If you also do SEO, yes: backlinks, site audits and rank tracking justify Ahrefs. If you mostly pick ad keywords, you pay for a suite you will barely use. Google Keyword Planner gives you volumes and CPC ranges for free, and Should I Bid reads the live Google results to tell you, keyword by keyword, whether to bid, test or skip.
Key takeaway: If SEO does not fill your week, do not pay for an SEO suite just to pick ad keywords: take the free volumes from Keyword Planner and only pay for clicks on keywords that can bring buyers for your offer.
We used the test that matters to an advertiser who mostly runs Google Ads: does a keyword attract buyers for what they sell? Deciding what to pay for and finding ideas with their volumes and CPCs count double in the grid, because that is the work of preparing a campaign. Competitors' ads, SEO and the option to start for free count once: for this reader, SEO is a bonus.
The facts come from each vendor's official pages, read on the date shown under this block. We read every tool's pricing and feature pages. We did not open a paid account with each one, test the tools side by side on the same Google Ads account, or compare how accurate their volumes are. A low score means a feature is missing or secondary in what the vendor presents.
Should I Bid is our tool, scored on the same criteria as the others. It clearly loses on keyword research and SEO, because it does not do that work, and Google Keyword Planner beats it on being free. Ahrefs has no row in the grid: it is the tool you are thinking of leaving, compared row by row in the head-to-head table.
Prices checked on the vendors’ official pricing pages on .
| Tool | Deciding what to pay for | Ideas, volumes and CPC | Competitors' ads | Full SEO | Start without paying | Total /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3.9 |
| SpyFu | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3.0 |
| SE Ranking | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3.0 |
| Should I Bid (our tool) | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 |
| Google Keyword Planner | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2.7 |
| Mangools | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2.7 |
| WordStream Free Keyword Tool | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2.4 |
Each tool gets a score from 1 to 5 on five criteria. ‘Deciding what to pay for’ (intent qualification, verdict, negative keywords, Google Ads export) and ‘Ideas, volumes and CPC’ count double, because that is the work of preparing a campaign. Competitors' ads, full SEO and the option to start for free count once. Scores are an editorial assessment based on each vendor's official pages; Ahrefs, the benchmark, is not scored.
| Should I Bid | Ahrefs | |
|---|---|---|
| Bid verdict per keyword, based on your offer | ✓ Bid, Test or Skip, with a score out of 100, from today's SERP | ✗ Search intent filters from the Standard plan up, with no bid verdict for your offer |
| Keyword research | ~ Vision suggests ideas from a product or URL, then analyzes them; no volume database | ✓ Keyword database with volumes and difficulty |
| Competitors' ads | ✓ Competitors module: advertisers seen on your analyzed keywords, ad copy, landing pages, ads on your brand | ✓ ‘Paid keywords’ and ‘Ads’ reports on competitors |
| Negative keywords and Google Ads export | ✓ Recommended exclusions with each analysis, exact-match CSV | ✗ No lists ready to import into Google Ads |
| SEO: backlinks, rank tracking, site audit | ✗ Not covered | ✓ Market reference for backlinks, with site audits and rank tracking |
| Pricing model | 5 free analyses to try, with no credit card, then a no-commitment subscription paid in credits (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed) | Subscription (limited Starter, Lite, then Standard for intent filters), Ahrefs Free for your own site |
There is no best alternative in the abstract. Start from what you are missing in Ahrefs: each tool below answers a different need.
What you are missing: Deciding before you pay for the click
Price: Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page.
Verified on · Details and source
Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Official volumes and CPC ranges, for free
Price: Free
Verified on · Details and source
Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Combining SEO and paid search in one suite
Price: from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Your competitors' ad history
Price: from $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Rank tracking and agency reporting
Price: from $129/mo ($103.20/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: SEO keyword research with CPC data (KWFinder)
Price: from €61/mo (€37.70/mo billed annually)
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Getting a free keyword list in seconds
Price: Free
Verified on · Details and source
Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: SEO keyword research and rank tracking
Price: from $49/mo
Verified on · Details and source
Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
What you are missing: Keyword ideas and basic SEO
Price: from $29/mo
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Take it if you need:
Skip it if you expect it to deliver:
Should I Bid serves one decision: whether to pay to show up on a keyword. It reads the live SERP, ads included, weighs it against what your company sells and returns a verdict with a score. Vision suggests the ideas, Competitors shows who already bids, and you leave with exclusions and a CSV ready for Google Ads.
Ahrefs is a full SEO suite: backlinks, keyword research with volumes and difficulty, site audits and rank tracking. For paid search, it adds intent filters (Standard plan and up), reports on competitors' paid keywords and ads, and a free ad copy generator. The bid decision is still yours to make.
If SEO is a real part of your job, yes; if you mostly build campaigns, rarely. Ahrefs is an SEO suite first, sold as a subscription: most of what you pay for goes into backlinks, site audits and rank tracking. To pick ad keywords, you only use a small slice of the tool. According to its pricing page, the search intent filter only comes with the Standard plan and up, and Ahrefs Free is limited to your own site.
