A backlink subscription is useful only if it answers the question you actually need answered. Before comparing annual plans, test your own domain and two competitors. Check whether the data produces a useful research shortlist, whether you can export it, and whether its observation dates fit your work.
I maintain crawlgraph. It sells backlink intelligence from Common Crawl, including a one-time lifetime option. This is the buying test I recommend before paying for it or another backlink tool.
1. Write down the report you need
These are different jobs:
| Your next task | What the tool must provide |
|---|---|
| Find sites that mention two competitors | Comparable referring-domain sets and overlap analysis |
| Identify a specific link's anchor and source page | Page-level backlink records with those fields |
| Report links gained or lost this week | Repeated observations with dates and suitable freshness |
| Report keyword positions every day | A rank tracker |
| Put referring domains into a spreadsheet | A usable export within your required row limit |
A referring-domain graph can help with the first and last tasks. It does not automatically provide the other three. A cheaper tool that omits your required fields costs you another purchase later.
2. Use three real domains
Choose your site and two competitors whose products serve the same audience. A famous company in a different category is usually a poor comparison.
Run the same lookup for all three. Save the date, dataset release where available, filters, returned row count and reported total. Then ask:
- Does the result contain publishers you can plausibly learn from?
- Can you distinguish the source hostname from an actual source-page URL?
- Does the export include the fields your report needs?
- Is the result a sample, a capped slice or the full set observed by that provider?
An absent hostname in a five-row preview is not evidence that the site has no link. It is evidence that the hostname was absent from those five rows.
If you compare competitor overlap, use comparable inputs. A partial own-site list can label an existing referring domain as a new prospect. Keep truncation and observation dates visible in the report.
3. Inspect five candidates before buying
Take five potentially relevant hosts from the result. Visit their sites and look for the context in which they discuss your category.
A software directory, an editorial comparison and a footer link can all appear as referring domains. They suggest different next steps. A hostname alone does not tell you where the link sits, whether it still exists or whether the publisher accepts submissions.
The test succeeds when you can explain why those candidates are relevant and how you would verify them. Five irrelevant rows are a reason to investigate coverage or targeting before unlocking a larger export.
4. Compare the cost of that job
Use the quote and billing terms you can actually buy. For illustration, a hypothetical $40 monthly subscription costs $120 for three monthly payments and $480 for twelve. That arithmetic says nothing about whether its features match a one-time purchase.
Compare:
- Your expected number of research sessions.
- The export allowance and API quota you need.
- The required freshness and history.
- Features you would still need to buy separately.
- Refund terms and what happens to saved projects after cancellation.
For a one-off task, a monthly plan may be sensible. For repeated referring-domain research, a specialist lifetime option may be worth testing. For weekly link-loss reports, freshness can matter more than either price.
Where crawlgraph fits
Crawlgraph's free web lookup shows five referring domains. Paid core access expands the available result slice and supports CSV and JSON exports, capped at 100,000 rows per domain with the total reported separately. It also offers hosted competitor-gap analysis.
It uses imported Common Crawl graph snapshots. It does not replace keyword research, daily rank tracking, a technical site crawler or a continuously refreshed page-level backlink index. Its authority percentile is not another vendor's DA or DR score.
The free API allocation is 15 backlink calls per UTC month. Hosted gap jobs require paid core access; the current paid API allocation is 1,000 backlink calls and 50 gap jobs per UTC month. See the API documentation for the current contract.
If this is the research job you need, check your own domain free, then compare the available plans. Check the current price, plan eligibility and limits on the site before purchasing.
The longer backlink-tool cost and product-fit guide explains the tradeoffs. Common Crawl's graph documentation describes the underlying dataset.
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