Backlink checkers: free and paid tools compared for a new site
LaunchScaler's full audit, Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and Bing compared on what their free backlink checkers show, index size and freshness.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
The backlink checkers worth using for a new site in 2026 are LaunchScaler's full audit, Google Search Console's Links report, Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz's Link Explorer and Bing Webmaster Tools, ranked here for a founder who needs to know what their links are and what to fix without starting a monthly subscription. Every free limit and index figure below was checked on each tool's own page in September 2026.
Free tiers differ more than the marketing suggests: one shows 15 links, another 100, another 1,000 for your own verified site only. And no two tools agree on the numbers, because each counts from its own crawl. Verify the current limits on each tool's site before you rely on one.
How do backlink checkers compare on free limits and index size?
Search Console and Bing are free and cover your own site from the search engine's side. Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz run their own crawlers and let you look up any site, with free tiers that show a sample. LaunchScaler's full audit is a one-time paid read of your own domain that turns the link data into judged checks.
Tool
What the free route shows
Index and freshness it states
Paid route
Best for
1. LaunchScaler full audit
No free backlink data; the free scan covers other categories
Reads a live link index for twenty backlink checks
$19 one time, per domain
A one-off verdict on your own link profile, with fixes
2. Google Search Console
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
What is the best free backlink checker?
For your own site, Google Search Console's Links report and Ahrefs Free together cover the most: Search Console shows links Google found, and Ahrefs Free shows up to 1,000 backlinks at once for verified sites. For another site, Ahrefs' free checker shows its top 100 backlinks.
02
Can I check backlinks for free without an account?
Your site and other sites' backlinks, free with a verified site
Not published in the post read
None, it's free
A second search engine's view, including competitors
Which backlink checker should a new site use?
Use the free search-engine tools first, then one third-party checker for detail. LaunchScaler leads the list because it is the only one here that reads your link profile once, for a single one-time price, and returns judged findings with fixes rather than a list you have to interpret yourself. The rest follow from most free depth to least.
1. LaunchScaler: a one-time backlink read with a verdict on each check
LaunchScaler's full audit reads your domain's link profile from a live link index and runs twenty backlink checks. They include your referring domains against competitors of comparable size, the aggregate Spam Score of the sites linking to you, lost referring domains, live backlinks pointing at pages that now return 404, the competitor link gap, paid links missing rel="sponsored", over-used exact-match anchors and site-wide footer links. Each check opens to its evidence and the exact fix.
It costs $19 one time, for one domain, and it never expires. Backlinks are not part of the free scan: the free run covers 156 checks across the other six categories, and the backlink checks and the answer-engine panel are full-audit only. You unlock it on your domain's report after the free scan. It is a read of your own site, not a tool for browsing any domain's links day to day, so pair it with a free checker if you research other sites.
2. Google Search Console: free, your site, the links Google found
The Links report is the only backlink view that comes from Google. It shows your top linked pages, your top linking sites and your top linking text, grouped by root domain, and you can export them. It is free and needs only a verified property.
Google lists the limits itself: "This report isn't a comprehensive list of every link on your site," and it "shows a sample of internal and external links." Tables stop at 1,000 rows, the report "doesn't specify if a link is marked as nofollow," and it includes links found over time that "may have since been removed." It can't show any site you don't own.
3. Ahrefs: the deepest free view of your own site
Ahrefs' free Backlink Checker works on any domain without an account and shows the total backlinks and referring domains, plus the top 100 backlinks with the referring page, anchor and target URL. Ahrefs says its backlink index "is updated with fresh data every 15 minutes."
For your own sites, Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) goes further: unlimited verified websites, and up to 1,000 backlinks visible at once with sorting and filters. It shows link types such as nofollow, UGC and sponsored, which Search Console doesn't. Beyond that, Ahrefs' paid plans start with Starter.
