Link Redirect Trace vs SEO Minion (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Link Redirect Trace grades higher than SEO Minion: 3.0 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Link Redirect Trace grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. SEO Minion grades higher on features. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Link Redirect Trace
Free redirect checker that also reads canonicals, robots and headers
SEO Minion
On-page, link and SERP checks sold with Keywords Everywhere plans
Which one is for you
Pick Link Redirect Trace if
- Fits if you check that redirects pass links cleanly after a migration
- Works for following affiliate and ad links to see where they land and which cookies they set
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: the Chrome version was last updated in June 2024 and the Firefox one in April 2024
- Too light for checking a site or a list of URLs, since it traces the URLs you visit one at a time
- Skip it if you want link strength from Ahrefs or Moz, as Power and Trust are LinkResearchTools' own scores
- Not for you if you browse in Safari or Edge, as only Chrome and Firefox are listed
Pick SEO Minion if
- Fits if you already pay for Keywords Everywhere Silver or higher and want page checks in the same plan
- Works for checking hreflang and redirect chains on international sites, one page at a time
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you only want page checks, as it means $168 a year up front where most of this category is free
- Not for you if you want to try it first, as there's no free version and no trial
- Watch out: Keywords Everywhere bills yearly only, with no monthly option, and Bronze doesn't include it
- Too light for whole-site audits, since it checks one page or one search at a time
- Skip it if you browse in Safari, as only Chrome, Firefox and Edge are listed
How we grade them
| 3.0GPALink Redirect TraceVery good | 2.0GPASEO MinionFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree, listed among LinkResearchTools' free SEO tools, and a free install on Chrome and Firefox. The company's paid link tools are sold separately. | BSilver, the cheapest Keywords Everywhere plan that includes it, is $14 a month billed yearly ($168) for up to 3 users, right on this category's cheaper-quarter line. One person pays the same $14, and it brings 400,000 keyword credits a year. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright: every hop, the indexing and canonical checks, cookies, headers and image or CSV export. | FNothing is free. The cheaper Bronze plan leaves SEO Minion out, and there's no separate free version and no trial, so the way in is $168 for a year of Silver. |
| Features | CEvery 301, 302, 307, 308 and meta refresh hop timed, robots, noindex, nofollow and X-Robots-Tag checked on each, canonicals flagged, cookies shown and traces exported. It does redirect tracing fully, a smaller job, with no headings, schema or search data. | BMeta, Open Graph, canonical and robots tags, broken links by status, server, meta and JavaScript redirects, hreflang return tags, JSON-LD, RDFa and microdata, HTML against the rendered DOM and SERP previews from any location. Volumes come with the plan it needs. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record, but nothing to set up: install it, follow a link and the trace is there. | CNo rating on record. Before it works you buy a Keywords Everywhere plan and set it up with that plan's API key, from your subscription page. |
| Platforms and integrations | CChrome and Firefox, so computers only, in English. It ties into LinkResearchTools' own Power and Trust scores and nothing else. | CAn extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, so computers only, with no Safari version. It connects to Keywords Everywhere and works on Google Search, and nothing else is listed. |
| Best for | redirect chains with indexing checks per hop | page checks for Keywords Everywhere subscribers |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Link Redirect Trace and SEO Minion. How we grade
Price against what you get
Link Redirect Trace has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SEO Minion starts at $14 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Link Redirect Trace starts $14 a month lower. Of the other SEO browser extensions on the chart, none scores higher than Link Redirect Trace for less, and 2 score higher than SEO Minion for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Link Redirect Trace also covers backlink analysis.
- SEO Minion also covers schema markup.
At a glance
| Link Redirect Trace | SEO Minion | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Starts at | Free | $14 per month, billed annually ($168), as part of Keywords Everywhere Silver |
| Free plan | The extension is listed among LinkResearchTools' free SEO tools and installs free from the Chrome and Firefox stores. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | LinkResearchTools GmbH | Keywords Everywhere |
| Price read from | smart.linkresearchtools.com | keywordseverywhere.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Link Redirect Trace
- The Chrome version was last updated in June 2024 and the Firefox version, 0.9.13.2, in April 2024.
- LRT Power and Trust are LinkResearchTools' own metrics; its paid link tools are sold separately.
- It traces the URLs you visit one at a time and does not crawl a site or a list of URLs.
- Listed for Chrome and Firefox only, with an English interface.
SEO Minion
- It needs a Keywords Everywhere Silver, Gold or Platinum plan and its API key; there is no separate free version.
- Keywords Everywhere plans are billed annually only, with no monthly option.
- It checks one page or one search at a time and does not crawl whole sites.
- It is listed for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, with no Safari version.
Key features
Link Redirect Trace
- Every redirect hop
- Detects each 301, 302, 307 or 308 hop and meta refresh in a chain, and times each one to show which redirect or URL shortener is slow.
- Indexing checks per hop
- Checks robots.txt, HTML noindex and nofollow, and X-Robots-Tag noindex, nofollow and noarchive on every step of the chain.
- Canonical checks
- Parses rel-canonical tags so a page that is canonicalized to another URL is flagged alongside real redirects.
- LRT Power and Trust
- Shows LinkResearchTools' Power and Trust scores for each URL in the chain, as a gauge of link strength.
- Cookies and cache-busting
- Shows which URL in a chain drops cookies, useful for affiliate links, and can bypass a redirect the browser has cached.
- Image and CSV export
- Exports the full redirect trace as an image or a CSV file, and shows full HTTP headers for each response.
SEO Minion
- On-page analysis
- Shows a page's meta tags, headings, Open Graph tags, canonical and robots settings in one panel.
- Broken links and redirects
- Checks every link on the page and groups them by status code, and traces a URL's server, meta refresh and JavaScript redirects.
- Hreflang checker
- Validates a page's hreflang tags and every page they point to, including return tags, x-default and language and region codes.
- Multi-location SERP
- Runs a Google search as if from any location, or compares the same search from two locations side by side, without personalization.
- HTML vs DOM and structured data
- Compares the source HTML with the rendered DOM to show what JavaScript changes, and validates JSON-LD, RDFa and microdata.
- SERP tools
- Previews a title and description against Google's pixel limits, counts SERP elements, scrapes People Also Ask and downloads listings.
Plans
Link Redirect Trace
Free$0
Redirect tracing with robots, canonical and header checks for every hop, free on Chrome and Firefox.
SEO Minion
Silver$14
per month for 400,000 credits a year, billed annually ($168)
Keywords Everywhere plan with 3 user seats and SEO Minion included; the cheaper Bronze plan does not include it.
Gold$40
per month for 2 million credits a year, billed annually ($480)
10 user seats, top 5,000 keywords and backlinks per website, SEO Minion and premium ChatGPT prompts.
Platinum$120
per month for 8 million credits a year, billed annually ($1,440)
20 user seats, top 10,000 keywords and backlinks per website, SEO Minion and priority email support.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Link Redirect Trace or SEO Minion?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Link Redirect Trace is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $14 a month for SEO Minion. Link Redirect Trace is free, and SEO Minion starts at $14 per month, billed annually ($168), as part of Keywords Everywhere Silver.
Which has a free plan, Link Redirect Trace or SEO Minion?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Link Redirect Trace has a free plan. SEO Minion does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.