I Tested Every Free Dead Link Checker API I Could Find — Here's What Actually Works

I run a server that gets hit by 10 different web crawlers every day. When I noticed Googlebot flagging broken links in my search console, I went looking for a free API to automate checking. I tested every dead link checker API I could find. Most were disappointing. Here's what I learned. What I Needed Simple requirements: Free tier with enough requests to be useful REST API I can call from CI/CD or cron Checks actual HTTP status codes , not just DNS resolution Reports which links are broken , not just "yes/no" Fast enough for CI/CD pipelines (under 30 seconds for a page) What I Found The Landscape Is Thin Most "link checker" tools are browser extensions or web apps, not APIs. When you search for actual REST APIs you can call programmatically, the options narrow fast. The common problems: Rate limits that make them useless — 5 requests/month on free tier Only check if a URL is reachable — not the links ON a page No crawling — you have to send every URL individually Timeout on large page