Outreach Desk vs LinkBuilder.io: What a Link Actually Costs
LinkBuilder.io charges about $2,999 for 8 links per month on its startup plan. Outreach Desk charges $300 per link with no stated minimum term for the foundation plan. Both build editorial placements. The difference is the unit and the commitment.
Check current pricing from leading link building agencies
Compare sixteen critical selection criteria
Apply a $3,000 monthly budget to each approach
| Head to head | LINKBUILDER.IO | Outreach Desk |
|---|---|---|
| Price per link | About $375(starter plan) | $300(foundation plan) |
| Entry package | $2,999 for 8 links | $3,000 for 10 links |
| Authority range | DR 50 to 90 | DR 40 to 95 |
| Contract | six months | None stated |
| Years operating | seven plus years | three plus years |
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Direct Answer
Difference Between Outreach Desk and LinkBuilder.io
LinkBuilder.io sells monthly packages on a contract, while with Outreach Desk you can buy individual links without worrying about a fixed monthly purchase. Their pricing ranges from $2,999 for 8 links to $19,999 for 53 or more, on a six-month contract with a 90-day opt-out. Ours run at $300, $250, and $200 per link, depending on monthly volume, with no minimum term.
Work the arithmetic, and their pricing is unusually consistent. Every tier lands within a few dollars of the same number.
$2,999 for 8 links, $5,999 for 16 links. $9,999 for 26 links, and $19,999 for 53 links.
That’s a deliberate, defensible way to price a managed service, and it makes their offer easy to compare. It also means volume never earns you a discount. Ours moves the other way. The rate drops as monthly volume rises, from $300 per link at 10 a month to $200 on custom volume. This can be the appropriate deal if you want links on volume every month.
The second difference is commitment. You’ll find on LinkBuilder.io’s site a six-month contract requirement with a 90-day opt-out window and a money-back guarantee minus cost already incurred. Our pricing page states that there is no minimum term.
Neither approach is wrong. A contract buys planning certainty for both sides, and no contract buys you the option to stop. The rest of this page explains that trade-off, including the six situations where LinkBuilder.io is the better purchase.
Side by Side Comparison
Outreach Desk vs LinkBuilder.io: Full Comparison
Sixteen decision points, taken from both companies’ published service and pricing pages.
| Factor | LINKBUILDER.IO |
|
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A monthly package with a guaranteed minimum link volume. |
Individual links, priced per placement at your monthly volume. |
| Beginner’s price | About $375 for the starter plan, $2,999 for 8 links a month. |
$300 for 10 links a month. |
| Entry Package | Startup at $2,999 a month for 8 links. | Foundation at $3,000 a month for 10 links. |
| Published tiers | $2,999 for 8, $5,999 for 16+, $9,999 for 26+, $19,999 for 53+. |
Foundation, Growth, and Custom, priced per link rather than per package. |
| Contract | A six-month contract with a 90-day opt-out window. |
The pricing page states no minimum term. |
| Money-back terms | A money-back guarantee, minus costs incurred, inside the opt-out window. |
No money-back guarantee. Placements carry a 6-month replacement instead. |
| Authority range | Average DR 50 to 90, so nothing below 50. | DR 40 to 95, reaching relevant smaller sites and offering a higher ceiling. |
| Traffic floor | Not published. | 1,000 monthly organic visits and above. |
| Ceiling on volume | Enterprise at 53 or more links a month, published openly. |
Custom volume agreed with your strategist rather than a published tier. |
| Toxic backlink audit | Included from the $9,999 Growth tier upward. |
Included on every plan, including the entry tier. |
| AI and language model visibility | Sold as separate managed packages at $3,000 and $5,000 a month. |
Listicle placements for AI visibility included on every plan. |
| Content and internal links | Content billed per article; internal linking included only from $9,999 Growth tier up. |
Content and internal link consulting is included in every plan. |
| Wider service menu | Technical SEO, review management, and earned media are all available. |
Link building and the work that makes links land. Nothing further. |
| Time to results | Their site advises expecting at least 6 months for significant results. |
First placements go live 2 to 4 weeks after kickoff, then on a monthly cadence. |
| Track record | Over seven years, with offices in Edinburgh and St. Petersburg. |
Founded in 2023, with teams in Brooklyn and Sydney. |
LinkBuilder.io figures come from their own public homepage and pricing page. Per-link figures are our calculation based on their published package prices, not a rate they quote. Outreach Desk figures come from our own prices, so confirm current rates before committing budget.
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Pricing Reality
How Much Does Each One Actually Cost?
They price by package and hold the per-link rate flat. We price per link and drop the rate as volume rises.
LinkBuilder.io
Priced per monthly package
Startup, 8 links a month
$2,999
Pro, 16+ links a month
$5,999
Growth, 26+ links a month
$9,999
Enterprise, 53+ links a month
$19,999
Every tier targets an average DR of 50 to 90. A six-month contract applies, with a 90-day opt-out window and a money-back guarantee, minus any costs already incurred during that period.
