Quick answer
You don't need a paid subscription to check DA or DR. Free browser extensions, limited daily lookups on Moz and Ahrefs' own sites, and a handful of secondary signals (domain age, indexed pages, backlink count) together give you enough information to make a confident decision on almost any listing.
What DA and DR actually are
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz. Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' equivalent. Both are proprietary scores built from backlink data, calculated on a 0–100 scale — and crucially, neither is an official Google metric. Google has repeatedly confirmed it doesn't use DA, DR, or any third-party authority score in ranking pages; you can read more about how search ranking systems actually work generally on Wikipedia's page on search engine optimization.
Think of DA/DR as a weather forecast, not a guarantee. It's a useful, data-informed estimate of a site's backlink strength — not a promise of how any specific page will actually perform in search results.
Free method #1: Browser extensions
Moz's MozBar and similar free extensions show DA/PA directly in your browser's toolbar as you visit any page — no manual lookup required. Install once, and the score appears automatically on every site you browse, which makes this the fastest option if you're casually checking sites throughout your day.
Pros: Zero friction, works passively in the background Cons: Only covers Moz's DA/PA — you'll need a separate step for Ahrefs' DR
Free method #2: Limited daily lookups on the tool websites
Both Moz and Ahrefs offer a small number of free checks per day directly on their websites:
| Tool | What it shows | Daily free limit |
|---|---|---|
| Moz Link Explorer | DA, Page Authority, linking domains | A handful of lookups/day |
| Ahrefs free DR checker | Domain Rating, backlink count | A handful of lookups/day |
| Ubersuggest | Domain overview, comparable authority score | Limited free tier |
These free tiers reset daily, so if you're vetting more than a handful of sites in one sitting, plan to spread the checks across the tools rather than burning your Moz quota on sites you could've checked via a browser extension instead.
Free method #3: Ask the seller for a screenshot
On a marketplace, a legitimate seller should be able to provide a current screenshot of their metrics dashboard directly. Cross-check this against your own free lookup if the numbers seem inflated — a mismatch between what's claimed and what you find independently is a clear warning sign, covered in depth in our guide to spotting a spammy backlink site.
A simple verification habit: ask for the screenshot before revealing which tool you personally use to double-check. This avoids a seller conveniently sending you numbers pulled from whichever tool happens to show their site most favorably.
Free method #4: Marketplace-verified metrics
Platforms like LinkLazy record metrics at listing time and re-verify them periodically, which saves you from manually checking every site yourself. It's still good practice to spot-check occasionally — especially for higher-value orders — but this removes most of the manual lookup burden for routine purchases.
Free method #5: Secondary signals when you're out of lookups
If you've exhausted your free daily quota, several free signals can help you form a rough, directional estimate while you wait for tomorrow's reset:
- Domain age, via any free WHOIS lookup tool — older domains often, though not always, carry more accumulated authority
- Indexed page count, via a
site:example.comGoogle search — gives a rough sense of the site's overall footprint - Backlink count estimate, via free tiers of Ahrefs' or similar tools' backlink checkers, which typically show a limited view of referring domains even without a full account
None of these replace a real DA/DR check, but together they help you sanity-check a listing without spending a paid lookup on it.
A worked comparison: two sites, two different pictures
Say you're comparing two gardening blogs for a link purchase:
Site A: DA 42 (Moz), domain registered 6 years ago, 850 indexed pages, active weekly posting Site B: DA 51 (Moz), domain registered 8 months ago, 40 indexed pages, sporadic posting
At first glance, Site B looks stronger — a higher DA. But the secondary signals tell a different story: a young domain with very few indexed pages reaching DA 51 that quickly is unusual, and often indicates an aggressive, possibly low-quality backlink acquisition strategy rather than organic growth. Site A's more modest DA 42, paired with age, content volume, and consistent activity, paints a picture of steadier, more trustworthy authority.
The takeaway from this example: never evaluate DA/DR in isolation. Pair it with domain age and content volume, and a lower number with supporting context can be the safer choice over a higher number that doesn't add up.
What DA and DR don't measure
It's worth being explicit about the gaps, since these are the most common source of confusion:
- Not traffic. A site can have a strong score with almost no real visitors, or modest score with a highly engaged audience.
- Not content quality. The score reflects link data, not whether the content itself is well-written, accurate, or useful.
