Ahrefs vs Briljant (2026): Full comparison

Key takeaways

• Ahrefs is a full SEO platform that happens to include AI search monitoring. Briljant is a GEO-only tool built specifically for tracking AI visibility. They're solving different problems.
• Briljant costs roughly €33/month. Ahrefs' most useful plan starts at $83/month and goes up fast. If budget is tight and AI visibility is your only concern, Briljant is cheaper.
• Ahrefs covers traditional SEO (backlinks, keywords, site audits, rank tracking) plus AI monitoring. Briljant covers AI monitoring only. No overlap on the SEO side.
• Briljant is built for the Dutch/European market with Dutch-language support and GDPR-first design. Ahrefs is global with no localization for the Netherlands specifically.
• Ahrefs Brand Radar uses fixed prompts for AI tracking, which limits how deeply you can customize monitoring. Briljant tests 3,000 prompts monthly, giving more coverage for AI-specific queries.
• Neither tool offers the full GEO action loop (gap analysis + content generation + traffic attribution). For that, you'd need a dedicated platform like Promptwatch.

Overview

Ahrefs

Ahrefs

All-in-one SEO platform with AI search tracking and content tools

View more

Ahrefs has been the go-to backlink and keyword research tool for SEOs for over a decade. In 2024-2025, it expanded hard into AI search territory with Brand Radar, a feature that tracks how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It also added content creation workflows, social media management, and PPC research. The pitch is now "one platform for everything marketing" -- traditional SEO, AI search, content, and paid. Used by 44% of Fortune 500 companies, it's the safe enterprise choice. The tradeoff: it's expensive, and the AI monitoring features are newer and less deep than dedicated GEO tools.

Briljant

Briljant

Dutch GEO platform tracking AI visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity

View more

Briljant is a Netherlands-based GEO platform that does one thing: help Dutch businesses understand and improve their visibility in AI search engines. It monitors ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity, tests 3,000 prompts monthly, and provides technical and content optimization recommendations. At €399/year for a single Pro plan, it's priced for SMBs and local agencies. The interface is in Dutch, the support is local, and the GDPR compliance is baked in. It's not trying to compete with Ahrefs on SEO -- it's a focused tool for a specific market with a specific problem.

Side-by-side comparison

Head-to-head feature deep-dive

AI search monitoring

This is where the comparison gets interesting, because it's the only area where both tools actually compete.

Ahrefs Brand Radar tracks brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The data is real and useful -- you can see how often your brand appears, what context it appears in, and how you compare to competitors. The limitation is that Brand Radar uses fixed, pre-defined prompts. You can't feed it your own list of queries that matter to your business, which means you're working with Ahrefs' interpretation of what's relevant rather than your own.

Briljant takes a different approach. It tests 3,000 prompts monthly across the same three AI engines, and those prompts are more customizable to your business context. For a Dutch SMB that wants to know "does ChatGPT recommend me when someone asks for a plumber in Amsterdam?", Briljant is more directly useful. The reporting is in Dutch, the support team understands the local market, and the whole product is built around that specific use case.

Verdict: For AI monitoring depth and customization, Briljant has an edge in its target market. For global brands or teams that need AI monitoring alongside traditional SEO data, Ahrefs Brand Radar is good enough and saves you from running two tools.

Traditional SEO capabilities

Ahrefs wins this category by a wide margin -- Briljant simply doesn't play here.

Ahrefs has the web's largest backlink index (over 35 trillion links), a keyword database covering 10+ billion keywords across 170+ countries, a site audit tool that crawls and scores your technical SEO health, and a rank tracker that monitors positions across Google, Bing, and now AI search. These are mature, well-regarded tools that SEO professionals have relied on for years.

Briljant has none of this. It's not a criticism -- it's a design choice. Briljant is built for the GEO use case specifically, and adding backlink analysis or keyword research would dilute that focus.

Verdict: If you need traditional SEO tools, Ahrefs is the only option here. Briljant isn't competing.

Content tools

Ahrefs has built out a content workflow that includes AI-assisted writing, content gap analysis (comparing your content coverage to competitors'), and a content explorer that surfaces high-performing content in any niche. The AI writing tools are functional but not specialized for AI search optimization -- they're more about producing content efficiently than engineering it to get cited by LLMs.

Briljant offers optimization recommendations based on what AI engines are looking for in your content. These are more GEO-specific (structured data, entity coverage, answer formatting) but less comprehensive than a full content workflow.

Verdict: Ahrefs has more content tooling overall. Briljant's recommendations are more targeted to AI search specifically, but there's less of them.

Pricing and value

This is where the two tools diverge most sharply in terms of who they're for.

