8 Best Backlink Checkers in 2026

Prices and index figures come from each vendor's own pricing, data and help pages, checked on 12 October 2026, and are 'as of October 2026'. Every vendor counts its index differently (live links, links ever seen, URLs found or crawled), so the numbers below are not directly comparable. Test coverage on sites you know before you buy.

What to compare

• Coverage of your niche: run the same five domains through each trial and compare referring domains found.
• Freshness: how quickly new and lost links show up.
• Rows per report: entry plans cap how many links you can see or export.
• History: whether you can see links a site had last year.
• Price per seat: link research is often done by several people.

At a glance (as of October 2026)

The checkers, one by one

Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs states 35 trillion external backlinks in its history, 494 billion pages in its index and 286 million domains, updated every 15 to 30 minutes; its Site Explorer page labels the 35 trillion figure as live backlinks, so the two pages disagree on what it counts. Lite is $129 a month with 2,500 rows per report and 6 months of history; Standard ($249) allows 30,000 rows and 2 years of history; Advanced ($449) 75,000 rows and 5 years. Link Intersect, which finds sites linking to competitors but not to you, is included from Lite. No trial; Ahrefs Free covers sites you verify. Best for: link builders who need fresh data and deep history. Limit: Lite's rows and 6-month history are tight.

Semrush Backlink Analytics

Semrush states 43 trillion+ backlinks across 800 million+ domains, with about 10 billion pages crawled daily. The SEO plan ($139 a month, $117.33 billed annually) allows 10,000 results per report and 3,000 reports a day; a Backlink Gap tool compares link profiles. Historical data starts on Pro+ ($299). The free plan allows 10 reports a day. 7-day trial with exports disabled. Best for: agencies that want links alongside keyword and traffic research. Limit: historical data needs Pro+.

Majestic

Majestic does links only. Lite ($49.99 a month or $499.99 a year) uses the Fresh Index with 5,000 rows per search; Pro ($99.99 or $999.99) adds the Historic Index, backlink history, Compare and 30,000 rows; the API plan is $399.99 a month. When we checked, the Fresh Index covered 14 June to 12 October 2026 with about 546 billion URLs found and 186 billion crawled. The Historic Index covers 2006 to February 2024 and was last updated on 23 March 2024, so it is an archive rather than a live index. 7-day money-back guarantee on Lite and Pro for new customers, and a few free Site Explorer lookups a day. Best for: link metrics without a suite. Limit: no keyword or rank data.

SE Ranking Backlink Checker

SE Ranking states 2.9 trillion backlinks and 428 million domains indexed, with 6 billion pages crawled daily; the same page also cites 411 million referring domains. Core ($129 a month, $103.20 billed annually) includes backlink research and a backlink gap analyzer, plus 10 projects and 2,000 tracked keywords. 14-day trial without a card. Best for: agencies that want link checks inside an affordable suite. Limit: payments are non-refundable.

Serpstat

Individual ($69 a month, $50 billed annually) shows 2,000 rows per backlink report; Team ($129, or $100 annually) 10,000 rows. Serpstat's own pages state its backlink index as 529 billion and as 1 trillion. 7-day trial with a $1 card verification. Best for: budget teams that need occasional link checks. Limit: low row caps on Individual.

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass

SEO SpyGlass is a desktop app sold alone for $129 a year (Professional) or $259 (Enterprise), or in the SEO PowerSuite bundle from $349 a year. SEO PowerSuite states 6.5 trillion backlinks with 12 months of history; paid plans show unlimited backlinks, while the free edition shows up to 1,100. The return policy says no refunds. Best for: consultants who want a fixed yearly fee. Limit: annual billing only, and only 12 months of history.

Mangools LinkMiner

LinkMiner is part of the Mangools bundle and, by Mangools' own FAQ, uses Majestic's data; Mangools cites 9.5 trillion backlinks across Majestic's fresh and historic indexes. Basic allows 100,000 backlink rows a month, Premium 500,000 and Agency 1.2 million. Prices are adjusted by visitor location. Free plan and a 48-hour refund window. Best for: small teams that want Majestic data plus keyword and rank tools in one bundle. Limit: it is Majestic's index, so it is not a second opinion if you already use Majestic.

Google Search Console Links report

Free for sites you verify. It shows top linked pages, top linking sites, top linking text and internal links. Google says it is a sample rather than a full list; tables show up to 1,000 rows and some exports reach 100,000. Best for: checking your own links and spotting obvious problems. Limit: no competitor data and no complete list.

Moz Link Explorer

Moz's Link Explorer is another established index. We could not check Moz's current pages for this update, so it is not compared here; check its plans directly.

Links and AI answers

Assistants often cite third-party pages (reviews, comparisons, forum threads) rather than your own site, so the pages that link to and mention you matter for AI answers too. A backlink checker shows who links to you; it does not show who an assistant cites. Fenn asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok your buyers' questions and lists the sources each answer cites, which helps decide which sites to earn coverage on. It has no backlink index. Plans start at $29 a month, set up after a demo.

FAQ

What is the best free backlink checker?

For your own site, Google Search Console's Links report and Ahrefs Free. For other sites, Semrush's free plan (10 reports a day) and Majestic's few free lookups a day, as of October 2026.

Which backlink checker has the biggest index?

Vendors count differently, so headline numbers do not settle it. Semrush states 43 trillion+ backlinks, Ahrefs 35 trillion in its history and SEO PowerSuite 6.5 trillion. Compare referring domains found for sites you know during each trial.

Is Majestic still updated?

Its Fresh Index is: when we checked it covered 14 June to 12 October 2026. Its Historic Index was last updated in March 2024.

Why do backlink checkers show different numbers?

Each crawls a different part of the web at a different speed, keeps or drops lost links differently, and counts links, pages or domains in its own way.