Ahrefs API Alternative: Link and Keyword Data by the Call
Ahrefs runs one of the industry's best link indexes, sold as a research platform with API access reserved for its top tiers. If you need programmatic numbers rather than the full research UI, per-lookup pricing changes the math.
Ahrefs sells subscription plans built around its research platform, with API access positioned at the enterprise level rather than as a self-serve pay-per-call product. 1Lookup returns the same classes of data as individually priced API lookups on universal credits shared with its validation products: backlink profiles with referring domains and follow ratios, domain authority scores, and keyword volume and difficulty metrics.
The Ahrefs data jobs, priced per lookup
Each product below answers a question you'd normally open Site Explorer or Keywords Explorer for, delivered as an API call that also runs in bulk CSV.
Site Explorer link data
Backlink Overview API
Authority Score, total backlinks, referring domains and IPs, and the follow/nofollow split with a computed ratio, in one call.
13 credits per domain
Domain Rating & traffic estimates
Domain Authority API
A 0-100 authority score plus organic and paid keyword counts, estimated monthly traffic, and traffic value.
10 credits per domain
Keywords Explorer metrics
Keyword Metrics API
Volume, CPC, 0-100 difficulty with a plain-language band, intent, 12-month trend, and SERP features including AI Overviews.
6 credits per keyword
Aggregated authority checks
Domain SEO Intelligence API
Moz DA, Ahrefs DR, and Majestic-style metrics side by side, for teams that read authority across vendors.
10 credits per domain
1Lookup vs Ahrefs: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with Ahrefs’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
| Criteria |  1Lookup |  Ahrefs |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Seat-based monthly SaaS subscriptions for the full SEO suite - Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, Enterprise $1,499/mo (annual commitment required) - each bundling monthly usage allowances (API units, Site Audit crawl credits, in-app report credits on Starter/Lite) with optional pay-as-you-go overages; a limited $29/mo Starter plan and a free tier (Ahrefs Free / Webmaster Tools) sit below; annual billing saves up to 17% (specific annual prices are behind a page toggle, not statically published) |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $29/mo Starter plan (limited: 200 in-app credits/mo, 1 unverified project, 50 tracked keywords, 1 month historical data, no exports, no API-unit allowance, and additional users or credits cannot be purchased on it); the cheapest plan with API v3 access is Lite at $129/mo, which includes 100,000 API units/mo and the full core toolset |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | Ahrefs Free (Webmaster Tools): free Site Explorer + Site Audit for websites you verify ownership of (1,000 backlinks & keywords visible at once; 5,000 crawl credits/mo per verified project; all 170+ audit issues), Web Analytics up to 1M events/project/mo, Social Media Manager (unlimited while in beta), AI Content Helper (1 document/mo), SEO Toolbar (DR & UR metrics only). Also a free public Domain Rating API endpoint (subject to terms of use) and Firehose, a free real-time web-mentions API; the API's free test queries require a paid plan, not a free account |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | None. Pricing-page FAQ answers "Do you offer discounts or free trials?" with "We never run discounts" and points website owners to Ahrefs Free instead; the free account (own/verified sites only) is the de facto trial path |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Not sold as standalone credit packs - API units, crawl credits, and in-app report credits are monthly subscription allowances that reset each billing month. Pay-as-you-go top-ups of every kind expire: the pricing FAQ states PAYG purchases "such as report credits, export rows, crawl credits, and API units" last three billing months including the current one, with prepaid limits always used first. Report-credit top-ups on credit-based plans cost $50 per 500 credits. Ahrefs "does not issue refunds in general" |
What Ahrefs costs at volume
| Volume | Ahrefs price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 2,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (e.g. Domain Rating lookups; every billable request costs at least 50 units, 100,000 units included) | $129/mo (Lite plan; effective rate assumes the plan is used solely for API - it also includes the full SEO suite) | $64.50 per 1,000 requests ($1.29 per 1,000 API units) |
| 8,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (400,000 units included) | $249/mo (Standard plan) | $31.13 per 1,000 requests ($0.62 per 1,000 API units) |
| 20,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (1,000,000 units included) | $449/mo (Advanced plan) | $22.45 per 1,000 requests ($0.45 per 1,000 API units) |
| 40,000+ minimum-cost API requests/mo (2,000,000 units, marketed as 'Uncapped API access' with personalized higher limits) | $1,499/mo (Enterprise, annual commitment required) | $37.48 per 1,000 requests at the listed 2M-unit allowance |
Ahrefs is priced as platform subscriptions with API access at the top of the range; 1Lookup is priced per lookup (13 credits per backlink profile, 10 per authority score, 6 per keyword). For data-pull workloads, compare your real monthly lookup volume against a platform bill.
Where Ahrefs wins
- Backlink and keyword data from what Ahrefs bills as the world's second-most active crawler with 10+ years of web-scale data; its Domain Rating (DR) is a de facto industry-standard authority metric
- API v3 is included on every standard plan from Lite ($129/mo) up - no longer Enterprise-only - with published per-plan unit allowances, an official MCP server, free test queries on paid plans for development, and free cached requests
- Genuinely useful free tier: Site Explorer + Site Audit for verified sites, 1M-event web analytics, plus a free public Domain Rating API endpoint
- Far more than a data API: full SEO suite (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Brand Radar AI visibility tracking, Web Analytics, Social Media Manager) on one subscription
- Transparent self-serve pricing with no contracts or setup fees; cancel or switch plans anytime (Enterprise excepted)
Where 1Lookup wins
- Flat per-lookup pricing with no platform subscription or enterprise API negotiation
- Backlink, authority, keyword, and audience data alongside validation in one API
- Bulk CSV pipeline with linear pricing for large domain or keyword lists
- Credits shared across every product, rolling over for up to 3 months
Ahrefs pricing and product facts verified against ahrefs.com as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: you want backlink and keyword data as flat-priced API calls on shared credits, for scoring lists of domains or keywords inside your own product or pipeline.
Consider Ahrefs instead if: you want the industry-standard link index with its full research UI: Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and crawl-based site audits.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get Ahrefs-style data through an API without an enterprise plan?
1Lookup's Backlink Overview, Domain Authority, and Keyword Metrics products return link-profile and keyword data as flat-priced API calls on universal credits. There is no platform subscription or enterprise negotiation: sign up, start the 7-day trial, and call the API.
Is 1Lookup's link data the same as Ahrefs' index?
No, and the distinction matters. Ahrefs runs its own crawler and link index; 1Lookup's SEO products draw on Semrush's index via a per-call integration (Domain SEO Intelligence additionally reports an Ahrefs-style DR figure among its aggregated metrics). The numbers are the same class (referring domains, authority scores, keyword volumes) but come from a different index, so absolute values differ the way any two SEO vendors' do.
When is Ahrefs clearly the better choice?
When your team lives in SEO research: Site Explorer deep-dives, historical link graphs, content gap analysis, and crawl-based audits. Ahrefs' index and UI are the product. 1Lookup wins when you need the numbers inside your own product, pipeline, or spreadsheet at a per-lookup price.
What about Ahrefs' free tools?
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is genuinely useful free tooling for your own verified sites. The per-lookup gap appears when you need data about arbitrary third-party domains and keywords programmatically: that is what 1Lookup prices per call.
Can I check thousands of domains in bulk?
Yes. Backlink Overview, Domain Authority, and Keyword Metrics all run in the bulk CSV pipeline with linear per-row pricing: upload a column, get every metric back appended.