4 Best SEO Software for Linkbuilding

Linkbuilding has become one of the most challenging aspects of marketing. When you come across yet another article claiming that getting backlinks is easy in [whatever year] and feel like you've discovered the magic key to organic growth, think of Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter. Success lies in finding the right string to pull, knowing when and how to pull it, and trusting your instincts.

In other words, linkbuilding is tough! But the right tools can make a difference. Here, we’ll explore the best software for running a successful linkbuilding campaign. After testing numerous platforms over the years, I’ve narrowed it down to four (plus a bonus pick!). They are all powerful tools that streamline key processes to keep your linkbuilding efforts scalable, flexible, and effective.

Let’s dive in!

The 4 Best SEO Software for Linkbuilding

In our analysis of linkbuidling software, we’re looking at two common scenarios:

The first is scaling a large multilingual SaaS project with multiple solutions. In this case, your website needs a high volume of linked references to align with content and UX efforts.

The second is growing a smaller project, where your site requires a greater number of backlinks to compete with established rivals who have spent years strengthening their profiles.

In both cases, occasional backlinks from PR, marketing, or personal connections simply aren’t enough to make a real impact. To achieve the scale needed to move the needle, you need the right tools.

Now, if you’re ready for the full experience, let’s explore my top four linkbuilding powerhouses. If you're looking for a more lightweight solution, check out our list of the best SEO software for off-page analysis.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most user-friendly SEO platforms available. It’s easy to navigate and it’s versatile too. Its pricing is also straightforward - a welcome change after the confusing cross-plan, credits-based system it used a few years ago.

What makes this platform stand out is its focus on providing raw data without forcing AI-driven or algorithm-based suggestions on what to do with it. It also doesn’t flag unnecessary issues, like, "Your domain has a medium toxicity level because we found two strange backlinks."

If you’re working independently and understand SEO and Google’s policies, these alerts can be annoying but easy to ignore. But if you have a supervisor who isn’t familiar with domain reputation, they can quickly cause confusion.

You can create any research flow in Ahrefs, which is perfect for continuously expanding your analysis base. You can use historical data in the Ahrefs SERP Checker - one of the best on the market - or the instant Outgoing Links report, which is well-designed for usability. The Broken Backlinks report is also a great tool for simplifying in-depth contextual research.

The suitability of Ahrefs for linkbuilding KPIs (reports) is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it has the most change-sensitive domain rating among SEO tools, so it’s great for building a natural, high-quality backlink profile. The impact of your work shows up quickly, which helps keep things moving as Google slowly reevaluates your rankings. It’s also great for maintaining a positive mindset and clear communication within the team. On the flip side, it can sometimes take months for Ahrefs to recrawl high-authority backlinks before they appear in the report.

Ahrefs doesn’t offer a free version like some other SEO tools. However, it provides unlimited free access to the DR and organic traffic checkers. This can be quite handy for multitool domain evaluation.

2. Serpstat

Serpstat has evolved greatly in recent years and is now the only global SEO solution that challenges Ahrefs across all the criteria we discussed. Plus, its comparable plan is half the price of Ahrefs. So, if you need a powerful linkbuilding research tool with an affordable subscription, Serpstat is your go-to.

In addition to the features that match Ahrefs, one standout addition is the Bing performance report. Given that Google's share of desktop search dropped nearly 3% in the last two years while Bing's grew by almost 2%, keeping an eye on Bing is a smart move.

A big advantage of Serpstat from a tracking perspective is its curated data in domain overviews and backlink reports. Serpstat Domain Rank (SDR) aligns well with the understanding and expectations of Ahrefs’ DR and Moz’s DA (both long-standing market standards), making it easier to assign a domain to a certain quality range. The backlink list is cleaner, and there’s also an option to request a recrawl for a referring page if it’s not reflected in the list.

3. Majestic + SE Ranking

Linkbuilding research is tricky, and despite the many SEO tools out there, only a few can cover the full process. Majestic and SE Ranking are both solid platforms, but each misses the mark on one of our selection criteria. However, when used together they provide great research capabilities at a more affordable price compared to others I’ve assessed (excluding Ahrefs and Ubersuggest).

SE Ranking offers a detailed outgoing domains report, something Majestic lacks. It provides the highest-quality report among all tools. Since SE Ranking uses an on-request crawler, it takes time to generate results, but the report includes exact linked URLs (not just root domains) along with their HTTP status codes. If a target website blocks crawlers, no external link data will be available - unlike with database-based tools like Ahrefs and Semrush. However, since most websites don’t block crawlers, SE Ranking stands out for its data usability and efficiency.

