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Security report for ahrefs.com

Ahrefs · Technology · Singapore

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Ahrefs is a Singapore-based technology company founded in 2010, specializing in providing a comprehensive SaaS platform for digital marketing intelligence. The company offers a suite of SEO tools including Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, and AI-powered content helpers, serving a broad audience of digital marketers, agencies, and enterprises. With a strong market position, Ahrefs is trusted by 44% of Fortune 500 companies and maintains a consistent brand presence across multiple channels. Technically, Ahrefs leverages modern web technologies such as React, Cloudflare for hosting and security, and integrates various analytics and marketing tools including Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and LinkedIn Insight Tag. The website demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although performance metrics were not fully available. From a security perspective, the site employs several important HTTP security headers and uses HTTPS; however, the SSL certificate is currently invalid, which is a critical issue that reduces the overall security posture. Other security best practices are in place, but improvements are recommended in SSL management, OCSP stapling, and session resumption. Privacy compliance is strong with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, Ahrefs presents a high-quality, professional, and trustworthy online presence with minor technical and security issues that should be addressed to enhance user trust and security. The domain registration details align well with the company's claims, supporting its legitimacy.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of ahrefs.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching ahrefs.com

This scan found 15 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
50
Security headers
85
Email security
80
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
75

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Ahrefs operates in the technology sector, focusing on SEO and digital marketing intelligence. Its business model is subscription-based SaaS, targeting digital marketers, agencies, and enterprises. The company has established a strong competitive advantage through its extensive data collection, proprietary web crawler (AhrefsBot), and comprehensive toolset. Revenue streams likely include subscription fees and enterprise contracts. The company maintains a robust partnership ecosystem with payment processors like Stripe and email services like SendGrid. Growth indicators include a large user base (over 13,500 users joined in the last 7 days) and endorsements from notable clients and industry leaders. Strategic observations highlight Ahrefs' commitment to independence, data quality, and educational resources, positioning it as a market leader in SEO tools.

Security posture

The security maturity of Ahrefs is moderate. The presence of strict security headers and HSTS indicates good security awareness. However, the invalid SSL certificate is a significant vulnerability that undermines HTTPS trust and could expose users to man-in-the-middle attacks. The absence of OCSP stapling and session resumption mechanisms suggests room for improvement in SSL/TLS performance and security. The site does not expose sensitive data or show signs of known vulnerabilities. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are well implemented, supporting compliance with GDPR. Incident response and security policy pages were not found, indicating potential gaps in formal security governance documentation. Overall, while the site follows many best practices, addressing SSL issues and enhancing security documentation would improve its security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Renew and properly configure the SSL certificate to ensure valid HTTPS connections.
  2. Enable OCSP stapling to improve SSL certificate validation performance.
  3. Implement session resumption mechanisms such as session tickets or session cache.
  4. Review and correct CAA DNS records to valid entries to control certificate issuance.
  5. Enable or update XSS protection headers or enhance Content Security Policy to mitigate cross-site scripting risks.
  6. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan to improve transparency and preparedness.
  7. Maintain and regularly update privacy and cookie policies to ensure ongoing compliance with evolving regulations.
  8. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities.
  9. Enhance performance monitoring and optimization to improve load times and user experience.
  10. Continue investment in accessibility and SEO best practices to maintain high quality and reach.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Ahrefs Pte. Ltd.
Registration number
201227417H
Technical notes

Notes

Ahrefs' website is built on a modern technology stack including React and is hosted behind Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The site uses various third-party services for analytics (Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight), customer support (Intercom), and payment processing (Stripe). The presence of CookieYes indicates compliance with cookie consent requirements. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with comprehensive SEO metadata including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data for organization and social profiles. Performance metrics were not available, but the site appears well-structured and professionally designed. Technical risks include an invalid SSL certificate and missing SSL optimizations. The site uses extensive CSS and JavaScript for a rich user interface, with no obvious broken elements detected. Overall, the technical implementation is robust but requires attention to SSL and performance details.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 83/100 +2Low23 findingsView report
  2. 81/100 +4Low24 findingsView report
  3. 77/100 +2Low27 findingsView report
  4. 75/100 −1Medium22 findingsView report
  5. 76/100 +3Low26 findingsView report
  6. 73/100Medium23 findingsView report
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