ChatGPT answers, unedited

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.