The 10 Best SEO Link Building Tools 2026 (Free & Paid)
Luciano Viterale This article contains affiliate links, and if you buy through some of them I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Here is what that does not buy: editorial input. No tool on this page saw a word of it before it went live, and no tool earns a higher spot because we have a deal. My affiliate relationships here are Semrush and SE Ranking, and each earns its place on merit, which I explain below. Full affiliate disclosure if you want the detail.
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Gone are the days of a clever outreach email or statistics article to win a good backlink.
It’s a tough time for SEOs and link builders.
From cold outreach to submitting quotes, it’s time-consuming and competitive. Everyone seems to be using the same tools and strategies to win links, making it incredibly difficult to stand out.
But this is precisely what Google wants. To win competitive links, you need to offer real value, be genuine in your approach, and differentiate yourself from SEOs with the wrong intentions. Being genuinely useful is now also the shortest path to getting cited in AI search.
So with that in mind, I’m going to share my favorite link-building tools that have helped me find relevant opportunities, uncover decision-makers, and ultimately win more links.
Last updated September 2026: removed one tool that shut down in November 2025, cut Ninja Outreach (I could not verify it), and fixed broken links.
Best link building tools: summary
Here's the TL;DR
- Semrush Link Building Tool is the best link-building tool for prospecting and outreach.
- Ahrefs free backlink tool is a free tool to check a site's domain rating easily.
- SE Ranking is the best all-in-one SEO tool with a great backlink monitor.
- Majestic is great for advanced and complex backlink analysis.
- Raven Tools has great filtering for metrics such as link quality and citation flow.
- Link Research Tools has the most granular data and helps sites recover from penalties.
- Featured (formerly Terkel) is a great platform to submit quotes to high-quality sources.
- Mention Match (formerly HelpAB2BWriter) is a free platform for submitting quotes and building authority.
- Jasper helps SEOs write outreach emails quickly.
- Hunter.io is perfect for finding a relevant email for any website.
Why should marketers use link building tools?
Firstly, link-building tools and software are designed to help marketers acquire and manage the backlinks to their websites (including particular pages). Since backlinks are still a major ranking factor, it's critical to stay on top of them and find ways to land new ones.
Building a strong backlink profile can do the following:
- Increase the value of a website if you're ever to sell it.
- Improve your SERP rankings for lucrative pages and increase revenue.
- Increase the barrier to entry for competitors trying to copy your strategy.
- Give you leverage when negotiating with other websites.
There's no downside to building a strong and healthy backlink profile. This doesn't mean you should buy links or invest all of your budgets into link building, but you do need to consider it if you want to win in the long run.
10 best free and paid link building tools and software
1. Semrush Link Building Tool
The Semrush link-building tool is one of the handiest features in the product suite. It allows link builders to bulk analyze competitors' URLs and uncover backlink opportunities. The built-in workflow tool even allows you to tag, segment, and send outreach emails to win relevant links. The best part is that you can get started for free, there’s no need to subscribe to a paid plan to start exploring.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.5/5 · Capterra: 4.6/5
Three features that make the Semrush Link Building tool awesome
- Connects with your email service provider so you can run outreach campaigns in the app.
- The workflow allows you to actively track and manage your backlink opportunities.
- Provides a list of all the backlink prospects related to your target keyword and competitors' domain.
Semrush pricing
- Free plan: $0 and lets you import 100 domains.
- SEO plan: $139/mo.
- Starter plan: $199/mo.
- Pro+ plan: $299/mo.
- Advanced plan: $549/mo.
- All plans are about 17% cheaper on annual billing.
Get started with Semrush for free.
2. SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a simple yet complete SEO tool. Three core features make it suitable for link builders. These include the Backlink Tracking Tool, Backlink Checker, and the Competitor Analysis Tool. With these three tools, you’re able to track, manage and identify opportunities quickly. The Competitor Analysis tool even gives you a 360-degree overview of how your competitors might have won backlinks and traffic. For the full platform breakdown, read my SE Ranking review.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.7/5 · Capterra: 4.7/5
Three features that make SE Ranking awesome
- The backlink monitoring tool has a great user interface making it easy to understand key metrics.
- You can track your competitor's new and lost backlinks to reverse engineer their strategy in real time.
- The monthly overview shows how your competitors are performing.
SE Ranking pricing
- Core plan: $129/mo (or $103.20/mo billed annually) for 2,000 daily keyword checks.
- Growth plan: $279/mo (or $223.20/mo billed annually).
- Enterprise plan: custom pricing.
