ChatGPT answers, unedited

If your goal is SaaS outreach prospecting where you want to find sites that used to link to a competitor/client, I’d separate “historical coverage” from “current accuracy.”

My practical ranking for historical link prospecting

Majestic is the standout if “historical” is the deciding factor. Its Historic Index currently contains backlink records dating back to June 2006, and unlike a purely current index, it retains historical relationships even when links are no longer live. Its Fresh Index also includes links it has seen recently that subsequently disappeared, which is useful for identifying recently lost opportunities. Majestic Majestic Developer

For example, if you're prospecting for a SaaS client and want:

“Which sites linked to our competitor at some point, but don't anymore?”

I'd start with Majestic Historic → filter/inspect the relevant referring domains → cross-check the interesting prospects in Ahrefs.

Semrush is also useful for this workflow: its Backlinks report supports New/Lost filtering and time-period filtering, while Semrush says its backlink database is refreshed at least hourly. Semrush Semrush

The important distinction

Don't treat “historical backlink” as synonymous with “good outreach prospect.”

For outreach, I'd build your prospect list around something like:

1. Previously linked to a relevant competitor
2. Publisher/site is still active
3. The old linking page still exists
4. The competitor link is actually gone or replaced
5. The page is topically relevant to your SaaS
6. There is a plausible reason they'd link again

That produces a much smaller—and usually much more actionable—list than simply exporting every historical referring domain.

If I were running a SaaS outreach operation today: I'd use Ahrefs + Majestic, with Majestic doing the deep historical excavation and Ahrefs serving as the second-source validation/current SEO view. Semrush is a good alternative if you already have it in your stack.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS outreach you're doing (competitor link reclamation, guest posts, resource pages, broken-link building, digital PR, etc.), I can give you a specific prospecting workflow and filters for each tool.

I'd start with Majestic Historic → filter/inspect the relevant referring domains → cross-check the interesting prospects in Ahrefs.

Semrush is also useful for this workflow: its Backlinks report supports New/Lost filtering and time-period filtering, while Semrush says its backlink database is refreshed at least hourly.

The important distinction

Don't treat “historical backlink” as synonymous with “good outreach prospect.”

For outreach, I'd build your prospect list around something like:

For SaaS outreach, I’d separate “best historical database” from “best overall prospecting tool.” They aren’t quite the same.

My take

If historical accuracy is the deciding factor, I’d put Majestic first. Its Historic Index contains backlink records going back to 2006, and—importantly for outreach—it retains historical relationships even after links disappear. Majestic also exposes backlink history by month in its Historic Index. Majestic Majestic Developer

Ahrefs is probably the better all-around choice for SaaS outreach. Its backlink API can explicitly include lost backlinks using since:<date> or all_time, and Site Explorer has a “Show history” option for backlink reports. Its live backlink index is also updated very frequently. Ahrefs for Developers Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

Semrush is particularly useful when you're doing high-volume prospecting. Its backlink database is currently reported at 43+ trillion backlinks and 390M referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. Its API also provides monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends. Semrush Semrush Developer

For your specific SaaS outreach workflow

I'd actually use Ahrefs + Majestic together if the budget allows.

A strong workflow is:

1. Ahrefs: Find competitors, competing SaaS products, alternatives, integrations, and pages with lots of referring domains.
2. Ahrefs lost backlinks: Identify sites that previously linked to a competitor but no longer do.
3. Majestic Historic Index: Go deeper into old relationships that Ahrefs may not surface as easily, especially links that disappeared years ago.
4. Filter for commercial relevance: SaaS directories, integration partners, agencies, comparison articles, resource pages, industry publications, communities, etc.
5. Check the actual page manually before outreach—historical backlink data tells you that a relationship existed, not necessarily that the prospect is still relevant today.

One particularly useful Majestic feature for this is its Backlink History comparison, which lets you compare up to 10 domains/URLs and examine historical acquisition patterns. Majestic

One important distinction

Don't confuse historical backlink counts with historical backlink discovery.

For prospecting, you usually care about:

“Who used to link to competitors, and could potentially link to my client?”

rather than:

“How many backlinks did this domain have in 2019?”

Majestic is unusually well suited to the first question because its Historic Index preserves old link relationships. Ahrefs is extremely useful for the second part of the workflow because its current interface/API makes it easy to investigate live and lost backlinks. Majestic Ahrefs for Developers

If you're buying just one: I'd choose Ahrefs for general SaaS outreach, but Majestic if your entire edge is finding obscure/historical backlink prospects that competitors' prospecting lists miss.

If you tell me your typical outreach target (e.g. SaaS directories, guest posts, integrations, resource pages, competitor link reclamation, or digital PR), I can give you a much more specific tool stack and prospecting workflow.

If you're doing SaaS link-building/outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on whether you care about currently live links or historical opportunities.

My ranking for historical backlink prospecting

1. Ahrefs — best overall

• Probably my first choice for day-to-day SaaS prospecting.
• Particularly strong for finding referring domains, competitor backlinks, broken links, and links that were acquired/lost.
• Its API explicitly supports live, since:<date>, and all_time history for referring domains. Ahrefs for Developers Ahrefs for Developers
• Best workflow: competitor → referring domains → filter by relevance/traffic → inspect the actual linking page → prospect the publication/site.
• Majestic — best for deep historical data

• If your definition of "historical" means "show me links that existed years ago", Majestic is arguably the standout.
• Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and its Fresh Index also retains recently lost links. Majestic Majestic
• It even exposes historical backlink counts by month through its API. Majestic Developer
• This is excellent for finding old editorial relationships, previously linking sites, abandoned content opportunities, and domains that used to link to competitors.
• Semrush — very good for recent link changes

• Strong choice if your prospecting depends on new/lost links over the last several months.
• Semrush lets you filter backlinks by Active/New/Lost and select a time period. Semrush
• Its current backlink database is heavily oriented toward recently crawled data; Semrush says its Fresh Index covers the last six months of crawling. Semrush
• I'd use it more for "who just linked to my competitor?" than "who linked to them five years ago?"

For SaaS outreach specifically

I'd actually use Ahrefs + Majestic together rather than trying to pick one.

Ahrefs = prospect discovery

Competitor → referring domains → relevant sites → pages → contact/outreach

Majestic = historical expansion

Competitor → Historic Index → old/lost linking domains → check whether relationship/content opportunity still exists

That combination is especially useful for SaaS because a competitor may have accumulated links from reviews, integrations, comparison pages, directories, resource pages, agencies, "best tools" articles, and old editorial content that aren't obvious from its current backlink profile.

One important caveat

Don't equate "historical" with "accurate."

A historical index tells you that the crawler found a link at some point, not necessarily that the link was genuinely live throughout the period you're interested in. Majestic itself distinguishes its Fresh Index—which has recently seen the URL—from its Historic Index, which is an archive of links discovered since 2006. Majestic

For prospecting, I'd therefore score historical prospects roughly like this:

Current/live link > recently lost link > historically observed link

And I'd verify the actual page before putting it into an outreach sequence.

If I were building a SaaS outreach stack today: Ahrefs for 70–80% of prospecting + Majestic specifically for historical/lost-link mining. Semrush is a very good third tool if you want another source of new/lost-link discovery. Majestic Semrush Ahrefs for Developers

If you tell me your exact outreach workflow (e.g. competitor backlink scraping → 500 prospects → filter DR/traffic → find contact → personalize), I can give you a much more specific tool stack and filtering process.

For SaaS outreach, Majestic is the strongest choice for historical backlink prospecting, with Semrush and Ahrefs better complements.

• Majestic — best historical depth. Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, making it particularly useful for finding old/lost referring domains and previously linked prospects. Majestic Majestic Developer
• Semrush — excellent for first-seen/last-seen dates, new/lost links, and competitor prospecting. Semrush Semrush
• Ahrefs — excellent for current/live backlink discovery; its live index is updated very frequently, but it's less compelling specifically for deep historical research. Ahrefs Help Center

My outreach stack: Majestic → identify historical/lost prospects → Ahrefs/Semrush → validate current relevance and contactability.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank the major backlink databases roughly like this:

1. Majestic — best for historical prospecting

Majestic is particularly interesting for your use case because it maintains both a Fresh Index and a Historic Index. Its Historic Index contains backlink records going back to 2006, while the Fresh Index covers recently discovered links and even retains recently lost/deleted links. Majestic Majestic Developer

That's useful for outreach because you can find things like:

• Sites that used to link to a competitor
• Pages that previously linked to SaaS companies in your niche
• Old resource pages that have stopped linking to competitors
• Domains with a long history of covering your client's category
• Prospects that don't currently show up in a purely "live links" database

Majestic also has explicit Lost Backlinks reporting and backlink-history comparisons. Majestic Majestic

If your question is specifically "who has the deepest historical backlink dataset?" → Majestic is my pick.

2. Ahrefs — best overall for day-to-day SaaS outreach

I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary tool if you're doing outreach at scale.

The advantage isn't necessarily that its historical archive beats everyone else. It's that the workflow from:

competitor → referring domains → specific linking pages → relevance → authority → prospect list

is extremely strong.

For prospecting, I care more about being able to quickly answer:

"Which websites have demonstrated that they will actually link to something like my client's product/content?"

rather than merely finding the largest possible historical archive.

3. Semrush — strong second/third database

Semrush is also useful because its Backlink Analytics explicitly tracks new and lost backlinks over time, and its database is built from its own web crawler. Semrush

I'd especially consider it if your agency already uses Semrush for keyword/competitor research, because having the whole prospecting workflow in one platform can outweigh small differences in backlink coverage.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing serious link prospecting, I'd use a two-tool setup:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs for:

1. Current competitor backlink discovery
2. Filtering referring domains
3. Finding linkable competitor assets
4. Anchor/context analysis
5. Quickly building prospect lists

Then use Majestic Historic to expand the list:

1. Look at competitors' historical links
2. Find domains that linked to them years ago
3. Identify links that disappeared
4. Check whether those domains still publish relevant content
5. Prospect the ones that have a demonstrated history of linking in the niche

That last step is particularly valuable for outreach. A domain that linked to three competing SaaS products in 2019–2024 is often a more interesting prospect than a random high-DR website you've never seen link to your industry.

One important caveat

Don't interpret "historical backlink" as "the date the link was created." Majestic explicitly notes that crawlers know when they found a link, not necessarily when the publisher originally created it. Majestic

So for prospecting, I'd treat historical dates as evidence of a site's linking behavior, rather than exact publication/link-creation dates.

Bottom line:
Majestic = deepest historical research.
Ahrefs = best overall prospecting workflow.
Semrush = very solid alternative/secondary database.

If you're doing SaaS outreach specifically, I can also give you a prospecting workflow for turning competitor backlinks into 100–500 qualified outreach targets, including the filters I'd use to eliminate junk links.

Semrush is also useful because its Backlink Analytics explicitly tracks new and lost backlinks over time, and its database is built from its own web crawler. semrush.com

I'd especially consider it if your agency already uses Semrush for keyword/competitor research, because having the whole prospecting workflow in one platform can outweigh small differences in backlink coverage.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing serious link prospecting, I'd use a two-tool setup:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs for:

For SaaS outreach prospecting, historical link data matters more than raw backlink counts because you’re usually trying to answer:

• “Has this site ever linked to SaaS companies like my client?”
• “Did this publisher used to link out but stopped?”
• “Is this domain a legitimate authority or a recycled SEO site?”
• “Which competitors earned links that we can replicate?”

My ranking for historical backlink intelligence:

Backly LinkVetted## 1. Majestic — best for true historical prospecting

If your outreach angle is “find websites that have linked to similar SaaS companies before,” Majestic is probably the strongest.

Why:

• Its Historic Index is specifically designed for old discovered links. Majestic
• Great for: - expired links
• old competitor backlinks
• identifying sites that frequently link within a niche
• checking whether a domain has a shady past

Example workflow:

1. Put a competitor like HubSpot, Intercom, Klaviyo, etc. into Majestic.
2. Export historical referring domains.
3. Filter: - SaaS-related sites
4. industry blogs
5. resource pages
6. comparison pages
7. Build outreach lists.

Where Majestic beats others: “Who linked to this domain years ago?”

Majestic Majestic

2. Ahrefs — best all-around outreach tool

For daily SaaS link building, I’d probably spend more time in Ahrefs.

Strengths:

• Very strong backlink discovery
• Excellent competitor analysis
• Good lost/new link tracking
• Useful metrics around referring domains and pages
• Easier workflow for finding outreach targets

Good prospecting reports:

• Link Intersect → find sites linking to competitors but not your client
• Best by Links → find content assets that attracted links
• Broken Backlinks → reclaim competitor links pointing to dead pages

Ahrefs also maintains a large backlink index and provides backlink history features. Ahrefs

Where Ahrefs beats Majestic: “Find me actionable prospects today.”

3. Semrush — best if you run campaigns at scale

Semrush is useful if your outreach operation includes:

• keyword research
• content planning
• rank tracking
• backlink audits
• CRM-style outreach workflows

Its backlink database is large, but many link builders still prefer Ahrefs/Majestic for pure link intelligence. LinkVetted

My recommended stack for SaaS outreach

If you only pay for one:

Ahrefs

Best balance of:

• prospect discovery
• competitor research
• exports
• workflow speed

If you do serious link intelligence:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use:

• Ahrefs → find prospects
• Majestic → validate history and quality

If you run agency-scale outreach:

Ahrefs + Majestic + your own prospect database

A practical SaaS prospecting workflow

For each client:

1. Collect 5–10 competitors.
2. Pull referring domains from Ahrefs.
3. Pull historical referring domains from Majestic.
4. Remove: - directories
5. obvious guest-post farms
6. coupon sites
7. irrelevant foreign-language sites
8. Score prospects:

Example:

+3 linked to 2+ SaaS competitors
+3 topical relevance
+2 real organic traffic
+2 editorial content
-3 sells links openly
-3 thousands of outbound links

The biggest mistake in SaaS outreach is chasing DR/DA alone. A DR 70 general site that never links to SaaS products is often a worse prospect than a DR 35 niche publication that regularly covers your category.

For your use case, I’d rank them:

1. Ahrefs — daily prospecting
2. Majestic — historical verification
3. Semrush — agency workflow
4. Moz — lightweight checks

LinkVetted Majestic1. Ahrefs — daily prospecting

2. Majestic — historical verification
3. Semrush — agency workflow
4. Moz — lightweight checks

LinkVetted Majestic

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on what you mean by “historical.”

My ranking

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical link prospecting

• This is the one I’d use when your workflow depends on finding sites that used to link to a competitor, expired/removed links, or old relationships.
• Majestic’s Historic Index goes back to 2006, while its Fresh Index retains links seen during the last 120 days, including links that have subsequently disappeared. Majestic Majestic Developer
• Particularly useful for finding “they linked to someone like us before” prospects.
• Its Link Context/Topical Trust Flow data also makes it easier to distinguish genuine industry sites from junk.
• ahrefs.com — best overall for outreach

• I'd probably make Ahrefs your primary prospecting database if you're doing this at scale.
• It has 10+ years of historical data and a very large live backlink index. Ahrefs
• Excellent for finding competitor backlinks, filtering referring domains, identifying linkable pages, and combining backlinks with organic-traffic data.
• For actual outreach, I generally prefer Ahrefs' UX/filtering over Majestic.
• semrush.com — strong third choice

• Particularly good if your clients already use Semrush for keyword/competitive research.
• Semrush says its backlink database is refreshed at least hourly and contains 43T+ backlinks / 390M referring domains. Semrush
• Its API also exposes monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends, which is useful for longitudinal analysis, although that's different from having a huge archive of individual historical links. Semrush Developer
• Semrush's Backlinks tool can look back up to about 6 months for lost-link discovery, according to its documentation. Semrush

For your specific use case

If you're doing SaaS link-building outreach, I'd actually use a two-tool setup:

Ahrefs → prospect discovery
↓
Majestic → historical validation / digging deeper
↓
Your enrichment + outreach stack

For example, suppose you're pitching a SaaS client in HR tech.

