12 Best Outreach Link Building Tools [Reviewed for 2025]
Natalia Toth
Link-building outreach is exhausting.
Between finding the right contacts, crafting emails that don’t sound like spam, and following up without annoying people…you need more than just grit. You need the right outreach platform that can save you days and weeks and get results.
We’ve tested a dozen popular tools to see which ones are worth your time (and subscription fee).
1. Link Building Tool by Semrush
Semrush’s Link Building Tool makes it easy to kick off a campaign. Just plug in your domain, up to 10 competitors, and up to 10 target keywords. The tool then generates a list of backlink prospects, ranked by Authority Score and relevance.
From there, move the best opportunities to the ‘In Progress’ tab, pick one of seven outreach strategies, and connect your Gmail. You’ll be able to customize email templates and track opens, replies, and acquired links — all in one place.
What we like about Link Building Tool:
- You can identify opportunities, set up an outreach campaign, and track progress within a single platform, which streamlines your link-building process
Can I use the Link Building Tool for free?
Yes, there is a free version for one project. If you want to use it for multiple projects, you’ll need to opt for one of Semrush’s paid plans.
How much are the paid plans?
Just like with the Backlink Gap, you’ll need a Semrush subscription to unlock the full functionality of the Link Building tool.
Semrush offers three plans:
- Pro: $139.95 per month
- Guru: $249.95 per month
- Business: $499.95 per month
2. Ranking Raccoon
Ranking Raccoon offers an alternative way of link-building. It’s a spam-free link-building networking platform that connects you with hundreds of trustworthy SEOs, thus making cold emails obsolete.
Each site is manually checked for quality. After your site is approved, the AI algorithm shows you the most relevant backlink partners in SaaS, eCommerce, Finance, B2B, and 50 other niches. Better yet, you can find pages with your target keywords across all sites in seconds.
Then, you can message a site admin directly in chat. Without prospecting and cold emails!
What we like about Ranking Raccoon:
- Only high-quality websites are allowed - no link farms or PBNs on the platform
- You can message site admins directly instead of searching for the right person’s email address, meaning weeks of saved time
- 71% of link requests get a reply within 7 days, and 35% of them turn into published links - a much higher ROI compared to cold emails
- An AI algorithm that recommends the best backlink partners
- Find pages with your target keywords in seconds
- Clean and easy-to-use design
- Affordable even for small businesses: build unlimited backlinks for just $25 per month - no placement fees
Can I use Ranking Raccoon for free?
You can try Ranking Raccoon Pro for free for 7 days. After that, you can stay on a Free plan with limited functionality.
How much are the paid plans?
Pro Plan costs $25/month. With that, you can browse the entire database and send as many link requests as you want.
3. Pitchbox
Pitchbox is an outreach automation platform that boasts some advanced features.
Search keywords and topics to discover relevant blogs and niche articles to reach out to with a backlink request. You can then save contacts in the native Pitchbox CRM, create email sequences, set up a schedule, and monitor campaign performance.
What we like about Pitchbox:
- 20 prospecting options to help you discover high-quality link-building opportunities
- An extensive list of integrations with SEO tools (Moz, Majestic, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.) and project management platforms (Slack, Zapier)
- Customizable subscription plans based on the number of users, email accounts, and outreach emails needed
- Link monitoring, deliverability, and reporting dashboards
Can I use Pitchbox for free?
No, but they offer a free trial.
How much are the paid plans?
Pitchbox is one of the priciest solutions on the market. It offers three monthly plans, with upfront annual billing available with a 15% discount.
- Pro: $195/month - 2 users, 2000 outreach emails
- Advanced: $495/month - unlimited users, 5000 outreach emails
- Scale: $795/month - unlimited users, 15000 outreach emails
- Custom plan for corporations
4. Respona
Respona makes link-building outreach easier with 15+ customizable campaign templates.
You can choose from tactics like competitor mentions, guest posts, listicle outreach, and more. Find link opportunities using built-in Google search, Ahrefs backlink data, or by uploading your own CSV. Filter results by metrics and content type, and Respona will automatically pull contact info—complete with job titles and seniority. Then, just build your email sequence and launch your campaign.
Can I use Respona for free?
There’s no free tier, but you can try Respona for free for 14 days.
