Ahrefs

We apologize for this inconvenience, Shir!  The pay-as-you-go charges (PAYG) are signaled under "Pricing additions" (https://ahrefs.com/pricing) and Terms & Conditions (https://ahrefs.com/terms), which you've initially agreed to when signing up. You can also follow the credit consumption in real-time from the credit counter next to your account name, right within the app.  From what you're saying, you must have left the automatic charges for overuse ON - a practice we've discontinued. Unfortunately, we can't refund for already consumed credits.  To further control how many credits each user can consume and disable PAYG charges, please go to Account Settings > Limits & Usage > Set max. limits: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6317047-how-to-control-credits-usage.

Apologies, Kujtim! Under the new pricing, credits can be used in all tools - except Site Audit & Rank Tracker which have their own limits. As for the toolbar, please note that the toolbar consumes export rows (not actual credits). We've changed that in our documentation so it's not confusing anymore - thank you for the heads-up. If you have further questions, please write us at [email protected].

We're sorry to hear about your experience, Mike.  We actually notify you about the pay-per-use on our pricing page under "Pricing additions" (https://ahrefs.com/pricing) and Terms & Conditions (https://ahrefs.com/terms). However, we are aware people might skip them, so we feature the credit usage also in-app under a credit counter (next to your account name) and a special area under Account Settings (Limits & Usage). Moreover, we no longer automatically charge our customers for overuse. As such, they can control how many credits each user can consume and enable additional credits on their own. It is also possible to disable Pay-As-You-Go charges in case you don't want to pay anything extra.  Should you have further pricing-related questions, please write us at [email protected].

We're sorry to hear the new pricing is not working for you, Marcus!  To be clear, the monthly fee includes 500 credits that can be used in all tools (except Site Audit and Rank Tracker, which have their own limits). If you go over this limit, you can purchase additional credits. But we don't auto-charge you for them.  Should you have further questions, please write us at [email protected].

Thank you for sharing your opinion, Bharat Taxi. We took the decision to change our pricing model after we thoroughly studied the actual usage data. Based on it, we discovered that 80% of our paying customers wouldn't be affected by it. Hence, we went for a pricing model that motivates people to pay more for the features they get value from. We agree though that this might not work for everyone and apologize for that. Should you have any further questions, please reach us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help.

Thank you for the kind words, Henderson! For people who're just starting out with SEO or are solopreneurs, we already have a free plan that allows them to check their website's SEO health and SEO performance - it's called Ahrefs Webmasters Tools: https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools But I hear you and have forwarded the feedback to team, thank you! :)

Sorry to see you disappointed!  Contrary to popular belief, we did not "sneak in" our new pricing policy. In fact, we were as transparent as possible, announcing the introduction of new plans and credit system in advance, updating the new changes on our pricing page, help page, and also in-app in several places (like the initial sign up pop-up, the live counter next to your account's name, and the Limits & usage > Set max limits area).  At the same time, we do understand that the new credits system might not be fit for everyone. We are again sorry for that. Update: Hi Andrew, this review was not flagged for removal. Requesting the email associated with the account for internal review is not the same as flagging your review for removal. Thanks for understanding!

We're very sorry to see you leaving, Angela! Especially since you've been with us for so long.  As a legacy user, you have access to 6 million rows per month to be spent in Site Explorer. To clarify, under the legacy plan, rows per month get deducted accordingly whenever you access a new report, depending on how much data is loaded in the graphs. For example, Overview spends the most rows per month (around 1k-5k).  I agree we did communicate incorrectly at first that rows per month for the same report get consumed only once per week, when in reality they get consumed every 10-15 minutes. We apologize for the confusion, and if there's anything we can do to improve our customer experience going forward, we would gladly welcome your feedback at [email protected]. Kind regards, Andrei

Sorry to hear about your disappointment, Alex! Our new pricing is modeled after average usage data. Prior to this, we studied the usage patterns of our paying customers and designed it in such a way where 80%+ of them were barely affected. While the remaining 20% were affected to a varying degree, based on how much they use the platform. We state the report credit allowances on our pricing page and ToC, as well as in-app through a pop-up, live counter, and a special area under Account Settings (called Limits & usage). Although we agree that they could be more explicitly stated on our pricing page, which is something we're working on. As for comparing data among us and SEMrush, please be aware that we have one of the most active crawlers on the Internet (AhrefsBot is on #6, while semrush bot on #82) according to CloudflareRadar (https://radar.cloudflare.com/verified-bots), the largest index of live backlinks, and are often cited as the most accurate sources in studies conducted by 3rd parties (https://www.authorityhacker.com/traffic-estimates-accuracy/). We respect your decision though. Thank you at the same time for your interest in Ahrefs!

