DR and DA are both 100-point scores of a website’s authority, from two different SEO tools. Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) measures the strength of a site’s backlink profile. Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) predicts how likely a site is to rank. They often land close together, but there is no exact conversion between them, and the cases where they disagree are the ones worth paying attention to.
What DR measures
Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ score for how strong a site’s backlink profile is. It looks at:
- how many unique websites link to the site with followed links,
- how strong those linking sites are (their own DR), and
- how many other sites each of them links to, since a link is worth less when it is shared with many others.
DR is logarithmic: moving from DR 20 to 30 is far easier than from 70 to 80. It says nothing about content, traffic or relevance. It is purely a link-strength score.
What DA measures
Domain Authority is Moz’s prediction of how well a site is likely to rank in search results. It is a machine-learning model trained on links and ranking data, scored from 1 to 100 and also logarithmic. Because it is a model, Moz retrains it from time to time, and a site’s DA can move without anything changing on the site.
How DR and DA compare
| Ahrefs DR | Moz DA | |
|---|---|---|
| What it scores | Backlink profile strength | Predicted ability to rank |
| Method | Formula over linking domains | Machine-learning model |
| Link data | Ahrefs’ crawler | Moz’s crawler |
| Scale | 0–100, logarithmic | 1–100, logarithmic |
| Used by Google | No | No |
In practice, the relationship looks roughly like this:
| Type of site | How DR and DA usually relate |
|---|---|
| Large, established sites | Close together, often within about 5 points, both in the 80s or 90s. |
| Mid-size sites with real traffic (30 to 60) | Same ballpark, usually within about 10 to 15 points, in either direction. |
| Small or new sites | DA is often higher; a handful of links can show DA 15 to 20 while DR is still under 10. |
| Sites built to sell links | DR is often inflated, for example DR 50+ with DA in the 20s and almost no traffic. |
Rule of thumb: for a real site with real traffic, treat the two as roughly the same scale, give or take 10 points. Don’t convert one into the other with a formula.
Why the scores disagree
- Different link indexes. Each tool crawls the web separately, so each sees a different set of links.
- Different models. DR is a formula over linking domains; DA is a trained prediction. The same links can be weighted differently.
- Manipulation. DR can be pushed up by networks of sites linking to each other. A high DR with little traffic is the classic sign of a site that exists to sell links.
Which to trust when buying links
Use the scores as a filter, not a verdict. When you vet a site for a backlink:
- Check the authority floor. DR 30+ is a sensible minimum for a SaaS authority link, and DR 40+ for a stronger one.
- Check real organic traffic. This is the hardest signal to fake. A site with a high score and almost no search traffic is a pass.
- Check relevance. A link from a site about your category is worth more than a higher score from an unrelated one.
- Check the page, not only the domain. The page should be indexed, the link should sit inside the article body, and the page shouldn’t be crowded with outbound links.
Our backlink vetting checklist walks through every check step by step.
How Autolinks uses DR
Autolinks states its floors in DR: DR 30+ for authority links and DR 40+ for elite authority links, depending on the plan. A score alone never qualifies a site. It also needs real organic traffic and has to pass the rest of our 10-point review. See the plans on the pricing page.