A lot of marketers don’t choose between Ahrefs vs. Screaming Frog for their technical SEO and other needs, as they are very different in scope. They often use both.
But it’s still interesting to compare them for specific problems and understand if you need both tools. 💭
Screaming Frog specializes in website crawling, helping you identify broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta descriptions. It’s a must-have for technical SEO audits.
Meanwhile, Ahrefs provides a broader range of SEO tools, from backlink analysis to keyword research, making it ideal for businesses focused on content strategy and competitive analysis.
Both tools bring unique strengths, so we’ll help you make a decision. We’ll break down their key features, limitations, and pricing. Let’s get into the details and find out which tool works best for you.
What Is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a well-known SEO platform trusted for keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor insights. Marketers appreciate its extensive keyword database, reliable broken link detection, and strong rank-tracking features. It simplifies complex data in a way that many SEOs find intuitive.
Lately, Ahrefs has also stepped up its AI game, offering smarter keyword suggestions, improved content recommendations, and deeper search intent analysis.
Ahrefs Features
Ahrefs is a famous SEO platform offering one of the more comprehensive toolsets available. Its key features include:
- Site Explorer: Analyze competitor backlinks, top-performing content, and traffic sources to refine your SEO strategy.
- Keywords Explorer: Research search terms, and evaluate search volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC to optimize content and ads.
- Rank Tracker: Monitor search rankings over time, helping you measure website performance and SEO progress effectively.
- Web Explorer: Search indexed pages and links to uncover new backlink opportunities and analyze website structure insights.
- Site Audit: Identify technical issues like broken links, slow load times, and SEO errors for site optimization.
- Web Analytics: Track website traffic, user behavior, and engagement metrics to gain actionable SEO and marketing insights.
- Redirects Report: Find redirect chains, loops, and broken redirects to ensure smooth site navigation and link equity flow.
- Internal Link Opportunities: Discover potential internal linking improvements for better site structure and ranking distribution.
Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs offers a free account with limited features, ideal for hobbyists. For more tools and keyword tracking, paid plans provide expanded access. Each tier unlocks additional filters, integrations, and capabilities.
- Free (AWT): $0 – 5,000 crawl credits and basic tools for monitoring site health, backlinks, and keywords.
- Starter: $29/month – 5,000 crawl credits, plus access to Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Site Audit.
- Lite: $129/month – 5 projects, 6 months of historical data, 750 tracked keywords, 100,000 crawl credits, and more.
- Standard: $249/month – 20 projects, 2 years of historical data, 2,000 tracked keywords, 500,000 crawl credits, and more.
- Advanced: $449/month – 50 projects, 5 years of historical data, 5,000 tracked keywords, 1,500,000 crawl credits, and more.
- Enterprise: $1,499/month – API access, unlimited historical data, advanced features, and exclusive enterprise-level perks.
What Is Screaming Frog?
Screaming Frog is a website crawler designed for technical SEO audits. It scans websites to analyze their structure, identifying issues like broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta descriptions.
By collecting key onsite data, it helps users assess factors that impact search engine rankings. The tool processes both small and large websites, allowing real-time analysis of crawl results. It supports JavaScript rendering, enabling users to evaluate dynamic websites.
Additionally, it integrates with third-party platforms like Google Analytics and Search Console to provide deeper insights. Users can generate XML sitemaps, audit redirects, and review indexing directives.
The free version allows crawling up to 500 URLs, while the paid version removes this limit and unlocks advanced features. With customization options for crawl settings and data extraction, Screaming Frog serves as a resource for SEO professionals looking to diagnose and resolve technical website issues.
Screaming Frog Features
While it has some overlap with Ahrefs, Screaming Frog is more of a technical audit tool intended for SEO professionals. Here are its main features:
- Website Crawling: Scans websites to analyze structure, identifying issues like broken links and duplicate content.
- Redirect Auditing: Detects temporary and permanent redirects, redirect chains, and loops for site migration analysis.
- Meta Data Analysis: Examines page titles and meta descriptions to flag missing, duplicate, or poorly optimized elements.
- Duplicate Content Detection: Identifies exact and near-duplicate pages using algorithmic checks for SEO optimization.
- JavaScript Rendering: Crawls JavaScript-heavy websites to analyze dynamically generated content and links.
- API Integrations: Connects with Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights for additional insights on site performance.
- XML Sitemap Generation: Creates XML sitemaps, including image sitemaps, with customizable options for URL inclusion.
- Accessibility Audits: The version 21.0 further improved accessibility audits.
Screaming Frog Pricing
Screaming Frog offers the following plans:
- Free Version: $0/month – Crawl up to 500 URLs with access to basic features.
- Paid Version: $259 for a yearly license – Unlimited* URL crawling and access to advanced features.
