Free DR Checker: Check Any Website's Domain Rating
Check the Ahrefs Domain Rating of any website for free, or paste up to 25 domains at once. Plus how to read the score and use it to vet link sites.
Domain Rating by Ahrefs
How to use the DR checker
- Type a website into the box. Any format works:
example.com,www.example.comor a full URL. - Press Check DR to see its Domain Rating out of 100.
- To vet a list, switch to Bulk and paste up to 25 domains, one per line. Results come back sorted from highest to lowest, and you can copy them as CSV.
It's free, with no sign-up. Scores come straight from Ahrefs and are cached for 24 hours.
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' score for the strength of a website's backlink profile, on a scale from 0 to 100. It's based on how many unique websites link to a site with followed links, and how strong those linking sites are themselves. The full breakdown, including how it's calculated, is in our guide to Domain Rating vs Domain Authority.
The scale is logarithmic, so the gaps get bigger as you go up. Moving from DR 20 to 30 is far easier than moving from DR 70 to 80.
DR checker vs DA checker
People often search for a "DA checker" when they want this kind of score. Domain Authority (DA) is a different metric, made by Moz. DR is made by Ahrefs. Both try to measure the same thing, how strong a site's backlinks are, but they use different link data and different formulas, so the numbers won't match.
| Domain Rating (DR) | Domain Authority (DA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Scale | 0 to 100, logarithmic | 1 to 100, logarithmic |
| Based on | Followed links from unique domains | Linking domains and other signals, via a machine learning model |
| Used by Google? | No | No |
This tool shows DR. Neither score is used by Google, so pick one, use it consistently and compare like with like.
What's a good DR?
There's no official "good" score, and anyone who gives you one number is guessing. A DR is only meaningful next to the sites you're competing with. As a rough guide for reading results:
| DR range | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 0 to 20 | A new or small site with few links |
| 20 to 40 | An established small business or niche blog |
| 40 to 60 | A strong niche site or a well-known brand in its space |
| 60 to 80 | A major publisher or market leader |
| 80 to 100 | Household names and the biggest sites on the web |
These bands are a rule of thumb, not an Ahrefs scale. The better test is to check the sites ranking on page one for your keyword and see where you sit. Our guide on how many backlinks you need walks through that comparison.
Using DR to vet a site before you get a link
DR is the quickest first filter when you're judging a guest post or niche edit opportunity, but it shouldn't be the only one. Plenty of sites have inflated DR from spammy links and no real audience.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| DR | A quick read on link strength, and the easiest number to fake |
| Organic traffic | If Google sends the site real visitors, Google trusts it |
| Relevance | A link from a site about your topic is worth more |
| Outbound links | A site selling links to everyone dilutes every link |
| Editorial standard | Does it turn down weak content, or publish anything? |
Run your shortlist through the bulk checker first, then look at traffic and relevance on the sites that pass. The buying backlinks guide has the full vetting checklist.
Where DR falls short
- It isn't a Google metric. Google doesn't use DR, so a higher DR doesn't guarantee better rankings.
- It measures the whole domain, not one page. A strong site can still have weak, unlinked pages.
- It can be gamed. Sites can push DR up with low-quality links, which is why traffic is the better second check.
- It ignores nofollow links. DR only counts followed links, so a site with lots of nofollow mentions may score lower than its real reputation. More in dofollow vs nofollow.
The short version
- Domain Rating is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site's backlinks
- This checker is free, works for one site or up to 25 at once, and needs no sign-up
- DR and Moz's DA are different metrics, so don't compare one with the other
- There's no universal good score, so compare against the sites you compete with
- Use DR as a first filter, then check traffic and relevance before trusting a site