- Annual billing is cheaper across the board.
Start exploring the SE Ranking product suite.
3. Ahrefs free backlink tool
The Ahrefs free backlink checker is handy. While it has its limitations, it’s an easy way to get a quick insight into a website’s backlink profile and domain rating (DR). You can also leverage it to find broken links, which makes a great starting point for winning a link. I want to call out that this is a pretty basic tool, the only upside is that it's a free link building tool.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.5/5 · Capterra: 4.7/5
Three features that make the Ahrefs backlink checker awesome
- Gives you a quick backlink profile overview in <5 seconds.
- Includes an authority checker.
- Includes a broken link checker.
Ahrefs free backlink tool pricing
- Free.
Try the Ahrefs free backlink tool.
4. Majestic
Majestic is one of the few tools in the market that is specifically designed to help link builders. Since the tool has a link-first approach to SEO you’ll be able to see highly detailed metrics about a site's backlink profile, trust and citation flow, topical trust flow, historical changes, and loads more.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.3/5
Three features that make Majestic awesome
- The Neighbourhood Checker allows you to see which other sites are also hosted on the same IP and subnet.
- Visual reporting for key metrics to help you quickly understand the performance of a site.
- Keyword generator based on backlink profiles of your competitors.
Majestic pricing
- Lite plan: $49.99/mo for 1 million analysis units.
- Pro plan: $99.99/mo for 20 million analysis units.
- Full API plan: $399.99/mo for 100 million analysis units.
- Annual plans are cheaper.
Need help with SEO? Book a free discovery call with me.
5. Raven Tools
Raven Tools is an SEO research platform that connects data sources like Google Search Console and MOZ to give marketing teams a “bigger picture” overview of their business. The product suite has two specific tools for link building, one is the Backlink Analysis tool and the other is a handy Link Spy tool. When it comes to more advanced tools like this, it's important to have a link building strategy in place first.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.2/5
Three features that make Raven Tools awesome
- Allows you to spy on your competitor's backlink profiles filtered by metrics such as link quality or citation flow.
- You can track the backlinks you want to go after in the Link Manager.
- Uncover backlink opportunities starting with your target keywords.
Raven Tools pricing
- Small Biz plan: $39/mo (or $49 monthly) with 2 domains and 1,500 position checks.
- Start plan: $79/mo (or $109 monthly) with 20 domains and 15,000 position checks.
- Grow plan: $139/mo with 80 domains.
- Thrive plan: $249/mo.
- Lead plan: $399/mo with 320 domains.
- Annual prepaid plans are cheaper.
6. Link Research Tools
Link Research Tools is another advanced link-building and auditing software. You can expect to access hundreds of metrics for each link, data combined from over 25 sources, domain comparisons, and ultra-detailed recommendations. The advanced features don't come cheap, though, it is one of the most expensive link-building software on this list. Again, this is why you need to have a successful link building strategy first, otherwise you'll waste a lot of money exploring expensive tools like this one.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.0/5
Three features that make Link Research Tools awesome
- Since the link data is so granular, you can use this tool to recover from a penalty (this is one of their specific use cases).
- Integrates with tools you’re probably already using like Google Search Console and Ahrefs.
- Link “risk” scoring to help you identify and disavow harmful links.
Link Research Tools pricing
- Trial for Superhero Small: $17 for 7 days.
- Superhero Small: $599/mo.
- Superhero Standard: $999/mo.
- Superhero Plus: $2,499/mo.
- Enterprise: Custom quote required.
- All prices are cheaper on longer-term plans (e.g. 6 months or 12 months).
Start a 7-day trial with Link Research Tools.
7. Featured (formerly Terkel)
Featured (formerly Terkel) is a platform that connects experts with journalists and writers. This makes it extremely easy to grow your domain authority safely. Terkel has been a staple in all of my link building campaigns. It's the one link building strategy I can confidently count on. The platform allows you to submit and track expert quotes to relevant publications in record time. I’ve landed many backlinks to my personal site and Finder.com while working for them. Unlike HARO, it’s easy to use and not as saturated, so the chance of you winning a link is higher.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.9/5
One note: this hands-on experience is from Terkel, before the rebrand to Featured.
Three features that make Featured awesome
- You can start free and only pay when you need more daily usage.
- The platform allows you to select the most relevant niches.
- You can track your quotes to see which were submitted, selected, and published.
Featured pricing
- Free: $0 forever, with a gentle daily allowance to learn the platform.
- Lite: $29/mo (billed annually at $348), for solo practitioners.