Majestic, a veteran in the field, excels in batch analysis and fast data generation, which is what SE Ranking isn’t good at. Both tools are strong in domain overview, backlinks reports, and filtering, but Majestic will likely be your primary choice.

Majestic’s biggest strength is its domain ranking method, which is based on two key parameters: Trust Flow (quality) and Citation Flow (quantity). While rank manipulation is possible, these metrics generally provide a reliable indication of a domain's credibility. Understanding these numbers can save significant research time. For example, filtering out domains with a Trust Flow (TF) below 15 in a backlinks report typically removes about 30% of the data without losing anything valuable.

Additionally, Majestic’s backlink report is highly accurate. While it may occasionally mark active backlinks as lost or take time to update new ones, it remains a dependable tool for link analysis.

SE Ranking isn’t the most user-friendly platform because of its user interface and navigation, and it doesn’t offer instant reports like full database tools (it’s part database, part on-request crawler). But it’s still faster and smoother than other crawlers such as Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, SEO PowerSuite, and others. Plus, it has its own domain ranking algorithm that provides useful data such as traffic insights, SERP analysis, competitor insights, and more.

4. Semrush

Semrush offers many great features, but many aren’t useful for link builders or properly optimized for off-page SEO. That’s why it ranks fourth on this list. Plus, its extra features contribute to its higher subscription cost.

The platform stands out with its domain overview data. Its ranking approach is one of the strictest. It reveals a solid three-component logic: link power, organic traffic, and profile authenticity. It updates slowly, which, as mentioned earlier, isn’t ideal for reporting, but it's still a great metric to consider during research.

There are mixed feelings about two crucial features commonly used in linkbuilding. The tool can generate a comprehensive outbound links report, but by default, it only displays the root domain rather than the exact source URL with its HTTP status. The source URL data is hidden in a collapsible section, which makes audits with hundreds or thousands of rows impractical. Additionally, source URLs don’t appear all at once in the export file, meaning the only way to check them is by expanding the collapsible info for each domain individually.

Ahrefs uses the same approach but also includes a dedicated Broken Links report. This report lets you see all 404 URLs and quickly assess whether they present any linkbuilding opportunities.

The second feature is the backlink checker. While well-designed and suitable for multilingual projects, it lacks a key function: the ability to display only one link per domain. As a result, Semrush often generates duplicate rows or nearly identical URLs with slight variations, which makes analysis more cumbersome.

Linkbuilding specialists often use Semrush because their company already subscribes to it for other marketing needs. Adding an extra seat is usually cheaper than paying for a separate tool.

Can you build a solid prospecting setup with it? Absolutely. But is it the best choice for large-scale work? That depends.

Bonus Pick: Ubersuggest

If you don’t need outgoing links, batch analysis, or complex filters, and are looking for the lowest price possible, I would highly recommend taking a look at Ubersuggest.

Neil Patel revived the platform in 2017. In my opinion, it has since become one of the best tools for keyword, backlink, traffic, and domain authority data. It’s especially useful for off-page SEO.

You can access all this information directly in the SERP with the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension, and there's even more inside the tool. It's easy to use, constantly improving, and costs just $29 per month, with an additional option for a one-time payment to get lifetime access.

How to Choose Linkbuilding Software

The workflow for successful large-scale linkbuilding follows a simple process:

• Identify your starting point
• Find prospects
• Evaluate prospects
• Expand your prospect list

Your SEO platform’s tools and features may vary, but this core process stays the same.

Link Quality Overview

Domain reputation, traffic value and sources, backlink quality, and historical records - these might not be used all the time, but they’re essential for any outreach specialist running a scalable linkbuilding campaign.

The goal is simple: Make sure the target website has a natural SEO profile or choose the best target URL.

Let’s say you’re using Ahrefs to check if a site has a natural SEO profile. It might show a domain rating (DR) of 50, which sounds great. But when you check Majestic’s Trust Flow and Citation Flow, you see scores of 10 and 40. That’s a warning sign - it means you need to dig deeper into the site’s quality. This includes looking at current traffic, historical trends (or even domain history if it was sold), referring domains, linking domains, content quality, and more. These insights help explain why different tools sometimes give very different quality scores. If a site’s DR is artificially inflated and won’t hold up long-term, it’s not worth your time.

Now, let’s flip the scenario. You find an article about email personalization on your prospecting list. It gets steady traffic of 500, but your chances of getting a link placed are only 5% - basically pure luck. Meanwhile, the same site has an article about email deliverability. It’s just as relevant but has no traffic (though it’s well-indexed), and barely ranks for a few odd keywords. But your placement chances are 95%. So, do you drop the prospect (since you can’t go back later and say, “Actually, I found a better fit”)? Or do you take the chance to add some reputation points to your domain and move on?

