Updated October 18, 2026 · 19 vendors, 6 studies
A backlink bought through a link building service costs $99 to $517 in October 2026, and the price follows the linking site's Domain Rating. The median of the published price lists is $160 at DR 30+, $240 at DR 40+ and $500 at DR 60+, article included. Monthly packages run $550 to $9,999 for 4 to 30 links, a guest post bought straight from the site averages $295, and a digital PR link costs $1,250 to $1,500.
Compare routes for your link countEvery package, priced per link
Link price check
Median link, DR 40+$240
Price by DR
Most sellers price a link by the Domain Rating of the site it sits on. These are the published prices of 7 link building services for one link at each DR floor, article and site fee included. The highlighted row is the median of the lists that sell that tier.
DR 20+$105
Outreach Monks $99
Respona $100
FatJoe $109
The HOTH $175DR 30+$160
Outreach Monks $119FatJoe $136Respona $160
LinkDR $160
Loganix $200DR 40+$240
Outreach Monks $179Respona $240LinkDR $240FatJoe $245Loganix $400DR 50+$391
Outreach Monks $249
Editorial.Link $375FatJoe $381Respona $400LinkDR $400The HOTH $405DR 60+$500
Outreach Monks $319Respona $500LinkDR $500FatJoe $517| Price list | DR 20+ | DR 30+ | DR 40+ | DR 50+ | DR 60+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outreach MonksGuest post | $99 | $119 | $179 | $249 | $319 |
| ResponaPlacement | $100 | $160 | $240 | $400 | $500 |
| LinkDRManaged link | – | $160 | $240 | $400 | $500 |
| LoganixGuest post | – | $200 | $400 | – | – |
| The HOTHLink outreach / Platinum | $175 | – | – | $405 | – |
| Editorial.LinkEditorial link | – | – | – | $375 | – |
| FatJoeBlogger outreach or niche edit | $109 | $136 | $245 | $381 | $517 |
| Medianof the lists at each tier | $105$99–$175, 4 lists | $160$119–$200, 5 lists | $240$179–$400, 5 lists | $391$249–$405, 6 lists | $500$319–$517, 4 lists |
Prices from each vendor's own pricing page: Outreach Monks, Respona, LinkDR, Loganix, The HOTH, Editorial.Link, FatJoe. FatJoe shows the USD prices a visitor sees after picking USD; Loganix and The HOTH publish starting prices. Checked October 18, 2026.
Read the traffic range, not only the DR. At DR 40+, Respona, LinkDR and FatJoe all promise sites with 500 to 20,000 monthly visits. Loganix's $400 tier asks for 1,000+ visits on a niche site, which is why it tops its column. At DR 60+, Respona allows 1,000 to 100,000 visits and FatJoe 1,000 to 60,000.
Above DR 70, lists stop. Outreach Monks sells DR 70+ guest posts at $399; most others quote by hand. Adsy's marketplace averages $2,025 at DR 71+, and BuzzStream's data puts a guest post on an 80+ site at about $3,000 through a vendor.
Each table above comes from these pages. The tag on each screenshot marks the price to look for.
outreachmonks.com/guest-posting-services
respona.com/pricing
linkdr.com/pricing
fatjoe.com/blogger-outreach
loganix.com/guest-post-service
thehoth.com/link-building-service
editorial.link/pricing
Price by link type
The type of link moves the price as much as the site. A link added to a live article costs less than a new post, and a link earned with a story costs the most. The axis is logarithmic: from $6 to $7,209 is a 1,200-fold spread.
Profile, Web 2.0 and other links sold by the dozen.
Your link added to an article that is already live. Marked: Adsy average $225.
A new article on the site with your link, written and placed for you. Marked: BuzzStream vendor average $461.
You find the site, agree the fee and supply the article. Marked: BuzzStream direct average $295.
Your product added to a “best X” list.
A placement on a news site. Marked: BuzzStream news average $582.
