Link Building Company or a Tool? What to Pay For

We read the pages of the 50 link building companies that rank on Google for the searches a buyer types, and 31 of them never say whether the links they sell are paid. Twenty-nine will not show you a complete price until you get on a call.

Both silences land on the choice in front of you: hire a link building company, hand the work to a freelancer, buy placements from a marketplace, or run it yourself with a tool. Each route costs money and hours in a different mix, and for some buyers the agency is simply the better buy.

What a link building company sells

"Link building company" covers three kinds of business. Of the 50 we read, 33 are agencies that run campaigns for you, 9 sell fixed link packages through a checkout, and 8 are marketplaces where you pick a site from a list and pay for the post.

The labels matter less than the method, and most companies claim two or three methods at once.

Figure

How the companies say they get links

35of 50Blogger outreach and guest posts

23of 50Their own network or partner sites

20of 50Niche edits (links added to existing articles)

18of 50Digital PR

3of 50Does not say

1 square = 1 company

Methods each company claims on its own pages. Most claim more than one, so the rows add up to more than 50.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Each method is a different product. Outreach means someone pitches editors and writes the article that carries your link. A niche edit puts your link into a post that already exists, often one that already ranks. Digital PR builds a story or a piece of data and pitches it to journalists: fewer links, bigger publications. "Our network" or "partner sites" means sites the company already has an arrangement with, and that is the one to slow down on. Nearly half the companies, 23 of 50, lean on a network or partner sites. A link from a standing arrangement rather than an editor's free choice is closer to a purchase than to outreach, whatever the page calls it.

Three companies did not say how they get links at all.

What a link costs at a link building company

Only 22 of the 50 companies let you work out what their cheapest offer costs per link. Across those 22, the entry price runs from $20 to $825 a link, with a median of $199.50 and the middle half between $76 and $293.60. Three more price in pounds, euros or rupees, kept apart rather than converted. The other 25 show no price, or a monthly fee with no link count. One step up costs more: where a company lists tiers, the middle one costs a median $229.50 a link across 20 companies.

What moves the price most is the score the seller promises for the linking site. DR and DA are authority scores from two SEO tools, each on a scale of 0 to 100, and most price lists are built on one of them. Across the 109 dollar offers that carry a per-link price, a link from a site rated DR 30 to 49 costs a median $199, and one from DR 50 to 69 costs a median $374.91. The DA scale climbs the same way.

Figure

Price per link, by the score promised

$374.91DR 50 to 6928 offers, 10 companies; middle half $299.95 to $418.75

$257.50DA 50 to 6910 offers, 5 companies

$200No score stated15 offers, 5 companies

$199DR 30 to 4920 offers, 9 companies; middle half $157.50 to $231.75

$147.50DA 30 to 4912 offers, 5 companies

Dot = the median price per link · band = the middle half, where known

Median price per link of every priced dollar offer, by the score floor the offer states. Bands resting on four companies or fewer (DR or DA under 30, DR or DA 70 and up) are left out: too few to say.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Read that chart as a warning as much as a price guide. Crossing from the forties to the fifties on DR nearly doubles the median, and what the money buys is a number, not the readers who might click. A per-link quote means little until you know which floor it buys. And a DR 50 link offered far under the band deserves a hard look at the site behind it.

What link building companies promise, and what they don't

A score is the easiest promise to make and the one that tells you least about whether a link will matter.

Figure

What the companies put in writing

32of 50States a site score or traffic floor

18of 50States how long a lost link is replaced

17of 50Sets a traffic minimum for the linking site

15of 50Guarantees the number of links

1 square = 1 company

Share of the 50 companies whose own pages make each promise.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Almost every company talks about relevance: 47 of 50 mention it somewhere. A mention is not a promise, though, and only 17 put a number on the traffic a linking site must have. The count and the follow-through are thinner still. Fifteen of the 50 guarantee the number of links, by charging only for live ones, refunding, or rolling undelivered links into the next month. Eighteen say how long they will replace a link that disappears, and the windows run from 30 days to lifetime: 7 say twelve months, 5 say six months, 4 say lifetime. The other 32 do not say, which leaves a vanished link as your problem. Delivery time is no easier to pin down: 22 of 50 state one, in units too mixed to compare.

Then rankings.

Figure

What the companies say about rankings

12of 50say rankings cannot be guaranteed

Say rankings cannot be guaranteed12 24.0%
Promise rankings or traffic growth6 12.0%
Say neither32 64.0%

1 square = 1 company

Each square is one of the 50 companies read.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Six of the 50 promise rankings or traffic growth. Twelve say in plain words that nobody can guarantee rankings. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO sides with the twelve: no one can guarantee a top ranking, and a firm that claims it can is one to be wary of. We trust the twelve more.

