Honest comparison
Linkilo vs Link Whisper: the honest version.
Link Whisper is the best-known internal linking plugin for WordPress and it has earned that. If you are choosing between the two, here is what each one actually does today, what each one costs at the tier you would really be on, and the places where Link Whisper is the better pick.
If you only read one paragraph
Both tools suggest internal links, both let you approve them before anything changes, and both write ordinary links into your posts that survive uninstalling. The differences are in what runs before a suggestion reaches you, who pays for the AI, and how much of the link layer one licence covers. Link Whisper now has an AI engine, but it runs through its own credit system on top of the licence. Linkilo runs on your own OpenAI key at cost, falls back to a free literal-match engine, shows the score behind every suggestion, and goes on to redirects, 404s, crawl logs, clusters and an AI-assistant connection in the same plugin. If Link Whisper is working for you and the credit bill is fine, stay. If you are rejecting most of its suggestions or paying for a second plugin to handle redirects, read on.
A fair look at both tools
Four things worth settling before the feature list, including the ones where Link Whisper is plainly ahead.
How established
- Linkilo
- Newer, and smaller
- Link Whisper
- Since 2019, 30,000+ active installs of the free plugin, a 4.0 rebuild shipped in September 2026
Link Whisper wins this one and it is not close. If a long track record and a big user forum are what you are buying, buy that.
Who pays for the AI
- Linkilo
- You, directly to OpenAI, on your own key. Linkilo adds nothing
- Link Whisper
- Credits bundled with the licence, then $20 per 1,000 one-off or $10 a month per 1,000
Link Whisper retired the bring-your-own-key option in June 2026. When its credits run out, suggestions fall back to keyword matching until you top up. Linkilo’s literal-match engine is free and always on, so running out is not a thing.
What a suggestion is based on
- Linkilo
- Embeddings, search intent, entities, cluster position and keyword overlap, each visible as part of the score
- Link Whisper
- A combined match score from relatedness, anchor keyword match, sentence context and shared tags
Closer than it used to be. The difference that matters day to day is that Linkilo shows you the parts of the score, so you reject the reasoning rather than the link.
The refund window
- Linkilo
- 30 days, no conditions
- Link Whisper
- 14 days, first purchase only; renewals and credit packs excluded
Taken from Link Whisper’s own pricing page. Older pages on its site still say 60 or 30 days, so check the one you are buying from.
What runs between “these two posts are related” and a link worth keeping
Both tools start from the same place: a post you are writing and a site full of posts you have already written. What differs is how much has to be true before a candidate is put in front of you, and whether you can see why it survived.
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Relatedness, anchor match, sentence context, shared tags 55
45 dropped Folded into one number. Above the line it is a suggestion; you cannot see which part carried it.
- No search-intent or funnel check
- No entity understanding, so “Boveda” and “humidity pack” stay unrelated words
- No cluster position, so a link can send a reader sideways
- The AI part stops when the credits do
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Embedding similarity 48
52 dropped Pages actually about the same thing, rather than pages that happen to share a word.
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Search intent 34
14 dropped A buying guide linking back into an awareness post rarely helps either page.
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Entity overlap 26
8 dropped Shared products, people and places, so related pages match even with no words in common.
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Cluster and funnel position 19
7 dropped Does this link move a reader forward, or sideways into a dead end?
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Anchor validation 14
5 dropped The anchor has to exist word for word in your draft. Enforced in code, not suggested.
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Existing links and score threshold 12
2 dropped Already linked, or below the score you set? Dropped before it reaches your screen.
The point is not that fewer suggestions are better. It is that you can see why each one survived, and reject the reasoning rather than the link.
The suggestion queue, exactly as it ships.
Every row carries its source post, its target, the anchor lifted from your own writing and a confidence score you can open up. Approve or reject. Nothing moves until you say so, which is the same promise Link Whisper makes. The part you will not find there is the score breakdown.
AI Link Suggestions
Build a review queue of internal-link opportunities, apply the best ones, and let Autopilot keep looking when you are ready.
AI Rules Impact
5/6 rules active — 19 filtered outThe sentence is about seasoning, the target post is the seasoning guide, and the anchor already exists in your copy.
Sentence-level match on humidor quality; the target is the roundup that owns this phrase.
Related, but the anchor is generic and appears on 9 other pages, so the Anchor Report rule pulled the score down.
No Link Suggestions Ready
There is no queue to review yet. Start a capped scan now, then approve only the links worth adding.
Best next move: start with 3-5 posts, review the queue, then turn on Autopilot once the suggestions look right.
Recreated from the plugin’s own templates and stylesheet. Same columns, same labels, same scores.
