Best Backlink Monitoring Tools 2026
Published 8 min read
A backlink is worth something only while it stays live, points at the right page and keeps the attributes you agreed. Links you traded, paid for or earned with a guest post get removed more often than people expect: a page is rewritten, a site is redesigned, an editor moves on.
This list compares 12 tools that can tell you when that happens. Swappsy is our product, so read our own entry with that in mind. For every other tool we read the vendor's own pages in October 2026 and report what they say. Prices change, so confirm them before you buy.
Two kinds of backlink monitoring
Tools sold under this name do one of two different jobs, and buying the wrong kind is the most common mistake.
- A watch-list monitor takes the exact pages that link to you and opens each one on a schedule. It answers "is the link I was promised still there?"
- An index reporter crawls the web itself and lists new and lost links it happens to find. It answers "who links to me that I don't know about?" It can reach a small page weeks late, or never.
If you build links through exchanges, guest posts or paid placements, you need the first kind. The second kind is for discovery and audits.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Kind | Rechecks | Free option | Lowest paid price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swappsy | Watch list | Every day | Free plan, 50 backlinks | $4.99 a month |
| Linkody | Watch list, plus discovery | Every 24 hours | 30-day trial | $14.90 a month |
| LinkChecker Pro | Watch list | Daily | None stated | $25 a month |
| LinksCrawler | Watch list | 48 hours free, from 12 hours paid | Free plan, 1,000 links | About $10 a month per 1,000 links |
| BacklinkManager | Watch list, plus CRM | Not stated | 50 links, per its homepage | $39 a month, billed yearly |
| SiteGuru | Watch list | Weekly | Free trial | $49 a month |
| Sitechecker | Watch list | Weekly | Free trial | $99 a month |
| SE Ranking | Watch list | "On a regular basis" | 14-day trial | $129 a month |
| Ahrefs | Index | When its crawler returns | Webmaster Tools for your own sites | $29 a month |
| Semrush | Index, plus imports | Automatic re-crawls on paid plans | Limited free plan | $139 a month |
| Majestic | Index | Not stated | None listed | $49.99 a month |
| Google Search Console | Index, partial | No rechecks | Free | Free |
Watch-list monitors
1. Swappsy
Swappsy opens every page on your list once a day and reads the link itself. It reports a link as removed only after a second failed check in a row, so one slow page load doesn't raise an alarm, and it tells you when a removed link comes back. It also flags a live link that changed: the rel attribute, the anchor text, or the page turning noindex.
You can add links by hand or import them by pasting a list or a CSV from Ahrefs, Semrush or Search Console. Each link can carry what you agreed: do-follow or no-follow, free, exchange or paid, the amount, the partner and an end date. Links from deals you make on Swappsy are added by themselves.
Price: free for 50 backlinks. Pro is $4.99 a month for 2,000 and Agency is $29.99 a month for 10,000. See pricing.
Limits: it does not discover links you don't know about, and it doesn't check whether Google has indexed the linking page.
2. Linkody
Linkody does both jobs. It looks for new links through outside data providers each week, and it checks the links on your list every 24 hours. Its status list is detailed: link not found, wrong landing page, wrong rel, wrong anchor, noindex, HTTP errors and site unreachable. It imports CSV files in Search Console, Ahrefs or Moz format.
Price: Webmaster is $14.90 a month, or $11.20 a month paid yearly, for 500 links and 2 sites. The trial is 30 days with no card.
Limits: there is no permanent free plan.
3. LinkChecker Pro
LinkChecker Pro is built for people who buy or trade links in volume. Its site says it checks every link daily and the Google index every five days. It reads rel values (nofollow, sponsored, ugc), noindex, robots.txt blocks, canonical tags and redirects, and it watches for new outgoing links added to the page.
Price: Lite is $25 a month, or $250 a year, for 400 backlinks.
Limits: no free plan or trial is stated, only a refund within 7 days.
4. LinksCrawler
LinksCrawler has the largest free allowance we found: 1,000 links, checked every 48 hours. It reads rel values, HTTP status, robots meta tags and the X-Robots-Tag header. Paid projects run on credits, where one credit covers one link for one month, and let you pick an interval from 12 hours to 15 days.
Price: credits start at $3. Its example puts 1,000 links at about $10 a month.
Limits: Google index checks and email reports are paid features.
