Costs and pricing
Backlink marketplaces vs managed link building: 7 services compared
Seven link services in three groups: per-link menus, marketplaces where each site sets its own price, and managed retainers. Prices are listed where the provider publishes them.
A backlink marketplace sells you a placement and leaves the choices to you. A managed service sells you time: someone else picks the sites, writes the content and chases the publisher. The price gap between the two is real, and it widens as the authority of the target site rises.
The short version
- Entry tiers on the UK per-link menus below start at £100 a link (Click Intelligence), $72 (FATJOE) and $60 (Rhino Rank). You choose the tier; the provider does the outreach.
- Self-serve marketplaces let you pick individual sites and pay per order, with no retainer.
- Managed retainers start at £528 a month at one London agency and run into five figures at the top end.
- All prices below were taken from each provider's own site in October 2026. Prices shown in dollars are published in dollars.
What does a backlink actually cost in 2026?
BuzzStream's 2026 link building pricing study gives a useful baseline. A guest post on a site with a Domain Rating of 30 to 39 averaged $290 bought direct and $458 through a vendor. At DR 60 to 69 the figures were $832 and $1,289. Our Ahrefs vs Semrush comparison explains where DR comes from.
Labelling matters as much as price. Google's guidance on qualifying outbound links asks publishers to mark advertisements and paid placements with the sponsored value. A paid link that is not marked that way risks breaching Google's spam policies, whichever route you buy it through.
The wider budget pressure is plain. IAB UK put total UK digital ad spend at £40.5bn in 2025, so link budgets compete with paid channels for the same money. Build them into a sourced SEO budget template rather than treating them as a one-off spend.
How were the seven services grouped?
We sorted each service by the lowest price it publishes and by who does the work. Band one sells fixed per-link menus. Band two is self-serve marketplaces where you choose the sites. Band three is managed monthly retainers. We used only what each provider says on its own website, and we did not test or rate any of them.
Entry prices under £150 a link: which menus fit a small budget?
1. Click Intelligence
Click Intelligence has offices in Cheltenham and London and says it has run since 2013. Its blogger outreach menu starts at £100 a link for DR 30+ sites with 14-day delivery, or £120 if you want to approve sites first. DR 70+ costs £460. Each order includes a 500-word blog and a lifetime link guarantee.
2. FATJOE
FATJOE is based in Staffordshire and publishes its blogger outreach prices in dollars, from $72 for DR 10+ to $456 for DR 60+. Writing is included, delivery runs from 14 days, and a dashboard lists every live link with a white-label CSV export. It is a managed menu: you pick the tier and anchor, and its team does the outreach.
3. Rhino Rank
Rhino Rank is based in Shrewsbury and sells curated links in existing articles from $60 a link and new guest posts of 750+ words from $75. Listicle placements start at $135. You can open a free account with no contract. A managed option adds a strategist and 12-month replacement cover, but its price is not published.
Pay as you go: which marketplaces let you choose the sites?
4. WhitePress
WhitePress lists publications on more than 148,000 websites across 36 languages, sold on a pay-as-you-go basis. It names a London company in its footer and a registered office in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. Links carry a 36-month guarantee with daily monitoring, and a dedicated outreach team can shortlist sites if you would rather not browse.
5. Link Publishers
Link Publishers says it has more than 114,000 vetted websites and was founded in 2020. Its do-it-yourself route starts from $20 a link with no subscription. A done-for-you plan adds an account manager, outreach, content and monthly reporting at custom prices. The site does not state where the company is based.
From £500 a month: when does a managed retainer make sense?
6. Whitehat SEO
Whitehat SEO is based on Uxbridge Road in London. Its Backlink Building service starts from £528 a month excluding VAT and covers manual outreach, digital PR and niche edits. Links are checked for domain rating, relevance and editorial quality. Its SEO and content package, from £2,967 a month, includes link building alongside blog production.
7. SEO Sherpa
SEO Sherpa lists offices in Dubai, London, Miami, Riyadh and Singapore and describes its link building team as UK-based. It does not publish packages, but says a typical campaign runs £2,500 to £15,000 a month and single links from £75 to over £750. Clients follow every link won through an open project dashboard.
Which route gives better value for your budget?
Start with what you can check. A per-link menu shows the price before you commit, but you rarely choose the exact site. A marketplace shows the site, but you carry the vetting work. A retainer moves both jobs to the provider, which is why it costs more. Our vendor due diligence checks apply to link sellers too.
Watch the extras. VAT treatment, currency conversion on dollar prices and replacement terms all change the real cost. Our notes on hidden SEO costs and VAT on SEO subscriptions cover the same traps that appear on link invoices, especially from providers billing outside the UK.
Then measure. Track each link's referring traffic and the rankings of the target page, not just the DR of the linking site. A simple return on investment check after three and six months will tell you whether the cheaper band was enough or whether a managed service would earn its fee.
