15 Best Link Building Tools & Software for 2026

We’ve collected the best link building tools for 2026 — platforms that are actively used by SEO teams today. This article narrows it down to the 15 proven tools, covering backlink analysis, prospecting, outreach, and digital PR.

We grouped each tool by use case, highlighted standout features, and kept pricing clear for easy comparison. The list includes industry staples and a few underrated tools offering strong value, including several with free plans or trials.

Our picks are based on 2026 relevance, positive practitioner feedback, and hands-on experience with these platforms.

Tools by Function:

• Competitor Backlink Analysis – 4
• Prospecting & Outreach – 6
• Digital PR & Media Relations – 3
• Brand Mentions & Social Listening – 3
• Indexing & Technical Support – 2
• Backlink Monitoring & Link Health – 3

Whether you’re optimizing your own site or handling big clients, this guide gives you a practical starting point for building your toolkit.

If you’re still unsure where to start, the detailed overviews below will help you narrow it down. Let’s dive in! 

Best for: marketers, SEO specialists, and agencies who want quick, safe, and reliable guest post placements without juggling multiple expensive tools, or doing unnecessary manual work. 

Collaborator is a direct PR distribution marketplace that allows you to buy guest posts and acquire backlinks directly from site owners. The catalog features trusted websites with verified third-party SEO metrics, making outreach simpler and more reliable.

Key Features

• Discover relevant websites – An extensive catalog covering 40+ niches in over 60 countries.
• Analyze key metrics – Filter sites with 40+ parameters, including Ahrefs, Moz, Similarweb, Serpstat, and Google Search Console/Analytics data.
• Master Account – Add colleagues, manage projects together, give clients access or visibility, and unlock special discounts.
• Automatic Competitor Analysis – Add your competitors within the platform to see which referring domains are already available, and receive a monthly digest of competitor RDs added.

Pricing

No subscription fees, and no markups. You only pay a 10% commission on platform deposits. 

👉 Start Collaborator

Best for: SEO professionals or agencies who are looking to manage multiple link-building campaigns efficiently without juggling multiple tools.

SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO platform designed to streamline link-building efforts for agencies, SEO professionals, and marketers managing multiple websites. Beyond backlink monitoring, it provides comprehensive tools for competitor analysis, keyword tracking, and site audits, making it easier to plan, execute, and measure link-building campaigns from a single dashboard. 

Key Features

SE Ranking offers dozens of features, but for link builders the most valuable tools are the below: 

• Backlink Checker lets you uncover every backlink pointing to any website using a database of over 2.7 trillion links. It also provides key metrics to evaluate link quality to help better inform your decisions.
• Backlink Tracking can continuously monitor domains’ backlinks across 15+ parameters and send email alerts if anything changes. This is great for staying on top of your link profile without manual checking.

Pricing

SE Ranking offers three plans, all including backlink monitoring:

• Essential – $52/month
• Pro – $95.2/month
• Business – $207.2/month

Best for: SEO professionals, content marketers, and agencies who need in-depth backlink analysis, competitive insights, and a single platform to manage link-building campaigns. 

Ahrefs is a powerhouse for link building, SEO research, and competitive analysis. It has a  backlink index of over 3 trillion live links, making it one of the best tools for discovering new link building opportunities and analyzing competitors. It’s also especially strong for finding missed link opportunities and planning outreach.

Key Features

• Site Explorer lets you look into any website or URL’s backlink profile and organic traffic. The Link Intersect feature is especially useful for finding backlinks your competitors have but you don’t.

• SEO Toolbar – Chrome & Firefox plugin that quickly highlights internal and broken links.
• Backlink Checker – Free tool to see the number of backlinks and referring domains for any URL.

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• Broken Link Checker – Browser extension that identifies broken external links.
• Content Explorer – Searchable database of 9+ billion pages, it’s perfect for content research and finding link prospects.

Check out our detailed guide on how to use Ahrefs

Pricing

• Lite – $129/month
• Standard – $249/month
• Advanced – $449/month

Best for: SEOs and small agencies who want simple, reliable backlink monitoring without the complexity of larger tool suites. 