5. BacklinkManager
BacklinkManager is a CRM for link building teams with a monitor attached. It tracks partners, targets and goals, and watches each link for do-follow, no-follow, removal, 404 and server errors, with alerts in the app and by email.
Price: Starter is from $39 a month billed yearly, for 200 backlinks and 3 users. The homepage offers 50 links free.
Limits: its pages don't say how often links are rechecked.
6. SiteGuru
SiteGuru is a site audit tool with backlink monitoring included. You enter the page, and optionally the anchor text and target you expect. It checks weekly and emails you if a link disappears, changes or gets a nofollow tag.
Price: Small is $49 a month for 5 websites, with a free trial.
Limits: weekly is slow if you pay for placements with a guarantee period.
7. Sitechecker
Sitechecker's Backlink Tracker is part of a larger SEO suite. You add links by hand, and it checks weekly whether the link is present and followed and whether the page is indexed.
Price: Basic is $99 a month, or $83 a month paid yearly.
Limits: it is a lot to pay if monitoring is all you need, and the pricing page doesn't say how many backlinks each plan tracks.
8. SE Ranking
SE Ranking's Backlink Monitor takes links you add by hand or import from Search Console. For each one it shows found or not found, whether Google indexed the page, nofollow, UGC and sponsored values and the anchor text, and it emails you on a change.
Price: Core is $129 a month, or $103.20 a month paid yearly, with a 14-day trial.
Limits: worth it if you use the rest of the suite, expensive if you don't.
Index reporters
9. Ahrefs
Ahrefs has the best known backlink index. Its alerts email you new and lost backlinks for a domain or URL, and it explains why a link counts as lost: removed, redirected, noindex, not canonical or a crawl error. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for sites you verify.
Price: Starter is $29 a month and Lite is $129 a month.
Limits: you can't hand it a list of placements to recheck. Ahrefs says its crawler can take days or weeks to revisit a page, so a lost link can show up late.
10. Semrush
Semrush reports new, lost and broken referring domains over the last 90 days in its Backlink Audit tool, and can pull in links from Search Console, Majestic or your own file.
Price: the SEO plan is $139 a month, or $117.33 a month paid yearly.
Limits: it is a toxic link audit first. The view is by referring domain, and we found no alert for one link turning nofollow or changing anchor.
11. Majestic
Majestic lists new and lost links from its Fresh Index, which holds links seen in the past 120 days.
Price: Lite is $49.99 a month. Email alerts start at Pro, $99.99 a month.
Limits: no recheck of your own list.
12. Google Search Console
The Links report in Search Console is free and comes from Google itself, which makes it the right place to start. It is not a monitor. Google's help page says the report "isn't a comprehensive list", that listed links "may have since been removed", and that it "doesn't specify if a link is marked as nofollow". There is no lost links view and no alert.
Use it as a source. Export the latest links and load them into a watch-list monitor.
What happened to Monitor Backlinks?
Monitor Backlinks was one of the first tools of this kind. Its address, monitorbacklinks.com, now redirects to a page on SEOptimer. We could not load that page or its pricing when we checked, so we have left it out of the ranking.
How to choose
- You trade or buy links and want to know the day one breaks: a daily watch-list monitor. Swappsy, Linkody or LinkChecker Pro.
- You want free: Swappsy for up to 50 links checked daily, LinksCrawler for up to 1,000 checked every 48 hours, and Search Console as the source for both.
- You run link building as a team with a pipeline: BacklinkManager.
- You already pay for a suite: use what it includes. SE Ranking, Sitechecker and SiteGuru all have a watch list.
- You want to find links you never asked for: Ahrefs, Semrush or Majestic.
Whatever you pick, check four things on its site first: how often it rechecks, which changes it reports (removed, nofollow, anchor, noindex), how you get your links in, and how many links the price covers.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free backlink monitoring tool?
It depends on how many links you have. Swappsy checks 50 links every day for free. LinksCrawler checks 1,000 links every 48 hours for free. Search Console is free without limit, but it only lists links and never tells you when one is gone.
How often should backlinks be checked?
Daily, if you have a guarantee or a partner to go back to, because the sooner you ask the easier the fix. Weekly is enough for links nobody promised you.
Can I monitor backlinks with a spreadsheet?
Yes, for a small list. Our guide to monitoring backlinks with a Google Sheet script has a script you can copy, and explains where it stops working.
Does Ahrefs monitor my backlinks?
It reports links that its crawler sees appear and disappear. That is not the same as rechecking a list of placements you give it, which it doesn't do.