Briljant's single Pro plan at €399/year gives you full access to everything the platform offers. There's no upsell, no feature gating beyond the trial. For a Dutch SMB or small agency, that's a very reasonable price for AI visibility monitoring.

Ahrefs' pricing reflects its scope. The Starter plan at $29/month is genuinely limited -- it's more of a taste than a real tool. The Lite plan at $83/month is where most individual users start, and teams quickly find themselves on Standard ($166/month) or higher. For large agencies or enterprises, the cost climbs fast.

Verdict: Briljant is dramatically cheaper for the specific use case of AI visibility monitoring. Ahrefs is more expensive but covers far more ground.

Ease of use and onboarding

Ahrefs has improved its UX significantly over the years, but it's still a complex platform. There's a lot to learn, and new users often spend weeks figuring out which tools to use for which tasks. The documentation is excellent and there's a large community of tutorials, but the learning curve is real.

Briljant is simpler by design. Fewer features means fewer decisions. The Dutch-language interface removes friction for its target audience, and the focused scope means you're not wading through backlink reports to find your AI visibility data.

Verdict: Briljant is easier to get started with, especially for non-technical Dutch marketers. Ahrefs rewards investment in learning but takes longer to master.

Integrations and reporting

Ahrefs integrates with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and has an API for custom workflows. It exports data in multiple formats and supports white-label reporting at higher tiers.

Briljant offers AI analytics and reporting within the platform, with competitor comparison dashboards. Integration options are not publicly documented beyond the core platform.

Verdict: Ahrefs has a more mature integration ecosystem. Briljant's reporting is self-contained.

Pros and cons

Ahrefs

Pros:

• The most comprehensive SEO toolkit available -- backlinks, keywords, audits, rank tracking all in one place
• Brand Radar gives you AI search monitoring without needing a separate tool
• Trusted by Fortune 500 companies with a long track record of data accuracy
• Strong content tools and competitor analysis
• Large community, extensive documentation, active development

Cons:

• Expensive, especially for teams that need multiple seats or advanced features
• Brand Radar uses fixed prompts -- you can't customize AI monitoring queries
• No AI traffic attribution or crawler logs
• The AI monitoring features are newer and less specialized than dedicated GEO platforms
• Overkill (and overpriced) if all you need is AI visibility tracking

Briljant

Pros:

• Very affordable at €399/year for full access
• Built specifically for the Dutch/European market with local support
• 3,000 monthly prompts gives meaningful AI monitoring coverage
• Simple, focused interface with no unnecessary complexity
• GDPR-compliant and EU-hosted
• 7-day free trial with no credit card friction

Cons:

• Dutch-only interface limits usability for international teams
• No traditional SEO tools whatsoever
• Only 300+ customers -- much smaller community than Ahrefs
• Limited to three AI engines (ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity)
• No AI traffic attribution, no crawler logs, no content generation
• Single plan with no enterprise or agency tier documented

Who should pick which tool

Pick Ahrefs if:

• You need a full SEO platform and want AI monitoring included
• You're an SEO professional or agency managing multiple clients across traditional and AI search
• You're already paying for Ahrefs and want to add AI visibility without a second subscription
• You're a global brand or work outside the Netherlands
• You need backlink analysis, keyword research, or site auditing

Pick Briljant if:

• You're a Dutch business or agency focused on the Netherlands market
• AI visibility in ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity is your primary concern
• Budget is tight and you don't need traditional SEO tools
• You want a simple, focused tool with Dutch-language support
• GDPR compliance and EU data hosting are non-negotiable requirements

Consider a dedicated GEO platform if:

Neither tool fully covers the GEO action loop. Ahrefs Brand Radar shows you data but doesn't help you act on it. Briljant gives you monitoring and optimization tips but lacks content generation, AI traffic attribution, and crawler logs. If you're serious about improving your AI search visibility -- not just tracking it -- a platform like Promptwatch covers the full cycle: finding content gaps, generating content engineered to get cited by AI models, and tracking the results back to revenue.

Promptwatch

Track and optimize your brand visibility in AI search engines

View more

Final verdict

These two tools aren't really competing. Ahrefs is a mature, expensive, full-stack SEO platform that added AI monitoring as one feature among many. Briljant is a cheap, focused GEO tool built for Dutch businesses that want to know what ChatGPT says about them.

If you're a Dutch SMB or local agency and AI visibility is your main concern, Briljant at €399/year is a sensible, low-risk choice. If you're an SEO professional who needs the full toolkit and wants AI monitoring included, Ahrefs is the obvious pick despite the higher price. The only scenario where you'd genuinely be torn between them is if you're a Dutch business that also needs serious SEO capabilities -- in which case, you'd probably end up running both.