What "book a call" hides: who shows a price

Figure

Can you see the price before you talk to sales?

42.0%Full price and what it buys21 companies

24.0%Part of it (a from price, no link count, some tiers only)12 companies

34.0%No price: book a call or ask for a proposal17 companies

The 50 companies, by what their own pages show.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Twenty-one of the 50 show a full price and what it buys. Twelve show part of one, and 17 show nothing at all. Agencies hide the most: 14 of the 33 agencies show no price, against 3 of the 17 marketplaces and package sellers.

A custom quote is not always a trick: digital PR and campaign work change with the brief, and 17 of 50 companies price that way. But a price set after a call is set after the seller has sized up your budget, and it is the hardest kind to compare. Retainers are the most common model, used by 24 of 50.

A monthly fee with no link count is not a price. It is a budget the seller gets to spend.

Go into any call with three numbers you want back in writing: links a month, the site standard, the fee. Divide the fee by the links and you have something to hold against the medians above.

Paid links: what the companies say, and what they leave out

Google's spam policies treat buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and accept a paid link when it is marked with a nofollow or sponsored attribute. Two things decide it, then: whether money changes hands, and whether the link says so.

Figure

Do the companies say whether links are paid?

62.0%Say nothing either way31 companies

20.0%Say the links are earned or not paid10 companies

18.0%Say outright the placements are paid9 companies

The 50 companies, by what their own pages say about paying for links.

Our data: the pricing pages of 50 link building companies ranking on Google, read October 2026

Thirty-one of the 50 say nothing on the subject. Nine say outright that the placements are paid or sponsored, and 10 say their links are earned or not paid. Marketplaces are the most open: 4 of the 8 say plainly that you are paying for the post. Agencies are the quietest, with 21 of 33 silent.

The ten denials do not all mean the same thing. Two of them sell the missing sponsored label as a feature of the offer. Under Google's rules that is backwards: the label is what turns a paid link into advertising, and a paid link without it is the risk. Labeled, a paid post is advertising you can account for. Unlabeled, it stays with you long after the invoice is paid.

What doing it yourself with a link building tool takes

A company's fee covers seven jobs. Run the work yourself and they are yours:

Search your subject for sites that publish outside writers.
Read each candidate's own pages to see whether it invites contributions, and on what terms.
Rank them: on topic, still active, worth a pitch.
Find the right person and a way to reach them.
Write a pitch that shows you read their site.
Follow up twice, without nagging.
Write the guest post when an editor says yes.

The first three take the most hours and are the easiest to get wrong, because a site that once ran a guest post is not always a site that wants yours. That reading is the part our link builder does: give it one published article and it searches the niche, reads each site's contact, about and write-for-us pages, and ranks the sites worth pitching with a reason for each. For every site you keep, it drafts a personal pitch with two follow-ups, and when a site asks for the article, the writer in the same download writes it. The pitches are drafts you send from your own mailbox; nothing goes out without your word.

What stays yours is the judgment and the relationship: choosing who to contact, editing each pitch until it sounds like you, sending, replying, keeping in touch with the editors who said yes. The tool buys no links and guarantees no placement. An editor's yes belongs to the editor, which is also why every link you get this way is one an editor chose.

Agency, freelancer, marketplace or tool, side by side

Link building agency

$1,499a month, median entry plan

What it costs: entry plans billed monthly: median $1,499 across 15 companies, middle half $1,050 to $2,999.50; agencies that price per link: median $262.50 for the cheapest offer
What you get: a team that finds sites, pitches, writes and reports
Your time: a brief, approving sites, reading reports
Main risk: 14 of 33 agencies show no price, and 21 of 33 say nothing about paid links
Who keeps the links and contacts: the agency's inbox and contacts, unless the contract says otherwise

Freelance link builder

$4,200a month, survey average

What it costs: about $4,200 a month on average for digital PR freelancers and consultants in one 2025 survey
What you get: one person's outreach and writing in your niche
Your time: a brief, approving sites
Main risk: everything rests on one person's time and contacts
Who keeps the links and contacts: usually the freelancer's inbox; ask before you start

Marketplace or package seller

$140a link, median entry

What it costs: median $140 for the cheapest per-link offer, across the 10 of 17 marketplaces and package sellers that give one
What you get: a post on a site you pick from a list, or a fixed bundle
Your time: choosing sites from a menu and checking each one
Main risk: 4 of 8 marketplaces say the posts are paid; an unmarked paid link falls under Google's link spam policy
Who keeps the links and contacts: the seller's network

Ours

A tool you run yourself (our link builder)

$39 to $599a month

What it costs: $39, $179 or $599 a month, tax included
What you get: a ranked list of sites with a reason for each, a pitch and two follow-ups per site you keep, and the guest post written when a site asks
Your time: reading the list, editing, sending, replying
Main risk: it buys no links, guarantees no placement and sends nothing on its own; replies depend on your pitches and your subject
Who keeps the links and contacts: your own mailbox, and the files on your computer

Agency and marketplace prices come from the 50 companies read, in US dollars. None of the 50 is a solo freelancer, so that card uses the average from a 2025 survey of about 70 digital PR agencies and freelancers.