Linkilo vs Link Whisper, feature by feature
Capabilities as of October 2026, taken from Link Whisper’s changelog and knowledge base. Both tools work, and both have users who are happy with them.
| Capability | Linkilo | Link Whisper |
|---|---|---|
| Internal link suggestions, approved before insertion | Yes | Yes |
| Suggestion method | Embeddings, intent, entities, cluster + keyword | Relatedness, anchor match, context, tags, in one score |
| Reason shown for each suggestion | Score, broken into its parts | One combined score |
| Anchor guaranteed to exist in your post | Enforced in code | Click a word to set the anchor |
| AI on your own key, at provider cost | Yes | Retired June 2026; credits only |
| Works with no AI at all | Free literal-match engine, always on | Keyword engine when credits run out |
| Bulk auto-linking rules with a review step | Dry run shows every change first | Review mode, activity log with undo |
| Rollback snapshot before any bulk content edit | Yes | Per-operation undo |
| Orphan page report with suggested sources | Yes | Yes |
| Broken link detection | Internal and external, with Wayback lookup | Internal and external, with “Fix with AI” search |
| Redirect manager with 404 log | Yes | Reports redirects; does not create them |
| Redirect chains found and flattened | Yes | Hop count shown; nothing flattened |
| Bulk URL replacement across the site | Yes | Yes |
| Anchor text health report | Eight problem types, ranked | Anchor reporting |
| Topic clusters with pillar detection | Yes | No |
| Crawl log: which bots fetched which pages | Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot and 40 more, verified | No |
| Internal link click analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Related posts module | Yes | Yes |
| Link preview on hover | Yes | No |
| Google Search Console keywords in the editor | No | Yes |
| Cross-site linking between sites you own | No | Yes |
| Claude / ChatGPT connection (MCP) | Yes | No |
| Every feature on every plan | Yes | Yes |
Compiled from each product’s own public documentation. If something here is out of date about Link Whisper, tell us and we will correct it.
At the tier you would actually be on
Both licences renew yearly. The second line in each Link Whisper cell is the AI allowance that comes with it; the second line in each Linkilo cell is what the AI costs you instead.
| Sites | Linkilo | Link Whisper |
|---|---|---|
| 1 site | $59 / yearAI on your own OpenAI key, typically about $0.20 per 100 posts | $97 / year2,000 AI credits a year included |
| 3 sites | $149 / yearSame, per site | $197 / year3,000 credits a year |
| 10 sites | $279 / yearSame, per site | $297 / year5,000 credits a year |
| Unlimited sites | $499 / yearSame, per site | $497 / year for 50 sites10,000 credits a year; no unlimited tier |
| More AI than the allowance | There is no allowance. OpenAI bills you for what you use, and cached posts are not re-analysed. | $20 per 1,000 credits one-off, or $10 a month per 1,000 (expire monthly) |
| Money-back window | 30 days | 14 days, first purchase only |
- Every feature is on every tier of both products, so the only thing a tier changes is the site count and, for Link Whisper, the credit allowance.
- On a WordPress multisite, Link Whisper counts each network site against the plan. Linkilo counts installs.
- Link Whisper also sells a done-for-you service at $499 one-off for sites up to 1,000 posts. Linkilo does not offer one.
Link Whisper prices and terms as published on its site on 16 October 2026. Linkilo prices are the current list prices. If either has moved, tell us.
Where Link Whisper is the better choice
No tool wins at everything, and a comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading.
Link Whisper has been around longer, and it shows in the places that matter to a cautious buyer. There is a larger body of tutorials, YouTube walkthroughs, a Facebook group and forum answers, so if you get stuck at 11pm you are more likely to find someone who has hit the same thing. It ships often: more than forty dated releases in the last eighteen months, including a full rebuild. Its Search Console integration pulls your ranking keywords into the editor so suggestions lean toward phrases you already rank for, and Linkilo does not do that. It links between separate sites you own, and Linkilo does not do that either. Its language coverage is wider, its Divi and ACF block support is deeper, and its broken-link workflow has a web-search “Fix with AI” step. If you have an established Link Whisper workflow your team already knows, the switching cost is real and “it works fine” is a legitimate reason to stay.
You want your Search Console keywords steering the anchors
Link Whisper connects to GSC and turns your top ranking phrases into target keywords. Linkilo has no GSC keyword import.
You link between several sites you own
Cross-site suggestions between licensed Link Whisper installs. Linkilo works inside one site.
You publish in Czech, Turkish, Hebrew or twenty other languages
Link Whisper ships dedicated language processors and WPML/Polylang awareness. Linkilo’s literal engine is language-agnostic; its AI stages depend on the model.
You build in Divi 5 with nested blocks
Link Whisper added Divi 5 support in its 4.0 rebuild. Linkilo supports the block and classic editors and the content filter other builders expose.
Where Linkilo pulls ahead
It explains itself
Every suggestion carries a score you can open: semantic similarity, keyword overlap, shared cluster, anchor fit. You are approving a recommendation you can argue with, not trusting a number.
See howThe AI costs what it costs
Your own OpenAI key, billed by OpenAI, never marked up, and never exhausted. When you would rather not use AI at all, the literal-match engine is free and always on.
