Full-suite SEO platform with the largest backlink index · Pricing: $129 – $1,499 / mo
Ahrefs and SEO Score API both touch SEO, but they are different shapes of product. Ahrefs is a Web app + API (paid add-on); SEO Score API is a hosted REST API that returns a scored audit as JSON in about two seconds. This page is an honest side-by-side — including when you should pick Ahrefs over us. Still shopping around? See our roundup of Ahrefs alternatives organized by use case.
| Feature | Ahrefs | SEO Score API |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $129 / mo | $0 (free tier), $5+ / mo paid |
| Pricing model | Seat + credit based | Audits per month, no seats |
| Site audits | Yes (crawl-based, scheduled) | Yes (on-demand, single URL or batch) |
| API access | Yes (paid add-on, credits) | Yes — that's the entire product |
| Backlink data | Industry-leading index | Not included |
| Keyword research | Extensive | Not included |
| AI readability score | No | Yes (every audit) |
| SXO / AEO / AIO scores | No | Yes (every audit on Starter+) |
| CI/CD ready | Limited | GitHub Action + Python/Node SDKs |
| Free tier | 7-day trial | 5 audits/day, no card |
When developers look for an Ahrefs alternative, they usually mean one of two very different things: they want Ahrefs' backlink and keyword data, or they were only ever using it to audit pages. Those need different tools. Ahrefs' index is the industry leader for links and keywords — nothing audit-shaped replaces it there. But if you were reaching for Ahrefs to grade on-page and technical SEO in code, an audit API does that job for a fraction of the price. SEO Score API takes a URL and returns 83 scored on-page, technical, performance, accessibility, and AI-readability checks as JSON in about two seconds.
| What you need | Ahrefs | SEO Score API |
|---|---|---|
| Primary data | Backlinks, keywords, rank tracking, site audit | Scored on-page + technical audit, 83 checks |
| Starting price | $129 / mo, seat + credits | $0 free, $5/mo for 200 audits |
| API | Paid add-on, credit-metered | The entire product — single X-API-Key header |
| Free tier | 7-day trial, then paid | 5 audits/day, no card |
| Backlink index | Yes (its signature strength) | No |
| Best for | Link & keyword research, reporting | Automated site-health audits in code & CI |
Yes — if audits are all you need. Ahrefs starts at $129/month and meters API calls by credit; that is the right price for a team living in backlink and keyword data, and steep for a script that just needs to know whether a page's SEO is healthy. SEO Score API's free tier is 5 audits a day with no credit card, and paid plans begin at $5/mo for 200 audits. Teams that move only their audit workload off Ahrefs typically cut that line item dramatically while keeping Ahrefs — or dropping it — for the research they actually still use.
If what you wanted from the Ahrefs API was a programmatic read on a page's SEO, here is the whole request — one endpoint, one header, JSON back in about two seconds:
curl "https://seoscoreapi.com/audit?url=https://example.com" \
-H "X-API-Key: ssa_your_key_here"The response carries an overall score, a letter grade, every check that passed or failed, and a priorities array of the highest-impact fixes — ready to drop into a client report, a Google Sheet, or a CI gate that blocks a merge on failing SEO.
For backlinks and keywords at scale, the real Ahrefs competitors are SEMrush and Moz — full suites in the same shape. For deep technical crawls it's Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. For audit automation in code — the slice most developers actually reach the Ahrefs API for — point your code at the SEO audit API instead. Because the free tier needs no card, you can port a script and test it against a URL you already track today. Grab a free key and run the curl above.
Not sure an audit API is the right swap? Here are the strongest Ahrefs alternatives and Ahrefs competitors, grouped by what you actually need — so you pick on use case, not marketing budget.
Only if you use Ahrefs primarily for site audits. SEO Score API does not provide backlink data or keyword research — it focuses on running on-demand audits via API. If you only use Ahrefs to audit sites for clients or to run periodic checks, SEO Score API will do that for a fraction of the cost.
Ahrefs starts at $129/month for 5 projects and a single user. SEO Score API starts at $0 for 5 audits per day and $5/month for 200 audits. If you audit 200 URLs a month, Ahrefs costs $129 and SEO Score API costs $5.
Yes. We publish a GitHub Action and Python/Node SDKs. Most users wire audits into pull requests so failed SEO checks block merges, the same way unit tests do.
We don't track backlinks. If backlink monitoring is critical for you, Ahrefs is the right tool. Many of our customers pair the two — Ahrefs for research, SEO Score API for automated audits.
Audit your site free — no Ahrefs subscription, no credit card.
Score any URL across 83 checks in one API call. Free tier, key in seconds.