How much are the paid plans?
Respona offers four plans, based on features and the number of opportunities and email addresses you want to find.
- Starter: $198/month - 2 email accounts, 10000 data credits
- Pro: $495/month - 5 email accounts, 25000 data credits
- Unlimited: $799/month - unlimited email accounts, 600000 data credits
- Custom Enterprise plan
5. Postaga
Postaga, like Respona, is an AI-powered outreach platform built for link builders and sales teams alike. Setting up a campaign takes a few steps, but it’s all pretty intuitive.
You start by picking one of six outreach goals and choosing your campaign type. After adding your content URL, Postaga automatically finds relevant backlink opportunities and pulls contact info. From there, you can build a personalized email sequence and hit send—all without leaving the platform.
What we like about Postaga:
- Integration with LinkedIn to pull contact data
- An analytics dashboard to track campaign performance
Can I use Postaga for free?
There is a 14-day free trial to get a taste of the platform, but no free tier.
How much are the paid plans?
Postaga offers two plans Based on how many opportunities and contacts you want to source and the number of emails you plan to send:
- Pro: $99/month - 2000 contacts, 10000 emails
- Agency: $299/month - 15000 contacts, 100000 emails
Who is Postaga ideal for?
Agencies, bloggers, and medium-sized businesses seeking a more affordable platform to automate their link-building as well as sales efforts.
Read more: 11 AI SEO Tools You Should Try in 2025 [Tested Firsthand]
6. BuzzStream
BuzzStream is a powerful CRM built for link-building and digital PR, though it can take a bit of time to master.
Start by setting up your search queries, and BuzzStream will surface a list of relevant websites — complete with metrics like domain authority, Twitter followers, social profiles, and email addresses.
You can send personalized outreach emails, set up automated follow-ups, and monitor everything with detailed reports on team performance and campaign results. Bonus: with the BuzzMarker Chrome extension, you can find and add prospects as you browse the web.
What we like about BuzzStream:
- Proprietary domain and URL metrics that give you insights into blog post frequency, number of outbound links, and more
- For each prospect, you can set up different relationship stages for a faster overview
- Advanced link monitoring dashboard
- Exportable performance statistics
Can I use BuzzStream for free?
No, but there is a free Pro trial for 14 days.
How much are the paid plans?
Depending on the size of your team and the features you need, you can choose one of the plans:
- Starter: $24/month - 1 user, 1000 contacts
- Growth: $124/month - 3 users, 25000 contacts
- Professional: $299/month - 6 users, 100000 contacts
- Custom: from $999/month - 15 users, 300000 contacts
Read more: 12 Best SEO Software Tools for Small Businesses [A 2025 Review]
7. Hunter.io
Hunter.io is best known for its Email Finder and Email Verifier, but it also offers powerful outreach capabilities through its Campaigns feature.
After finding verified emails for prospects, you can send personalized cold email campaigns directly from your dashboard. Users most like the platform's accuracy of results and intuitive design.
What we like about Hunter.io:
- Simple interface to search for and verify email addresses
- Built-in Campaigns tool for sending and scheduling outreach emails
- Email tracking and analytics (opens, replies, bounces)
- Integrates with Google Sheets, HubSpot, Salesforce, Airforce, and more
Can I use Hunter.io for free?
Yes, Hunter.io offers a free plan with 25 monthly searches and 50 email verifications. You can also send outreach emails through the free Campaigns tool, limited to 500 recipients per month.
How much are the paid plans?
Hunter.io’s pricing is based on the number of searches and verifications per month.
- Starter: €49/month – 500 searches, 1000 verifications
- Growth: €149/month – 5000 searches, 10000 verifications
- Scale: €499/month – 10000 searches, 10000 verifications
8. Mailshake
Mailshake has a 4.7 rating on G2, and that’s for a reason.
It’s a cold email outreach platform built for salespeople, but it can be useful for marketers and link builders alike.
With Mailshake, you can automate personalized email sequences, track engagement, and even make phone calls or connect via social media from the same dashboard. What users love most about the tool is the quality of customer support and the easy-to-use interface.
What we like about Mailshake:
- Easy-to-build email sequences with conditional logic and A/B testing
- Dashboard to manage replies and conversions
- Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Google Sheets, LinkedIn, and 20+ more
- Analytics to track open, click, and response rates
Can I use Mailshake for free?
