Failing to pick the right SEO tool could mean missed opportunities, falling behind competitors, and inefficient workflows.
In 2025, BuzzSumo and Ahrefs emerged as two popular platforms that offer unique approaches to content marketing and SEO. But what makes them different, exactly? 🧐
If you’re not sure which option is a better fit for your business, then you’ll be glad to find a reliable resource for the head-to-head battle between BuzzSumo vs. Ahrefs.
In this guide, we’ll compare features like content creation, backlink analysis, and competitor tracking to help you decide which solution suits your SEO and content strategy needs best!
What Is BuzzSumo?
Known for its powerful content analysis capabilities, BuzzSumo allows users to track trending topics, analyze content performance, and monitor social media shares. It’s a tool designed for marketers looking to identify winning content strategies and track their brand’s online presence in real time.
The platform considers itself a “media database,” largely focusing on content coverage rather than search engine optimization.
While it offers tools to monitor analytics and data from target audiences, BuzzSumo is centered on developing brand strategy and creating content for social engagement.
BuzzSumo Popular Features
BuzzSumo is well-known for its content tools, making it easier for users to discover what’s relevant to their audience. Check out some of the platform’s most popular features:
- Content Research and Content Discovery: Find the most shared content across the web and see what topics are in demand with these insight tools.
- Social Media Analytics: Measure the social media reach of content and find influencers who can promote your brand.
- Influencer Identification: Discover key influencers in your niche.
- Backlink Analysis: Analyze the backlinks of top-performing content.
- Competitor Monitoring: Create alerts for brands and keywords that impact your business; track your competitors’ content strategies.
BuzzSumo Pricing Structure
BuzzSumo sets its pricing structure to cater to the type of individual that might use its platform, such as PR professionals, content creators, or enterprises.
Here are the different tiers available:
- Content Creation: $199/month – 1 user, unlimited searches, 2 alerts, includes content analyzer and trending feeds.
- PR & Comms: $299/month – 5 users, unlimited searches, 5 alerts, includes media database outreach, Slack integration, and coverage reports.
- Suite: $499/month – 10 users, unlimited searches, 10 alerts, includes YouTube analyzer, advanced Chrome extension, and article uploads.
- Enterprise: $999/month – 30 users, unlimited searches, 50 alerts, includes RSS field, granular location search, and early access to new features.
What Is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is an SEO toolset designed for digital marketers and SEO specialists. Compared to BuzzSumo, it provides in-depth analysis for backlinks, keyword rankings, and website performance. Ahrefs is known for its robust site audit features and backlink database.
It’s an intelligence tool designed for professionals who are focused on technical SEO and competitive research.
The platform itself is big on actionable data, and users can take advantage of keyword rank checkers, content explorers, and other audit tools. But if you’re not well-versed in this area, it may be difficult to navigate all of the available features.
Ahrefs Popular Features
Ahrefs allows users to fine-tune their digital marketing strategy using in-depth data analysis. With tools for keyword research, rankings, and AI content, its strength is the fact that it offers plenty of options for improving SEO.
Here’s what the platform offers:
- Site Audit and Explorer: Investigate competitors’ websites and identify top-performing content using the audit tools to optimize your website.
- Keywords Explorer: Learn what your audience is searching for and start creating better content for higher traffic potential.
- Rank Tracker: Track your website’s search engine rankings over time.
- Web Explorer: Monitor your rankings and track your web mentions with this explorer.
- Web Analytics: Use this tool to gain focused insights about your website traffic to inform your business decisions.
- Content Explorer: Discover the top-performing content in your industry and identify any proven ideas that could advance your next marketing campaign.
- AI Content Helper: Optimize your content by starting with a target keyword and choosing the search intent you want to optimize for.
Ahrefs Pricing Structure
Compared to BuzzSumo, Ahrefs has more affordable pricing options. But, it’s important to note that there are limitations to choosing lower-cost plans.
Check out the different tiers available:
- Free (AWT): $0 – Includes 5,000 crawl credits and basic tools for monitoring site health, backlinks, and keywords.
- Starter: $29/month – 5,000 crawl credits with 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.
BuzzSumo vs. Ahrefs: Product Feature Showdown
To get a clearer picture of BuzzSumo vs. Ahrefs, it’s important to understand what each one offers.
1. Backlink Analysis
Both BuzzSumo and Ahrefs offer backlink analysis, but Ahrefs stands out for its extensive backlink index.
It claims to have one of the largest backlink databases in the SEO industry, which allows users to dive deep into their competitors’ link profiles and track the evolution of backlinks over time.
BuzzSumo focuses on links tied to content popularity and social shares. It doesn’t provide in-depth keyword research, technical SEO audits, or comprehensive competitor analysis on an SEO level.
Meanwhile, Ahrefs provides detailed insights into backlinks, including the referring domains, anchor texts, and link types.
Winner: Ahrefs
Because of Ahrefs’ database and in-depth insights, BuzzSumo falls lower down the ranks when it comes to backlink analysis.
2. Content Research
BuzzSumo excels in content research by helping users identify trending topics and monitor social shares.
Users can also use it to analyze what content performs best on various platforms. It’s a great tool for content creators who want to know what’s resonating with audiences in real time.
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer allows users to find top-performing content based on organic traffic, keyword usage, and backlinks.
