Mangools vs Ahrefs (2026): Prices, Limits and Which One to Pick
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Billed yearly, Mangools Basic costs $29.90 a month and Ahrefs Lite $107.50. The cheaper suite rations searches per day and uses Majestic’s link index; the other meters use in monthly credits and runs its own crawler.
Short answer
- Blogs, affiliate sites and local businesses: Mangools Basic, with 100 keyword searches a day, 200 weekly-tracked keywords and a 48-hour refund.
- Agencies and link builders: Ahrefs Lite ($129 a month) or Standard ($249), for its own link index and a site audit.
- Both on a budget: Basic plus Ahrefs Free, which audits sites you own at no cost.
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Five measurable differences, side by side
| Difference | Mangools Basic (SEO only) | Ahrefs Lite |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Price a month | $49, or $29.90 yearly | $129, or $107.50 yearly |
| 2. Usage limits | 100 keyword and 100 SERP lookups per 24 hours | 1,000 report credits per user a month |
| 3. Data size (vendor figures) | 2.5 billion keywords; Majestic’s 9.5 trillion links | 28.7 billion keywords; 35 trillion link-history records |
| 4. Rank tracking | 200 keywords, updated weekly | 750 keywords, updated weekly |
| 5. What’s missing | A site audit and a link index of its own | A refund window; keyword research in the free tier |
A prepaid year of Basic costs $358.80, against $1,290 for Lite. One suite counts searches in 24-hour windows; the other gives each user a monthly pool of credits. Index sizes are each vendor’s own claim, so the roughly 11-fold keyword gap is not a test result.
Prices by the month and by the year
There is no KWFinder-only plan: the FAQ says the tools are not sold separately.
Mangools: two price lists, one shown first
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Paid per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic, SEO only | $49 | $29.90 | $358.80 |
| Premium, SEO only | $69 | $44.90 | $538.80 |
| Agency, SEO only | $129 | $89.90 | $1,078.80 |
| Basic, SEO + AI | $61 | $37.70 | $452.40 |
| Premium, SEO + AI | $81 | $52.70 | $632.40 |
| Agency, SEO + AI | $141 | $97.70 | $1,172.40 |
The pricing page opens on the SEO + AI bundle with yearly billing, so the first Basic price you see is $37.70. SEO-only plans sit under their own tab, at prices unchanged since at least January 2025 according to archived price files. The bundle adds AI Search Watcher with 500 prompts; SEO-only plans get 1 monitor and 5 prompts.
Twelve monthly payments for Basic come to $588, so prepaying saves $229.20. An archived price file from 9 December 2025 shows a Black Friday price of $43.85 a month for the bundled Basic, against the usual $61.
Ahrefs: four plans and a $29 Starter
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Tracked keywords | Users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $129 | $107.50 | 750 | 1, up to 2 more at $40 |
| Standard | $249 | $207.50 | 2,000 | 1, up to 5 more at $60 |
| Advanced | $449 | $374.17 | 5,000 | 1, up to 10 more at $80 |
| Enterprise | Not offered | $1,499 | From 10,000 | From 3, more at $100 |
A prepaid year costs ten monthly payments ($1,290 for Lite); the page says “save up to 17%”. There is no trial, and the FAQ says: “We never run discounts”. Unprepaid extra users are billed automatically, as are pay-as-you-go credits if you switch them on and go over the limit. Yearly billing for an existing plan goes through support.
Below Lite sits Starter at $29 a month: monthly billing only, 200 credits a month for reports in Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer and other core tools, and no add-ons. The vendor’s post on the plan warns: “Features and limits on this plan may be changed without prior notice.”
Daily lookups vs monthly credits
The two limit systems don’t convert one-to-one, so we put them in one table instead of a chart. Basic and Premium are Mangools plans; Lite and Standard are Ahrefs plans.
| Limit | Basic | Premium | Lite | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword searches | 100 per 24 hours | 500 per 24 hours | 1 credit per report, 1,000 a month | Unlimited credits |
| SERP and difficulty checks | 100 per 24 hours | 500 per 24 hours | In the report; SERP viewer +1 credit | Unlimited credits |
| Rows per search or report | Up to 200 keyword ideas | “Unlimited*” (tooltip: up to 10,000) | 2,500 rows | 30,000 rows |
| Backlink rows | 100,000 a month | 500,000 a month | Credit pool | Unlimited credits |
| Domain overviews | 20 per 24 hours | 70 per 24 hours | Credit pool | Unlimited credits |
| Users | 1, no extra seats | 3 extra seats included | 1, up to 2 paid extra | 1, up to 5 paid extra |
For Premium, the pricing table labels keyword suggestions “Unlimited*” and its tooltip says up to 10,000 per keyword search; the plan file behind that table lists 700.
