Competitors' backlinks analysis

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

Hey,
For backlink analysis on a budget, I like Majestic and Ahrefs' free/limited tools as starters.
SEMrush alternatives that are cheaper: Moz, Ubersuggest, and SpyFu all do decent backlink checks.
If you want really low cost, many people use Mangools or SEO PowerSuite (one-time payment).
What’s your monthly budget looking like?

if backlinks are your main focus, i'd also take a look at seo spyglass. it's not as deep as ahrefs, but it's good enough for a lot of competitor research.

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

I don't think there's a better alternative for those two especially semrush when you consider prices for groupbuy or trial accounts. I would recommend you search for other providers.

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

while doing the backlink analysis, I prefer mixing up majestic with seo spyglas instead of replacing Ahref and Semrush. there is no one software that store the whole backlink database. Mixing these tols greatly increases your chance of finding something new.

I pefer Aherf is best for competitor`s backlinks analyse

If you are looking for a more affordable option, Majestic, Mangools, and SE Ranking are all worth considering. They provide reliable backlink data and are more budget friendly than Semrush or Ahrefs. For competitor backlink research, they offer excellent value without the higher subscription cost.

If your main focus is backlink analysis then you can try tools like ubbersuggest or free tiers of platforms like Moz. They are not as deep as ahrefs or semrush but for checking competitor link profiles, referring domains and basic backlink trends then they can still be useful. I have also combined a couple of cheaper tools instead of relying on one expensive subscription.

if backlinks are the ONLY thing you need it for, majestic is the best value by a distance — the whole index is links, so you're not paying for keyword/rank features you won't touch, and trust flow / topical trust flow is underrated for spotting which of a competitor's links are actually relevant vs just numerous.

but for competitor analysis you can honestly get most of the way on free tiers stacked: ahrefs' free backlink checker (top 100 by domain), moz link explorer (a few checks a day), majestic's free view. run a competitor through two of them and you've mapped their strongest links for nothing.

the part nobody mentions: the tool is the cheap bit, the value is in what you throw away. a competitor's raw profile is 80–90% noise you can't or shouldn't copy — expired junk, scraped directories, links on dead pages. export it and keep only the links that are ********, on a topically relevant page, and on a URL that's itself indexed / gets traffic. that shortlist is the only part worth chasing, and any of the cheap tools can show it if you sort by it. paying for a bigger index just buys you a longer list of junk to filter.

one caveat: budget tools have smaller, staler indexes — so before you decide a competitor doesn't have some link, cross-check on a second one. no single cheap crawler sees everything.

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

im starting to realize it’s not just about copying their links. usually i checked which links are actually relevant, have traffic, and don’t look like obvious paid placements.

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

the truth is that I prefer using two smll indexe rather than relying on a single tol for competitor backlink. It is likely that Majestic and spyglas will find some link even when Ahrefs and semrush do not.

I just bought Ahrefs starter package.

For a particular backlink - Ahrefs shows DR value of 59 ... Semrush shows AS value of 3
How do I reconcile these 2 values that are so different?

Also for Ahrefs - for a particular website which was connected to GSC - there are only 4 backlinks while GSC shows 100+. My goal is to have a deeper understanding of those backlinks shown in GSC .. which tools can do this?

hifivebaby said:

I used to get low-cost Semrush 14-days subscription from a vendor here, but now no longer available.

Other than Semrush & Ahrefs, what are the lower cost alternatives if my main purpose is to analyse Competitors' backlinks?

Click to expand...

As sen, both Ahref and Semrush use separate crawler, hence the data captured is bound to vary greatly. more emphasis is likely to be put on DR/AS than relevane and relatability.

If your main objective is competitor backlink analysis , I would check out Mangools (LinkMiner), SE Ranking, Serpstat, or Ubersuggest. They are more budget friendly than Semrush or Ahrefs, and they still give solid backlink info for the majority of SEO jobs. You can also merge Google Search Console for your own website with one of those tools , to keep the spend lower. And if you only need backlink research occasionally, grabbing a monthly plan when needed can end up being more economical than paying for an expensive subscription the whole year .