# Broken Link Checker (404 Crawler) (`rodorn/broken-links-checker`) Actor

Crawl a website and find broken links (404, 5xx, timeouts) and long redirect chains, page by page, internal and external.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rodorn/broken-links-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [FluxLab](https://apify.com/rodorn) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Links Checker

Crawl a website and find every broken link, page by page.

### What it checks

- Internal and (optionally) external links on every crawled page
- **Broken links**: HTTP 4xx and 5xx, timeouts, DNS and TLS errors, with the anchor text
- **Redirect chains** of 3 or more hops
- Crawl stays on the start host, up to 200 pages, 5 parallel checks with a short pause

### Input

`startUrl`, `maxPages` (1-200, default 30), `checkExternal` (default true).

### Output (one record per crawled page)

`page`, `status`, `links_checked`, `broken_links[]` (url, anchor, status, error, internal), `redirect_chains[]`. Download as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call via API.

### Use cases

- Pre-launch and post-migration checks
- SEO audits: broken internal links waste crawl budget
- Monitoring a site on a schedule

### Pricing

Pay per result (one crawled page = one result). Pages are fetched gently and robots.txt-disallowed areas are your responsibility: use it on sites you own or have permission to audit.

### More tools by FluxLab

- [AI Crawler Access Checker: can ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity read your site?](https://apify.com/rodorn/ai-crawler-access-checker)
- [Email Authentication Checker: SPF, DKIM, DMARC audit](https://apify.com/rodorn/email-authentication-checker)
- [Security Headers Checker: HSTS, CSP, cookies](https://apify.com/rodorn/security-headers-checker)
- [Structured Data (JSON-LD) Validator](https://apify.com/rodorn/structured-data-validator)
- [Otomoto Listings Scraper: Polish car listings](https://apify.com/rodorn/otomoto-listings-scraper)

Built by [FluxLab](https://fluxlab.pl). Questions or a missing feature? Open an issue on the Actor page.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrl` (type: `string`):

Where the crawl starts, e.g. https://example.com. Only pages on the same host are crawled.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of pages to crawl in one run (1-200). One page = one result.

## `checkExternal` (type: `boolean`):

Also check links that point to other websites (status only, they are not crawled).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrl": "https://fluxlab.pl",
  "maxPages": 30,
  "checkExternal": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All results as JSON (also available as CSV, Excel, XML).

# 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 = {
    "startUrl": "https://fluxlab.pl"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rodorn/broken-links-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 = { "startUrl": "https://fluxlab.pl" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rodorn/broken-links-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 '{
  "startUrl": "https://fluxlab.pl"
}' |
apify call rodorn/broken-links-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rodorn/broken-links-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/RSCV6Fmhlr57md0JP/builds/xpk1idqjhkQq80eqr/openapi.json