Coverage earned with data or a story, no fee to the publisher. Marked: BuzzStream $1,250–$1,500.
| Link type | Published range | Who charges what |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk links | $6–$12 | Legiit gigs start at $6; JDM Web Technologies sells 50 links for $599 a month, about $12 each; Giant Marketers bundles profile and Web 2.0 links. |
| Link insertion (niche edit) | $60–$517 | Rhino Rank from $60, FatJoe $82–$517, Outreach Monks $99–$449, Loganix $200–$400, The HOTH $200. BuzzStream's market average is $179; Adsy's is $225. |
| Guest post through a service | $75–$517 | Rhino Rank from $75, FatJoe $82–$517, Outreach Monks $99–$399, Respona $100–$500, LinkDR $160–$500, Loganix $200–$400, Editorial.Link $300–$375. Top-tier sites average $6,018 through a vendor (BuzzStream). |
| Guest post bought from the site | $207–$295 | BuzzStream puts the average direct price at $295, against $461 through a vendor. Adsy buyers paid $207 a link on average, though sites listed $929. |
| Listicle placement | $135–$600 | Rhino Rank from $135; Linksman listings at DR 46–59 run $200–$300; LinkDR adds 20% to any tier, up to $600 at DR 60+. |
| News and media links | $450–$7,209 | The HOTH sells US news links from $450. BuzzStream's average vendor price for news sites is $582; its 413 top-tier news sites average $3,836 direct and $7,209 through a vendor. |
| Digital PR link | $495–$1,500 | BuzzStream puts a unique digital PR link at $1,250–$1,500; SEOBacklinks caps its packages at $495–$600 per placement; The HOTH sells digital PR from $1,500 a month. |
Sources: Legiit, JDM Web Technologies, Giant Marketers, Rhino Rank, FatJoe, Outreach Monks, Loganix, The HOTH, Adsy, Rhino Rank, Outreach Monks, Respona, LinkDR, Loganix, Editorial.Link, BuzzStream, Linksman, BuzzStream, SEOBacklinks. Checked October 18, 2026.
Per month
Published packages run $550 to $9,999 a month for 4 to 30 links, or $110 to $428 a link. What teams actually spend is higher: in Reporter Outreach's Q1 2026 survey of 500 SEOs, 64% spend $3,000 or more a month.
Hiring an agency? link-building-agencies.com compares agencies by minimum spend and pricing model.
Sources: Reporter Outreach, Outreach Monks, GoPeak, Editorial.Link, One Little Web, The HOTH, LinkBuilder.io, SEOBacklinks, Editorial.Link, Growwer. Checked October 18, 2026.
Calculator
Set how many links you want a month and the site tier. Each receipt prices the same month five ways: an agency at the median published price, a marketplace's fixed tier price, a freelancer on retainer, doing it yourself, and an AI agent. Every default is a published number; open the assumptions to use your own.
Lowest
Median of 4 price lists: $179–$400
Per month$1,200
$240 per link
Median of the published per-link prices at this tier. Article, outreach and site fee included; you pay only for live links. Outreach Monks, Loganix and LinkDR replace lost links for 6 to 12 months.
Lowest
FatJoe at DR 40+
Per month$1,225
$245 per link
A fixed price per DR tier with the article included, no say in the site. Adsy's 2026 averages run higher: $459 a guest post, $225 an insertion.
Lowest
Retainer plus site fees
Per month$1,975
$395 per link
A monthly retainer for the outreach, with each site's fee passed through to you, the model one freelancer describes on r/SEO.
Lowest
Tools, your hours, site fees
Per month$4,153
$831 per link
Your hours valued at your rate: finding sites and contacts, writing pitches, following up and agreeing the fee.
Lowest
BacklinkGPT Starter: up to 6 pitches a day
Per month$1,624
$325 per link
The agent finds pages, writes and sends pitches from your inbox or LinkedIn and follows up; you approve each fee, paid to the site. Plans set pitches a day, not links. Plans and fees.
Only the per-link routes promise a count: the agency and marketplace bill live links only. The freelancer, do-it-yourself and agent totals assume the month brings the links you set; a month with fewer links costs the same retainer, tools or plan. Agency and marketplace prices include the article.
Price drivers
Traffic predicts the price better than DR, because traffic is harder to fake. Niche, country and who sells the link move it next.
01
BuzzStream: $229 for a guest post on a site under 100 visits a month, $3,210 over 100,000. Growwer: €81 under 20,000 visits, €697 over 200,000.
02
Respona and LinkDR go $160, $240, $400, $500 from DR 30+ to DR 60+. Adsy averages $332 at DR 1–30, $555 at DR 31–70 and $2,025 at DR 71+.