You could take 5–10 competitors and look for:

• Domains linking to 2+ competitors
• Domains that used to link to competitors
• Pages that historically attracted lots of links
• Competitor links that disappeared recently
• SaaS review/comparison/listicle sites
• Industry publications that have historically linked to similar products
• Resource pages that have linked to multiple companies in the category
• Authors/sites with a demonstrated history of covering the niche

The “used to link” angle is where Majestic becomes especially valuable. Its documentation explicitly positions Historic Index for discovering or reaffirming relationships that are no longer live. Majestic

One important distinction

Don't confuse historical backlink counts with historical individual-link data.

A tool can tell you:

Competitor X had 12,400 referring domains in January 2024.

That's useful, but for prospecting you often want:

This specific publication linked to Competitor X in 2022, the link disappeared, and the publication is still active.

The latter is much more valuable for outreach, and that's why I'd put Majestic + Ahrefs ahead of Semrush for your particular workflow.

If I had to pay for only one: Ahrefs.
If historical link mining is a major part of your service: Ahrefs + Majestic.
If you're doing serious lost-link / old-relationship prospecting: Majestic is arguably the most interesting database of the three because of its long-running Historic Index. Majestic

If you tell me how you're currently prospecting (competitor backlinks, broken links, unlinked mentions, guest posts, resource pages, etc.), I can give you a much more specific stack and filtering workflow for SaaS outreach.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank the major backlink databases roughly like this:

My pick: Ahrefs + Majestic

Ahrefs is probably the best all-around prospecting database. Its current index reports roughly 35 trillion historical external backlinks, with frequent index updates, so it's particularly useful when you're trying to find lots of potential referring domains at scale. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

Majestic is the one I'd add specifically for historical mining. Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, while its Fresh Index retains links it has seen during the preceding 120 days, including links that subsequently disappeared. That's unusually useful for finding sites that used to link to a competitor. Majestic Majestic Developer

majestic.com

For actual SaaS outreach, I'd use them differently

1. Find competitors → Ahrefs

Take 5–20 direct SaaS competitors and extract:

• Referring domains
• Dofollow links
• Links to their high-performing content
• New backlinks
• Lost backlinks
• Sites linking to multiple competitors but not your client

That last category is especially valuable because it's essentially a pre-qualified prospect list.

2. Mine old links → Majestic

This is where Majestic becomes interesting. Its Historic Index lets you investigate links going back years, rather than just what's currently live. Majestic

For example, if Competitor A had a great integration/industry-resource page that disappeared, you can potentially identify:

old referring domain → old competitor URL → context → current site/page → outreach opportunity

That's often more interesting for outreach than simply collecting thousands of currently-live backlinks.

3. Cross-check with Semrush

Semrush is particularly convenient for New/Lost filtering and time-period analysis. Its Backlinks report lets you filter by link status and specify periods for new/lost links. Semrush

semrush.com

One caveat: Semrush says its Backlinks tool can go back roughly 6 months for historical link data, whereas its Backlink Audit data retains lost links for roughly 3 months. Semrush

The important distinction

If by "historical" you mean "show me links that existed years ago", I'd choose:

Majestic > Ahrefs > Semrush

If you mean "show me recently acquired/lost links accurately so I can prospect them", I'd lean:

Ahrefs ≈ Semrush > Majestic

And if your goal is maximum prospect discovery, rather than simply having the largest backlink count, I'd use Ahrefs as the primary database and Majestic as the historical second pass.

For SaaS outreach specifically, I can also give you a backlink-prospecting workflow that turns competitor backlink data into a deduped list of 100–500 outreach targets, including the filters I'd use to eliminate junk links.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank the major backlink databases differently depending on whether you care about finding old links or finding currently actionable prospects.

My ranking for historical backlink prospecting

1. Majestic — best specifically for historical data

If your question is "Who has ever linked to this competitor/client?", Majestic is probably the first tool I'd reach for.

Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, and, importantly for outreach, it retains relationships that are no longer live. Its current Historic Index contains roughly 21.7 trillion discovered URLs, while its Fresh Index covers the most recent ~120 days. Majestic Majestic

That's particularly useful for:

• Finding formerly linking sites that disappeared from a competitor's profile.
• Finding publishers that have historically covered the client's category.
• Discovering sites that linked to an older competitor/domain.
• Reconstructing the backlink profile of an acquired, rebranded, or expired domain.
• Building large prospect lists where the link doesn't necessarily exist anymore.

Majestic's API also explicitly supports querying its Historic Index and retrieving new/lost backlink data over date ranges. Majestic Developer Majestic Developer

majestic.com

Big caveat: its Historic Index isn't a continuously updated historical snapshot. The current Historic Index shown by Majestic has data through March 2024, whereas its Fresh Index is current. So I'd use Historic for discovery and Fresh/current checks for validation. Majestic

2. Ahrefs — probably the best all-around outreach workflow

For actual SaaS link prospecting, I'd probably spend more day-to-day time in Ahrefs than Majestic.

The key advantage isn't necessarily having the deepest historical archive; it's the combination of:

competitor backlinks → referring domains → anchors → top linked pages → current/lost links → filtering → prospect export.

That makes it excellent when your workflow is something like:

"Show me sites that linked to HubSpot/Intercom/Asana/etc. but haven't linked to my client."

I'd use Majestic alongside it when I specifically want to go further back historically.

3. Semrush — strong for new/lost-link monitoring

Semrush is particularly useful if your prospecting strategy revolves around new and recently lost links. Its Backlink Analytics database currently claims more than 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. Semrush

That makes it attractive for finding fresh outreach opportunities, although I'd put Majestic ahead of it for genuinely deep historical reconstruction.

semrush.com

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use a two-database workflow:

Majestic → discovery

Find every relevant site that has historically linked to competitors, related companies, older versions of the product, acquired domains, etc.

↓

Ahrefs → qualification

Check whether the domain is still active, whether it currently links to competitors, what pages it links to, traffic/authority signals, and whether there's a realistic outreach angle.

↓

Manual qualification → outreach

Prioritize sites where you can identify a concrete reason they'd link:

• They linked to a competitor recently.
• They have a page that already mentions the client's category.
• They previously linked to an analogous resource.
• They published an article that could naturally incorporate the client's product/data.
• They linked to a competitor's resource that is now outdated.
• They have a pattern of linking to SaaS tools/resources.

One particularly good tactic

For SaaS clients, don't just export current competitor backlinks.

Run:

Competitor → historical backlinks → filter to lost/dead links → identify the linking page/topic → check what replaced the competitor resource → pitch your client's equivalent.

That's often much more interesting for outreach than simply emailing every site currently linking to a competitor.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you target (e.g. HR SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, martech), I can also give you a repeatable backlink-prospecting workflow with filters and qualification thresholds for building outreach lists at scale.

I'd use Majestic alongside it when I specifically want to go further back historically.

3. Semrush — strong for new/lost-link monitoring

Semrush is particularly useful if your prospecting strategy revolves around new and recently lost links. Its Backlink Analytics database currently claims more than 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. Semrush

That makes it attractive for finding fresh outreach opportunities, although I'd put Majestic ahead of it for genuinely deep historical reconstruction.

semrush.com

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use a two-database workflow:

Majestic → discovery

Find every relevant site that has historically linked to competitors, related companies, older versions of the product, acquired domains, etc.

↓

Ahrefs → qualification

Check whether the domain is still active, whether it currently links to competitors, what pages it links to, traffic/authority signals, and whether there's a realistic outreach angle.

↓

Manual qualification → outreach

Prioritize sites where you can identify a concrete reason they'd link:

• They linked to a competitor recently.
• They have a page that already mentions the client's category.
• They previously linked to an analogous resource.
• They published an article that could naturally incorporate the client's product/data.
• They linked to a competitor's resource that is now outdated.
• They have a pattern of linking to SaaS tools/resources.

One particularly good tactic

For SaaS clients, don't just export current competitor backlinks.

Run:

Competitor → historical backlinks → filter to lost/dead links → identify the linking page/topic → check what replaced the competitor resource → pitch your client's equivalent.

That's often much more interesting for outreach than simply emailing every site currently linking to a competitor.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you target (e.g. HR SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, martech), I can also give you a repeatable backlink-prospecting workflow with filters and qualification thresholds for building outreach lists at scale.

If you’re doing SaaS link-building outreach, I’d rank the major backlink databases roughly like this specifically for historical prospecting:

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical discovery

• Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, which is unusually deep.
• More importantly for prospecting, you can find links that existed historically but are no longer live—excellent for reclaiming old placements, finding former contributors, identifying sites that previously linked to competitors, and uncovering domains with a history of covering a topic. Majestic Majestic
• Its Fresh Index also retains links it has seen during the last 120 days even when they've subsequently disappeared, which is useful for recent link reclamation. Majestic
• My pick if historical link data is the primary criterion.
• ahrefs.com — best overall for outreach prospecting

• I'd generally use Ahrefs as the main prospecting database, then supplement it with Majestic.
• Its strength is less "how far back can I see?" and more the combination of backlink discovery, referring domains, anchor/page analysis, competitor research, and identifying sites that are actively linking in your niche.
• For an agency doing lots of SaaS campaigns, that workflow tends to matter more than having the deepest possible historical archive.
• semrush.com — strong secondary database

• Particularly useful if you're already using Semrush for competitive research and keyword data.
• Semrush says its Backlinks tool can retrieve lost-link data going back up to six months, while Backlink Audit retains links lost within three months. Semrush
• I wouldn't choose it solely for deep historical link prospecting.

For SaaS outreach, I'd actually use a 2-tool stack

Ahrefs + Majestic is probably the sweet spot.

A workflow I'd use:

Ahrefs
→ Find competitor referring domains
→ Filter for relevant SaaS/industry sites
→ Identify recently acquired links
→ Find broken/lost competitor links
→ Pull prospects based on topical relevance

Majestic Historic
→ Look at the competitor's entire historical link footprint
→ Find domains that linked to them years ago but don't anymore
→ Find pages/sites that historically covered the subject
→ Identify former relationships, contributors and publications
→ Cross-check suspicious/low-quality domains before outreach

The interesting prospecting opportunity is actually "historically linked, currently not linking." That's often more valuable than simply exporting every current referring domain. Majestic explicitly recommends Historic data for discovering past relationships that are no longer live. Majestic

One caveat: don't treat historical presence as proof that a site is currently a good prospect. A domain can have excellent historical links but have changed ownership, gone dormant, become spammy, or completely changed topical focus.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS outreach you do (guest posts, link insertions, digital PR, competitor link reclamation, resource pages, etc.), I can give you a specific backlink-prospecting workflow + filters that minimizes junk prospects.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, the “most accurate historical link data” depends on what you mean by historical:

• Finding links a competitor earned years ago (including lost/deleted links): Majestic is usually the strongest because its Historic Index is built specifically as a long-term archive. Majestic says its Historic Index contains backlink records dating back to 2006. Majestic
• Finding high-value prospects from current + recently lost links: Ahrefs is usually my first choice because its link database is very strong for active competitive research and its live index is frequently refreshed. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Running broader SEO + marketing workflows: Semrush is competitive, especially if you also need keyword, traffic, and content data alongside links. Semrush

For a SaaS outreach workflow, I’d rank them like this:

For SaaS client outreach specifically, I’d use a stack like:

1. Ahrefs → Competitor Backlinks

• Export referring domains from 3–5 competing SaaS companies.
• Filter: - DR/authority threshold
• traffic
• dofollow
• English/location relevance
• “one link per domain”
• Look for sites that already link to “similar solutions.”
• Majestic → Historical validation

• Check if a prospect has historically linked to: - competitors
• SaaS comparison pages
• industry reports
• guest posts
• resource pages
• This is especially useful when a site removed a competitor link but still has a relationship with that topic.
• Ahrefs Content Explorer / Semrush Content tools

• Find publishers repeatedly covering your client’s category.
• These are usually better outreach targets than random high-DR sites.

A practical trick: don’t optimize for backlink count. For SaaS outreach, the best prospects are often domains that:

• linked to 2–3 competitors but not your client,
• publish comparison content,
• update old articles,
• have commercial-intent pages (“best X tools,” “X alternatives,” “software directory,” etc.).

If you can only pay for one tool: Ahrefs.
If your work involves large-scale prospecting, expired domains, or recovering old PR/link opportunities: add Majestic. Majestic Majestic

For a SaaS outreach agency, the ideal combo is usually Ahrefs + Majestic, not because one has “all links,” but because their blind spots are different.

If you’re doing SaaS link-building outreach, I’d rank the major backlink databases roughly like this specifically for historical prospecting:

For your specific use case

1. Majestic is probably the strongest if “historical” is the priority.

Its Historic Index contains backlink records going back to 2006, and currently contains more than 21 trillion unique URLs. It also has a separate Fresh Index for recent links. Majestic Majestic

That makes it particularly useful for finding things like:

• Sites that used to link to a competitor
• Links pointing to deleted/changed SaaS pages
• Old resource pages that have accumulated backlinks
• Competitors' historical link acquisition
• Domains/pages that disappeared but had strong referring domains
• Old links that aren't visible in a purely current backlink crawl

Majestic also has Backlink History and Clique Hunter, which are directly relevant to prospecting. Majestic

One caveat: don't interpret a historical backlink as proof that the link was created on the date shown. Majestic explicitly notes that crawlers know when they found a link, not necessarily when the link was originally created. Majestic

majestic.com

2. Ahrefs is what I'd use as the primary day-to-day prospecting tool.

For SaaS outreach, I actually prefer the Ahrefs workflow even if Majestic wins on raw historical depth. You can combine competitor backlink analysis, referring domains, broken backlinks, anchors, link intersections, and historical/lost-link research without constantly switching contexts.

The ideal setup is therefore Ahrefs + Majestic, rather than trying to find one database that does everything.

3. Semrush is a useful second/validation database.

Semrush says its backlink database is currently over 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. Semrush It also retains lost-link information, although its own documentation indicates that the Backlinks tool goes back roughly six months for that data. Semrush

semrush.com

The prospecting workflow I'd use

For a SaaS client, I'd do:

Ahrefs → find competitor backlinks → Majestic → mine historical links → verify current page → outreach

For example, suppose your client is a project-management SaaS.

1. Pull 5–10 direct competitors.
2. Export their referring domains/backlinks from Ahrefs.
3. Put the competitors into Majestic's Clique Hunter to find domains linking to multiple competitors. Majestic
4. Look at historical backlinks, not just live backlinks.
5. Prioritize pages that: - previously linked to multiple SaaS competitors
6. are still live
7. have relevant topical context
8. have meaningful organic traffic
9. have editorial rather than obviously paid/spammy links
10. Check whether the competitor's linked page was deleted, redirected, or replaced.
11. Pitch your client's equivalent resource/product as the replacement or addition.

The particularly valuable prospect isn't necessarily “site has a backlink to competitor.” It's:

“Site has demonstrated that it links to products/resources like my client's, and there's a reason for them to update/add a link now.”

That's where historical data becomes much more powerful than simply sorting a current backlink export by DR/DA.

If you're doing this at scale, I can also give you a SaaS backlink prospecting stack/workflow—including exactly how I'd combine Ahrefs + Majestic + Google operators to turn historical competitor links into a prioritized outreach list.

