Does Ahrefs include the kind of crawl audit Sitebulb does?

Yes, as Site Audit, free on a site you verify and included in the paid plans above that. It is one part of a much larger suite, where Sitebulb's crawl and its explanations are the entire product.

Which one explains why an issue matters rather than just listing it?

Sitebulb. Its own listing describes prioritised findings that say why each one matters and what to do about it, across roughly 300 checks. That explanation is the reason to pick it over a cheaper crawler.

How many pages can each one audit?

Sitebulb's Lite plan covers 10,000 URLs an audit on the desktop, which handles most content sites, and a separate cloud product exists for anything larger. Ahrefs allocates its plans by credits, export rows and API units instead of a stated URL count.

Can Sitebulb do keyword research the way Ahrefs can?

No. Sitebulb crawls and audits a site's technical health, and its own listing says anybody wanting keyword research or content guidance is looking at a different product entirely. Ahrefs is built around exactly that kind of research, with Site Audit included alongside it.

Ahrefs vs Sitebulb Comparison 2026

Ahrefs bundles Site Audit inside a much larger suite built around its own backlink index, starting at $129 a month for Lite, or free for Site Audit alone on a site you verify. Sitebulb does one job, crawling a site and explaining why each issue matters rather than just listing URLs, for $18 a month at Lite covering 10,000 URLs, running on your own desktop with no per-URL cloud bill. If technical crawling is the actual job, Sitebulb does it cheaper and explains itself. If keyword and backlink research come with it, Ahrefs is the one built for both.

Ahrefs

Backlink and keyword data at full depth

Sitebulb

A crawler that explains what it found

At a glance

Sitebulb starts cheaper, at $18.
Only Ahrefs has a free tier.

Side by side

	Ahrefs	Sitebulb
Starting price (they differ)	From $129	From $18
Pricing model (they differ)	Free plan, paid tiers	Paid subscription
Free tier (they differ)	Yes	No
Billing	Monthly or annual	Monthly or annual
Free trial	Not stated	Not stated
API	Yes

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

More Ahrefs alternatives Visit Ahrefs

Sitebulb

A crawler that explains what it found

Sitebulb crawls a site and returns prioritised issues with an explanation of why each one matters, which is the difference between this and a spreadsheet of URLs. Crawl maps draw the structure of a site as a picture. JavaScript rendering is on every plan rather than reserved for the dearest. The desktop product audits ten thousand URLs at the entry tier, so anybody auditing a large site is looking at the cloud version instead.

Why people weigh these two

Sitebulb instead of Ahrefs: Sitebulb crawls a site and explains what it found in plain language, starting at $18, for technical audits rather than Ahrefs' backlink index.
Ahrefs instead of Sitebulb: Ahrefs pairs a site audit with backlink and keyword data at full depth, from $129 with a free tier.

Which one should you pick

Choose Ahrefs if the audit needs to sit next to keyword research and backlink data in the same tool, since Site Audit is included free on a verified site and folded into the paid plans above that. Lite starts at $129 a month with no trial and no discount, a lot to pay for crawling alone.

Choose Sitebulb if technical health is the actual job and the report needs to explain itself: every finding says why it matters, not just where it is. Lite is $18 a month for one user and 10,000 URLs an audit, which covers most content sites, and Pro at $42 opens deeper analysis with JavaScript crawling included on both. Check the URL count before committing to Lite, since a large archive or faceted navigation passes 10,000 without warning.

Common questions

Does Ahrefs include the kind of crawl audit Sitebulb does?: Yes, as Site Audit, free on a site you verify and included in the paid plans above that. It is one part of a much larger suite, where Sitebulb's crawl and its explanations are the entire product.
Which one explains why an issue matters rather than just listing it?: Sitebulb. Its own listing describes prioritised findings that say why each one matters and what to do about it, across roughly 300 checks. That explanation is the reason to pick it over a cheaper crawler.
How many pages can each one audit?: Sitebulb's Lite plan covers 10,000 URLs an audit on the desktop, which handles most content sites, and a separate cloud product exists for anything larger. Ahrefs allocates its plans by credits, export rows and API units instead of a stated URL count.
Can Sitebulb do keyword research the way Ahrefs can?: No. Sitebulb crawls and audits a site's technical health, and its own listing says anybody wanting keyword research or content guidance is looking at a different product entirely. Ahrefs is built around exactly that kind of research, with Site Audit included alongside it.

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.