A keyword lookup is, in the pricing tooltip’s words, “how many times you can hit the search button”. Importing a list counts as one lookup; clicking a suggestion for its difficulty score uses a SERP lookup; recently cached SERPs don’t count. The counter resets 24 hours after your first request, not at midnight, and all seats share one pool.
Lite works the other way round: each user gets 1,000 credits a month. Ahrefs’ help center charges 1 credit per report opened in Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer and other core tools, plus 1 for actions such as filtering or opening the SERP viewer. A list of up to 10,000 keywords costs 1 credit. Site Audit, Rank Tracker and Brand Radar use no credits. So 1,000 credits mean at most 1,000 reports a month. Standard removes the cap.
KWFinder vs Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Both tools answer the same question, which keywords deserve a page, from very different amounts of data.
Index size and freshness
KWFinder’s page claims 2.5 billion related keywords, growing by about 20 million a month; Keywords Explorer claims 28.7 billion, filtered from 110 billion found in total. Both are vendor figures, read on 21 October 2026. The smaller tool’s volumes also arrive late: “We usually have the data with a one-month lag”, says its FAQ.
How each scores keyword difficulty
Ahrefs states its formula plainly: KD is “based solely on the average number of backlinks to the top-ranking pages”. Mangools’ FAQ says its score is “based on data from our SERPChecker module”, and its KD guide adds that each first-page result gets a Link Profile Strength score from Moz’s Domain and Page Authority and Majestic’s Citation and Trust Flow, weighted into one value.
So one score counts links behind today’s top pages and the other weighs their authority metrics. A 30 in one tool is not a 30 in the other, and we haven’t compared them on real keywords.
Locations, extra metrics and free access
- Locations: KWFinder lists about 65,000, down to cities and districts, though search by competitor domain works in 17 countries. The Keywords Explorer page talks about search volume by country.
- Extra metrics: Keywords Explorer also offers Traffic Potential (what the top page gets), Parent Topic, the full ads history and six report types.
- Free access: the free Mangools plan gives 5 lookups per 24 hours with no card. Ahrefs Free includes Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics, but not Keywords Explorer.
Choose KWFinder for long-tail and local research on a fixed daily budget. Choose Keywords Explorer if you need the bigger index, traffic estimates per topic or volume broken down by country.
Backlinks and site audits: the widest gap
Link data
LinkMiner is built on Majestic’s index: 9.5 trillion links across its fresh and historic indexes, and 2.5 trillion unique URLs crawled since July 2013. Its Link Strength draws on Citation Flow, Trust Flow and other metrics, and a link counts as new if it was found in the past 90 days.
Ahrefs runs its own crawler, which it calls the second most active after Google. Its big-data page says the live index is “updated with fresh data every 15–30 minutes” and lists 35 trillion records of link history; the backlink checker counts over 15 trillion live links. These measure different things, so 35 against 9.5 is not a like-for-like score. Domain Rating and URL Rating come from the live index.
Site audits
Mangools has no site audit. Its tool list runs KWFinder, AI Search Watcher, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner and SiteProfiler, a domain-metrics tool built on Moz and Majestic data. Lite’s Site Audit gets 100,000 crawl credits a month and up to 25,000 pages per project. Even its free tier checks sites you verify for 170+ technical and on-page issues, with 5,000 crawl credits per project a month.
Mangools’ comparison page on 21 October 2026
On 21 October 2026, Mangools’ own comparison page still says Ahrefs has “No free plan” and “Starts at $99+/month”, and that its own toolkit includes “site audits”. The same day, the Ahrefs pricing page listed a free tier, a $29 Starter and Lite at $129, while Mangools’ plans page listed no site-audit tool.
