Alternatives to LinkChecker
Open-source command-line tool that checks links in web pages or crawls whole websites for broken ones. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
LinkChecker
Open-source command-line tool that checks links in web pages or crawls whole websites for broken ones.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as LinkChecker.
W3C Link Checker
An online W3C tool that finds broken links and anchors on a web page or whole site.
W3C Link Checker runs online with recursive crawling and anchor checks, and publishes its source code, but lacks LinkChecker's many output formats.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
A desktop website crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux that audits sites for technical SEO issues.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a graphical desktop crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux with SEO audits, free up to 500 URLs and paid beyond.
Dead Link Checker
Online broken link checker that crawls a website or single page and reports dead links.
Dead Link Checker is a hosted service with free manual scans and paid scheduled checks with emailed reports, so nothing is run locally.
Broken Link Check
Free online dead link checker for whole websites or single pages, with no sign-up.
Broken Link Check runs in the browser without sign-up and shows where each broken link sits, but its free version is limited to 3,000 pages.
Dr. Link Check
Online crawler that checks a website for broken links, bad SSL certificates and malicious links.
Dr. Link Check is an online crawler that also flags malware and phishing links and invalid SSL certificates, with larger sites needing a paid plan.
Sitechecker Broken Link Checker
Online tool from the Sitechecker SEO platform that finds 404 and dead links across a website.
Sitechecker Broken Link Checker reports broken links within a wider hosted SEO audit and has a Chrome extension, with a push toward paid plans.
Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
Free online tool that finds broken inbound and outbound links for any website or page.
Ahrefs Broken Link Checker is a free online tool using Ahrefs' backlink index instead of a fresh crawl, and adds inbound broken links.
linkinator
A command-line broken link checker that crawls websites and local files to validate every link.
linkinator is an MIT-licensed Node.js command-line checker that crawls sites and local files and suits CI, but offers fewer output formats than LinkChecker.
Also worth comparing
These listings name LinkChecker as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
HTMLProofer
A Ruby tool that tests rendered HTML files for broken links, images and markup problems.
LinkChecker is a GPL command-line tool needing Python 3.10 or later that crawls whole sites with many output formats, focusing on links rather than markup.
htmltest
Command-line tool that tests generated static HTML for broken links, missing images and markup problems.
LinkChecker is a GPL Python tool that crawls whole sites with many output formats, and requires Python 3.10 or later.
Integrity
A free native Mac app that crawls a website and reports broken links.
LinkChecker is a free open-source command-line crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux with many export formats, but no graphical interface.
muffet
A fast command-line link checker, written in Go, that crawls a website to find broken links.
LinkChecker is a GPL command-line crawler written in Python with many output formats such as CSV, XML and SQL, and needs Python 3.10 or later.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
SortSite
Website quality scanner testing accessibility, broken links, browser compatibility and SEO against over 1200 checkpoints.
Oh Dear
A hosted website health monitor covering uptime, SSL, DNS, cron jobs, broken links and performance.
httpstatus.io
A web tool for checking HTTP status codes, response headers and redirect chains of URLs.
Sitebulb
A website crawler for technical SEO audits, available as desktop software and a cloud service.
Nu Html Checker
The W3C's online checker that tests HTML documents against current HTML conformance rules.
Rocket Validator
A hosted crawler that runs HTML, CSS and accessibility checks across thousands of site pages.