Linkody is a backlink monitoring tool that gives you real-time insights into your link profile. It tracks new and lost links, evaluates backlink quality using key metrics (DA, Spam Score, IP, country, etc.), and helps you compare your profile against competitors. Users also get detailed reports on anchor texts and keyword distribution.

Key Features

Here are the features that will be useful for linkbuilders:

• Disavow tool – Identify and disavow toxic backlinks directly from the dashboard.
• Instant link location – See exactly where your link sits on the referring page.
• 24/7 tracking – Continuous monitoring, filtering, and management of backlinks.
• New link discovery – Alerts when new backlinks appear.
• Backlink analysis – Full monitoring and quality evaluation of each link.
• Google index status – Check whether referring URLs are indexed.
• 404 monitoring – Detect when your landing pages return errors.
• SEO metrics – Moz Rank, DA, PA, Spam Score included.

Pricing

Pricing varies by number of domains, monitored links, and users:

• Individuals/freelancers: $14.90–$49.90/month
• Agencies: $99.90–$153.90/month

Annual billing includes 3 months free.

Best for: SEO specialists and small agencies who want a comprehensive view of backlinks, while keeping an eye on technical SEO issues. Its mix of analysis, tracking, and site audits makes it a versatile choice for link-building campaigns.

Sitechecker is a user-friendly SEO tool that combines backlink tracking, analysis, and monitoring with Google Analytics and Search Console integration. It has a Chrome extension that makes checks faster and easier, letting you manage link-building insights without swapping platforms. 

Key Features

• Backlinks Generator – Quickly build indexed backlinks from analyzer sites to help boost a page’s link profile.Backlink Analysis – Dive deep into your backlinks and competitor strategies to identify opportunities.
• Backlink Tracker – Monitor growth dynamics, track lost backlinks, and see which landing pages are performing best.
• Technical Checks – Detect 100+ potential issues, including broken links, redirects, 404s, and server errors.

Pricing

• Monthly plans: $79–$349 (depending on websites, pages, keywords, and backlinks)
• Annual plans include 2 months free
• 14 days free trial available

Best for: SEOs and marketers doing link outreach, especially those managing campaigns at scale.

Hunter.io is an email-finding and verification tool that’s essential for outreach-heavy campaigns. It helps you quickly collect professional email addresses from any website or company and improves outreach efficiency with tracking and follow-up features.  Verified emails and automated follow-ups make building relationships — and backlinks — faster and more efficient.

Key Features

Hunter finds all emails associated with a domain or a specific person’s email address in seconds. It also offers tools like:

• Domain Search & Email Finder – Locate emails associated with a company or individual in seconds.
• Email Verifier – Ensure addresses are valid to reduce bounce rates.
• Campaign Management – Compose emails, schedule follow-ups, and monitor open/click rates.
• Integrations – Chrome & Firefox extensions, Google Sheets, MailTracker, TechLookup, and pre-made templates.

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Paid plans: $34–$209/month, depending on monthly searches, verifications, and campaign size
• Custom Enterprise plan

Best for: helping create, manage and track link prospecting & outreach campaigns.  

BuzzStream is an outreach platform for link building, influencer prospecting, and digital PR. It lets you research relevant websites, organize your outreach, and pitch your content at scale — all from one dashboard. It’s especially useful for teams that want to land high-quality placements and keep their outreach process structured.

This tool is perfect for teams and solo SEOs running scalable outreach campaigns. If you’re focused on digital PR, influencer discovery, and relationship-based link building, BuzzStream keeps everything streamlined.

Key Features

• Prospecting Tools – Find bloggers, journalists, and niche influencers who are open to collaborations and potential backlinks.
• Outreach Management – Personalize emails, schedule follow-ups, and keep everything organized across multiple campaigns.
• Smart Data Gathering – Automatically collects website metrics, contact details, and social data as you add new prospects.
• Team-Friendly Workflow – Shared notes, contact history, and project organization for consistent communication.