*The maximum number of URLs you can crawl is dependent on allocated memory and storage.
Ahrefs vs. Screaming Frog: Comparing Product Features
In this comparison, we’ll look at how Ahrefs and Screaming Frog stack up against each other. While they share some similarities, many marketers use both tools together to maximize their SEO efforts.
The main difference is that Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO platform, whereas Screaming Frog is a powerful website crawler. We’ll focus on the major overlaps between the two to help you decide which is right for you.
1. Site Crawling, Technical, and On-Page SEO Analysis
Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool is a reliable choice for crawling websites and identifying common issues like slow load times, missing meta tags, and duplicate content. It categorizes problems into errors, warnings, and notices, which makes it easy to prioritize what needs fixing immediately.
One particularly useful feature is the detailed visualizations, such as crawl history and page health scores. They give a clear picture of site performance over time, helping users track improvements or regressions.
The actionable recommendations are also spot on—providing specific next steps to resolve issues, which is a real-time-saver.
However, due to Google’s strict rate-limiting, tools like Ahrefs, which previously relied on scraping Google’s search results, now face a potential increase in operational costs.
To bypass restrictions, they must use residential proxies, browser emulation, and advanced CAPTCHA handling. This results in increased server demands, potential price hikes for users, and slower crawls, limiting the breadth and depth of available data
On the other hand, Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider is also considered a core tool in your typical technical SEO arsenal. It’s highly versatile, and capable of efficiently crawling both small and large websites without compromising performance.
The real-time crawling and data filtering are particularly useful for quickly identifying issues like broken links, server errors, and duplicate content.
The tool excels in redirect audits, spotting redirect chains, and loops that could harm a site’s performance. Its ability to crawl JavaScript-heavy websites and generate accurate XML sitemaps makes it a go-to for more complex sites.
What stands out about Screaming Frog is its integration with Google Analytics and Search Console. This feature allows users to pull in performance and user data during crawls, providing a more comprehensive picture and helping prioritize fixes based on their actual impact.
And while it doesn’t rely on scraping Google for data, its crawl speed and ability to analyze large sites might also be affected by restrictions.
Winner: Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog excels in technical SEO and crawling by offering full control over audits without relying on third-party data limits. Unlike Ahrefs, it runs locally, bypassing Google’s rate-limiting.
It accurately mimics Googlebot, supports JavaScript rendering, and allows granular control over crawling. With API integrations for enriched data, it delivers deeper, unrestricted insights—making it better for precise, flexible, and comprehensive site audits.
2. Broken Link Analysis
Ahrefs’ Broken Link Analysis uses its industry-leading backlinks database to instantly detect dead inbound and outbound links. With a crawler second only to Google’s, it updates every 15 minutes, ensuring users work with the freshest data to prevent SEO and UX issues.
Beyond detection, Ahrefs helps reclaim lost link equity by reinstating or redirecting dead pages. It also finds broken internal links, improving navigation and crawlability. Scheduled crawls—daily, weekly, or monthly—keep websites clean and functional.
For link-building, Ahrefs identifies competitors’ broken pages with backlinks, allowing users to create similar content and secure replacement links. This makes it an SEO goldmine.
This ensures full control over the crawl depth, speed, and user-agent settings to mimic real-world search engine behavior.
Screaming Frog’s Broken Link Analysis is a precise, real-time solution for identifying dead links across a website. Unlike cloud-based SEO tools, it operates as a desktop crawler, allowing users to scan large sites quickly without API limitations.
Beyond simple detection, it provides detailed reports on broken internal and external links, but not backlinks. However, its bulk export options are pretty useful, as they let you address errors in a systematic way.
Another key advantage is its ability to integrate with Google Search Console and Ahrefs API. This gives SEO teams a way to prioritize and focus on links with the most impact.
Winner: Ahrefs
While both tools have their strengths, Ahrefs wins in broken link analysis.
Not only does it detect internal broken links but it also identifies broken backlinks from external sites. This enables users to reclaim lost link equity by reaching out to websites that previously linked to dead pages.
If you want to improve your SEO rankings and keep your existing link value, you can’t do it without this feature.
3. Internal Linking Analysis
Ahrefs provides a solid internal linking analysis by highlighting the number of links pointing to each page, helping identify which pages are under-linked or over-linked.
For example, Ahrefs’ Site Audit helps spot internal link issues, like orphaned pages or broken links, and gives recommendations. Meanwhile, the Site Explorer “Internal Backlinks” section shows how pages are linked within your site, including link count and anchor text used.
Ahrefs mainly focuses on link flow and site structure optimization, giving valuable insights into how link equity is distributed across the site.
While it does offer useful visualizations, it could benefit from more granularity in crawl depth and link segmentation, allowing for deeper analysis and more actionable data on internal link health.