Rank tracking and AI answers
Both rank trackers refresh weekly on their entry plans. In the table, the first three rows are Mangools plans and the next two belong to Ahrefs.
| Plan | Tracked keywords | Updates | Yearly, a month | Per 100 keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (SEO only) | 200 | Weekly | $29.90 | $14.95 |
| Premium (SEO only) | 700 | Weekly | $44.90 | $6.41 |
| Agency (SEO only) | 1,500 | Daily | $89.90 | $5.99 |
| Lite | 750 | Weekly | $107.50 | $14.33 |
| Standard | 2,000 | Weekly | $207.50 | $10.38 |
| Semrush SEO | 500 | Daily | $117.33 | $23.47 |
Per tracked keyword, Basic and Lite cost almost the same on yearly billing. Premium is the cheapest weekly tracker here and Agency the cheapest daily one ($129 month to month). SERPWatcher’s limit covers any number of domains, but desktop and mobile count as two keywords, and a featured snippet counts as position 1.
On its pricing page, Ahrefs shows “Weekly” for every plan. The plan data built into that pricing page also lists a daily-update option at $100 a month on Lite, $150 on Standard and $200 on Advanced that the page doesn’t advertise, so ask support first. Rank Tracker covers 19 SERP features, AI Overviews among them, and locations down to ZIP codes.
AI answers
The SEO + AI bundle adds AI Search Watcher: 500 prompts checked weekly in eight systems, among them ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, each prompt run twice per update. Lite includes 150 checks on AI prompts a month, enough for 5 prompts tracked daily on one AI platform; more means Brand Radar AI from $199 a month or prompt packs from $50.
If AI visibility is the main job, a dedicated tracker may suit you better; our AI visibility tools comparison lists them.
Mangools vs Semrush in brief
Semrush sits closer to Lite on price and scope. Its entry plan, SEO, costs $139 a month or $117.33 billed yearly (archived US copy, 20 October 2026) for 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily, but no AI prompts. AI tracking starts on Starter at $199, or $165.17 yearly, with 50 prompts a day. Pro and Guru are no longer on the pricing page.
Its knowledge base claims a crawler visiting about 10 billion pages a day, 43 trillion backlinks and 28.8 billion keywords (read on 21 October 2026). The 7-day trial turns into a paid plan unless you cancel, and refunds cover only a first subscription of 12 months or more, within 7 days. Trustpilot shows 1.6 from 1,422 reviews.
On yearly billing, Basic costs about a quarter as much as the SEO plan. Semrush makes sense if you want daily tracking and a site audit in one plan; our Semrush alternatives cover the rest.
Which to pick: three scenarios
Pick Mangools for a blog, an affiliate site or a local business
- You research long-tail keywords a few dozen times a day; Basic allows 100 searches every 24 hours.
- You need city-level volumes and local results pages in one place.
- You track up to 200 keywords weekly, or 700 on Premium with 3 extra seats.
- You want a free plan without a card first, then a 48-hour refund window.
- You’d rather pay by PayPal or crypto, though crypto and wire payments aren’t refundable.
Start with the free Mangools plan
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Pick Ahrefs for an agency or link building
- You vet link prospects daily and want an index refreshed every 15–30 minutes, plus Domain Rating.
- You audit client sites: Lite includes 100,000 crawl credits a month, Standard 500,000.
- You need Content Explorer, Portfolios or Batch Analysis, which start on Standard ($249).
- You want API and MCP access, included from Lite up (Starter has none).
Plans and limits are on the vendor’s pricing page. There is no trial, so read the refund rules below before you pay.
Use both if your budget sits in between
Basic billed yearly plus Ahrefs Free costs $29.90 a month in total. One gives you keyword research and weekly tracking; the other audits your own verified sites and shows up to 1,000 of their backlinks and keywords. The free tier can’t look at competitors, so add Starter for occasional competitor checks: $58.90 a month in total, still below Lite’s yearly rate.
If neither fits
SE Ranking’s Core plan tracks 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts daily, audits up to 250,000 pages a month and offers a 14-day trial without a card, for $129 a month or $103.20 billed yearly (checked 7 October 2026). Our SE Ranking review has the detail, and our cheaper Ahrefs alternatives list more options.
Refunds, trials and ratings
Ratings below were read on 21 October 2026 unless another date is given.