Pricing

A free trial is available. Monthly plans range from $24 to $999+, depending on the number of users, outreach volume, and prospecting features.

Best for: Agencies and SEOs who need deep backlink analysis with a focus on trust and historical link data.

Majestic is one of the most established backlink tools on the market, known for its massive index and reliable link-quality metrics. It’s especially useful when you need to understand a domain’s link history, evaluate authority, or run competitor backlink audits with more depth than all-in-one platforms usually offer.

Key Features

• Historic Index – Years of backlink data for spotting trends, lost links, and long-term patterns.
• Trust Flow & Citation Flow – Industry-standard metrics for assessing link quality and domain authority.
• Referring Domain Explorer – Full breakdown of who’s linking to you or your competitors.
• Bulk URL analysis – Fast checks for large sites or high-volume audits.
• Anchor & link context reporting – See anchor text distribution and link placement details.

Pricing

Plans range from $49.99/month to $399.99/month, depending on data depth, exports, and historic access.

Best for: anyone doing link building on a budget or marketers who want quick, manual ways to uncover link prospects, monitor mentions, and perform targeted searches without paid software.

Google isn’t a traditional link-building tool, but its ecosystem offers some of the most powerful free resources for prospecting, monitoring mentions, and refining your outreach list. With the largest index of web pages on the internet, Google is often the first stop for discovering link opportunities.

Key Products

• Search Operators – Advanced queries that help you filter results, uncover niche-specific prospects, find guest posting opportunities, identify resource pages, and surface unlinked brand mentions.
• Google Alerts – Tracks brand mentions, competitor activity, and industry topics. Useful for spotting unlinked mentions you can turn into backlinks or keeping an eye on new content opportunities.

Pricing

Google provides SEO tools that are absolutely free.

Best for: teams that rely heavily on outreach and want an AI-powered workflow that cuts manual effort, personalizes emails at scale, and manages campaigns in one place.

Pitchbox AI is an outreach automation platform designed specifically for link builders, PR teams, and agencies. The AI layer helps with personalization, email crafting, prospect evaluation, and workflow optimization — making it one of the strongest full-stack outreach tools in the market. It integrates with major SEO data providers, so you can qualify prospects using trusted metrics before sending a single email.

Key Features

Here are the features link builders actually care about:

• AI email personalization – Generates personalized outreach messages from prospect data, cutting email writing time dramatically.
• Prospect discovery – Built-in contact discovery and site prospecting tools to fill your outreach lists fast.
• Email sequencing – Automated follow-ups, reminders, and inbox management.
• SEO metric integrations – Pulls data from Moz, Majestic, Ahrefs, SEMrush for qualification.
• Workflow automation – Approvals, task assignments, and team collaboration for agencies.
• Performance analytics – Track open rates, reply rates, campaign health, and link wins.

Pricing

Pitchbox does not offer public pricing. Plans are typically customized for teams and agencies but usually start around $165–$675/month.

Best for: link builders who want an outreach tool that blends PR, backlink prospecting, and email automation with built-in search and AI assistance.

Respona combines outreach automation with search operators, content discovery, and an integrated email finder. It’s popular among content marketers and agencies because it removes the need to combine multiple tools — prospecting, contact discovery, and outreach all live in one place.

Key Features

What makes Respona strong for link acquisition:

• AI outreach assistant – Generates and personalizes campaigns based on article context.
• Built-in search engine – Find prospects directly through keyword-based discovery.
• Contact finder – Pulls verified email addresses automatically.
• Automated follow-ups – Create multi-step sequences.
• Opportunity finder – Scrapes the web for broken links, resource pages, guest posts, unlinked mentions, etc.
• Performance tracking – Monitor replies, deliverability, link wins.

Pricing

Respona uses a pay-per-result model instead of per-user SaaS plans. Base rates start from $100 per link on Starter sites (DR 20+) and go up to $500 per link on Elite sites (DR 60+). Using the “Subscribe and Save” slider, you can commit to a higher monthly budget and get up to 60% discount. 