Screaming Frog’s internal linking analysis helps identify and optimize a website’s link structure. By running a crawl, it provides insights into crawl depth, highlighting deeply buried pages that are harder for search engines to access.
This can be particularly useful for e-commerce or content-heavy sites where key pages might get lost.
Additionally, Screaming Frog tracks internal link counts to identify pages with insufficient internal links, a common issue for new or less-promoted content. It also allows for custom searches to find pages with relevant keywords for strategic internal linking.
While the tool offers detailed insights, its heavy focus on manual steps, like sorting data and setting filters, might be less user-friendly than other platforms. However, it’s invaluable for those who want control over their internal linking strategy.
Winner: Screaming Frog
Ahrefs provides a solid internal linking analysis by highlighting the number of links pointing to each page, helping you identify which pages are under-linked or over-linked. It’s great for understanding link flow and identifying internal linking opportunities.
However, it doesn’t offer the same detailed crawl depth or link segmentation as Screaming Frog. Screaming Frog gives you more in terms of detailed link breakdowns and crawl depth insights.
4. Redirect Analysis
Ahrefs’ redirect analysis tools help identify and manage URL redirects on a website, which is crucial for maintaining link equity and ensuring a good user experience.
The Site Audit tool in Ahrefs allows you to detect redirect chains and loops that can hurt SEO by wasting crawl budget and causing slow page load times.
The tool provides detailed reports showing the source and destination of each redirect, allowing you to pinpoint any issues. It also highlights 301 and 302 redirects, ensuring that the proper type is used for specific situations, which impacts how link equity is passed.
With Ahrefs, you can streamline the redirect process by regularly checking for unnecessary or broken redirects.
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider is excellent at identifying redirect chains and loops, which can negatively impact SEO by wasting crawl budget and diluting link equity.
It provides detailed reports on redirect types, target URLs, and the number of hops in each chain, enabling users to efficiently manage and resolve these issues.
The tool offers comprehensive reports with HTTP status codes and precise redirect paths, making it simple to prioritize fixes. Exporting data for further analysis means it’s easy to track and resolve issues.
Winner: Tie
In this case, it’s a tie because both Screaming Frog and Ahrefs excel in different areas of redirect analysis.
Screaming Frog offers more granular, on-site control, ideal for in-depth technical audits, while Ahrefs shines with its ability to track redirect chains within backlink profiles and overall site authority, making it valuable for both internal and external linking analysis.
5. User Experience
Ahrefs is known for its user-friendly interface, making complex SEO data accessible even for beginners. Its clean, intuitive design helps users easily navigate between tools like Site Explorer and Keywords Explorer.
While it offers advanced features, the learning curve is manageable with helpful guides, tooltips, and resources. Overall, it prioritizes a seamless experience for both new and experienced SEOs.
Screaming Frog is a powerful SEO tool, but it’s not the most intuitive for beginners. Its interface can feel dated and cluttered, making navigation challenging at first.
While it excels in detailed website crawling and technical SEO analysis, the sheer volume of data it provides can overwhelm users who aren’t well-versed in SEO.
Winner: Ahrefs
Off the bat, Ahrefs is more user-friendly and easier to learn. Even though this platform has an extensive offer of tools and subsections, the learning curve is not as steep as with Screaming Frog.
6. Pricing
Ahrefs offers a range of pricing tiers starting from the free plan with limited features. While many users already considered it pricey, recent changes have made it even less affordable for some smaller agencies or freelancers.
It does offer a lower tier package for $29/month, but it may not be enough due to its limitations.
Screaming Frog has a free version that lets you crawl up to 500 URLs, which again may be limiting for larger projects. At the same time, you would need additional SEO tools, as it isn’t as comprehensive as Ahrefs.
Winner: No clear winner
These two tools have different scopes, and many SEOs use both to be able to cover all their needs. However, with recent Google requirement changes, it’s possible that there will be larger overhead costs for both, which may impact marketers in the coming months.
There is another solution available, which is even more comprehensive than Ahrefs, and as technically accurate as Screaming Frog. It gives you the best of both tools, and it’s especially useful for agencies.
Both Tools in One and More: Search Atlas
Search Atlas is quickly becoming one of the most popular SEO tools out there, thanks to its time-saving AI features and a comprehensive toolkit that covers everything from crawling and technical SEO to internal linking and beyond.
Plus, it’s always evolving, with new features regularly added to make it the ultimate all-in-one solution for agencies.
Search Atlas Features
Search Atlas is unique in the breadth of its scope. It covers every aspect of SEO, including:
- Site Audit Tools: Provides detailed reports on technical, content, and performance issues, site health metrics, and automated issue notifications 24/7.
