Free Domain Authority Checkers: Moz DA, Ahrefs DR, Semrush AS and Others

A free domain authority checker gives you one vendor's estimate of how strong a site looks, and each vendor measures something slightly different: Moz DA and Ahrefs DR are mostly about backlinks, Semrush Authority Score adds traffic and spam signals, and Satelo's Quality Score leans on open data. None of them is a Google metric. Below you'll find what each free checker shows, its free limits as checked on October 16, 2026, and how to use two or three together without being fooled by an inflated number.

Published: 2026-10-16 · 8 min read · Satelo

The short answer: which free checker to use

• One quick DR lookup: Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker.
• DA plus Spam Score and link counts: Moz Link Explorer, with a free account and a monthly cap.
• Authority plus traffic and spam signals: a free Semrush account, with a daily report cap.
• Many domains at once: Ahrefs' free Domain Rating API, if you're comfortable with a few lines of code.
• "Is this site real?" from open data, with the evidence shown: Satelo's free Quality Score check.

If you only remember one rule, make it this: compare scores from the same tool, and never compare a DA with a DR. The scales look identical (roughly 0 to 100) but they are built from different data. For the definitions behind each metric, see our explainer on what domain authority really is; this article is about the tools.

Comparison table: free authority checkers (checked October 16, 2026)

Limits change often. Treat the table as a snapshot and confirm on each vendor's page before you build a workflow around it.

Moz DA: the original "authority" score

Moz's own Domain Authority guide describes DA as a score from 1 to 100 that predicts how likely a site is to rank compared with competitors, calculated by a machine-learning model that mainly looks at backlink data. The same page is blunt that DA "is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the SERPs."

The free route is Link Explorer. After you create and verify a free Moz Community account, you get 10 queries a month, and each query shows DA, Page Authority, Spam Score, inbound links, linking domains, anchor text and follow vs. nofollow counts. You can compare link metrics for up to five sites at once, which stretches the monthly allowance further than it sounds. Moz also lists its free MozBar extension, which shows DA as you browse.

Good for: a handful of serious checks a month, especially when you want Spam Score next to DA. Weak for: anything in bulk.

Ahrefs DR: links and nothing else

On its free authority checker, Ahrefs says DR "looks at the quantity and quality of external backlinks" on a 0–100 scale, and that it does not take into account "link spam, traffic, domain age, etc." That makes DR the purest link metric of the group. It also means a site with zero visitors can carry a respectable DR if it has bought or swapped its way into a lot of links.

Two free extras are worth knowing:

• The free DR API. Ahrefs' API documentation lists a free endpoint that accepts up to 1,000 domains per request. It needs a free APIv3 key from your account settings, and use of the data requires the credit "Domain Rating by Ahrefs." This is the most practical free option for bulk checks.
• Ahrefs Free (formerly Webmaster Tools). The free plan covers sites you verify: Site Audit, Site Explorer with up to 1,000 backlinks visible at once, and web analytics. Competitor sites need a paid plan.

Semrush Authority Score: links plus traffic plus spam checks

Semrush's knowledge base calls Authority Score a compound metric on a 1–100 scale built from three groups of signals: link power, estimated organic traffic and a "natural profile" check for spam patterns. Among those checks: no rankings in Google's top 100, more than 90% dofollow referring domains, and a mismatch between links and traffic. Semrush adds that the score works best for comparing domains rather than judging one site in isolation.

The Semrush free plan includes one demo project and 10 reports a day across its core tools, so a few domain overviews a day are realistic.

Good for: catching sites whose links don't match their traffic. Weak for: small, new sites, where the traffic estimate is often near zero and the score tells you little.

Why DA, DR and AS disagree for the same site

It's normal to see a DA of 20, a DR of 35 and an AS of 12 for the same domain. Four reasons:

1. Different link indexes. Each vendor crawls the web with its own bot and finds a different set of links.
2. Different formulas. DR counts links only. DA is a model trained to predict rankings. AS mixes in traffic and spam penalties.
3. Different scales. Moz and Semrush both describe their scores as comparative. A 30 in one tool is not "worth" a 30 in another.
4. Different update timing. Scores move when the vendor recrawls, when competitors gain links, or when the model changes. Moz notes that DA can rise or fall because of changes in competitors' scores or the calculation itself.

What to do with the disagreement: look at the direction each tool agrees on. If all three put a site near the bottom of its niche, believe it. If DR is high while AS is low and the site shows no organic traffic, treat that as a warning sign rather than a rounding error.

