Comparison
A suite report is a good product. A script is a good habit. This page helps you pick one per job instead of arguing about it.
| Question | Suite report (Semrush, Ahrefs) | Script on Linkzoid |
|---|---|---|
| Who reads the output | A person, in a browser | A cron job, a CSV, a Slack post |
| Pricing shape | Monthly subscription | Prepaid credit, from $0.10 per 1,000 calls |
| Keywords and rank tracking | Yes, the main product | No |
| Crawl freshness | Fresher and broader on big suites | Index refreshed about monthly |
| Bulk scoring of 2,000 domains | Often limited by plan | One call, 1 credit |
| History kept for you | Inside the tool | In your own repo or database |
| Setup time | Minutes | An hour for the first script |
Our position
If you also pay for keyword and position data, you already hold the best backlink UI. Add a script only for the parts a person should not repeat by hand.
Most people who ask about exporting a report do the same dull thing each month. Open the tool, filter, download, paste into a sheet.
That is a loop. A 12-line script does it, and it does it at the same minute whether you remember or not. The numbers will differ from the suite, because every index sees a different slice of the web and DR is our own formula.
Compare trends, never absolute values across tools. If your referring-domain count rises in both, believe it.
| Job | Calls | Credits | Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| overview for each domain | 30 | 0 | $0.0000 |
| refdomains for each | 30 | 60 | $0.0060 |
| anchors for each | 30 | 60 | $0.0060 |
| bulk_dr on the combined list | 1 | 1 | $0.0001 |
| Total per month | 91 | 121 | $0.0121 |
Start with one domain and the weekly snapshot. Add the prospecting script only when you have a reason to reach out to anyone.
Run both for a month if the budget allows. Keep the suite export and the script output in the same folder, and compare referring-domain counts at the end. The point is to learn how far apart two indexes sit before you trust either one for a decision. Then choose.
Short test first.
Anything that needs keywords. If your question is which pages rank, which terms you lost or what a rival earns from search, a link API cannot help.
The same goes for a client who wants a polished PDF. Build it in the suite and sleep well.
A script wins when the question is narrow, repeated and numeric: how many referring domains do these thirty sites have this month, and which of them changed by more than ten percent? That is a loop over a list, and a loop is what we are for.