What you are paying $599 for

Most backlink tools sell a bigger index. LinkResearchTools sells a verdict on the links you already have. Its centrepiece, Link Detox, pulls a site's backlinks from what LRT calls "25+ link data sources", re-crawls them with its own bots, scores the profile for risk on a scale it calls DTOXRISK, and then helps you push a disavow file at Google. A narrow job, priced like the whole of SEO.

The cheapest plan, Superhero Small, is $599 a month, checked on the LRT pricing page in October 2026. There is no free plan. The only way in is a $17 seven-day trial that rolls into that $599. Founder Christoph C. Cemper has run the Vienna company since launch in 2009 and, per the pricing FAQ, "built LRT for his daily work". It shows: a link auditor's tool that makes few concessions to anyone else.

Pricing and the crawl budget

Checked on linkresearchtools.com/pricing in October 2026; euro prices use the same figures.

The column that matters is the crawl budget. A pricing tooltip says so: "The only limiting factor in your plan will be the Link Crawl Budget that comes with it." On Small that is one million links a month across every tool, and a full audit of a large site with a few hundred thousand backlinks spends a big share of it in one run. Whatever you do not use "will be reset, i.e. be lost". Extra budget is sold as an add-on at prices LRT does not publish.

Seats are murkier. The table shows domains and users as "Unlimited*", the asterisk is never explained, and a tooltip on the users row says "Each plan is licensed for a different number of users." If more than one person on your team will log in, get the seat count in writing before you pay. Enterprise adds invoicing, SSO/SAML and custom contracts.

What the $17 trial blocks

The trial is not a free look. You pay $17 for seven days, and the pricing FAQ is blunt about what that buys: "The trial version does not allow export of any data from the system, does not include Link Detox Boost."

In practice you can run Link Detox on your own domain and see the risk score, but you cannot take the results away - no CSV of toxic links to hand a client, nothing to build on outside the app - and the one feature nobody else offers, Boost, has zero credits. A Trustpilot reviewer put it more harshly in September 2021: "the $17 trial doesn't allow you to even view a list...you have to pay". The trial shows you the interface. It cannot show you whether the audit is worth $599, because you never get to hold it.

Then it continues at $599 automatically. The terms ask for 30 days' notice before a new service period with automatic charges, which is longer than the trial itself. Ask support in writing how that applies to a trial before you start one.

Link Detox and Boost: the reason it exists

Link Detox is why anyone still pays for LRT. It merges backlink data from LRT's 25 sources and its own crawlers, enriches each link with what the about page calls "150+ SEO Metrics", and rolls the whole profile into a DTOXRISK figure. The dashboard sets that gauge beside link velocity, won and lost links, and an issues list flagging PBN links and spam. LRT's knowledge base gives you the target: "Try to get it down to around 700 or less, which will show as an average DTOXRISK."

The same FAQ is clear about the limit: "Link Detox does not remove bad links on its own." It finds them. Deciding which to disavow, and sending removal requests, is still your work. Link Detox Smart and Genesis semi-automate the review; the judgment call stays yours.

Link Detox Boost is the part with no real equivalent elsewhere. It is meant to make Google process your disavow file faster, and LRT's marketing says "our clients recovered from a Google penalty in as little as three days" - a vendor claim, not something an outside test has confirmed. The credit maths is what you should look at. The Boost FAQ says you currently need "one credit per 300 disavowed links/domains", with a cap of 150,000 links per run. Small's three monthly credits therefore cover about 900 disavowed links or domains. A site that needs to disavow 5,000 domains needs 17 credits, which is more than Standard's 10 in a month and puts you on Plus at $2,499, or several months of waiting, since credits do not carry over.

The rest of the bundle

Every plan also includes "LRT Classic (25 Tools)" plus Competitive Landscape Analyzer, Link Juice Thief, Link Alerts, Link Simulator and Link Recover Tool. The quotas are tight: 20 Backlink Profiler reports and 100 Quick Backlink Checker runs a month on Small, 50 and 200 on Standard. Useful around an audit, rationed for daily research.

The contract terms to read before paying

LRT's terms (version dated September 29, 2020, still the current one in October 2026) are stricter than any SEO tool contract you are likely to sign. Clause 10.5 reads: "All subscriptions will automatically renew at the end of the subscription period until canceled by the Client. The Client will not receive any notice of auto-renewal at any time." Clause 10.9 is headed No Refunds: if you cancel mid-period, you "will not be refunded in whole or in part."

Clause 10.4 says you must write to the helpdesk "via the form available under the account settings", that "a phone call to the Provider is not sufficient to cancel", and that the notice period is 30 days before the next service period with automatic charges, or 90 days if you pay by invoice. On a monthly plan, that means cancelling almost as soon as a period starts. Miss the window by a day and you have bought another $599 month, or another $9,499 year on annual Standard.

The card is reserved seven days before each charge (10.2), unused credits are neither carried over nor refunded (11), and a chargeback means "all data of the Client will be deleted immediately".

What users report, and a changelog frozen in 2022

Public reviews are few, and that is part of the picture. Trustpilot showed 2.8 out of 5 from just seven reviews when we checked on October 10, 2026, none from the last 12 months and 86% of them one-star. The complaints line up with the contract: "THEY WILL NOT REFUND YOU ANYTHING!!!" (February 2022), "Problem with refund. Be careful" (December 2024), and "Terrible UX and Zero Customer Support" (April 2023). One August 2024 reviewer said it "does not support larger websites with extensive backlink profiles" - sharp, for a product pitched at exactly those.

Capterra shows 3.2 from six reviews - Features 3.8, Ease of Use 2.8 - with the praise "more link data than any other SEO tool". People respect the data and resent the rest.

The public changelog is the other thing to check before committing a year. Current prices took effect on June 1, 2022, and the newest entry, December 15, 2022, moved phone support to Enterprise only. Nothing since. That does not prove the product stood still, but you would pay $599 a month with no visible record of change.

Who should skip it, and what to use instead

Skip LRT if what you need is general backlink research: finding who links to competitors, tracking new links, spotting link-building targets. That is a bigger-index job. Ahrefs is the stronger all-round choice, and Majestic covers backlinks alone if that is all you want.

Skip it if you want a link audit but cannot justify $599 a month. cognitiveSEO is the closest alternative on unnatural-link detection and costs less, though its backlink data comes from Majestic rather than from a blend of sources. One small site with no manual action likely needs no paid tool: Search Console's links report and Google's disavow tool are free.

Skip it, finally, if your finance team needs refunds, renewal reminders or a cancel button. LRT offers none of the three.

Verdict

LinkResearchTools is still the deepest link-risk audit you can buy, and Link Detox Boost is a feature nobody else sells. For an agency doing penalty recovery or link audits on large sites, one recovered client pays for a month of Superhero Small. Go monthly first, diary the 30-day cancellation window on day one, and go annual only after a real audit has paid off.

For everyone else it is the most expensive way to look at backlinks, on terms with no way back. Choose Ahrefs or Majestic for research, cognitiveSEO for a cheaper audit.

Check LinkResearchTools pricing