Free 404 Checker
Enter a URL to scan up to 10 pages of your site for 404 errors and broken internal links. No login required - this can take up to a minute as it crawls multiple pages.
What this 404 checker does
This is a bulk 404 checker with no login required, and it doubles as a 404 finder and 404 tester for your whole site rather than one page at a time. Enter your site and it crawls up to 10 pages, follows the internal links it finds, and reports any that return a 404 (or another 4xx) status. Dead pages found through your links and sitemap are listed with the exact URL and status code, so you can fix them fast.
Unlike a single-page checker, it moves from page to page across your site, which is why it catches broken links that only appear deep in your navigation. It works as a free 404 error checker for WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, and any other platform, because it reads your live rendered pages rather than plugging into your CMS.
Why 404 errors hurt
A 404 is a dead end. For visitors, clicking a link that leads nowhere is a fast route to leaving your site. For search engines, internal links to 404s waste crawl budget and stop link equity flowing to the pages that should rank.
404s accumulate quietly: a deleted product, a renamed post, a typo in a menu link. They rarely announce themselves, so regular 404 error detection, not a one-off check, is the only reliable way to find them before they pile up.
How to test your custom 404 page
A custom 404 page is good for users, but it must still return the 404 status code in its HTTP header. A common misconfiguration is a friendly "page not found" design that returns a 200 OK status, known as a soft 404. Search engines then treat the error page as a real page and may index it, which is worse than a clean 404.
To test your own custom 404 page, visit a URL on your site that you know does not exist and check the status code the server actually sent, not how the page looks. If this checker reports a URL as broken but you see a nicely designed page in your browser, the same rule applies: the page content and the HTTP status are two different things, and only the status tells crawlers the truth.
How to fix the 404 pages you find
For each broken URL, pick the right resolution:
- If the target moved, update the link to the new URL, or add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
- If the target is gone for good, remove the link so it no longer points at a dead end.
- If a custom 404 page is returning a 200 status, fix your server or CMS so genuine missing pages return a real 404.
Honest limits
This tool crawls up to 10 pages and checks up to 50 unique internal links, and it can take up to a minute because it visits multiple pages. Links it could not reach in time are reported as unchecked rather than confirmed broken. For all 40 checks on those same 10 pages, run a full free audit: full detail plus one AI fix. Pro adds an AI fix for every issue, a PDF report and up to 100 pages. For a quick single-page scan, use the broken link checker.
Frequently asked questions
Is this bulk 404 checker free with no login?
Yes. It is free and needs no account. To keep the crawl fair for everyone, multi-page scans are limited to 5 per hour per IP; single-page tools like the broken link checker allow more.
Does it work on WordPress?
Yes. It works as a free 404 checker for WordPress and any other platform, because it crawls your live rendered pages rather than plugging into your CMS.
How many pages does it check?
Up to 10 pages and up to 50 unique internal links per run. For all 40 checks on those same 10 pages, run a full free audit: full detail plus one AI fix. Pro adds an AI fix for every issue, a PDF report and up to 100 pages.
Can I use this as a custom 404 page checker?
Partly, and it is worth knowing the limit. This tool follows your internal links and reports any URL returning a 404 or other 4xx status, so it finds the links that land people on your custom 404 page. It cannot tell you whether the custom 404 page itself returns the right status code, because a "soft 404" returns 200 OK and looks like a healthy page to any link checker. See the FAQ below on testing your custom 404 page directly.
How do I check if my custom 404 page works?
Visit a URL on your site that you know does not exist, then check the HTTP status code the server actually returns, not how the page looks. In Chrome or Firefox, open developer tools, go to the Network tab, reload, and read the status column for that request: a correctly configured custom 404 page returns 404, while a friendly looking page that returns 200 is a soft 404, which search engines can index as if it were a real page. You can also run a command like "curl -I" against the URL from a terminal and read the first status line. If the code comes back wrong, the fix is a server or CMS setting, not the page design.
My custom 404 page looks fine, so why is the link flagged?
Because the page you see and the status code the server sends are two different things. If a URL returns 404, the link pointing at it is broken even though your custom 404 design renders nicely. That is correct behaviour: fix or remove the link, rather than the error page.