Ahrefs vs Metricool (2026): pricing, features, which to pick
Ahrefs free plan; from ~$29/mo, Metricool free plan; from ~$20/mo, checked by hand. Where each wins, what a team pays, and the cheaper option: ViralHunt from $29.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | What that price covers | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | SEO teams researching keywords, backlinks and top-linked content | free plan; from ~$29/mo | 1 user included | Free plan (limited) |
| Metricool | agencies and social media managers who want analytics, scheduling and ads reporting in one place | free plan; from ~$20/mo | not verified | Free trial |
| ViralHunt | discovering viral content and turning it into posts, as a team | from $29/mo | 1 user (Creator). Studio: $99/mo for up to 4 users and 4 projects, no per-seat charge | Yes, and it never expires |
Every price was read off the vendor's own pricing page. We show no G2 or Capterra ratings because we are not listed there, and an invented rating would destroy the only thing these pages have, which is that all of it can be checked.
Choosing between Ahrefs and Metricool? Below we break them down feature by feature, on pricing and on use case, and show where ViralHunt fits as the all-in-one alternative that tracks viral content across 12 networks.
| Feature | Ahrefs | Metricool | ViralHunt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social platforms covered | Web / search index | 11, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Twitch, Google Business (+ ads) | 12, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Douyin, RSS, Quora, Tumblr |
| Real-time viral content discovery | Partial | ✗ | ✓ |
| Per-post engagement tracking | Partial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cross-platform trending radar | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Editorial board (Kanban workflow) | ✗ | Partial | ✓ |
| AI content studio | Partial | Partial | ✓ |
| Built-in team chat | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Browser-extension scrapers | Partial | ✗ | ✓ |
| Niche / keyword tracking | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mention / sentiment listening | ✗ | Partial | Partial |
| Post scheduling & publishing | Social Media Manager (beta) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto-DM (comment → DM) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Public API + AI-agent access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial | Free plan (limited) | ✓ | Free plan, no expiry |
| Starting price | free plan; from ~$29/mo | free plan; from ~$20/mo | from $29/mo |
📡 12 networks, one screen
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Douyin, RSS, Quora & Tumblr, viral posts and engagement in a single radar.
🗂️ Built-in workflow
Assign any post to an editorial board, draft with the AI studio, and coordinate in team chat, no extra tools.
💸 Better value
One affordable plan instead of stacking a discovery tool + a workflow tool + a listening tool.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a full SEO toolset, backlinks, keyword research, rank tracking and site audits, with a Content Explorer that searches billions of pages by topic to surface the most-linked and most-shared articles. Marketers often weigh it against BuzzSumo for content research. But Ahrefs is built around search/SEO: it finds top web pages and their backlinks, not the native viral posts running on TikTok, Instagram or Reddit right now, and it has no content workflow.
- Best-in-class backlink and keyword data
- Content Explorer finds top-shared/linked articles
- Deep SEO site audits and rank tracking
- SEO/search-centric, not native social-viral discovery
- No editorial board or content workflow
- Standard includes one user; five users cost $489/mo with four additional users at $60/mo. Lite permits only two additional users.
Pricing: free plan; from ~$29/mo
What is Metricool?
Metricool is an all-in-one social media management and analytics platform: plan and publish content, measure performance, and manage paid campaigns across 11 networks (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Twitch, Google Business) from one workspace. Its standout strengths are unified analytics with automated PDF/Looker Studio reports, a drag-and-drop calendar with best-time scheduling, and integrated ads management for Meta, Google and TikTok, rare at its price. It also has competitor benchmarking (tracking the account metrics of rivals you specify), a social inbox, SmartLinks (link-in-bio) and an AI caption assistant; paid tiers add multi-brand, team roles and client approval. It measures and publishes your (and named competitors') output, it is not a cross-network viral-discovery engine.
- Broad, well-regarded native analytics and automated reporting across 11 networks
- Rare integrated ads management (Meta/Google/TikTok) alongside organic scheduling
- Strong free tier and low entry price
- No content discovery, trending radar or repurposing, it measures output, not the viral landscape
- LinkedIn and X are paid per-connection add-ons, so real cost climbs
- No content-production board, team chat or DM automation
Pricing: free plan; from ~$20/mo
What is ViralHunt?
ViralHunt is a viral-content discovery platform that tracks the top-performing posts across 12 networks, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Douyin, RSS, Quora and Tumblr, in real time. Beyond discovery, it turns trends into a team workflow with an editorial Kanban board, an AI content studio and built-in team chat, and now schedules and auto-publishes finished posts to 11 social networks, with separate brand/client projects. So a whole team can find, create and publish content in one place instead of stacking a discovery tool, a workflow tool and a scheduler.
- Tracks viral posts across 12 networks in one dashboard
- Editorial board, AI studio and team chat built in, no extra tools
- Schedules & auto-publishes to 11 networks, with multi-brand projects
- Affordable, a free plan that never expires, plus a REST API for AI agents
- Not a dedicated enterprise listening/analytics suite
- Younger brand than the incumbents
Pricing: from $29/mo
When to buy one of these two
You came here comparing two tools, not looking for a third. So first, plainly, what each one is the better buy for:
- Ahrefs if your job is seo teams researching keywords, backlinks and top-linked content. Best-in-class backlink and keyword data.
- Metricool if your job is agencies and social media managers who want analytics, scheduling and ads reporting in one place. Broad, well-regarded native analytics and automated reporting across 11 networks.
If either of those sentences describes your job, you have your answer and the rest of this page is not for you. What follows is for the case where neither one does.
Comparing Ahrefs and Metricool because neither one quite does what you need? ViralHunt has a free plan that does not expire, so checking is free and there is no countdown.
Try for freeWhich should you choose?
- Ahrefs, best for SEO teams researching keywords, backlinks and top-linked content.
- Metricool, best for agencies and social media managers who want analytics, scheduling and ads reporting in one place.
- ViralHunt, best if you want to discover viral content across 12 networks and turn it into content as a team.