Dead Link Checker vs Xenu's Link Sleuth (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 Xenu's Link Sleuth if

• Fits if you're on Windows and want a broken link list without signing up for anything
• Works for checking HTML files on your own disk or an intranet before they go live

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you use a Mac or Linux, as it's Windows only and the author won't port it
• Watch out: the current release, 1.3.8, dates from September 2010, with only a beta build offered beside it
• Not for you if your site builds its links with JavaScript, as those pages show no outgoing links
• Too light for an SEO audit, as there are no on-page, speed or structured data checks
• Tight if pages sit behind a login form, which needs a separate test build, or you need robots.txt respected, which isn't planned

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.

Xenu's Link Sleuth

• It runs only on Windows; the author will not make Mac or Linux versions, though users report it working under Wine.
• The last full release, 1.3.8, is from September 2010, and robots.txt support is not on the author's plans.
• Pages built only with JavaScript show no outgoing links, and logging in through a web form needs a separate test build.
• It checks links only: there are no on-page SEO, speed or structured data checks.

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.

Xenu's Link Sleuth

Broken link checking

Checks ordinary links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, image maps, style sheets, scripts and Java applets, and can re-check the broken ones.

Redirect detection

Reports URLs that redirect, alongside the broken ones, in a list that can be sorted by different columns while the crawl runs.

Reports and site map

Produces a report at any point in a crawl, which can also be sent by email, plus a site map of the pages it found.

Local and intranet checks

Checks HTML files on your own disk or an intranet before they are uploaded, without needing a local web server.

Orphan file search

Looks for files on the server that no page links to; the passwords entered for this are not kept after the program closes.

Configurable crawl speed

Fetches pages in parallel with 30 threads by default, adjustable from 1 to 100; the author says crawls have passed a million URLs.

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.

Xenu's Link Sleuth

• Free$0

  The full link checker for Windows, with no paid edition. A 64-bit beta build is offered for very large sites.

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).

Xenu's Link Sleuth

No public discounts listed.