50
Broken Link Checker
It finds broken links but often hallucinates new ones for fun.
DecliningPoor rating
50/100
Frequent false positives and a misleading cloud subscription undermine this once reliable utility.
Active installs
~550,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 500k+
Rating
3.8★
592 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-43%
Declining fast
4,420 → 2,521 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MAJORverified rating is 3.21★
- MINORdownloads down 43% vs a year ago
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Declining fast · -43% in the last year
4,420/day a year ago→2,521/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayBroken Link Checker is a long-standing utility plugin that users find useful in concept, but its reputation is significantly undermined by persistent false positives, a cloud version that is unreliable and effectively paywalled, and poor bulk-editing usability.
What people like
- +Useful for identifying and fixing broken links, especially on large or older sites×4
- +Integration with web.archive.org (Wayback Machine) is valued for link recovery
- +Easy to install and get started×2
Common complaints
- −Frequent false positives — working links are flagged as broken, requiring constant manual dismissal×6
- −Cloud version is unreliable: users report inability to connect, scans stopping mid-way without resuming, and compatibility issues×4
- −Cloud version requires a paid subscription despite free sign-up being advertised, which users consider misleading×2
- −Bulk editing does not work properly; users must fix broken links one by one, with the page reloading to the top after each edit×3
- −False positives cause strikethrough styling on working links visible to front-end visitors
- −Cloud version is not compatible with DIVI and WPML
- −Localization/language settings do not work correctly in the cloud version
- −403/Forbidden responses from remote servers are incorrectly treated as broken links rather than crawler blocks×2
Review trustReviews look organic
- 3.21★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 3.80★
- 7%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 592 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-03-03★★★★★False Positives for Broken Links EVERY TIMEsmileee2
- 2026-02-22★★★★★Thank youslavomir12
- 2026-02-13★★★★★Useful by annoyingly inaccurate.timmitra
- 2026-02-06★★★★★Useful and effectivegrandvalleydave
- 2026-01-27★★★★★Easy to install and get started.iamteejay19
- 2026-01-14★★★★★Lame Link Checkerjanitc
- 2025-12-09★★★★★Useless Cripplewarebakerd
- 2025-11-23★★★★★Not working ساخت خطا میدهدjbaghi1-shot
- 2025-10-09★★★★★Not workingCactus-Competence
- 2025-10-03★★★★★Broken Link Checker Cloud ist absoluter unbrauchbarer SchrottOliver Meier
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Broken Link Checker
Top Redirects plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
2,332
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
2,584
Prior 7-day baseline
1,907
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
1,783
Mean release-day peak (30d)
2,531
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-9.8%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
10%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.88
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
47%
5★ share in analyzed sample
7%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
0%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
3.27 → 3.21★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered