Free Ahrefs alternatives for backlinks and keywords
Free Ahrefs alternatives with their real limits: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, Search Console, Bing's backlink tool, Moz Link Explorer and Semrush's free plan, compared.
The best free Ahrefs alternative for your own website is Ahrefs itself: its free tier, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, gives you site audits and backlink data for any site you can verify. For competitors, no free tool replaces Ahrefs, but three come close enough for an occasional look: Bing Webmaster Tools' backlink comparison, Moz Link Explorer and Semrush's free plan.
Everything below is free, with the limits each vendor publishes, read on 4 October 2026. Paid tools that cost less than Ahrefs are on the Ahrefs alternatives page.
Free Ahrefs alternatives compared
| Tool | Your own site | Competitors | Free limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | Yes | No | 1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once |
| Ahrefs free tools | Yes | Yes | Single searches, a preview of the data |
| Google Search Console | Yes | No | A sample, tables up to 1,000 rows |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Yes | Up to 2 other sites | Top 500 referring domains per site compared |
| Moz Link Explorer | Yes | Yes | 10 queries a month |
| Semrush free plan | Yes | Yes | 10 backlink reports a day |
| Ubersuggest free account | Yes | Yes | Unpublished daily cap |
Backlinks to your own site
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs' free tier works on an unlimited number of verified sites. Each gets 5,000 crawl credits a month for site audits, and Site Explorer shows up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords at once. The tools and data are the same as the paid product; the allowances are smaller (Ahrefs Webmaster Tools).
Best at: your own backlink profile and technical health, from the same index paying customers use.
Limits: verified sites only. In Ahrefs' own words, its paid plans are what let you "analyze competing websites".
Google Search Console
The Links report shows your top linked pages, the sites that link to you most and the most common link text. Google says it is "a sample of internal and external links" and "isn't a comprehensive list", and its tables stop at 1,000 rows (Google's Links report help).
Best at: knowing which links Google itself has seen.
Limits: no dates, no lost links, no competitors.
Bing Webmaster Tools
For your own site, Bing's backlinks report lists up to 1,500 linking domains with up to 10,000 backlinks each, and up to 100,000 linking pages, all exportable. Bing describes the data as "a representative set of links", not a complete profile.
Best at: a second search engine's view of your links, with generous export limits.
Limits: like Google's, it is a sample.
Competitors' backlinks, free
Bing Webmaster Tools' comparison
This is the most underused free backlink tool. Once you have verified your own site, Bing lets you compare your backlink profile with up to two other sites. You see each site's total referring domains and anchor texts, the top 10 of each, and can filter to domains that link to them but not to you. Bing builds the comparison from each site's top 500 referring domains and shows up to 100 referring pages per domain (Bing's backlinks help).
Best at: finding the sites that link to two competitors and not to you, for nothing.
Limits: two competitors at a time, top 500 domains only, and you must have a verified site of your own.
Moz Link Explorer
A free Moz account gets 10 Link Explorer queries a month. Each shows Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score, linking domains, anchor text, top pages, follow and nofollow counts, recently found and lost linking domains, and the competitor backlinks you are missing (Moz Link Explorer).
Best at: a monthly check on two or three competitors.
Limits: 10 queries is the whole month.
Semrush's free plan
Semrush's free plan includes 10 backlink reports a day, alongside 10 a day each for keyword and competitor research.
Best at: a daily allowance rather than a monthly one, so it suits small, frequent checks.
Limits: 10 a day runs out quickly when you compare several competitors, and you need an account.
Ahrefs' free single-search tools
Ahrefs' free backlink checker works on any site and is, in Ahrefs' words, "a glimpse into the power of our premium tool": a limited preview rather than the full list. Its free website authority checker and broken link checker work on any site too.
Best at: checking one competitor's link strength with the same data the paid product uses.
Limits: a preview only, one search at a time.
Ubersuggest's free account
Ubersuggest includes backlink data and offers a free account with a daily cap on searches that its pricing page does not quantify.
Best at: an extra lookup once the others are used up.
Limits: a cap you cannot plan around, because it is not published.
Keyword research without Ahrefs
Ahrefs' free keyword generator suggests keyword ideas for Google, Bing, YouTube and Amazon from a seed term.
Google Keyword Planner gives Google's own volume estimates, though you need a Google Ads account with billing set up, and answers on Google's Ads community forum describe low-spend accounts seeing ranges rather than exact volumes.
Bing Webmaster Tools' keyword research gives search volumes from Bing's data.
Search Console shows the queries you already appear for, which is the best keyword list you will ever get for your own site.
A free competitor backlink routine
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and add your two closest competitors to the backlink comparison.
- Filter to domains that do not link to you. Export the list.
- Run each competitor through Moz Link Explorer once a month and note new and lost linking domains.
- Spend your 10 Semrush reports a day on the competitors that changed.
- Keep a sheet of every linking domain you find, with the date.
The competitor backlink analysis guide covers what to do with the list once you have it.
What you give up by not paying
The complete index, link history, alerts on new and lost links, and the ability to look up any competitor as often as you like. If backlinks are your job, the free route costs more in hours than Ahrefs costs in money. If you check links once a month, the free tools are plenty.
Which to use
- Your own links and site health: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, with Search Console and Bing as second opinions.
- Links your competitors have and you do not: Bing Webmaster Tools' comparison.
- A monthly look at a few competitors: Moz Link Explorer.
- Small daily checks: Semrush's free plan.
- One quick look at any site: Ahrefs' free backlink checker.
- Keyword ideas: Ahrefs' keyword generator and Keyword Planner. For the rest of Semrush's toolkit, see free Semrush alternatives.
Questions people ask
Is there a free version of Ahrefs?
Yes. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which Ahrefs now calls Ahrefs Free, gives site audits and backlink and keyword data for websites you verify, and Ahrefs also runs free single-search tools such as its backlink checker and keyword generator.
Can I see a competitor's backlinks for free?
Partly. Bing Webmaster Tools compares your links with up to two other sites, Moz Link Explorer gives 10 free queries a month, and Semrush's free plan allows 10 backlink reports a day. None of them gives a competitor's complete list.
Why do backlink counts differ so much between tools?
Each company crawls the web separately and keeps a different index, and none is complete. Bing even describes its own data as a representative set rather than a full profile. Compare numbers within one tool, never across tools.
Is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools really free?
Yes, for any number of sites you can prove you own. The catch is that it only works on those verified sites, so it cannot be used for competitor research.
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