Dead Link Crawler vs Screaming Frog: Which Should You Use?
Both Screaming Frog and Dead Link Crawler will find the broken links on your website. They are built for different jobs, though, so the better question is not which is "best" but which fits what you are trying to do. This is an honest breakdown from the makers of Dead Link Crawler, including where Screaming Frog is the stronger choice.
The short version
Dead Link Crawler is a free, browser-based tool focused on finding and fixing broken links, with saved crawls, exports, and scheduled monitoring. There is nothing to install and no license to buy.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop application for deep technical SEO audits. Broken links are one of many things it reports, and it gives you enormous control over crawling and data, in exchange for a steeper learning curve and a paid license beyond 500 URLs.
Setup and ease of use
Dead Link Crawler runs entirely in the browser. You paste a URL, the crawl starts, and results stream in live. No download, no configuration, no updates to manage.
Screaming Frog is a desktop install for Windows, macOS, or Linux. It is powerful but expects you to understand crawling: configuration, filters, and how to read a dense interface. That control is a feature for SEO professionals and an obstacle for everyone else.
Edge: Dead Link Crawler for speed and simplicity; Screaming Frog for configurability.
Price and limits
Screaming Frog's free tier stops at 500 URLs, and the full version is a yearly paid license. For a large site or ongoing use, that cost is easy to justify if you use its full toolset, and hard to justify if you only want broken links.
Dead Link Crawler is free to use, with a Pro tier that raises crawl limits and unlocks monitoring and advanced exports. You can do a complete free scan without an account.
Edge: Dead Link Crawler for cost, especially for occasional or single-purpose use.
Monitoring over time
This is the biggest practical difference. Broken links are not a one-time problem: link rot appears continuously as pages move and external sites disappear.
Dead Link Crawler saves every crawl and can monitor your site on a schedule, flagging new broken links automatically so you catch them before your visitors do. Screaming Frog runs on demand when you open it and start a crawl; scheduling exists in the paid version but it is a desktop process, not a hands-off cloud monitor.
Edge: Dead Link Crawler for set-and-forget monitoring.
Depth of technical SEO data
Here Screaming Frog pulls ahead. Beyond broken links it maps redirect chains, audits page titles and meta descriptions, checks canonicals and hreflang, finds duplicate content, integrates with analytics and Search Console, and analyzes log files. It is a genuine technical-SEO workbench.
Dead Link Crawler deliberately does one job well: finding broken links and reporting them clearly, with the context you need to fix them (status code, anchor text, and the page each link was found on).
Edge: Screaming Frog for comprehensive technical audits.
Reporting and collaboration
Dead Link Crawler exports clean reports to CSV, Google Sheets, Google Docs, or PDF, which suits agencies sending a client a tidy list of what to fix. Reports carry a link back so recipients can re-run a scan themselves.
Screaming Frog exports rich data to spreadsheets, ideal when you want to slice and pivot the numbers yourself, less so when you want a client-ready deliverable in one click.
Edge: A tie, depending on whether you want a polished report or raw data.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Dead Link Crawler if you want a fast, free, no-install way to find broken links, keep a history of your crawls, and monitor your site automatically. It is ideal for site owners, bloggers, and agencies doing recurring link checks.
- Choose Screaming Frog if you are running deep technical SEO audits on larger sites and want granular control over crawling plus a broad set of on-page and technical checks in one desktop tool.
Plenty of people use both: Dead Link Crawler for ongoing, automated broken-link hygiene, and a full spider when it is time for a deep audit. If you want the wider field, see our roundup of the best broken link checkers in 2026.
Want to try the no-install approach? Run a free crawl →