European Alternatives to Ahrefs
Looking for a European alternative to Ahrefs? Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore company whose terms are governed by Singapore law, with disputes going to binding arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre unless you opt out within 30 days, and Singapore is outside the EU and the EEA.
Eleven European tools cover the keyword, backlink, rank-tracking and audit work, from companies in Slovakia, Germany, Romania, France and the United Kingdom, as all-in-one suites, backlink indexes and specialist trackers.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
-
1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and processes customer data in Europe. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
-
2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
-
3
Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
-
4
Position on this page
Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. It never buys a good review: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a vendor. Paid placement can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. Editorial policy
11 European Alternatives to Ahrefs
Mangools
Bratislava toolset: keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking and backlinks, with simple screens
Seobility
German all-in-one SEO suite with a permanent free plan and published euro prices
Sistrix
Bonn visibility and research platform with euro prices on its site and a 14-day trial
XOVI
Cologne SEO suite with rank tracking, backlinks and audits, and a free trial
cognitiveSEO
Iasi suite with backlink analysis, site audit, rank tracking and penalty diagnostics
Majestic
Birmingham backlink index with Trust Flow and Citation Flow, English law
Babbar
French backlink analysis with its own Authority Score and a free trial
PageRangers
Cologne modular SEO, content and AI-visibility suites with a free trial
Screaming Frog
Desktop site crawler with a free version up to 500 URLs, running on your own machine
Advanced Web Ranking
Bucharest rank tracker with published monthly prices and a 30-day money-back guarantee
OnCrawl
Bordeaux technical SEO platform that joins crawl data with server logs
Key takeaways
- Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore company whose terms use Singapore law and SIAC arbitration, with an opt-out to the Singapore courts within 30 days.
- Ahrefs publishes a free tier for verified sites, with 5,000 crawl credits a month and 1,000 backlinks or keywords visible at once, so a no-cost start is not unique to the European tools.
- Mangools (Bratislava) is the lightest replacement, with keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking and backlinks in separate, simple tools.
- Seobility (Germany) has a permanent free plan and published euro prices, and Sistrix bills in euros with a 14-day trial.
- Majestic (England) and Babbar (France) are backlink indexes, so they replace one part of Ahrefs, not all of it.
- None of the eleven is a copy of Ahrefs, and index sizes quoted by the vendors are their own claims.
Why people leave Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the SEO toolset many marketers open first to see who links to a site, which keywords it ranks for and how a competitor is doing. Its free Webmaster Tools give verified site owners web analytics, a site audit and a limited view of their own backlinks and keywords, and the paid plans add competitor research, rank tracking and more.
It is run by Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, and that is the contracting party for customers in Europe too.
- Your contract is with a Singapore company under Singapore law Ahrefs' terms name Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., 16 Raffles Quay, Singapore, and state that they are governed by the laws of the Republic of Singapore. If you want a counterparty inside the EU, EEA or the UK, with your own country's law, that is not what you get here.
- Disputes go to arbitration in Singapore The terms send disputes to binding arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, seated in Singapore, with one arbitrator and English as the language. You can opt out within 30 days, and then the courts of Singapore have exclusive jurisdiction. Either way, the forum is not in Europe.
- Data protection runs on transfer clauses, not an adequacy decision Ahrefs' privacy policy says personal data is stored in the United States, and it relies on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers. Its data processing addendum uses SCC modules 2 and 3, is governed by Singapore law and gives the Singapore courts exclusive jurisdiction. Singapore is not on Ahrefs' own list of adequate countries. Many companies accept this with the clauses in place; if you want to avoid the transfer assessment entirely, the tools below are the way.
- The European answers are specialists as often as suites Ahrefs bundles research, backlinks, tracking and audits. Some European tools do the same (Mangools, Seobility, XOVI, cognitiveSEO), while others do one part very well (Majestic and Babbar for links, Screaming Frog and OnCrawl for crawling, Advanced Web Ranking for tracking). Decide which part of Ahrefs you actually open before you choose.
What you have to replace, not just match
Write down what you use Ahrefs for in a normal month: checking a competitor's links, finding keywords, tracking ten or a few thousand positions, or running a crawl. If it is mostly keyword research and a few rank checks, a lighter suite is enough. If it is link research on large sites, a backlink index is the part to replace first.
