My Favorite link building Marketplaces

Are backlink marketplaces worth it? How much should you pay for links? We analyzed 93,812 backlinks across 6 popular marketplaces. We share the results in this case study.

When done carefully, paying for backlinks (guest posts, niche edits, etc) can be a highly effective strategy to accelerate the rankings and traffic growth of a niche site.

We looked at 6 popular link marketplaces: Vettted, PressWhizz, Loganix, Authority Builders, Serp Pro, and INSERT.LINK. We analyzed how much they typically charge for a link, SEO metrics of their links, and more.

To obtain the data, we programmatically scraped all the data from these marketplaces, added in missing metrics from AHREFs, and then performed data-driven analysis in Google Sheets.

Here is what’s covered in this report:

• Summary of each backlink marketplace
• Average price and metrics for each marketplace
• Analysis of link prices and takeaways

Let’s get into it!

Summary of 4 Key Findings

Here is the bottom-line-up-front:

• The average price across all marketplaces was $280.67 per link.
• The median price across all marketplaces was $216.96 per link.

It’s important to note that low cost does not equal quality backlink. Each backlink opportunity must be analyzed to see if it has (1) organic traffic, (2) age, (3) inbound backlinks from other sites, (4) good branding, and much more

Do your own due diligence; DO NOT trust marketplaces to do it for you.

Here are key takeaways:

1. Marketplaces offer many high-quality links from specific sites, but the price may be too high to be worth it
2. Marketplaces have a 30-50% profit markup. You could go direct to the websites listed for a better deal.
3. Some marketplaces also offer questionable or low-quality links that you should avoid (we recommend conducting your own due diligence on every link).
4. Check each site’s outgoing links with AHREFs to make sure they are not linking to low-quality sites or questionable niches.

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Link Building Marketplaces at a Quick Glance

Here is a side-by-side comparison of each marketplace and metrics:

Marketplace	Avg Price	Avg DR	Avg Traffic	Cost Per 1,000 Traffic	Avg Cost Per DR
Vettted	$286	62	68,391	$4.18	$4.61
PressWhizz	$131.61	56.32	43,491.24	$3.03	$2.34
Loganix	$382	50.61	12,400	$30.81	$7.55
Authority Builders	$330.77	41	34,194	$9.67	$8.07
Serp Pro	$273.71	39	18,676	$14.6	$7.02
INSERT.LINK	$112	59	23,200	$4.83	$1.90

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What is a Backlink Marketplace?

A backlink marketplace is a service where you can pay to have links placed to your site from a list of available sites.

A link marketplace is typically managed by a company that has developed relationships with thousands of websites over several years. This can save you time from manually reaching out to sites on your own.

Link marketplaces typically share the URL of each site before the link is placed to make sure the linking site meets the customer’s requirements.

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Best Link Building Marketplaces: Data-Driven Reviews

We analyzed 93,812 backlinks across 6 marketplaces to gain insights into the average price per link, traffic, DR, and more. This allowed us to hone down on which marketplace is the best overall value.

In no particular order, we review each of the marketplaces.

Vettted Review

• Average Price Per Link: $286
• Median Price Per Link: $238
• Average DR: 62
• Average Traffic: 68,391
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $4.18
• Average Cost per DR: $4.61
• Number of Sites: 329

Vettted is not a typical marketplace like others; I considered it for this case study because I like how they vet each SEO service provider so you get the best quality links. Their vetting criteria are straightforward: they only include sites with high traffic and a strong DR that look legitimate and are clearly not link farms.

The links offered by Vettted are sourced by a team of outreach specialists. They’ve secured high-quality, high-traffic, good DR links in every industry.

The average price per link is $286, which includes the cost of the guest post article. They also highlighted the site lists that accept niche edits.

Pros

• High-quality websites, with real traffic, all vetted by the team on a monthly basis
• High average DR of 62, and high average traffic around 68k
• For agencies, they offer a 10% recurring discount
• They also offer other types of links such as foudational links, Reddit mentions, local SEO links, and much more. They are a one-stop shop.

