Does Ahrefs Get Its Backlink Data from Majestic? Here’s the Truth

Many SEOs assume the major backlink tools are pulling from the same data pool. That assumption leads to confusion when Ahrefs shows 4,200 backlinks to a page and Majestic shows 3,600. The instinct is to wonder which one is wrong — or if one is copying the other. Neither is true.

Ahrefs does not get its backlink data from Majestic. The two tools run completely separate crawlers, maintain independent indexes, and calculate link metrics using different methodologies. Understanding how each tool actually works will change how you use both.

How Ahrefs Collects Backlink Data

Ahrefs builds its backlink index using its own proprietary web crawler called AhrefsBot. A second crawler, AhrefsSiteAudit, handles on-site crawling for technical audits. Both run continuously — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

According to Ahrefs’ own documentation, the company has been collecting independent website and backlink data since 2013. They state explicitly that they are not affiliated with third-party search engines or similar services, and do not use data from Alexa, Altavista, Google, Webalta, or comparable sources. Majestic falls into that same category of sources Ahrefs does not rely on.

Here is what AhrefsBot actually does:

• Crawls pages across the web similarly to how Googlebot operates
• Discovers links between pages and records them in the Ahrefs index
• Updates the index continuously, meaning new backlinks can appear within days
• Powers the Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) metrics shown in Ahrefs tools

The result is one of the largest independent backlink indexes available to SEOs. Ahrefs even operates its own search engine, Yep.com, which uses a separate crawler called YepBot — another signal that their data infrastructure is entirely self-contained.

How Majestic Collects Backlink Data

Majestic runs the same basic model: an independent crawler that continuously scans the web and records link relationships. The data Majestic collects powers its two primary metrics, Trust Flow (TF) and Citation Flow (CF).

• Trust Flow measures the quality of links pointing to a URL based on the trustworthiness of the linking pages
• Citation Flow measures raw link volume regardless of quality

Majestic also maintains two distinct indexes:

1. Fresh Index: Updated regularly, covering recent crawl activity
2. Historic Index: A longer-term archive that captures link data going back years

Both tools crawl the web independently, which is exactly why their numbers differ. Each crawler prioritizes different pages, crawls at different frequencies, and applies different filters when building its index.

Why the Two Datasets Produce Different Numbers

This is the practical part. Two tools, two crawlers, two indexes — the gap between their backlink counts is not a sign that one is broken. It is expected behavior.

A few reasons the numbers diverge:

• Crawl frequency: Ahrefs tends to recrawl pages more frequently, which means it often catches new or removed links faster
• Index size: Each tool’s crawler has reached different pages at different times, so coverage overlaps but never matches exactly
• Link filtering: Majestic and Ahrefs apply different rules for which links count, how they classify nofollow attributes, and how they handle redirects
• Spam detection: Majestic’s TF/CF ratio is well-regarded for flagging spammy link patterns — a site with a suspicious 1:6 TF/CF ratio can look quite different in Ahrefs, which does not use that same scoring approach

The bottom line: discrepancies between Ahrefs and Majestic backlink counts are a feature of their independence, not a flaw.

How to Use Both Tools Together Without Getting Confused

Comparing link counts between tools is rarely useful on its own. The more productive approach is to use each tool where it performs best.

Use Ahrefs when you need:

• Comprehensive backlink profiles with advanced filtering
• Keyword research alongside link analysis
• Competitive content gap analysis
• Organic traffic estimates for competitor pages
• Link Intersect reports that show sites linking to competitors but not you

Use Majestic when you need:

• Deep link quality analysis using Trust Flow and Citation Flow
• Topical Trust Flow to evaluate the relevance of linking domains to your niche
• Spam detection using TF/CF ratio as a red flag signal
• Neighborhood Checker to review what other sites share your server’s IP address (no other major tool offers this)
• Budget-conscious backlink audits where keyword research is not a priority

A practical workflow for link prospecting:

1. Run a link intersect report in Ahrefs to identify domains linking to multiple competitors
2. Pull those domains into Majestic to check their Trust Flow and Topical Trust Flow scores
3. Filter out any domains with a TF/CF ratio worse than 1:2 or 2:1
4. Prioritize the remaining domains by Trust Flow and topical relevance before reaching out

This approach gets you Ahrefs’ breadth combined with Majestic’s depth on link quality. Neither tool alone gives you both.

The Metrics Are Not Interchangeable

One mistake that causes real problems in reporting: treating DR (Ahrefs) and TF (Majestic) as equivalent measurements of the same thing.

They are not. DR calculates a site’s authority based on the quantity and quality of unique referring domains. TF focuses specifically on the trustworthiness of the pages linking to a site. A page with a high DR and a low TF is often a sign of link manipulation — lots of links, but low-quality sources. A high TF with a moderate DR usually means a leaner but genuinely credible backlink profile.

Using both metrics together gives you a more accurate read on a site’s link health than either number can provide alone.

What This Means for Your SEO Work

Backlink tools work independently. Ahrefs built its own infrastructure and has maintained its own data since 2013. Majestic did the same. Neither tool is a reseller of the other’s data, and neither is a more “official” source than the other.

If you have been making decisions based on only one tool’s backlink count, you have probably been working with an incomplete picture. Run both before drawing conclusions about a site’s authority or a competitor’s link profile. The gaps between the two indexes are often where the most interesting information lives.

Start with a free Ahrefs trial to benchmark your current backlink profile, then layer in Majestic’s Trust Flow data to assess what those links are actually worth.