Export what you can before you cancel, such as tracked keyword lists and reports, because history inside a tool does not move to another one. Run the new tool next to Ahrefs for a month and compare numbers on a few sites you know, since every index measures differently.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Mangools | Bratislava, Slovakia | From about €29/month (annual) | EU (Slovakia) |
| #2 | Seobility | Bayreuth, Germany | Free (1 project, 1,000 pages) / Premium from about €50/month | EU (Germany) |
| #3 | Sistrix | Bonn, Germany | From about €99/month per module; bundles available | EU (Germany) |
| #4 | XOVI | Cologne, Germany | XOVI PRO $99/month ($89.10/month billed annually) / BUSINESS $149/month ($134.10/month annually) / ENTERPRISE $499/month ($449.10/month annually); XOVI AI add-on from $29/month | EU (Germany) |
| #5 | cognitiveSEO | Iasi, Romania | Starter $129.99/month ($89/month billed annually) / Premium $199/month / Elite $499/month ($349/month annually) | EU (Romania) |
| #6 | Majestic | Birmingham, United Kingdom | Lite €46.99/month (€39.16/month billed annually) / Pro €94.99/month (€79.16/month annually) / API €379.99/month (€316.66/month annually); all prices exclude VAT | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #7 | Babbar | Évreux, France | SEO Plan €139/month (or €1,529/year) excluding VAT / API R1 + SEO Plan €250/month excluding VAT, 6 requests per minute | EU (France) |
| #8 | PageRangers | Cologne, Germany | SEO Suite €50/month / Content Suite €399/month / AI Suite €79/month / VIP Support €199/month, modular; annual billing saves 15% | EU (Germany) |
| #9 | Screaming Frog | Henley-on-Thames, United Kingdom | Free up to 500 URLs / £199 per year for unlimited | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #10 | Advanced Web Ranking | Bucharest, Romania | From about $99/month; scales with tracked keywords | EU (Romania) |
| #11 | OnCrawl | Bordeaux, France | From about €69/month; enterprise on request | EU (France) |
How each alternative compares to Ahrefs
- Which law reaches it. EU (Slovakia). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Freelancers and small teams doing keyword research, rank tracking and link checks
Mangools is run by Mangools s.r.o. in Bratislava, Slovakia. It sells five tools under one login: KWFinder for keywords, SERPChecker for results analysis, SERPWatcher for rank tracking, LinkMiner for backlinks and SiteProfiler for a domain overview.
Its site claims more than 2.5 billion keywords and 9.5 trillion links in LinkMiner, and weekly rank updates (daily on Agency plans). These are its own figures. It also has free utilities that need no login.
Its pricing page returned a 404 when checked, so no figure is quoted here. Look up the current plan before you decide.
What Mangools does better than Ahrefs
- Slovak company under EU law, where Ahrefs is a Singapore company
- Keyword, SERP, rank and link tools split into simple screens
- Free utilities with no login
Where Mangools is a step down from Ahrefs
- No site audit crawler is listed among its five tools
- A link index that vendors cannot compare directly with Ahrefs'
- Prices could not be verified
Standout against Ahrefs. The simplest interface in this list, aimed at people who are not full-time SEOs.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. Germany.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Small sites and agencies that want audit and keyword tracking, and to start free
Seobility GmbH is registered at Willy-Brandt-Platz 16 in Nuremberg (Amtsgericht Nuernberg, HRB 26545), according to its imprint. Its own tool page on this site says Bayreuth, a difference we could not resolve.
The Basic plan is free for good: one project, 10 keywords, 5 daily tool credits and a limited audit with 100 pages per crawl. Premium is €59.90, Professional €99.90 and Agency €209.90 a month, with 3, 7 and 20 projects and 25,000 to 100,000 pages per crawl. Paid plans have a 14-day trial that asks for payment details.