Semrush says its backlink database is currently over 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. Semrush It also retains lost-link information, although its own documentation indicates that the Backlinks tool goes back roughly six months for that data. Semrush

semrush.com

The prospecting workflow I'd use

For a SaaS client, I'd do:

Ahrefs → find competitor backlinks → Majestic → mine historical links → verify current page → outreach

For example, suppose your client is a project-management SaaS.

1. Pull 5–10 direct competitors.
2. Export their referring domains/backlinks from Ahrefs.
3. Put the competitors into Majestic's Clique Hunter to find domains linking to multiple competitors.
4. Look at historical backlinks, not just live backlinks.
5. Prioritize pages that: - previously linked to multiple SaaS competitors
6. are still live
7. have relevant topical context
8. have meaningful organic traffic
9. have editorial rather than obviously paid/spammy links
10. Check whether the competitor's linked page was deleted, redirected, or replaced.
11. Pitch your client's equivalent resource/product as the replacement or addition.

The particularly valuable prospect isn't necessarily “site has a backlink to competitor.” It's:

If you're doing SaaS link-building outreach, I’d rank the major backlink databases differently depending on what you mean by “historical.”

My ranking for prospecting

1. ahrefs.com — best overall

For actual outreach prospecting, Ahrefs would be my first choice.

Its live backlink index is refreshed every 15–30 minutes, and its database includes historical backlink records as well as current links. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs

The important distinction is that Ahrefs is particularly good when you're asking:

“Who has linked to competitors, what pages did they link to, and what opportunities can I replicate?”

For SaaS, I'd use it heavily for:

• Competitor backlink gaps
• Links to specific competitor features/resources
• Referring domains
• Broken/lost links
• Link intersections
• Finding sites that repeatedly link to SaaS companies in your niche

2. majestic.com — best for deep historical data

If your question is specifically “Who has ever linked to this domain?”, Majestic is arguably the most interesting database.

Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, while its Fresh Index covers links discovered within roughly the last 120 days, including links that subsequently disappeared. Majestic Majestic Blog

That makes it excellent for prospecting tactics like:

Competitor → historical referring domain → link disappeared → potential outreach target

For example, if a competitor used to have links from 500 SaaS publications/directories/resources that no longer link to them, you can investigate which of those domains are still active and potentially pitch your client's equivalent resource.

Majestic also exposes backlink history by month through its API, which is useful if you're building your own prospecting workflow. Majestic Developer

One caveat: Majestic's Historic Index isn't the same thing as a continuously updated historical timeline. Its current Historic Index is archived through March 2024, whereas the Fresh Index is continuously updated. Majestic

3. semrush.com — excellent for outreach workflows

Semrush is particularly useful if your workflow revolves around competitor link gaps + new/lost links.

Its backlink database is refreshed at least hourly and currently contains more than 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains. It specifically supports analyzing new and lost backlinks and finding sites linking to competitors but not your client. Semrush

I'd choose Semrush over Majestic if you want a more integrated SEO/content/competitor research → prospecting workflow.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use two databases rather than trying to find one “most accurate” checker:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs as your primary prospecting database:

Competitor → referring domains → relevant pages → filter → export prospects

Then use Majestic to expand the historical universe, especially for older links and links that have disappeared.

That combination is powerful for finding prospects that a simple “current backlinks” export misses.

A particularly good SaaS prospecting tactic

Don't just export all competitor backlinks. Build a historical link-loss prospect list:

1. Pick 5–10 direct SaaS competitors.
2. Pull their current + historical referring domains.
3. Identify domains that used to link to them but no longer do.
4. Filter for relevant publications, blogs, integrations, resource pages and comparison sites.
5. Look at the old linked page and determine why they originally linked.
6. Find the equivalent page/resource on your client's site.
7. Pitch it as a replacement/update rather than a generic “would you link to us?” request.

That tends to produce much better outreach angles than simply targeting high-DR sites.

Bottom line: If you can only pay for one, I'd pick Ahrefs for general SaaS outreach. If historical backlink discovery itself is the priority, I'd add Majestic—its Historic Index is unusually deep and goes back to 2006. Majestic Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you prospect for (B2B, AI, cybersecurity, HR, fintech, etc.), I can also give you a specific Ahrefs/Majestic prospecting workflow with the filters and exports I'd use.

One caveat: Majestic's Historic Index isn't the same thing as a continuously updated historical timeline. Its current Historic Index is archived through March 2024, whereas the Fresh Index is continuously updated. Majestic

3. semrush.com — excellent for outreach workflows

Semrush is particularly useful if your workflow revolves around competitor link gaps + new/lost links.

Its backlink database is refreshed at least hourly and currently contains more than 43 trillion backlinks and 390 million referring domains. It specifically supports analyzing new and lost backlinks and finding sites linking to competitors but not your client. Semrush

I'd choose Semrush over Majestic if you want a more integrated SEO/content/competitor research → prospecting workflow.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use two databases rather than trying to find one “most accurate” checker:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs as your primary prospecting database:

Competitor → referring domains → relevant pages → filter → export prospects

Then use Majestic to expand the historical universe, especially for older links and links that have disappeared.

That combination is powerful for finding prospects that a simple “current backlinks” export misses.

A particularly good SaaS prospecting tactic

Don't just export all competitor backlinks. Build a historical link-loss prospect list:

1. Pick 5–10 direct SaaS competitors.
2. Pull their current + historical referring domains.
3. Identify domains that used to link to them but no longer do.
4. Filter for relevant publications, blogs, integrations, resource pages and comparison sites.
5. Look at the old linked page and determine why they originally linked.
6. Find the equivalent page/resource on your client's site.
7. Pitch it as a replacement/update rather than a generic “would you link to us?” request.

That tends to produce much better outreach angles than simply targeting high-DR sites.

Bottom line: If you can only pay for one, I'd pick Ahrefs for general SaaS outreach. If historical backlink discovery itself is the priority, I'd add Majestic—its Historic Index is unusually deep and goes back to 2006.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for general SEO reporting.

My ranking for historical backlink prospecting

1. ahrefs.com — best overall

• Excellent combination of large link index + historical backlink views + filters.
• Ahrefs currently reports 10+ years of historical data, 35T live backlinks, and lets you view backlink history in Site Explorer. Ahrefs Ahrefs
• Particularly good for finding links competitors gained/lost, then turning those into outreach prospects.
• My first choice if you're doing prospecting at scale.
• majestic.com — best for deep historical link discovery

• This is the standout if by "historical" you mean links that existed years ago but aren't live anymore.
• Majestic's Historic Index goes back to 2006 and contains records of previously discovered relationships between URLs. Its Fresh Index also retains links it has seen during the previous 120 days, including links subsequently deleted. Majestic Majestic Developer
• Very useful for link reclamation, competitor link archaeology, expired-content prospecting, and finding sites that used to link to competitors.
• The downside: its Historic Index is not as current as the Fresh Index—the current published Historic Index data runs through March 2024. Majestic
• semrush.com — strong all-rounder

• Good choice if you're already using Semrush for keywords/traffic and want backlink prospecting in the same ecosystem.
• Its backlink data is refreshed continuously, with new backlinks typically appearing shortly after discovery. Semrush
• I'd generally put it behind Ahrefs/Majestic specifically for historical-link archaeology.
• moz.com — useful, but not my first pick

• Solid for basic link analysis and prospect qualification.
• For a dedicated SaaS outreach operation, I'd spend the budget on Ahrefs or Majestic first.

The important distinction for outreach

If your goal is "find websites that are likely to give my client a link", don't optimize purely for the biggest backlink database.

I'd use:

Ahrefs → competitor link history → filter for relevant referring pages/domains → identify sites that link to 2+ competitors → prospect the people/sites → personalize outreach.

And I'd add Majestic when you're specifically looking for lost/old relationships. Majestic's Historic Index is unusually valuable here because it explicitly preserves old link relationships rather than only showing the current live web. Majestic

For SaaS clients, one particularly effective workflow is "competitor link intersection + historical links." For example, if 3 competing SaaS products have all earned links from the same publication/resource page, that's a much stronger prospect than a random DR/DA-filtered list.

If you tell me your monthly prospect volume (e.g. 500, 5k, 50k domains) and whether you're doing guest posts, digital PR, link insertions, or resource-page outreach, I can recommend the most cost-effective stack and exact filters to use.

If your goal is SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for general SEO auditing.

My ranking for historical backlink prospecting

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical link discovery

• This is the standout if “historical” is the key requirement.
• Majestic’s Historic Index goes back to 2006, and it retains relationships between URLs that may no longer be live. That’s extremely useful for finding sites that used to link to a competitor, a discontinued SaaS, an old resource, or an acquired domain. Majestic Majestic Developer
• Its Backlink History reports can also compare domains over time. Majestic
• Best use: competitor-link prospecting, lost-link reclamation, identifying old industry relationships, expired/discontinued SaaS assets.
• semrush.com — best all-around prospecting workflow

• Semrush has a very large backlink database and continuously refreshed crawling; it specifically supports finding new and lost backlinks and competitor link opportunities. Semrush
• Its API also exposes monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends, which is useful for programmatic prospecting. Semrush Developer
• Best use: building large prospect lists and combining backlink history with domain/traffic/keyword data.
• ahrefs.com — best overall for current link prospecting

• I would still have Ahrefs in the stack for SaaS outreach, particularly when you care more about currently live links + referring domains + content/keyword context than very old historical links.
• For pure historical archaeology, though, I'd pick Majestic first.

The important distinction

For outreach, there are really two kinds of historical data you want:

A. “Who has ever linked to this competitor?”

→ Majestic wins. Its Historic Index is specifically designed as a long-term archive, with records dating back to 2006. Majestic

B. “Who recently linked to this competitor, and who stopped linking?”

→ Semrush/Ahrefs are more useful operationally, because you're looking for relatively recent opportunities that are more likely to be actionable.

For example, suppose you're prospecting for a project-management SaaS. I'd do:

Competitor A + Competitor B + Competitor C → historical backlinks → identify domains that linked to them → filter for SaaS/business/productivity relevance → check whether the link is still live → prioritize domains that have linked to multiple competitors.

That “links to 2–3 competitors” signal is much more valuable for outreach than simply having a giant backlink list.

My practical SaaS outreach stack

If you're doing this at volume, I'd use:

Majestic → Semrush → Ahrefs

• Majestic: uncover the deepest historical universe.
• Semrush: enrich/filter and find recent/lost-link opportunities.
• Ahrefs: validate current links and investigate the target site's content/link profile.

And I'd not judge accuracy by raw backlink counts. Different crawlers discover different portions of the web. For prospecting, what matters is whether the tool consistently surfaces relevant referring domains, particularly domains that link to multiple competitors.

If you tell me your outreach workflow (e.g. 100–1,000 prospects/day, and whether you're doing guest posts, link insertions, digital PR, resource pages, etc.), I can recommend the cheapest/most accurate stack and exact filters I'd use to turn backlink data into SaaS outreach prospects.

→ Semrush/Ahrefs are more useful operationally, because you're looking for relatively recent opportunities that are more likely to be actionable.

For example, suppose you're prospecting for a project-management SaaS. I'd do:

Competitor A + Competitor B + Competitor C → historical backlinks → identify domains that linked to them → filter for SaaS/business/productivity relevance → check whether the link is still live → prioritize domains that have linked to multiple competitors.

That “links to 2–3 competitors” signal is much more valuable for outreach than simply having a giant backlink list.

My practical SaaS outreach stack

If you're doing this at volume, I'd use:

Majestic → Semrush → Ahrefs

• Majestic: uncover the deepest historical universe.
• Semrush: enrich/filter and find recent/lost-link opportunities.
• Ahrefs: validate current links and investigate the target site's content/link profile.

And I'd not judge accuracy by raw backlink counts. Different crawlers discover different portions of the web. For prospecting, what matters is whether the tool consistently surfaces relevant referring domains, particularly domains that link to multiple competitors.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on what you mean by “historical.”

My pick: Majestic

If your workflow is something like:

SaaS competitor → find everyone who has ever linked to them → identify sites that used to link → qualify those sites → pitch your client

Majestic is unusually strong. Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, and it explicitly retains historical relationships that are no longer live. Its Fresh Index also retains links it has seen within the past 120 days, including links that subsequently disappeared. Majestic Majestic Developer

That's particularly useful for outreach because a lost backlink can be a prospect, not just an SEO metric. For example:

• Competitor had a link from an industry publication.
• The article still exists but the link was removed.
• You can pitch your client's more current/better resource.
• Or the publication has stopped linking to the competitor but still covers the category.

Majestic's own documentation specifically positions Historic data for discovering or reaffirming relationships that aren't currently live. Majestic

Semrush is probably #2

For day-to-day SaaS prospecting, I might actually use Semrush more often than Majestic because its backlink database is currently very large and refreshed at least hourly. It exposes new/lost backlinks and competitor-link opportunities directly. Semrush

A good workflow is:

Semrush → competitor backlinks → referring domains → filter by relevance/authority → export prospects → outreach.

It's particularly convenient when you're already using Semrush for keyword/competitor research.

Where Ahrefs fits

I'd still consider Ahrefs one of the best tools for the actual prospecting side, particularly when you're looking for:

• competitors' referring domains
• links to specific competitor pages
• “link intersect” opportunities
• sites linking to multiple competitors
• content that consistently attracts links

The distinction I'd make is that Majestic is the tool I'd reach for when the age/history of the relationship itself is important, whereas Ahrefs/Semrush are often better as general-purpose SEO prospecting platforms.

A useful SaaS outreach trick

Don't just export live referring domains.

Build three prospect buckets:

1. Current competitor links — “They already link to companies like ours.”
2. Lost competitor links — “They previously linked to this competitor.”
3. Historical competitor relationships — “They've covered/linked to this company or topic before.”

Then prioritize #2 and #3 surprisingly heavily. They're often less obvious than standard competitor backlink exports and can give you angles for highly personalized outreach.

One caveat: backlink indexes aren't literal records of when a webmaster created a link. Crawlers know when they discovered a link, not necessarily when it was published. Majestic explicitly notes this limitation. Majestic

If you're doing this at agency scale, I'd use Majestic + Semrush rather than choosing one. Majestic supplies the deep historical layer; Semrush gives you a very large, frequently refreshed current dataset and convenient prospecting workflows.

If you tell me your exact SaaS outreach workflow (e.g. guest posts, link insertions, resource pages, digital PR, competitor backlinks), I can give you a prospecting stack and filtering recipe optimized for it.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank the major backlink databases roughly like this:

1. ahrefs.com — best overall for prospecting

• Particularly strong for finding lost backlinks, referring domains, anchor text, and first/last-seen dates.
• Its API supports all_time backlink history and can return lost links going back through the available historical dataset. Ahrefs for Developers Ahrefs for Developers
• Ahrefs currently reports 35T historical external backlinks and says its backlink index is refreshed every 15 minutes. Ahrefs
• Best use: finding sites that used to link to competitors and pitching them because there's already evidence they're willing to link to that type of SaaS.
• majestic.com — best for deep historical archaeology

• Majestic's Historic Index goes back to June 2006, which is unusually deep. Majestic Majestic Blog
• It explicitly retains historical relationships even when the link is no longer live, making it excellent for finding old/lost linking opportunities. Majestic Developer
• Its API can return backlink history by month for the Historic Index and by day for the Fresh Index. Majestic Developer
• Best use: older SaaS competitors, expired domains, legacy publications, resource pages, and uncovering links that other tools don't surface.
• semrush.com — good secondary database

• Useful if you're already using Semrush for keyword/competitor research, but I wouldn't make it my only backlink database for serious link prospecting.
• Best use: combining backlink prospects with organic keywords, competitor gaps, traffic data, etc.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If your workflow is something like:

Competitor → historical backlinks → identify relevant referring sites → find editor/contact → pitch client

I'd use Ahrefs + Majestic together.