Pricing is per placement, and each placement includes content, outreach, and publishing.

Best for: SEOs and link builders who need ultra-fast indexing for new backlinks, updated pages, or large batches of URLs.

IndexMeNow is a rapid-indexing service that pushes your URLs into Google’s index significantly faster than waiting naturally. For link builders, this is especially useful when securing new backlinks — faster indexing means faster ranking impact and more reliable backlink tracking.

Key Features

• Fast Google indexing – Most URLs get indexed within 24–48 hours.
• URL credits-based system – Only pay for successful indexing.
• API support – Useful for agencies and high-volume workflows.
• Reporting dashboard – Track indexed vs. non-indexed URLs.
• Bulk URL submission – Upload lists for large-scale campaigns.

Pricing

Credits-based pricing:

• Starts at $59 for 120 credits
• Goes up to $999 for 2000 credits
  Only successful indexations are deducted.

Best for: digital PR teams, brand-focused SEOs, and anyone trying to secure high-authority links from journalists and publications.

MuckRack is a premium media database and outreach tool widely used by PR teams. It’s expensive, but it’s one of the best ways to get backlinks from major publications (Forbes, TechCrunch, NYT, industry outlets). The platform helps you find journalists, track coverage, and pitch strategically.

Key Features

• Media database – Millions of journalists, writers, and outlets with verified contacts.
• Real-time media monitoring – Track brand mentions, competitors, and industry topics.
• Pitch management – Create, send, and track outreach campaigns.
• Journalist alerts – Get notified when reporters write about your topics.
• Coverage reporting – Export reports for clients and stakeholders.
• Team collaboration – Notes, tasks, approvals.

Pricing

Pricing is not public and begins around $5,000–$10,000/year depending on team size and features.

Best for: finding unlinked mentions, monitoring brand signals, and catching link opportunities in real time across social platforms, blogs, forums, and news sites.

Brand24 is a social listening and media monitoring tool that tracks mentions across the web. For link builders, it’s especially useful for converting brand mentions into backlinks and spotting conversations where an authoritative link could be earned naturally.

Key Features

• Sentiment analysis at scale – Automatically classifies mentions as positive, neutral, or negative, helping link builders prioritize outreach to favorable coverage and avoid risky placements.

• Topic and trend detection – Identifies emerging discussions, viral content, and shifts in audience interest early, so you can pitch timely angles and earn links while the topic is still relevant.

• Anomaly and crisis detection – Detects unusual spikes in mentions, allowing teams to act quickly on sudden brand exposure, PR moments, or reputation-related link opportunities.

• Influencer and author analysis – Surfaces the most impactful voices driving conversations, helping link builders target journalists, creators, and publishers who actually influence coverage.

• AI-generated insights and summaries – Converts large volumes of mentions into clear, human-readable insights, making it easier to spot unlinked mentions, outreach angles, and patterns worth pursuing.

Pricing

• Individual: $149/month
• Team: $249/month
• Pro: $299/month
• Enterprise: $999/month

Annual plans save up to 3 months.

Best for: tracking mentions across the web and identifying link outreach opportunities quickly, especially for brands with active PR or content strategies.

Mention is a real-time monitoring tool similar to Brand24, but with a stronger focus on social platforms and campaign management. It’s a solid pick for teams who want alerts about conversations happening right now.

Key Features

• Live web & social monitoring – Detect mentions across thousands of sources.
• Competitor tracking – Monitor competitor PR activity and backlinks.
• Influencer discovery – Identify creators worth reaching out to.
• Automated alerts – Get notified instantly about unlinked mentions.
• Analytics dashboard – Follower growth, engagement, sentiment trends.
• Team collaboration – Assign mentions or tasks to team members.

Pricing

Mention now offers a single Company plan with custom limits, starting at $599/month, billed annually. Pricing is quote-based: you need to request a demo or contact sales to get an exact offer for your monitoring volume and features.