Domain Rating (DR) Checker

Check the Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating of any domain in seconds, one at a time or up to ten at once. Perfect for vetting link prospects, benchmarking against competitors or tracking your own site’s authority over time.

What is Domain Rating (DR).

Domain Rating (DR) is a metric created by Ahrefs. It scores a website’s backlink profile strength on a scale from 0 to 100, based on how many unique domains link to the site and how strong those linking domains are themselves. The scale is logarithmic: climbing from DR 10 to DR 20 is relatively quick, while climbing from DR 70 to DR 80 takes an enormous amount of quality link acquisition. That is why comparing DR between sites in the same niche is meaningful, while chasing an absolute number is not.

DR is often confused with Domain Authority (DA), which is a different metric from a different company. DA belongs to Moz, runs on Moz’s own link index, and uses a machine-learning formula designed to predict how likely a site is to rank. DR is a purer measure of link profile strength: it does not try to predict rankings, it just quantifies the weight of the links pointing at a domain. The two usually move together, but a site can comfortably have DR 55 and DA 40, or the reverse, because the indexes and the maths differ.

One thing DR and DA have in common: neither is used by Google. They are third-party estimates, useful for comparing sites, vetting link prospects and tracking progress. In link building specifically, DR has become the default shorthand for prospect strength, which is exactly why a fast, free way to check it, singly or in bulk, saves so much time.

Here’s how the tool looks:

How to use the DR checker.

Enter one domain or up to ten

Type a single domain for the full rich view, or paste up to ten domains, one per line, for a bulk comparison. A live counter shows how many valid domains you have entered, and duplicates are flagged before you submit.

Run the check

Results arrive in seconds. Recently checked domains return instantly from cache; fresh domains are fetched in parallel so even a full batch of ten stays quick.

Read the results

A single domain gets a colour-banded DR gauge with stat cards for Ahrefs Rank, live backlinks and referring domains, plus a one-line interpretation. Multiple domains get a sortable table with a DR pill per domain and a summary strip showing average, highest and lowest.

Export

In bulk mode, download the whole table as a CSV for your prospect sheet. Any domain that could not be fetched shows a retry option, so one failure never spoils the batch.

Who this checker is for.

Check the DR and URL rating of your website or your competitors’ websites.

Link building

Vet outreach lists ten domains at a time instead of one by one

SEO managers

Track your DR against competitors as campaigns progress

Agencies

Run quick authority checks during audits, pitches and reporting

Publishers

Check the DR of a website before you link to them or quote them

Domain investors

Screen aftermarket and expired domains by link profile strength

Content marketers

Prioritise guest post targets by the authority they can pass

Founders

Get a fast read on where your site stands in your market

PR specialists

Rank publication targets by DR when planning campaigns

Why we built this DR tool.

DR checks are probably the single most repeated action inside Solvid. Over 11+ years and 30,000+ backlinks built, our link building team has checked the Domain Rating of hundreds of thousands of prospects. DR is the first gate in our 10-point quality control process: it never makes the final decision alone, but it decides which sites are worth assessing further.

The problem with most free DR checkers is friction. One domain at a time, a captcha per lookup, results behind an email wall. When you are vetting a fifty-domain outreach list, that workflow is unusable. We built ours the way our own team wants it: paste up to ten domains, get a sortable table, export the CSV and move on.

And if the checks reveal the real problem, that your DR is well below the sites outranking you, closing that gap with quality links is precisely what our link building service does. Every campaign we run is built to move exactly the numbers this tool measures.

A note on DR obsession: DR is a means, not an end. We have watched sites with modest DR outrank DR 80 competitors on relevance and content quality. Use DR to compare and prioritise, then let rankings and traffic be the metrics you actually chase.

How the DR Checker works.

Domain Rating is owned and calculated by Ahrefs, and this tool reads it directly from the Ahrefs API. Ahrefs runs one of the largest commercial web crawlers in the world, and DR is computed from its live link index: the number of unique referring domains pointing at a site, weighted by each linking domain’s own DR and diluted by how many other sites those domains link out to.

For a single domain, the tool fetches DR and Ahrefs Rank plus live backlink and referring domain totals, so you see the profile behind the score. In bulk mode we fetch DR and Ahrefs Rank for each domain, deduplicate your list server-side, serve cached domains instantly and fetch the rest in parallel. Results are cached for 24 hours per domain, which keeps the tool fast and sustainable.

Worth repeating plainly: DR is an Ahrefs metric, DA is a Moz metric, and neither is a Google ranking factor. Google has its own systems for evaluating links and does not publish an authority score. Third-party metrics like DR are best used the way we use them ourselves: as a fast, consistent way to compare domains, never as a promise of rankings.

Please Note:

1. This tool is provided free of charge and as-is. We do not guarantee the accuracy or availability of the data, and we do not guarantee any SEO outcomes from acting on it.

2. Domain Rating is a proprietary Ahrefs metric and Domain Authority is a proprietary Moz metric. Neither is published or used by Google as a ranking factor.

3. Scores can change as the underlying link index updates. Results are cached for up to 24 hours, so very recent changes may not appear immediately.

4. Fair-use rate limits apply to bulk checks. If a domain is not yet in the index, the tool will show a no-data state rather than a score of zero.

FAQ.

Common questions about Domain Rating, how it compares to DA and how to use the checker.

What is Domain Rating (DR)?

Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ 0 to 100 measure of a website’s backlink profile strength. It looks at how many unique domains link to a site and how strong those linking domains are themselves. Higher DR means a stronger link profile.

What's the difference between DR and DA?

DR is calculated by Ahrefs purely from backlink data, while Domain Authority is Moz’s metric built from a different index and formula that also tries to predict ranking likelihood. The two usually correlate but are not interchangeable.

How do I increase my Domain Rating?

Earn dofollow links from unique, reputable domains that do not link out excessively. Quality beats volume: a handful of strong referring domains moves DR more than hundreds of weak ones. Consistent link building over months is what shifts it.

Why did my DR suddenly drop?

Common causes include lost links, a recalibration of the Ahrefs index, or other sites gaining links faster than you (DR is relative to the whole web). A small drift is normal; investigate only if the fall is sharp and sustained.

Is DR more reliable than DA?

Not necessarily. Both metrics, although introduced by different companies, essentially measure the same thing – the authority of a given website. Algorithms are different, but both metrics can be used reliably.

What is URL Rating?

Similarly to Domain Rating (DR), URL Rating is Ahrefs’ metric to measure the authority of an individual URL based on 0 to 100 scale (100 being the highest authority).

What counts as a good DR?

It depends entirely on your market. DR is logarithmic, so moving from 60 to 70 is far harder than 10 to 20. The useful benchmark is the DR range of the sites ranking for your target keywords, not an absolute number.

How many domains can I check at once?

Up to ten per check, one per line. A single domain returns the rich view with backlink and referring domain counts; multiple domains return a sortable comparison table with a CSV export.

Is DR a Google ranking factor?

No. Neither DR nor DA is used by Google. They are third-party estimates of link profile strength. They are useful for comparing sites and vetting link prospects, but Google evaluates links in its own way.

Is this DR checker really free?

Yes. Single and bulk checks are free with no account or email required. We apply fair-use rate limits on bulk submissions because each one queries up to ten domains of paid data.

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