7 Best Backlink Checker Tools (Free & Premium) For 2018

7 Best Backlink Checker Tools (Free & Premium) For 2018 1Backlinks remain the most important ranking factor. But it can harm your ranking if you are not getting quality backlinks. As a blogger or a website owner, it’s your responsibility to check your backlinks to make sure you have a good backlink profile.

On the other hand, it’s important to check the competitors’ backlinks to find new backlinks opportunities.

While you can get some ideas of your backlinks from Google Search Console, it’s not the best tool to check the backlinks. There are some awesome backlink checker tools. I did research on several tools to find the best backlink checker tools. Here I’ll be sharing my results.

Let’s take a quick look at the best backlink check tools.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the best SEO tool for in-depth backlink research. Its blazing fast crawler seems to catch up with Google soon :) 4.1 million pages a minute is an easy meat for it. Unlike other backlink checkers, Ahrefs can crawl even JavaScript pages besides traditional HTML.

Thanks to 15-minute updates of Ahrefs database, you’ll get the first-hand info about new, broken, and lost backlinks. No more guesswork on why a backlink suddenly disappeared – link loss reasons are in clear view.

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This tool is especially convenient for time- and goal-oriented research. Just set a specific timeframe and filter backlinks by their type (dofollow, nofollow, redirect, educational, etc), platform (blogs, ecommerce, WordPress, etc), and language.

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Ahrefs can be your secret agent to get into competitors’ backlink profiles. It will keep you up on their new and lost links by email. You’ll also see where they get dofollow links from and which of their referring domains don’t link to you. Just add competitors’ domains to the Link Intersect report. It’ll be your goldmine of link opportunities.

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Note that you can monitor referring domains with Ahrefs too. There is a simple SEO formula. Your backlink profile will be stronger if it has one backlink from many domains rather than many backlinks from one domain.

You can try Ahref for 7 days for $7.

Open Site Explorer is a free backlink checker tool by Moz.com. It helps you to track the backlinks of your site & your competitors’ sites. It’s very useful tools get link building opportunities.

It shows the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) of a site which helps you to understand the strength of domain and page.

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Unlike other backlinks checker, it doesn’t show a lot of links. But it shows the high-quality backlinks of a site. You can check backlinks based on follow, rel=nofollow, 301, and 302 redirection.

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This tool allows you to check backlinks several times a day for free. You need to upgrade to Moz Pro to run unlimited reports.

3. SEMrush

SEMrush is a great tool for keyword researching and competitors analysis. It has a powerful website backlink checker tool that allows you to check backlinks, anchors, referring domains, referring IPs, etc for a blog/site.

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SEMrush has a backlinks comparison tool that allows you to compare your backlinks with other. It’s a handy tool to compare your site with competitors.

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4. Majestic

Majestic is another great SEO Backlink Checker. The interface of the tool may seem a bit clumsy to you. But it has everything you need to know about backlinks. In fact, I’ve found that it shows more backlinks than others.

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It allows you to check backlinks for free. But you need to create a free account and verify your domains. You can also see the deleted backlinks.

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Majestic has the largest database of backlinks.

5. OpenLinkProfiler

OpenLinkProfiler is the best free backlinks checker tool that shows freshest backlinks only. You can get up to 200,000 fresh links for a site and download 1,000 links in .csv format.

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As it shows the new backlinks only that has been active for last 90 days, the total backlinks count will be lesser than the other tools. But you will get a good idea of active backlinks. It shows “Link Influence Score” for every link which helps you to determine the quality of a backlink.

6. BackLinkWatch

BackLinkWatch is a decent tool to check backlinks of a website. It’s a simple tool, but the problem its interface is bombarded with Ads.

It shows authoritative backlinks mostly. But some of those links are old and inactive.

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However, it uses Ahref’s API. So the results are pretty trustable.

7. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a great tool to analyze content and find influencers. But you can also use it to check the backlinks of any URL or domain. For this, you need to use the BuzzSumo Pro version. And the good news is, BuzzSumo offers 14 days free trial for pro version without adding a credit card.

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You can search backlinks based on date. However, it’s not the right tool if you want to check the nofollow or dofollow link.

Conclusion

So these are the tools that can help you to check your site’s backlinks.

In my research, I’ve found that Ahrefs has the handiest backlink checker tool. But SEMrush is my personal favorite.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Do you know any other backlinks checker tools? Or which one is your favorite tool? Let us know via comment.

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35 responses to “7 Best Backlink Checker Tools (Free & Premium) For 2018”

  1. Matthew Woodward Avatar

    Hey Istiak

    Thanks for the list of backlink checker tools!

    I’m pleased that Ahrefs is top of the list! Did you see the results of my updated million domain test for Ahrefs/Majestic?

    The results were quite interesting – https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ahrefs-versus-majestic.jpg

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Good to see that Ahref won in your test. And really happy to see you here.

  2. Noman Avatar

    Hey Istiak Rayhan,
    Great list.According to my research ahrefs best backlink checker tool, unfortunately, price is very high not suitable for newbie blogger but worth the money.I don’t want to pay monthly membership fee.could you please suggest me on time investment backlink checker tool or software?
    Anyways, Thanks for the useful stuff

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      You can try SEMrush.