The question you are really asking is often narrower: is this keyword worth paying clicks for? That is the question Should I Bid's intent analysis answers, and you can try it with 5 free analyses, no credit card. Volumes, on the other hand, are free in Google Keyword Planner. Here is our take by profile.
Ahrefs is not organic-only: several of its pieces feed a paid campaign. Its keyword research gives you ideas, volumes, a difficulty score and, from the Standard plan up, search intent filters. Its ‘Paid keywords’ and ‘Ads’ reports show which keywords your competitors buy ads on, and with which copy. It also offers a free Google Ads copy generator.
Ahrefs does not tell you whether a keyword deserves a bid for what you sell. An intent filter classifies a query as commercial or informational in general. It knows nothing about your offer, your price or your landing page. Ahrefs does not produce lists ready to import into Google Ads either. Between the raw list and the campaign, the sorting is still on you: does this keyword bring a buyer for your product, or a browser, a student, a job seeker?
That sorting is where budget leaks. A high-volume keyword can burn clicks with no buying intent behind them. If you keep Ahrefs for your campaigns, our guide to Ahrefs for Google Ads shows how to read its volumes, difficulty and ad reports the way an advertiser would.
For campaign prep, the free baseline is still Google Keyword Planner. Inside your Google Ads account, it gives you keyword ideas, search volumes, CPC ranges and campaign forecasts. Without active spend on the account, volumes show as ranges. It does not read the real SERP and does not qualify intent. We compare it in detail in our Keyword Planner alternatives.
WordStream Free Keyword Tool gives you a first free list in seconds. On WordStream's free keyword tool page, you start from a keyword or a URL; it shows volume, competition and a top-of-page bid range, with industry and location filters. The first 25 keywords show on screen; the full list comes as a CSV you can upload to Google Ads, in exchange for an email address. Its data comes from Google's API: it does not read the SERP.
SpyFu is the specialist for your competitors' ads. It shows their PPC keywords and ads, with more than 10 years of history from the “Pro + AI” plan up, and its Google Ads Advisor suggests keywords from competitors' bidding history. It also recommends negative keywords and offers pre-built Google Ads campaigns on its higher plans. It does not judge today's SERP against your offer. More in our SpyFu alternatives.
Semrush fits if you want to combine SEO and paid search in one suite. It labels the intent of each keyword and covers full SEO. For paid search, a separate Advertising toolkit with its own plan shows competitors’ paid keywords and ads, plus their ad history. Like Ahrefs, it gives no bid verdict for your offer.
Should I Bid makes the call these tools leave to you. You start from your own keywords, or the ones Vision generates from a product or URL. For each one, the analysis reads the live Google SERP, ads included, then an AI reads the pages that rank and weighs it all against your business. The score blends intent fit (40%), purchase readiness (30%), competitive signal (15%) and the commercial signal of the results page (15%), plus an alignment bonus of up to 15 points. At 70 or above: Bid; from 50 to 69: Test; below 50: Skip (scoring method).
To see who already buys your searches, the Competitors module costs no credits to browse. It shows the advertisers seen on your keywords you have analyzed, a profile of any domain with its ads and landing pages, and the ads on searches that contain your brand. These are real ads captured on the Google pages Should I Bid reads, each observation dated. For several years of history, SpyFu goes further.
Volume ranks searches; it does not tell you which ones deserve a paid click. As an illustration, take a young US company selling online booking software for hair salons, with no free plan. In Ahrefs, four searches show up with volume: ‘salon booking software’, ‘free salon scheduling app’, ‘how to manage salon appointments’ and ‘hair appointment app’.
Each results page changes the decision. If ‘salon booking software’ shows ads from software vendors and review roundups, the intent is commercial and matches the offer: it is a bid candidate. ‘Free salon scheduling app’ draws people who will not pay; with no free plan, you skip it and add ‘free’ as a negative keyword.
A search that mostly returns advice articles belongs to content. That is the case for ‘how to manage salon appointments’: an article answers it better than an ad. That leaves ‘hair appointment app’, which mixes customers trying to book a haircut with salon owners looking for a tool. That is the classic keyword to test on a small budget while you watch the search terms.
Should I Bid applies this reasoning to every keyword on a list, by reading the real Google page. These calls are an illustration: real verdicts depend on the day’s SERP and on your offer. The full method is in our guide on deciding whether to bid on a keyword.
If SEO is your main need, Should I Bid is not your tool. Here are five suites, described from their official pages; their verified prices are in the table below. None of them gives a bid verdict per keyword based on your offer, and Should I Bid works alongside each one.
Two of them have their own comparison on this site. Semrush is covered in our Semrush alternatives, Mangools in our Mangools alternative for Google Ads.
Should I Bid does not do backlinks, organic rank tracking or technical SEO audits. If those tasks fill your week, Ahrefs is still the right tool, and we do not claim to replace it.
It is not a keyword database to browse by volume either. Vision generates ideas from what you sell, then sends them to analysis. For volumes and CPC ranges, keep Google Keyword Planner alongside it.