03
Adsy: personal blogs $341, finance $816, beauty $1,171, against a $459 average. BuzzStream: sports $572, health $352.
04
Adsy: US sites $670, UK $729, Canada $750, against $459 overall. Growwer: a German post averaged €618.70 in 2025.
05
Adsy: $225 for an insertion vs $459 for a guest post. Only about 14% of sites in BuzzStream's database offer insertions at all.
06
LinkDR adds 20% for a listicle or product review and 20% to approve every site first. Respona charges extra for approvals and for 14-day delivery.
07
BuzzStream found $295 direct and $461 through a vendor for the same pool of sites. On Adsy, the average listed price ($929) is 4.5 times what buyers paid ($207).
Sources: BuzzStream, Growwer, Respona, LinkDR, Adsy, BuzzStream. Checked October 18, 2026.
Why guides disagree
Because each one measures something else: what sites ask, what buyers pay, what vendors charge, or what SEOs say they would pay. Ahrefs' $361 is from 2018 and still shows up in 2026 guides.
| Study | What it measures | The number |
|---|---|---|
 AhrefsRun in 2018 (page updated Aug 2026) | What 450 contacted sites asked to add a link to an existing page | $361.44 average; $77.80 for a paid guest post |
| Editorial.Link2026, 518 SEOs | The price SEOs call acceptable for one high-quality link | $508.95 average |
 Reporter OutreachQ1 2026, 500 SEOs | The most buyers will pay per link | 76% pay $300+; 31% pay $500–$1,000 |
 AdsyJune 2026, 52,671 sites | Prices listed on one marketplace, and what buyers paid | $459 guest post, $225 insertion; $929 listed vs $207 paid |
 BuzzStreamJune 2026, 257,267 sites | Guest post prices in a vendor database, vendor vs direct | $461 through a vendor, $295 direct |
 Growwer2025 purchases | What buyers paid on one marketplace, mostly Spanish-language sites | €189.82 average, €57 median of the 90 best sellers |
BuzzStreamOne guest post, 257,267 sites (June 2026)
AdsyOne link on Adsy, 52,671 sites (June 2026)
The biggest gap is between asking and paying. Sites on Adsy list $929 a link on average; buyers there paid $207. BuzzStream found the same sites cost $295 bought direct and $461 through a vendor. A survey of what SEOs would pay ($508.95 at Editorial.Link) sits above what most of them are charged.
Sources: Ahrefs, Editorial.Link, Reporter Outreach, Adsy, BuzzStream, Growwer. Checked October 18, 2026.
Cheap links
Most of what sells cheaply has no readers. In BuzzStream's 2026 study of 257,267 sites that sell guest posts, 78% get under 1,000 organic visits a month, 39.6% get none, and 1.37% rate as high quality or top tier. On Growwer, 47 of the 90 best-selling outlets get under 1,000 visits. At the far end, Legiit lists backlink gigs from $6, JDM Web Technologies sells 50 links for $599 a month, and Giant Marketers bundles “high DA profile” and Web 2.0 links.
Google's spam policies(updated August 28, 2026) list “buying or selling links for ranking purposes” as link spam, and allow paid links marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
Before you pay for any link, check the site's organic traffic, not only its DR. BacklinkGPT's free website authority checkershows both for any domain.
Sources: BuzzStream, Growwer, Legiit, JDM Web Technologies, Giant Marketers, Google Search Central. Checked October 18, 2026.
Paying less
An insertion averages $225 on Adsy against $459 for a guest post, and needs no article.
The same guest post costs $295 direct and $461 through a vendor (BuzzStream). You do the outreach yourself, pay a freelancer for it, or have an AI agent such as BacklinkGPT send the pitches from your own inbox.
Adsy sites list $929 on average and sell for $207. The first price a site names is an opening offer.
Respona takes 10% off at $3,000 a month and 20% at $5,000; FatJoe takes 10% off a monthly subscription; GoPeak's 30-link package is $160 a link against $190 at 10.
LinkDR adds 20% to approve every site and 20% for a listicle; Respona charges for 14-day delivery. Pay for approval on the links that matter and auto-approve the rest.
BuzzStream's prices track traffic more steadily than DR, and Respona, LinkDR and FatJoe print a traffic range next to each tier. 47 of Growwer's 90 best-selling outlets get under 1,000 visits a month.
