Manually checking backlinks is tiring and can be very time-consuming and without the right insights, you might also lose valuable opportunities. You require a tool that does more than just monitor your backlinks, but also assists you in assessing their drive and identifying new link-building opportunities.

A backlink checker tool makes this process easier by locating, tracking, and assessing your backlinks in a matter of seconds. Here are the top tools to help you stay a step ahead of your competition and bolster your SEO strategy.

What Are Backlink Checker Tools?

Backlink checker tools are software applications designed to analyze and track the backlinks pointing to your website. They provide insights into who is linking to you, the quality of those links, and how they impact your search rankings.

They also allow you to scan competitors’ backlinks, identify new link-building prospects, and enhance your SEO strategy. With regular monitoring of backlinks, you can identify toxic links, track lost links, and enhance your link profile.

Top 10 Backlink Checker Tools

Below, we’ve compiled 10 of the best tools to help you analyze, monitor, and optimize your link-building efforts effectively.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful backlink checker tools, known for its massive link database and accurate backlink analysis. It helps you track your backlinks, analyze competitors’ link-building strategies, and identify lost or broken links.

Free Version– Yes, with very limited functionality.
Paid Plans

Ahrefs is an advanced SEO tool, not just a backlink checker, which helps assist businesses and marketers improve their search ranking and link building strategies. 

With a huge database and comprehensive tracking functionality, this powerful tool delivers detailed backlink information, competitor analysis, and SEO performance metrics.

1️. Comprehensive Backlink Report

Ahrefs provides a detailed backlink overview through its Site Explorer. By heading to the “Backlinks” section, you can view every site that links to a particular URL or domain. 

Thanks to its advanced filtering and sorting system, you can easily identify valuable and spammy links, which lets you analyze backlinks based on domain rating, anchor text, link type, and more.

2️. Find Competitors’ Backlinks

Want to know where your competitors are getting their backlinks? Ahrefs lets you analyze competitor backlink profiles and uncover high-authority websites linking to them. 

By studying their link sources, you can identify outreach opportunities and replicate their best backlinks.

3️. Monitor Backlink Profile Changes

Backlinks can disappear or change over time, affecting your SEO. Ahrefs tracks new, lost, and broken backlinks, helping you recover lost links and maintain a healthy link profile. 

You’ll also get real-time updates on changes in your backlink structure.

4️. Domain & URL Rating

Not all backlinks are equal. Every site receives a Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) from Ahrefs to help you estimate the strength and authority of a site.

This aids you in targeting high-quality backlinks that influence rankings.

5️. Historical Backlink Data

Want to see how your backlink profile has evolved? Ahrefs provides historical data so you can track growth trends, lost links, and changes over time, helping you refine your long-term SEO strategy.

6️. Anchor Text Analysis

Understanding how sites link to you is crucial. Ahrefs breaks down anchor text usage, showing whether links are branded, keyword-rich, or generic. This helps ensure your backlink profile looks natural and optimized for SEO.

Ahrefs combines powerful backlink tracking, competitor analysis, and ranking insights, making it a go-to tool for SEO professionals, businesses, and marketers. 

There’s a lot more to explore in Ahrefs! From advanced backlink tracking to in-depth SEO analysis, this tool offers a wide range of features to refine your strategy.

Watch this video to learn more about Ahrefs: Watch Here. Now, let’s explore the next backlink checker tool!

2. SEMrush 

SEMrush is a multi-purpose SEO tool that provides in-depth backlink analysis, competitor analysis, and link-building opportunities. With its large backlink database, it enables users to track new and lost links, link profile checks, and find competitor tactics to maximize SEO.

Free Version – Limited functionality available.
Paid Plans

While Ahrefs and SEMrush share common features like backlink analytics, competitor tracking, and historical link data, SEMrush offers additional tools that go beyond standard backlink checking.

1️. Backlink Gap Tool

SEMrush allows you to compare your backlink profile with a number of competitors at once. It displays authoritative sites linking to your competitors but not to you so that you can easily identify missed link-building opportunities at once.

2️. Link Building Tool 

Ahrefs provides backlink tracking, but SEMrush takes it a step further with built-in link-building outreach tools. You can:

• Find link-building prospects within SEMrush.
• Send outreach emails directly from the platform.
• Track responses and manage your outreach in one place.

This eliminates the need for third-party outreach tools, making SEMrush a one-stop solution for backlink acquisition.

