Ahrefs is an SEO software company known for its index of the web’s links. Dmitry Gerasimenko started it with his own money, and it is headquartered in Singapore with a largely remote team.
What it is
The company began with a crawler and a link database and later grew into a suite covering keyword research, rank tracking, site audits and competitor analysis. Its metrics, such as Domain rating, are widely used to talk about site authority, and its link index is used to study Backlink profiles.
History
In a 2019 interview, Gerasimenko said his team began building the crawler in 2010 and launched a paid service based on the link index about a year later. He moved to Singapore in 2012. He described funding the project with his own money, with initial costs of about 400,000 dollars, and refusing investment offers. At that time the team had around 45 people, most working remotely, and the head office in Singapore had about 20.
He said the company passed 40 million dollars in annual recurring revenue in 2018 and had more than 25,000 customers, and the cheapest subscription was 99 dollars a month. The company does not publish its revenue, and these are his statements.
Why it matters to founders
Ahrefs is a standard case of a bootstrapped software company that built a very expensive data asset first and a business later. It is also the main reference tool for link and authority research.
Related entries
See Dmitry Gerasimenko, Ahrefs, Domain rating and Backlink.
Ahrefs is part of Authority and links.
Sources
AIN.UA interview with Dmitry Gerasimenko, May 2019. Figures were stated by the founder. Reviewed October 2026.
