Comparison
SEO Stuff vs Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the two reference tools in SEO: a huge link index, a crawler for site audits, daily rank tracking, years of history and Brand Radar for AI search. It is built for people who do SEO every day, and it is priced that way: the entry plan is $129 a month for one user.
SEO Stuff is for everyone else. The research tools cover the same core questions (what people search for, how hard a keyword is, who links to whom) and you pay per lookup with credits you buy once. When research is not the bottleneck, the Done-For-You Package has our team write the content and secure the placements for a single payment.
Pick SEO Stuff if
- You need keyword or backlink data a few times a month, not every day
- You would rather pay $49 or $99 once than $129 every month
- You want the work done (strategy, 10 pages of content, 3 DR50+ placements) rather than another dashboard
- You want to be cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, not only ranked in Google
Pick Ahrefs if
- You run SEO for several sites or clients and live in the tool
- You need a site crawler, daily rank tracking and multi-year history
- You need the largest backlink index and the longest link history available
- You have a team that needs seats, an API or MCP access
Side by side
What each one gives you, in the same words. The Ahrefs column comes from its own pricing page; the date it was checked is at the bottom.
Where Ahrefs is the better tool
If you do SEO all day, Ahrefs earns its price. Its link index is its own crawl, and it goes back years, so you can see how a competitor's link profile was built, not only what it looks like today. Site Audit will crawl a hundred thousand pages and tell you what is broken. Rank Tracker checks your keywords daily. Brand Radar tracks how often AI assistants mention a brand across millions of prompts. Content Explorer, the API and the MCP server round it out for teams.
None of that is in SEO Stuff, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Our tools answer the questions a business owner or a small marketing team asks a few times a month: is this keyword worth it, who is linking to that competitor, which of these thousand keywords should we go after.
Where SEO Stuff is the better buy
The price model. Ahrefs charges whether you log in or not; a quiet month costs the same $129 as a busy one, and the entry plan is capped at one user. SEO Stuff sells credits you buy once and spend when you need them: 400 for $49, 3,000 for $99, one credit per keyword lookup. A business that researches a new topic every few weeks spends under $100 a year.
The other difference is that SEO Stuff will do the work. Most people who buy an SEO tool want traffic, not reports, and the report is the easy half. The Done-For-You Package is a full SEO and AI-search audit with a strategy guide in 7 business days, then 10 pages of content written in the shapes AI assistants quote, published on your site, and 3 DR50+ authority placements on sites the assistants already cite, all inside 21 business days, for $999 once. Your dashboard shows where you stood in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude on day one and ticks off each delivery.
Using both
Plenty of our customers keep an Ahrefs subscription and buy the Done-For-You Package on top, because the tool does not write the pages or secure the placements. The reverse is also common: run research on SEO Stuff credits for most of the year and rent Ahrefs for the one month you need a full site crawl.
A year, in dollars
What a year costs, using the prices on each vendor's pricing page:
Ahrefs prices checked October 7, 2026 on ahrefs.com/pricing. Ahrefs changes plans and limits from time to time; check the live page before you buy.
Questions people ask
Is SEO Stuff a replacement for Ahrefs?
For a business that researches keywords and backlinks a few times a month, yes: the core questions are answered for a fraction of the price. For an SEO professional who needs a crawler, daily rank tracking, multi-year link history and team seats, no; Ahrefs is the better tool and it is priced for that job.
How do SEO Stuff credits work?
One credit is one keyword lookup. You buy a pack once (400 credits for $49, 3,000 for $99) and spend it at your own pace. There is no subscription and nothing renews.
Does SEO Stuff track AI search the way Brand Radar does?
Every Done-For-You order includes a baseline: we ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude twenty real buyer questions for your category and show you how often each one mentions you and who it recommends instead. For ongoing work, the same team runs Rightcited, which checks 50 buyer questions a week across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity and fixes what the assistants get wrong.
Can I see how I stand before paying anything?
Yes. The free SEO + AI search audit is a manual review of your site by our team, with a report within 48 hours covering your visibility in Google and AI search and the gaps against the top sites in your category. No credit card and no sales call.
Which one gets me cited by ChatGPT?
A tool shows you whether you are cited; it does not change the answer. Getting cited takes content written in the shapes assistants quote and authority from sites they already trust, which is what the Done-For-You Package delivers. Use Ahrefs or SEO Stuff credits for the research either way.
Three ways to start
See where you stand
A free, manual SEO + AI search audit of your site, with a report within 48 hours. No credit card, no sales call.
Get the free auditHave it done
The Done-For-You Package: audit, 10 pages of content, 3 DR50+ placements, dashboard. $999 once, delivered in 21 business days.
See the packageDo the research yourself
Keywords Explorer, bulk metrics and Backlinks Explorer on credits you buy once: 400 for $49, 3,000 for $99.
Try the Keywords ExplorerSources
- Ahrefs pricing, checked October 7, 2026
- SEO Stuff Done-For-You Package, checked October 7, 2026
Ahrefs is a trademark of its owner; SEO Stuff is not affiliated with it. Competitor facts come from its public pages on the date shown and may have changed since.