While Ahrefs is great for optimizing content for search engines and measuring SEO success, it lacks the real-time social engagement metrics and viral content tracking that BuzzSumo excels at.
Winner: BuzzSumo
While Ahrefs provides plenty of insights, BuzzSumo was designed with content tools as a focus. This is why it wins the category.
3. Competitor Tracking
BuzzSumo is strong in content analysis. It provides insights into how competitors’ content is performing in terms of engagement and shares.
You can monitor social shares, engagement, and identify top-performing content across industries. This is particularly useful for understanding what type of content resonates with your audience.
On the other hand, Ahrefs takes a more comprehensive approach, going beyond content. Its platform helps users analyze competitors’ SEO strategies, backlink profiles, keyword rankings, and many other elements that are key to competitive advantage.
Ahrefs takes competitor tracking to the next level by offering a more in-depth look at competitors’ entire SEO strategy. The domain comparisons, SERP overviews, and competitive metrics go far beyond what BuzzSumo offers, making it the preferred choice for users who need a holistic SEO approach.
Winner: Ahrefs
Ahrefs digs deeper into the SEO performance of competitors, making it the better tool for holistic SEO competitor analysis.
4. Pricing
If your primary focus is on content discovery, social media analysis, and tracking trending topics, BuzzSumo is a budget-friendly option that provides powerful insights at an affordable price. But affordability also comes with limitations.
BuzzSumo lacks many of the advanced SEO and technical features that more robust tools like Ahrefs offer.
Other platforms offer more advanced SEO and technical capabilities. Ahrefs justifies its higher cost with an extensive feature set, covering everything from in-depth backlink analysis to keyword research, site audits, and competitor tracking. Its higher price point reflects this extensive functionality.
Winner: No clear winner between them
While there are advantages to both platforms, there are also other options that can provide users with advanced features without breaking the bank.
Get the Best of Both Worlds With Search Atlas
While BuzzSumo and Ahrefs are considered to be great options, Search Atlas offers an all-in-one solution combining the best of SEO and content research
It delivers the best of both worlds in a singular platform that connects every aspect of content and SEO strategy seamlessly.
Search Atlas Features
As a comprehensive toolkit for SEO, content, automation, and research tools, Search Atlas exceeds the functionality found in both Ahrefs and BuzzSumo.
Take advantage of an AI assistant for content and access in-depth analytics to improve your rankings with user-friendly tools from Search Atlas.
Content tools
Accelerate your content creation and produce high-quality content with Search Atlas’s advanced AI integrations. Use the Topical Map Creator to gather article ideas, then craft original, engaging content with the AI Content Writer with over 50 templates for marketing communications.
From ad copy to blog titles and press releases, users will find everything they need for their content strategy on the easy-to-use platform. The Bulk AI Content Generation tool also makes it effortless to create complete SEO articles in bulk from an optimized list of keywords, titles, and suggestions.
Site explorer and site auditor
Ahrefs isn’t the only platform with deep insights and a large database. In fact, Search Atlas has the largest SEO database of any software platform, with 100 trillion backlinks, 500 million indexed domains, and 5 billion keywords—all in over 200 countries.
Discover which keywords are actually driving traffic and even filter it by country to understand exactly where traffic is coming from. Cover all bases from PPC spend to competitor backlink analysis as well as domain ratings.
The best way to outrank competitors is with comprehensive SEO data from Search Atlas, including detailed issue fixes, audit reports, and site health monitoring. Plus, users can take advantage of automation for each one of these aspects to save time and effort.
Local SEO software
Utilize heatmaps and automate local SEO reporting with Search Atlas. Start optimizing content for specific regional markets and cater topic areas to locations that ultimately help rankings.
Users can manage all local SEO campaigns from a single dashboard and even customize AI content creation to fit the brand, products, and regions of local SEO clientele. It’s the best way to enhance visibility for location-based optimization and conversions.
OTTO SEO
On top of the features listed above, Search Atlas stands above the competition with the groundbreaking AI SEO assistant, OTTO. This revolutionary agent makes it easy to automate SEO in a single click!
Automate site audits to search for technical issues and strategic opportunities. Then, activate OTTO for content optimizations, backlink building, content creation, and technical SEO fixes. Turn your efforts into concrete results with an AI agent designed for consistent organic traffic and optimal technical performance.
Search Atlas pricing
With the breadth of tools available from Search Atlas, it’s clear who wins in the battle of the best SEO suite.
See how Search Atlas is more cost-effective than both BuzzSumo and Ahrefs:
| 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 |
| Regular AI Quota | 100 | 250 | Unlimited | Custom |
Every plan also comes with at least one free OTTO activation, which will handle all of your SEO tasks and save you hours of manual labor on optimizing key website elements.
Search Atlas: A True, All-In-One SEO Platform
In the showdown between BuzzSumo vs. Ahrefs, it’s Search Atlas that comes out on top. 🏆
Transform your SEO strategy with a platform that aces both content marketing and SEO insights, where you don’t have to compromise on your choice.
Search Atlas is the #1 organic marketing platform equipped with the latest innovations in the industry. If your current strategy isn’t working, the powerful software suite is ready to fill in the gaps, automate technical SEO, deliver faster results, and boost your rankings. 📈
Choose Search Atlas and get started with a FREE trial today!