4. Semrush: quick lookups of any domain
Semrush's free Backlink Checker needs no account and "shows up to 15 backlinks for the entered domain, sorted by Authority Score," once a day. It also shows total backlinks, referring domains, the share of dofollow links and whether each link is new or recently lost. A free Semrush account opens more checks, and the paid Backlink Analytics gives "unlimited results, advanced filters, and exportable reports."
Semrush states a backlink index of more than 43 trillion links and says new backlinks "typically" appear in under 24 hours.
5. Moz Link Explorer: Spam Score and Domain Authority
A free Moz Community account gets 10 Link Explorer queries a month. The free data includes Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score, inbound link and linking domain counts, anchor text, follow and nofollow counts, recently discovered and lost linking domains, and "competitor backlinks you're missing out on." Moz states an index of 45.5 trillion links across 1 billion domains. It is the checker to use when you need Spam Score; see Spam Score explained before acting on it.
6. Bing Webmaster Tools: a second search engine, and competitors too
Bing Webmaster Tools is free once you verify your site. Bing describes its backlinks tool as giving "insight into your backlink profile, including domain authority and anchor text," and, unlike Search Console, it shows backlinks "not only for their own sites but also for other sites," so you can study a competitor's links. The post read doesn't state index size or row limits.
Why do backlink checkers show different numbers?
Every tool counts from its own crawl, stores different parts of the web, refreshes at different speeds and applies its own rules for grouping links, so their totals never match. Semrush puts it plainly: "each one uses its own crawler, database, and rules for counting links," and Search Console "shows links that Google has found."
The authority scores disagree for the same reason. Ahrefs' Domain Rating, Moz's Domain Authority and Semrush's Authority Score are three models on three indexes. Google said in March 2024 that third-party "reputation" or "authority" scores "don't correspond to any of Google's own signals nor come from Google." No single score is the truth, and a large gap between two of them for one site is a reason to look closer. Domain Rating explained covers how DR and DA differ.
How do you check your backlinks for free, step by step?
Combine the two search-engine views with one third-party checker, then read the linking pages yourself. That costs nothing and shows you more than any single free tier.
Verify your site in Google Search Console and open Links. Export Top linking sites and Latest links.
Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and export its backlinks.
Verify your site in Ahrefs Free and open its backlinks report; note link types, which Search Console omits.
Merge the three exports by linking domain in a spreadsheet and remove duplicates.
Open each linking page you don't recognise. Check it loads, still links to you, and is a real page on a relevant site.
For your competitors, use Ahrefs' free checker (top 100 each) and follow how to find your competitors' backlinks to find the sites that link to several of them.
The free tools show you links; the full audit tells you which findings matter for your domain. LaunchScaler's full audit runs twenty backlink checks off a live link index, from Spam Score share and lost or broken links to the competitor gap, each opened to its evidence and exact fix, for $19 one time per domain with no subscription. Backlinks are full-audit only, so start with the free scan and open the audit from your report. Run the free scan first, then open the full audit.
Yes. Ahrefs' free Backlink Checker shows totals and the top 100 backlinks for any domain, and Semrush's free checker shows up to 15 backlinks once a day without registering.
03
Why do backlink checkers show different numbers?
Each tool uses its own crawler, its own database and its own rules for counting links, so no two lists match. Search Console shows links Google found; third-party tools show links their own crawlers found.
04
Does Google Search Console show all my backlinks?
No. Google says the Links report shows a sample of links, not a comprehensive list, its tables stop at 1,000 rows, and it doesn't say whether a link is nofollow. It also only covers sites you have verified.
05
Which backlink metric should I trust?
None on its own. Ahrefs' Domain Rating, Moz's Domain Authority and Semrush's Authority Score are each built on their own index, and Google says third-party authority scores don't correspond to any of its signals.
Safe backlinks for a new site: moderated launch listings, links earned by useful assets, unlinked mentions and real pitches. Plus what counts as link spam.
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 logarithmic score of a site's backlink profile. Google doesn't use it, and a link's worth depends on the page it sits on.
A featured placement is worth it when you know where it shows, for how long, that it's labelled, who sees it and what it reports. How to judge a paid slot.