3️. Toxic Link Detection & Disavow Feature

Unlike Ahrefs, SEMrush automatically assigns a Toxic Score to backlinks, flagging links that could harm your rankings or lead to penalties. 

It also allows you to export a ready-to-upload disavow file for Google, ensuring fast and safe link cleanup.

5️. Integration with Google Tools for Better Tracking

SEMrush seamlessly integrates with Google Search Console and Google Analytics, pulling real-time backlink data directly into its reports. This helps users track backlinks, referral traffic, and link performance in one dashboard, making SEO monitoring much more efficient.

SEMrush is not just a backlink checker—it’s a complete SEO and link-building solution. With its outreach automation, toxic link detection, and backlink gap tool, it’s an ideal choice for those looking to actively build and manage high-quality backlinks.

Want to explore SEMrush in action? Watch this video: Watch Here. Now, let’s check out the next backlink checker tool! 

3. Moz Pro

Moz Pro is a multi-purpose SEO tool that offers backlink analysis, keyword tracking, and site audits in an easy-to-use interface. Ahrefs and SEMrush are designed for professional SEO users, but Moz Pro is simpler to use for beginners and is thus ideal for new backlink tracking and SEO users.

Free Access? – Free account available with limited searches, but no full free version.
Paid Plans

Moz Pro is a strong choice for those who prefer a simplified backlink checker with DA/PA metrics and spam detection without the overwhelming complexity of more advanced tools.

1️. DA & PA Scores: Moz Pro’s Domain Authority (DA) & Page Authority (PA) measure website and page strength, helping prioritize high-quality backlinks.
2. Link Explorer: Offers a clean backlink report with referring domains, anchor texts, lost/new links, and Spam Score detection.

3. Spam Score: Uses 27+ ranking factors to detect risky backlinks, helping users filter out harmful links before they impact SEO.
4. Link Intersect: Finds websites linking to competitors but not you, making it easier to target potential link-building opportunities.
5. Simple Interface: Compared to Ahrefs and SEMrush, Moz Pro is beginner-friendly, offering quick, easy-to-navigate backlink insights.

Moz Pro is perfect for beginners and marketers who need straightforward backlink tracking. While it doesn’t offer a fully free backlink checker, it’s still a valuable tool for analyzing link quality, identifying spam risks, and tracking competitor backlinks.

Now, let’s move on to the next backlink checker tool!

4. Majestic SEO 

Majestic SEO is a specialized backlink checker and nothing else other than link analysis. It is an in-depth link intelligence that also offers trust scores and a history of backlinks, and due to this feature, it has gained popularity with SEO experts as well as with link builders.

Free Version? – Limited access available.
Paid Plans 

Majestic specializes in deep backlink research and domain authority analysis, making it a powerful tool for those who need in-depth link insights without extra SEO features.

1️. Trust Flow & Citation Flow: Majestic’s Trust Flow (TF) & Citation Flow (CF) scores measure a website’s authority and link quality. Trust Flow indicates link trustworthiness, while Citation Flow reflects link quantity. High TF + CF balance signals a strong, credible site.
2️. Historic & Fresh Index
Majestic offers two backlink indexes:

• Fresh Index – Shows recently discovered backlinks.
• Historical Index – Provides years of backlink history, useful for tracking long-term link-building trends.

3️. Topical Trust Flow: A unique feature that categorizes backlinks by industry, helping SEOs understand niche relevance. This is particularly useful for evaluating competitor link profiles and targeting industry-specific backlinks.
4️. Bulk Backlink Checker: Majestic allows bulk domain analysis, letting users compare multiple sites’ backlink profiles at once—ideal for agencies and large-scale link analysis.
5️. Link Context & Site Explorer: Majestic shows where backlinks appear on a page (e.g., sidebar, content, footer) and whether they are surrounded by other outbound links, helping SEOs assess link value and placement.

5. SE Ranking 

SE Ranking is an affordable SEO tool offering backlink monitoring, keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audits. It provides necessary backlink tracking capabilities at a fraction of the price — a good pick for small companies and individual marketers in search of a budget-friendly SEO tool.

Free Version? – No, but offers a 14-day free trial.
Paid Plans

Features:

Here are the key features that make SE Ranking a solid choice:

• Tracks new, lost, and existing backlinks, helping maintain a healthy link profile.
• Provides detailed reports on anchor text, link status, and domain authority.
• Allows bulk backlink checks, useful for agencies and marketers handling multiple domains.
• Evaluate backlink strength using Domain Trust, Page Trust, and Alexa Rank.
• Includes rank tracking, keyword research, and website audits, making it a cost-effective SEO suite.

