Ahrefs User Management Guide

• Model type: role-based
• Description: Ahrefs uses a two-layer permission model. The first layer is workspace-level Access Levels (Guest, Member, Admin, Owner) which determine what settings and objects a user can reach. The second layer is object-level User Roles (Editor, Object Owner) which govern what a user can do to a specific project or folder they have access to. Share settings (Private, All workspace members, Specific individuals) further control object visibility. Admins and Owners bypass share settings and can access all objects including private ones.
• Custom roles: No
• Custom roles plan: Not documented
• Granularity: Workspace-level access tiers (4 levels) combined with per-object roles (2 roles: Editor, Object Owner) and per-object share settings. Credit usage limits can be set per-user by Admins from Account Settings > Limits & Usage.

1. Log in as Owner or Admin.
2. Click workspace name in the top-right corner.
3. Navigate to Account Settings > Members tab.
4. Click 'Invite members'.
5. Enter the invitee's email address (multiple emails can be entered comma-separated in one go).
6. Select the access level for the invitee: Member, Admin, or Guest (Enterprise only).
7. Click Send / Invite.
8. Invitee receives an 'Invitation to join Ahrefs' email and must click 'Accept invitation'.
9. New Ahrefs users will be prompted to create an account; existing users log in to accept.
10. Once accepted, the invitee can switch to the workspace via the workspace switcher (top-right).

Required fields: Invitee email address, Access level (Member, Admin, or Guest)

Watch out for:

• Adding members requires a Lite or higher paid subscription; Starter plan does not support adding users.
• Annual subscribers on some legacy plans could not add seats via the UI and had to contact support; this may still apply to some older plans.
• Pending invitations (not yet accepted) are visible under a 'Pending' section in the Members tab; credit limits cannot be configured until the invitation is accepted.
• Each invited user retains their own personal workspace; they switch between their workspace and the invited workspace via the workspace switcher.
• Guest access level is exclusive to Enterprise plans.
• On credit-based plans (Lite/Starter/legacy), adding users increases potential pay-as-you-go charges based on each user's activity level.

• Can delete users: Yes
• Delete/deactivate behavior: Ahrefs uses a hard-delete model for workspace membership. There is no 'deactivate' or 'suspend' state for workspace members. Owners and Admins can permanently delete (remove) a member from the workspace. Access is revoked immediately upon deletion. The removed user's personal Ahrefs account continues to exist; only their workspace membership is terminated.

1. Log in as Owner or Admin.
2. Navigate to Account Settings > Members tab.
3. Locate the user by email.
4. Click the three-dot (⋯) menu next to the user's email.
5. Select 'Delete'.
6. When prompted, select a new owner for any objects (projects, custom issues) owned by the removed user.
7. Confirm deletion.

Watch out for:

• Access is revoked immediately upon deletion with no grace period for the removed user.
• Seat add-on billing downgrade is deferred to end of billing period even after member removal; the admin can reassign that seat in the interim.
• Admin must designate an ownership transfer target for the removed user's objects at deletion time; this step is required and cannot be skipped.
• The removed user's personal Ahrefs account (their own workspace) is not deleted; only their membership in the shared workspace is removed.
• Ownership of custom Site Audit issues created before the access-control feature launch was automatically assigned to workspace owners, which may cause unexpected ownership attribution.

• Where to check usage: Account Settings > Limits & Usage (accessible to Owners and Admins). Enterprise plans also have an Audit Log under Account Settings showing credit usage by tool or by user.
• How to identify unused seats: Review the 'Credits usage by user' section in Account Settings > Limits & Usage. Users who remain 'Inactive' (0–5 credits consumed) in a billing month have not triggered charges. Audit Log (Enterprise only) provides historical usage by user. Non-Enterprise plans only show current month usage with no historical graph.
• Billing notes: Additional users on legacy/Lite plans are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis if not prepaid. Seat add-on downgrades after member removal take effect at end of billing period, not immediately. Annual subscribers on some plans must contact support to add seats as the UI option may be greyed out. Enterprise pricing is custom and requires contacting Ahrefs sales. Price increases took effect April 22, 2024; plans purchased before that date may be on different legacy credit and seat structures.

Manual user lifecycle in Ahrefs carries compounding overhead. There is no bulk 'add to all projects' action, so admins must add members to each project individually - a friction point that scales poorly with team size.

On credit-based plans (Starter, Lite, legacy), every active member generates pay-as-you-go charges (Casual tier: +$20/month; Power tier: +$20–$60/month per user), meaning delayed offboarding directly increases spend. Seat add-on billing downgrades after member removal are deferred to end of the billing period, not applied immediately.

Ownership of the removed user's objects must be reassigned at deletion time - this step cannot be skipped and requires admin attention for every departure.

Recurring friction reported by Ahrefs users centers on three areas: project-level access management, search history visibility, and usage reporting. Admins consistently flag the absence of a bulk project-assignment feature as a significant time cost.

Search history is shared across all Members, Admins, and Owners with no granular controls, which raises data hygiene concerns for teams with contractors or external collaborators - one user described shared logins as 'a security nightmare.' Usage history beyond the current month is locked behind Enterprise's Audit Log, leaving non-Enterprise admins without the data needed to identify and reclaim inactive seats.

Common complaints:

• Enterprise-only SSO and SCIM provisioning locks out smaller teams from automated user lifecycle management.
• No bulk 'add member to all projects' feature; admins must manually add members to each project individually, which is reported as highly time-consuming for large teams.
• Search history is shared across all Members, Admins, and Owners with no granular control; users cannot restrict search history visibility from specific members.
• Audit Log (for tracking credit usage by user over time) is exclusive to Enterprise; non-Enterprise users can only see current-month usage with no historical graph.
• Annual plan subscribers previously could not add extra seats via the UI and were required to contact support, causing friction.
• No self-serve account deletion button; users must contact support to fully delete their account.
• Per-user pay-as-you-go charges on credit-based plans are opaque and can result in unexpected billing when team members become active.
• No admin-managed notification settings; each user must configure their own audit/alert notifications, which is impractical for large teams.
• Guest access (scoped per-project/folder) is Enterprise-only, making it difficult for agencies on lower plans to give clients restricted access to only their relevant workspace data.

Manual management in Ahrefs is viable for small, stable teams on Lite or Standard plans where seat counts are low and project structures are simple.

It becomes operationally expensive as headcount grows: every app that requires per-project access configuration multiplies admin time, and the absence of deactivation states means there is no safe 'pause' option for contractors or temporary users. Teams on credit-based plans face direct cost exposure from delayed offboarding.

The Guest role - the only read-only access tier - is Enterprise-exclusive, which limits access segmentation options for non-Enterprise subscribers. If your team manages more than a handful of users or has frequent onboarding and offboarding cycles, the manual path introduces meaningful risk and recurring overhead.

Bottom line

Ahrefs manual user management is straightforward for small teams but does not scale cleanly. The hard-delete offboarding model, mandatory object ownership reassignment, per-project access configuration, and pay-as-you-go charges tied to active users all create compounding admin burden as team size grows.

Non-Enterprise plans have no access to the Audit Log, Guest roles, or automated provisioning, which limits both visibility and access control granularity. Teams with frequent user turnover or contractor access needs will feel these gaps most acutely.