A Bid verdict is a starting point. Real conversions, cost per acquisition and lead quality confirm or correct the call. The Competitors module shows real ads captured on the Google pages Should I Bid has read, refreshed with each new analysis: neither an estimate nor real time. The tool stays easy to use, because an AI reads the SERP and the pages that rank on it for you.
Its entry price: from $29/mo
Verified on
What it does not do:
On price: Limited “Starter” plan at $29 per month, “Lite” plan at $129 per month. “Search intents” filter from the “Standard” plan ($249 per month). Free tier (Ahrefs Free) for your own site.
Choose Should I Bid if you mostly pick ad keywords and want to know, before paying for a single click, which ones bring buyers for your offer. Exclusions, the CSV export for Google Ads and advertiser monitoring come with it.
Stick with Ahrefs if SEO is part of your job: backlinks, site audits and rank tracking justify the subscription, and its reports on competitors' ads cover your paid needs.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| Ahrefs | from $29/mo | Limited “Starter” plan at $29 per month, “Lite” plan at $129 per month. “Search intents” filter from the “Standard” plan ($249 per month). Free tier (Ahrefs Free) for your own site. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. Google requires entering billing information and completing account setup to access keyword ideas. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan with no credit card. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
| SpyFu | from $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: $39 per month billed monthly, $29 per month billed annually. “Pro + AI”: $59 the first month, then $119 per month ($89 annually). 30-day guarantee. | Source |
| SE Ranking | from $129/mo ($103.20/mo billed annually) | “Core” plan: $129 per month billed monthly, $103.20 per month billed annually. 14-day trial, no card. | Source |
| Mangools | from €61/mo (€37.70/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: €61 per month billed monthly, €37.70 per month billed annually (€452.40 per year). Premium €81, Agency €141 per month billed monthly. 48-hour money-back guarantee. | Source |
| WordStream Free Keyword Tool | Free | Free: first 25 keywords on screen, full list as a CSV in exchange for an email address, unlimited searches. | Source |
| Moz Pro | from $49/mo | Entry-level plan at $49 per month (single site). “Standard” plan: $99 per month billed monthly, $79 per month billed annually; Medium $179, Large $299 per month. Free trial. A promotion was shown on the day of the check: prices to be rechecked. | Source |
| Ubersuggest | from $29/mo | Three plans at $29, $49 and $99 per month billed monthly; $192, $326 and $657 per year billed annually (“5 months free” offer shown); lifetime access at $290, $490 and $990. 7-day trial on monthly plans. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
Rarely, if that is your only use. Ahrefs is an SEO suite: the subscription mostly pays for backlinks, site audits and rank tracking. To prepare campaigns, you only use keyword research and the reports on competitors' ads. Google Keyword Planner, free with a Google Ads account, covers volumes and CPC ranges. What is left is the bid decision per keyword, which Should I Bid makes from today's SERP.
It depends on the step. For free volumes and CPC ranges, Google Keyword Planner. To study competitors' ads over several years, SpyFu. For one suite covering SEO and paid search, Semrush and its Advertising toolkit. To decide which keywords deserve a bid for your offer, Should I Bid, which reads today's SERP and returns Bid, Test or Skip. Many advertisers combine a free tool with a decision step.
Ahrefs is a subscription. According to its pricing page, there is a limited Starter plan, then the Lite plan; the search intent filter only comes with the Standard plan and up. Ahrefs Free covers your own site. The amounts we recorded, with their date, are in the verified prices table on this page; the official page prevails. Should I Bid works per credit: 1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed.
Yes, for research. Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account: ideas, volumes, CPC ranges and forecasts. WordStream Free Keyword Tool gives you a free list, with the full CSV in exchange for an email address. Ahrefs Free is limited to your own site. None of these free tools reads the SERP to qualify intent. Should I Bid offers 5 free analyses to try, with no credit card, then no-commitment subscriptions paid in credits.
Not directly. Ahrefs gives you keyword ideas, volumes, difficulty, intent filters from the Standard plan up, and reports on competitors' ads. A filter classifies the query in general, without knowing your offer, and Ahrefs gives no bid verdict per keyword. Should I Bid does that work: it reads today's SERP, weighs it against what you sell and returns Bid, Test or Skip, with a score out of 100.
Semrush is an all-in-one SEO and paid search suite, Ahrefs an SEO suite, and neither gives a bid verdict per keyword based on your offer. On the paid side, Semrush shows an intent label per keyword and sells a separate Advertising toolkit; Ahrefs has intent filters from the Standard plan up and its ‘Paid keywords’ and ‘Ads’ reports. Our Semrush alternatives page covers these points.
For SEO, no: Should I Bid does not do backlinks, organic rank tracking or technical SEO audits. It covers paid search: keyword ideas with Vision, a bid verdict per keyword from the live SERP, advertiser monitoring, exclusions and a CSV export for Google Ads. If you do both jobs, keep Ahrefs for SEO and use Should I Bid to decide your bids.