SE Ranking is ideal for those looking for an affordable yet functional backlink checker that also includes additional SEO tools to improve website performance.

If you’re looking for more backlink checker options, there are still plenty of great tools available. Let’s move on to the next one and see what it has to offer!

6. Google Search Console 

Google provides a completely free tool called Google Search Console (GSC) to allow website owners to monitor backlinks, search performance, and even some indexing issues.

This makes it an ideal tool to check backlinks for your own domain, unlike paid tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush, where you can only check backlinks for sites that you own. This allows you to keep track of your site link profile straight from Google’s database. 

Free Version? – Yes, 100% free.
Paid Plans – None, all features are free.

1️. Check Backlinks for Your Own Website: GSC allows you to see who is linking to your site, but you cannot use it to check competitor backlinks like other paid tools.
2️. Verified Data Directly from Google: Since GSC pulls data directly from Google’s index, the backlink reports are 100% accurate and reliable, without third-party estimates.
3️. Top Linking Sites & Pages: You can track which websites link to you the most and see which of your pages have the highest number of backlinks.
4️. Internal Link Insights: Along with external backlinks, GSC provides internal linking data, helping you optimize your site structure and improve navigation.
5️. Downloadable Backlink Reports: GSC allows you to export your backlink data, making it easy to analyze and share with your SEO team.
6️. Disavow Tool Support: While GSC doesn’t have a built-in toxic link detection feature, you can manually disavow spammy backlinks using Google’s Disavow Tool.

Google Search Console is a great free option for monitoring your site’s backlinks, but if you need competitor analysis or deeper filtering, let’s check out the next backlink checker tool! 

7. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is an all-in-one link-tracing tool and specialist in content exploration and analytics. This allows online marketers to know whenever someone links back to their content, to see what successful articles look like, and to find influencers for outreach. 

This tool also differs from traditional approaches, such as backlink checkers like Ahrefs or SEMrush, as it focuses on content-driven link-building insights, making it useful for content marketers, PR teams, or bloggers.

Free Version? – Yes, but with limited searches per day.
Paid Plans 

What BuzzSumo Offers

Here are the key features that make BuzzSumo stand out for content-driven backlink analysis:

• Track Backlinks on High-Performing Content: Find backlinks for any blog post, article, or webpage, helping you understand which content is attracting the most links.
• Analyze Competitor Content & Backlinks: See what competitor content is getting the most backlinks and use those insights to refine your own link-building strategy.
• Discover Influencers & Journalists Linking to Your Content: Unlike other backlink checkers, BuzzSumo helps you identify key influencers, bloggers, and journalists linking to content in your niche—making outreach easier.
• Monitor Brand Mentions & Unlinked Backlinks: Track where your brand is mentioned online and find unlinked mentions, turning them into backlink opportunities.
• Find Trending Topics for Link Building: BuzzSumo’s Content Analyzer shows which topics and articles are gaining the most backlinks, helping you create more link-worthy content.

BuzzSumo is perfect for content marketers and brands looking to leverage high-quality content for backlinks. While it’s not a traditional backlink checker, it’s one of the best tools for content-driven link-building strategies.

Now, let’s check out the next backlink checker tool! 

8. Linkody 

Simple to track and monitor backlinks as Linkody is a lightweight backlink checker. This tool is well-suited to small businesses, bloggers, and SEO experts who require a straightforward and efficient solution, as it specializes in automated backlink monitoring. 

Free Version? – No, but you can get a 30-day free trial.
Paid Plans 

Key Features of Linkody

Linkody is designed for quick and effortless backlink tracking. Here’s what makes it a great choice:

• Automated Backlink Monitoring – Tracks new, lost, and changed backlinks with real-time updates.
• Backlink Quality Insights – Pulls data from Moz, Majestic, and Ahrefs, providing insights on Domain Authority, Spam Score, and anchor text usage.
• Toxic Link Alerts – Detects spammy or harmful links and allows you to disavow them directly from the platform.
• Competitor Backlink Tracking – Lets you monitor competitor backlinks, helping you uncover new link-building opportunities.
• Customizable White-Label Reports – Generates professional backlink reports, perfect for SEO agencies and businesses.

