# Broken Link Checker: Find 404s, Dead Links & Broken Images (`spbros/website-broken-link-checker`) Actor
Crawl a website and check every link and image for 404s, 5xx errors, timeouts and redirects. Reports source page, anchor text, status code and final URL. Internal + external links, only-broken mode, fast HTTP-only. Great for SEO audits.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/spbros/website-broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Hansol Jung](https://apify.com/spbros) (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
$0.50 / 1,000 link checkeds
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 Link Checker: Find 404s, Dead Links & Broken Images
Crawl any website and **check every link and image** for 404s, 410s, 5xx server errors, DNS failures, timeouts and redirects. Each row tells you **which page contains the broken link**, the anchor text, the HTTP status and the final URL, so you can fix it in minutes.
### Use cases
- **SEO audits**: dead links waste crawl budget and hurt UX; export them to CSV for your client.
- **Website QA after migrations / redesigns**: catch broken internal links and missing images before Google does.
- **Link-building & outreach**: find broken outbound links on niche sites (broken-link building).
- **Scheduled monitoring**: run weekly with "Save only broken links" and get alerts via Apify integrations.
### Output fields
`sourcePage, linkUrl, linkType (link/image), anchorText, isInternal, statusCode, isBroken, redirected, finalUrl, error, startUrl, scrapedAt`
```json
{
"sourcePage": "https://example.com/blog/",
"linkUrl": "https://example.com/old-page",
"linkType": "link",
"anchorText": "Read our guide",
"isInternal": true,
"statusCode": 404,
"isBroken": true,
"redirected": false,
"finalUrl": "https://example.com/old-page",
"error": null
}
```
A link is **broken** when the status is >= 400 or the request failed (DNS error, timeout, connection refused; see `error`).
### Input
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| startUrls | Start pages; same-domain links are followed |
| maxPages | Pages crawled per site |
| maxLinks | Hard cap on links checked (and cost) |
| checkExternalLinks / checkImages | What to check |
| onlyBroken | Save only broken rows |
| concurrency | Parallel checks (1–20) |
### Pricing
Pay-per-event: **$0.0005 per link checked** (1,000 links = $0.50). Each unique URL is requested once per run (cached), so repeated nav/footer links are cheap and fast. No start fee.
### Notes
- HTTP-only (HEAD with GET fallback), no browser, so it is fast and cheap. Links rendered only by JavaScript are not discovered.
- Some sites (e.g. LinkedIn, some CDNs) answer bots with 403/999; treat those as "needs manual check".
- No login, no personal data collected.
# Actor input Schema
## `startUrls` (type: `array`):
Pages to start from. The crawler follows links within the same domain.
## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):
How many same-site HTML pages are scanned for links.
## `maxLinks` (type: `integer`):
Hard cap on links checked in total (and cost).
## `checkExternalLinks` (type: `boolean`):
Also check links pointing to other domains.
## `checkImages` (type: `boolean`):
Also check ![]()
sources.
## `onlyBroken` (type: `boolean`):
Only broken links are saved (all checked links are still charged).
## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):
Parallel link checks.
## Actor input object example
```json
{
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://crawler-test.com"
}
],
"maxPages": 20,
"maxLinks": 500,
"checkExternalLinks": true,
"checkImages": true,
"onlyBroken": false,
"concurrency": 8
}
```
# Actor output Schema
## `overview` (type: `string`):
Results in the default dataset (Overview view).
## `results` (type: `string`):
No description
# 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 '' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
token: '',
});
// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://crawler-test.com"
}
]
};
// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("spbros/website-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 '' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("")
# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://crawler-test.com" }] }
# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("spbros/website-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 '{
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://crawler-test.com"
}
]
}' |
apify call spbros/website-broken-link-checker --silent --output-dataset
```
## MCP server setup
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,spbros/website-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 ` 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/e5oGwaYvT8oflL03P/builds/XF5JE6uflfzlsyiRD/openapi.json