# Semrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz: the three suites, side by side

All three do the same five jobs and each is better at one of them. Ahrefs is strongest on links, Semrush is the broadest suite, Moz is the gentlest to learn. For a small product site the honest first question is whether you need any of them yet.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/compare/semrush-vs-ahrefs-vs-moz

## The short answer

- Pick Ahrefs if your next quarter is about links and rivals: its backlink index and Site Explorer are what it is known for.
- Pick Semrush if you want one place for keywords, tracking, audits and the marketing work around them, including advertising data.
- Pick Moz if you are learning as you go and want a smaller surface with strong teaching behind it.
- Pick none of them yet if your site has a handful of pages and no content plan: Search Console and a crawler will tell you more this month.

## The criteria that decide it

Feature lists are long and mostly overlapping. Five questions separate the three in practice.

- The link index: whose crawl finds the links, and how well the explorer lets you read a rival's profile.
- Keyword data: how the ideas are grouped, how the difficulty is modelled, how many markets are covered.
- The audit: what the crawler finds on your own site and how it explains it.
- Rank tracking: how many queries, how often, and whether rivals are tracked beside you.
- The learning curve: how long before the tool answers a question you actually had.

> One criterion that is not on the list: the vendor's own authority score. Each suite has one, none of them is Google's, and none transfers to another tool.

## The three suites side by side

| Job | Ahrefs | Semrush | Moz |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Links | Its own index, Site Explorer, Domain Rating | Backlink Analytics inside the suite, Authority Score | Link Explorer, Domain Authority |
| Keywords | Keywords Explorer | Keyword Magic Tool, the widest set of modules | Keyword Explorer |
| Your own site | Site Audit | Site Audit | Site Crawl and On-Page Grader |
| Tracking | Rank Tracker | Position Tracking | Rank Tracking |
| Beyond SEO | Content Explorer | Advertising and content modules | Moz Local for local businesses |
| Free door | Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for verified sites | Limited free account | MozBar extension, free |

## Where each one is stronger

Ahrefs: the link work. Site Explorer is the cleanest way to read who links to a rival, from which page and with what anchor, and Content Explorer turns that into a list of people who write about your subject. If your plan is to earn links this quarter, this is the one that pays for itself first.

Semrush: the breadth. Keyword Magic Tool for the ideas, Position Tracking for the watch list, Site Audit for the technical debt, Backlink Analytics for the links, and modules that go past SEO into advertising and content. If one subscription has to cover a whole marketing job, it is this one.

Moz: the teaching. Domain Authority became a shared vocabulary because Moz explained it for years, and the tools are smaller and easier to learn. If you are the founder doing this yourself between two other jobs, less surface is a feature.

## DA, DR and Authority Score are three different things

Each suite scores a domain out of 100 from its own link index with its own model. The numbers look comparable and are not.

- Domain Rating is Ahrefs's, built from its backlink index.
- Authority Score is Semrush's, built from link data, its traffic estimate and spam signals.
- Domain Authority is Moz's, relative and logarithmic, so moving from 20 to 30 is easier than 70 to 80.
- Google uses none of them. Its representatives have said there is no single site-wide authority score in its systems.

Use whichever your tool gives you to compare two sites inside that tool, on the same day. Never as a target, and never across tools.

## What a small product site actually uses

Founders buy a suite for the whole thing and use four screens. Those four, in the order they matter.

- The keyword explorer, once, to size the twenty searches worth writing for.
- The link explorer on two rivals, once a quarter, to build a list of places that might link to you too.
- The site audit, once after a big change, and then rarely.
- The rank tracker, weekly, for the ten queries that pay.

That is a few hours a month of use. It is worth a subscription when the site has a content plan and enough pages to audit. Before that, the same hours in Search Console tell you more, because they are about your site rather than a model of it.

## The free path, before you pay for any of them

- Google Search Console: your real impressions, clicks, positions and indexing. The only figures that are Google's own.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: free keyword research with volumes, and a backlink comparison against another domain.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: Site Audit and Site Explorer, free on sites you have verified.
- The MozBar extension: a page's metrics at a glance while you read a results page.
- A desktop crawler's free tier: the technical facts about your own site, up to a few hundred URLs.

That set answers most of what a site under a hundred pages needs. The paid suites earn their place when you need rivals, volumes at scale and history.

## How to test one in a week

1. **Write your five questions first** For example: which searches can this site realistically win, who links to my two closest rivals, what is technically broken, which ten queries do I want tracked, and what did they publish last month.
2. **Answer them in the tool, not in the tour** Ignore the dashboard. Go straight to the screens that answer your questions and time how long each takes.
3. **Check a domain you know well** Your own site, or a rival you have studied. The tool whose picture matches what you already know is the one whose data you can act on.
4. **Export something** You will live in spreadsheets more than in the interface. A tool whose export is awkward is a tool you will stop opening.
5. **Decide before the trial ends** If none of the five questions was answered faster than Search Console could, keep the money and revisit in a quarter.

## The tools compared

### Ahrefs

Reading the link graph and reverse engineering how rivals earn their search traffic. (ahrefs.com)

Good at: Its own backlink index; Site Explorer on any domain or URL; Content Explorer for finding who writes about a subject; Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker; Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, free on verified sites.

Choose it when Links and rival research are the work for the next quarter, and you want the clearest view of who links to whom.

Not for: Running advertising and wider marketing workflows in the same subscription.

### Semrush

Covering keyword research, tracking, audits, links and nearby marketing work in one suite. (semrush.com)

Good at: Keyword Magic Tool for grouped keyword ideas; Position Tracking for a watch list with rivals; Site Audit on your own site; Backlink Analytics and competitive research; Advertising and content modules beyond SEO.

Choose it when One subscription has to serve several marketing jobs, and breadth matters more than depth in any single one.

Not for: A founder who wants one small screen answered quickly: there is a lot of surface to learn.

### Moz

Learning SEO while doing it, with a smaller toolset and long-standing education behind it. (moz.com)

Good at: Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer; Site Crawl and On-Page Grader; Domain Authority as a shared vocabulary; The free MozBar extension; Moz Local for businesses with an address.

Choose it when You are doing this yourself, learning as you go, and prefer fewer screens with clearer explanations.

Not for: Deep link research at the scale the larger indexes offer.

**Verdict.** For a small product site, Ahrefs is the pick when the plan is link led, Semrush when one subscription has to cover keywords, tracking, audits and marketing, and Moz when you are learning and want less surface. None of them tells you more about your own site than Search Console does, so start there and add a suite when you are choosing between topics and rivals rather than fixing your own pages. Try one for a week against five questions you already have, and cancel if the answers were not faster than the free tools. We make Porteur, which is a different shape again: one report bought once instead of a subscription, and it does not track rankings daily.

## Questions

### Which is the best SEO tool overall?

There is no overall winner, only a best fit per job. Ahrefs leads on links, Semrush on breadth, Moz on approachability and teaching. The right question is which of the five jobs you will actually do this quarter.

### Can I use two of them at once?

You can, and agencies often do, but a small product gets little from it. The data differs because the indexes differ, and reconciling two views of the same site is a job in itself. Pick one and learn it.

### Is Domain Authority better than Domain Rating?

Neither is better; they are different models on different link indexes, and Google uses neither. Compare sites inside one tool on the same day, and ignore the number as a goal.

### Do I need a suite if I already have Search Console?

Not at the start. Search Console has your real queries, clicks, positions and indexing state. A suite adds rivals, search volumes, keyword difficulty and history, which matter once you are choosing between topics rather than fixing your own site.

### Which one is cheapest?

Prices change and vary by plan, market and term, so check the vendors directly. The more useful comparison is what you would use: a smaller tool you open weekly beats a large one you renew and forget.

## Read next

- [Ahrefs vs Semrush for a small product site](https://porteur.ai/compare/ahrefs-vs-semrush): Choose Ahrefs if links and Site Explorer matter most, Semrush if you need a broad keyword and marketing suite. Here is how to decide quickly.
- [Semrush vs Moz for a small product site](https://porteur.ai/compare/semrush-vs-moz): Decide between Semrush and Moz for a small product site. What each is built for, what you will actually use, and when neither is needed.
- [Ahrefs vs Moz](https://porteur.ai/compare/ahrefs-vs-moz): Ahrefs vs Moz for a small site: link index quality, Domain Rating vs Domain Authority, keyword tools, audits and education, with clear use cases.
- [The best SEO tools for a startup: a stack for one founder](https://porteur.ai/guides/best-seo-tools-for-startups): The startup SEO tool stack by stage: free set before traffic, add a crawler and rank view when clicks start, then one suite when you are growing.
- [Semrush alternatives, by what you need](https://porteur.ai/alternatives/semrush-alternatives): You likely need one or two jobs, not a suite. Pick Semrush alternatives for keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, links or competitor research.
- [Domain Authority](https://porteur.ai/glossary/domain-authority): Domain Authority is Moz’s 1 to 100 score from links. Here is how it works, what Google says about it, how to read it, and how to use it well.
- [Moz vs Ubersuggest](https://porteur.ai/compare/moz-vs-ubersuggest): A teaching-first toolset against a beginner tool with a free tier. Data depth, learning curve, what each gives up, and who should pick which.
- [Semrush vs Similarweb: keywords against traffic estimates](https://porteur.ai/compare/semrush-vs-similarweb): One models search visibility, the other models total visits. Where each number comes from, why they disagree, and which question each answers.

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