Linkody is ideal for users who need a straightforward, automated backlink tracker without the complexity of large SEO suites. If you’re looking for an affordable, hands-off solution for monitoring your backlinks, this tool is worth considering.

If you’re looking for even more backlink tracking options, let’s take a look at the next tool! 

9. Seobility

Seobility is a user-friendly SEO tool that offers backlink analysis, site audits, and rank tracking at an affordable price. It’s a great choice for small businesses, bloggers, and marketers looking for a simple yet effective backlink checker to monitor and improve their link profile.

Free Version? – Yes, with limited access. You can check up to three backlinks per day.
Paid Plans 

Why Use Seobility?

Here are the key features that make Seobility a great choice for backlink analysis:

• Backlink Analysis & Tracking – Monitors new and lost backlinks, showing link strength and domain authority.
• Competitor Backlink Comparison – Lets you analyze competitor backlinks and discover new link-building opportunities.
• Toxic Link Detection – Identifies harmful or spammy links that could negatively impact your rankings.
• Link Building Suggestions – Provides recommendations for acquiring high-quality backlinks based on competitor data.
• Integrated SEO Suite – Includes on-page SEO analysis, rank tracking, and website audits for an all-in-one SEO solution.

Seobility is a solid choice for beginners and businesses looking for a budget-friendly tool that covers both backlinks and SEO audits. If you need a tool that balances simplicity with useful features, Seobility is worth exploring.

Seobility offers a great mix of backlink tracking and SEO insights. Now, let’s explore another powerful backlink checker!

10. SEOptimer 

SEOptimer – A Lightweight SEO Tool for Backlink Analysis, Website Audits, And Keyword Tracking So small businesses, freelancers, and marketers seeking a no-fuss and quick-&-easy tool will find it a handy choice for performing quick-backlink checks and general site performance analysis. 

📌Did you know? MonitorBacklinks.com was a standalone Backlink Monitoring Tool that was acquired and merged into the SEOptimer platform, enhancing its backlink tracking capabilities.

Free Version? – Yes, but with limited access.
Paid Plans

Why Choose SEOptimer?

Below are some key features that make SEOptimer a great option for backlink analysis:

1. Backlink Checking & Monitoring – Tracks new and lost backlinks, helping you manage your link profile.
2. Competitor Link Insights – Lets you analyze competitor backlinks and find potential link-building opportunities.
3. On-Page SEO Analysis – Offers site audits, keyword tracking, and performance reports alongside backlink monitoring.
4. Toxic Link Detection – Identifies spammy or low-quality links that might affect search rankings.
5. User-Friendly Interface – Provides a clean, easy-to-use dashboard perfect for beginners.

SEOptimer is a great choice for those who need a simple, cost-effective backlink checker along with basic SEO insights. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to monitor backlinks, this tool is worth considering.

The right backlink checker tool depends on your needs—whether you require advanced analysis, content-driven tracking, budget-friendly monitoring, or free insights, each tool plays a role in strengthening your SEO and link-building strategy. 

Choosing the Right Backlink Checker Tool

The best backlink checker tool depends on your specific needs and budget. Here’s how to decide:

• Need deep backlink analysis? Choose a tool with a large database and historical link tracking, like Ahrefs or Majestic.
• Looking for an all-in-one SEO tool? Opt for SEMrush or SE Ranking, which combines backlink tracking with keyword research, site audits, and more.
• Focused on content-driven link-building? BuzzSumo is ideal for tracking backlinks on viral content and influencer mentions.
• Want an affordable backlink tracker? Linkody and Seobility offer budget-friendly options with essential backlink monitoring.
• Prefer a free tool? Google Search Console provides basic backlink data for your own site without cost.

Each tool serves a different purpose, so pick one that aligns with your SEO strategy and link-building goals.

Conclusion

Backlinks play a crucial role in SEO success, helping websites build authority, credibility, and rankings. A good backlink checker alerts you to the bad ones and ensures you monitor, analyze, and optimize your link profile. 

However, tracking backlinks is only part of the equation; acquiring high-quality links is the true game-changer. If you have the right strategy in place, you don’t have to search for link-building opportunities manually.

That’s where Outreach Monks can help. With proven expertise in organic link-building, we assist businesses in earning authoritative backlinks that strengthen SEO performance.

Ready to improve your backlink strategy? Let Outreach Monks help you build strong, high-quality links that enhance your search rankings.

FAQs on Backlink Checker Tools