See howIt owns the redirects too
A redirect manager with a 404 log, chain detection that flattens the chain, regex rules and an autopilot for the obvious ones. Link Whisper reports where a link redirects; the fix still needs another plugin.
See howIt knows who crawled what
Every Googlebot, GPTBot and ClaudeBot visit logged inside WordPress, verified against published IP ranges, with alerts when a bot goes quiet. No server access, no log files.
See howIt maps the clusters
Topic clusters with pillar detection, so a suggestion is judged on where it sends the reader, not only on whether two posts share a phrase.
See howYour assistant can run it
Connect Claude or ChatGPT and ask which posts have no inbound links, or which anchors are over-used, and get the answer from your real data.
See howWhat moving over actually involves
The honest version, including the part you redo by hand. Most sites finish it in an afternoon.
Your existing links are safe before you start
Link Whisper writes ordinary links into post content. They are yours, they stay when it is deactivated, and Linkilo’s first scan indexes them as part of your link graph.
Install Linkilo alongside and run the first scan
Nothing is written during a scan. You get the link index, the orphan list, the anchor report and the broken-link queue, and you can compare its suggestions with Link Whisper’s on the same posts.
Re-enter your auto-link rules
This is the hand work. There is no importer for Link Whisper’s rules, so copy each keyword-to-URL pair across. Run them as a dry run first so you see every change before it happens.
Carry over your ignore lists
Posts, categories and phrases you told Link Whisper to leave alone. Set the same exclusions in Linkilo so the suggestion queue is quiet in the same places.
Turn Link Whisper off
Once the queue looks right. Keep its licence running until you are sure, since the refund clock on Linkilo is 30 days and you have time to change your mind.
If you ever leave Linkilo
Same deal in reverse. Every link it added is ordinary HTML in your posts and stays. Redirect rules live in the plugin, as they do in any redirect plugin, so export them before you go.
Which one is right for you
Stay on Link Whisper if
It is working, you accept most of what it suggests, and the credit bill is not bothering you.
With Linkilo: there is nothing here you need. Spend the afternoon on something else.
Switch if
You reject most of its suggestions and cannot tell why the rest made it.
With Linkilo: you see the score behind every suggestion and tune the threshold instead of guessing.
Switch if
You are paying for Link Whisper plus a redirect plugin plus a related-posts plugin.
With Linkilo: one licence covers all of them, on one link index, so the numbers agree.
Switch if
You run client sites and need to prove what Google and the AI crawlers actually fetched.
With Linkilo: crawl logging is built in, verified, and exports a report you can send as-is.
Questions people ask before switching from Link Whisper
No. Link Whisper writes real links into your post content rather than injecting them at render time, so every link stays exactly where it is when you deactivate it. Linkilo indexes them on its first scan and treats them as part of your existing link graph.
Only for the AI stages: embeddings, intent, entities and clusters. Without a key you still get the literal-match suggestion engine, broken links, redirects, the crawl log, click analytics and everything else. Adding a key later switches the AI stages on; nothing has to be redone.
A first full pass over a typical blog runs at roughly $0.20 per hundred posts at current OpenAI prices, and the results are cached so later runs only pay for posts that changed. OpenAI bills you directly. Linkilo never sees the invoice and never adds to it.
Not automatically. Keyword-to-URL rules are re-entered by hand, and the dry run shows you what each one would change before it changes anything. The ignore lists are the same story.
Yes, and it is the fairest test. Run both for a week on the same posts and look at which suggestions you actually accept. Keep auto-linking on in only one of them, or you will get doubled anchors.
The link suggestion workflow is the same shape: open a post, review suggestions, click to add. The other modules sit on their own screens and stay out of the way until you go looking for them.
Because reporting is the easy half. When a link points at a URL that now redirects, Linkilo can rewrite the link to the final destination, and when a redirect chains through two or three hops it flattens the chain. Without that you are editing posts by hand or installing a second plugin.
The front end loads nothing for internal links; they are plain HTML. The crawl logger adds one lightweight database insert per bot visit and nothing for human visitors. Analysis runs in the background in capped batches.
Scans run in batches you can size, embeddings are cached per post, and crawl log retention is configurable with old rows pruned automatically, so the tables stay bounded.
The links stay in your posts. Linkilo keeps working after the licence lapses; you lose updates and support, not features. Deactivate and uninstall whenever you like.
Interlinks Manager vs Linkilo
Interlinks Manager is being retired for Link Manager. Render-time rules versus links that stay in your posts.
Internal Link Juicer vs Linkilo
Automatic keyword linking versus reviewed, explainable suggestions.
Rank Math vs Linkilo
Not a competitor, a companion. Where your SEO plugin stops and Linkilo starts.
Every Linkilo feature
The full list, grouped by the problem each part solves.
Run both on the same site for a week.
The only comparison that settles it is the one on your own content. Linkilo has a 30-day money-back guarantee with no conditions, so the test costs you an afternoon and nothing else.
30-day money-back guarantee. Every feature is included in every plan.