An Ahrefs API alternative you pay per result
You need the authority of a list of domains, or the backlinks of a site, inside a script, a spreadsheet or an AI agent. You do not necessarily need a full SEO suite subscription and a monthly API unit budget for it.
What the Ahrefs API requires
- API access comes with an Ahrefs subscription. On 2026-10-08 the Lite plan was listed at €119 per month, Standard at €229, Advanced at €419, and Enterprise at €1,394 per month with an annual commitment (ahrefs.com/pricing, viewed from Europe).
- Each plan includes a monthly budget of API units: 200,000 on Lite, 800,000 on Standard, 2,000,000 on Advanced, custom on Enterprise (About API v3).
- Every request costs at least 50 units; beyond that, the cost depends on the number of rows returned and the fields requested (same source).
What PlainRows charges
No subscription to us. The tools run on Apify: the free Apify plan is enough to test them, and the Starter plan ($19 per month, with $19 of usage included, apify.com/pricing) removes the free-plan limits.
| Data | Tool | Price (Starter plan) |
|---|---|---|
| Domain rank (0-100), spam score, backlinks and referring domains count, for up to 10,000 domains per run | Bulk Domain Authority Checker | $0.0015 per domain with data + $0.035 per metric group and batch of 1,000 domains |
| Backlinks with anchor, dofollow flag, ranks, spam score, first and last seen; or referring domains | Backlink Checker | $0.035 per target checked + $0.002 per row |
Example: checking 1,000 domains costs about $1.50 for the rows, plus one batch fee per metric group you keep (four by default). Domains with no data are not billed.
When Ahrefs is the better choice
- You already pay for Ahrefs and use its interface every day: the API units come with your plan.
- You need Ahrefs' own metrics, such as Domain Rating (DR) or Ahrefs' traffic estimates. PlainRows tools use DataForSEO's backlink index:
domainRankis a different 0-100 metric and will not match DR. - You need Ahrefs' historical data or its other reports through the same API.
When PlainRows is the better choice
- You need bulk authority checks or backlink lists a few times a month, not a full SEO suite.
- You run them from n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets or an AI agent (MCP) and want to pay only for the rows you get.
- You want a hard cap: every run stops at the maximum cost you set.
Competitor facts checked on 2026-10-08 from the linked pages; prices change, check them before you decide.