Domain Authority Checker: Bulk Rank, Backlinks & Spam Score

Check the domain authority of up to 10,000 domains per run: domain rank (0-100), spam score, backlinks count, referring domains and nofollow counts, one clean row per domain. A fast bulk DA checker and backlink checker for link building, SEO audits and domain research.

It reads a commercial backlink index through an API instead of scraping Moz or Ahrefs pages: results in seconds, no login, no captchas, no blocked runs. You pay per domain with data, plus small lookup fees: duplicates and input mistakes are free, and unknown domains are free until October 25, 2026 (then $0.0002 each).

Typical uses

• Link building and outreach: sort a prospect list by authority and drop spammy sites before you pitch them.
• Guest post and PR vetting: check the referring domains and spam score of sites selling links or placements.
• Expired domain and domain investing research: screen thousands of domains in one run.
• Competitor and market mapping: compare the backlink strength of every site in a niche.
• Automations and AI agents: enrich a Google Sheet, CRM or agent workflow with authority metrics.

What you get for each domain

Field	Description
domain, input	The domain checked (lowercase, without https://, path or www.) and the value you entered
domainRank	DataForSEO domain rank on a 0-100 scale, computed from the domain's backlink profile
spamScore	DataForSEO spam score, 0-100 (higher = more spam signals in the link profile)
backlinks	Number of live backlinks pointing to the domain
referringDomains, referringDomainsNofollow	Domains linking to it, and how many of them link with nofollow
referringMainDomains, referringMainDomainsNofollow	Same, with subdomains grouped under their main domain
found	false when the index has no data for the domain (free row, all metrics empty or 0; from October 25, 2026 only the domain lookup fee applies)
observedAt	When the data was retrieved (UTC)

About "domain authority": domainRank is DataForSEO's own rank, built in the same spirit as Moz Domain Authority (DA) or Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR), but it is a different metric: values will not match Moz DA or Ahrefs DR exactly. Use it to compare and sort domains, not to quote a Moz or Ahrefs score.

Missing values are null, never guessed. A metric group you turned off is null too.

Input

{
  "domains": ["apify.com", "https://www.forbes.com/sites/", "blog.hubspot.com"],
  "includeSpamScore": true,
  "includeBacklinks": true,
  "includeReferringDomains": true
}

• domains: up to 10,000 per run. Domains, subdomains or full URLs (reduced to the host, www. removed). Duplicates are removed; invalid lines are listed in the run summary.
• Domains are checked in batches of 1,000.
• Metric groups: domain rank is always included. includeSpamScore, includeBacklinks and includeReferringDomains (all on by default) can be turned off to lower the batch fees (see Pricing).
• In each batch, the free found: false rows are stored first, then the rows with data.

Output example

Real row from a run on 2026-10-07 (input https://www.semrush.com/blog/):

{
  "domain": "semrush.com",
  "input": "https://www.semrush.com/blog/",
  "found": true,
  "domainRank": 82,
  "spamScore": 9,
  "backlinks": 20567322,
  "referringDomains": 136233,
  "referringDomainsNofollow": 25209,
  "referringMainDomains": 125776,
  "referringMainDomainsNofollow": 20857,
  "observedAt": "2026-10-07T13:14:19.787Z",
  "schemaVersion": "1.0"
}

Pricing

Pay per use, no subscription. See the Pricing tab for current prices. Two events (three from October 25, 2026):

• Domain with data (domain-result): one per domain returned with data.
• Batch lookup (batch-lookup): one per metric group for each batch of up to 1,000 domains. The data source charges a fixed fee per request, so this fee is shown openly instead of being hidden in the per-domain price. With all four metric groups, a run of 1 to 1,000 domains has 4 batch lookups, 1,001 to 2,000 domains has 8, and so on.
• Domain lookup (domain-lookup, from October 25, 2026): $0.0002 per domain sent to the backlink index, with or without data.

Price change on October 25, 2026: batch lookup $0.04 (FREE) / $0.037 (BRONZE) / $0.035 (GOLD+); new domain lookup $0.0002 per domain; domain with data unchanged.

The more domains per run, the cheaper each domain: on large lists the batch fee is spread over up to 1,000 domains. For a handful of domains, turn off the metric groups you do not need.

Duplicates and input mistakes are not billed; domains with no data are not billed until October 25, 2026, then only pay the domain lookup fee. The run checks the batch fees and rows against the maximum cost you set before each request, and never spends more.

Free Apify plan: up to 50 domains per run, so you can check the output. A paid Apify plan removes this limit.

Use it from code, automations or AI agents

API (one call, results returned directly):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plainrows~domain-authority-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domains": ["apify.com", "forbes.com", "bbc.co.uk"]}'

n8n, Make, Zapier: use the Apify integration, pick plainrows/domain-authority-checker, and map the dataset items to Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot or your database.

AI agents (MCP): add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plainrows/domain-authority-checker to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client. The agent gets a typed tool and pays per result.

What this is not

• Not Moz DA, Ahrefs DR or Semrush Authority Score. It is DataForSEO's domain rank and spam score, from DataForSEO's own backlink index. Not affiliated with Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush or Google.
• No list of individual backlinks or anchors: it returns totals per domain.
• No traffic or keyword data.
• Page-level (URL) authority is not supported: every input is reduced to its domain.

Run summary

Each run stores a summary in the key-value store (OUTPUT): domains submitted and checked, domains with and without data, batch lookups charged, duplicates and invalid inputs, and anything skipped because of the free-plan or budget limit.

FAQ

How do I check the domain authority of many websites at once? Paste up to 10,000 domains or URLs, one per line, and run: one row per domain with domain rank (0-100), spam score, backlinks and referring domains.

Is this Moz DA or Ahrefs DR? No. It is DataForSEO's domain rank and spam score, from its own backlink index, on a 0-100 scale. Values will not match Moz DA or Ahrefs DR; use them to compare and sort domains.

Can I lower the price for a large list? Yes: turn off the metric groups you do not need (includeSpamScore, includeBacklinks, includeReferringDomains) to save their batch fees. Domain rank is always included.

Does it check the authority of a single page? No: every input is reduced to its domain. For links to a specific page, use Backlink Checker.

Do I need an Ahrefs, Moz or Semrush account? No: you pay per domain with data, with no subscription.

More PlainRows tools

Same pay-per-result pricing, same clean JSON, built to chain together in n8n, Make, Zapier or AI agents.

• SEO and keywords: Keyword Search Volume, CPC & Difficulty · Keyword Ideas Generator · Google Autocomplete & People Also Ask · Google Trends Explorer · Website Organic Traffic & Top Keywords · Backlink Checker · Broken Link Checker · AI Search Visibility Tracker (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode) · Google Maps Rank Tracker (Geo-Grid Local SEO)
• Leads and companies: Google Maps Scraper · Website Technology Checker · ATS Jobs Scraper (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby) · Google Jobs Scraper · Google Ads Scraper (Transparency Center) · Company Registry Lookup (SIRENE, LEI, Brreg) · Public Tenders Search (EU TED & UK)
• E-commerce and travel: Amazon Product Search Scraper · Google Shopping Prices Scraper · Google Hotels Prices Scraper · Tripadvisor Reviews Scraper
• Content and media: Google News Scraper · YouTube Search Scraper · YouTube Comments Scraper · Google Images Scraper · Website Screenshot API · Google Maps Reviews Scraper · App Store & Google Play Reviews Scraper

Compared with other APIs: Ahrefs API alternative · Moz API alternative

Support

Missing a metric or found a bug? Open an issue on this page. Issues are read and answered.