Ahrefs vs Long Tail Pro (2027): Long Tail Pro Is Gone, So Which Long-Tail Keyword Tool Should Startups Use?

Ahrefs vs Long Tail Pro: Which Tool Should a Startup Use for Long-Tail Keywords?

For years, founders who wanted cheap, winnable search traffic were told the same thing: use Long Tail Pro to find long-tail keywords, and move to Ahrefs once you need backlinks, audits and competitor data. Long-tail keywords are still the best place for a young site to start, because they are specific, have less competition and match what buyers actually type. But the tool landscape has changed. When we checked both tools in October 2026, Ahrefs had new plans, and longtailpro.com no longer showed Long Tail Pro at all.

Quick answer: you can no longer buy Long Tail Pro. Its website stopped working in March 2024 and the domain now shows an unrelated company. For long-tail keyword research in 2027, use Ahrefs if you also want competitor backlinks and site audits (Starter at $29 a month, Lite at $129), or KWFinder by Mangools if you want a focused long-tail tool like Long Tail Pro was (from €37.70 a month on annual billing). On a zero budget, combine Ahrefs' free Keyword Generator with Google Keyword Planner.

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Ahrefs vs Long Tail Pro at a Glance

	Ahrefs	Long Tail Pro	KWFinder (closest replacement)
Status	Active, sold by Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)	Website offline since March 2024; domain now shows an unrelated firm	Active, part of the Mangools SEO package
Price	Starter $29/month; Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449; Enterprise $1,499 (annual)	Last advertised at $59/month (archived homepage, February 2024)	Basic €37.70, Premium €52.70, Agency €97.70 a month, billed annually
Free option	Ahrefs Free for your own sites; free Keyword Generator	None	Free account to try the tools
Long-tail research	Keywords Explorer: 28.7B keywords, 217 locations	Its core feature, while it worked	Keyword ideas with search volume and difficulty
Difficulty metric	Keyword Difficulty (KD), based on backlinks to the top pages	Keyword Competitiveness (KC) score	Keyword difficulty score
Backlinks and site audit	Site Explorer, Site Audit	No longer available	LinkMiner and SiteProfiler in the same package
Rank tracking	Weekly; 750 keywords on Lite	No longer available	SERPWatcher: weekly, daily on Agency

Sources: ahrefs.com/pricing, mangools.com/plans-and-pricing and the Internet Archive copy of longtailpro.com, checked 26 October 2026.

The Tools Compared

Ahrefs: All-in-One SEO With a Huge Keyword Database

Ahrefs is a full SEO platform: Keywords Explorer for keyword research, Site Explorer for competitors' traffic and backlinks, Site Audit for technical issues, and Rank Tracker for positions. For long-tail work, Keywords Explorer is the part that matters. Ahrefs says its index holds 28.7 billion keywords, filtered from 110 billion discovered, across 217 locations.

Keyword Difficulty (KD): Ahrefs calculates KD only from the number of backlinks pointing to the top-ranking pages. Lower scores mean an easier top-10 ranking.
Parent Topic and Traffic Potential: Parent Topic shows whether you can rank for a long-tail phrase by targeting a broader topic, and Traffic Potential estimates the traffic of the page ranking first.
Long-tail reports: six keyword-idea reports, including phrase match, questions and search suggestions (autocomplete), plus AI-generated seed ideas and instant clustering.
Plans (USD, monthly): Starter $29 (200 credits a month, monthly billing only, includes Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker), Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449, and Enterprise $1,499 with an annual commitment. Annual billing saves up to 17%. Ahrefs says it never runs discounts or free trials. See the Ahrefs pricing page.
Free: Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) gives Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for websites you verify, but not Keywords Explorer. The free Keyword Generator shows keyword ideas for Google, Bing, YouTube and Amazon.

Best for: founders who want keyword research, competitor research and backlink data in one place. Our guides to Ahrefs Keywords Explorer and the Ahrefs Keyword Generator show how to use both.

Long Tail Pro: What Happened to It?

Long Tail Pro was a keyword tool built around one idea: find long-tail keywords a small site can rank for. Its homepage described a built-in engine that calculated Keyword Competitiveness for any niche, and in its last archived version it also listed SERP analysis, a rank tracker, backlink analysis and a site audit, with the "full toolkit" advertised at $59 a month (Internet Archive copy, February 2024).

March 2024: the Internet Archive starts recording server errors (Cloudflare error 522) instead of the Long Tail Pro homepage.
From May 2025: longtailpro.com shows the website of an unrelated insurance claims investigation firm in the New York area.
October 2026: longtailpro.com still shows that firm, the www address and the login page redirect to its domain, and the app.longtailpro.com address no longer resolves.

We found no official shutdown notice and could not confirm who owns the product today. What is clear is that there is no working way to sign up, pay or log in, so Long Tail Pro is not an option for a startup in 2027. If an old subscription is still being charged to your card, ask your card provider to stop the payment.

KWFinder: The Closest Replacement for Long Tail Pro

KWFinder by Mangools is the tool most like Long Tail Pro: a simple keyword finder whose own homepage promises to find long-tail keywords with low SEO difficulty. You search by keyword or by a competitor's domain, and you get ideas with search volume and a difficulty score. It is sold as a package with SERPChecker, SERPWatcher (rank tracking), LinkMiner (backlinks) and SiteProfiler.

