Outreach tools versus buying placements
Outreach tools cost a hundred or two a month against hundreds per placement. That gap is real and worth understanding properly rather than dismissing.
Where the tool is the better buy
On price, obviously, and by a wide margin. If you have someone with time to run campaigns, a tool plus that person will produce links at a lower unit cost than buying them. That is simply true.
You also keep everything in-house: the prospect lists, the templates, the reply data. Over a couple of years that becomes an asset, and it is yours rather than rented.
What the subscription does not include
The work. A tool sends emails; somebody still has to build the list, write something worth replying to, handle the responses and produce the article. The licence is the cheapest part of running outreach properly.
And you cannot choose where anything lands. You pitch, you hope, and you take what accepts. Buying a placement means picking the exact site with its metrics in front of you, which is a different product sold at a different price for a reason.
Side by side
| Automated outreach software | The Stark SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly licence | Roughly $99 to $299 | Nothing |
| Cost per placement | Low, if someone runs it | Listed on every site |
| Who does the work | You | Us |
| Choose the exact publisher | No | Yes, off the list |
| Know the price beforehand | No | Yes |
| Typical reply rate | Around 5 to 10% | Not applicable |
| Prospect data stays yours | Yes | No |
| Predictable monthly output | No | Yes |
So which one
If you have someone whose job includes outreach and you want to own the data, buy the tool. The unit economics are better and the asset is yours.
If nobody has the hours, a subscription is just a line item that produces nothing. The honest comparison is not tool versus supplier, it is tool-plus-a-person versus supplier, and once you price the person it is much closer than the sticker suggests.
The usual questions
The other comparison
FATJOE versus buying the sites yourself
FATJOE is the most widely used link supplier in the agency market, and the comparison comes down to one structural difference: they sell you a metric, we sell you a named site. Both are legitimate. They suit different people, and the honest answer depends on how much you want to be involved.
Adsy versus a list somebody already vetted
Adsy is the closest thing to us in the market and by far the hardest comparison to write honestly, because we are the same shape: a marketplace, publishers named, prices published, you choose. The difference is scale and who checked the sites — and on scale they win outright.
The HOTH versus choosing your own publishers
The HOTH is one of the most recognised names in white label SEO and is usually where an agency starts. The model is a productised menu: fixed products at fixed prices, ordered like items in a shop. Ours is a list of named sites at individual prices. Both work; they suit different temperaments.
Loganix versus a list you can see without asking
Loganix sits at the premium, managed end of this market and is closer to a consultancy than a shop. They run a large database you can filter and an expert-selected service where their team chooses for you. The comparison is mostly about how much of the decision you want to keep.
Hiring in-house versus outsourcing link building
Whether to hire someone or buy the capacity is mostly a question about how many clients you have and how predictable they are. Here is the arithmetic, including the part where hiring wins.
Have a look at the list
Every site with its price, nothing to fill in first, and nothing to pay unless a link actually goes live. 365 days of cover on every placement.
Open the marketplace