Clearscope vs Ahrefs
Zero of twelve models named Clearscope first on the direct prompt; one named Ahrefs. Both were named by all twelve models and Clearscope carries 50 labels and Ahrefs 51, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Singapore, Singapore, founded 2010. Named in four categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the SEO and content optimization platforms page.
By framing
ClearscopeFirst choices, of twelve modelsAhrefs
Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, Clearscope and Ahrefs were named in the same answer seventy-five times, of the 128 answers naming Clearscope and the 137 naming Ahrefs. In those answers Ahrefs took the first choice twelve times and Clearscope four.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | |||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | | |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | ||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |
Clearscope Ahrefs first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Clearscope on the left and Ahrefs on the right.The direct prompt
Ahrefs first, Clearscope an alternative
1 of 12 modelsClearscope was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
10 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Clearscope6%#4 of 16Ahrefs4%#6 of 16What the models said about Clearscope
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Clearscope ($129+/mo) — enterprise-grade pricing” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“$189-350/month; extremely high price for solo users; no free trial; limited to content optimization only” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“premium content editors (like Clearscope or Surfer SEO) often start around $100 to $140+ per month” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“Semrush Enterprise (~$18K/yr) + Clearscope or Surfer (~$1\u2013$15K/yr) for a cost-effective, comprehensive stack” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“I'd usually recommend Clearscope if your main goal is to improve content quality and search performance” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Legitimate paid tools: Surfer SEO, Clearscope, RankUp (with proper trials)” Mistral Small · negative prompt · first choice
What the models said about Ahrefs
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid: Enterprise tools (Ahrefs/Semrush $99–$139); overkill for small budgets.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Tools to Skip on a Budget - Ahrefs ($108+/mo)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“The price increase in 2024 changed the value calculation, with the Lite plan jumping from $99 to $129 per month” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Choose Ahrefs or Semrush if you need a baseline tool for overall website health, backlink tracking, and competitor espionage.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Go with Semrush (for the extra marketing tools) or Ahrefs (if you care primarily about backlinks)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“The best SEO content optimization tool for a mid-sized B2B company would be Ahrefs or SEMrush” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.