Basic, €37.70 a month billed annually (€452.40 a year): 100 keyword lookups per 24 hours, 200 keyword suggestions per search, 200 tracked keywords with weekly updates.
Premium, €52.70 a month: 500 lookups per 24 hours, unlimited suggestions, 700 tracked keywords, 3 extra seats.
Agency, €97.70 a month: 1,200 lookups per 24 hours, 1,500 tracked keywords with daily updates, 5 extra seats.
Also: API and MCP access on all plans, a 48-hour money-back guarantee, and a free account to try the tools first. Prices were shown in euros when we checked from Europe.

Best for: founders and solo marketers who only need long-tail keyword research and a light rank tracker, at a lower price than Ahrefs. We compare it with Semrush in Semrush vs KWFinder.

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Discontinued and Changed Since the Old Version of This Guide

Long Tail Pro: no longer available (website offline since March 2024, domain now used by an unrelated company). We moved it from "best for early-stage startups" to this section and added KWFinder as the replacement.
Ahrefs plans: the cheapest paid option is now Starter at $29 a month, and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is now called Ahrefs Free.
Removed statistics: the old "case studies" (85% of marketers, a 37% traffic increase, 72% of startups on page one) had no source, so we took them out.

Our Moz vs Long Tail Pro comparison covers the same change from Moz's side.

Ahrefs or a Long Tail Pro Replacement: Which Should You Choose?

You have no budget yet: Ahrefs' free Keyword Generator for ideas, Google Keyword Planner for volume ranges, and Ahrefs Free plus Google Search Console for your own site. See Keyword Tool vs Keyword Planner for the free options in detail.
You only need long-tail keyword research: KWFinder Basic, the closest thing to what Long Tail Pro used to be.
You want to try Ahrefs data cheaply: Ahrefs Starter at $29 a month, for light use of Keywords Explorer and Site Explorer.
You need competitor backlinks, audits and content gaps: Ahrefs Lite or higher.
You mostly need daily rank tracking: a dedicated rank tracker; see Ahrefs vs Wincher.
Ahrefs is too expensive: compare our lists of free Ahrefs alternatives and paid Ahrefs alternatives.

How to Find Long-Tail Keywords Without Long Tail Pro

List your customers' phrases. Use the words people use in interviews, support emails and forums, not your own product jargon.
Generate ideas. Paste each seed into Ahrefs' free Keyword Generator or KWFinder and collect question and phrase-match ideas. Our 10 steps to find long-tail keywords go deeper.
Filter for low difficulty. Keep specific phrases with a low difficulty score and some search volume. Volume ranges from Google Keyword Planner are a free cross-check.
Check who ranks. If page one shows forums, thin pages or sites with few backlinks, a new site can compete.
Publish and measure. Write one page per topic, then watch which queries bring impressions in Search Console and improve those pages. Our long-tail SEO guide explains how to group topics.

How Founders Use Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail research is also a cheap market test. If nobody searches for the problem you solve, that is a reason to validate your startup idea before you build. If people do search, each long-tail phrase can become an article, and the F/MS AI SEO Tool turns a keyword into a full article written to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, with human editors checking it. For competitor research beyond Ahrefs, see SpyFu vs Keyword Insights.

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FAQ: Ahrefs vs Long Tail Pro

Is Long Tail Pro still available?

No. Its website stopped working in March 2024 according to the Internet Archive, and in October 2026 longtailpro.com showed an unrelated company. There is no way to sign up or log in.

What is the best Long Tail Pro alternative?

KWFinder by Mangools is the closest like-for-like tool for long-tail keywords with a difficulty score. Ahrefs is the stronger choice if you also need backlinks, audits and competitor research.

How much does Ahrefs cost?

Starter is $29 a month (monthly only), Lite $129, Standard $249 and Advanced $449 a month; Enterprise is $1,499 a month with an annual commitment. Annual billing saves up to 17%.

Does Ahrefs have a free plan?

Yes, Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) covers Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics for websites you verify. It does not include Keywords Explorer, but the free Keyword Generator gives keyword ideas.

Does Ahrefs offer a free trial?

No. Ahrefs says it never runs discounts or free trials. Starter at $29 a month is the cheapest way to try its paid keyword data.

Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.

What was Long Tail Pro's Keyword Competitiveness score?

It was Long Tail Pro's own difficulty metric for judging how hard a keyword is to rank for. Today, Ahrefs' Keyword Difficulty and KWFinder's difficulty score do the same job.

Is KWFinder cheaper than Ahrefs?

Its Basic plan costs €37.70 a month billed annually, against $129 a month for Ahrefs Lite. Ahrefs Starter, at $29 a month, is cheaper but limited to 200 credits a month.

Which tool is better for a brand-new website?

Start free: Ahrefs' Keyword Generator, Google Keyword Planner and Search Console. Pay for KWFinder or Ahrefs Starter once you publish regularly.

Can I use AI to write SEO articles from long-tail keywords?

Yes. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and in AI assistants, with human editors reviewing them.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp