Side-by-side comparison · SEO & Analytics
Ahrefs vs Clearscope vs Frase
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Marketers and business owners who want to see what competitors rank for and find keywords worth chasing.
Pick it if: Content teams and agencies publishing SEO articles every week who want writers to hit a clear quality bar.
Pick it if: Small marketing teams, freelancers and agencies who write SEO content and want research, briefs and drafts in one place.
Ahrefs scores highest overall, but Frase gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Keyword research, backlink checks and site audits in one toolkit. | Grades your content against what ranks and tracks whether AI search mentions you. | Researches, briefs and drafts SEO articles, and tracks if AI search cites you. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $29/mo | $129/mo | $49/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.4Winner | 3.9 | 4.0 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Mobile app | No | – | – |
| Desktop app | No | – | – |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | – |
| API access | Yes | – | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | – | – |
| Understands images | No | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | No | No |
| Runs agents or automations | No | – | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | – | Yes |
| Works in many languages | Yes | – | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 3/ 17 | 7/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Ahrefs Free Free Checking the health and backlinks of a site you own. | EssentialsOur pick $129/mo Small content teams publishing weekly. | Starter $49/mo, or $39/mo billed yearly One person writing a few articles a month. |
Starter $29/mo Occasional keyword research on a tight budget. | Business $399/mo Larger teams and agencies. | ProfessionalOur pick $129/mo, or $103/mo billed yearly Small teams publishing weekly. | |
LiteOur pick $129/mo A business doing its own SEO seriously. | Enterprise Custom Big publishers with security needs. | Scale $299/mo, or $239/mo billed yearly Agencies running several sites. | |
Standard $249/mo Freelancers and small agencies. | Enterprise Custom Large teams needing white-label and SSO. | ||
Advanced $449/mo Agencies and in-house teams with many sites. | |||
Enterprise $1,499/mo billed yearly Large companies that need SSO and unlimited data. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Start on Ahrefs Free to audit your own site. If you want to research competitors and keywords every week, go straight to Lite; the Starter plan's credits run out too quickly to be useful for more than the odd lookup. Each plan includes one user, and extra seats cost $40 to $80 a month. | Essentials is enough for most teams; buy extra pages or drafts as add-ons before jumping to Business. Use the 14-day trial on real articles to see if the grades change your results. | Professional is the plan most teams settle on, because Starter's 10 articles a month runs out quickly. Try the 7-day trial on two or three real articles before paying. |
Key features
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standout features |
|
|
|
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
|
Who each one is for
| Attribute | Ahrefs | Clearscope | Frase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
|
|
|
| You'll find it used by |
|
|
|
Questions people ask
Which is better, Ahrefs, Clearscope or Frase?
Ahrefs scores highest overall in our ratings (Ahrefs 4.4/5, Clearscope 3.9/5 and Frase 4.0/5). Ahrefs is best for keyword research and competitor traffic estimates. Clearscope is best for making sure articles cover a topic fully and keeping a team of writers consistent. Frase is best for Building SEO content briefs fast and drafting articles from a brief.
Which is cheaper, Ahrefs, Clearscope or Frase?
Ahrefs: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $29/mo. Clearscope: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $129/mo. Frase: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $49/mo.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
Swap in another tool
More tools from SEO & Analytics in the library.
