Ahrefs vs RacoonDR Comparison 2026
Both cover seo & discovery. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- RacoonDR starts cheaper, at $5.99.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Ahrefs | RacoonDR | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $129 | From $5.99 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Ahrefs
Backlink and keyword data at full depth
Ahrefs runs its own crawler, which is why its backlink index is the one other tools get compared against, and why the keyword data goes deeper than the free alternatives. Site Explorer and Content Gap are what most people open it for. It is priced for businesses rather than for individuals, and the company states outright that it never discounts.
Our note
Between this and Semrush the split is old but holds: Ahrefs for backlinks and content research, Semrush for advertising data and rank tracking breadth. Pick on which half of the job is yours, because paying for both is rarely worth it.
Only on this side
- Covers research & trends
RacoonDR
Domain Rating tracked daily, with a badge
RacoonDR watches one number, the Ahrefs Domain Rating of a site you own, and keeps the history so a month of link building can be told apart from a quiet one. A check needs no account. Every domain checked gets a public page with a chart, a global rank and the domain age, and the badge is the business model rather than a decoration: display it and the link on that page turns followed, or pay to skip it. What it does not do is the research, so anybody who needs the keyword and backlink data itself still needs the tool the number comes from.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.