Majestic vs Similarweb (2027): Backlink Data or Traffic Intelligence for Your Startup?

Majestic vs Similarweb: Backlink Data or Traffic Intelligence for Your Startup?

Majestic and Similarweb both let you look at a competitor's website without access to its analytics, but they measure different things. Majestic is a backlink database: it runs its own crawler, maps which sites link to which pages, and scores those links with its Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics. Similarweb is a digital market intelligence platform: it estimates how many visits a website gets, how engaged visitors are, and which channels, countries, keywords and AI chatbots send them. So the question for a founder is not which one is the better SEO tool, but which question you need answered: who links to them, or where does their traffic come from. We checked both on their official websites and pricing pages on 1 November 2026.

Quick answer: choose Similarweb first if you are still sizing a market or deciding which marketing channel to invest in: its free website traffic checker and browser extension cover the basics, and self-service plans start at $125 a month billed annually ($199 month to month), with a 7-day free trial. Choose Majestic when you already know search matters in your market and you need links: it shows where competitors get their backlinks and how strong they are, from €46.99 a month (Lite, excluding VAT), with a free account for a few searches a day. Similarweb's SEO plans now include backlink reports too, but Majestic's link index, history back to 2006 and link-quality scores remain its speciality.

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Majestic vs Similarweb at a Glance

	Majestic	Similarweb
Type of product	Backlink analysis and link intelligence	Digital market, traffic and competitive intelligence
Main question it answers	Who links to this site, and how strong are those links?	How many visits does this site get, and from which channels and countries?
Price (monthly)	Lite €46.99, Pro €94.99, API €379.99 (excl. VAT; also in $ and £; annual billing cheaper)	$199, $399 or $649 month to month; $125, $333 or $542 a month billed annually; business plans by quote
Free option	Free account with a few Site Explorer searches a day, weekly showcase site, browser plugins, Majestic Million list	Free website traffic checker, top websites rankings and browser extension
Trial or guarantee	7-day money-back guarantee on Lite and Pro for new customers	7-day free trial; billed automatically unless you cancel
Users	1 on Lite and Pro, 5 on API	1 on each self-service plan
Backlinks	Own Fresh Index (last 120 days) and Historic Index (2006 to March 2024)	Backlink reports on the SEO and AEO plans (from $333 a month billed annually)
Own metrics	Trust Flow, Citation Flow, Topical Trust Flow (0 to 100)	Traffic and engagement estimates, domain and page trust score in backlink reports
Traffic and AI chatbot visits	Not covered	Visits, channels, countries, keywords, AI chatbot traffic and prompts
Best for	Link building, digital PR, domain checks before you buy or partner	Market research, competitor benchmarks, channel choice, investor decks

Sources: majestic.com homepage, plans and free tools pages; similarweb.com Web Intelligence pricing, backlink, extension and data pages; checked 1 November 2026.

The Two Tools Compared

Majestic: the Backlink Index

Majestic has specialised in backlink analysis since 2004. It crawls the web itself and keeps two link indexes. The Fresh Index holds the backlinks found in the past 120 days, including links that were lost in that time; on 1 November 2026 it covered 4 July 2026 to 31 October 2026 and had been updated within the hour. The much larger Historic Index starts in June 2006 and runs to 26 March 2024, which makes it useful for checking a domain's past rather than its newest links. You type a domain or URL into Site Explorer and see its referring domains, backlinks, anchor text, new and lost links and the topics of the sites linking to it.

Flow Metrics: Trust Flow scores the quality of the links pointing to a page or site, Citation Flow scores their quantity, and Topical Trust Flow shows which subjects a site is influential in. All run from 0 to 100.
Link prospecting: Link Graph, Related Sites, Link Context and a Bulk Backlink Checker on every plan; Compare, Backlink History and Clique Hunter (domains that link to more than one competitor) on Pro.
Some keyword data: Keyword Checker and N-grams Near Links, built from Majestic's link index. There is no traffic estimate for any website.

What Majestic Costs

The plans and pricing page opens on monthly billing in euros, excluding VAT:

Lite: €46.99 a month, 1 user, 1 million analysis units, Fresh Index and Site Explorer, for auditing a small group of sites.
Pro: €94.99 a month, 1 user, 20 million analysis units; adds the Historic Index, raw data exports, custom reports, Compare, Flow Metric History, Backlink History and Clique Hunter.
API: €379.99 a month, 5 users, 100 million analysis units and full API access for agencies and developers.
Guarantee and billing: Lite and Pro have a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers. Prices can be switched to dollars or pounds, and annual billing costs less.
Free: a free account gives a few Site Explorer searches a day; each week a showcase site is open with almost Lite-level access; browser plugins show Flow Metrics for the page you are on; and the Majestic Million, the top 1,000,000 sites by referring subnets, is a free CSV download.

Majestic against other link tools: Moz vs Majestic, Semrush vs Majestic and Majestic vs Keyword Insights.

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Similarweb: Traffic and Market Intelligence

Similarweb estimates the traffic of any website: total visits, engagement, marketing channels, countries, demographics, the keywords that bring search visits and the sites that refer visitors. Founders use it to see which companies lead a category, how competitors acquire customers and whether a channel is worth testing before spending on it.

Free browser extension: the Similarweb extension shows traffic, AI chatbot visits, top prompts, keywords and ranking for any site, in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera.
Backlinks on the SEO plans: Backlink Analytics shows new and lost links, anchor text and a domain and page trust score; Similarweb says its backlink data covers 360 trillion links and 200 million domains and is updated daily.
AI search: the AEO plans add AI brand visibility with 150 tracked prompts, sentiment, citation analysis and AI traffic.
Where the numbers come from: Similarweb combines four data sources: first-party analytics from websites and apps, an anonymous contributors network, public data and data partners. Treat the figures as modelled estimates, good for comparing sites and spotting trends, not as exact visit counts.