- Local SEO Tools: Features local heatmaps, citation building, local SEO reports, and automated GBP management for improving local rankings.
- On-Page Tools: Analyzes site technical health, content optimization, and keyword usage while providing competitor comparisons and actionable improvement suggestions.
- Off-Page Tools: Enables direct link-building management with outreach email templates, filtering options, and press release syndication for better authority.
- Reporting: Offers fully customizable reports, allowing agencies to tailor insights and track performance for clients.
- Content: Includes content planning, optimization, and AI-assisted creation to enhance search rankings and engagement.
- Automation: Saves time with instant SEO fixes, one-click publishing, content recommendations, AI-powered on-page optimizations, and much more.
- Competitor Research: Features backlink analysis tools, as well as link gap analysis, keyword gap analysis, and Site Explorer.
Site Crawling
Search Atlas takes a modern approach to technical SEO and crawling by leveraging first-party data directly from Google Search Console.
Unlike traditional tools that rely on estimates, it ensures accuracy with browser emulation and JavaScript-enabled crawling, capturing the web as Google sees it. This means users get up-to-date, reliable insights without guesswork.
For those worried about Google requirements affecting their data, Search Atlas users experienced zero disruptions when major changes hit.
The platform’s commitment to accuracy and security ensures agencies and businesses stay ahead of technical SEO challenges—without the need for workarounds.
Technical SEO Tools
The Search Attas suite of technical SEO tools covers everything from live issue alerts to a powerful site auditor capable of scanning up to a million pages.
Features like internal link visualization, real-time crawl monitoring, and schema creation make optimizing a site’s structure easier than ever.
Plus, with our AI assistant, you can fix all of these issues directly, without leaving the dashboard. We automate the tedious parts of technical SEO so you can focus on other things.
And with our Site Audit Tool, you can manage and automate issues like broken links and redirects with the accuracy of Screaming Frog, but within a more user-friendly interface.
A notification bar at the top keeps you updated, designed to help you save time efficiently.
Domain Power
Also, the way we measure uses a completely different metric called Domain Power, along with other authority scores we display for reference.
DP combines organic traffic and ranking keywords to provide a reliable measure of a site’s authority. Unlike traditional metrics that focus on backlinks or external signals, DP is built on real-world performance data sourced directly from Google Search Console.
Best of all? It’s actually consistent with the SERP rankings.
Comprehensive Link Analysis
Search Atlas lets you explore backlinks, external links, and external links in great detail. Our backlink tools also include Link Gap Analysis, Backlink Comparison, Topical Relevance, and more.
You also get site visualization tools that let you see any website like a tree chart, with each page and a full link list. It’s also customizable and makes for a great presentation tool for clients.
Keyword Tools
We have a full set of keyword research, tracking, analysis, and clustering tools that you can use to fully optimize your content. This area also comes with plenty of automation, so you can rest assured you won’t waste any time.
You can use the keywords you find directly in the content planner section, and get an editorial calendar finished in minutes.
OTTO SEO
One of Search Atlas’ standout tools is the AI-powered SEO agent, OTTO, which automates your SEO tasks effortlessly. It doesn’t just detect issues—it can apply fixes directly, eliminating hours of manual work.
Soon, OTTO will expand with OTTO Google Ads, an exciting new feature that automates PPC campaign management, optimizing ads to save both time and budget.
Usability
SEO platforms can be overwhelming with the sheer amount of data they provide. To simplify this, Search Atlas offers a guided demo and personalized onboarding, ensuring users quickly master every tool.
Gartner ranks Search Atlas as the leading SEO platform for both usability and user satisfaction.
Search Atlas Pricing
Search Atlas gives you a more comprehensive set of tools at a more budget-friendly price than Ahrefs. This includes some free OTTO activations, which save hours and days of human work.
| Starter plan | Growth plan | Pro plan | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price: | $99 monthly | $199 monthly | $399 monthly | Custom |
| Free OTTO Activation | 1 | 1 | 3 | Custom |
| User Seats | 2 | 3 | 5 | Custom |
| GSC Sites | 5 | 15 | Unlimited | Custom |
| Automated GBP Accounts | 3 | 10 | 25 | Custom |
| Regular AI Quota | 100 | 250 | Unlimited | Custom |
Automate Technical and All Other SEO Tools
To be honest, our platform is so comprehensive our writers get tired of listing all the tools we have and are yet to develop. 😀
There are over 40 of them for now, and they’re not as overwhelming as most of them work with automation. We suggest you check out all of them in features, Plus, we include onboarding calls, tutorials, and full support during the free trial (and hopefully after).
So if you’re into SEO and AI innovation, explore our platform with a seven-day free trial. There’s nothing to lose, but there might be plenty to gain. Sign up today!
