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Backlink Checker API — Referring Domains, Competitor Gap & Backlink Profile · Ahrefs / Semrush Alternative

Enter a domain, get its full backlink profile via API — total backlinks, referring domains, spam score, and the competitor backlink gap: the domains that link to your rivals but not to you. Pay per result, no $99–$199/month subscription, no contract. Native backlink-index data via API — not a fragile UI scraper.

Coverage on par with Ahrefs — measured, not claimed. In side-by-side tests our referring-domain coverage matched or beat Ahrefs: an established site returned 1,737 referring domains vs Ahrefs' 1,600; a brand-new site 43 vs 32. You get a credible backlink index at a fraction of a tool subscription. (We don't reproduce Ahrefs' proprietary DR score — see FAQ.)

Built for link builders, SEO & PR agencies, sales / lead-gen teams, and developers wiring backlink data into pipelines via API or MCP.

⚡ Quick start — 30 seconds

Click Try for free. The default input runs a real backlink summary on a live domain — actual JSON in seconds. Then swap in your own:

{"domains":["monday.com"],"mode":"summary"}

Sample output (real run, trimmed):

{
"mode":"summary",
"target":"monday.com",
"rank":644,
"backlinks":8975219,
"referring_domains":72896,
"referring_main_domains":63603,
"referring_domains_nofollow":9683,
"broken_backlinks":138276,
"backlinks_spam_score":19,
"first_seen":"2019-01-15"
}

🎯 Three modes

competitor_gap is the one no free tool gives you. Drop in 2–3 rivals and get the exact referring domains you're missing — the highest-intent link-prospecting list there is.

🚀 Input

// referring domains — top 50 by rank
{ "domains": ["monday.com"], "mode": "referring_domains", "limit": 50 }
// competitor gap — who links to asana & clickup but not monday
{ "domains": ["monday.com"], "mode": "competitor_gap",
 "competitors": ["asana.com", "clickup.com"], "limit": 100 }

📊 Output

One dataset item per target domain:

• summary → { target, rank, backlinks, referring_domains, referring_main_domains, referring_domains_nofollow, broken_backlinks, backlinks_spam_score, first_seen }
• referring_domains → { target, count, referring_domains_list: [{ domain, rank, backlinks, backlinks_spam_score, first_seen }] }
• competitor_gap → { target, competitors, gap_count, gap: [{ domain, rank, links_to[] }] }

Export as JSON / CSV / Excel, or pull live via the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items).

💰 Pricing — pay per result, flat per report

You pay per domain, not per row — same price whether you pull 20 rows or 1,000.

Charged only after data is delivered — failed or empty calls bill nothing beyond actor-start. A per-run cost cap (MAX_RUN_COST_USD, default $5) stops the run before overspend.

Example: a competitor gap on your domain vs 2 rivals (top 100 prospects) = $0.005 + $0.25 = $0.255. The same workflow in Ahrefs/Semrush needs a $99–$199/month seat.

Free Apify plan: capped to 1 domain, summary mode per run — you still see your domain's real profile (referring-domain count, broken links, spam score). Popular domains return instantly from a built-in preview cache; any other domain gets one real live summary so you can preview your own site. The ranked referring-domains list and the competitor gap require a paid plan.

🆚 How it compares

vs. Ahrefs / Semrush / Moz — no $99–$199/month subscription; pay per domain checked. API-first JSON straight into your sheet, CRM, n8n/Make/Zapier, or AI agent. Referring-domain coverage on par (measured). Trade-off: we don't reproduce Ahrefs' proprietary DR — we return a 0–1000 domain rank + backlink spam score.

vs. other Apify backlink actors — most scrape the Ahrefs/Semrush UI: fragile (break on UI change), ToS-risky, only as available as the SaaS login. This actor uses a native data API — stable, no scraping, no proxy roulette — and adds a value layer (competitor gap, spam signal, clean typed output, free preview).

vs. raw data-API providers — no monthly minimum commitment, no API-key management, no per-endpoint billing math. Pay per result, scale to zero.

🧭 Who it's for

• Link builders / SEO agencies — competitor_gap = instant prospecting list; referring_domains = profile audit.
• Content & PR teams — see who links to the competition, pitch the same outlets.
• Sales / lead-gen — a rival's referring domains are warm outreach signals.
• Developers & AI agents — backlink data as a clean JSON API / MCP tool, billed per call.

🔌 API & integrations

Run from the Apify API (incl. run-sync-get-dataset-items for a single request/response call), official JS / Python clients, CLI, or any HTTP client — see the API tab. Pipe results to Google Sheets, Slack, n8n, Make, Zapier via Apify integrations. (MCP server for AI agents on the roadmap.)

🛡️ Legal & compliance

Uses a licensed native backlink data API. Public link-graph data only — no login-walled or personal data. ToS-safe (no identical-request hammering; built-in run cache).

🧰 FAQ

Is the coverage as good as Ahrefs? On referring domains, yes in our tests (1,737 vs 1,600 established; 43 vs 32 new). Backlink indexes never match exactly — we surface a credible, native index at pay-per-result pricing.

Do you return Domain Rating (DR)? No — DR is Ahrefs' proprietary score. We return a domain rank (0–1000) + backlink spam score for relative authority/quality.

How am I billed? Per result, after delivery (see Pricing). Free / failed / empty calls don't bill beyond actor-start. A per-run cost cap prevents surprises.

Where does the data come from? A licensed, enterprise-grade backlink-data API — not a UI scraper. Stable, no proxies.

Can it monitor new / lost backlinks? On the roadmap (v0.2) — scheduled new/lost diffs + alerts. v1 is on-demand lookups.

What is a backlink? A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat them as votes of trust, so a profile of quality backlinks from many distinct domains is one of the strongest off-page ranking signals. This actor returns any domain's backlinks, the referring domains behind them, and a competitor gap.

What's the difference between a backlink and a referring domain? A backlink is a single link; a referring domain is a unique website linking to you. One domain can give you 10,000 backlinks (e.g. a sitewide footer link) but it still counts as one referring domain — which is why we surface referring domains as a first-class metric.

Why look at referring domains instead of total backlink count? Raw backlink counts are inflated by sitewide and templated links. 250k backlinks from 1,700 referring domains is a far weaker profile than 250k from 50,000 domains. Compare on referring domains to judge real authority and to find link-building gaps versus competitors.

🗺️ Roadmap

v0.2: new/lost backlink monitoring (scheduled diffs + Slack/email alerts), anchor-text breakdown, bulk mode (≤1000 domains/call), disavow-list export. + MCP server for AI agents.

🔗 Related Actors

• Competitor Keyword Research — any site's ranked keywords.
• Keyword Metrics Pro — keyword volume, CPC & trend.
• AI Keyword Clustering Tool — topical authority map.
• SimilarWeb Scraper — domain traffic & authority.

🏷️ Keywords

backlink checker api, backlink api, referring domains, ahrefs alternative, semrush alternative, competitor backlinks, backlink gap, link building tool, backlink analysis, backlink profile, referring domains checker, backlink spam checker, free ahrefs alternative, broken backlink checker, link gap analysis, who links to my website

🤝 Built by

doesaiknow — semantic-SEO & LLM-search APIs on Apify Store. Pay-per-result, no subscription, MCP-ready. More tools:

• Keyword Search Volume API — Google + Bing search volume, CPC & 12-month trends, bulk.
• AI Keyword Clustering Tool — cluster up to 1,000 keywords into a SERP-validated topical map.
• AI Brand Visibility Tracker — see where your brand shows up in ChatGPT, Perplexity & Gemini answers.