# Broken Link Checker — Find Dead Links & Redirects (`hipersoft/broken-link-checker`) Actor

Check a list of URLs or every link on a page for broken links, dead pages and redirect chains. Reports HTTP status, redirect count, final URL, content type and errors. Great for SEO audits and link maintenance. One row per URL as JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hipersoft/broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [hiper soft](https://apify.com/hipersoft) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.00025 / link checked

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Broken Link Checker — Find Dead Links & Redirects

Find **broken links, dead pages and messy redirects** fast with the **Broken Link Checker**. Feed it a **list of URLs** or a **page to crawl for links**, and get a clean report of every link's **HTTP status, redirect chain, final URL, content type and errors** — exported as **JSON, CSV or Excel**.

Built for **SEO audits, website maintenance, content migrations, link-building QA and pre-launch checks**, this tool catches 404s, dead domains and redirect loops before your visitors (or Google) do.

### What it does

- 🔗 **Check any list of URLs** — paste the links you want tested.
- 🕸️ **Or scan a whole page** — give it a page URL and it extracts and checks every link on it (`href` and `src`).
- 🚦 **Clear status for each link** — HTTP status code, healthy vs broken, and the exact error for failures (404, 500, DNS failure, timeout, connection refused…).
- ↪️ **Redirect insight** — how many redirects a link goes through and the final destination URL.
- 🎯 **Filters** — check external links only, or output only the broken ones.
- ⚡ **Fast & parallel** — adjustable concurrency with a per-URL timeout so slow servers never stall the run.
- 📤 **Export anywhere** — JSON, CSV or Excel, or straight into Google Sheets or a dashboard.

### Example output

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/old-page",
  "status": 404,
  "ok": false,
  "broken": true,
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/old-page",
  "redirected": false,
  "redirectCount": 0,
  "contentType": "text/html; charset=utf-8",
  "error": "HTTP 404",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-21T02:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### How to use it

1. Add a **list of URLs**, and/or enter a **Page URL** to pull links from.
2. Optionally turn on **External links only** or **Output broken links only**.
3. Tune **Concurrency** and the **per-URL timeout** if needed.
4. Run, and download the report as **JSON, CSV or Excel**.

### Input fields

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| **URLs to check** | A list of URLs to test directly. |
| **Page URL** | Optional page to fetch and check every link on. |
| **External links only** | When scanning a page, keep only off-domain links. |
| **Output broken links only** | Skip healthy links in the results. |
| **Concurrency** | How many URLs to check at once (1–20). |
| **Per-URL timeout (seconds)** | How long to wait before marking a URL as a timeout. |
| **Max URLs** | Maximum number of URLs to check (0 = no limit). |

### Output fields

`url`, `status`, `ok`, `broken`, `finalUrl`, `redirected`, `redirectCount`, `contentType`, `error`, `checkedAt`.

### Popular use cases

- **SEO audits** — find 404s and broken outbound links hurting your rankings.
- **Website maintenance** — schedule regular checks and catch links that rot over time.
- **Content migrations** — verify redirects resolve correctly after a site move.
- **Link-building QA** — confirm placed links are live and pointing where they should.
- **Pre-launch checks** — sweep a staging site for dead links before going live.
- **Documentation & newsletters** — make sure every referenced link still works.

### FAQ

**Do I need an account or key?**
No. Paste your URLs or a page URL and run.

**How does it decide a link is broken?**
Any link that returns a 4xx/5xx status, fails to connect, hits a DNS error, or times out is marked broken. Links returning 2xx/3xx are healthy, with redirects reported separately.

**Does it follow redirects?**
Yes — it follows redirect chains, reports how many hops there were, and records the final URL.

**Can I check just the links on one page?**
Yes — enter a Page URL and it extracts every link on that page and checks them all. Use "External links only" to focus on outbound links.

**Can I export to Excel or Google Sheets?**
Yes — results download as JSON, CSV or Excel and integrate with Sheets and dashboards.

***

Catch **broken links, dead pages and redirect problems** across your site or any list of URLs — clean, fast and exportable.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

A list of URLs to test. You can use this alone, together with a page URL below, or leave it empty and just supply a page URL.

## `pageUrl` (type: `string`):

Optional. Fetch this page and check every link found on it (href/src). Combine with the list above if you like.

## `externalOnly` (type: `boolean`):

When extracting links from a page, keep only links that point to a different domain.

## `onlyBroken` (type: `boolean`):

Only add broken/dead links (and errors) to the results, skipping the healthy ones.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many URLs to check in parallel (1–20).

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

How long to wait for each URL before marking it as a timeout.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of URLs to check (0 = no limit).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "externalOnly": false,
  "onlyBroken": false,
  "concurrency": 8,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 20,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

The results as dataset items.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://example.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/broken-link-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": ["https://example.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/broken-link-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call hipersoft/broken-link-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hipersoft/broken-link-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ViiKNWQr3cdUdlfEm/builds/PnPCCcfX9l1qNtRnT/openapi.json