- Not topical relevance. A high-DA site in a completely unrelated niche to yours still won't carry the topical weight of a lower-DA, closely relevant one.
- Not directly comparable across tools. A DA 40 and a DR 40 aren't measuring the same thing on the same scale — Moz and Ahrefs calculate independently, using different crawl data and formulas.
Why the scale is logarithmic — and why that matters
Both DA and DR use a roughly logarithmic 0–100 scale, meaning the gap between DA 20 and DA 30 represents a much smaller real-world difference in backlink strength than the gap between DA 70 and DA 80. Climbing from a very high score to an even higher one requires disproportionately more backlink authority than climbing the same numeric distance lower on the scale.
Practical implication: don't assume a site priced for "DA 60" is proportionally twice as strong as one at "DA 30." In raw backlink-authority terms, the DA 60 site may be five, ten, or more times stronger — which is part of why high-DA sites command such a steep price premium, a topic we cover in detail in our guide on how much a backlink should cost.
A short history of why third-party authority scores exist at all
Before Moz introduced Domain Authority in 2011, link builders had almost no standardized way to compare the relative strength of two sites without deep technical SEO knowledge. Google's own internal ranking signal, PageRank, had a public-facing toolbar score for years — but Google discontinued public PageRank data in 2016, leaving a gap in the market. Moz's DA, and later Ahrefs' DR, filled that gap by building independent link-graph models and expressing the result as a single, easy-to-communicate number.
This history matters for one practical reason: these scores were built by third parties specifically to approximate something Google keeps private. They're educated estimates of an estimate, which is exactly why treating them as gospel — rather than one useful input among several — leads people astray.
Comparing the major free and paid tools at a glance
| Tool | Free tier limit | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| MozBar (browser extension) | Unlimited passive DA/PA viewing | Zero-friction, shows scores automatically while browsing |
| Moz Link Explorer (website) | Small number of lookups/day | Slightly more detail than the extension alone |
| Ahrefs free DR checker | Small number of lookups/day | Industry-standard DR score, widely referenced by sellers |
| Ubersuggest | Limited free domain overview | Bundles a comparable score with basic traffic estimates |
| Wayback Machine (indirect) | Unlimited | Free content-history check to spot repurposed domains |
No single free tool does everything — the practical approach is combining two or three from this table rather than relying on just one.
How to build a repeatable personal checking routine
If you vet sites regularly, a consistent routine saves time and reduces the chance of skipping a step under time pressure:
- Install a DA/PA browser extension once, so every site you visit shows a baseline score automatically
- Reserve your daily Ahrefs/Moz free lookups for sites that pass your initial DA screen, rather than spending them on obvious rejects
- Check domain age via WHOIS for any site you're seriously considering, since this is unlimited and free
- Run a quick
site:search to sanity-check indexed page count against the site's apparent content volume - Only then move on to the deeper content and ownership checks covered in our full site-vetting checklist
Following the same order every time turns a potentially tedious process into a fast, five-minute habit.
Frequently asked questions
Why do DA and DR sometimes disagree significantly for the same site? Moz and Ahrefs crawl the web independently and weight signals differently. A large discrepancy isn't necessarily suspicious — it usually just reflects each tool's own index size and methodology, not an error on either side.
Can a site's DA/DR be artificially inflated? Yes — buying large volumes of low-quality links can temporarily inflate these scores without adding real value. This is one reason metrics alone aren't sufficient; see our full site-vetting checklist for how to catch this pattern.
How often should I re-check a site's metrics? For an ongoing relationship or repeat purchases, checking every few months is reasonable — scores don't typically shift dramatically week to week, though a sudden large jump is itself worth investigating.
Is a free DA checker as accurate as a paid subscription? For a single-site lookup, yes — the free and paid tiers usually pull from the same underlying index. The paid tier mainly adds bulk lookups, historical tracking, and deeper backlink-list access, not a materially different score for one-off checks.
Should I trust a seller's self-reported DA over my own check? Always verify independently when possible. Self-reported numbers aren't necessarily dishonest, but they can be stale (checked months ago) or selectively chosen from whichever tool flatters the site most.
The takeaway
Free tools get you close enough for the vast majority of buying decisions — you rarely need a paid subscription just to vet a handful of listings. Combine a DA/DR check with domain age, indexed page count, and the other vetting steps for a complete picture before committing to any link purchase or exchange.