What Seobility does better than Ahrefs
- German company under EU law with a free plan that does not expire
- Published euro prices on the plan page
- Crawl limits shown in numbers per plan
Where Seobility is a step down from Ahrefs
- The free plan is small (10 keywords)
- Not a large competitor-research database like Ahrefs
- The trial needs payment details
Standout against Ahrefs. A free plan with a real audit and tracking, not a time-limited demo.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. Germany.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams working in German-speaking and wider European markets
Sistrix is operated by SISTRIX GmbH in Bonn. Its pricing page lists Start at €119, Plus at €239, Professional at €419 and Premium at €799 a month, all billed monthly and cancellable, with annual contracts cheaper, a 14-day trial, and invoices in euros as standard.
Plus adds three users and content marketing tools, and Professional adds full data history and API access. Its Visibility Index is the metric it is best known for.
We could not open its imprint (404), so the register number is not given here.
What Sistrix does better than Ahrefs
- German company with euro invoices and SEPA payment
- A 14-day trial and plain tier prices
- Strong in European markets
Where Sistrix is a step down from Ahrefs
- More expensive at the entry level than several tools here
- Data history and API are held back for the upper tiers
- Less known for US-market data
Standout against Ahrefs. Built around the Visibility Index, with clear tier prices in euros.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Agencies and marketers who want rank tracking, backlinks and audits together
XOVI's imprint names WebPros Germany GmbH, Hohenzollernring 72, Cologne (HRB 71611, Cologne court), and says XOVI has existed since 2009 as part of the WebPros group.
Its pricing page shows Pro at $99, Business at $149 and Enterprise at $499 a month ($89.10, $134.10 and $449.10 billed annually), with 2,500, 3,500 and 10,000 weekly keyword requests. All tiers have unlimited projects, and it offers a free trial that needs no credit card.
What XOVI does better than Ahrefs
- German contracting entity under EU law
- Free trial with no credit card
- Unlimited projects on every tier
Where XOVI is a step down from Ahrefs
- Prices are shown in dollars
- The company belongs to a larger group, which can matter to procurement
- Add-ons for keywords and API are extra
Standout against Ahrefs. One dashboard for tracking, links and audits, with no card needed to try it.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Romania). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Agencies that investigate link profiles and ranking drops
cognitiveSEO is run by GESKIMO SRL in Iasi, Romania (J22/1412/2005, as recorded on this site's tool page, not reopened today). Its homepage lists content optimisation, site audit, backlink analysis, a rank tracker for desktop, mobile and local, penalty recovery tools, reporting and an API.
It gives a 7-day free trial and shows $129 a month after it, though the full price table was not checked for this page.
What cognitiveSEO does better than Ahrefs
- Romanian company under EU law
- Penalty-recovery tooling aimed at link problems
- Rank tracking in desktop, mobile and local modes
Where cognitiveSEO is a step down from Ahrefs
- Prices are in dollars and tiers were not checked
- Smaller known data footprint than Ahrefs
- Not a free tool
Standout against Ahrefs. It is the one here that looks specifically at link-related ranking drops.
- Which law reaches it. United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Link research, outreach and domain evaluation
Majestic-12 Limited is registered in England and Wales (05269210) at iCentrum, Birmingham, and its terms are governed by English law, with the courts of England and Wales exclusive.
Plans: Lite at €46.99 a month (€39.16 annually), Pro at €94.99 (€79.16) and API at €379.99 (€316.66), with 1, 20 and 100 million analysis units. Prices can be shown in pounds, euros or dollars, and Lite and Pro have a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers.
What Majestic does better than Ahrefs
- Plain plan prices and a known company number
- Focus on links with its own metrics
- Clear quotas in analysis units
Where Majestic is a step down from Ahrefs
- Not an EU company; the UK is outside the EEA
- No keyword or rank tracking suite
- No free trial, only a 7-day refund
Standout against Ahrefs. A dedicated link database, priced separately from everything else.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Link analysis and content categorisation for people who want a different link metric
Babbar SAS is a French company registered in Evreux, per its tool page on this site. Its homepage describes the Babbar Authority Score, backlink analysis, semantic analysis using machine learning and a similar-websites feature.
It lists an SEO Plan at €139 a month or €1,529 a year, and an API R1 plus SEO Plan at €250 a month with 6 requests per minute. A free trial is offered.
What Babbar does better than Ahrefs
- French company under EU law
- Plain prices and a free trial
- A different, semantic view of links
Where Babbar is a step down from Ahrefs
- It costs more than a lighter suite for a single function
- No keyword research or tracking in the pitch
- The homepage showed no legal address, so the entity was not rechecked today
Standout against Ahrefs. Links scored with its own Authority Score, not a Moz-style metric.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Teams producing content in German who want modules priced separately
PageRangers GmbH is based in Cologne. Its site lists three suites: an SEO Suite, a Content Suite described as its flagship for German-speaking markets, and an AI Suite that checks domain visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. A free trial is offered.
The pricing page returned a 404 today, so the monthly figures held elsewhere on this site (from €50) were not rechecked.
What PageRangers does better than Ahrefs
- German company under EU law
- Modules, so you pay for what you use
- Tracking of AI search visibility alongside classic SEO
Where PageRangers is a step down from Ahrefs
- Strongest in German-speaking markets
- Prices not confirmed today
- Not a full link research database
Standout against Ahrefs. Content and AI-visibility modules sold on their own.
- Which law reaches it. United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. Your own computer.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Technical audits, with no data leaving your machine
Screaming Frog Ltd is a British company; the SEO Spider is desktop software. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs, and a paid licence removes that limit. Licences last a year and are per user.
The price shown on its pricing page today differs from the one noted elsewhere on this site, so no figure is quoted here.
What Screaming Frog does better than Ahrefs
- Crawl runs locally, no vendor storage of your site data
- Free up to 500 URLs
- No project limit
Where Screaming Frog is a step down from Ahrefs
- Not an EU company (UK, outside the EEA)
- No keyword database or backlink index of its own
- Annual licence, per user
Standout against Ahrefs. The crawl happens on your hardware.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Romania). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Agencies tracking many keywords and producing client reports
Advanced Web Ranking is operated by Caphyon in Bucharest, which also makes Advanced Installer. We did not verify its register entry today.
Its pricing page lists Pro at $139 a month for 7,000 keywords, Agency at $279 for 14,500, Enterprise at $699 for 35,500 and a $980 plan for 50,000. Annual billing saves 10%, all plans have unlimited projects and users, and there is a free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What Advanced Web Ranking does better than Ahrefs
- Romanian company under EU law
- Plan size set by tracked keywords, with unlimited users
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Where Advanced Web Ranking is a step down from Ahrefs
- Mostly tracking, not a link research tool
- Prices are in dollars
- Costs more than a suite if you track few keywords
Standout against Ahrefs. It does rank tracking and AI search visibility, and does not try to be a suite.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Ahrefs is operated from Singapore, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, as Ahrefs is.
Best for: Large sites that need to know what search engines actually fetched
OnCrawl is run from Bordeaux by Cogniteev, per its tool page on this site. The site is up, but its pricing page returned a 404, so no amount is stated here.
It combines a crawler with log file analysis. It does not do keyword research or backlinks, so it complements rather than replaces Ahrefs.
What OnCrawl does better than Ahrefs
- French company under EU law
- Joins crawl and server log data
- Aimed at sites with very many URLs
Where OnCrawl is a step down from Ahrefs
- No keyword or backlink research
- Needs access to server logs
- Price not published in a form we could verify
Standout against Ahrefs. Logs and crawl together, which suits big sites.
What actually breaks when you switch
The hard part is the data, not the account. Ahrefs' keyword history, tracked keyword lists and saved reports do not move to another tool, so export what you need and expect to start a new baseline.
Numbers differ between tools. Link counts, domain scores and keyword volumes come from each vendor's own index, so a "drop" after switching is usually a different yardstick. Compare a few sites you know in both tools for a month.
You may need two tools. Pairing a keyword suite or backlink index with a crawler is common, which means two logins and two invoices.
Is there a European tool that does everything Ahrefs does?
Not exactly. XOVI, Seobility, cognitiveSEO and Mangools each cover keywords, backlinks, rank tracking and some form of audit in one account, which is the nearest to Ahrefs' shape. Mangools does it as five small tools, and the others as one dashboard.
The depth differs from tool to tool, and backlink databases in particular are different indexes, so a link count in one will not match another. Test on a site you know.
What can I use for free?
