our prices<\/a> are listed along with the limits and the cost of all add-ons.<\/p>\nCheck the cancellation process<\/h3>\n I personally think this can tell you a lot about any company. Some companies may make this difficult. You may have to contact them to cancel or have a meeting before you\u2019re able to cancel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read your contract very carefully. Some companies require a written notice several months in advance if you want to cancel. Of course, they\u2019re not going to remind you of this when your contract is about to be\u00a0due.<\/p>\n
At Ahrefs, we send you a reminder before your renewal date.<\/p>\n
Aggressive sales\u00a0teams<\/h3>\n I have nightmares about being contacted by a person from a certain company after being overwhelmed by him a few years ago. I still remember his name to this day, and I\u2019m pretty bad with names in general.<\/p>\n
That company isn\u2019t the only one known for aggressive salespeople, though. Some will call you, email you, email your personal email, call your personal cell phone, and message you on every social platform you\u2019re on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When that doesn\u2019t work, they start doing the same to coworkers, your boss, your boss\u2019s boss. They may even email your boss and tell them how bad of a job you\u2019re doing because you don\u2019t use their platform. Yes, it\u2019s really a thing, and it\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n
They also tend to overpromise. They\u2019ll tell you things like the tool is all you need and can replace an SEO team. This is never\u00a0true.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d recommend searching a few platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit for the names of the companies so you can see some of the stories and what people think about some of the enterprise SEO tools. You should hear the stories and experiences of others before signing a contract. You\u2019ll find that many of the enterprise tools do not have the best reputation with\u00a0SEOs.<\/p>\n
At Ahrefs, we have a small accounts team to help teams assess whether Ahrefs is a good fit for their organization. After an initial discovery call, our team will develop a custom demo, guide the evaluation process by bringing all the stakeholders on the same page, and help navigate any red tape. Transparency is core to the process. To avoid surprises, Ahrefs lets customers test-drive the product before purchasing.<\/p>\n
Once a customer decides to work with us, the Ahrefs team will provide custom training sessions specific to the use cases they need, help them learn how to use Ahrefs quickly, and ultimately reduce the time it takes to reach their\u00a0goals.<\/p>\n
Services<\/h3>\n This can be a positive or a negative, to be honest. It\u2019s kind of a fine line that tool companies have to walk when also providing services. I\u2019ve seen some vendors step over this line and try to steal work from agency partners\u2014even those who had recommended their tool to the company.<\/p>\n
If you need services, check what they offer and see if you can find some people who work with them so you can ask some questions. Some of the consultants at companies do good work, and others will provide work at about the same level as a junior SEO. I\u2019ve seen services pitched as SEO consulting when all they really did was use the hours to help set up the\u00a0tool.<\/p>\n
Your reps will likely vary in their skill sets a lot, and some of the companies have high employee turnover. In many cases, you may be better off with an agency partner.<\/p>\n
Ahrefs does not offer client service work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lack of innovation<\/h3>\n Just like at some enterprise companies, some of these tool companies can be slow-moving. You will hear typical excuses like it\u2019s on the roadmap or it\u2019s coming soon. But in many cases, the features just never show up. In some cases, they may acquire other tools to try to make up for the lack of innovation, but they may kill whatever made the previous tool worth acquiring.<\/p>\n
We do roundups of all of our product updates<\/a> every month or two. You can see the kind of progress we make and the innovative features we launch.\u00a0<\/p>\nBiased comparisons and studies<\/h3>\n Lots of these tools will show you cherry-picked comparisons that make them look awesome and studies they have run where they declare themselves the winner. Take all of this with a grain of\u00a0salt.<\/p>\n