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Broken Link Notifier

By PluginRx

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Broken Link Notifier Review - In-Depth Analysis

Get notifications for broken links on your website when visitors load a page. This plugin ensures a seamless user experience by alerting you to any dead links.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.69/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 14+ reviews)

Active Installations

1,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

The Broken Link Notifier WordPress plugin is a vigilant guardian for your website's links, monitoring and alerting you to broken or dead links as users visit your site. This ensures a seamless user experience and helps prevent search engine ranking penalties. Unlike other broken link checker plugins that can cause performance and timeout issues with full site scans, this plugin focuses on notification, making it a great complement to offsite services that handle full site scans.

This plugin scans content when users visit a page after the page fully loads, preventing performance lag. It identifies broken links, including 404 errors, timeouts, images, and embedded YouTube videos. You will be notified via dashboard notifications, email, Discord, Slack, and/or Microsoft Teams. It provides a list of broken links for easy review and correction and allows easy replacement of links straight from the results page. Additionally, it caches working links to skip rechecking them for a configurable amount of time.

With Broken Link Notifier, you can ensure accurate and functional links for your users, prevent search engines from indexing broken links, maintain a professional and trustworthy website image, and save time and effort in manual link checking. This plugin is a must-have for website owners, developers, and SEO enthusiasts who want to guarantee a smooth and error-free browsing experience for their audience!

Comparing to Alternatives

Broken Link Notifier offers a unique approach to link checking by leveraging visitor-triggered scans, distinguishing it from traditional link checkers.

Top alternatives

Broken Link Checker ( WPS: 6.97)

Strengths

Leverages visitor activity to prioritize scanning, reducing server load.
Clean and user-friendly interface.
Responsive and helpful support team.
Efficiently manages multiple articles with many external links.
Transparent and clear plugin descriptions.

Weaknesses

Lacks an option to include HTTP 200 status links in results.
Settings page has usability issues, such as missing Save button.
Generates some false positives, especially with ads.
Occasional issues with fixed links reappearing in the broken links list.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a high rating of 4.8 out of 5 from 14 reviews and no low-star ratings, users generally express strong satisfaction with the plugin's performance and support.

Positive highlights

'Gets the job done' with responsive support resolving initial performance issues (lklawless).
'Fantastic plugin—clean interface and a real time-saver!' (colnago1).
Very useful for managing multiple external links across articles (mmatei).
Developer is responsive and helpful even for unique issues (John).
Innovative approach by leveraging visitors for link scanning, reducing resource use (pol).

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Missing Save button on Settings page causing configuration issues.
False positives reported especially related to ads.
Fixed or removed links sometimes reappear in the broken links list.
No option to view healthy links alongside broken ones.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Website owners and managers looking for an efficient, low-resource way to monitor broken links, especially those with multiple external references.

Not ideal for

Users who require advanced filtering options or a fully stable settings interface may find this plugin less suitable until those issues are addressed.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers comprehensive broken link detection leveraging visitor activity without taxing server resources.

Final Verdict

Broken Link Notifier is a highly rated plugin that effectively identifies broken links by using visitor-triggered scans, minimizing server load. Its clean interface and responsive support enhance user experience, making it a strong choice for many website owners.

However, some usability issues like the missing Save button and occasional false positives may affect user satisfaction. While it lacks a paid version and some advanced features, its unique approach and solid performance make it a valuable tool for those prioritizing efficiency and simplicity.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Broken Link Notifier plugin.

Broken links

Link checker

Link notifications

Screenshots

FAQ

No — The plugin is designed to have minimal impact on performance by only scanning content after the page has fully loaded for a visitor. This means it doesn’t interfere with the page render or user experience. Additionally, in version 1.2.5, we introduced a link caching option that can further improve performance.

If enabled (via the Settings page), caching good links will prevent the same working links from being rechecked repeatedly for a set period of time. This reduces unnecessary HTTP requests and improves scan efficiency on high-traffic sites.

You can set the cache duration in seconds — common values include:
– 28800 for 8 hours
– 43200 for 12 hours
– 86400 for 24 hours

Adjust this based on your site’s traffic and how frequently your links change.

Yes, there are plenty. The following hooks are available:
* blnotifier_html_link_sources ( Array $sources ) — Filter where the links are found in the content’s HTML
* blnotifier_omitted_pageload_post_types ( Array $post_types ) — Filter the post types that you don’t want to scan on page load
* blnotifier_omitted_multiscan_post_types ( Array $post_types ) — Filter the post types that you don’t want to allow for Multi-Scan option
* blnotifier_link_before_prechecks ( String|Array|False $link ) — Filter the link before checking anything
* blnotifier_status ( Array $status ) — Filter the status that is returned when checking a link for validity after all pre-checks are done
* blnotifier_http_request_args ( Array $args, String $link ) — Filter the http request args
* blnotifier_remove_source_qs ( Array $query_strings ) — Filter the query strings to remove from source url on page load scans
* blnotifier_url_schemes ( Array $schemes ) — Filter the URL Schemes skipped during pre-checks
* blnotifier_suggested_offsite_checkers ( Array $checkers ) — Filter the list of suggested offsite checkers on Multi-Scan page
* blnotifier_notify ( Array $flagged, Int $flagged_count, Array $all_links, String $source_url ) — Action hook that fires when notifying you of new broken links and warning links that are found on page load
* blnotifier_email_emails ( String|Array $emails, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the emails that the email notifications are sent to
* blnotifier_email_subject ( String $subject, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the subject that the email notifications are sent with
* blnotifier_email_message ( String $message, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the message that the email notifications are sent with
* blnotifier_email_headers ( Array $headers, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the headers used in the email notifications
* blnotifier_discord_args ( Array $args, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the Discord webhook args
* blnotifier_slack_args ( Array $args, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the Slack webhook args
* blnotifier_msteams_args ( Array $args, Array $flagged, String $source_url ) — Filter the Microsoft Teams webhook args
* blnotifier_strings_to_replace ( Array $strings_to_replace ) — Filter the strings to replace on the link
* blnotifier_force_head_file_types (Array $file_types, Boolean $docs_use_head) — Filter the list of file types that should force a HEAD request, with the $docs_use_head variable determining whether document types should be included