Call or WhatsApp us anytime
Mail Us For Support
Call or WhatsApp us anytime
Mail Us For Support
Features and prices below reflect what vendors and independent reviews published as of early October 2026, the most current data available at the time of writing. Several vendors changed pricing or free allowances this year, so confirm figures on each vendor’s own page before buying.
A backlink analysis tool reports which sites link to a domain or page, how many unique referring domains that includes, which anchor text those links use, and how strong each source looks by a vendor metric such as Domain Rating, Authority Score, or Trust Flow. Free tools such as Google Search Console and Ahrefs Free mostly cover links to sites you own. Paid platforms such as Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz let you look up any domain, track new and lost links, and export the results.
The short answer is that free tools show your own links, paid tools show anyone’s, and no tool sees every link. The nine tools below span first-party free data, commercial indexes with free allowances, and full paid platforms, and the sections that follow explain how to match each one to a specific job.
Vendors compete on index size. Semrush claims 43 trillion links from 390 million referring domains, while Ahrefs claims 35 trillion links from 500 million referring domains, and neither publishes a methodology, according to SEOmator’s 2026 comparison. Size alone does not settle which index is better, and three small tests point in different directions.
Xamsor, working with Empire Flippers in February 2024, compared 107 websites: Semrush discovered 6.93 million links against 2.43 million for Ahrefs, and found more links for 93 of the 107 sites. The Upper Ranks crawled 10,000 links reported by each tool and counted dead ones: Ahrefs had 829, Majestic 1,729, Moz 1,761, and Semrush 1,927. A June 2024 benchmark of 5,000 known backlinks, reported by Moody Media, put detection accuracy at 93.7 percent for Ahrefs, 88.3 for Majestic, 86.8 for Moz, and 85.2 for Semrush.
These results are compatible once the question is clear. One test measured how many links a tool discovers, another how many reported links are still live, and another how many known links a tool detects. Semrush led on volume while Ahrefs led on live-link accuracy. Each test is small, dated, or secondhand, so the practical reading is to choose a tool by the quality that matters for the job, not by a single winner.
1Solutions’ August 2026 comparison, one of the pages reviewed in full for this article, states that Bing Webmaster Tools only shows data for your own verified properties and offers no competitor analysis. Rank Math’s documentation and a 2026 Global Media Insight setup guide describe the opposite: a Backlinks to any site tab that compares your profile with up to two other sites, listing top referring domains and anchor text, with a filter that shows domains linking to a competitor but not to you.
That matters because it is a free route to a competitor link gap. Bing’s index is smaller than Ahrefs’, so counts are directional, but directional data is enough to decide whether a competitor is worth studying with a paid tool. The same page lists Moz paid plans from $99 a month, while a September 17, 2026 check by Search Scientists found a $49 Starter tier, and it does not mention Ahrefs’ new $29 Starter plan.
Three questions turn a long tool list into a short, defensible stack.
A pattern observed across client work is teams buying one large index and using it for every job, then finding its blind spots only after an outreach list or disavow file has already gone out. Matching the tool to the job before the first export avoids that.
Best for competitor research and tracking new or lost links. Site Explorer’s backlinks report filters by link type, status, and domain strength. Its public checker shows only the top of a profile, and reported caps range from 20 to 100 backlinks across roundups. Plans were reported in September 2026 at Starter $29, Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449, and Enterprise $1,499 a month. The $29 entry tier is new, so older reviews calling Ahrefs unaffordable for small sites are out of date.
Best for link gap analysis and disavow workflows. Backlink Analytics, Backlink Audit, and Backlink Gap cover prospecting and cleanup, and the audit integrates with Search Console and Google’s disavow tool. Semrush repackaged its plans on August 3, 2026, and the lineup is now SEO at $139, Starter at $199, Pro+ at $299, and Advanced at $549 a month. Free accounts allow 10 reports a day across all tools with no export, though one roundup describes the limit as ten results per query.
Best for vetting prospects. Link Explorer reports Domain Authority, Page Authority, and spam score, plus a link intersect view that shows domains linking to competitors but not to you. A free community account allows about 10 queries a month at roughly 50 rows each. Moz Pro was reported at $49 Starter, $99 Standard, $179 Medium, and $299 Large. One independent comparison says its index updates weekly, which can lag fast-moving campaigns.
Best for link quality checks. Trust Flow and Citation Flow separate link quality from volume, and a domain with high Citation Flow and very low Trust Flow signals bulk low-quality links. A Fresh Index updates daily alongside a Historic Index. Plans were reported at Lite $49.99, Pro $99.99, and API $399.99 a month, with annual billing near $41.67 for Lite. It covers backlinks only, so pair it with a tool that handles discovery.
Best for agencies watching several sites. Backlink Monitor alerts on gained and lost links, and white-label reporting suits client work. Its index is reported at 2.9 trillion links from 400 million domains, smaller than Ahrefs’ or Majestic’s, so large audits may hit gaps. Entry pricing is reported anywhere from about $52 to $65 a month depending on billing cycle and promotions, and a 14-day trial replaces a standing free tier.
