Backlinker.ai Alternatives
Looking for a Backlinker.ai alternative means you want a different approach to getting links. Here are the real options, with what they do, what they cost, and who they are for.
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- 9 min read · 1,971 words
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Backlinker.ai
backlinker.aiA done-for-you outreach service that pitches reporters on your behalf and guarantees a number of links per month.
Published price
- Standard $300/mo (3+ DR30+ links guaranteed or money back)
Pick them when
You want somebody else to do it and you would rather pay for an outcome than run a process. That is a legitimate thing to want.
Checked facts
- Their homepage states the service works "via Featured.com, HelpAB2BWriter, SOS and more" for $300 per month. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
- Featured.com's own Pro plan is $79 per month and Help a B2B Writer is free. Both are named sources of the service. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
- Their placement examples are labelled "View Article with AI-Generated Quote", so the quote attributed to the client is written by a model. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
- Their published case study reports 117 links in 10 months, of which 102 came from Featured.com. (Backlinker.ai case study, recorded in the Mentionry brief, checked 2026-08-14)
- The site ranks for 12 keywords in total in the US top 20, and holds 190 referring domains. (DataForSEO Labs ranked_keywords and backlinks/summary, checked 2026-08-14)
Why look for an alternative to Backlinker.ai
Backlinker.ai is a done-for-you outreach service that guarantees a set number of links per month for a fixed fee. It works by pitching journalists on your behalf through platforms like Featured.com and Help a B2B Writer. This model suits someone who wants to outsource the entire process and pay for a promised outcome.
You might look for an alternative if you prefer to control the outreach, if you want to target specific types of links beyond journalist requests, or if the monthly cost does not align with your budget. The search is not about finding a better version of the same thing, but about finding the right tool for a different job.
Backlinker.ai
Backlinker.ai is a service that promises and delivers a specific number of high-quality backlinks each month. For $300 per month, their standard plan guarantees three or more links from sites with a Domain Rating of 30 or higher, with a money-back offer if they do not hit that target.
The service operates by responding to journalist queries from sources like Featured.com and Help a B2B Writer on your behalf. A published case study shows that over a ten-month period, 102 of 117 total links came from Featured.com alone. The quotes attributed to clients in their placement examples are generated by an AI model.
- What it is: A done-for-you outreach service with a link guarantee.
- Published price: $300 per month for the Standard plan.
- Covers: Journalist requests, outreach drafts.
- Does not cover: Backlink gap analysis, general link prospecting, resource page building, speaking opportunities, industry awards, or AI answer visibility.
- Pick them when: You want someone else to handle outreach and you prefer paying for a guaranteed outcome over running the process yourself.
- Pick an alternative when: You want to know which publication is being pitched before the email is sent, you need links your competitors already have, or you find the effective cost per link too high given the underlying sources.
HARO and Connectively
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is the original journalist request service, now operating under the Connectively platform. It remains a free service for sources. Journalist queries are emailed directly to subscribed sources, meaning there is no public feed for tools to scrape automatically.
To use HARO with an automated tool, you must manually copy and paste a query into it. The platform's strength is its large, established base of reporters. It ranks for hundreds of keywords, though its highest-traffic position is for a generic phrase, not link building.
- What it is: A free journalist request digest emailed to sources.
- Published price: Free for sources. Connectively has its own paid tiers.
- Covers: Journalist requests.
- Does not cover: Backlink gap analysis, link prospecting, resource pages, podcast bookings, speaking opportunities, awards, or AI answer visibility.
- Pick them when: Volume of reporter queries is your sole priority and you do not mind reviewing a daily email digest.
- Pick an alternative when: You want journalist requests to be one channel among many, automatically matched to your expertise, without manual copying and pasting.
Qwoted
Qwoted is a source request marketplace that also maintains an expert database for journalists to search. It offers a free tier, but it is functionally a paid product. The free plan limits users to two pitches per month and imposes a two-hour delay on sending them.
The Pro plan, at $149 per month, allows 35 pitches with no delay and includes access to an events and awards database. The value proposition is inbound. Being listed in their expert directory can lead to journalists finding you directly.
- What it is: A source request marketplace with an expert directory.
- Published price: Free (2 pitches/month, 2-hour delay). Pro is $149/month.
- Covers: Journalist requests, industry awards.
- Does not cover: Backlink gap analysis, link prospecting, resource pages, podcast bookings, or AI answer visibility.
- Pick them when: You believe in the value of being discoverable in a journalist-facing database and inbound leads matter more than outbound pitching.
- Pick an alternative when: The free tier's limits are too restrictive and $149 per month is more than you want to spend for a service focused primarily on one channel.
Featured.com
Featured.com is an AI PR co-pilot that helps you find and pitch media opportunities. It is the company behind Connectively. Its interface is chat-based, and it covers a wide range of 'earned' media channels cheaply, with a Pro plan at $79 per month when billed annually.
While its homepage mentions link gap analysis and finding backlinks, its official pricing page lists eleven features, none of which relate to analyzing links or competitor backlinks. Its search visibility is around the word 'featured' and personal names, not link building terms.
- What it is: An AI assistant for finding and pitching media opportunities.
- Published price: Free, Lite $29/month, Pro $79/month (annual billing).
- Covers: Journalist requests, finding journalists, podcast bookings, speaking opportunities, awards, bylined articles, AI answer visibility, unlinked mentions.
- Does not cover: Backlink gap analysis, link prospecting, resource page link building.
- Pick them when: You want a low-cost, chat-based tool focused exclusively on earning media coverage and mentions.
- Pick an alternative when: You need to find and secure the specific backlinks your competitors already have, which is a different problem from earning new coverage.