Sources: Adsy, BuzzStream, Respona, FatJoe, GoPeak, LinkDR, Growwer. Checked October 18, 2026.
Comparing what kinds of service you can buy? link-building-service.com explains each one. Doing it yourself? link-building-tools.com sorts the tools by job.
FAQ
Short answers, each with its source.
Through a link building service, $99 to $517 per link in October 2026, set by the linking site's Domain Rating. The median published price is $160 at DR 30+, $240 at DR 40+ and $500 at DR 60+. Bought directly from the site, a guest post averages $295 (BuzzStream); a digital PR link costs $1,250 to $1,500.
Published monthly packages run $550 to $9,999 for 4 to 30 links. In Reporter Outreach's survey of 500 SEOs (Q1 2026), 64% spend $3,000 or more a month and 17% spend over $12,000. Doing it yourself costs $0 to about $550 a month in tools, plus your time and any site fees.
For a site with real traffic at DR 40+, $179 to $400 through a service, with $240 the median of the published lists. SEOs in Editorial.Link's 2026 survey called $508.95 acceptable for one high-quality link, and buyers on Adsy paid $207 on average for sites that listed $929.
At DR 30+, about $16,000 at the median service price of $160, or $13,600 at FatJoe's $136 tier. Bulk packages sell 100 links for $999 a month (JDM Web Technologies), built from a mix of DA 20 to 90 sites with the link types not itemized.
$295 on average bought direct and $461 through a vendor (BuzzStream, 257,267 sites, June 2026). Service price lists run from $75 (Rhino Rank) to $517 (FatJoe DR 60+), article included. High-quality sites average $3,130 and top-tier sites $6,018 through a vendor.
$179 to $225 on average (BuzzStream and Adsy). Price lists run from $60 at Rhino Rank to $517 at FatJoe for DR 60+; Outreach Monks charges $99 to $449 and The HOTH $200. Only about 14% of sites in BuzzStream's database sell insertions.
$1,250 to $1,500 per unique link by BuzzStream's estimate, from campaigns of $5,000 to $10,000 that earn 6 or 7 linking domains. SEOBacklinks sells digital PR packages at $6,000 for 10 links and $9,900 for 20; The HOTH's digital PR starts at $1,500 a month.
About $7,300 a month: Editorial.Link cites Glassdoor at $53,000 to $98,000 a year for a US link-building specialist, or about $98,000 with benefits and overhead. Tools add $0 to $549 a month, and the site fees come on top.
Mostly not at the bottom of the market. In BuzzStream's 2026 study, 78% of sites selling guest posts get under 1,000 organic visits a month and 39.6% get none; 47 of Growwer's 90 best-selling outlets have under 1,000 visits. Check a site's traffic before you pay, for example with a free website authority checker.
Yes, when the link passes ranking credit. Google's spam policies list "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam and allow paid links marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
At services, yes: Outreach Monks, Rhino Rank and Stellar SEO include 750+ word articles, and LinkDR's price covers the article and the site's fee. Bought direct from a site, you supply the article; LinkBuilder.io charges $100 for one. Insertions and list entries need none.
They sell more than the placement: finding a relevant site with traffic, the outreach, the article, approvals and a replacement guarantee. For the same pool of sites, BuzzStream found a vendor charges $461 against $295 bought direct, a markup of about 56%.
Usually 4% to 20% cheaper per link. Editorial.Link's 20-link pack costs $6,000 against $7,500 at its single rate, and GoPeak's 30-link package is $160 a link against $190 at 10. Outreach Monks' Supreme package costs $139 more than the same 20 links bought singly, because it adds services.
Method
Every price on this page was read on the vendor's own pricing page or the study's own page on October 18, 2026, in a browser, in US dollars where the page offers a choice. Where a vendor publishes only a starting price, the page says “from”. Where a page shows different prices before and after its scripts run (FatJoe), the price a visitor sees is used. Vendors that publish no prices (Page One Power, Dofollow.com, Siege Media) are left out of the tables. uSERP's pricing page returned a 404 on the check date, so its retainer is not listed.
Medians are taken across the price lists that sell a tier; a vendor with no price at a tier doesn't count toward it. Euro figures (Growwer) are left in euros.
Rhino Rank