Ahrefs = primary prospecting database.
Majestic = historical recovery/second-pass database.

The really valuable prospect isn't simply "a site that links to Competitor X." It's:

A site that linked to Competitor X in the past, the link disappeared, the site is still relevant, and the page/editor is still active.

Those are often much easier outreach targets than completely cold prospects.

A particularly useful workflow

For each SaaS client:

• Pull competitors' lost backlinks in Ahrefs.
• Filter for relevant topical categories.
• Prioritize referring domains with real organic traffic.
• Check whether the old linking page still exists.
• Use Majestic Historic to see whether the domain has older/previous links to similar SaaS products.
• Look for patterns: resource pages, integrations, listicles, comparison pages, "best X software" articles, statistics/data citations, etc.
• Then prospect the domain/editor, rather than treating every individual backlink as a separate prospect.

One important caveat: "historical" doesn't mean a perfect record of the entire web. Each provider's crawl coverage and retention methodology differs. Majestic's Historic Index is exceptionally deep, while Ahrefs has a very large historical backlink corpus; using both catches more opportunities than treating either as ground truth. Majestic Ahrefs

If you're doing this at agency scale, I can also give you a SaaS backlink-prospecting stack ranked by accuracy + cost + API/bulk-export capabilities, including which tool I'd use for each stage of the outreach workflow.

A site that linked to Competitor X in the past, the link disappeared, the site is still relevant, and the page/editor is still active.

Those are often much easier outreach targets than completely cold prospects.

A particularly useful workflow

For each SaaS client:

• Pull competitors' lost backlinks in Ahrefs.
• Filter for relevant topical categories.
• Prioritize referring domains with real organic traffic.
• Check whether the old linking page still exists.
• Use Majestic Historic to see whether the domain has older/previous links to similar SaaS products.
• Look for patterns: resource pages, integrations, listicles, comparison pages, "best X software" articles, statistics/data citations, etc.
• Then prospect the domain/editor, rather than treating every individual backlink as a separate prospect.

One important caveat: "historical" doesn't mean a perfect record of the entire web. Each provider's crawl coverage and retention methodology differs. Majestic's Historic Index is exceptionally deep, while Ahrefs has a very large historical backlink corpus; using both catches more opportunities than treating either as ground truth.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for general SEO auditing. The key question is: Which tool is best at finding links that existed in the past, including links that are no longer live?

My ranking

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical prospecting

• This is my first choice if your workflow depends heavily on historical backlinks, lost links, and competitor link archaeology.
• Majestic has a dedicated Historic Index going back to 2006, alongside its Fresh Index. Its Fresh Index also retains links it has recently seen even if they've subsequently disappeared. Majestic Majestic Developer
• This is particularly useful for finding sites that used to link to a competitor, which can be excellent outreach targets.
• Its Clique Hunter is also directly oriented toward finding sites linking to competitors but not your client. Majestic
• semrush.com — best all-around prospecting workflow

• Strong if you want backlink data integrated with competitor research, domains, traffic, keywords, and outreach workflows.
• Semrush says its Backlinks tool can retain historical lost-link data for up to six months, and its backlink dataset is refreshed continuously/daily. Semrush Semrush
• I'd choose this over Majestic if you're doing broader prospect qualification rather than pure backlink archaeology.
• ahrefs.com — probably my choice for overall link-building UX

• Ahrefs is excellent for discovering competitor referring domains, broken backlinks, link intersections, anchors, and pages that attract links.
• For historical prospecting specifically, however, I would give Majestic the edge because Majestic explicitly maintains a long-term historical link database.
• moz.com — useful, but not my first pick for this job

• Fine for basic backlink analysis and Domain Authority-based prospect qualification.
• If your primary KPI is finding as many historically relevant outreach prospects as possible, I'd spend the budget on Majestic/Ahrefs/Semrush first.

The setup I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're trying to build prospect lists for clients, I'd use two tools rather than trusting one index:

Majestic → Ahrefs/Semrush → prospect qualification

For example:

• Take a SaaS competitor.
• Pull all historical referring domains in Majestic.
• Filter for domains that have linked to the competitor but aren't currently linking to your client.
• Separate: - current links
• recently lost links
• old/historical links
• links to specific competitor content
• Then use Ahrefs or Semrush to evaluate the prospects for organic traffic, topical relevance, current activity, and competing links.
• Prioritize sites that have demonstrated they actually link to SaaS companies/content similar to your client's.

The really valuable prospect isn't simply "this domain has a high DR/DA." It's:

"This site has previously demonstrated that it will link to content in my client's category."

That's a much stronger outreach signal.

One important caveat

Don't interpret a tool's "first seen" date as the exact date the backlink was created. Crawlers know when they discovered a link, not necessarily when the webmaster added it. Majestic explicitly warns about this distinction. Majestic Majestic

Bottom line: If historical link data is the deciding factor, Majestic is the one I'd test first. For a high-volume SaaS outreach operation, I'd probably pair Majestic + Ahrefs or Semrush rather than relying on one backlink index.

If your main use case is SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for general SEO auditing.

My ranking for historical backlink prospecting

1. Ahrefs — best overall

• Probably my first choice for finding old/lost links, competitor link opportunities, and historical referring domains.
• Its crawler is extremely large, and Ahrefs currently reports 35T historical external backlinks in its index. Ahrefs
• Particularly good when you want to answer: “Who has linked to this competitor before, and could we pitch them too?”
• I’d use it as the primary prospecting database.
• Majestic — best for deep historical link archaeology

• This is the one I'd add if historical coverage is the #1 priority.
• Majestic's Historic Index goes back to June 2006 and retains links that are no longer live, specifically making it useful for investigating past link relationships. Majestic Majestic Developer
• Its Link Context and Topical Trust Flow are also useful for deciding whether an old referring site is actually relevant to your SaaS client.
• Excellent for finding “they used to link to X” prospects that newer indexes may not surface.
• Semrush — best for combining backlink history with broader prospecting

• Strong backlink database and particularly convenient if you're already using Semrush for keyword/competitor research.
• Its API exposes monthly historical backlink and referring-domain counts, while Backlink Analytics lets you examine new/lost links and competitor opportunities. Semrush Developer Semrush
• I'd put it behind Ahrefs/Majestic for deep individual-link archaeology, but ahead of many alternatives for an integrated prospecting workflow.

The important distinction

For outreach, there are really two different kinds of “historical data”:

One caveat: “historical backlink count” isn't the same thing as a historical snapshot of the entire web. Each crawler has its own crawl history, discovery biases, and retention rules. Majestic explicitly distinguishes its Fresh Index from its much larger Historic Index, while Semrush's historical API data is monthly trend data rather than a complete historical copy of every backlink. Majestic Developer Semrush Developer

What I'd actually do for SaaS outreach

If you're prospecting at volume, I'd use:

Ahrefs → primary database
↓
Majestic → recover older/lost/unusual prospects
↓
filter for relevance + traffic + editorial likelihood
↓
verify the actual page/site manually before outreach

A particularly good tactic is competitor backlink intersection: take 3–10 direct SaaS competitors, identify domains that have historically linked to 2+ of them, then prioritize sites where the existing links are editorial and topically relevant. Those are generally much better outreach prospects than simply exporting every backlink from one competitor.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you outreach for (B2B SaaS, fintech, HR, devtools, AI, etc.) and roughly how many prospects you need per month, I can give you a specific Ahrefs/Majestic prospecting workflow + filters that I'd use.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on whether you care about finding old/lost links or finding currently live prospects.

1. Ahrefs — best overall for SaaS link prospecting

I'd make Ahrefs your primary database.

Its current Site Explorer has 10+ years of historical data, and Ahrefs exposes historical backlinks as well as current links. Its API can also retrieve backlink data with an all_time history option. Ahrefs Ahrefs Ahrefs for Developers

The important thing for outreach is that you can combine historical links with things like:

• Referring domain
• Dofollow/nofollow
• First seen
• Lost backlinks
• Linking page
• Target page
• Domain/URL-level metrics

That makes it particularly good for the workflow:

competitor → historical backlinks → relevant referring domains → qualify site → outreach

Ahrefs also says its live backlink index is refreshed every 15–30 minutes, although individual pages can take longer to be discovered/crawled. Ahrefs Help Center

2. Majestic — best when historical depth is the priority

If your question is specifically "Who has ever linked to this site?", Majestic is arguably the most interesting database.

Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly positions it for analyzing historical relationships and links that are no longer live. Majestic Developer Majestic Blog

That's extremely useful for SaaS outreach because you can uncover:

Competitor used to have a link from X → link disappeared → X still publishes relevant content → potential outreach target.

One caveat: historical data can contain stale information. Majestic itself warns that some old link-status indicators reflect the last time an old URL was crawled, rather than necessarily representing its current state. Majestic Blog

So I'd use Majestic to discover historical opportunities, then Ahrefs/another current index to validate them.

3. Semrush — very good for competitive prospecting

Semrush is particularly useful if your outreach process is already built around competitor analysis.

Its Backlinks report provides First Seen and Last Seen dates for individual links, plus link status and attributes. Semrush

It also has historical backlink trend data through its API, although that's more useful for tracking the size/trend of a backlink profile than reconstructing every historical individual link. Semrush Developer

One important distinction: Semrush says its Backlinks tool can retain information on lost links for up to six months, whereas Backlink Audit has a shorter three-month window. Semrush

So I wouldn't choose Semrush because you need decade-long historical backlink reconstruction.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use a two-database workflow:

Ahrefs → primary prospect database

Majestic → historical/lost-link discovery

Then optionally Semrush → competitive validation

For example, suppose your SaaS client competes with HubSpot-style software.

I'd:

1. Pull competitors' referring domains in Ahrefs.
2. Filter for relevant topical categories and sites with actual organic traffic.
3. Look at historical/lost backlinks rather than only current links.
4. Run the strongest competitor domains through Majestic Historic Index.
5. Find sites that previously linked to competitors but no longer do.
6. Check whether the site still publishes content in your client's niche.
7. Validate the prospect's current site, traffic, relevance, and existing outbound-link behavior.
8. Only then add it to the outreach list.

The key is not "which checker has the most backlinks?" For outreach, I'd optimize for historical coverage + ability to identify lost relationships + current verification.

If I had to pay for only one: Ahrefs.
If historical link archaeology is a major part of your service: Ahrefs + Majestic is the stronger combination.

Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly positions it for analyzing historical relationships and links that are no longer live. Majestic Developer Majestic Blog

That's extremely useful for SaaS outreach because you can uncover:

Competitor used to have a link from X → link disappeared → X still publishes relevant content → potential outreach target.

One caveat: historical data can contain stale information. Majestic itself warns that some old link-status indicators reflect the last time an old URL was crawled, rather than necessarily representing its current state. Majestic Blog

So I'd use Majestic to discover historical opportunities, then Ahrefs/another current index to validate them.

3. Semrush — very good for competitive prospecting

Semrush is particularly useful if your outreach process is already built around competitor analysis.

Its Backlinks report provides First Seen and Last Seen dates for individual links, plus link status and attributes. semrush.com

It also has historical backlink trend data through its API, although that's more useful for tracking the size/trend of a backlink profile than reconstructing every historical individual link.

One important distinction: Semrush says its Backlinks tool can retain information on lost links for up to six months, whereas Backlink Audit has a shorter three-month window.

So I wouldn't choose Semrush because you need decade-long historical backlink reconstruction.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use a two-database workflow:

Ahrefs → primary prospect database

Majestic → historical/lost-link discovery

Then optionally Semrush → competitive validation

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for a generic backlink audit.

My ranking for historical link prospecting

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical discovery

• This is the one I’d pick if your goal is finding sites that used to link to a SaaS company, competitors, or similar companies.
• Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, with billions of crawled URLs, and is specifically designed to surface relationships that aren't live anymore. Majestic Developer Majestic
• Particularly useful for finding former partner links, old guest posts, resource pages, directories, integrations, reviews, and industry sites that may still be viable prospects.
• Its Backlink History tool can compare up to 10 domains/URLs over time. Majestic
• ahrefs.com — best overall for combining history + prospecting

• I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary tool for day-to-day outreach.
• It has historical backlink records as well as a very frequently refreshed live index; Ahrefs says its backlink index is updated every 15–30 minutes. Ahrefs Help Center
• The big advantage for outreach is the surrounding workflow: competitor backlink analysis, referring domains, anchors, link context, etc.
• Ahrefs reports 35T historical external backlinks currently, although raw database size shouldn't be interpreted as "35T unique usable prospects." Ahrefs
• semrush.com — very good for recent lost-link prospecting

• Strong if your prospecting strategy is "who recently stopped linking to this competitor?"
• Its Backlinks report lets you filter specifically for New/Lost links and select a time period, with additional filters for referring domain, anchor, link attributes, sitewide links, etc. Semrush
• I wouldn't choose it over Majestic when your main requirement is 10–15+ years of historical link discovery.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this at scale, I'd use:

Ahrefs → primary prospecting
Majestic → historical/lost-link mining
Semrush → secondary validation + recent lost links

The particularly useful workflow is:

Competitor → historical backlinks → identify previously linking domains → filter for relevant SaaS/tech/editorial sites → check whether they still publish similar content → outreach

For example, if you're pitching a project-management SaaS, don't just scrape the competitor's current backlinks. Run historical data against 3–5 competitors and look specifically for domains that linked to multiple competitors at different points in time. Those are often much better prospects than generic "high DR" sites.

One caveat: historical databases aren't literal recordings of the entire web. Majestic itself notes that very old records can have stale status information because some historical links haven't been recrawled, so I'd use historical data for prospect discovery, then validate the current page/site before outreach. Majestic Blog

If you only want to pay for one: I'd choose Ahrefs for most SaaS outreach operations.
If historical link intelligence is the core of your prospecting: I'd choose Majestic.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you prospect for (e.g. fintech, HR, devtools, AI, martech), I can also give you a concrete competitor → backlink → prospect qualification workflow that works well for outreach.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, the “most accurate historical link data” depends on what you mean by historical:

• Finding links that existed years ago (including lost/deleted links): Majestic is usually the strongest choice. Its Historic Index is specifically built around long-term backlink records and goes back to 2006. Majestic Majestic
• Finding the best current prospects + competitor link opportunities: Ahrefs is often the favorite among link builders because of its crawling speed, link discovery, and prospecting workflows. Ahrefs
• Broad agency prospecting with lots of competitive data: Semrush has a very large backlink database and strong competitor backlink reports. Semrush

For SaaS outreach specifically, I’d rank them like this:

For a SaaS link-building workflow, I’d typically use:

1. Ahrefs → prospect discovery

• Export competitor referring domains
• Filter by: - DR/authority
• Traffic
• “Dofollow”
• Recently acquired links
• Pages linking to competitors but not your client
• Majestic → historical validation

• Check whether a site has historically linked to similar SaaS products
• Find publishers that repeatedly link within a niche
• Identify old resource pages that may still be valuable targets
• Semrush → scale and enrichment

• Prioritize domains by authority, traffic, and competitor overlap

A strong agency stack is often Ahrefs + Majestic:

• Ahrefs tells you who is linking now.
• Majestic helps reveal who has linked historically and disappeared. Majestic Majestic

For SaaS outreach, I’d also pay attention to link velocity and link recency, not just total backlinks. A SaaS competitor with 500 relevant links acquired over the last 18 months is usually a better prospect map than one with 20,000 old directory links.