Pitchbox
Pitchbox is an enterprise-scale outreach platform. It is built for agencies and large teams that need to manage link building campaigns across multiple clients. It provides prospecting tools, email sequencing, a CRM, and detailed reporting.
Its pricing reflects its scale. The Pro plan starts at $300 per month billed monthly, which includes two user seats and 2,000 emails per month. This is a tool for process management, not for a one-person operation looking for a handful of links.
- What it is: An enterprise outreach and campaign management platform.
- Published price: Pro $300/month ($210/month annual), Advanced $600/month, Scale $1,200/month.
- Covers: Link prospecting, outreach drafts, resource page link building.
- Does not cover: Journalist requests, podcast bookings, speaking opportunities, awards, or AI answer visibility.
- Pick them when: You run outreach at scale, need multi-user seats, automated sequences, and client reporting.
- Pick an alternative when: You have a single site, do not want to build complex email sequences, and find the upfront cost prohibitive before any links are acquired.
SourceBottle
SourceBottle is a free call-out board connecting journalists and bloggers with expert sources. It has been operating since 2009 and is particularly strong in Australian and New Zealand media. It is a straightforward, no-cost way to find relevant media queries.
Mentionry reads SourceBottle as one of its inputs for journalist requests. This means it is not a replacement but a layer on top. An alternative tool might use SourceBottle as a data source while also providing other channels and automation.
- What it is: A free journalist and blogger request board, strong in Australasia.
- Published price: Free for sources.
- Covers: Journalist requests.
- Does not cover: Backlink gap analysis, link prospecting, resource pages, podcast bookings, speaking opportunities, awards, or AI answer visibility.
- Pick them when: You want a simple, free service and your target media landscape includes Australia or New Zealand.
- Pick an alternative when: You want its opportunities to be read for you, judged for relevance, and drafted automatically, alongside opportunities from other channels.
Mentionry
Mentionry finds specific places a business can get a backlink and drafts the pitch to send. You give it a domain. It then runs two engines. One finds pages that link to your competitors but not to you, plus resource pages and directories. The other finds journalist requests, podcasts, speaking opportunities, awards, and pages Google's AI reads for answers.
Every opportunity comes with a drafted email or form submission. The email is sent from your own connected mailbox, using your address and domain. It verifies links after the fact, reporting what was earned rather than just what was sent. On a measured run for one domain, it found 110 openings, judged 40 as relevant, and the user kept 14.
- What it is: A tool that finds link opportunities and drafts the outreach.
- Published price: Not yet published.
- Covers: Backlink gap analysis, link prospecting, resource page building, journalist requests, podcast bookings, speaking opportunities, awards, AI answer visibility (Google AI Overviews only).
- Does not cover: It does not place or publish links, only sends the pitch. It does not automatically pull in queries from HARO, Source of Sources, or Connectively. You must paste them in. Several channels are not built, including broken link building, registries, and relationship inventory.
- Pick it when: You want to target both the links your competitors have and new earned media opportunities, and you want to control the sending from your own email account.
- Pick an alternative when: You want a done-for-you service with a guarantee, you need a tool that logs into HARO for you, or you require visibility in AI assistants other than Google's.
How to choose
Ignore the marketing and match the tool to the job you need done. Start by writing down the specific type of link or coverage you are after. Is it a resource page link from an existing directory, a quote in a journalist's article, or a guest podcast spot? Your answer determines the category.
Then, apply a simple filter. If you want someone else to do it and you are comfortable paying for an outcome, look at done-for-you services like Backlinker.ai. If you want to run the process yourself but need help finding opportunities, look at prospecting and drafting tools. If your entire goal is to be a source for journalists, a request feed is sufficient. The right tool is the one that does the specific task you have identified, at a cost that makes sense for the results you expect.
Questions people actually ask
What is the main difference between Backlinker.ai and Mentionry?
Backlinker.ai is a done-for-you service that guarantees a number of placed links per month for a fee. Mentionry is a tool that finds specific link opportunities and drafts the pitches, but you send them from your own email. Mentionry does not place links or guarantee outcomes. It is for someone who wants to control the outreach and target a wider variety of link types, including those their competitors already have.
Are there any free alternatives to Backlinker.ai?
Yes. HARO (via Connectively) and SourceBottle are free services that connect journalists with expert sources. Qwoted and Featured.com also have free tiers, but with significant limitations on usage. These free options are excellent for accessing journalist queries, but they do not help with other link building methods like finding resource pages or analyzing competitor backlinks.
Does Mentionry automatically get queries from HARO?
No. HARO queries are emailed to subscribed sources. Mentionry does not read your mailbox or log into those platforms. If you want to use a HARO query with Mentionry, you copy and paste the query text into the tool. It will then judge whether your business can honestly answer it and draft a reply, just like any other opportunity.
Which tool is best for finding backlinks my competitors have?
For finding and prospecting the specific backlinks your competitors already have, you need a tool that performs backlink gap analysis. Among the alternatives listed, Mentionry and Pitchbox cover this. Pitchbox does it as part of a larger enterprise outreach suite. Mentionry focuses on it as a core channel alongside others, presenting the opportunities with ready-to-send drafts.
Run this against your own domain
Give it a domain and it works out who you compete with, mines the pages that link to them and not to you, judges every opening one at a time, and writes the email, the form or the reply. It sends them from your own mailbox, so the replies come to you.
Find out what your domain is missing
Qualifying a domain is free and it is the honest first question: some sites have a pool worth mining and some have nothing to mine and everything to earn. Run that first.
One plan. There is no cheaper rung with things taken out of it.
- Both engines, all fourteen channels
- Every opening judged one at a time, with the reason kept
- The email, the form or the reply drafted for each one
- Sent from your own mailbox, so the replies come to you
- Nine connectors that need no key and no account of yours
- Marketplaces and paid placements filtered out, twice