# Ahrefs: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 107 judge labels across 9 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/ahrefs

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [SEO and content optimization platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/seo-content-optimization/index.md) | 2% | 9 | 17% | 52 |
| [Competitive intelligence tools](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/competitive-intelligence/index.md) | 0% | 14 | 28% | 25 |
| [Content marketing platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/content-marketing-platforms/index.md) | 0% | 47 | 33% | 9 |
| [Market intelligence platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/market-intelligence/index.md) | 0% | 62 | 33% | 9 |
| [App store optimization tools](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/app-store-optimization/index.md) | 0% | 19 | 0% | 5 |
| [Audience and consumer insights platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/audience-and-consumer-insights/index.md) | 0% | 65 | 0% | 2 |
| [Ecommerce marketing](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ecommerce-marketing/index.md) | 0% | 28 | 0% | 2 |
| [Web analytics](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/web-analytics/index.md) | 0% | 43 | 0% | 2 |
| [Local listings management](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/local-listings-management/index.md) | 0% | 21 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "Best overall all-in-one SEO tool, known for in-depth keyword analysis, technical SEO, backlink audits, and competitor analysis." (Mistral Small, SEO)
- "If you need to fix site bugs, build links, and track rankings: Choose Ahrefs or Semrush." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, SEO)
- "Semrush and Ahrefs emerge as the top recommendations for mid-market B2B companies" (MiniMax M2.5, SEO)
- "Rank tracking & audits: Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, SEO)

## And against it

- "pure SEO suites like Ahrefs if product-specific CI is the core need" (Grok 4.20, Competitive intel)
- "Semrush (and similar like Ahrefs)... Data is based on crawling/scraping search engines and sites, raising potential TOS violations or inaccuracies." (Grok 4.20, Competitive intel)
- "Traffic & SEO Estimation Tools (e.g., SimilarWeb, SEMrush, Ahrefs for competitor analysis) ... Data accuracy problems" (Kimi K2, Competitive intel)
- "certain SEMrush/Ahrefs alternatives or ZoomInfo add-ons for MI: Users report steep learning curves, inaccurate scraping" (Grok 4.20, Market intelligence)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Grok 4.20 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 10 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Ahrefs, from 244 of the 276 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- blog.hubspot.com: 74
- toolradar.com: 57
- g2.com: 54
- zapier.com: 49
- gane.ai/index: 48
- searchatlas.com: 33
- ahrefs.com: 30 (its own site)
- softwareadvice.com: 30
- reddit.com: 28
- capterra.com: 25

### Pages cited

- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-tools-for-small-business: 42
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-seo-content-optimization-tools: 35
- https://toolradar.com/guides/best-enterprise-seo-platforms: 25
- https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/seo-content-optimization/2026-09/enterprise: 21
- https://searchatlas.com/blog/b2b-seo-tools: 20
- https://searchenginejournal.com/enterprise-seo/the-top-4-enterprise-seo-platform-tools-an-in-depth-review: 15
- https://onemetrik.com/blogs/best-enterprise-seo-tools: 14
- https://vibereference.com/marketing-and-seo/seo-content-optimization-tools: 13

## The company

Ahrefs; https://ahrefs.com/; Singapore, Singapore; founded 2010. From Wikidata, fetched 2026-09-14.

## In its own words

What Ahrefs's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: AI Marketing Platform Powered by Big Data (https://ahrefs.com/)
- For: marketers (https://ahrefs.com/)
- Free plan or trial: Start for Free; Free during beta on Lite+ plans. (https://ahrefs.com/)
- Certifications: ISO 27001, SOC 2
- Hosting: multiple availability zones and regions
- Customers named: Suso Digital, Moving Traffic Media, Foundation Marketing

## What it publishes

Every page ahrefs.com exposes, read 2026-09-29: 5657 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 30 pages, 17 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-25
- case study: 1 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- webinar or virtual event: 39 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- conference or event: 11 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- comparison: 5 pages, 4 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-03
- glossary or explainer: 444 pages, 6 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-03
- news or press: 2 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- Recent: 2026-09-25 blog: How to optimize for ai search https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-to-optimize-for-ai-search/
- Recent: 2026-09-16 blog: Ai overviews france impact https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-france-impact/
- Recent: 2026-09-16 blog: Ai marketing trends https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-marketing-trends/
- Recent: 2026-09-03 comparison: 79163 why am i getting slightly different results in ahrefs vs the exported file for large sites https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/79163-why-am-i-getting-slightly-different-results-in-ahrefs-vs-the-exported-file-for-large-sites
- Recent: 2026-09-03 comparison: 79163 mengapa saya mendapatkan hasil yang sedikit berbeda di ahrefs vs file yang diekspor untuk situs besar https://help.ahrefs.com/id/articles/79163-mengapa-saya-mendapatkan-hasil-yang-sedikit-berbeda-di-ahrefs-vs-file-yang-diekspor-untuk-situs-besar
- Recent: 2026-09-03 glossary or explainer: 1012028 what is traffic value and paid traffic cost in site explorer https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/1012028-what-is-traffic-value-and-paid-traffic-cost-in-site-explorer

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.