How to vet a link building company

Google's advice on hiring an SEO gives you a starting line: be careful with a firm that is secretive or will not explain what it intends to do, and ask to see examples of its past work. The rest comes from what the 50 companies' own pages leave open.

How do you get the links? Outreach, digital PR, niche edits or a network of partner sites? 23 of the 50 rely on a network or partner sites, and 3 never say how they work. If it is a network, ask what the site owners are paid.
Is any placement paid, and will it be marked sponsored? 31 of 50 say nothing about it on their pages. Get the answer in an email, not on a call.
How many links does the fee buy? 25 of 50 give no per-link price for their cheapest offer. Turn every quote into a price per link before you compare two of them.
What do you promise about the sites, beyond a score? 18 of 50 state no site standard at all, neither a score nor traffic, and only 17 set a traffic minimum. Ask for the floor, the traffic, and a list of sites you approve before anything is pitched.
What happens when a link disappears? 18 of 50 state a replacement window, anywhere from 30 days to lifetime. Put the length in the contract.
What if you deliver fewer links than agreed? 15 of 50 guarantee the count, by refund, roll-over or charging only for live links.
How long am I tied in? 24 of 50 say there is no minimum contract, 5 ask for three or six months, and 21 do not say.

A promise of rankings, a monthly fee that will not name a link count, silence about paid links once you have asked: any one of them is enough to walk away.

Which to pay for

Figure

Which to pay for

Can you give a few hours a week to pitches and replies?

Yes

Do the links you need come from blogs that take outside writers?

Yes

A tool you run yourself

No, from press

A digital PR agency, with a tool for the blog side

Do you want editorial links, not marked ads?

Yes

An outreach agency or a freelancer, vetted with the questions above

Ads are fine

A marketplace, with every post marked sponsored

A quick way to decide, from the trade-offs above.

An agency is the better buy when you have no hours to give, when the links you need come from press coverage rather than blogs, or when you need links across many sites faster than one person can pitch them. Digital PR in particular is work a tool does not do, and 18 of the 50 companies sell it. Put your effort into hiring a good one.

A freelancer gives you one person who knows your niche and can write in your voice. The work stops when they are busy.

A marketplace is worth paying only for what it is, an advertising placement: ask for the sponsored attribute and expect reach, not a ranking signal.

Run it yourself with a tool when you have published articles worth linking to, a few hours a week for pitches and replies, and would rather keep the contacts than rent them. The money goes to the reading and the drafting; the relationships end up in your own mailbox.

If you hire, hire with the three numbers in writing. If you run it yourself, budget the hours before the money.

Method and limits

How we read 50 link building companies, and what a pricing page cannot tell you

On 16 October 2026 we ran six searches on Google in the United States, in English: link building company, link building services, link building service, link building agency, link building packages and link building cost. For each we took the first two pages of results, positions 1 to 19. That gave 77 different domains. We kept the 51 that sell link building themselves and dropped 26 directories, list articles, forums, software tools and general agencies with no link offer. One of the 51 could not be reached, so every figure rests on 50. For each company we read up to five of its own pages: the page that ranked, the pricing or packages page, and a guarantee, FAQ or terms page, respecting each site's robots rules.

Prices stay in the seller's currency and are never converted. Score bands resting on four companies or fewer are not reported, and no company is named.

A pricing page says what a company offers, not what it delivers. We ordered nothing, so we cannot say how good the linking sites are, how many links arrive, how long they stay up, or whether a quote after a call matches the page. Ranking on Google for "link building company" also measures a company's own SEO, not the quality of its work.

Questions

How much does a link building company charge per link?

Of the 50 link building companies ranking on Google that we read in October 2026, 22 give a per-link price for their cheapest offer: a median of $199.50, with the middle half between $76 and $293.60. A link from a site rated DR 50 to 69 costs a median $374.91.

Do link building companies guarantee rankings?

Six of the 50 promise rankings or traffic growth, and twelve say rankings cannot be guaranteed. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a top ranking.

Should I hire a link building agency or use a tool?

Hire an agency when you have no hours to give, need press coverage through digital PR, or need links across many sites quickly. Use a tool when you have articles worth linking to, a few hours a week for pitches and replies, and want to keep the contacts in your own mailbox.