Mangools: a 48-hour refund and an auto-renewing plan
The pricing page promises a “full refund within 48 hours of your payment”, though not for two consecutive subscriptions. Annual renewals are refundable within 14 days, though a $20 handling fee may apply; crypto and wire payments are not. Auto-renewal switches on at purchase and can be turned off in the dashboard. The terms let the company change plan limits on its own and reserve the entry plan for new users.
Trustpilot shows 4.5 from 167 reviews, 90% five-star, though it notes the company hasn’t invited reviewers recently. G2 showed 4.7 from 97 (archived 15 July 2026) and Capterra 4.8 from 92 (1 September 2026). A one-star review from August 2026 says the tool misreported a site’s SEO and AI visibility; a five-star one from September says a late refund was still honored.
Ahrefs: no trial and refunds only by exception
The policy reads: “Ahrefs does not issue refunds in general.” A monthly subscriber who hasn’t used the service may ask, but the request can be declined after “any material activity” in the account. You can cancel any time and keep access until the period ends; then the account drops to the free plan. Payment is by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or UnionPay.
Trustpilot gives 2.1 from 324 reviews, half of them one-star; G2 showed 4.5 from 717 in an archived copy of 4 October 2026. One-star reviews from May and September 2026 describe “Suspicious activity” restrictions on a paid account and question the precision of traffic estimates.
How we compared them
On 21 October 2026 we read both vendors’ pricing pages, plan files, FAQs, terms and tool pages, plus archived price files back to January 2025, logging every figure with a quote, link and date. Mangools and Semrush showed us euros, so their dollar prices come from Mangools’ affiliate page and US copies archived on 17 and 20 October; Ahrefs’ page switches currency with a URL parameter.
We have no accounts with these tools. We did not run searches, compare volumes or difficulty scores, or measure tracking accuracy, so nothing here rates data quality. The Mangools buttons may earn us a commission. Ahrefs hasn’t had an affiliate program for at least five years, and this page doesn’t link to Semrush. More in how we test and our editorial transparency policy.
FAQ
Yes, plan for plan. Basic costs $49 a month or $29.90 billed yearly, against $129 or $107.50 for Lite: $358.80 versus $1,290 for a prepaid year. The exception is Ahrefs Starter at $29 a month, monthly only, with 200 credits. Per tracked keyword, though, Basic and Lite both cost $14 to $15 per 100 keywords on yearly billing.
No. KWFinder takes search volumes from several data providers, usually a month behind, and scores difficulty from live results-page metrics. Its sibling LinkMiner uses Majestic’s link index. Ahrefs runs its own crawler, claims 28.7 billion keywords against 2.5 billion, and bases difficulty only on backlinks to the top pages. We haven’t compared the numbers on real keywords.
No. The suite covers keyword research, results-page analysis, rank tracking, backlinks, domain metrics and AI answer tracking, but lists no site-audit tool. Ahrefs Free audits sites you verify with 5,000 crawl credits per project a month, and Lite includes 100,000 crawl credits a month. SE Ranking’s Core plan, covered in our review, audits up to 250,000 pages a month.
Only one promises to. Mangools gives a full refund within 48 hours of payment, except for two subscriptions in a row, and 14 days on annual renewals. Ahrefs doesn’t refund in general: monthly subscribers who haven’t used the service can ask, but may be refused. Semrush offers a one-time 7-day guarantee on first yearly plans only.
Neither offers a trial of its paid plans. The Mangools free plan gives 5 lookups per 24 hours, with 15 related and 5 competitor keywords each, and needs no card. Ahrefs Free covers Site Explorer and Site Audit for sites you own, without Keywords Explorer. Semrush has a free account with 10 reports a day and a 7-day trial that converts to paid.
On published plans, Mangools Agency does: 1,500 keywords every day for $129 a month or $89.90 billed yearly (SEO only), while Basic and Premium update weekly. Ahrefs lists weekly updates on every plan; a daily option from $100 a month appears only in the plan data behind its pricing page. Semrush’s SEO plan tracks 500 keywords daily for $139 a month.
For keyword research and rank tracking, yes: it covers about 65,000 locations, including cities, on desktop and mobile. Its tool list has nothing for business listings or Google Business Profile, which Ahrefs covers with GBP Monitor (in beta). For listings and other local tasks, see our SEO tools for small businesses.