# Broken Link Checker - Find Dead 404 Links (`logiover/broken-link-checker`) Actor
Site-wide broken link checker: crawl any website, find 404 and dead links, export the link audit to CSV or JSON with source page and status code.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Logiover](https://apify.com/logiover) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 26 total users, 8 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet
## Pricing
from $3.50 / 1,000 results
This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.
Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event
## What's an Apify Actor?
Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".
## How to integrate an Actor?
If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.
- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).
For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.
For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).
# README
## Broken Link Checker — Crawl a Whole Website for Dead 404 Links (No API Key) 🔗
[](https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker)
[](https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker)
[](https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker)
[](https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker)
[](https://apify.com/logiover/broken-link-checker)
**Find every broken link on a website automatically.** This **broken link checker** crawls an entire site, follows internal links across the whole domain, and validates **every internal and external link** for **404, 410 and 5xx** errors, plus timeouts, DNS failures and unreachable hosts. For each link you get the **source page it was found on**, the **anchor text**, the **link type** (internal/external) and the exact **HTTP status code** — so you know precisely *where* each dead link lives and can fix it fast. Give it **one URL** and it discovers and audits thousands of pages and links for you. **No login, no proxy setup, no headless browser** — pure HTTP, fast, cheap and schedulable.
> ### 🏆 Why this Broken Link Checker?
>
> **8 data fields per link** · **thousands of pages per run** · **fast pure-HTTP crawl (HEAD + GET fallback)** · **no API key, no browser, no login** · **export to JSON, CSV, Excel or API**
***
### ✨ What this Actor does / Key features
- 🕷️ **Full-site crawl** — start from one URL and automatically follow internal `` links across the entire domain, discovering pages you forgot existed.
- 🔗 **Checks every link** — validates internal *and* external (outbound) links, not just a flat list you paste in.
- 🚦 **Exact HTTP status** — reports `200`, `301`, `404`, `410`, `500` and more, plus network errors (timeouts, unreachable hosts, DNS failures) that have no status code.
- 📄 **Source page + anchor text** — every row tells you the exact page the broken link sits on and its clickable text, so fixes take seconds.
- ⚡ **Fast & cheap** — pure HTTP with a lightweight `HEAD` request (auto-falling back to `GET`), no headless browser. Each unique URL is checked **only once** and cached across pages.
- 🎛️ **Flexible output** — export *only broken links* for a clean fix-list, or a *full audit* of every link on the site for a complete inventory.
- 🗓️ **Schedulable monitoring** — run it daily or weekly and catch dead links the moment they appear.
- 🌐 **Works on any site** — blogs, docs, e-commerce, marketing sites, knowledge bases — anything reachable over HTTP.
### 🚀 Quick start (3 steps)
1. **Configure** — paste one or more website URLs into **Start URLs**. Optionally set **Max pages to crawl** (`0` = whole site) and toggle **Check external links** / **Only output broken links**.
2. **Run** — click **Save & Start**. The crawler follows internal links and checks every link it finds.
3. **Get your data** — download results as **JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML**, pull them via the **REST API**, or schedule the run to repeat.
### 📥 Input
The only required field is **Start URLs** — one or more websites to crawl. Everything else has sensible defaults.
#### Example — audit one whole website
```json
{
"startUrls": [{ "url": "https://example.com/" }],
"maxPagesToCrawl": 0,
"checkExternalLinks": true,
"onlyBroken": false,
"maxConcurrency": 10
}
```
#### Example — fast broken-links-only fix list
```json
{
"startUrls": [{ "url": "https://example.com/blog" }],
"maxPagesToCrawl": 500,
"checkExternalLinks": false,
"onlyBroken": true,
"maxConcurrency": 10
}
```
#### Example — monitor several sites at once
```json
{
"startUrls": [
{ "url": "https://example.com/" },
{ "url": "https://docs.example.com/" },
{ "url": "https://shop.example.com/" }
],
"maxPagesToCrawl": 2000,
"checkExternalLinks": true,
"onlyBroken": true,
"maxConcurrency": 5
}
```
| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `startUrls` | array | **Required.** Websites to crawl. The crawler follows internal links from each start URL and checks every link it finds along the way. |
| `maxPagesToCrawl` | integer | Maximum pages to crawl per run. More pages = more links checked. Set `0` for no limit (crawl the whole site). Default `5`. |
| `checkExternalLinks` | boolean | Also verify links that point to other domains, not just internal links. Default `false`. |
| `onlyBroken` | boolean | Save only broken links (4xx / 5xx / unreachable). Turn off to export a full audit row for every link checked. Default `false`. |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | Number of parallel requests. Lower this if the target site rate-limits you (`429`). Default `10`. |
> 💡 **Tip:** Set `maxPagesToCrawl` to `0` for complete site-wide coverage, and turn on **Only output broken links** to get a clean dead-link list ready to import into a spreadsheet. Drop `maxConcurrency` to `3–5` for fragile or rate-limited servers.
### 📤 Output
Each row is **one link checked**, with the source page, target URL, anchor text, link type, HTTP status and a clear broken/OK flag. Here is a trimmed sample:
```json
{
"sourceUrl": "https://example.com/blog/post-1",
"linkUrl": "https://example.com/old-page",
"anchorText": "see our old guide",
"linkType": "internal",
"statusCode": 404,
"ok": false,
"error": null,
"checkedAt": "2026-07-06T14:08:46.306Z"
}
```
📋 Full field reference (click to expand)
| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `sourceUrl` | string | The page the link was found on. |
| `linkUrl` | string | The link target (absolute URL). |
| `anchorText` | string | The clickable text of the link. |
| `linkType` | string | `internal` (same domain) or `external` (outbound). |
| `statusCode` | number | HTTP status code returned by the link (e.g. `200`, `301`, `404`, `500`). |
| `ok` | boolean | `true` if the link works, `false` if it's broken. |
| `error` | string / null | Network error (`timeout`, `unreachable`, DNS failure, …) when there is no status code; otherwise `null`. |
| `checkedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp of the check. |