What Similarweb Costs

The Web Intelligence pricing page lists three self-service plans for entrepreneurs, each with one user:

Competitive Intelligence: $199 month to month or $125 a month billed annually, with 3 months of history: website performance, traffic and engagement, demographics, marketing channels and competitor alerts.
Competitive Intel and SEO and AEO: $399 or $333 a month, with 6 months of history; adds keyword research, a rank tracker, site audit, backlinks and AI brand visibility.
Competitive Intel, SEO and AEO and Ads: $649 or $542 a month, adding ad intelligence.
Businesses and enterprises: custom quotes, with up to 37 months of data, 100+ countries, API, data feeds and MCP.
Trial: 7 days free on the self-service plans; the card is charged automatically unless you cancel before the trial ends.

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What Changed Since the Old Version of This Guide

Similarweb prices: the old version quoted a third-party blog ("$199 a month" up to "$35,000 a year"). Similarweb now publishes its self-service prices: from $125 a month billed annually or $199 month to month, with business plans by quote.
Similarweb now does backlinks: the old FAQ said no tool combined both jobs. Similarweb's SEO and AEO plans include backlink reports, although Majestic's link index, history and Flow Metrics go deeper.
Majestic's Historic Index: it runs to 26 March 2024. For links found since then, use the Fresh Index, which covers the last 120 days.
AI search: Similarweb's free extension and AEO plans now show AI chatbot traffic and prompts. Majestic stays focused on links.
Removed: unsourced claims about local SEO and e-commerce, a list of free alternatives nobody had checked, a "mistakes to avoid" section, and third-party review links.

Majestic or Similarweb: Which Should You Choose?

You are validating an idea or sizing a market: Similarweb's free traffic checker and top websites rankings. Pair them with these free market size calculators.
You need competitor traffic and channels for an investor deck: Similarweb. Quote the figures as estimates.
You rank on page two and competitors have more links: Majestic, to see where their links come from and which prospects have relevant Topical Trust Flow.
You are buying a domain or choosing a partner site: Majestic Pro, whose Historic Index and Backlink History show a domain's past links.
You want one subscription for traffic and basic link checks: Similarweb's SEO and AEO plan covers both at a higher price.
Your budget is close to zero: Majestic's free account plus Similarweb's free extension answer the first questions about any competitor. For keyword ideas, see Keyword Tool vs Keyword Planner, and for broader link tools, our free Ahrefs alternatives.

How Founders Use Majestic and Similarweb Together

Map the market. Open Similarweb's top websites for your category and country and list the five sites your customers would compare you with. More options are in these traffic estimation tools.
Find rivals' channels. Check whether search, referrals, social or AI chatbots bring them visits. If search is small in your market, put less budget into SEO. Our guide to checking competitor keywords shows which pages win that search traffic.
Study their links. For the competitors that win search, open Majestic's Site Explorer and look at referring domains, anchor text and Topical Trust Flow.
Pitch relevant sites. Start with prospects whose topics match yours. Our list of free ways to get quality backlinks and our guide to choosing a link-building agency help here.
Track and refine. Watch new and lost links in Majestic and clicks in Google Search Console, and recheck competitors' channels in Similarweb every quarter.

Then publish pages worth linking to. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, with human editors checking them, and the AI SEO blog explains how AI search changes what you should publish. If neither tool shows any demand for what you sell, validate your startup idea before you build more.

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FAQ: Majestic vs Similarweb

What is the main difference between Majestic and Similarweb?

Majestic analyses backlinks: who links to a site and how strong those links are. Similarweb estimates traffic: how many visits a site gets and which channels, countries, keywords and AI chatbots send them.

Which is better for backlink analysis?

Majestic. It runs its own link index with a Fresh Index for the last 120 days, a Historic Index back to 2006, and Trust Flow, Citation Flow and Topical Trust Flow scores. Similarweb's backlink reports come only with its SEO plans.

Which is better for competitor traffic and market research?

Similarweb. Majestic does not estimate website traffic, while Similarweb shows visits, engagement, channels, countries and demographics for any site.

How much does Majestic cost?

In the pricing page's default view, Lite costs €46.99 a month, Pro €94.99 and API €379.99, excluding VAT. Annual billing is cheaper, and Lite and Pro have a 7-day money-back guarantee for new customers.

How much does Similarweb cost in 2027?

When we checked on 1 November 2026, Competitive Intelligence cost $199 month to month or $125 a month billed annually, the SEO and AEO plan $399 or $333, and the plan with ads $649 or $542. Business plans are quoted by sales.

Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.

Are Majestic and Similarweb free?

Partly. Majestic's free account gives a few Site Explorer searches a day and its Majestic Million list is free. Similarweb's traffic checker, top websites rankings and browser extension are free, and its paid plans have a 7-day trial.

How accurate is Similarweb traffic data?

It is a modelled estimate built from first-party analytics, an anonymous contributors network, public data and data partners. Use it to compare sites and spot trends, not as a competitor's exact visit count.

Does Majestic show links found after March 2024?

Yes, in the Fresh Index, which covers backlinks found in the last 120 days and is updated several times a day. The Historic Index, available on Pro, ends on 26 March 2024.

Can I use AI to write SEO articles that help my brand grow?

Yes. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and in AI assistants, with human editors reviewing them.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp