Tom's Link Authority
See who links to any domain, and who links to your competitors but not to you. Offline, on your own Windows PC, from Common Crawl's web graph.
Free app and data file · 30-day trial of everything · $30 a year for Backlinks & Link Gap
What it does
Lookup
Check any domain's authority in a second: Connectivity and Authority ranks, tier, percentile and an AI Visibility Score.
Compare
Put up to 10 domains side by side and see how your site stacks up against competitors.
Batch
Look up 1,000 domains at once. Paste a list, export CSV or a client-ready HTML report.
Backlinks licence
Every domain that links to a target, strongest first. Filter by tier, search, tick rows, export.
Link Gap licence
Domains linking to a competitor but not to you — the best outreach targets, ranked by authority.
Link history
See when each link was first and last seen, colour-coded: new, missing from the latest crawl, or lost.
Big exports
CSV with every row — millions if needed — plus HTML reports and one-click copy of domain lists.
Optional Ahrefs DR
Add your own free Ahrefs API key to show Domain Rating by Ahrefs beside the app's ranks.
Offline & private
The data lives on your PC. No account, no telemetry, and nobody sees what you search.
A look inside
How it works
- Download the app. One portable
TLA.exe— unzip it to any folder and run it. No installer, no account. - Let it fetch the data file. On first start the app offers to download the current release and installs it for you (about 21.6 GB; allow 112 GB free).
- Look up anything. Lookup, Compare and Batch work straight away and stay free forever.
- Find links. Backlinks and Link Gap are unlocked for 30 days. Keep them with a licence, $30 for 12 months.
The data file
Everything comes from one file built from Common Crawl's web graph, the open dataset of how the web links together. The current release holds 165.4 million domains and 4.85 billion backlinks. It is free to download and keep, with no licence needed.
Size: about 21.6 GB to download and about 90.3 GB once unpacked. Allow about 112 GB free while it installs, and the same again, on top of the existing file, when updating. An SSD is strongly recommended.
Downloading: on first start, or any time from Settings → Download Data File.... Stop whenever you like and press Resume later — even days later, after a restart. Your current file keeps working until the new one has been checked.
Updates: a new release about every three months. Each one adds Common Crawl's latest crawl to the links already in the file, so you can see what is new and what has gone. Check from Settings → Data File... → Check for Update.
Technical details
| Platform | Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| App | Single portable TLA.exe, native C++ / Win32. No installer, no .NET, no runtime to install. |
| Data | One SQLite file (about 90.3 GB), downloaded by the app. Standard format, readable by any SQLite tool. |
| Source | Common Crawl web graph, domain level: Harmonic Centrality and PageRank ranks, host counts, and domain-to-domain links (release cc-main-2026-jul-aug-sep). |
| Exports | CSV (every row), HTML reports, clipboard |
| Network | Only for the data download, licence activation/checks, and optional Ahrefs DR. Lookups never go online. |
| Privacy | No telemetry, no tracking, no account |
Pricing
- The app and the full data file
- Lookup, Compare and Batch, forever
- Every data release, free to download
- 30-day trial of Backlinks and Link Gap
- Backlinks and Link Gap unlocked
- Every release published during your 12 months
- Not a subscription — nothing renews automatically
- Renew with the same key, nothing to re-enter
- One key per PC, activated online once
Common questions
Is it really free?
The app and the data file are free to download and keep. Lookup, Compare and Batch are free forever. Backlinks and Link Gap come with a 30-day trial of everything; after that they need a licence, $30 for 12 months.
Is the licence a subscription?
No. You pay once for 12 months and nothing renews or charges automatically. When it ends, Backlinks and Link Gap lock until you renew; the app, the free tabs and the data file keep working. Renewing extends the same key, so there is nothing new to enter.
Why is the data free when the app is paid?
The data comes from Common Crawl, which is public and free to anyone. What the licence pays for is the processing that turns billions of raw web-graph links into something a desktop app can search in seconds, and the app that does the searching.
How big is the download?
The current data file is about 21.6 GB to download and about 90.3 GB once unpacked, so allow about 112 GB of free disk space while it installs. The app downloads and unpacks it for you, and resumes where it left off if it is interrupted, even days later.
How often is the data updated?
A new release is published about every three months, built from Common Crawl's latest web graph and merged with the links already in the file, so you can see which links are new and which have gone. Every release is free to download, and a licence covers every release published during its 12 months.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the data file is on your PC, every lookup, backlink search and link gap search runs locally. The app goes online only to download data, to activate or check a licence, and to fetch Ahrefs DR values if you choose to.
How is this different from Ahrefs or Semrush?
Those are cloud services with monthly plans, credit limits and their own crawlers. Tom's Link Authority runs on your own machine against Common Crawl's open web graph, with no queries sent anywhere and no limits on how much you search. It works at domain level: it shows which domains link to which, not the individual pages.
Can I use my licence on more than one PC?
Each key activates on one PC. If you move to a new computer or reinstall Windows, get in touch and the key is reset so you can activate it again.
What is the DR column?
An optional extra: Ahrefs' Domain Rating, fetched with your own free Ahrefs API key and shown beside the app's own ranks. Without a key the column stays empty and nothing is sent to Ahrefs. Not affiliated with Ahrefs.
Built and supported by one developer. I'm Tom Dahne. I make small, offline Windows tools that do one job well, with no accounts and no subscriptions. Questions, bugs or ideas: get in touch or email ezimedia@hotmail.com.
Download Tom's Link Authority
Free app, free data file, 30-day trial of everything.
Want to double-check? Upload TLA.zip to VirusTotal yourself before running it. The app is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn about it the first time: click More info, then Run anyway.