Dead Link Checker vs Screaming Frog SEO Spider (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Dead Link Checker if

• Fits if you want a quick free broken-link check of a small site
• Works for agencies that need scheduled link scans across many client sites

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you stay free, with 2,000 links a scan and no schedule
• Skip it if your links are built with JavaScript, which the crawler doesn't run
• Watch out: subdomains count as separate websites, and pages more than 10 links deep are missed
• Watch out: billing goes through PayPal, though you can pay by card without a PayPal account

Pick Screaming Frog SEO Spider if

• Fits if you're a technical SEO who audits large sites from your own computer
• Works for sites under 500 URLs, which the free version crawls with no time limit

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want keyword research, rank tracking or backlinks, as it only crawls
• Not for you if you'd rather not learn technical SEO terms, XPath or regex
• Tight if your computer is short on memory or storage, since crawl size depends on it, and there's no web or phone version
• Pricey if a team needs it: licences are $279 per user a year, so two people need two
• Watch out: the free version can't save crawls, render JavaScript, schedule audits or connect to Google data

Dead Link Checker

• Free scans stop at 2,000 links; larger scans need an Auto Checker subscription.
• The crawler does not run JavaScript and follows links at most 10 steps deep, so pages with no incoming links are missed.
• Subdomains count as separate websites, so their pages are not crawled as part of the main site.
• Paid plans bill through PayPal; a card can be used without a PayPal account.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Licences are per user and last one year; two people need two licences.
• It is a desktop app, so crawl size depends on the computer's memory and storage.
• The free version cannot save crawls, render JavaScript, schedule audits or connect to Google data.

Dead Link Checker

Site Checker

Scans a whole website or a single page from your browser and lists each broken link with its status and source link text.

Multi Check

With a free account, scans a list of websites in one go and emails the report when it finishes.

Auto Check scheduling

Paid plans scan chosen sites daily, weekly or monthly at a set depth and email a report after each run, also kept online.

Competitor link checks

Any site can be scanned, so the vendor suggests it for finding broken links on competitors' sites for link building.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Technical SEO audit

Find broken links, server errors, redirect chains, missing or duplicate titles and descriptions, and directives such as noindex and canonicals.

JavaScript rendering

With a licence, render pages in a built-in Chromium to crawl sites built with frameworks such as React, Angular and Vue.

Custom extraction and search

Pull any data from page HTML with XPath, CSS Path or regex, and search source code across a whole crawl (licence only).

Google and AI integrations

Pull Google Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights data into a crawl, or run pages through OpenAI and Gemini (licence only).

Scheduling and crawl comparison

Schedule crawls with exports to Google Sheets or run them from the command line, and compare crawls or staging against production.

Site visualisations and sitemaps

See site structure as force-directed and tree diagrams, and generate XML and image sitemaps from a crawl.

Dead Link Checker

• Site Checker and Multi Check$0

  Manual scans of one site, or of a list of sites with an emailed report after a free sign-up, up to 2,000 links.

• Auto Checker Standard$9.95

  per month for up to 5 sites, billed monthly

  Scheduled daily, weekly or monthly scans of up to 5 websites and 50,000 links a month, with emailed reports. Or $110 a year.

• Auto Checker Premium$39.95

  per month for up to 100 sites, billed monthly

  Scheduled scans of up to 100 websites and 500,000 links a month. Or $440 a year.

• Auto Checker Professional$79.90

  per month for up to 200 sites, billed monthly

  Scheduled scans of up to 200 websites and 1,000,000 links a month. Or $880 a year.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Free$0

  Up to 500 URLs per crawl, broken links, redirects, metadata, duplicates, XML sitemaps and site visualisations.

• Paid licence$279

  per user / year, for 1 to 4 licences

  No crawl limit beyond memory and storage, saved crawls, scheduling, JavaScript rendering, crawl comparison, integrations and support. £199 in pounds.

Dead Link Checker

• Annual discount

  Save up to 8% with annual payment

  The subscription page lists a single yearly payment of $110 for Standard (7.5% off), and $440 and $880 for Premium and Professional (8% off).

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Other savings

  Volume pricing from 5 licences

  Buying 5 to 9 licences at once costs $265 each a year, 10 to 19 cost $249 each, and 20 or more cost $235 each, against $279 for 1 to 4.