9:41
ahrefs.com
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ahrefs.com

15 technologies
VerifiedVisit7.7M/mo$8M6015 Tech24 Leads
Deep Dive

Ahrefs: The SEO Giant That Plays by Its Own Rules

How a bootstrapped database giant quietly dominates the search marketing world

While everyone chases AI hype and SaaS valuations, Ahrefs quietly built a $7.6M revenue engine on a simple premise: data is the only currency that matters in search. With just 60 employees, they manage one of the largest AI and search databases online, proving that depth beats breadth in the SEO arms race.

7.7M
monthly visits
60
employees
4.3M
backlinks indexed
62%
direct traffic

"Ahrefs doesn't just track the web—it architected a parallel universe where data sovereignty is absolute."

The Bootstrapped Behemoth

In an era of venture capital excess, Ahrefs operates with a starkly different philosophy. With $7.6M in revenue and zero disclosed funding, they've built a self-sustaining machine. The 62% direct traffic is the real story—users don't discover Ahrefs; they seek it out. This isn't a growth hack; it's brand equity earned through a decade of relentless data accuracy. While competitors burn cash on marketing, Ahrefs invests in crawlers.

The Search Monopoly Within Search

Ahrefs dominates the very keywords it tracks. 'Ahrefs' alone commands 748,600 monthly searches, while 'backlink checker' (329,940) and 'website traffic checker' (264,780) show their brand is synonymous with the category. This is organic monopoly power—users Google 'Ahrefs' to check backlinks, not the other way around. Their 4.3 million backlinks aren't just a metric; they're a defensive moat built on data others can't replicate.

The 1.9/5 Trustpilot rating reveals a fascinating tension. While marketers swear by the data, the enterprise experience clearly cracks under pressure. This isn't a product failure—it's a segmentation signal. Ahrefs serves power users who prioritize data accuracy over UX polish. The 34% organic traffic share is actually low for a tool this dominant, suggesting they're still underpenetrated in mid-market adoption where competitors like Semrush dominate.

  • 62% direct traffic indicates exceptional brand recall—users don't browse, they return
  • Top 5 keywords are all transactional tools, not branded content
  • 15 tech stack choices lean toward performance (Vite, Tailwind) over feature bloat
  • Employee-to-revenue ratio ($126K/employee) suggests lean, engineering-first culture
No native CRM integrations
Builds proprietary crawlers instead of buying data
Limited content marketing automation
Focuses on database depth over feature breadth
Enterprise support gaps (per Trustpilot)
Maintains 60-person efficiency vs. 500+ at competitors
No freemium tier to capture early-stage users
Owns the backlink verification infrastructure

The Data-First Doctrine Wins

Ahrefs proves that in SEO, being the source of truth beats being the best UI. Their 60-person team outperforms public companies by obsessing over what others outsource: raw, unfiltered data. The real question isn't whether they'll scale—it's whether the market will accept their uncompromising vision of search intelligence.

What tech stack does Ahrefs use?

23 detected
Video1
Security1
Cloud & Hosting1
Privacy & Consent1
Analytics & Marketing1
Web Standards2
Build Tools1
UI Libraries1
Tracking & Analytics8
F
Facebook Pixel
L
LinkedIn Insight Tag
G
Google Analytics
T
Twitter Pixel
G
Google Tag Manager
C
Cloudflare Insights
J
jsDelivr
A
Analytics Service

How much traffic does Ahrefs get?

