Backlink Analysis
Majestic: what it does, what it costs
Link data only, with the oldest independent index and the metrics everyone quotes.
Majestic at a glance
Every row is a verified field or an honest absence. A row is dropped rather than filled with an em dash, so the length of this table says how complete the record is.
| What it is | Link data only, with the oldest independent index and the metrics everyone quotes. |
|---|---|
| Category | Backlink Analysis |
| Best suited for | Link building is a substantial part of your work and you want a second index |
| Starting price | From $41.67/month billed annually ($499.99/year); $49.99 monthly |
| Free plan | No |
| Free trial | None offered |
| Main strength | An independent index, which makes it a genuine second opinion rather than a repackaged one |
| Main limitation | Link data only — no keyword research, no rank tracking, no site audit, no content tooling |
| Evidence | Primary-source researched |
| Closest alternatives | Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz Pro, Semdash |
| Pricing checked | 19 August 2026 |
| Record checked | 19 August 2026 |
What Majestic is
Majestic does one thing: it crawls the web for links and lets you query the result. There is no keyword research, no rank tracking, no site audit and no content tooling, which in a market of all-in-one suites makes it either exactly what you want or entirely the wrong purchase.
Its two contributions to the vocabulary are Trust Flow and Citation Flow — a quality score based on distance from a trusted seed set, and a volume score based on link count — and the pair is genuinely more useful than either alone. A page with high Citation Flow and low Trust Flow has many links from places nobody trusts, which is a profile shape worth recognising. Topical Trust Flow goes further by scoring relevance by subject, so you can see whether a domain’s authority is in your category or somebody else’s.
The index is split into Fresh and Historic, which is unusual and useful: Fresh shows what has been crawled recently, Historic reaches back years. The constraint to plan around is that data rows and analysis units are metered per plan, and API access sits on a tier several times the price of Pro.
What you can use it for
- Query a link index that is independent of Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz for a second opinion
- Judge a prospect by Trust Flow against Citation Flow rather than by raw link count
- Check whether a domain's authority is topically relevant to your category
- Compare a recently crawled link profile against a multi-year historic one
The features that matter for SEO
Each one says what it does and the SEO job it serves. A vendor feature list without that second half tells you nothing you could not read on their own site.
Trust Flow and Citation Flow
Scores a URL or domain on link quality, by distance from a trusted seed set, and on link volume.
Read them together. High citation with low trust is a profile built on links nobody vouches for — the single fastest way to disqualify a link prospect.
Topical Trust Flow
Attributes authority by subject category rather than reporting one blended number.
Majestic's real differentiator. A DR 70 domain whose authority is entirely in gambling is not a relevant link for a SaaS product, and only topical scoring shows that.
Fresh and Historic index
Splits the index into recently crawled data and a multi-year archive.
Fresh answers "what happened lately", Historic answers "what did this profile look like before the drop". Most competitors blend the two and lose the distinction.
Site Explorer
Reports backlinks, referring domains, anchor text and link context for any URL or domain.
The core query surface. Data rows are metered per plan, and that allowance is what a real audit consumes.
5,000 rows on Lite, 30,000 on Pro.
Link Graph and Clique Hunter
Visualises link relationships and finds domains linking to several competitors but not to you.
Clique Hunter is a gap report by another name, and it is the most directly actionable output the product has.
Backlink campaigns
Tracks a defined set of links over time for loss and change.
Monitoring earned links is the half of link building nobody budgets for, and losing them silently undoes the work.
API
Exposes the index programmatically.
The reason enterprises buy Majestic — an independent link dataset you can pipe into your own tooling.
Only on the $399.99-a-month tier. Neither Lite nor Pro includes it.
Pricing and limits
Starting price: From $41.67/month billed annually ($499.99/year); $49.99 monthly Checked 19 August 2026 Vendor’s own pricing page
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | $49.99 /mo $41.67/month equivalent, billed at $499.99 every 12 months. Excludes VAT. |
|
| Pro | $99.99 /mo $83.33/month equivalent, billed at $999.99 every 12 months. Excludes VAT. |
|
| API | $399.99 /mo $3,999.90 billed every 12 months. Excludes VAT. |
|
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- An independent index, which makes it a genuine second opinion rather than a repackaged one
- Topical Trust Flow scores relevance by subject, which no major competitor reports the same way
- The Fresh and Historic split answers two different questions properly
- Trust Flow against Citation Flow is the fastest link-prospect disqualifier in the business
- Twenty-plus years of continuous crawling behind the historic index
Limitations
- Link data only — no keyword research, no rank tracking, no site audit, no content tooling
- API access starts at $399.99 a month, four times the Pro tier
- Data rows and analysis units are metered, and a real audit consumes the Lite allowance quickly
- One user on both Lite and Pro
- The interface is dated next to Ahrefs and Semrush, and the metric vocabulary takes learning
- No free tier and no trial, only a 7-day money-back guarantee
Who it is for, and who should skip it
Worth it if
- Link building is a substantial part of your work and you want a second index
- Topical relevance of authority matters to your prospecting
- You need historic link data going back years
Skip it if
- You want one subscription covering keywords, rankings and links
- You need API access on a normal budget
- You are new to SEO — the metrics need context that a suite gives you for free
Alternatives to Majestic
Each one answers when it is the better choice, which is the only thing a list of competitors is useful for.
- Ahrefs Choose it when you want the largest index plus keyword and rank data in the same subscription.
- Semrush Choose it when link data is one job among many and you also need paid-search intelligence.
- Moz Pro Choose it when Domain Authority is the metric your stakeholders already quote and you need a full platform cheaply.
- Semdash Choose it when backlink gap analysis on a small budget is the specific job.
Sources and verification
Last verified 19 August 2026 1 day ago
Pricing 19 August 2026 Plans 19 August 2026 Features 19 August 2026
- Majestic plans and pricing Pricing page verifies pricing, plans, limits checked 19 August 2026
What changed
- 19 August 2026 — Prices recorded in US dollars excluding VAT. The pricing page offers pounds and euros as alternatives, so the figures a UK or EU buyer sees will differ.
Questions
What is the difference between Trust Flow and Citation Flow?
Citation Flow counts link volume; Trust Flow estimates quality by how close a page sits to a trusted seed set. Read together they describe the shape of a profile — high citation with low trust means many links from places nobody vouches for, which is usually a reason not to pursue a prospect.
Is Majestic worth it alongside Ahrefs?
As a second opinion, yes, if link building is a real part of your work. The index is genuinely independent, so it surfaces links others miss, and Topical Trust Flow answers a question no other major tool answers the same way. As a replacement for a suite, no — it does links and nothing else.
How much is the Majestic API?
$399.99 a month, or $3,999.90 a year, excluding VAT. Neither the $49.99 Lite nor the $99.99 Pro tier includes API access. Verified on 19 August 2026.