No, Mailshake doesn’t offer a free plan or trial. But it does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
How much are the paid plans?
Mailshake offers three tiers depending on the number of users and email sends:
- Starter: $29/month - 1 email address, 1500 outgoing emails
- Email Outreach: $49/month - 2 email addresses, unlimited emails
- Sales Engagement: $99/month - 10 email addresses, unlimited emails, plus 2500 free data finder credits
Read more: 17 Best SaaS SEO Tools You Can’t Miss in 2025 (Free & Paid)
9. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is more of a content research and influencer discovery tool than a dedicated email outreach platform, but it's a great platform for link builders (especially at agencies) who want to find high-performing content and relevant authors to reach out to. You can research competitors’ backlinks and find backlinking opportunities for yourself.
BuzzSumo also claims to be ‘the world’s largest index of social engagement data, with over 300 trillion engagements, 8bn articles and millions more indexed every day’. You can organize findings by social media platform, seeing where each article performs best.
On the downside, the platform is rather expensive for small businesses, with prices starting from $199/mo.
What we like about BuzzSumo:
- Discover trending content and identify what’s gaining links and shares
- Find journalists, bloggers, and influencers in any niche
- Set alerts for brand mentions, backlinks, and keywords
- Deep insights into competitors’ most-linked content
Can I use BuzzSumo for free?
No, there’s no free tier.
How much are the paid plans?
BuzzSumo offers four paid plans with increasing data and team capabilities:
- Content Creation: $199/month
- PR & Comms: $299/month
- Suite: $499/month
- Enterprise: $999/month
10. JustReachOut
JustReachOut is a PR-focused outreach platform that helps PR specialists, marketers, and founders pitch stories to journalists, bloggers, and podcasters without hiring a full PR agency. It’s great for link building through digital PR.
You can take advantage of pre-populated, personalized pitch templates based on your story angle. Naturally, you can track your campaign’s performance in an intuitive dashboard.
What we like about JustReachOut:
- Targeted journalist and blog search across multiple databases
- Pitch templates tailored to different campaign goals (e.g., product launch, expert commentary, etc.)
- Email tracking and follow-up automation
- Training and strategy support from PR coaches
Can I use JustReachOut for free?
No, there’s no free plan, but they offer a 7-day free trial.
How much are the paid plans?
JustReachOut offers a few tiers depending on the team size and number of email sends:
- Starter Outreach: $147/month - 1 user, 100 email sends
- Advanced Outreach: $247/month - 2 users, 300 email sends
- Ultimate Outreach: $497/month - 5 users, 1000 email sends
- White Glove: Starting at $1997/month, includes 5 custom campaigns by JustReachOut’s PR team
12. LinkHunter
LinkHunter is a newer tool that mostly targets e-commerce, SaaS businesses, and agencies. It’s a beginner-friendly link-building tool that simplifies outreach by focusing on specific strategies like resource page outreach, guest posts, influencer mentions, and product reviews.
That said, like with many other outreach automation tools, there’s still quite a bit of manual work involved. To save time, you can hire the LinkHunter team to do outreach for you.
What we like about LinkHunter:
- Campaign templates tailored to link-building tactics (e.g., broken link building, guest posting)
- Built-in prospect discovery and contact finding
- Email sequence automation with basic personalization
- Great for beginners and small teams starting out with link building
Can I use LinkHunter for free?
There’s no free plan, but they do offer a 7-day free trial.
How much are the paid plans?
LinkHunter has three tiers:
- Starter: $49/month – 2000 new prospects, 500 outreach emails
- Small Business: $99/month – 5000 new prospects, 2000 outreach emails
- Agency: $199/month – 10000 new prospects, 5000 outreach emails
Build Backlinks The Better Way
With the right tool, you can spend less time in your inbox and more time earning backlinks that actually move the needle.
Tried all the outreach tools and still feeling burned out? Sometimes, the easiest way to build links is to skip the cold emails altogether.
That’s where Ranking Raccoon comes in. On our spam-free link-building platform, you can directly message other SEOs who want to exchange high-quality links with genuine sites.
Give it a try for free - let link-building be the fun part of SEO!
Natalia Toth
Head of Marketing