Authority Specialist
Pricing
90 Day Growth PlanDashboard
AuthoritySpecialist

Data-driven SEO strategies for ambitious brands. We turn search visibility into predictable revenue.

Services

  • SEO Services
  • LLM Presence
  • Content Strategy
  • Technical SEO

Company

  • About Us
  • How We Work
  • Founder
  • Pricing
  • Contact
  • Careers

Resources

  • SEO Guides
  • Free Tools
  • Comparisons
  • Use Cases
  • Best Lists
  • Cost Guides
  • Services
  • Locations
  • SEO Learning

Industries We Serve

View all industries →
Healthcare
  • Plastic Surgeons
  • Orthodontists
  • Veterinarians
  • Chiropractors
Legal
  • Criminal Lawyers
  • Divorce Attorneys
  • Personal Injury
  • Immigration
Finance
  • Banks
  • Credit Unions
  • Investment Firms
  • Insurance
Technology
  • SaaS Companies
  • App Developers
  • Cybersecurity
  • Tech Startups
Home Services
  • Contractors
  • HVAC
  • Plumbers
  • Electricians
Hospitality
  • Hotels
  • Restaurants
  • Cafes
  • Travel Agencies
Education
  • Schools
  • Private Schools
  • Daycare Centers
  • Tutoring Centers
Automotive
  • Auto Dealerships
  • Car Dealerships
  • Auto Repair Shops
  • Towing Companies

© 2026 AuthoritySpecialist SEO Solutions OÜ. All rights reserved.

Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceCookie Policy
Home/Comparisons/Majestic SEO vs Ahrefs
M
VS
A

Majestic SEO: The World's Best Tool for Answering Questions Nobody's Asking

How I wasted 3 years obsessing over Trust Flow before realizing clients pay for rankings, not metrics.

Updated February 2026
Executive Verdict
Winner: Majestic SEO

Here's the uncomfortable truth I wish someone told me in 2016: Majestic is a museum. A spectacular, meticulously organized museum of the internet's link history. But you can't build a business giving clients tours of a museum. Ahrefs is a weapon. It shows you where money flows, which content prints traffic, and exactly which competitors are vulnerable. Majestic tells you a site has 50,000 backlinks. Ahrefs tells you those links drive $0 in traffic value — meaning someone bought them from Fiverr. One tool impresses SEO nerds at conferences. The other closes $10k/month retainers. I use Majestic for exactly one scenario now: verifying a domain wasn't a casino spam farm before I buy it. Everything else? Ahrefs runs the show.

Majestic SEO

Best for:

Ahrefs

Best for:

MN
Martial Notarangelo
Founder, AuthoritySpecialist.com
Updated: February 2026

I spent I spent [$47,000 on Majestic](/cost/seo-audit-pricing) over 8 years. over 8 years. Here's why I now use it for exactly one thing — and why why [Ahrefs](/comparison/seo-moz-alternative) runs my entire why Ahrefs runs my entire [authority-building operation](/comparison/onsite-vs-offsite-seo).. runs my entire authority-building operation.

DETAILED COMPARISON

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

2 wins for Majestic SEO • 2 wins for Ahrefs • 1 ties

Feature
Majestic SEO
Ahrefs
Winner
Link Index Freshness
The speed at which the tool spots your wins (or your competitor's).
Majestic's 'Fresh Index' is a lie we all politely accept. It's 90 days of data that sometimes takes 2 weeks to register a viral mention. The Historic Index is genuinely impressive—if you're writing a dissertation on link decay patterns.
Ahrefs catches links within hours. I once secured a Forbes mention at 9 AM and showed the client the Ahrefs alert at lunch. That's not just data—that's ammunition for your next invoice discussion.
Ahrefs
Proprietary Metrics (TF vs DR)
The numbers everyone pretends to understand in sales calls.
Trust Flow and Citation Flow are genuinely clever—the ratio reveals spam instantly. But here's what Majestic won't tell you: I've seen TF50 sites with zero organic traffic. The metric measures link quality in a vacuum, completely divorced from Google's actual behavior.
Domain Rating is absolutely gameable. I know because I've watched clients' competitors inflate it with obvious link schemes. But here's the thing: DR correlates with ranking power in ways TF simply doesn't. It's a flawed metric that accidentally predicts reality.
Tie
Content & Keyword Intelligence
The difference between knowing who links and knowing why it matters.
Majestic's keyword data is... wait, there isn't any. It's like buying a car with no engine and being told 'we specialize in excellent chassis.' You'll need to export everything to another tool just to understand if those beautiful links drive a single visitor.
This is where Ahrefs becomes unfair. I can see a competitor's top 50 pages by traffic, the exact keywords driving revenue, and which content earned links naturally versus which got propped up artificially. In 15 minutes, I have a 6-month content calendar. Majestic would give me... a spreadsheet of URLs.
Ahrefs
Network Visualization
Seeing the skeleton of link schemes and PBN empires.
I'll give credit where it's earned: Majestic's Link Graph is genuinely beautiful for exposing private blog networks. The Neighbourhood Checker showing C-block relationships is the kind of paranoid detail that makes technical audits actually defensible. If you're buying a $50k domain, this visualization might save you from inheriting a penalty.
Ahrefs shows you networks exist. Majestic shows you exactly how they were built, who shares hosting, and which sites are clearly controlled by the same operator. For pure forensic work, Majestic wins this round.
Majestic SEO
Pricing Reality
What you'll actually pay after the first month.
Majestic's Lite plan at $49/month is genuinely accessible for freelancers who just need quick TF checks. The API is reasonably priced for developers. If you're building tools that need raw link data, Majestic is the economical choice.
Ahrefs' credit system is designed by someone who clearly resents power users. Run 10 competitor analyses in a day and watch your credits evaporate. But here's my math: one client closed with an Ahrefs-powered proposal covers 6 months of the subscription. The ROI isn't even a conversation.
Majestic SEO
PROS & CONS

Strengths & Weaknesses

M
Majestic SEO
()

Pros

Cons

Best For

Penalty recovery specialists, domain investors doing due diligence, and agencies with dedicated technical audit teams.
A
Ahrefs
()

Pros

Cons

Best For

Revenue-focused agencies, content strategists, competitor analysis, and anyone who needs to justify SEO spend to skeptical stakeholders.
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

RELATED

More Comparisons

Ahrefs vs Semrush: The Real Cost of 'All-in-One' Tools

Read Comparison

SE Ranking Review: When 'Good Enough' Actually Is

Read Comparison

Get your SEO Snapshot in minutes

Secure OTP verification • No sales calls • Live data in ~30 seconds
No payment required • No credit card • View pricing + enterprise scope