Seobility has a free Basic plan with one project, 10 keywords and a limited audit of up to 100 pages per crawl. Screaming Frog's desktop crawler is free up to 500 URLs. Ahrefs has its own free Webmaster Tools, which is a fair comparison point.
Sistrix, XOVI, PageRangers, Babbar, cognitiveSEO and Advanced Web Ranking offer a trial rather than a permanent free plan, and Majestic offers a 7-day money-back guarantee on Lite and Pro instead of a trial.
Which one should I look at for backlinks?
Majestic and Babbar are built around link data. Majestic is a Birmingham company with its own Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics, and Babbar is a French company with its own Authority Score. Mangools' LinkMiner and cognitiveSEO also include backlink analysis inside a wider toolset.
If link research is why you pay for Ahrefs, try the same domains in two of these and compare before you decide.
Do any of these have EU-only contracts?
Nine of the eleven are EU companies: Mangools (Slovakia), Seobility, Sistrix, XOVI and PageRangers (Germany), cognitiveSEO and Advanced Web Ranking (Romania), and Babbar and OnCrawl (France). Majestic and Screaming Frog are English companies, so under English law and outside the EU. Check each contract for the hosting location, because that is separate from where the company is registered.
Which one to pick
If you mainly want keyword research, rank tracking and backlink checks in one place, start with Mangools. If you want to begin free, start with Seobility, and if you work in German-speaking markets and want euro billing, look at Sistrix.
If links are the reason you pay for Ahrefs, try Majestic and Babbar against the same domains before choosing. If the job is technical, Screaming Frog is free to try and OnCrawl is the one for very large sites.
XOVI, cognitiveSEO and PageRangers are the other suites, each with a different emphasis, and Advanced Web Ranking is the tracker.
Be realistic about the gap: Ahrefs is a very large, single-vendor toolset, and none of the eleven reproduces all of it. Switch if you want an EU or UK counterparty, local courts and no transfer assessment, and keep Ahrefs if the data you rely on has no equivalent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mangools is the best fit for most people who mainly do keyword research, rank tracking and backlink checks, because it covers those in separate simple tools from Bratislava. Seobility is the better start if you want a permanent free plan, and Sistrix if you work in German-speaking markets and want euro billing. None replaces every Ahrefs feature.
Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. is based at 16 Raffles Quay, Singapore. Its terms are governed by Singapore law, with disputes going to SIAC arbitration in Singapore unless you opt out within 30 days, in which case the Singapore courts decide.
Its privacy policy says personal data is transferred to and stored in the United States. It relies on Standard Contractual Clauses and names VeraSafe Ireland as its EU representative. Whether that is acceptable depends on your own data protection assessment.
Seobility has a permanent free plan (1 project, 10 keywords) and Screaming Frog is free to 500 URLs. Ahrefs itself offers free Webmaster Tools for sites you can verify, so the free option is only useful as a European alternative if it suits the rest of your work.
Majestic (Majestic-12 Limited, Birmingham) and Babbar (France) are both dedicated backlink tools. Majestic sells Lite, Pro and API plans, and Babbar sells an SEO plan at €139 a month or €1,529 a year. Compare the same domains in each, since the indexes differ.
Sistrix lists Start, Plus, Professional and Premium at €119, €239, €419 and €799 a month. Seobility lists Premium, Professional and Agency at €59.90, €99.90 and €209.90 a month. XOVI lists $99, $149 and $499 a month, and Majestic lists €46.99 and €94.99 a month for Lite and Pro. Check each site before you buy, because plans change.
Yes. Advanced Web Ranking, from Caphyon in Bucharest, is a rank tracker with published monthly prices from $139 and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Mangools has SERPWatcher. Both can sit next to a free crawler such as Screaming Frog.
OnCrawl is built for large sites, because it joins crawl data with server logs, and Screaming Frog runs on your own computer with no vendor crawl limit beyond your hardware. Neither does keyword or backlink research, so they sit beside another tool.
No. Ahrefs offers SCCs and a DPA, and many European companies use it. The reason to move is a preference for an EU or UK contracting party, local courts and no transfer assessment. The tools here let you choose that, with different feature trade-offs.
Related comparisons
Who worked on this review
Explore More European Alternatives
Discover privacy-focused European alternatives to other popular US tech services.