Managed AI packages are priced separately at $3,000 and $5,000 a month. Content, technical work, and review management are add-ons.
Outreach Desk
Priced per link, by monthly volume
Foundation, 10 dofollow links a month
$300
Growth, 20 dofollow links a month
$250
Custom, volume set with your strategist
$200
Every tier includes DR 40 to 95 placements, sites with 1,000+ organic traffic, a dedicated account manager, a toxic backlink audit, listicle placements for AI visibility, and content plus internal link consulting.
We don’t state a minimum term. The rate falls as monthly volume rises rather than staying flat.
Worked Example
What $3,000 a Month Buys You
AT LINKBUILDER.IO
Each one sits in the DR 50 to 90 band, so nothing lands below 50.
The six-month contract starts here, with a 90-day window to opt out.
A toxic backlink audit isn’t included until the $9,999 tier.
AT OUTREACH DESK
Two more placements for a dollar more, across DR 40 to 95.
That price includes the audit, the AI visibility placements, and the internal link consulting.
No minimum term, so month two is a decision rather than an obligation.
At the entry tier, you get two more links for the same money and no contract. If you need a guaranteed floor of DR 50 and a money-back clause, that’s theirs, and it’s worth paying for.
Fair Assessment
When LinkBuilder.io Is the Better Buy
LinkBuilder.io has operated for seven plus years and publishes its full pricing and terms. Here are six situations where that setup fits your needs.
You Need a DR 50 Floor
Their published band is DR 50 to 90, so nothing arrives below 50. Our range starts at 40. If a stakeholder has ruled out anything under 50, that’s a contractual answer we don’t offer.
You Want Money-Back Terms
Their contract carries a money-back guarantee, less accrued costs, within a 90-day opt-out window. We replace links for months, which is a different promise and covers a different risk.
Length of Track Record Matters
They state more than seven plus years in business, with offices in Edinburgh and St. Petersburg. We started in 2023. If years trading is a filter you apply, that’s a fair point against us.
You Need 50+ Links a Month, Published
Their Enterprise tier lists 53+ links monthly at a price you can read before you call. Ours is a custom conversation at that volume, which is slower if you already know the number.
You Want One Supplier for Everything
They sell technical work, review management, copywriting, and earned media along with links. We only do link building and the work that makes links land. For a team consolidating vendors, that’s a real edge.
A Contract That Suits Your Planning
A six-month commitment locks scope for both sides and simplifies budgeting. Plenty of teams prefer that to an open arrangement, and it’s why they choose it.
Our case
When Outreach Desk Is the Better Buy
Six things a per-link model gives you that a fixed package structurally can’t.
Volume Actually Lowers the Rate
Our per-link price falls from $300 to $200 as monthly volume rises. Their price holds near $375 whether you buy 8 links or 53, so scale never earns you anything.
No Minimum Term
Our pricing page states no contract length. You can stop after a month if your priorities change, without waiting out an opt-out window.
The Audit Comes First
A toxic backlink audit sits in every plan, including the entry tier. On their side, it arrives with the Growth package. Buying new links on a damaged profile wastes both budgets.
AI Visibility Isn’t a Separate Invoice
Listicle placements built for language model citation come with all three of our tiers. They sell theirs as managed AI packages starting at $3,000 a month.
Content and Internal Links Included
Every plan includes content and internal link consulting. On their menu, they bill content per article and per page at every tier, and bundle in internal linking optimization only from their $9,999 Growth tier up. External links pointing to an unsupported page waste most of what you paid.
A Wider Band, Deliberately
DR 40 to 95 reaches the niche publication sitting at 46 that your buyers actually read, and a higher ceiling than their 90. A floor of 50 rules the first one before anyone looks.
The Real Decision
A Package on Contract vs Links You Buy
Price isn’t the real fork here. What you’re committing to is.
PACKAGE ON CONTRACT
Optimized for Certainty
A guaranteed monthly minimum, a fixed band of DR 50 to 90, and a six-month term. Everyone knows what arrives and when.
The cost shows up in flexibility. The per-link rate doesn’t move with volume, the audit waits for a higher tier, and you’ve already committed to month two.
For a team with budget approved and a plan in place, that’s exactly right. Certainty is a real product.
LINKS YOU BUY
Optimized for Control
You pay for placements at a rate that improves as you scale, and you decide each month whether to carry on.
The strategy work that makes links land, the audit, the internal linking, the AI visibility placements, sits inside the price rather than beside it.
The cost of that control is that nobody has locked in your capacity. If you want a guaranteed floor written into a contract, buy the contract.
Do the Per-Link Arithmetic on Any Package You’re Quoted
A package price tells you very little on its own. Divide it by the guaranteed link count to get the number that lets you compare two agencies honestly.
Run it on ours too. That’s the point of publishing both figures.