Cons

• You can suggest anchor texts, but it is ultimately up to the site owner to accept them. Sometimes, site owners or Vettted teams modify anchors to ensure they are a natural and contextual fit.

PressWhizz Review

• Average Price Per Link: $131.61
• Median Price Per Link: $124
• Average DR: 56.32
• Average Traffic: 43,491.24
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $3.03
• Average Cost per DR: $2.34
• Number of Sites: 25,492

PressWhizz is one of the largest, most dynamic guest post marketplaces available today, with a fast-growing inventory of more than 25,000+ vetted sites across 20+ countries.

They offer both niche edits and guest post options.

The average price per link is $131.61, excluding the article cost, which you need to provide. The price varies based on the type of links you want, such as guest posts or niche edits, and particularly for “special category” niches (such as gambling, crypto, adult, etc.), where premiums can range from 30% to even 300% extra

Pros

• Huge global database with transparent, up-to-date metrics including category, DR, traffic, linking domains, and other deciding metrics
• Powerful filters and tools (especially search by keywords, duplicate placements blacklist, for precise targeting and monitoring
• You can see the site URLs before placing an order
• Most links go live within a day
• Replace or reinstate any link that is taken down within 12 months of your order

Cons

• No content creation is included by default. Which is a mixed bag.
• Large inventory can mean varied quality. Though they say they manually vet, due diligence is still a must.

Loganix Marketplace Review

• Average Price Per Link: $382
• Median Price Per Link: $235
• Average DR: 50.61
• Average Traffic: 12,400
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $30.81
• Average Cost per DR: $7.55
• Number of Sites: 10,378

Loganix is a link building marketplace with a list of thousands of vetted sites that you can order a link placement from.

Loganix offers link insertions or guest posts on high-quality sites via their marketplace. 

Once you place an order for a specific URL, they will get the link placed in about 6 weeks. 

Prices range from $190 to almost $23,000.

Pros

• Loganix is highly recommended with testimonials from well-known SEOs such as Brian Dean, Nick Eubanks, and Nathan Gotch.
• Sites are highly vetted with an extensive list of checks including traffic trends, anchor text abuse, and no links to poker, pills, or adult.
• The Loganix website receives thousands of organic visitors from Google (34k+ AHREFs traffic) despite selling links.
• Their own site has links from many high authority sites like Fortune, Entrepreneur, American Express, Fox News, Moz, and Hubspot (over 2,000 dofollow referring domains in total). 

Cons

• Prices are the highest compared to the other marketplaces.
• They don’t allow you to provide the content.
• You can suggest the anchor text, but the site owner may not use it.
• To view the list of sites with URLs, you need sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

Authority Builders Review

• Average Price per Link: $330.77
• Median Price per Link: $277.78
• Average DR: 41
• Average Traffic: 34,194
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $9.67
• Average Cost per DR: $8.07 
• Number of Sites: 1,772

Authority Builders provides guest post and link insertions from “real” English websites with at least 1,000 AHREFs traffic. 

Prices range from about $100 to $1,300, based on the website.

Pros

• If any links are removed within 365 days, Authority Builders will replace the link for free or provide a full refund.
• Links are from sites with a minimum of 1,000 AHREFs traffic.
• You can provide your preferred anchor text.
• They can provide screenshots of the email conversations with webmasters.
• Authority Builders writes the content for you.
• Most links are placed within 7-10 days (high authority sites typically take longer, up to 4-6 weeks). 

Cons

• Authority Builders’ website has low organic traffic (<5000 AHREFs traffic).
• When viewing their site inventory the URLs are hidden (but a description is provided).
• They manually approve requests, so there will be some delay in getting access to the marketplace.

Serp Pro Marketplace Review

• Average Price per Link: $273.71
• Median Price per Link: $210
• Average DR: 39
• Average Traffic: 18,676
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $14.6
• Average Cost per DR: $7.02
• Number of Websites: 10,831

Serp Pro has a network of over 10,000 sites that accept payment for guest posts. They categorize the sites as Niche Blogs (2,110), News & Media (120), US State Sites (351), iGaming / Casino (238), and International (8,012).

