The best free domain authority checkers
By Philipp Kant 4 min read
A domain authority checker is a tool that scores the strength of a website’s link profile on a 100-point scale, based on the links pointing to it in the vendor’s own crawl of the web. Each SEO vendor has its own score: Domain Authority at Moz, Domain Rating at Ahrefs, Authority Score at Semrush, Trust Flow at Majestic.
None of them is Google’s. Google has said repeatedly that it does not use any third-party authority score. The numbers are still useful, as a way to compare sites on the same scale, judged by the same crawler.
| Tool | Score | Based on | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Website Authority Checker | Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs’ link index | Free, no account |
| Moz | Domain Authority (DA) | Moz’s link index | Free account, monthly query cap |
| Semrush | Authority Score | Links plus traffic signals | Free account, small daily cap |
| Majestic | Trust Flow, Citation Flow | Majestic’s link index | Free account, limited data |
1. Ahrefs, the fastest free score
Ahrefs’ free Website Authority Checker returns the Domain Rating for any domain on a 0 to 100 scale, without an account. Ahrefs runs one of the largest link crawlers, and DR is the metric most link sellers and SEO agencies quote, which makes it the common currency for comparisons.
For your own sites, the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools go further: after verifying ownership you see the full backlink list and site audit data.
2. Moz, the original Domain Authority
Moz coined “Domain Authority”, and DA is still what many people mean by the term. A free Moz account allows a limited number of Link Explorer queries per month, with DA, linking domains, and top pages.
DA is calculated from Moz’s own index, which is smaller than Ahrefs’, so the same site often scores lower or higher than its DR.
3. Semrush, authority with traffic mixed in
Semrush’s Authority Score combines link data with organic traffic estimates and spam signals. A free account gets a few lookups a day. Because traffic is part of the formula, a site with few but strong links and real search traffic can outscore one with many weak links.
4. Majestic, trust separated from volume
Majestic splits authority in two: Citation Flow measures how many links point at a site, Trust Flow how close those links sit to a set of trusted seed sites. A high Citation Flow with a low Trust Flow is a classic sign of bought or spammy links.
The free account shows the headline numbers and a limited slice of the data.
Why the scores never agree
Every score is the vendor’s model of its own crawl:
- Different indexes. Each vendor crawls a different share of the web and finds different links.
- Different formulas. Some count links, some weigh traffic or trust distance.
- Logarithmic scales. Moving from 20 to 30 takes far fewer new links than moving from 70 to 80.
- Different update cycles. A link gained last week may show in one tool and not yet in another.
Compare scores only within one tool. “DA 35 vs DR 42” says nothing.
What actually raises authority
Links from relevant, trusted sites move every score. The rest is the foundation underneath:
| Lever | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Links from relevant sites | The input every authority score measures |
| Mentions in “best of” lists | Links, and the page type AI assistants cite most |
| A clean entity | Organization schema with sameAs ties profiles together |
| A tidy technical base | Indexable pages, HTTPS, sitemap, working redirects |
| Mail authentication | SPF and DMARC protect the domain’s reputation in inboxes |
Free tools are an underrated source of links: a useful tool gets linked
the way a blog post rarely does. The entity part, Organization markup and
its sameAs links, is what
schema markup validators check.
FAQ
What is the best free domain authority checker? Ahrefs’ Website Authority Checker for a quick DR without an account, Moz for DA, Majestic when you want to judge link quality with Trust Flow.
What is the difference between DA and DR? Domain Authority is Moz’s score, Domain Rating is Ahrefs’. Both estimate link strength from 0 or 1 to 100 using each vendor’s own index and formula, so the same site gets different numbers.
Does Google use Domain Authority? No. Google does not use any third-party authority score. DA and DR are models that correlate with ranking strength, nothing more.
What is a good domain authority? It depends on the competition. Compare your score with the sites ranking for your keywords, in the same tool. A local business rarely needs the numbers of a national publisher.
We built our own free Website Authority Checker for a different question: how established and well-kept a domain looks from public signals, meaning registration age, DNS, HTTPS, schema, sitemap, and SPF and DMARC. It does not count backlinks, which needs a crawler index, and it says so in every result. Full disclosure, it is ours, and it needs no signup. For the email side of a domain’s reputation, see the best free DMARC checkers; for building the authority itself, talk to us.
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