What Google says about these scores

None of these metrics comes from Google. Moz states on its DA page that DA is not used by Google to rank pages, and Ahrefs writes on its checker page that Google representatives consistently deny using "domain authority" as a ranking factor. Third-party scores are useful as shortcuts for comparing sites, but raising a number in a tool is not the same as earning visibility in search. If you're tempted to chase the number itself, read how to increase domain authority first, especially the part about what not to do.

Satelo Quality Score: what's inside and where it falls short

Satelo's Quality Score runs from 0 to 100 and is built mostly from open data that you can check yourself:

• Tranco, a research ranking of the top one million domains that averages several sources (including Cisco Umbrella, Majestic, the Chrome UX Report and Cloudflare Radar) over 30 days. More in our Tranco rank explainer.
• Majestic Million, a free list of top domains published by Majestic.
• Common Crawl, a free, open repository of web crawl data, used here to see whether the domain is actually being crawled.
• Internet Archive and RDAP/WHOIS, for domain age and history.
• Google PageSpeed and CrUX, for how fast the site loads for real visitors.

The point is transparency: the check shows the evidence behind each number, so you can see why a site scored the way it did. The limits are just as real. QS doesn't count individual backlinks the way DR does, it is not used by Google, and most small or new sites sit low on open lists simply because they are small. A low QS on a brand-new blog means "too early to tell," not "bad site." For sites inside the Satelo network there are additional estimates from Semrush and Similarweb, but for an arbitrary domain you get the open-data view.

How not to get fooled by an inflated DA or DR

Link sellers know buyers filter by DA and DR, so those are the scores that get gamed. Before you pay for a placement or agree to a partnership, check these five things:

1. Does the authority match the traffic? A DR 50 site with almost no estimated organic traffic deserves a closer look. Semrush's spam checks flag exactly this mismatch.
2. Who links to it? Open the top linking domains. A pile of unrelated directories, foreign-language blogs or sites with names like "best-seo-links-2026" is a red flag.
3. What does the site publish? Scroll the last 20 posts. Casino, loans and CBD next to recipes and travel is a link farm, whatever its DA.
4. Is it on open lists? A site that claims to be big but is absent from Tranco and barely visible in Common Crawl is unlikely to have real readers.
5. Does it look like part of a network? Same theme, same footer, same outbound links across many domains. Our guide on how to spot PBN sites walks through the signs.

For a full pre-purchase checklist, see how to check a site before buying a placement.

Checking many domains for free

Bulk checks are where free plans pinch hardest. Your realistic options:

Illustrative example: you have 60 guest-post prospects. Run all 60 through the free DR API to drop obvious zeros, check the remaining dozen in Satelo and Semrush's free account for traffic and spam signals, and spend your Moz queries on the final five. That workflow costs nothing and uses each tool for what it does best.

What to do next

1. Pick one main metric for comparisons and stick with it.
2. Add one second opinion that measures something different (traffic, spam signals or open-data presence).
3. Write down today's numbers for your own site so you can track direction over months, not days.

Want to see your site's Quality Score with the evidence behind each number? Run the free check: it takes about 30 seconds, needs no account, and shows which open sources see your domain and which don't yet.

FAQ

Is there a free domain authority checker?

Yes. Moz Link Explorer shows DA with 10 free queries a month on a free account, Ahrefs' Website Authority Checker shows DR, a free Semrush account shows Authority Score within 10 reports a day, and Satelo's check shows a Quality Score from open data without signup.

Is DA or DR more accurate?

Neither is more accurate; they measure different things. DR is based only on backlinks, while DA is a Moz model trained to predict ranking ability. Compare sites within the same metric rather than across them.

Does Google use Domain Authority?

No. Moz says DA is not a Google ranking factor, and Ahrefs notes that Google representatives consistently deny using "domain authority" as a ranking factor. These are third-party estimates.

How can I check DA for many websites at once for free?

Moz lets you compare up to five sites at a time within its monthly limit. For larger lists, Ahrefs offers a free DR API endpoint that accepts up to 1,000 domains per request with a free API key.

Why is my new site's domain authority zero?

Authority scores depend on links and visibility that a new site hasn't had time to earn. A zero or very low score early on is normal and says more about age than quality.

What is a good domain authority score?

There is no universal good score, because DA, DR and Authority Score are comparative. Compare a site with others in the same niche and size range instead of aiming for a fixed number.

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