Can one tool handle all of this? Some can, some can’t. Here’s the deal: When targeting medium or large-scale organizations, you usually don’t need to analyze their SEO profiles too deeply. They’re established brands, and that alone speaks to their credibility. It’s unlikely their SEO team made a mistake that could harm outgoing domains. But when your list includes smaller organizations - or worse, disguised link sellers - you’ll want to use a mix of tools (including free ones) to properly evaluate their backlink quality.

Bulk Link Overview

When you’re working with a long list of prospects (and you are, since we’re talking scalable outreach), a bulk analysis feature is essential. It allows you to filter analyzed targets by reputation score, traffic, inbound or outbound link data, and other key metrics.

Ideally, the reports should support both in-tool filtering and easy export to CSV or Google Sheets.

Backlink Report

Competitor research relies on this, whether you’re analyzing an entire domain, a subdomain, a specific path, or a single URL. In this context, a competitor is simply any website or piece of content that’s topically relevant. The more results your SEO platform can deliver, the better. If you’re working with a limited report on a large resource’s backlink profile, you’ll inevitably miss a lot of referring URLs.

Outgoing Links Report

Competitor research isn’t very useful if your goal is simply to copy someone else’s backlink profile - like asking, “Can you mention our project too?” Sure, in some cases, a well-established competitor may have earned a high-quality backlink under very specific conditions. But those circumstances are usually unique to them and have little to do with your project or content - not to mention the hundreds (or even thousands) of others who have already asked the same site for a link.

Instead, competitor backlink reports should help you identify domains where your project could reasonably fit, ideally in a best-case scenario. For this, you’ll need an outgoing links (linked domains) report to help spot the prospect’s weaknesses and build a more compelling outreach case.

In-Depth Filters

As mentioned earlier, the research process is case-sensitive, meaning you may need to find prospects based on specific languages and domain extensions. Or maybe, you’ll need to apply Regex filters, or select a specific range of metrics or page status codes. Having this level of flexibility in your reports is essential.

Data Generation Speed

There are two types of SEO platforms from a linkbuilding perspective: databases and on-request crawlers. If you’re researching dozens of websites one after another and need a complete report on any part of their SEO profile within seconds, you need databases. Just insert the URL, click, and the report is ready.

On-request crawlers, on the other hand, treat each URL or domain as a new project or campaign. You need to insert the URL, set up the crawler parameters, and wait five to twenty minutes - depending on the domain or directory size - while it gathers data in real time. In technical SEO, this isn’t a major issue, but for off-page SEO specialists conducting complex research, this slow and cumbersome process is far from ideal.

As you can see, a complex prospecting flow is much more than just a simple list of backlinks. You need a multi-step process that lets you go through thousands of domains connected to your research starting point, narrow down to smaller clusters, then expand to a wider network, and so on, until you find a linkbuilding case with real potential.

New Features

Another important - but not critical - factor to consider when choosing a linkbuilding tool is how it evolves over time. If it regularly rolls out updates and experimental features (not just trend-driven additions like AI tools), then it’s worth investing your time in.

Choosing the Best SEO Software for Your Linkbuilding Campaign

Functionality, design, UI, limits, price - many factors can make a platform appealing or not. You might find the perfect solution in a single tool or a combination of tools. Either way, functionality and processing speed should be your top priorities.

If a tool meets your needs but has an interface you don’t like, you can always export reports to Google Sheets or a similar file. It may not be ideal, but without the right analyzer, you won’t get far.

Overall, Ahrefs is the best tool for batch analysis and overall speed. So, if your research is built around exporting SERP results - whatever they are - you can get data from thousands of domains or URLs within minutes.

Serpstat is great for keyword research with detailed filtering by country, date, and competitor. The Team plan, which costs a bit less than Ahrefs’ cheapest tier, also makes it easy to use with Google Sheets through its API.

For detailed external URL reports with data filters and HTTP status codes, SE Ranking is far ahead of the competition, as long as the analyzed site doesn’t block crawling. It’s also the only tool offering a pay-as-you-go plan. Meanwhile, Majestic, which we paired it with, stands out for domain quality data.

Semrush is a reasonable choice when the marketing team already relies on it and there’s no intention to add additional tools to the company’s stack.

For those who appreciate modern minimalism, straightforward insights, and key data directly in Google SERPs or a browser extension, Ubersuggest is the right choice (while also being the cheapest option of them all).