the free Semrush alternative for backlinks.
Semrush is $140/mo. CrawlGraph finds your competitors' backlinks on the same open Common Crawl data for $99 once - and the free gap analysis needs no signup. here's the honest version, including where Semrush genuinely wins.
over three years that is Semrush at roughly $5,040 vs $99 once. for the job most people open Semrush for - finding the competitor backlinks you don't have - you get the same gap.
where Semrush genuinely wins
- an all-in-one suite (PPC, social, content, not just SEO)
- one of the largest keyword databases anywhere
- daily position tracking
if you live in those, Semrush earns its price. we say so.
where CrawlGraph wins
- $99 once, not a subscription - the same open Common Crawl link data
- free gap analysis, no signup, results in seconds
- finds the contact email and drafts the outreach - closes the loop
- open methodology, plus an API and MCP server
it is the same backlink data
Semrush draws its core index from the public web, the same place Common Crawl publishes its open hyperlink graph every quarter. we measured it: Semrush has 61,711 referring domains and a cg authority of 60 in the open graph (full method in our SEO-tools link study). for finding the domains linking to your competitors but not to you, that open graph is all you need - and it is what the free gap analysis runs on.
no signup for the free check · $99 once unlocks the full list, export, and API