- Pro: $79/mo (billed annually at $948), for power users running a full PR operation.
- Pro+: 20x the usage of Lite, for agencies and power users.
- Every tier includes the same features; only your daily AI usage scales.
8. MentionMatch (formerly HelpAB2BWriter)
Similar to Terkel, MentionMatch connects B2B-specific writers with top-quality sources. I use this frequently to collect and submit answers since the quality is high. All correspondence is done via email, which means you only need to sign up once, and you’ll start receiving opportunities in your inbox. However, they have a zero-tolerance policy for AI-generated responses. You can quickly lose access to the service if you submit low-quality AI content. Don't let this turn you off, though, if you put in the work to submit good quotes, you'll build relationships, and your link building opportunities will skyrocket.
Third-party ratings: Unavailable
Three features that make MentionMatch awesome
- All correspondence is done via email, making the workflow streamlined.
- Sources include sites like Shopify, Fiverr, Hubspot, and WordPress.
- It’s a completely free link building tool.
MentionMatch pricing
- Free and unlimited submissions.
Get started with HelpAB2BWriter.
9. Jasper
Jasper is one of the most popular copywriting tools on the market. The reason it’s included as a link-building tool is that it helps you craft outreach emails instantly. The Chrome extension is beneficial since it can work within your email client (e.g. Gmail).
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.7/5
Three features that make Jasper awesome
- Can write outreach emails based on prompts.
- Chrome extension means you can write emails on the fly not just in the tool.
- It helps you craft more creative campaigns.
Jasper pricing
- Pro plan: $69/mo ($59/mo billed annually) for one seat with unlimited word generation.
- Business plan: custom pricing for teams.
- There is no permanent free plan, just a 7-day trial.
10. Hunter.io
If you’ve ever tried to build an outreach campaign or send cold emails, you’re probably familiar with Hunter. The tool allows you to find any professional email address in seconds. You simply enter the link into the search box, and the tool will spit out all of the email addresses, the most common email pattern, and the associated sources. You can even conduct all of your outreach in Hunter now.
Third-party ratings: G2: 4.4/5
Three features that make Hunter.io awesome
- It takes less than 5 seconds to produce a list of emails.
- You can cross reference the emails against the sources provided.
- The “most common pattern” feature makes it easy to guess other employees' email addresses.
Hunter.io pricing
- Free plan: $0 for 50 credits per month.
- Starter plan: $49/mo ($34/mo billed annually) for 2,000 credits.
- Growth plan: $149/mo ($104/mo billed annually) for 10,000 credits.
- Scale plan: $299/mo ($209/mo billed annually) for 25,000 credits.
- Enterprise plan: custom pricing.
Get started for free with Hunter.io.
Note: there’s many other version of this popping up now that’s worth exploring, and for SMB data I use LocalPipe.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the most creative ways to build links?
This is a great question. Many SEOs, site owners, and marketers are trying to work out how to add value and build links creatively. Some common ways include building calculators, detailed statistics pages, free tools, and even highly detailed guides. I’ve personally had great success with the following:
- Best [industry] websites pages
- Best [industry] [agencies/consultants] pages
- Statistics articles with my own personal research
- Going viral on Reddit with posts that have links in them (here's a small example)
Which links are the most important?
Dofollow links from authoritative sites are usually the links you want, however, all links, especially from high-profile sites, should be welcomed. Social and forum links are also crucial in my opinion. This helps build out a nice link profile and proves to Google that you’re brand is important.
Which sites should you avoid links from?
I personally put sites through the Moz DA Checker; anything that has a spam score over 2% I avoid. Google mostly ignores these sites, but to save yourself time be sure you’re not working with brands that have dodgy backlink profiles.
Does cold email outreach still work for link building?
I’ve had great success with this strategy but only when I’ve manually researched a site, figured out how I can add value, and then sent the email. This isn’t something you can scale, but you can win links this way. The best thing to do for link-building is to offer value and build genuine relationships. This applies to most things in life (give more than you ask).
What should I be careful of when building links?
There are many things to be wary of when building links, especially if you’re buying them.
You only want to build or purchase high-quality links from reputable websites that seem natural. Earned Media has a basic test for determining whether a link is worth your time. Simply Google search for the following queries to be sure you’re not getting toxic links:
Site:example.com “casino”
Site:example.com “free spins”
Site:example.com “payday loan”
Site:example.com “loan”
Site:example.com “escort services”
If you notice any pages covering any of the above then it's best you stay away and look for a link from a different site.
Need help with SEO? Book a free discovery call with me.
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