Small business▼−4Since September 2026: 6% → 2%, −4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
2%from 6% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 6 → 11 of 80
7 categories · RankedAhrefs
211Judge labels
5First choices
51Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
7Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10-05.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
3% in SEO for mid-market buyers
Rank 7 of 78 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
1 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 17% of its 42 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Ahrefs →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business9 of 84
3%45 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market7 of 78
3%42 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise11 of 59
0%34 labels
accepted challenger
In seo · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Ahrefs for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO and content optimization platforms | Marketing | 3% | 7 of 78 | 17% | 42 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 4% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Competitive intelligence tools | Marketing | 0% | 16 of 86 | 26% | 19 | criticized challenger | |
| Content marketing platforms | Marketing | 0% | 24 of 135 | 0% | 10 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Market intelligence platforms | GTM data and infrastructure | 0% | 131 of 172 | 33% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Apollo.io at 17% | |
| Audience and consumer insights platforms | Marketing | 0% | 97 of 155 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by SparkToro at 19% | |
| Ecommerce marketing | Marketing | 0% | 66 of 115 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by HubSpot Marketing Hub at 38% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Web analytics | GTM data and infrastructure | 0% | 38 of 91 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Google Analytics 4 at 57% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Ahrefs held within the floor in all seven categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · SEO · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 4% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
4%from 4% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 7 → 6 of 71
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 15 → 10 of 58
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | 4% | 4% | =heldSince September 2026: 4% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 7 of 78, unchanged |
| Competitive intel | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 16 of 86, unchanged |
| Content marketing | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 20 → 24 of 135 |
| Market intelligence | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 131 of 172, unchanged |
| Audience insights | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 97 of 155, unchanged |
| Ecommerce marketing | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 76 → 66 of 115 |
| Web analytics | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 38 of 91, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Ahrefs across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Ahrefs across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 10 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct23 labels1
Paraphrase18 labelsNone
Comparative53 labels12not counted in share
Budget-constrained43 labels2
Scale-constrained25 labels2
Negative49 labels2not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative211 labels in all, every segment counted; 5 of the 19 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Prioritize: Ahrefs, SE Ranking, KWFinder (low complaint records), Frase, Clearscope for content optimization.” Grok 4.1 Fast · SEO · negative prompt · first choice
“Unmatched backlink analysis and a highly regarded "Content Explorer"... the most accurate backlink index.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · SEO · comparative prompt · first choice
“top picks like SEMrush (all-in-one), Surfer (content focus), Ahrefs (backlinks/research)” Grok 4.1 Fast · SEO · scale prompt · first choice
“For most mid-market B2B companies, Semrush or Ahrefs are the best starting points” Mistral Small · SEO · direct prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Ahrefs now offers AI content surfaces... they raise quality, originality, and brand-voice risks if teams over-rely on them.” GPT-5.4 mini · SEO · negative prompt · soft negative
“Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and SpyFu ... are not full competitive-intelligence platforms for sales enablement” Perplexity Sonar · Competitive intel · negative prompt · soft negative
“is expensive for multiple team members ($40-80 per month each) and lacks native keyword research capabilities” Claude Haiku 4.5 · SEO · negative prompt · soft negative
“highly critical of pricing models used by platforms like Ahrefs, where standard tasks...consume "credits"” Gemini 3.5 Flash · SEO · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Ahrefs, over the 205 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Ahrefs was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Ahrefs, over the 205 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Ahrefs was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Ahrefs. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 181 of the 205 answers that named Ahrefs and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
blog.hubspot.com74
trysight.ai49
g2.com39
thecmo.com35
zapier.com35
semrush.com34
conductor.com32
pipeline.zoominfo.com32
ahrefs.comYour site31
contify.com25
355 of the 386 domain citations in answers naming Ahrefs came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
ahrefs.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Ahrefs takes 3% of first choices and Semrush takes 21%.ShowHide
Search and answers
ahrefs.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Ahrefs takes 3% of first choices and Semrush takes 21%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “seo and content optimization platform”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “best seo and content optimization platform”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 49,500 a month (“ahrefs”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 1,338 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 1,260,839 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 54,377 · 4,843 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 101,881
- Paid Google search
- 1 searches its ads show for, about 10 clicks and $441 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
3%
rank 7 of 78 in SEO
Segment leader
21%
Semrush
- First choices
- 5 across its categories
- Named in
- 205 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 181 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on ahrefs.com
5,657
subdomains included
Content
532
counted in the table below
Documentation
890
Product · Integration
0 · 0
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glossary or explainer | 444 | 6 | 2026-09-03 | SEO | |
| Webinar or virtual event | 39 | undated | SEO | ||
| Blog | 30 | 17 | 2026-09-25 | SEO | |
| Conference or event | 11 | undated | SEO | ||
| Comparison | 5 | 4 | 2026-09-03 | ||
| News or press | 2 | undated | |||
| Case study | 1 | undated |
Most recent
- 2026-09-25How to optimize for ai search blog
- 2026-09-16Ai overviews france impact blog
- 2026-09-16Ai marketing trends blog
- 2026-09-0379163 why am i getting slightly different results in ahrefs vs the exported file for large sites comparison
- 2026-09-0379163 mengapa saya mendapatkan hasil yang sedikit berbeda di ahrefs vs file yang diekspor untuk situs besar comparison
- 2026-09-031012028 what is traffic value and paid traffic cost in site explorer glossary or explainer
Events in person
Last twelve months
- April 22, 2026第 3 回 Ahrefs 日本ユーザーミートアップTHE CORE KITCHEN/SPACE, 東京, 日本 · hosted
- November 13, 2025第 2 回 Ahrefs 日本ユーザーミートアップTHE CORE KITCHEN/SPACE, 東京 · hosted
As the event pages on ahrefs.com state them, read September 28, 2026.
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page ahrefs.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Names read as Ahrefs
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Ahrefs; a claim can dispute any of them.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools 3Ahrefs Free 2Ahrefs (SEO Assistant) 1Ahrefs Starter 1
Follow Ahrefs
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Ahrefs.ShowHide
The company
Ahrefs.
ShowHideOn record
Wikidata- Website
- ahrefs.com
- Headquarters
- Singapore, Singapore
- Founded
- 2010
Fetched September 14, 2026. These describe the company, not the product's standing, and a claimed page can dispute any of them. · Wikidata · Crunchbase
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- AI Marketing Platform Powered by Big Data
- For
- marketers
- Free plan or trial
- Start for Free; Free during beta on Lite+ plans. ahrefs.com
- Certifications
- Ahrefs CertificationISO27001 certifiedISO 27001 (2022)SOC 2
- Hosting
- multiple availability zones and regions
- Customers named
- Suso DigitalMoving Traffic MediaFoundation Marketing
- Not stated on the pages read
- Price, starting price, integrations
What Ahrefs's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: ahrefs.com, trust.ahrefs.com. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Ahrefs's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Ahrefs, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Ahrefs by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Ahrefs is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Ahrefs, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.