If your goal is SaaS link-building prospecting, I’d rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall
2. Majestic — best for deep historical discovery
3. Semrush — best for recent/lost-link prospecting
4. Moz — useful, but not my first choice for historical prospecting

1. Ahrefs — my default for outreach

For prospecting, Ahrefs is probably the best single tool because you can combine historical backlinks + referring domains + anchor text + destination pages + organic traffic.

Its current index reports 35T external backlink historical records, and Ahrefs says its live backlink index is refreshed every 15–30 minutes. Site Explorer also lets you view historical backlinks and filter them extensively. ahrefs.com

For SaaS outreach, I'd particularly use:

• Competitor → Backlinks
• Filter to dofollow
• Filter by DR
• Filter referring pages by organic traffic
• Look at historical/lost links
• Check which competitor pages attracted links
• Find domains linking to 2–3 competitors but not your client

That last workflow is particularly good for building highly qualified prospect lists.

Ahrefs Site Explorer

2. Majestic — surprisingly strong if "historical" is the priority

If by historical you mean "show me links that existed years ago, even if they're dead today", Majestic is arguably the specialist.

Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly retains old/deleted links so you can investigate previous relationships. blog.majestic.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

That's extremely useful for outreach because you can uncover:

"This SaaS company used to have a link from Site X, but the link disappeared."

Those are often better prospects than completely cold sites because there is evidence that Site X has previously been willing to link to that company/topic.

Majestic also exposes first/most-recent backlink dates, which is useful for determining whether a historical relationship is genuinely old or relatively recent. blog.majestic.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

Majestic Site Explorer

3. Semrush — excellent for recent lost links

Semrush is particularly useful when your prospecting window is months rather than years.

Its Backlinks tool currently retains backlink data from roughly the last six months, while Semrush's API also provides monthly historical trends for backlink/referring-domain counts. www.semrush.com

So I'd use it for:

• recently lost links
• newly acquired competitor links
• finding sites that recently started linking to competitors
• link-gap prospecting
• monitoring prospects during an outreach campaign

Semrush Backlink Analytics

The important distinction

For outreach, "most historical data" isn't necessarily the same thing as "most useful data."

I'd think of it this way:

My actual workflow

If you're doing outreach professionally, I'd combine Ahrefs + Majestic rather than trying to pick one.

Ahrefs → prospect discovery

Find competitors, identify their strongest referring domains, filter out junk, and prioritize sites with relevant content and actual organic traffic.

Majestic → historical enrichment

Run your highest-value prospects through the Historic Index and look for previous relationships, old links, old destination URLs, and first-seen dates.

Semrush → recency check

Use it to identify recently lost/new links and determine whether a prospect is actively linking in the niche.

The key advantage is that you're not just asking "who links to my competitor?" You're asking:

"Who has demonstrated that they link to this type of SaaS, is still publishing, has relevant traffic, and may have a reason to link again?"

That's a much better prospecting signal than DR/DA alone.

If you're doing scaled SaaS outreach, I can also give you a specific Ahrefs/Majestic prospecting workflow with the exact filters I'd use to turn competitor backlinks into a prioritized outreach list.

If your main use case is SaaS outreach prospecting—finding sites that have historically linked to competitors, old resources, or similar SaaS companies—I’d rank them roughly like this:

1. majestic.com — best for deep historical link discovery

• This is the standout if historical coverage is your #1 criterion.
• Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly positions it for analyzing links that are no longer live and reaffirming past relationships. Majestic Developer Majestic
• Particularly useful for finding former linkers: sites that linked to a competitor's old guide, integration page, statistics page, etc., but don't currently link to them.
• Its Backlink History tool can compare up to 10 domains/URLs over time. Majestic
• My pick for: "Who has ever linked to this competitor?"
• ahrefs.com — best overall for prospecting workflow

• Ahrefs lets you view historical backlinks through its Backlinks report, alongside the normal referring-page, anchor and target-URL data. Ahrefs
• I generally prefer it for the actual outreach workflow: filtering competitors' backlinks, identifying referring domains/pages, evaluating link quality, and turning those discoveries into prospects.
• Its API also exposes historical metrics/referring-domain history, which is useful if you're building your own prospecting pipeline. Ahrefs for Developers
• My pick for: "Find good prospects and qualify them quickly."
• semrush.com — good for trend-level historical data

• Semrush's API provides monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends. Semrush Developer
• I'd put it behind Majestic/Ahrefs if you're specifically trying to recover individual historical linking opportunities, because the historical API data is primarily trend/count oriented rather than equivalent to having a huge archive of individual historical links.
• My pick for: combining backlink history with broader competitor/keyword research.

For SaaS outreach, I'd actually use a 2-tool setup

Ahrefs + Majestic is probably the strongest combination.

Use Ahrefs to do the normal prospecting:

Competitor → referring domains → relevant pages → filter by DR/traffic/link type → qualify prospect.

Then use Majestic Historic to answer the more interesting question:

"Who used to link to this competitor/resource, even though they don't anymore?"

That second bucket can be extremely valuable for outreach. A site that previously linked to a competitor's integration guide, comparison article, template, research report, or statistics page has already demonstrated topical willingness to link.

One important distinction: historical link data isn't the same thing as a historical snapshot of the entire web. Majestic's Historic Index is exceptionally deep, but its current published Historic data has a different update cadence/cutoff than its Fresh Index. Majestic Majestic So I'd use historical databases to generate prospects, then independently verify that the prospect/page still exists before outreach.

If I were doing SaaS outreach at scale:
Ahrefs = primary prospecting database → Majestic = historical link mining → Google/manual review = final qualification.

If you tell me your monthly prospect volume (e.g. 500, 5k, 50k domains), I can also compare Ahrefs vs Majestic vs Semrush specifically on cost per prospect, historical depth, bulk exports/API, and how I'd structure the workflow.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for a normal backlink audit. The key question is: which tool is best at showing links that used to exist, so you can find sites that have historically linked to comparable SaaS companies?

My ranking

1. Majestic — best for deep historical prospecting

Majestic is particularly interesting if your goal is “who has ever linked to this competitor?” Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly positions it for analyzing historical relationships that aren't live anymore. developer-support.majestic.com

That makes it excellent for things like:

• Competitor domains that have accumulated links over 5–15 years
• Finding publishers that previously covered a competitor
• Identifying old resource pages/directories
• Finding domains that used to link to a competitor and may be receptive to a new pitch
• Domain-change / rebrand / discontinued-product prospecting

For pure historical depth, I'd pick Majestic.

2. Ahrefs — best overall for an outreach workflow

Ahrefs is probably my first choice if you're actually doing prospecting at scale rather than purely researching historical links. Its data distinguishes between live, recent, and historical links, and its historical backlink functionality lets higher-tier plans explore substantially longer periods. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs also reports a very large link database and frequent updates, which matters when you go from “this company once linked to my competitor” to “is this actually a viable prospect today?” ahrefs.com

So I'd use:

Ahrefs → discover prospects → filter → verify current status → enrich/contact.

3. Semrush — very good for lost-link/competitor workflows

Semrush gives each backlink First Seen and Last Seen dates, plus Active/New/Lost status and filters for link attributes. www.semrush.com

The important limitation is that its Backlinks tool's link-level fresh data goes back about six months, although Semrush has much deeper aggregate historical SEO data. www.semrush.com

So I wouldn't choose Semrush specifically because you want a 10-year backlink archive. I'd choose it if you're doing recent competitor link acquisition/lost-link prospecting alongside broader SEO research.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're prospecting for clients, I'd probably run a two-tool setup:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Majestic for the historical excavation:

Competitor → Historic Index → referring domains → old links → identify publishers/sites worth pursuing

Then use Ahrefs to validate:

Is the domain still active? → Does it still link to competitors? → What pages does it link to? → What's the site's current authority/traffic/link profile?

That combination is much more useful than simply exporting every backlink a competitor has.

One particularly good SaaS prospecting tactic

Don't just search for current competitor backlinks.

Search for:

Competitor's historical backlinks → lost links → referring domains that are still alive → pages/topics that attracted the original link.

Those can produce some very high-intent outreach targets because you're approaching a site that has already demonstrated willingness to link to that category/product/topic.

For example, if you're doing outreach for an analytics SaaS:

Competitor A historical links → old SaaS comparison article → publisher still active → competitor link now dead/outdated → pitch client's equivalent resource

That's generally a much better prospect than randomly filtering a giant DR/DA backlink export.

Bottom line:

• Deepest historical prospect discovery: Majestic
• Best all-around outreach database: Ahrefs
• Best complementary competitor/lost-link workflow: Semrush
• Best practical stack: Ahrefs + Majestic

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you do outreach for (B2B, devtools, AI, fintech, martech, etc.), I can also give you a prospecting workflow that turns historical backlinks into qualified outreach lists rather than thousands of junk domains.

For SaaS link-building prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on what you mean by “historical.”

My ranking

1. Majestic — best for genuinely historical backlink research

If your priority is “Who used to link to this SaaS, even if they don't anymore?”, Majestic is probably the strongest choice. Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, and Majestic explicitly says the Historic Index is useful for analyzing past relationships that are no longer live. developer-support.majestic.com

That's particularly useful for outreach because you can find:

• sites that previously linked to a competitor
• dead/lost resource links
• old integrations/partnerships
• publications that covered a competitor years ago
• domains that have linked to multiple competitors over time

Majestic

2. Ahrefs — my pick for day-to-day SaaS prospecting

I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary tool for an outreach operation. Its historical referring-domain reporting lets you examine new/lost referring domains over a selected period. ahrefs.com

The advantage isn't necessarily having the deepest historical archive; it's that the data is extremely actionable for prospecting. For example:

Competitor A + Competitor B → both previously earned links from Site X → Site X is a highly qualified prospect.

You can then combine that with DR, organic traffic, anchor text, target URL, link type, etc.

Ahrefs

3. Semrush — very good for recent historical changes

Semrush gives every backlink a First Seen and Last Seen date and lets you filter new/lost links by time period. www.semrush.com

For prospecting, that's particularly useful for queries like:

“Show me sites that linked to this competitor recently but aren't linking anymore.”

Semrush says its Backlinks tool can look back six months for its backlink crawl data, while its broader historical datasets can extend much further depending on the report. www.semrush.com

Semrush

The setup I'd actually use

For a SaaS outreach agency, I'd use:

Ahrefs → primary prospect database
Majestic → historical/lost-link expansion
Semrush → second-source validation

The important distinction is that “historical data” isn't necessarily the same as “accurate historical data.” A tool may know that it once discovered a backlink without that link necessarily being live now. Majestic's Historic Index deliberately preserves old/dead links, while its Fresh Index is intended to reflect currently observed links. developer-support.majestic.com

So if you're building prospect lists, I'd actually exploit that distinction:

Live competitor links → Ahrefs
Recently lost links → Ahrefs/Semrush
Old/dead competitor links → Majestic
Cross-check important prospects → second index

That combination is much more powerful than simply choosing the tool with the biggest backlink-count number.

If your specific goal is finding SaaS prospects that are most likely to say yes to an outreach email, I can also give you a competitor-backlink prospecting workflow (filters + export columns + qualification criteria) that prioritizes high-conversion prospects rather than just collecting thousands of backlinks.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall
   • Probably my first choice if you're trying to find old/lost links, competitor link opportunities, and prospecting targets.
   • Its live backlink index is refreshed every 15–30 minutes, and Ahrefs also maintains historical backlink records. ahrefs.com
   • Particularly useful for finding links that competitors earned but you/your client don't have.

2. Majestic — best specifically for deep historical research
   • This is the one I'd add if historical link data is your primary concern.
   • Majestic's Historic Index has records going back to 2006, while its Fresh Index tracks recently discovered links. ahrefs.comdeveloper-support.majestic.comwww.semrush.comdeveloper.semrush.com
   • Its API can return backlink history by month from the Historic Index, which is especially useful for identifying old link relationships. developer-support.majestic.com
   • Great for prospecting publishers that used to link to competitors, even if the link isn't live anymore.

3. Semrush — good secondary database
   • Useful because individual backlinks have First Seen / Last Seen dates, plus link status and attributes. www.semrush.com
   • Its API also exposes monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends. developer.semrush.com
   • I'd generally use it as a complement rather than my sole backlink database for aggressive prospecting.

For your particular use case

If you're doing high-volume SaaS outreach, I'd actually use Ahrefs + Majestic together:

Ahrefs → discover prospects
Find competitor backlinks, referring domains, broken/lost links, relevant publications, resource pages, etc.

Majestic → validate historical relationships
Check whether a domain has historically linked to the competitor/client and whether there are older relationships that Ahrefs doesn't surface.

Semrush → additional verification/enrichment
Use First Seen/Last Seen and its other backlink attributes to help qualify the opportunity.

The important distinction is that "historical" doesn't necessarily mean "historically accurate." A tool can have a huge historical index but still have gaps because crawlers don't revisit every page uniformly. Majestic explicitly separates its Fresh and Historic indexes, while Ahrefs says its complete backlink database takes roughly two months to refresh across the web. ahrefs.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

If I could only pay for one: Ahrefs.
If historical prospecting is the core of your workflow: Majestic becomes much more compelling.
If you're building an outreach data pipeline: Ahrefs + Majestic API is probably the strongest combination.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS links you're prospecting for (guest posts, integrations, listicles, resource pages, competitor replacement links, unlinked mentions, etc.), I can also give you the most effective historical-link prospecting workflow and filters for that specific outreach model.

If historical backlink accuracy is the priority for SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them roughly:

1. Majestic — best pure historical data

For your specific use case, Majestic is probably the one I'd test first. Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, and Majestic explicitly positions it for finding links that are no longer live and analyzing how a site's backlink profile evolved. developer-support.majestic.comahrefs.comahrefs.comdeveloper.semrush.commajestic.com

That's particularly useful for outreach because you can find:

• Sites that used to link to competitors
• Links that disappeared and might be worth reclaiming
• Publishers that have historically covered a SaaS category
• Domains that repeatedly link to companies in your client's niche
• Older editorial relationships that newer indexes may not expose

Its Backlink History report also lets you compare the historical acquisition patterns of multiple domains. majestic.com

Majestic

2. Ahrefs — best overall for prospecting

I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary tool if you're doing day-to-day SaaS link prospecting.

Ahrefs currently reports 35T historical external backlinks, alongside a very frequently refreshed index, and provides interactive views of referring domains/pages over time. ahrefs.com

The big advantage isn't necessarily that its historical database is deeper than Majestic's. It's that the historical information sits alongside an extremely useful prospecting workflow:

Competitor → referring domains → historical/lost links → filter for relevant sites → inspect page → outreach.

Ahrefs has also maintained historical backlink collection specifically to distinguish links a site has ever had from links that are currently live. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs

3. Semrush — excellent for scalable competitor gap analysis

Semrush is good when your workflow is more:

"Give me the sites linking to these 10 competitors and show me the opportunities."

Its API exposes monthly historical backlink and referring-domain trends, so it's useful for seeing how competitor link profiles developed over time. developer.semrush.com

I'd put it behind Ahrefs/Majestic for individual historical-link investigation, though.

Semrush

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're prospecting for clients, I'd use a two-tool workflow:

Ahrefs → prospect discovery
Majestic → historical validation

For example:

1. Take 3–10 competitors of your SaaS client.
2. Pull referring domains in Ahrefs.
3. Look specifically for competitor links that disappeared, old editorial links, resource pages, integrations, listicles, comparison pages, etc.
4. Run the strongest prospects through Majestic's Historic Index.
5. Look for evidence that the domain has repeatedly linked to businesses in the client's category.
6. Prioritize sites with multiple relevant historical links rather than one-off links.
7. Then manually qualify the publisher before outreach.