Pick one
Which One Should You Choose?
Match your situation to the row below and see which model fits.
Choose LinkBuilder.io If
A stakeholder has rules that rule out anything below DR 50
You want money-back terms written into the agreement
You need 50+ links a month at a published price
You’re consolidating link building, content, and technical work with one vendor
Years in business is a filter you apply to suppliers
You want a guaranteed floor on money pages and wider reach elsewhere
Choose Outreach Desk If
You want the lowest cost per placement at volume
You aren’t ready to sign a six-month commitment
Your backlink profile has never been audited
You want AI and language model visibility without a second invoice
The best publications in your niche sit below DR 50
You want a guaranteed floor on money pages and wider reach elsewhere
Using both is a real strategy, not a diplomatic answer. Buying a contracted floor for commercial pages and a flexible per-link arrangement for everything else is a sensible split.
Switching Over
Moving Across Without Losing What You Built
Four steps guide the switch. Steps one and two analyze your profile and competitors. Your existing links remain active when switching providers.
Check your contract dates first. Their agreement runs for six months with a 90-day opt-out, so plan the timing of a move rather than improvising.
If you resell, our white label link building services keep unbranded reporting under your logo, so your client sees no change in supplier.
An audit runs across everything you’ve built so far. It surfaces duplicate domains, unindexed pages, wrong anchors, and any placement already carrying too much weight.
A gap analysis against your three closest competitors shows which publishers link to them and not to you. We prioritize your revenue pages over keyword volume.
You get the vetted publisher list with authority, organic traffic, niche category, and a content sample on every entry. This is where the wider band shows up, because relevant sites below DR 50 can appear.
Links start landing two to four weeks from kickoff, then settle into a monthly cadence at whatever volume you’ve set.
Common questions
Outreach Desk vs LinkBuilder.io FAQs
Straight answers on pricing, contracts, authority bands, and running both providers side by side.
Yes. They say they’ve been in business for more than seven years, publish their full pricing ladder, name a DR band, and back the arrangement with money-back terms within a 90-day window. That’s more transparency than most agencies in this category offer.
The limitation lies in its structure rather than in its quality. The per-link cost stays near $375 whether you buy 8 links or 53, and the audit that tells you whether new links will even help sits behind the $9,999 tier.
LinkBuilder.io’s published packages run $2,999 a month for 8 links, $5,999 for 16 or more, $9,999 for 26 or more, and $19,999 for 53 or more. They price managed AI packages separately, at $3,000 and $5,000 a month.
Divide each package by its guaranteed link count, and the rate lands between $375 and $385 across every tier. That figure is our arithmetic based on their published numbers.
Yes. Their pricing page states a six month contract with a 90-day opt-out window, and a money-back guarantee less accrued costs.
Outreach Desk’s pricing page states no minimum term. That’s the clearest structural difference between the two offers, and which one suits you depends on whether you’d rather have certainty or an exit.
We sell links; they sell packages. Our link-building pricing is $300 per link at 10 a month, $250 at 20, and $200 at custom volume, with no stated minimum term.
This means the rate improves as you scale rather than staying flat, and the toxic backlink audit, AI visibility placements, and internal link consulting are included in every tier rather than gated behind a higher one.
Per link, yes, at every volume both companies publish. Our $300 entry rate compares with about $375 at their Startup tier, and our $200 custom rate compares with about $377 at their largest.
At the entry point, the totals are almost identical, and the link counts aren’t. $3,000 buys 10 placements here. $2,999 buys 8 there. Their higher rate does buy a guaranteed DR 50 floor and money-back terms, neither of which we offer.
Both sell white label, so it comes down to margin and commitment. A flat per-link cost makes their markup arithmetic simple and predictable across clients.
If your margin depends on unit cost or you don’t want a six-month commitment tied to shifting client work, choose our white label link building service. We charge $200 to $300 per link and provide unbranded reporting for campaigns ranging from 10 to 100+ placements a month.
They publish an average DR of 50 to 90 across all tiers. We publish DR 40 to 95, with a 1,000 monthly organic traffic floor.
Read those honestly, and the difference is the bottom of the range instead of the top. A hard floor removes a judgment call. A wider band reaches the smaller niche publications that often carry the most relevant readers.
Yes, and it’s a sensible approach. Run a contracted floor against the pages that earn revenue, and flexible per-link management across supporting content where the relevant sites are smaller.
Tell your account manager what you’re buying elsewhere. We’ll fold it into the anchor plan so the two sources don’t duplicate domains or stack the same anchor text.
Our team of experts replaces removed links for free for six months after placement. If a publisher removes, changes, or deletes your link during that period, we provide a new placement of equal quality.
LinkBuilder.io publishes money-back terms in the contract rather than a stated replacement window, which covers a different risk. Theirs protects the engagement, ours protects the individual placement, and it’s worth deciding which one you actually want covered.