Traffic & Engagement

18.9M
Monthly Visits
-7.9%
8.5
Pages/Visit
14:04
Avg. Duration
33%
Bounce Rate
Monthly Traffic Trend-15%
22.2M
Oct 2025
Oct
20.5M
Nov 2025
Nov
18.9M
Dec 2025
Dec

Rankings

#2,774
Global Rank
#1,381
India Rank
Advertising and Marketing
Category

Backlinks & Authority

4.4M
Backlinks
119.2K
Ref. Domains
72
Authority Score
Low
Penalty Risk
Backlinks Trend-4%
4.5M
Jul 2025
Jul
4.6M
Aug 2025
Aug
4.6M
Sep 2025
Sep
4.6M
Oct 2025
Oct
4.6M
Nov 2025
Nov
4.4M
Dec 2025
Dec

Search Traffic

Organic
3.4M
Paid
34.0K

Top Organic Keywords

#1ahrefs
74,000 vol10.0%
#1rewrite
60,500 vol4.8%
#1website traffic checker
60,500 vol4.8%
#1backlink checker
49,500 vol3.9%
#8hdhub4u com
673,000 vol3.4%

Where is Ahrefs's audience located?

🇮🇳India16.3%
🇺🇸United States16.3%
🇵🇰Pakistan6.8%
🇮🇩Indonesia5.2%
🇯🇵Japan4.0%

Device Distribution

Desktop84.7%
Mobile15.3%

What keywords does Ahrefs rank for?

5 keywords
1ahrefs748.6K vol$2.72
2backlink checker329.9K vol
3website traffic checker264.8K vol$1.63
4traffic checker178.4K vol$0.67
5ahrefs traffic checker124.7K vol$0.76

How is Ahrefs's SEO?

Open Graph Image

OG Image preview
og:image

https://static.ahrefs.com/assets/img/og/ahrefs.png?v=2

Meta Tags

title48 chars

Ahrefs—AI Marketing Platform Powered by Big Data

description128 chars

We help marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social – with the largest AI and search databases online.

languageEN

H1 Tags

h1Make your business discoverable—in search, AI, and beyond

Schema Types

Organization

Who works at Ahrefs?

Loading leads...

What do customers think of Ahrefs?

Ahrefs

Ahrefs

1.9
302 reviews
✓ Claimed

Categories

SEO Service#undefinedInternet Marketing Service#undefined

Activity & Engagement

Reply Rate
17.24137931034483%
Avg. Reply Time
9.0 days
Claimed Date
10/19/2020

Contact Information

Address:
16 Raffles Quay #33-03
Singapore, SG

Reviews (20)

Filter by rating:
Adam Bloom
11/17/2025
🇬🇧 United Kingdom3 reviewsOrganicUnverified
Experience date: 11/17/2025
Quinn has been fantastic

Quinn has been fantastic, really supportive and ensured we got the value we needed from the platform!

Andreas
11/14/2025
🇨🇭 Switzerland1 reviewsOrganicUnverified
Experience date: 11/11/2025
The data is accurate and the features…

The data is accurate and the features are plenty, but the interface feels heavy — some reports are hard to understand without experience. The price is high, and it’s not always clear what you’re paying extra for. It works well, but isn’t the easiest or most intuitive tool. Good for experienced SEO users, but beginners may find it difficult to navigate.

Klara Huber
9/20/2025
🇺🇸 United States1 reviewsOrganicUnverified
Experience date: 9/2/2025
Better suited for larger projects than small sites

I’ve used Ahrefs for several years. At first, it felt more accessible, but over time, the pricing has gone up and the value for smaller websites has gone down. The free tools are still suitable for basic research and obtaining an overview, but I’ve recently noticed that the data is less reliable than it used to be. For bigger projects with a proper budget, Ahrefs can still be worth it, but for small sites, the return on investment has definitely declined.

👍 1
Dimitris T
8/26/2025
🇬🇷 Greece6 reviewsOrganicUnverified
Experience date: 8/1/2025
I used to be a happy customer; Not any more.

I used to have a paid subscription for long years and I was happy. Then they changed my plan to a new one, that was inferior to what I had and I couldn't do my job properly any more. I ended up moving to a competitor. My free (now) plan at ahrefs doesn't even let me check a website's DA (their own metric! having me moving to competitor's metrics. Great marketing move!) All that at a time where a competitor is giving life-subscriptions for cheap.