  3. REkalit Avatar

    Hey, I read some of your posts and I really like your content for me ahrefs and semrush both are pretty good but if someone does not have money then openlinkprofiler is the best one can use.

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Thanks for reading and commenting. However, I’d recommend you to use your real name rather than your blog name. Akismet might put you on the spam list because of not using a real name. Thanks. Happy blogging!

  4. ratul Avatar
    ratul

    I’m using ahrefs and i find it’s good

  5. Diana Avatar

    Wonderful! Thanks for this list. I’d also add SE Ranking backlink checker to this list. My team’s been using it for several months and we think it’s a very strong software.

  6. alaminteak Avatar

    Thanks For Sharing. May I know, where i can buy high quality of backlink for my site. Thanks.. :-)

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      I have no idea bro. I never bought a single backlink.

  7. Klaas Koopman Avatar

    I’m a huge fan of semrush, but for backlinks I tend to use Ahrefs a lot more!

  8. Asad Rai Avatar
    Asad Rai

    Ahref is the best tool in my point of view. Semrush and other tools are good but I like ahref. If you want to buy a backlink checker tool or for keyword research tool then go for ahref.

  9. Miroslav Avatar

    Great, thanks for this presentation. I think AHrefs ist the best and quickest.
    If i am wrong it would be nice if some would reply my comment.

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Yes, you are right. Ahrefs is the best.

  10. Pankaj Dhawan Avatar

    I don’t think BackLinkWatch is a good choice to be included. It is just not the right tool for checking backlinks and I personally like Ahrefs and soon going to try SEMRush myself as well.

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Try SerpStat too. You will love it.

  11. Nikhil Avatar

    SerpStat is much better than others… Thanks for taking your time to cover this helpful post for newbie and experienced bloggers…Thanks !!!

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      I will be adding SerpStat on the list soon.

  12. DAXAF Avatar
    DAXAF

    Hi, Istiak!

    Firstly, thanks for your list of backlink check tools. All of them are really great for pro bloggers but newbies are complicated.

    Surprisingly, I’m very happy with SerpStat which recommended by Kenneth because it offers many features as close as Ahref. Even, it’s not the best but it still worth a try.

    Best regard!

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      SerpStat is awesome. It is the best alternative to SEMrush and Ahrefs.

  13. Rene Asmussen Avatar

    Excellent post. I use Ahrefs. Been pretty happy for it until now.

  14. Kenneth Purser Avatar

    Hey Istiak,

    I’m using SerpStat from few days, and I found a great deal from Appsumo. This is lifetime offer, and You can now check on Appsumo website to get this offer as soon as possible. This tool is actually recommended to newbie bloggers. Because most of the new bloggers do not have money to buy expensive tools like Ahref, SEMrush, and Majestic. This tool is recommended to new bloggers.

    Thanks

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Great deal. Bought the plan. Thanks for letting me know.

    2. DAXAF Avatar
      DAXAF

      Oh! Really surprising for your recommendation. That’s a great alternative to Ahref and SEMrush. I really like SerpStat, it works much close to those expensive tools which is good enough for newbies.

      Thanks, Kenneth!

  15. Asif Srabon Avatar

    Thanks for this post. I love Semrush and also using this. Semrush help me lots.

  16. Finnich Avatar

    I love these tools as they are best for backlink check. But I am using Free version right now. Do you think as a new blogger I should invest in Pro tools as they are high in price?

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      When you are on a budget, you don’t need to invest money in such tools. But you can always take the free trial advantage.

  17. Alamin Hossain Avatar

    Hi Istiak Rayhan,
    I am a new blogger and I have no enough idea about Backlink. So, Why we should check Backlink of our site?

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      A backlink is a link that one site gets from another site. For example, if I add a link of your site on my blog, you will get a backlink from my blog. Now if my blog is a spammy site, the backlink will be considered as a bad backlink. And that link might hurt your ranking. One of the reasons of checking backlinks is to check if you are getting any spammy backlinks. And another reason is to spy on your competitior site’s backlinks. This way you might get some new backlink opportunities. Hope you understand the importance of backlinks.

      Let me know if you need any other bits of help.

      1. Alamin Hossain Avatar
        Alamin Hossain

        Istiak Rayhan Brother,
        Many many thanks for saying details about Backlink.

  18. Jitendra vaswani Avatar

    I have used Ahrefs and SEMrush they are my fav tools for checking the backlinks man. I love these tools as they are best for backlink check. Although they are expensive too but trust me if you invest money in these tools, results will be pretty good.

    Istiak nice list of paid backlink checking tools.

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Good to see you here, bro. SEMrush is my personal favorite. But when it comes to checking Backlinks, Ahrefs is the best solution.

  19. Uchchash Avatar

    Using Ahrefs! I think its quite good! Never tried SEMrush! As it is providing 7 days free trial, I think I should try it!

    1. Istiak Rayhan Avatar
      Istiak Rayhan

      Yes, it’s worth a try. However, you might consider for signing up for Gravatar. It will show your face on beside comment.

    2. AGON Avatar
      AGON

      hi Uchchash, i agree with you but sem rush takes customer card details at the time of free trial. which is not good

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