools of that same ilk. It's great for serious SEO work - not at the Enterprise level - but at the small business, small agency level. I would not consider it competitive with BrightEdge, Conductor, SEOClarity, etc. - but it IS competitive and on par with the tools that are one level below those big enterprise tools.
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Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugins was a little easier to understand and offered a real-time guided plugin that helped me write throughout my drafting process. Semrush was much more helpful as a reporting tool, not so much in content creation. Both tools are useful in different ways, it is just a matter of knowing each one's strengths and weaknesses.
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Return on Investment
  • Ahrefs has helped save hours of work because it functions as an all-in-one SEO tool. Before Ahrefs, I would have to switch toolsets multiple times, compile the reports, then organize data. Ahrefs as an all in one helped managed the chaos that having too many tools create.
  • Backlink data is crucial to predicting content success. Ahrefs has provided us with better backlink data, allowing our predictions to be more accurate.
  • Ahrefs has helped us cut away from having another rank tracker subscription. Their rank tracking tool is good enough to not warrant a dedicated rank tracker, helping us save on costs.
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  • Findability: I love few things more than hearing, "I just found you on Google!" and knowing that they found us on Google because our SEO is on point.
  • Using the Yoast SEO Plugin over time has taught me to create better, more optimized content from the start, rather than having to edit that content after I realize it's not very SEO friendly. This saves a lot of time and lets me put my energy into other things.
  • The plugin has helped us make our sometimes-dense content more readable and sharable, which absolutely improves stakeholder engagement.
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ScreenShots

Ahrefs Screenshots

Screenshot of Analyze backlinks and keywords of any website to find opportunities for your organic traffic growthScreenshot of Check your website for 100+ pre-defined SEO issuesScreenshot of Get relevant keyword ideas supported by accurate SEO metricsScreenshot of Find the most shared and linked-to content on any topicScreenshot of Track your and your competitors' search rankings