Customers can join their marketplace to view the website URLs and order guest posts or link insertions from specific sites.

If you order a guest post, Serp Pro writes and places the guest post on websites that you choose from their database. 

Prices for guest posts range from $20 to $8,000, based on each site’s metrics. 

Pros

• Large database of sites with URLs provided.
• Easy to use interface to filter sites to match your requirements.
• Hundreds of sites are available with over 10,000 traffic.
• Link placements (niche-edits) are placed in 30 days or less.
• When you sign up for a free account, you receive a $50 credit.
• If you deposit at least $1,000 you receive a $250 bonus credit.
• They will provide you with the guest post content for $50 (or you can provide your own content).

Cons 

• Some sites show high traffic in their dashboard, but have low traffic in AHREFs.
• Some sites allow off-topic articles that look like unnatural links.
• No guarantee that the link will remain on the site.

INSERT.LINK Review

• Average Price per Link: $122
• Median Price per Link: $112
• Average DR: 59
• Average Traffic: 23,200
• Cost per 1,000 Traffic: $4.83
• Average Cost per DR: $1.90
• Number of Websites: 45,765

INSERT.LINK is a backlink marketplace with a large catalog of vetted sites for link insertions and guest posts.

You pick the page you want, approve the details, and the team handles the placement.

The platform also offers an AI-based search that uses Google’s model to sort websites by topic, making it easier to find pages that fit your niche.

Turnaround is quick, at around 2–5 days for link insertions and 3–7 days for guest posts.

Pros: 

• One of the biggest databases of websites, with more than 40,000 vetted domains and clear metrics such as DR, traffic, niche, and placement type
• AI-based Topic Search for link insertions
• Full visibility of URLs and placement details before ordering
• Fast delivery times, 2–5 days for link insertions and 3–7 days for guest posts
• Managed link-building support for teams that want help selecting sites or planning campaigns
• Content creation available for guest post placements

Cons:

• Inventory quality varies by niche, so manual review is still recommended
• AI-based search is available only for link insertions, not for guest post discovery
• Premium publishers may require additional time for approval
  

Recommended Best Practices with Backlink Marketplaces

Being in the industry for over a decade, I’ve honed down on best practices if you plan to use marketplaces.

Here’s the shortlist:

1. Do not blindly trust marketplace metrics
2. Always get the domain and run your own analysis in Ahrefs or SemRush
3. Visit the site to see if it’s well-branded or a link farm
4. Read content on the site to see the quality of articles
5. Choose marketplaces that allow you to submit your own content as well

Here is what I look out for:

1. The domain must have healthy organic traffic (5,000 Ahrefs organic visitors or more)
2. The organic traffic should be stable or uptrending
3. The domain should have quality incoming backlinks
4. The domain should not have a high ratio of outgoing external links vs incoming links (you want less outgoing links, more incoming)
5. Review the outgoing link profile from the last 6 months to determine if they link to anyone
6. If purchasing a niche edit, make sure the article where link will be placed is not “orphaned”. It should have backlinks and/or internal links
7. Write your own guest post; marketplaces offer to write the guest post but oftentimes they are LOW quality. Do it yourself.

Marketplaces are great for access to thousands of links. However, the good ones are a needle in a haystack which you have to pick out. Take your time and analyze the good opportunities.

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Common Questions

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Final Takeaways

All 5 of these marketplaces allow you to choose specific sites that you want to place a link on, providing you excellent control of your link building.

Whether buying links makes sense for your site depends on the competition in the niche, your available resources for building links yourself, and your risk tolerance.

If you are looking for the highest quality marketplace, we recommend Vettted.

If you are looking for the best budget-friendly marketplace, we recommend PressWhizz and Serp Pro. Just make sure to do your own due diligence to avoid low-quality links from obvious link sellers.