People often use DA and DR as if they were the same thing. They are not. Domain Authority, or DA, is a score from Moz. Domain Rating, or DR, is a score from Ahrefs. Both try to sum up how strong the links pointing at a website look, but they do it with different data and different methods. This guide sets out the differences and how to use each number sensibly.
Two scores from two companies
Moz shows DA on a scale from 1 to 100. Ahrefs shows DR on a scale from 0 to 100. In both cases a higher figure means a stronger link profile in that company's data. Neither company is Google, and neither figure is a Google metric.
Moz has said publicly that DA is its own predictive score and not something Google uses. Ahrefs likewise describes DR as its own measure of link strength. Take them at their word: they are tools for comparing sites, not windows into Google.
How they are built, in general terms
The exact formulas are private and both companies update them from time to time. The general ideas are public.
- DR is based on the number of unique domains that link to a site and on how strong those linking domains are, with each linking site worth less if it links out to many others.
- DA comes from a model that Moz trains on link data, with the goal of predicting how likely a domain is to rank in search results compared with other domains. It takes into account things like the number of linking root domains and the total number of links.
- Both use a curved scale, so the step from 10 to 20 is much smaller in effort than the step from 70 to 80.
One practical result is that the two scores react differently to the same event. Suppose a site gains a handful of links from strong, unrelated sites. One tool may show the change within days while the other shows it weeks later, or by a smaller amount. Neither reaction is a mistake. They reflect different data and different refresh timing.
Why one site shows two different numbers
Ahrefs and Moz run separate crawlers and keep separate link indexes. A link that one crawler found may be missing from the other. Their formulas weigh links differently. They also refresh their scores on their own schedules. So it is normal for one domain to show a DR of 35 and a DA of 22, or the other way around. The gap does not mean either tool is wrong.
It also means you cannot swap one number for the other. A DR of 40 is not a DA of 40. If a buyer, partner or platform asks for one of them, give that one and name the tool.
Both scores are also relative. A figure can drift when the rest of the web changes, even if the site's own links stay exactly the same. That is another reason to read a trend and not a single day's reading.
Which one should you track?
There is no universal answer. Some practical points may help.
- Track the one your own audience uses. Some marketplaces and partners ask for DA, and some ask for DR.
- Pick one tool for trend tracking and stay with it. Mixing the two makes the trend hard to read.
- Look at both only when you want a second opinion on the shape of your link profile.
- Always read the number beside real data such as traffic and enquiries.
- Write down the tool and the date whenever you share a number with anyone.
For the wider picture, see what DR and DA measure. If you track the Moz figure and want to know how the service works and what it does not promise, the Moz DA service page covers it, and the Ahrefs DR page does the same for DR.
Note: tools, formulas and search guidelines change. Treat this comparison as a general explanation and check the Moz and Ahrefs help pages for current details.