Head to head
Ahrefs vs Profound
Short answer. These are different categories doing different jobs: Ahrefs is a seo suite, Profound is a ai visibility tracker. Comparing them is really a question of which job you need done first. Ahrefs is the cheaper way in at Starter $29/mo (Lite $129/mo) against $99/mo (billed yearly). On AI search visibility Profound is ahead (Native against Tracking). Choose Ahrefs if you match its target profile: sEOs, publishers and agencies whose work centres on backlink, keyword and competitor analysis. Choose Profound if you match its: brands treating AI visibility as a reportable marketing channel with budget attached.
Ahrefs
SEO suite built on one of the largest independent web crawlers, with the strongest backlink dataset and a separately priced Brand Radar product for AI-answer research.
Starter $29/mo (Lite $129/mo)Free plan for verified sites; no general free trial
Visit Ahrefs (opens in a new tab)
Profound
Enterprise-leaning answer-engine analytics platform that tracks how AI systems describe your brand and which sources they pull from.
$99/mo (billed yearly)Free trial offered on the Growth plan (duration not published)
Visit Profound (opens in a new tab)
Side by side
| Ahrefs | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | SEO suite | AI visibility tracker |
| Entry price | Starter $29/mo (Lite $129/mo) | $99/mo (billed yearly) |
| Free trial | Free plan for verified sites; no general free trial | Free trial offered on the Growth plan (duration not published) |
| AI search (GEO) | Tracking | Native |
| Best for | SEOs, publishers and agencies whose work centres on backlink, keyword and competitor analysis. | Brands treating AI visibility as a reportable marketing channel with budget attached. |
| Integrations | Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Looker Studio, API, MCP | API, Slack |
| Languages | Multilingual | Multilingual |
Where they actually differ
Ten capabilities, same definition for both tools, taken from each vendor's published documentation. The rows below are only the ones where the two disagree, because those are the rows that decide the purchase.
| Capability | Ahrefs | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Writes content | Partial | No |
| Keyword research | Yes | No |
| Technical audit | Yes | No |
| Backlinks | Yes | No |
| Rank tracking | Yes | No |
| AI visibility tracking | Partial | Yes |
| Internal linking | Partial | No |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
Pricing compared
Ahrefs: Brand Radar AI, the AI-visibility product, starts at $199/mo on top of a plan, with custom prompt packages from $50/mo. Annual billing saves about 17%.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Ahrefs data limited to sites you verify ownership of. |
| Starter | $29/mo | Entry access with reduced limits. |
| Lite | $129/mo | 5 projects, 6 months of historical data, 750 tracked keywords. |
| Standard | $249/mo | 20 projects, 2 years of history, 2,000 tracked keywords. |
| Advanced | $449/mo | 50 projects, 5 years of history, 5,000 tracked keywords. |
| Enterprise | $1,499/mo | Uncapped API access, unlimited history, annual commitment. |
| Brand Radar AI (add-on) | from $199/mo | Research across 271M+ organic prompts, custom prompt tracking. Prompt packages from $50/mo. |
Profound: Starter tracks ChatGPT only. Multi-engine coverage starts at $399/mo. Yearly billing gives two months free.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99/mo yearly | ChatGPT only, 50 prompts tracked, 100 agent credits per month, email support. |
| Growth | $399/mo yearly | 3 answer engines, 100 prompts tracked, 400 agent credits, email support. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Up to 9 answer engines, multiple companies tracked, dedicated Slack support, SSO/SAML, SOC 2. |
Entry price is the wrong number to compare on its own. Add seats, add the tier that unlocks the feature you came for, and the gap usually moves. Run both through the stack cost calculator to see the annual figure.
Ahrefs in detail
SEO suite built on one of the largest independent web crawlers, with the strongest backlink dataset and a separately priced Brand Radar product for AI-answer research. Brand Radar AI is a paid add-on rather than an included feature, but its prompt corpus is unusually large: research across 271M+ organic prompts plus custom prompt tracking.
Strengths
- Best backlink and keyword data available commercially
- Free plan for your own verified sites, plus a $29 Starter
- Brand Radar's prompt corpus is the largest published in the category
Limits
- Starter is heavily limited; real work starts at Lite ($129/mo)
- AI visibility costs an extra $199/mo minimum
- Data-focused: nothing here writes or publishes content
Profound in detail
Enterprise-leaning answer-engine analytics platform that tracks how AI systems describe your brand and which sources they pull from. This is a pure GEO product. Growth covers ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; Enterprise extends to as many as nine engines including Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude.
Strengths
- The deepest citation and source analysis in the category
- Enterprise controls (SOC 2, SSO) that most GEO startups lack
- $99 entry makes the category testable
Limits
- The $99 tier watches ChatGPT and nothing else
- Real multi-engine coverage costs $399/mo
- Analytics only: nothing here produces content
Read the full Profound review →
How to choose between them
Go with Ahrefs when
- Best backlink and keyword data available commercially
- Free plan for your own verified sites, plus a $29 Starter
- Brand Radar's prompt corpus is the largest published in the category
Go with Profound when
- The deepest citation and source analysis in the category
- Enterprise controls (SOC 2, SSO) that most GEO startups lack
- $99 entry makes the category testable
Whichever way you lean, run the trials on the same brief before you commit: Ahrefs gives you free plan for verified sites; no general free trial and Profound gives you free trial offered on the growth plan (duration not published). Judging output on your own topic beats any comparison table, including this one.
Frequently asked questions
Ahrefs vs Profound: which is better?
Neither is better in the abstract. Ahrefs suits seos, publishers and agencies whose work centres on backlink, keyword and competitor analysis. Profound suits brands treating ai visibility as a reportable marketing channel with budget attached. Match the tool to the job you actually need done and the answer is usually obvious; if it is not, our tool finder narrows it in about a minute.
Is Ahrefs cheaper than Profound?
Ahrefs has the lower entry price: Starter $29/mo (Lite $129/mo) against $99/mo (billed yearly). Entry price is not total cost though, because both vendors gate features by tier. Compare full plan tables on the pricing comparison.
Which one is better for AI search visibility?
Profound. This is a pure GEO product. Growth covers ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; Enterprise extends to as many as nine engines including Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude.
Can I use Ahrefs and Profound together?
Yes, and plenty of teams do. The common stack pairs a tool that produces work with a tool that measures or researches it, because those two jobs rarely live in the same product. Before you stack, price the combined subscription in the stack cost calculator: two mid-tier tools often cost more than one plan that covers both.
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Last verified 2 August 2026. Prices, plans and features on this page were read on each vendor's own site on that date. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm before you buy. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it.