Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover seo & discovery. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Ahrefs | TubeBuddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $129 | From $12 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Some of it |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | SEO & Discovery, Research & Trends | SEO & Discovery, Analytics, Thumbnails & Cover Art |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | YouTube |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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
Bulk YouTube edits and thumbnail A/B testing
TubeBuddy is the older of the two big YouTube extensions and is stronger on the boring half: changing end screens on two hundred videos, finding and replacing a line in every description, sorting tags. Its A/B thumbnail test is the feature people cite most. There is no free plan on the pricing page.
Only on this side
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.