Integrity vs Xenu's Link Sleuth (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Integrity and Xenu's Link Sleuth share a 2.6 GPA, both have a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about features, where Integrity grades higher, or the free plan, where Xenu's Link Sleuth does.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Integrity
Mac link checker, free for personal use, with paid SEO editions
Xenu's Link Sleuth
Free Windows program that checks a website for broken links
Which one is for you
Pick Integrity if
- Fits if you have a Mac and want a free broken-link check of a personal site
- Makes sense if you'd rather pay $20 or $59 once than a monthly fee
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're on Windows or want it in a browser, as it's macOS only
- Tight if you stay free, with no export, search, sitemaps or SEO checks, and business use asked to pay
- Not for you if you need scheduled scans, logins or client reports, which need the maker's $149 Scrutiny
- Watch out: licences are per user, so a team buys one each
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
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAIntegrityGood | 2.6GPAXenu's Link SleuthGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AIntegrity Plus is $20 once and Pro $59 once, per user, both far under a year of this category's middle subscription of $29 a month. The free edition costs nothing for personal use. | AFree, with no paid edition. The author asks people who find it useful to donate to causes he names instead of paying him. A program anyone can download and run counts as free here. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree for personal use with no restrictions on scans, so one person could live on it for a personal site. It only checks links, though, with no export, search, sitemaps or SEO checks, and business users are asked to buy. | AThe whole program is free to download and use, with no account and no paid edition. The 64-bit beta build for very large sites is free as well. |
| Features | CChecks every link and image, including soft 404s, and Pro adds SEO warnings, HTML validation, spelling and JavaScript rendering. The gap: scheduled scans, login-protected sites and client reports need Scrutiny, the maker's $149 app. | DIt checks links only: pages, images, frames, style sheets and scripts, with redirects, a report and a site map. No on-page SEO, speed or structured data checks, pages built with JavaScript show no outgoing links, and robots.txt support isn't planned. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record. It's a Mac app you open, give a starting address and run, with nothing to set up first. | BNo rating on record. It's a program you install, give a start address and run, with nothing to connect. Crawl speed is set from 1 to 100 threads, 30 by default. |
| Platforms and integrations | DMac only, on macOS 11.5 or later. There's no web or Windows version and no integrations on record. | DWindows only. The author says he won't make Mac or Linux versions, though users report it running under Wine. No integrations and no API. |
| Best for | free broken-link checks on a Mac | free broken link checks on Windows |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Integrity and Xenu's Link Sleuth. How we grade
Where they differ
- Integrity can be bought with a one-time purchase.
- Xenu's Link Sleuth also covers reports.
At a glance
| Integrity | Xenu's Link Sleuth | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $20 one-time, per user (Integrity Plus) | Free |
| Free plan | Integrity is free for personal use with no restrictions, but only checks links: no export, search, sitemap or SEO checks. Business users are asked to buy a paid edition. | The whole program is free to download and use; the author asks those who find it useful to donate to causes he names rather than pay him. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of Integrity Plus and Integrity Pro | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Made by | PeacockMedia | Tilman Hausherr |
| Price read from | peacockmedia.software | home.snafu.de |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Integrity
- It runs only on macOS 11.5 or later; older versions remain for older Macs.
- The free edition is for personal use and cannot export results; business users are asked to buy Plus or Pro.
- Scheduled scans, login-protected sites and client reports need Scrutiny, the maker's $149 app.
- Licences are per user; there is no web or Windows version, only a paid online scan service.
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.
Key features
Integrity
- Link checking
- Crawls a site and checks every internal and external link and image, including soft 404s, with problems highlighted in color.
- XML sitemap export
- Plus and Pro export an XML sitemap, optionally with images and PDF files, with rules for priority and change frequency.
- SEO warnings
- Integrity Pro flags missing titles and descriptions, thin content, keyword-stuffed pages, images without alt text and mixed content.
- HTML validation and spelling
- Pro checks the HTML of each page as it scans and runs a spell check using the Mac's own dictionary.
- Search, filter and export
- The paid editions let you search and filter scan results and export them, and keep settings for many sites.
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.
Plans
Integrity
Integrity$0
Donationware link checker for personal use: checks images and all internal and external links, with soft 404 detection.
Integrity Plus$20
one-time, per user
Adds search, filters and export, XML sitemap generation, archiving and managing as many sites as you like.
Integrity Pro$59
one-time, per user
Adds SEO warnings, HTML validation, spell checking, JavaScript rendering and checking links inside PDF and Word files.
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.
Ways to pay less
Integrity
- Education
Extra 20% off for education and nonprofits
PeacockMedia gives schools, colleges, universities, students, nonprofits and charities a further 20% off its one-off licences, on request.
- Other savings
Bulk licence discounts from five users
Five to 20 licences are each 15% off the single-user price, and more than 20 are each 30% off.
Xenu's Link Sleuth
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Integrity or Xenu's Link Sleuth?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Integrity starts at $20 one-time, per user (Integrity Plus), and Xenu's Link Sleuth is free.
Which has a free plan, Integrity or Xenu's Link Sleuth?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Integrity and Xenu's Link Sleuth have a free plan.
Which platforms do Integrity and Xenu's Link Sleuth run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Integrity lists a macOS app and only Xenu's Link Sleuth lists a Windows app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.