That last step matters. Historical link count isn't the same thing as prospect quality. A site with 50 historical SaaS links can be a much better prospect than a site with 5,000 random backlinks.

My short answer:

• Best historical database: Majestic
• Best overall prospecting platform: Ahrefs
• Best for large-scale competitive gap workflows: Semrush
• If I could only pay for one: Ahrefs
• If historical/lost-link prospecting is the core service you're selling: Majestic + Ahrefs

One interesting wrinkle: Majestic's Historic Index is enormous, but its currently published Historic Index data is not continuously fresh—the current page shows the Historic dataset through March 2024, while its Fresh Index covers much more recent crawls. developer-support.majestic.comahrefs.comahrefs.comdeveloper.semrush.commajestic.com So I'd use Majestic Historic for deep historical discovery, not assume every link it shows is a current link.

If you're doing SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank the major backlink checkers like this specifically for historical link intelligence:

1. Majestic — best if "historical" is the priority

Majestic is unusually strong here because it maintains a dedicated Historic Index going back to 2006. Its current documentation describes that index as its largest backlink database and specifically recommends it for analyzing a site's history and relationships that are no longer live. developer-support.majestic.com

For outreach, that's valuable because you can find:

• Links a SaaS company used to have
• Publications that previously covered the company
• Old partner/integration pages
• Former resource-page links
• Competitor links that disappeared
• Domains that have historically linked to multiple companies in your niche
• Old links you can potentially reclaim or use as prospecting evidence

Majestic also has dedicated Backlink History and New/Lost Backlinks functionality. Its historical reporting goes back much further than the typical "last 12–24 months" view. developer-support.majestic.com

One caveat: historical ≠ "the exact date the link was created." Majestic itself notes that crawlers know when they found a link, not necessarily when somebody originally created it. developer-support.majestic.commajestic.comahrefs.comahrefs.comwww.semrush.com

Majestic Backlink Checker

2. Ahrefs — probably the best single tool for your workflow

Ahrefs is what I'd choose if you're doing actual prospecting at scale, rather than purely historical analysis.

Its backlink database explicitly contains historical records, and Ahrefs says its index is refreshed very frequently. ahrefs.com

The big advantage is workflow: you can move from

competitor → referring domains → specific linking pages → historical/lost links → prospect → contact

without having to stitch together several tools.

Ahrefs also introduced historical backlink collection specifically to preserve links that had disappeared from the live index. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Backlink Checker

3. Semrush — excellent complementary database

Semrush is worth having if you're doing high-volume SaaS prospecting. It says its backlink database contains 43+ trillion backlinks and 390M referring domains, with the database refreshed at least hourly. www.semrush.com

I'd particularly use it as a second data source when Ahrefs/Majestic don't surface a domain you expect.

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're trying to find people/sites to pitch, rather than simply auditing a client's backlinks:

Ahrefs + Majestic is my preferred combination.

I'd use:

Ahrefs → discovery

• Find competitor referring domains
• Find pages linking to competitors
• Identify linkable assets
• Filter by DR, traffic, language, etc.

Majestic → historical enrichment

• Check whether a prospect has linked to similar SaaS companies historically
• Find older/lost relationships
• Look at long-term backlink history
• Identify publications/directories/resources that have repeatedly linked within the niche

Semrush → validation

• Cross-check important prospects
• Catch domains missing from the first database
• Get another view of current/lost links

The important distinction

For "What links exist right now?", I wouldn't automatically pick Majestic.

For "Who has ever linked to this type of SaaS, even if the link is gone now?", Majestic is probably the most useful specialist tool.

And for "Give me the best overall prospecting workflow with the largest practical amount of usable data", I'd pick Ahrefs first, Majestic second.

If you're doing competitor backlink prospecting for SaaS clients, I can also give you a concrete workflow for extracting hundreds of outreach prospects from 3–5 competitors while filtering out junk links, directories, affiliates, and irrelevant sites.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on whether you care about currently live prospects or historical relationships:

1. Majestic — best for deep historical prospecting

If your question is specifically "who has linked to this company/site at some point in the past?", Majestic is probably the tool I'd put first.

Its Historic Index is specifically designed to retain old backlink relationships, including links that are no longer live. Majestic says its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, while its current published index contains more than 21 trillion URLs found historically. developer-support.majestic.com

That's extremely useful for outreach because you can find:

• Sites that used to link to competitors
• Links that disappeared after a page redesign
• Old resource-page relationships
• Publications that covered the SaaS before
• Former partners/integrations
• Old links to acquired companies
• Sites that have repeatedly covered a particular category

In other words, Majestic is particularly good at uncovering "they've already linked to something like this" prospects.

2. Ahrefs — best overall for SaaS outreach

For day-to-day prospecting, I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary database.

Ahrefs maintains separate Live, Recent, and Historical link indexes, and its historical records include links it has seen previously rather than only links currently live. ahrefs.com

Its current backlink database is also enormous, with roughly 35T external backlinks / 500M domains, and its live index is processed every 15–30 minutes. ahrefs.com

For outreach, the workflow I like is:

Competitor → Best by Links → referring domains → historical/lost links → filter for relevant sites → prospect

The important distinction is that you don't necessarily want all historical links. You want historical links that reveal editorial intent.

For example:

Competitor A had a link from a "Best project management software" article in 2021.

Even if that link is gone, that publisher is potentially an excellent prospect for your SaaS client.

3. Semrush — particularly useful for new/lost-link prospecting

Semrush is strong if your workflow revolves around new vs. lost backlinks.

It records First Seen and Last Seen dates for individual backlinks and lets you filter new/lost links by time period. www.semrush.com

Its API also provides monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends. developer.semrush.com

Semrush says its backlink crawler updates the database frequently and reports newly discovered links relatively quickly. www.semrush.com

So I'd particularly use it for:

"Which sites have recently linked to my client's competitors?"

That's often more actionable for outreach than a gigantic historical database.

My actual SaaS outreach stack

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use two databases rather than trying to find one perfect checker:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs for:

• Current competitor backlinks
• Competitor link gaps
• New/lost links
• Referring-domain analysis
• Finding the pages/sites worth pitching

Use Majestic for:

• Deep historical links
• Old competitor relationships
• Deleted/lost links
• Older domains/publications
• Link-history research

Then optionally use Semrush as a third opinion when a prospect is important.

One particularly good prospecting tactic

Don't just export "backlinks."

For each competitor, build a list of:

Historical referring domains → pages they linked to → why they linked → whether that relationship still exists.

Then categorize prospects:

1. Currently linking to competitor
2. Previously linked to competitor
3. Links to 2+ competitors
4. Links to competitor's specific feature/product/category
5. Previously linked to similar SaaS
6. Currently linking to an outdated/removed resource

I'd prioritize #3 and #4 heavily. Those are much stronger outreach signals than simply having a high DR/DA.

Bottom line: If historical accuracy is the deciding factor, Majestic is the specialist. If you want the best overall prospecting workflow, I'd choose Ahrefs. For serious SaaS outreach, running Ahrefs + Majestic together gives you a much better prospect universe than relying on either alone.

If your goal is SaaS link-building prospecting, I’d rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall for outreach prospecting
2. Majestic — best for deep historical link intelligence
3. Semrush — good secondary database / competitor discovery
4. Moz — useful, but I wouldn’t make it your primary backlink database

1. Ahrefs — my default choice

For prospecting, Ahrefs is probably the best balance of index size + freshness + useful filters + historical visibility. Its current Site Explorer advertises 35T live backlinks and 10+ years of historical data. ahrefs.com

The particularly useful part for outreach is that you can inspect a competitor's backlinks and use historical views to identify new, lost, restored, and previously existing links. ahrefs.com

For SaaS outreach, I'd use it to find:

• Sites linking to 2–5 competitors but not your client
• Links acquired recently → sites that are actively publishing/linking
• Lost competitor links → potential reclamation/replacement prospects
• Resource/listicle/comparison pages
• Links to specific competitor features/use cases
• Author/blogger sites that repeatedly link to SaaS companies

Ahrefs also exposes first_seen/last_seen information in its API and supports full-history backlink queries. docs.ahrefs.com

Verdict: If you're paying for one tool primarily for outreach, I'd pick Ahrefs.

2. Majestic — surprisingly strong for historical prospecting

If by "historical" you mean "show me backlinks that existed years ago, including links that aren't live anymore," Majestic is arguably the specialist.

Its Historic Index currently goes back to June 2006, giving it roughly 20 years of accumulated backlink history. Majestic explicitly positions the Historic Index for finding/reaffirming relationships that are no longer live. blog.majestic.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

That's extremely useful for prospecting because a competitor may have previously earned a link from a publication that:

• deleted the article
• redesigned the site
• changed URLs
• removed the outbound link
• replaced the competitor's resource
• stopped linking to the competitor

Majestic also records first indexed, last seen, and missing/deleted dates for backlinks. pt-old.majestic.com

And its API can return backlink history by month for the Historic Index and by day for the Fresh Index, which is useful if you're building your own prospecting pipeline. developer-support.majestic.com

Verdict: For pure historical link mining, Majestic is the one I'd add alongside Ahrefs.

3. Semrush

I'd treat Semrush more as a second opinion/discovery source than the definitive historical database.

It can be valuable because backlink databases inevitably have different crawl coverage. A prospect that doesn't appear in Ahrefs can sometimes appear elsewhere. For serious outreach operations, cross-checking databases can uncover additional referring domains.

The setup I'd actually use

For SaaS outreach, I'd run:

Ahrefs → primary prospect database
↓
Majestic → historical/lost-link expansion
↓
Google/manual review → validate the actual opportunity

The important distinction is that "historical" doesn't automatically mean "good prospect." Majestic itself notes that Fresh links have a higher probability of being live, while Historic is particularly useful for past relationships. developer-support.majestic.com

So I'd build your prospecting workflow around link behavior, not just backlink counts:

Competitor link → historical/first-seen date → current status → topical relevance → whether the page still accepts/contains external links → outreach angle

For example, if you're prospecting for a project-management SaaS client, I'd much rather find 20 sites that have recently linked to Asana/ClickUp/Monday.com than dump 5,000 historical referring domains into a spreadsheet.

Bottom line:
Ahrefs for 80% of your prospecting, Majestic for historical digging and finding opportunities Ahrefs misses. If historical backlink recovery is a major part of your service, Majestic becomes considerably more valuable than its reputation among typical SEOs might suggest. blog.majestic.com

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall
2. Majestic — best for deep historical link discovery
3. Semrush — best for current + recent link acquisition/loss
4. Moz — solid, but I’d put it behind the above three for prospecting

1. Ahrefs — my default choice

Ahrefs is probably the best single tool if your workflow is:

competitor → referring domains → identify prospects → qualify → outreach.

Its Link Intersect is particularly useful because it finds sites linking to multiple competitors but not your client. Ahrefs explicitly supports intersecting up to 10 domains/URLs and exporting the resulting referring domains/backlinks. help.ahrefs.com

For historical prospecting, Ahrefs also lets you distinguish live, new and lost links, with historical-depth depending on the plan: Standard has two years, while Advanced/Agency have full history. ahrefs.com

Why I like it for outreach: the data is actionable at the individual referring-domain/page level rather than merely showing that a domain's backlink count changed.

2. Majestic — surprisingly strong for old/dead-link prospecting

Majestic is the one I'd add if historical coverage is your priority.

Its Historic Index spans more than five years and is specifically intended for analyzing links that existed in the past but aren't necessarily live anymore. Majestic maintains separate Fresh and Historic indexes. developer-support.majestic.com

That's extremely useful for outreach tactics like:

• finding sites that used to link to a competitor
• identifying abandoned/dead resources
• finding old editorial relationships
• recovering links after a competitor's page disappears
• prospecting sites with a history of covering your client's topic

For pure historical mining, I'd actually choose Majestic + Ahrefs rather than relying on Ahrefs alone.

3. Semrush — excellent for new/lost-link prospecting

Semrush Backlink Analytics has a very large current backlink database and reports first-seen/last-seen dates for individual backlinks. www.semrush.com

Semrush says its Backlinks tool can identify links going back roughly six months in its Fresh Index, while its API also exposes monthly historical backlink/referring-domain trends. www.semrush.com

That makes it particularly good for:

"Who started linking to my competitor recently?"

rather than:

"Who linked to this competitor five years ago?"

Its Backlink Gap functionality is also directly aligned with SaaS prospecting. www.semrush.com

My practical SaaS outreach stack

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use:

If you can only pay for one: Ahrefs.

If historical data is the main reason you're buying: Ahrefs + Majestic.

If you're running high-volume outreach and want fresh prospect discovery: Ahrefs + Semrush.

One important caveat: don't treat any third-party backlink index as a literal record of every link that ever existed. Crawlers miss pages, links can disappear between crawls, and different indexes have different coverage. Ahrefs itself describes its backlink data as directionally reliable rather than an exact measurement. ahrefs.com

For SaaS outreach specifically, I'd optimize for referring-domain coverage + historical links + first/last-seen dates, rather than obsessing over raw backlink counts. A prospect that has repeatedly linked to 3 competing SaaS products is generally much more interesting than a domain with 50,000 backlinks but no demonstrated relevance.

If your goal is SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d separate “historical backlink accuracy” from “best overall prospecting workflow.”

My ranking for historical link data

1. Majestic — best for deep historical prospecting

Majestic

This is the one I’d reach for when your question is “Who has ever linked to this company/domain?” Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, and unlike a current-only backlink report, it retains historical/deleted links. Majestic explicitly positions Historic for analyzing past link relationships and links that are no longer live. developer-support.majestic.com

That makes it particularly useful for:

• finding sites that used to link to a competitor
• resurrecting old relationships
• finding publishers that repeatedly covered a SaaS category
• discovering prospects from competitors that have since lost the link
• analyzing older domains that have changed ownership/content

Caveat: Majestic's Historic Index isn't necessarily the best source for when a link was actually created. A crawler knows when it discovered a link, not necessarily when the webmaster placed it. majestic.comhelp.ahrefs.comwww.semrush.com

2. Ahrefs — probably the best all-around outreach prospecting tool

Ahrefs

I'd generally use Ahrefs alongside Majestic rather than choosing one exclusively. For actual outreach prospecting, Ahrefs' Link Intersect is especially useful: you can identify referring domains that link to multiple competitors but not your client, then export the opportunities. help.ahrefs.com

So if your workflow is:

competitor A + B + C → find common linking sites → qualify → outreach

I'd favor Ahrefs.

If it's:

find every historically relevant site that has ever linked to this competitor

I'd favor Majestic.

3. Semrush — very good for recent link acquisition/loss

Semrush

Semrush is particularly handy when your prospecting angle involves recently acquired or lost links. Its Backlinks report lets you filter New/Lost backlinks and specify a time period, plus filter by referring domain, anchor, follow/nofollow, link type, etc. www.semrush.com

I'd use this for campaigns like:

“Competitor X recently lost links from 300 publications — which ones are worth pitching?”

rather than relying on it as my sole deep-history database.

For SaaS outreach specifically

I'd probably run this stack:

The important thing is don't treat a historical backlink as an automatically valid prospect. A historical link can be from an obsolete page, a dead site, a sponsorship that ended years ago, or a domain that changed completely.

For outreach, I'd score prospects roughly on current relevance + topical authority + evidence they link to comparable SaaS companies + freshness of relationship, rather than simply DR/DA/TF.

If I could only pay for one: Ahrefs for general SaaS outreach; Majestic if historical backlink discovery is the core of your prospecting. Majestic's unusually deep Historic Index is the standout when “ever linked” is the question.

