SE Ranking vs Ahrefs
Zero of twelve models named SE Ranking first on the direct prompt; one named Ahrefs. SE Ranking was named by eleven of the twelve models and Ahrefs by twelve and SE Ranking carries 24 labels and Ahrefs 51, so the shares are not directly comparable.
United States, founded 2012. 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
SE RankingFirst choices, of twelve modelsAhrefs
Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, SE Ranking and Ahrefs were named in the same answer forty-eight times, of the 100 answers naming SE Ranking and the 137 naming Ahrefs. In those answers Ahrefs took the first choice five times and SE Ranking eleven.
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 | | | | |
SE Ranking Ahrefs first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, SE Ranking on the left and Ahrefs on the right.The direct prompt
Ahrefs first, SE Ranking an alternative
1 of 12 modelsSE Ranking was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
9 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 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
SE Ranking13%#4 of 13Ahrefs6%#6 of 13SE Ranking0%#– of 13Ahrefs0%#10 of 13What the models said about SE Ranking
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“SE Ranking is solid for agencies and cost-conscious teams, but may fall short for enterprises needing deeper backlink analysis or more advanced SEM integration” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“SE Ranking jumped significantly (now ~$103+/mo)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“The best SEO and content optimization platform for a company with a limited budget is SE Ranking, which costs $55/month” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“or SE Ranking ($44/month) if you want a complete SEO platform including content optimization features” Mistral Small · budget 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.