Hi Geoff. Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I believe there's a confusion. Grandfathered users can keep their accounts and benefit from the old tool-based limits as long as they don't interrupt them. You signed up fresh, which qualifies you to the new pricing plans. The new Calendar report does exactly the same the Movements did, plus it has some very handy filtering options and a calendar UI. If you still have any questions on the new pricing and limits, please contact our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

We're sorry to see that you're no longer a happy customer - this is probably in relation to the new pricing.  Please be aware that we didn't enforce the new pricing plans to grandfathered users, they only apply to new subscriptions.  If you have any other questions regards the new pricing, please contact us at [email protected] and one of our support reps will be glad to help.

Hi Josh. Really sorry to hear that you're no longer a happy customer. Please be aware that before the new pricing rollout (the first major one since 2015), we studied the usage patterns of our paying customers. Upon our findings, we designed it in such a way where 80%+ of them were barely affected. While the remaining 20% were affected to a varying degree, based on how much they use the platform. Actually, based on last month's data, only 17.4% of the accounts on the new plans used extra reports. It's been only a few months since we've launched it and 30% of our paying customers are already on it. Also, we didn't force any existing customers into buying the new plans. I hope these facts help you understand that we made this decision based on data and not ad-hoc, as most might think. Nevertheless, we're really sorry to see you going!

Sorry to hear about your experience :( Could you tell us which parts of the app were slow, please? We agree that in the past few months, Ahrefs had more downtimes than it should. Fixing them is our #1 priority. As for the "awkward design", we give our best to explain each feature with in-app video explainers, legends, and tooltips (aside from our help page, Ahrefs Academy, and YouTube videos). May we know which parts felt awkward? Thank you!

Mitchell, I believe there's a small confusion - allow us to clarify! We've checked your Ahrefs account and you are still on the old legacy Standard plan. Your invoice ($274.85) includes the subscription price ($179) + 2 user seats ($60) + VAT ($35.85). The new pricing applies only to new subscribers and grandfathered users who want to upgrade. Please write us at [email protected] if you have further billing questions. Thank you!

Hi Nonn! Thank you for sharing your feedback with us, even more since it's a not so pleasant one. We fully admit that in the past few months we were having more glitches than we should. Fixing them is our #1 priority. According to CloudFlare Radar (https://radar.cloudflare.com/verified-bots), Ahrefs runs the 5th most active web crawler in the world. This comes with a lot of technical challenges, but nevertheless, platform uptime is our main focus. Would you mind telling us in which reports did you experience prolonged loading times? This helps us understand where to priporitize our troubleshooting efforts. Apologies again for the inconvenience caused.

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review, Kyle.  Most of our negative reviews on TrustPilot concern the recent price increase (first one since 2015 btw), which are quite hard to address since price increases are rarely welcome. Let us share some facts instead.  We studied the usage patterns of our paying customers and we designed the pricing in such a way where 80%+ of them were barely affected. While the remaining 20% were affected to a varying degree, based on how much they use the platform. From what you're telling us, it seems like you would be a pro-user from the last category. We also didn’t force any of our existing customers to move to new pricing. It was rolled out for new signups only.  On this note, I would encourage you to continue your conversation with our support team (which has already contacted you) and not base your thoughts on previous responses (some of which have specific contexts and some of which were not handled to the best of our degree - we sincerely apologize for that!).

Much appreciated, Shontelle! Thank you for your honest feedback ^^

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review, Jessica :) Indeed. Whether you're a new or old customer, we don't run one-off discounts or seasonal specials. However, we do offer almost 20% off all annual billing. You could see the difference in pricing here: https://app.ahrefs.com/pricing

Hi Malcolm. I'm sorry that you are not happy with our new pricing model. For Ahrefs, in general, it allows to keep price lower for light users while people who use and benefit from service more pay more. Checking the Dashboard for your website's overall SEO metrics shouldn't consume report credits, unless you click on them and further access reports. Same goes for the Site Audit and Rank Tracker tools (which have their own limits). More on report credits on our help page: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6061658-about-reports-and-export-rows The free plan also follows the same report credit system. If you have any further questions about how report credits work, please write us at [email protected] and one of our colleagues will gladly help.

Hi Nick! Really sorry to hear that you're no longer a happy customer. With the old plans, each tool had its own set of limits, such as "Reports per week" in Keywords Explorer. Since launching the new plans, we've removed such limits and applied a single limit called report credits, which can be used interchangeably in all tools. This doesn't mean each click consumes report credits. For example, you don't consume report credits when using the Site Audit and Rank Tracker tools, they have their own limits. You can read more about report usage on our help page: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6061658-about-reports-and-export-rows As for the new pricing changes, they're not only available on our T&C and pricing page (https://ahrefs.com/pricing), but also in-app. You have a dedicated live Report usage counter (right next to your Account's name) and a Limits & usage page (under Account settings) where you can limit the report credits to prevent overcharges. We sincerely apologize that the communication on this hasn't been the best. That's why we decided to also inform all new subscribers about the new pricing model with a more visible pop-up that shows up once they first access the Dashboard. To dismiss it, you will have to read it and click the "I understand and agree" button. Thank you again for your feedback!