If your main use case is SaaS outreach/prospecting, especially finding links that used to exist, identifying publishers who have linked to competitors, and recovering link opportunities, I’d rank them:

1. Majestic — best for true historical link research

This is the one I'd add if historical data is the priority. Majestic explicitly maintains a Historic Index designed for analyzing a site's link history and recovering relationships that are no longer live. Its documentation says the Historic Index spans more than five years; its current index page shows data going back to June 2006. developer-support.majestic.com

That's particularly useful for outreach because you can ask:

"Who has linked to this company/site in the past, but doesn't anymore?"

Those are often much warmer prospects than completely cold domains.

Majestic

2. Ahrefs — best overall for SaaS outreach

I'd probably use Ahrefs as the primary prospecting tool and Majestic as the historical supplement.

Ahrefs is particularly good when you want to turn backlink data into an outreach list: competitor backlinks, referring domains, link intersections, anchor text, dofollow filtering, traffic/authority filtering, etc. Its workflow tends to be faster for going from:

competitor → relevant linking pages → qualified prospects → outreach list.

There is also substantial industry/community preference for Ahrefs for detecting lost links and maintaining a fresh backlink index, although those comparisons aren't controlled accuracy studies. www.reddit.com

Ahrefs

3. Semrush — very good for new/lost-link prospecting

Semrush is particularly convenient if your workflow is "show me links gained/lost during a particular period." Its Backlink Analytics can filter backlinks by time period and identify when links were gained or lost. www.techradar.com

For an outreach team already using Semrush for keyword/competitor research, it's a perfectly reasonable choice rather than buying another platform.

Semrush

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

Best 2-tool stack:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use Ahrefs for:

• competitor backlink prospecting
• finding relevant referring pages
• broken-link opportunities
• link intersect
• filtering by traffic/authority/relevance
• building the initial prospect list

Then use Majestic Historic Index to find:

• previously linked domains
• lost relationships
• old editorial mentions
• publishers that linked to an older version of a competitor's site
• historical links that aren't visible in a current-only analysis

The important distinction is that "historical backlink data" isn't necessarily the same thing as "a database of every link that ever existed." Crawlers can miss links, and a link can disappear between crawls. So for high-value prospects, I'd cross-check the historical result against the current index and, when useful, the Internet Archive.

One prospecting tactic I'd strongly recommend

For SaaS clients, don't just export all backlinks.

Instead, build a "former linker" list:

Competitor → historical referring domains → lost links → editorial/contextual links → relevance filter → outreach

For example, if a competitor has 5,000 referring domains, you don't care about 5,000 prospects. You care about the 100–300 domains that previously gave that competitor a meaningful editorial link and are plausibly capable of linking to your client.

That's where Majestic's historical capability becomes particularly valuable. developer-support.majestic.com

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you target (e.g. HR SaaS, cybersecurity, fintech, martech), I can also give you a specific backlink-prospecting workflow and filters that I'd use to generate outreach prospects with minimal junk.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, I’d rank them differently than I would for a normal backlink audit:

1. Majestic — best for old opportunities

If your goal is something like:

“Which sites have historically linked to companies similar to my SaaS client, even if the link disappeared years ago?”

Majestic is probably the strongest choice.

Its Historic Index goes back to June 2006, giving it unusually deep historical coverage. It also lets you order backlinks by when they were first indexed and specifically analyze historical/deleted links. blog.majestic.com

That's particularly useful for outreach because an old link can reveal:

• publications that previously covered the niche
• resource pages that used to link to competitors
• outdated competitor mentions
• pages where a competitor was replaced/removed
• sites with a demonstrated willingness to link to SaaS companies

For link reclamation and “competitor used to have a link here” prospecting, I'd absolutely have Majestic in the stack.

2. Ahrefs — best overall

I'd probably make Ahrefs your primary prospecting database.

It has a huge backlink index—currently reporting roughly 35 trillion external backlink records—and its backlink index is refreshed continuously. ahrefs.com

The important distinction is that Ahrefs isn't merely good at ancient historical data. It's excellent for finding recently lost links, which tend to be much more actionable for outreach.

For example:

Competitor → lost backlink → identify why it disappeared → pitch your client's equivalent resource/product

That's generally a higher-conversion workflow than blindly prospecting every site that has ever linked to a competitor.

Ahrefs also explicitly maintains historical backlink records and has tracked historical link status for years. ahrefs.comwww.semrush.com

3. Semrush — useful second opinion

Semrush is particularly useful if you're doing large-scale prospecting. Its Backlinks tool supports bulk analysis, advanced filtering/exporting, competitor comparisons, anchor analysis, and new/lost link research. www.semrush.com

But for deep historical prospecting, I wouldn't choose it over Majestic. Semrush's own documentation says its Backlinks tool can go back roughly six months for lost-link data, versus the much deeper historical indexes offered by Majestic. www.semrush.com

The stack I'd use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd actually use Ahrefs + Majestic, rather than trying to find one perfect database.

Ahrefs → identify prospects

1. Take 5–20 competitors.
2. Export referring domains.
3. Filter for relevant topical categories.
4. Look at recently lost links.
5. Look at pages receiving lots of competitor links.
6. Prioritize sites with genuine editorial links.

Majestic → dig deeper

7. Run the same competitors through Historic Index.
8. Look for domains that linked to them historically.
9. Sort/filter by first indexed date.
10. Investigate links that disappeared.
11. Look for recurring publishers/resources that have linked to multiple competitors over the years.

Then deduplicate the referring domains.

One important caveat

Don't interpret “historically indexed backlink” = “good prospect.”

Historical databases can contain links that were:

• removed years ago
• from sites that no longer exist
• nofollow/sponsored
• sitewide
• irrelevant
• generated automatically
• from pages that Google doesn't value much

For outreach, I'd score prospects based on editorial intent, not backlink count.

A site that linked to 3 competing SaaS products in relevant articles is usually far more interesting than a site that once generated 500 footer/sidebar links to one competitor.

My short answer:
Ahrefs for the main workflow; Majestic specifically when historical depth is the differentiator. If you're doing serious competitor-link prospecting, the combination is considerably more useful than relying on either database alone.

If your main use case is SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them:

1. Majestic — best for finding old/forgotten opportunities

Majestic is the standout if by "historical" you mean how far back can I discover links that existed years ago? Its Historic Index currently goes back to June 2006, with more than 21 trillion unique URLs found in the historical database. majestic.com

That's particularly useful for SaaS outreach because you can investigate:

• competitors' old referring domains
• links that disappeared from competitor sites
• sites that historically covered your client's category
• old resource pages/directories that may still be viable prospects
• domains that have repeatedly linked to similar SaaS products

I'd use Majestic when you're doing "mine the past for prospects" rather than simply checking a site's current backlinks.

urlMajestic Historic Indexturn0search2

2. Ahrefs — best overall for actual outreach

For day-to-day prospecting, I'd probably choose Ahrefs over Majestic.

Ahrefs has specifically tracked historical backlink status—including links that are removed, not found, or dropped—which makes it very useful for identifying link opportunities from competitors' former backlinks. ahrefs.com

The big advantage is workflow: you can go from

competitor → referring domains → historical/lost links → relevant pages → outreach prospects

without needing to stitch together as many separate analyses.

Ahrefs

3. Semrush — very good secondary database

Semrush is worth having if you're already using it for keyword/competitor research. Its backlink tooling tracks how profiles change over time and lets you examine links acquired/lost during particular periods. www.techradar.com

I wouldn't pick it specifically for deepest historical link discovery, though.

Semrush

What I'd actually use for SaaS outreach

If you're doing this professionally, I'd use a two-tool workflow:

Ahrefs → primary prospecting database
Majestic → historical/edge-case verification

For example, say you're prospecting for a project-management SaaS:

1. Put 5–10 competing SaaS domains into Ahrefs.
2. Export their referring domains and lost backlinks.
3. Filter for sites relevant to project management/productivity/remote work/startups.
4. Look for editorial links, resource pages, comparison articles, integrations, partner pages, etc.
5. Run the promising domains through Majestic's Historic Index.
6. Look for older links that Ahrefs doesn't currently surface.
7. Prioritize domains that have historically linked to multiple companies in your client's category.

That last step is especially valuable: a site that has repeatedly linked to competing SaaS products is a much stronger outreach prospect than a site that merely has high DR/DA.

One important caveat

There isn't a universally "accurate" backlink database. Each crawler has its own crawl coverage, discovery timing, canonicalization and filtering. Even current community reports note that tools can disagree substantially on individual backlinks. www.reddit.com

So for historical prospecting, I wouldn't treat a missing backlink as proof that the site never linked to the competitor.

My short answer:

Ahrefs for 80% of your outreach work; Majestic when historical depth matters.

If your particular goal is finding thousands of SaaS outreach prospects from competitors' lost backlinks, I can also give you a pretty aggressive Ahrefs + Majestic prospecting workflow with the exact filters I'd use.

For SaaS outreach, where you’re doing prospecting rather than just auditing your own site, the “best” backlink checker depends on what historical data you mean:

• historical backlinks (links that existed months/years ago)
• lost link discovery
• competitor link mining
• finding sites that have linked to similar SaaS companies before

My ranking for outreach prospecting:

ahrefs.commajestic.com

1. Ahrefs — best for SaaS outreach prospecting

For finding outreach targets, Ahrefs is usually the strongest single choice because you can:

• analyze competitor backlinks
• filter by new/lost backlinks
• find pages linking to competing SaaS products
• identify recurring link sources (directories, review sites, blogs, resource pages)
• export large prospect lists

Ahrefs says its index includes extensive historical backlink records and is frequently refreshed. ahrefs.com

Workflow I’d use:

1. Put a competitor into Site Explorer
2. Go to Backlinks
3. Filter:
   • One link per domain
   • Dofollow
   • DR 30+
   • Traffic > 1k/month
   • Recent/lost links
4. Export domains
5. Enrich with:
   • contact info
   • author/editor
   • SaaS relevance
   • guest post/link opportunity

2. Majestic — best historical “link archaeology”

If your angle is:

“Who has historically linked to SaaS companies in this category?”

Majestic is extremely valuable because of its long-running historical index. It maintains a separate Historic Index designed for older link discovery. ahrefs.commajestic.com

Useful for:

• finding old resource pages
• discovering sites that linked to competitors years ago
• analyzing link neighborhoods
• niche authority research

A good tactic:

• Use Ahrefs for current opportunities
• Use Majestic to uncover older, harder-to-find prospects

3. Semrush — good if you already use it

Semrush is useful when your outreach process overlaps with:

• keyword research
• content gaps
• competitor research
• reporting

Its backlink database is substantial, but many link builders prefer Ahrefs/Majestic when backlink discovery is the main job. www.semrush.com

My recommended SaaS outreach stack

Budget-conscious:

• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools/free checks
• Google operators
• Screaming Frog
• Hunter/Respona/BuzzStream-style outreach tooling

Agency-level:

1. Ahrefs → primary prospect database
2. Majestic → historical validation
3. Semrush → keyword/content intelligence
4. Never rely on one index alone

No backlink crawler has a complete view of the web, so the best prospect lists usually come from combining indexes. www.reddit.com

For SaaS specifically, I’d prioritize Ahrefs + Majestic over buying an all-in-one SEO suite. The extra historical coverage is more valuable when your goal is building a pipeline of link prospects.

If your goal is SaaS link-building prospecting, especially finding sites that used to link to competitors or identifying lost/removed links you can pitch for, I'd rank the major databases roughly like this:

1. Ahrefs — best for actual outreach

I'd make Ahrefs your primary database.

Its current live backlink index is updated extremely frequently—Ahrefs says its live-link data is refreshed every 15–30 minutes—and it has historical backlink functionality for identifying links that were previously live. help.ahrefs.com

For SaaS outreach, that's particularly useful for:

• Competitor backlink mining
• Finding lost backlinks
• Finding sites that have linked to several competitors
• Filtering by DR, traffic, language, referring page, anchor, dofollow/nofollow
• Finding links to outdated competitor pages/content
• Identifying sites that have demonstrated willingness to link to SaaS content

The killer workflow:
Take 3–5 competitors → export referring domains/pages → find domains linking to 2+ competitors → filter for relevant traffic/content → manually qualify → outreach.

That gives you a much better prospect list than simply scraping "high DR websites."

2. Majestic — best if "historical" is the priority

This is where Majestic is unusually strong.

Its Historic Index goes back to 2006, while its Fresh Index is intended for recently crawled links. Majestic explicitly positions the Historic Index for analyzing past relationships that aren't currently live. it-old.majestic.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

That makes it excellent for:

"Who has ever linked to this competitor?"

rather than merely:

"Who links to this competitor right now?"

For broken-link reclamation, competitor link history, expired content, old resource pages, and finding former relationships, I'd absolutely keep Majestic in the stack.

One caveat: historical data isn't necessarily the same thing as currently verified data. Majestic itself says Fresh links have a higher probability of being live because they've been crawled more recently. it-old.majestic.comdeveloper-support.majestic.com

3. Semrush — good secondary database

Semrush is useful if you're already using it for keyword/competitive research. Its backlink database and historical backlink charts can be useful for identifying periods of link acquisition/loss.

But if you're paying specifically for link prospecting, I'd generally put the money into Ahrefs before Semrush.

My recommendation for a SaaS outreach operation

If you're doing this at scale:

Ahrefs + Majestic is the strongest combination.

Use them for different jobs:

Ahrefs
→ current competitor links
→ lost links
→ referring-domain discovery
→ content prospecting
→ traffic/SEO qualification

Majestic
→ deep historical relationships
→ links that disappeared years ago
→ historical competitor profiles
→ additional prospects Ahrefs doesn't surface

Then use something like Google/LinkedIn/manual research to qualify whether the publication actually makes sense for outreach.

The important point is that no backlink database is ground truth. They're all crawler-based datasets, and different crawlers discover different portions of the web. Community comparisons also report discrepancies between backlink platforms, so I'd treat the databases as prospect-discovery engines rather than assuming every "lost" link is genuinely gone. www.reddit.com

If I were building your prospecting system

I'd actually score prospects based on:

Relevance × demonstrated linking behavior × organic traffic × editorial quality × relationship opportunity

rather than simply DR/DA.

For example, a DR 55 SaaS publication that has linked to 3 competing SaaS companies is usually a far better prospect than a random DR 80 site.

If you tell me what kind of SaaS clients you outreach for (e.g. B2B SaaS, fintech, AI, HR, dev tools), I can give you a concrete Ahrefs/Majestic prospecting workflow + filters + export columns + outreach qualification system.

For SaaS outreach/prospecting, I’d rank them differently depending on what you mean by “historical.”

1. Majestic — best if historical data is the priority

Majestic has a dedicated Historic Index going back to June 2006, which is unusually deep. Its Fresh Index handles newer discoveries, while the Historic Index is designed for examining the long-term link graph. majestic.com

For outreach, this is particularly useful for:

• Finding sites that used to link to competitors
• Discovering lost links where the referring page still exists
• Finding old resource pages/listicles that have historically linked to SaaS companies
• Investigating domains with a long history of linking within a particular niche
• Expired/dead competitor pages → identifying their former referring domains

The important caveat: Majestic's Historic Index isn't the freshest dataset. Its current published Historic Index has data through March 2024, while its Fresh Index covers much newer crawls. majestic.commajestic.com

2. Ahrefs — probably the best single tool for your workflow

Ahrefs is what I'd use if you're doing high-volume SaaS prospecting rather than purely forensic historical research.

The advantage is combining historical/lost-link discovery with a very usable prospecting workflow: competitor backlinks → referring domains → link type/context → current status → qualify the prospect.

