Backlinks Checker
Pricing
$10.00 / 1,000 domain checkeds
Backlinks Checker
Get the full backlink profile for any domain — domain score, referring-domain count, total-link count, and per-link records (origin URL, target URL, anchor text, follow/nofollow, dates).
Backlink Checker API: Referring Domains and Link Profile
Hosted backlinks checker that returns structured JSON without the captcha-solving, proxy-rotation, and site-update maintenance you'd otherwise own. Run it from the Apify Store with one click, or call it from your own service via the Apify API. Pay only for what you scrape, no monthly subscription.
How the backlinks checker seo works
A backlinks checker answers one question that drives most of off-page SEO: who links to this domain, and how much authority do those links pass. This Actor takes a domain and returns its link profile as structured JSON, the referring domains count, the total link count, the share of dofollow links, a domain authority score, and a per-link breakdown with the anchor text and source. You get the same shape of data an SEO team pulls before a link-building campaign or a competitor audit, without a per-seat subscription.
The practical workflow is simple. Point the backlinks checker at your own domain to see where your authority comes from and which links are worth protecting, then point it at the domains ranking above you to find the referring domains they have and you do not. Those gaps are your outreach shortlist. Because the output is JSON and billed per result, you can run it across a whole list of competitors in one pass and load the link gaps straight into a spreadsheet.
What you get
- Structured JSON output, every backlinks checker run returns clean, parseable records ready for analytics or downstream pipelines.
- Hosted on Apify, no servers, no proxies, no anti-bot maintenance. Click Run.
- Pay only for what you scrape, pricing scales with usage; no monthly subscription minimum.
Why use this backlinks checker instead of Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a great tool, but it has trade-offs that this Apify Actor avoids:
- No subscription lock-in. Ahrefs typically requires a monthly contract starting at $99-$449/month. This Actor charges per run, you can spend $5 on a one-off competitive audit and walk away.
- Direct dataset access. Instead of clicking through a dashboard UI to copy data, you get a machine-readable JSON dataset on every run. Pipe it straight into BigQuery, Snowflake, or your warehouse.
- Hosted scraping infrastructure. Apify handles proxy rotation, captcha solving, and retries, so you get the same data Ahrefs returns, without paying for their reporting layer you may not need.
- No per-seat pricing. Anyone on your team can call the Actor's API; pricing is based on usage, not seats.
Input
| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
domain | string | required | Domain to analyze (e.g. "coolblue.nl" or "example.com"). Required. |
include_backlinks | boolean | True | If false, returns only the domain-level summary (faster, smaller payload). |
timeout | integer | 60 | How long to wait for the backlink lookup (default 60). |
Output
Every run pushes results to the Apify dataset as JSON records. Each record contains the structured fields surfaced by the backlinks checker, fields, IDs, timestamps, and any nested objects. You can:
- Download the dataset as JSON, JSONL, CSV, or Excel from the Apify console
- Stream results via the Apify API for use in your own application
- Pipe results to webhooks, S3, BigQuery, or any of Apify's 30+ integrations
- Diff today's run against yesterday's to detect changes (new entries, removed entries, modified fields)
Use cases for the backlinks checker
Competitive monitoring
Run the backlinks checker weekly across your top competitors. Spot meaningful changes before they show up anywhere else.
Lead enrichment
Pipe backlinks checker data into your CRM as part of a nightly enrichment job, every record gets the structured fields your team needs.
Market research
Aggregate backlinks checker data across a category to size demand, identify gaps, and find under-monetized niches.
Operational reporting
Schedule the backlinks checker as a recurring Apify task. Pipe results to your warehouse and surface in your existing dashboards.
How it compares
The established backlink APIs all require you to register, manage an API key, and buy into a credit or subscription plan before the first call. This Actor runs on Apify with no key to manage and returns the link profile as JSON per run.
| No API key to manage | Hosted for you | JSON output | Usage-based, no monthly plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This Actor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DataForSEO Backlinks API | No, key required | Yes | Yes | Credit or subscription |
| SE Ranking Backlinks API | No, key required | Yes | Yes | Subscription |
| vebapi Backlink Data API | No, key required | Yes | Yes | Credit plans |
FAQ
Is this backlinks checker free?
The Actor itself is hosted on Apify with pay-per-event pricing, you only pay for what you actually scrape. There's no monthly subscription and no minimum spend. The first few runs typically cost less than a coffee. For long-running daily jobs, your monthly bill scales with the volume of data you pull.
How does this backlinks checker compare to existing tools?
Compared to Ahrefs, this Actor returns the same structured data without the monthly subscription or per-seat pricing. You pay per run, not per month, which is dramatically cheaper for most teams that need data in bulk but don't need a dashboard UI.
What input does the backlinks checker accept?
The full input schema is rendered as a form on the Apify Store page, you can run a job by filling out a few fields with no code. The schema also accepts raw JSON if you're calling the Actor via the Apify API from your own service. See the Input section above for the field list.
How accurate is the backlinks checker data?
The Actor scrapes data directly from the source, so accuracy matches what a human user would see on the page. There's no third-party cache or middleware, every run returns the live state. If the upstream site throttles requests, the Actor handles retries and proxy rotation transparently and surfaces a structured error in the dataset's errors field rather than failing silently.
Can I run this backlinks checker on a schedule?
Yes, Apify has built-in scheduling. You can set the Actor to run hourly, daily, or weekly, and pipe results to webhooks, S3, or your data warehouse via the Apify integrations. Most teams schedule the backlinks checker as a daily task and incrementally diff against the previous run to detect changes.
Pricing
This backlinks checker uses Apify's pay-per-event pricing, every successful record costs a small fixed amount, so your bill scales linearly with usage. There's no monthly subscription and no minimum spend. See the Apify Store page for the current per-event price; expect typical workloads to cost a few dollars per run.