👍 2
Mini Coder
1/13/2026
🇦🇱 Al1 reviewsOrganicUnverified
Experience date: 1/13/2026
Paid $250

Paid $250, got blocked, support is ignoring me

Frequently Asked Questions about Ahrefs

What is Ahrefs's Revenue?
Ahrefs generates approximately $8M in annual revenue. With 60 employees, that's $126,000 per employee.
What does Ahrefs do?
We help marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social – with the largest AI and search databases online.
How fast is Ahrefs growing?
Ahrefs has declined by 7.9% in the last 6 months according to traffic data.
How do people interact with Ahrefs?
When visiting Ahrefs, visitors view an average of 8.5 pages per visit, and spend around 14:04 on the site, and the bounce rate is 33.3%.
How do people find Ahrefs?
15.5M people (82%) visit Ahrefs directly. 3.4M (18%) find them through organic search. 34.0K (0%) come through paid advertising.
Who uses Ahrefs?
Ahrefs's top market is India with 3.1M visitors (16.3%). United States is 2nd with 3.1M (16.3%). Pakistan is 3rd with 1.3M (6.8%).
What technologies does Ahrefs use?
Ahrefs uses 15 technologies across their website including Video, Security, Cloud & Hosting. Key technologies include Wistia, HSTS, Cloudflare.
Who are Ahrefs's competitors?
Ahrefs's main competitors include SEMrush, SpyFu, Serpstat, BrightEdge, Netpeak Software. These companies operate in similar markets and compete for the same customer base.
What do customers think of Ahrefs?
Ahrefs has a Trustpilot score of 1.9 out of 5 (2 stars) based on 302 customer reviews.

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About ahrefs.com

We help marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social – with the largest AI and search databases online.

Company Overview

ahrefs.com
Website
business_and_consumer_services
Industry
#6,120
Global Rank
7.7M
Monthly Visitors
15
Technologies
24+
Employees

Technology Stack

ahrefs.com uses 15 technologies across their website including Wistia, HSTS, Cloudflare, and more.

Video

Wistia

Security

HSTS

Cloud & Hosting

Cloudflare

Privacy & Consent

CookieYes

Advertising

DoubleClick Floodlight, Twitter Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Facebook Pixel

Analytics & Marketing

Google Analytics

Traffic & Audience

7.7M
Monthly Visits
35%
Bounce Rate
6.0
Pages/Visit
6:21
Avg. Duration

ahrefs.com receives approximately 7.7M monthly visitors and ranks #6,120 globally. The website has a bounce rate of 35% with visitors viewing an average of 6.0 pages per visit. Users spend an average of 6:21 on the site.

The majority of ahrefs.com's traffic comes from undefined, undefined, .

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ahrefs.com?
We help marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social – with the largest AI and search databases online.
How much does ahrefs.com cost?
You can view ahrefs.com's pricing and plans on their pricing page. Visit their website for the most up-to-date pricing information.
What technologies does ahrefs.com use?
ahrefs.com uses 15 technologies including Wistia, HSTS, and 9 more. View the full tech stack analysis above.
How do I contact ahrefs.com?
You can contact ahrefs.com via email at [email protected] or through their contact page.
What are ahrefs.com's social media accounts?
ahrefs.com is active on twitter, youtube, facebook, linkedin, instagram. You can find links to all their social media profiles in the social section above.
Is ahrefs.com hiring?
Check ahrefs.com's careers page for current job openings and opportunities. The company has 24+ known employees.
How popular is ahrefs.com?
ahrefs.com receives approximately 7.7M monthly visitors and ranks #6,120 globally. Traffic is declining by 8.5% month-over-month.

Related Searches

ahrefs.com pricingahrefs.com reviewsahrefs.com alternativesahrefs.com loginahrefs.com careerswhat is ahrefs.comahrefs.com tech stackahrefs.com contactahrefs.com vs competitorsahrefs.com featureshow to use ahrefs.comahrefs.com integrations

This page provides publicly available information about ahrefs.com. Data is collected from various public sources and may not always be up to date. For the most accurate information, please visit ahrefs.com directly at https://ahrefs.com.