# Xenu's Link Sleuth review (2026): is it any good? > Free Windows program that checks a website for broken links Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Xenu's Link Sleuth is a free Windows program, written and kept by one developer since 1997, that crawls a website and lists every link it finds with its status. It checks pages, images, frames, style sheets and scripts, flags redirects, and produces a report and a site map. The current release, 1.3.8, dates from September 2010, with a beta build also offered. - **Category:** Technical SEO & Site Audits - **Made by:** Tilman Hausherr (since 1997) - **Website:** https://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html - **Runs on:** Windows - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you use a Mac or Linux, as it's Windows only and the author won't port it. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, Xenu's Link Sleuth is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** 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:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | The full link checker for Windows, with no paid edition. A 64-bit beta build is offered for very large sites. | Read from https://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Xenu's Link Sleuth before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Windows users who want a free broken link check without signing up for anything - Checking a site on your own disk or intranet before it goes live - Quick link audits where SEO checks are not needed ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Xenu's Link Sleuth is a free Windows program that crawls a site and lists every broken link and redirect it finds. But the current release is from September 2010, it misses links that pages add with JavaScript, robots.txt support isn't planned, and it checks links and nothing else. If you're not on Windows, or you need any SEO checks, look elsewhere. - **Value for money: A.** Free, 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: A.** The 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: D.** It 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: B.** No 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: D.** Windows only. The author says he won't make Mac or Linux versions, though users report it running under Wine. No integrations and no API. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Tilman Hausherr's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among technical SEO tools - Xenu's Link Sleuth's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 56 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade, and level with 7. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 62 of 83) and worst on features (D, above 0). - Xenu's Link Sleuth has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/technical-seo ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Xenu's Link Sleuth is free, so making your own would save you nothing. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 56 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade. - You could make: Reports: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: A crawler that checks every page of a site. - You could not: A real app for Windows. Something home-made would be a web page. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Site audit, Reports ## Alternatives - [Dr. Link Check](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dr-link-check): Online broken link checker with blacklist and scheduled checks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dr-link-check-vs-xenu-s-link-sleuth) - [Dead Link Checker](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dead-link-checker): Free online broken link checker with scheduled scans by subscription. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dead-link-checker-vs-xenu-s-link-sleuth) - [Integrity](https://toolgpa.com/tools/integrity): Mac link checker, free for personal use, with paid SEO editions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/integrity-vs-xenu-s-link-sleuth) - [Beam Us Up](https://toolgpa.com/tools/beam-us-up): Free desktop SEO crawler for Windows, Mac and Linux. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/beam-us-up-vs-xenu-s-link-sleuth) - [Screaming Frog SEO Spider](https://toolgpa.com/tools/screaming-frog): Desktop website crawler for technical SEO audits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/screaming-frog-vs-xenu-s-link-sleuth) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/xenu-s-link-sleuth Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).