So if you're asking:

“Which tool should my outreach team actually live in?”

I'd choose Ahrefs.

If you're asking:

“Which tool gives me the deepest historical view of who has linked to a domain?”

I'd choose Majestic.

3. Semrush — useful as a second database

Semrush is worth having if you're already using it for keyword/competitor research. It's good for backlink comparisons and prospect discovery, but I wouldn't choose it specifically because historical backlink depth is your primary requirement.

The setup I'd use for SaaS outreach

If you're building lists for clients, I'd actually use two databases:

Ahrefs → discovery

1. Pull competitor referring domains.
2. Filter for relevant topical categories.
3. Look at link type/context.
4. Find pages linking to 2+ competitors.
5. Export prospects.

Majestic → historical enrichment

6. Check the prospect/domain's historical links.
7. Look for links to competitors that disappeared.
8. Identify previously active resource pages.
9. Check whether the site has a long-standing pattern of linking to SaaS/content in your client's category.

That combination is much more powerful than simply exporting “DR 50+ sites.”

One outreach-specific trick

For SaaS, I'd prioritize “historical relevance” over raw authority.

For example, suppose three competitors have all historically received links from the same software comparison site, integration directory, industry blog, or “best X tools” article. That's a much stronger prospect than an arbitrary DR 80 site that has never linked to anything remotely related to your client's product.

So I'd build your prospecting score around:

Relevance × historical linking behavior × current page quality × competitor overlap × likelihood of editorial placement

rather than just DR/DA.

Bottom line:
Majestic = strongest historical backlink database.
Ahrefs = strongest overall prospecting workflow.
Use both if backlink-driven outreach is a major part of your SaaS operation. majestic.commajestic.com

For SaaS outreach prospecting, where you care about finding who linked to competitors historically, links that disappeared, and repeatable link-building opportunities, the ranking is a little different than “best SEO tool overall.”

My practical ranking for historical backlink intelligence:

ahrefs.commajestic.com

1. Ahrefs — best overall for SaaS outreach

For outreach, I’d usually start here.

Why:

• Strong referring domains database
• Good first seen / last seen link tracking
• Excellent filters:
  • “Links to competitors but not you”
  • New/lost backlinks
  • Link type
  • Language
  • Traffic estimates
  • Anchor text
• Great for finding:
  • SaaS comparison pages
  • “best tools” listicles
  • integration pages
  • resource pages
  • guest post opportunities

Ahrefs says its index includes large-scale historical backlink records and frequent updates, which is why many link builders use it as their primary prospecting database. ahrefs.com

Best workflow:

1. Put 3–5 competing SaaS domains into Link Intersect.
2. Export referring domains.
3. Filter:
   • DR 30–80
   • organic traffic >1k/mo
   • dofollow
   • relevant categories
4. Build outreach lists.

2. Majestic — best if you care about old links

Majestic is underrated for outreach because it has a huge historical index.

Useful for:

• Finding links competitors earned years ago
• Recovering old resource pages
• Studying mature SaaS brands
• Analyzing topical neighborhoods

Its Historic Index is specifically designed around older backlink discovery rather than only current links. ahrefs.commajestic.com

I’d use Majestic when:

• Your competitor has existed 5–10+ years
• You’re doing enterprise SaaS outreach
• You want “where has this brand ever been mentioned?”

3. Semrush — good if you already run campaigns there

Semrush is solid, especially if your outreach process includes:

• keyword research
• competitor analysis
• reporting
• toxic link checks

Its backlink database is competitive, but many dedicated link builders still pair it with Ahrefs or Majestic for deeper prospecting. www.semrush.com

My recommended SaaS outreach stack

If you do high-volume outreach:

Ahrefs + Google Sheets/Airtable

• Ahrefs = discovery
• Spreadsheet = qualification
• Email tool = execution

If you do enterprise SaaS:

Ahrefs + Majestic

• Ahrefs finds actionable prospects
• Majestic finds historical opportunities competitors earned years ago

If budget is limited:

Use:

• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (for owned sites)
• Semrush trial periods for audits
• Free backlink checkers for spot checks ahrefs.commajestic.com

One thing I would not optimize for: raw backlink count. For SaaS outreach, the gold is usually:

• pages linking to 3+ competitors
• comparison pages
• “alternatives to X” articles
• integration directories
• industry resource hubs
• broken competitor links

Those convert far better than chasing every high-DR referring domain.

If your outreach is mostly guest posts, digital PR, or competitor link reclamation, the ideal tool choice changes slightly.

If your job is SaaS link outreach and prospecting, I'd separate the question into historical coverage and current link freshness. They're not the same.

Here's how I'd rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall for outreach

For agencies and SaaS outreach teams, Ahrefs is generally the strongest choice because it balances:

• huge live index
• fast discovery of new links
• reliable lost-link history
• excellent filtering
• strong referring-domain coverage

Ahrefs says it updates its backlink index roughly every 15 minutes and maintains tens of trillions of historical backlinks. ahrefs.com

For prospecting this matters because you can quickly answer questions like:

• Which blogs link to competitors repeatedly?
• Which sites recently linked to Series A/B SaaS companies?
• Which publications stopped linking to a competitor?
• Which DR 40–70 sites actively publish guest contributions?

2. Majestic — deepest historical archive

If your question is specifically about historical links, Majestic is still difficult to beat.

Its Historic Index stretches back to the mid-2000s, making it valuable for:

• old link audits
• legacy SaaS competitors
• understanding long-term linking behavior
• finding domains that consistently link within a niche

Its Fresh Index is useful, but the Historic Index is what makes it unique. majestic.comgatilab.com

I still use Majestic whenever I want to know:

"Has this publication linked to software companies for the past five years?"

rather than

"What are they linking to this month?"

3. Semrush — good enough for most agencies

Semrush's backlink database is large and continues to improve.

If your agency already lives inside Semrush for:

• keyword research
• content
• reporting
• rank tracking

then its backlink data is perfectly usable for most outreach campaigns.

Where it tends to lag is very recent link discovery and some historical depth compared with Ahrefs and Majestic. gatilab.com

For SaaS outreach specifically

If I were building prospect lists, I'd use them differently:

Ahrefs

• competitor backlink exports
• new referring domains
• broken backlink opportunities
• content explorer
• "Best by Links"

Majestic

• verify whether a domain has linked to SaaS repeatedly
• evaluate topical authority (Topical Trust Flow)
• identify link neighborhoods
• analyze long-term linking patterns

Accuracy tips

No backlink crawler has Google's complete graph.

When prospecting, I usually trust:

• Ahrefs for "Does this site actively link?"
• Majestic for "Has this site historically linked?"
• Google search operators to verify the site still publishes similar content.

Using both Ahrefs and Majestic often surfaces opportunities one tool alone misses, especially for older domains. Community discussions among SEO practitioners also frequently recommend combining them when link building is a primary workflow. www.reddit.com

My recommendation based on your workflow

Since you do SaaS outreach, I'd rank them:

1. Ahrefs — daily driver (90% of prospecting)
2. Majestic — historical validation and niche authority
3. Semrush — if you need an all-in-one SEO platform
4. SE Ranking — best budget option
5. Moz — least compelling if backlink prospecting is your core job

If you're prospecting at scale (50k–500k domains), I can also suggest stacks that combine Ahrefs with APIs like Common Crawl, Majestic, and Google BigQuery to uncover prospects that most outreach teams never see.

For SaaS outreach prospecting, historical link data quality matters more than raw backlink count. You usually care about:

• finding sites that used to link to competitors (link reclamation)
• finding patterns in competitor acquisition over time
• discovering publishers that repeatedly cover SaaS topics
• identifying expired/lost links worth pitching for replacement

My ranking for historical backlink intelligence:

ahrefs.commajestic.com

1. Ahrefs — best overall for SaaS outreach

For most SaaS link-building teams, Ahrefs is the default choice.

Why:

• strong competitor backlink discovery
• good "new/lost backlinks" tracking
• excellent filters (language, traffic, DR, anchor, first seen, last seen)
• strong content discovery for finding linkable assets

Ahrefs says its index contains tens of trillions of external backlinks and maintains frequently refreshed data, which is why many outreach teams use it as their primary prospecting database. ahrefs.com

Best workflows:

• "Who links to HubSpot but not my CRM?"
• "Which blogs linked to competitor X's pricing page?"
• "Which SaaS comparison pages gained links recently?"

2. Majestic — best if you care about old link history

Majestic is the specialist for historical link research.

Where it shines:

• older domains
• link graph analysis
• seeing historical relationships between sites
• finding long-running industry publishers

Majestic maintains a Historic Index specifically designed for older backlink records, with data going back many years. majestic.com

For SaaS outreach, this is useful when you ask:

"Who has historically linked to companies in this category?"

Example:

• Find every site that linked to old competitors
• Check whether those sites still publish SaaS content
• Build a warm prospect list

3. Semrush — good if outreach is part of a larger SEO stack

Semrush is useful if you also need:

• keyword research
• traffic estimates
• reporting
• client dashboards

I would not usually buy it only for backlink prospecting if historical links are the priority.

My recommended stack for a SaaS outreach agency

If you can afford one tool:

Ahrefs only

Workflow:

1. Export competitor referring domains
2. Filter:
   • DR 30+
   • organic traffic
   • dofollow
   • relevant categories
3. Find recurring publishers
4. Build outreach lists

If you do high-volume outreach:

Ahrefs + Majestic

Use:

• Ahrefs → active opportunities
• Majestic → historical mining

If you are doing broken-link / competitor replacement campaigns:

Majestic becomes more valuable because old link records matter.

Metrics I would NOT over-trust

For SaaS outreach, avoid judging prospects only by:

• DR/DA
• total backlinks
• domain age

Better signals:

• Does the site publish content in your client's category?
• Does it link externally?
• Does it rank for commercial SaaS terms?
• Did it recently link to competitors?
• Are those links editorial?

A smaller niche SaaS blog with 5 relevant competitor links can be a better prospect than a huge DR 80 site that never links out.

If I were running SaaS outreach campaigns today, I’d use Ahrefs as the prospecting engine and Majestic as the historical research layer. ahrefs.commajestic.com

For SaaS outreach and link prospecting, there isn't a single tool with the "most accurate" historical index. Different crawlers discover different parts of the web. If historical link data is your priority (finding sites that used to link to competitors, identifying outreach prospects, analyzing link velocity), here's how I'd rank them:

1. Ahrefs (my first choice)

For agency outreach, Ahrefs is still the benchmark.

Why:

• Excellent first seen / last seen timestamps
• Strong lost-link history
• Large live index
• Great filtering for:
  • dofollow only
  • DR ranges
  • traffic
  • language
  • platform
  • link type
• Link Intersect is still one of the best prospecting tools available.

If you're building lists like:

• "sites that linked to Competitor A but not us"
• "blogs that link to multiple SaaS companies"
• "resource pages"

Ahrefs usually produces the cleanest results. Ahrefs also notes that comparing raw backlink counts across tools is misleading because each indexes links differently and uses different definitions of "live" versus historical links. ahrefs.com

2. Majestic (best historical archive)

If you specifically asked historical data...

Majestic is arguably king.

Advantages:

• Historic Index dating back many years
• Trust Flow / Citation Flow
• Link Graph
• Anchor history
• Referring domain history

This is especially useful when prospecting:

• sites that used to link heavily in your niche
• expired partnerships
• recovering old outreach opportunities
• identifying publishers that have stopped linking

Majestic's Historic Index contains backlink data stretching back to 2006, making it one of the deepest commercial historical link archives available. blog.majestic.com

3. Semrush

Semrush is fine.

I just wouldn't choose it solely for backlink prospecting.

It's excellent if you're also doing:

• keyword research
• content
• technical SEO
• position tracking

Its backlink database has improved substantially, but most experienced link builders still consider Ahrefs or Majestic stronger for dedicated link intelligence. gatilab.com

My favorite combo

If budget isn't a concern:

Ahrefs + Majestic

They complement each other surprisingly well.

I often find:

• Ahrefs finds newer opportunities first.
• Majestic reveals older relationships Ahrefs doesn't emphasize.
• The overlap is high, but each has unique referring domains.

For SaaS outreach specifically

The reports I use most:

Ahrefs

• Link Intersect
• Best by Links
• Lost Backlinks
• Referring Domains
• New Links
• Broken Backlinks

Majestic

• Historic Index
• Clique Hunter
• Link Context
• Topical Trust Flow
• Backlink History

Those five reports alone can generate thousands of qualified prospects.

If I were building outreach at scale

• Under $100/mo: Majestic Pro
• $130–200/mo: Ahrefs Starter/Standard (depending on usage)
• Agency with multiple SaaS clients: Ahrefs + Majestic
• Already paying for Semrush: Keep Semrush for the broader SEO suite, but add Majestic if your main bottleneck is historical link prospecting rather than buying Ahrefs immediately.

For SaaS link building, I generally see the highest ROI from using Ahrefs for day-to-day prospect discovery and Majestic as the historical validation layer when researching competitor link patterns or uncovering older publisher relationships.

If your goal is link building outreach and prospecting, there isn't one tool that's objectively "most accurate." Each crawler sees a different slice of the web. But for historical backlink data, there are clear leaders.

Here's how I'd rank them:

1. Ahrefs — best overall

If you're prospecting every day, Ahrefs is usually the strongest single tool because it combines:

• very large backlink index
• fast discovery of new links
• reliable "lost links" history
• excellent filtering
• easy export workflows

Ahrefs says it operates one of the web's largest active crawlers after Google and maintains tens of trillions of historical backlink records. ahrefs.com

For outreach, I especially like:

• Best by Links
• Referring domains over time
• Lost links
• Link intersect
• Broken backlinks

These let you find sites that have historically linked to competitors—even if some links are no longer live.

2. Majestic — best historical archive

If historical data is your priority, Majestic is hard to beat.

Its biggest advantage is the Historic Index, which spans many years of crawled links, separate from its Fresh Index. It also offers unique metrics like:

• Trust Flow
• Citation Flow
• Topical Trust Flow
• Link Context

Its Historic Index covers data dating back to 2006, making it particularly useful for researching long-term linking behavior. majestic.com

I use Majestic when I want to answer questions like:

• "Has this site linked to SaaS companies before?"
• "Did this blog used to do guest posts?"
• "Is this domain naturally attracting editorial links?"

3. Semrush — good but not my first choice for link prospecting

Semrush has improved substantially.

It's excellent if you're already using it for:

• keyword research
• content
• technical SEO

Its backlink database is strong, but for agency link prospecting many SEOs still find Ahrefs more complete for pure backlink discovery. www.semrush.com

What agencies often do

Many link-building agencies actually combine tools.

A common stack looks like:

• Ahrefs → primary prospect discovery
• Majestic → trust/history verification
• Google Search operators → uncover opportunities
• Custom scraping with Screaming Frog or Python
• Internal CRM with enrichment

This gives you the best balance of fresh and historical data.

If you're doing SaaS outreach specifically

My workflow would be:

1. Ahrefs → export competitors' referring domains.
2. Filter for:
   • DR 30–80
   • dofollow
   • editorial links
   • traffic >500/month
3. Run the remaining domains through Majestic.
4. Remove domains with poor Trust Flow or spammy histories.
5. Prioritize domains that have linked to multiple competing SaaS companies—they're often the easiest outreach wins.

If budget allows only one tool

• One tool: Ahrefs
• Two tools: Ahrefs + Majestic
• Already paying for Semrush: Add Majestic before adding Ahrefs if your biggest gap is historical link intelligence rather than broader SEO features.

For pure backlink prospecting, the combination of Ahrefs' fresh crawl and Majestic's historical archive is still one of the strongest setups available.