Head to head
Respona vs Pitchbox
Respona and Pitchbox are not direct competitors. One sells placements outright. The other sells a platform for sending outreach at scale. This page explains the difference.
Respona sells guaranteed backlink placements on a pay-per-result basis, with published prices from $100 for a link on a Domain Rating 20+ site to $500 for DR 60+. Pitchbox is an enterprise outreach platform with prospecting, email sequences, and CRM features, starting at $300 per month for two users and 2,000 emails. Mentionry finds specific opportunities for a backlink and drafts the pitch, which you send from your own connected mailbox; it does not place, publish, or guarantee any link.
On this page5 sections
| Respona | Pitchbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | Starter $100 per placement, Standard $160 per placement, Authority $240 per placement, Power $400 per placement, Elite $500 per placement | Pro $300/mo, Advanced $600/mo, Scale $1,200/mo |
| Channels covered | 2 | 3 |
| Referring domains | 3,033 | 2,326 |
| US keywords ranked | 3,251 | 45 |
The table of differences
This table shows what each platform is built to do. Respona's model is transactional: you pay for a delivered link. Pitchbox's model is operational: you pay for a software seat to run outreach campaigns.
Mentionry is included for contrast. It does not fit in either column because it is not a placement service and not an outreach CRM. It is a tool that finds the exact opening for a link and writes the single email to ask for it.
- Respona: Pay-per-placement. Published price: $100 per link (DR 20+ publisher) to $500 per link (DR 60+).
- Respona: What you get: A guaranteed placement on a publisher of a stated Domain Rating within 28 days, with content creation and publishing included.
- Respona: What it does not do: Backlink gap analysis, journalist requests, podcast booking, or tracking visibility in AI answer engines.
- Pitchbox: Monthly subscription. Published price: Pro plan $300 per month ($210 billed annually) for 2 users and 2,000 emails.
- Pitchbox: What you get: An outreach platform with prospecting, email sequencing, CRM, and reporting tools.
- Pitchbox: What it does not do: Journalist requests, podcast guest booking, speaking opportunities, industry awards, or tracking AI answer visibility.
- Mentionry: Connects one mailbox. Price: Not stated here. Plans are not settled.
- Mentionry: What you get: Specific opportunities for a backlink, each with a drafted email you send from your own mailbox. It also measures what the AI answer engines say about your business.
- Mentionry: What it does not do: Place, publish, or guarantee any link. It sends the pitch. The link appearing is someone else's decision.
When to pick Respona
Pick Respona when you have decided that buying a guaranteed link placement is an acceptable risk for your website. Their service is clear: you pay a fixed fee, they find a publisher, create content, and place a link with your chosen anchor text and URL. The publisher's Domain Rating is guaranteed to meet the tier you paid for.
This is a direct transaction. The risk is defined by Google's link spam policy, which states that buying links that pass ranking signals is a violation. The penalty for such a scheme is applied to the site that acquired the link, not the vendor. If you have weighed that policy and are comfortable with the arrangement, Respona delivers a specific, measurable outcome.
- You want a link on a publisher with a specific Domain Rating (20+, 30+, etc.) and you are willing to pay a published price for it.
- You do not want to manage outreach, follow-ups, or content creation for that placement.
- Your compliance and legal teams have reviewed Google's link spam policy and approved this method of link acquisition.
- Your primary metric is the number of placed links meeting a DR threshold, not the number of pitches sent or relationships built.
When to pick Pitchbox
Pick Pitchbox when you run link building outreach at agency scale across multiple clients and you need the tools to manage it. The Pro plan at $300 a month is not for a single site owner. It is for a professional or team that needs user seats, email volume, sequences, and a CRM to track conversations.
This is a software platform for a process. You use its prospecting tools to find targets, you build email sequences to automate follow-ups, and you use its reporting to show clients progress. The cost is justified by the volume of outreach you manage, not by the links you place. It is a real product for a real category.
- You have an agency or in-house team managing outreach for several websites or clients.
- You need multiple user seats, a high monthly email sending limit, and a centralized CRM.
- Your workflow relies on automated email sequences and detailed campaign reporting.
- Your budget is built around operational software costs, not per-link transactional costs.
Where Mentionry fits
Mentionry is for the site owner who wants to earn links but does not want to buy them or run a scaled outreach operation. It finds specific, actionable opportunities where a link could be placed. For each one, it drafts the email. You connect your own mailbox and send it. Your address, your domain, your sending reputation.
It also measures your visibility in the engines on your plan, like Google AI Overviews. It records what those engines say about your business, which sites they cite, and which competitors they name. This is separate from outreach. Nothing here is promised. The product sends the pitch. It does not place the link.
- You have one primary domain and want to find where it could get a relevant backlink.
- You prefer to send a direct, single email from your own account rather than run a sequence from a platform.
- You want to track how often your brand is mentioned in AI answer engines compared to competitors.
- You want to avoid any service that sells placements, due to the associated policy risk.
- A measured run for one domain found 110 openings, judged 40, kept 14. The filtering is the product.
The policy distinction that matters
Google's link spam policy is public. It states that buying links that pass ranking signals is a violation. Exchanging money for links directly is named. The penalty is applied to the site that acquires the link.
Respona's model is a direct purchase of a link placement. The anchor text and target URL are under client control, which fits the policy's description of a link scheme. Pitchbox and Mentionry do not sell placements. Pitchbox sells software for sending emails. Mentionry is an AI marketing platform that finds opportunities for a brand to earn a mention and drafts the email you send. The risk profile of sending an email is different from the risk profile of buying a link.
The published facts, with sources
Respona
respona.comFormerly an outreach platform, now sells placements outright on a pay-per-result basis with a guaranteed publisher Domain Rating.
Published price
- Starter $100 per placement (publisher DR 20+)
- Standard $160 per placement (DR 30+)
- Authority $240 per placement (DR 40+)
- Power $400 per placement (DR 50+)
- Elite $500 per placement (DR 60+)
Pick them when
You want a guaranteed placement on a domain of a stated Domain Rating within 28 days, and you have decided that risk is acceptable.
Checked facts
- Pricing is per placement, from $100 for a DR 20+ publisher to $500 for DR 60+, with content creation, outreach and publishing included and the client choosing anchor text and URL. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
- Google's link spam policy treats buying links that pass ranking signals as a violation, and it names exchanging money for links directly. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
Pitchbox
pitchbox.comAn enterprise outreach and link building platform: prospecting, email sequences, CRM, reporting.
Published price
- Pro $300/mo ($210/mo billed annually. 2 users, 2,000 emails a month)
- Advanced $600/mo ($420/mo billed annually)
- Scale $1,200/mo ($825/mo billed annually)
Pick them when
You run outreach at agency scale across many clients and you need seats, sequences, a CRM and reporting. That is a real category and this is a real product in it.
Checked facts
- Pro is $300 per month billed monthly, or $210 billed annually, for 2 users and 2,000 emails a month. (source, checked 2026-08-14)
- It ranks for 45 keywords in the US top 20. (checked 2026-08-14)
Questions people actually ask
Yes. Respona sells placements on a pay-per-result basis with a guaranteed publisher Domain Rating. Their published pricing is per placement, from $100 for a link on a DR 20+ site to $500 for DR 60+. They handle content creation, outreach, and publishing. The guarantee is for the placement itself, not for any specific traffic or ranking outcome from that link.