Screaming Frog vs Ahrefs: SEO Tools Comparison (2026)

An independent side-by-side comparison of Screaming Frog and Ahrefs for seo tools buyers — pricing, features, integrations, and how often each is cited by major AI engines.

AI Citation Scorecard

How often each is cited by major AI engines when buyers ask seo tools questions. Last 90 days across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot.

Tied overall — both at 100% cited across 10 probes.
ChatGPT
Screaming Frog
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Ahrefs
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Perplexity
Screaming Frog
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Ahrefs
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Gemini
Screaming Frog
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Ahrefs
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Claude
Screaming Frog
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Ahrefs
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Copilot
Screaming Frog
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Ahrefs
1 / 1 probes
100%
Excellent
Scale:NoneLowFairStrongExcellent

Probes run hourly; each (engine × query) combo retests every ~3 days.

Pricing

Screaming Frog
Starting price
£199/user/year
Free tier
Yes
screamingfrog.co.uk ↗
Ahrefs
Starting price
$29/mo
Free tier
Yes
ahrefs.com ↗

Key Features

Screaming Frog
  • ✓Crawl Limit - Unlimited
  • ✓JavaScript Rendering
  • ✓Custom robots.txt
  • ✓Mobile Usability
  • ✓Google Analytics Integration
  • ✓Free Technical Support
  • ✓Generate XML Sitemaps
  • ✓Segmentations
Ahrefs
  • ✓Site Explorer
  • ✓Keywords Explorer
  • ✓Rank Tracker
  • ✓Site Audit
  • ✓API access
  • ✓Custom prompts
  • ✓Competitive Analysis
  • ✓Social Media Manager

When to choose Screaming Frog

Choose Screaming Frog if your team prioritizes its strengths over Ahrefs's. Full guidance populates as Screaming Frog's feature data is indexed.

When to choose Ahrefs

Choose Ahrefs if your team prioritizes its strengths over Screaming Frog's. Full guidance populates as Ahrefs's feature data is indexed.

AI visibility profiles

Is one of these your brand?

Get the full report by email: every seo tools buyer question we ask, which engines name you, and who gets named instead.

Screaming Frog

screamingfrog.co.uk

Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

Free check

Check any brand's AI visibility — free

We ask the buyer questions in this market across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and show you who gets named.

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