Best as a readable first look. It shows referring domains, domain score, and anchor text in a simple dashboard. Free searches are reported at about three a day by several roundups and one a day for unregistered visitors by another, so check the cap on the day you use it. The Individual plan was $29 a month in September 2026, and older reviews quoting $12 are stale. Its index is thinner than the top platforms, so verify important findings elsewhere.
Best ground truth for your own site. The Links report lists top linking sites, top linked pages, and anchor text from Google’s own data, with the top 1,000 linking sites shown as a sample, not an exhaustive list. It covers only verified properties and offers no quality metric or competitor view. Verifying early matters, since the baseline it provides cannot be reconstructed after a problem appears.
Best free commercial index for your own domains. Formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, it is free for verified sites, shows up to 1,000 backlinks and 1,000 keywords at once in Site Explorer, and includes 5,000 monthly Site Audit crawl credits. The limit is scope, not data quality: you see your own site in depth and everyone else’s barely at all. Comparing its referring domains with the Search Console list shows where the two sources disagree.
Best free directional competitor comparison. The Backlinks report covers your own links and, through the Backlinks to any site tab, up to two competitors, with top referring domains and anchor text and a filter for domains not linking to you. Bing’s crawl is smaller than Ahrefs’, so counts are directional. It costs ten minutes of verification and fills a gap that most free tools leave open.
| Tool | Free Access | Reported Paid Price | Best Job |
| Ahrefs | Public checker shows only the top of a profile | Starter $29 to Enterprise $1,499/mo | Competitor research and new or lost link tracking |
| Semrush | 10 reports per day across all tools, no export | $139 to $549/mo after the August 2026 repackaging | Link gap analysis and disavow workflows |
| Moz Pro | 10 queries a month, about 50 rows each | $49 to $299/mo | Vetting a prospect with Domain Authority and spam score |
| Majestic | Sampled public data | Lite $49.99/mo | Link quality checks with Trust Flow and Citation Flow |
| SE Ranking | 14-day trial | Entry plan about $52 to $65/mo | Agency monitoring and white-label reports |
| Ubersuggest | About 3 searches a day, reported cap varies | $29/mo Individual | A readable first look for beginners |
| Google Search Console | Fully free, your own site | None | Ground truth for the links Google reports |
| Ahrefs Free | Fully free, verified sites | None | A commercial index pointed at your own site |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Fully free, own site plus two competitors | None | Free directional competitor comparison |
Google Search Console is the best free source of truth for your own links, since it reports what Google records. Ahrefs Free adds a commercial index for verified sites, showing up to 1,000 backlinks at once, and Bing Webmaster Tools adds a free comparison against up to two competitors.
Yes, within limits. Bing Webmaster Tools compares your profile with up to two other sites, Moz allows about 10 free queries a month, and Semrush’s free account allows 10 reports a day across all tools. Free competitor data is sampled, so treat counts as directional.
No single answer holds. One test found Semrush discovered more links across 107 sites, while two others found Ahrefs had fewer dead links or higher detection of known links. Each test is small or dated, so match the tool to the job and cross-check important findings.
No. Every tool reports from its own crawl, so two tools often give different referring-domain counts for the same site on the same day. Free tiers add a second limit by capping how many of the found links you can view, from about 50 to 1,000 rows.
Reported entry prices include Ahrefs from $29 (Lite at $129), Semrush from $139 after its August 2026 repackaging, Moz from $49, Majestic at $49.99, and Ubersuggest at $29. Several vendors changed pricing this year, so confirm current figures on each vendor’s own page.
For serious work, yes. Pair a free first-party source such as Search Console with one paid index, because no crawl sees the whole web. Cross-referencing two sources tends to surface more referring domains than either finds alone, and the differences between them are worth a manual look.
Analysis tools show who links to a site, but earning those links still depends on outreach and placements. Stay Digital Marketers works on that side of the process, including guest posting, press release distribution, SaaS backlinks, niche edits, multilingual backlinks, Wikipedia page creation, and Google Knowledge Panel creation, alongside complete SEO services, so the gaps a tool reveals can be built into real links.
Filza Taj is an MPhil in Human Resources-turned SEO Specialist, Content Strategist, and Digital Marketing Consultant with over 5 years of experience helping businesses in 30+ countries grow online. As the Founder of Stay Digital Marketers (staydigitalmarketers.com), she delivers results-driven solutions in link building, guest posting, PR distribution, niche edits, multilingual backlinks, and content marketing. She publishes daily SEO insights and actionable strategies to help brands strengthen their online presence, attract the right audience, and convert clicks into loyal customers.
Filza@staydigitalmarketers.com
Stay Digital Marketers
Need SEO, Link Building or Digital Marketing Services?
Request a Free Audit →
