Rotbane – Broken Link Checker

No account, no credit card, no link limits, checks run on your own site. Rotbane is free, and every check runs from your WordPress server, so there is nothing to sign up for and no cap on how many links it checks. Rotbane checks the links and images already stored in your WordPress content. The scan runs in small batches, resumes if it is interrupted, and keeps the results in your database. It tells broken links apart from links a host merely refused to check. Amazon, LinkedIn, X, Medium, SSRN, and doi.org have built-in rules so a robot check or an expected DOI redirect is not reported as a dead link. A page that returns HTTP 200 but says “page not found” is reported as a soft 404, with a plain-language reason on every result. By default Rotbane does not change the front end. Redirects, slug watching, and URL edits happen only when you ask for them. URL edits replace the quoted address, so surrounding attributes stay intact. Nothing in the free plugin phones home. The only outbound requests are the link checks you start, including an oEmbed lookup when a YouTube or Vimeo URL needs to be confirmed, and the optional webhook alert you configure yourself. What it checks

• Posts, pages, custom post types, comments, menus, widgets, excerpts, and block templates
• Optional allow-listed custom fields
• Internal and external links, images, and video embeds
• Mixed content (HTTP on an HTTPS site)
• Soft 404s and redirect chains: “not found” text in more than 30 languages, pages that use the site’s 404 template, deep links that land on a home page, and your own phrases
• SSL certificate problems (expired, self-signed, wrong name, untrusted), reported as their own status
• Links to your own posts that visitors cannot open yet: drafts, pending, scheduled, private, or trashed posts. These are rechecked automatically when the post is published or restored
• Missing anchors: a link such as /pricing/#plans whose page loads but no longer has a plans section

What you can do with a result

• Read why Rotbane chose that status
• Ignore a domain in one click
• Update a URL everywhere it appears, or point it at the final redirect
• Unlink, mark as not broken, or recheck
• Create a same-site 301 for a broken internal path
• Export a CSV

Email, when you turn it on, reports links that break after the first completed scan. It does not mail the whole backlog. An optional webhook alert works the same way: when it is on, Rotbane posts a short JSON message to the https:// address you enter, only for problems that are new since the last alert. It works with Slack and Discord incoming webhooks, Zapier, Make, and n8n. Private, local, and cloud metadata addresses are refused. WP-CLI and the Abilities API

• wp rotbane scan, wp rotbane status, wp rotbane list --status=broken, wp rotbane show <id>, wp rotbane recheck --status=broken, and wp rotbane export.
• On WordPress versions with the Abilities API, Rotbane registers read-only abilities (summary, list links, get one link) and a recheck ability for AI assistants and automation tools. Each checks the same Rotbane permissions as the admin screens. Nothing is registered on older WordPress versions.

Rotbane Pro is a separate plugin for agencies: scheduled white-label reports, an agency hub, Search Console, per-client alert channels, repurposed-domain detection, site migration checks, and an affiliate link audit. The free plugin does not require it, and nothing in the free plugin is locked. Missing anchors A link with a #fragment should land on the element with that id (or an <a name>). When the page loads but that element is not there, Rotbane shows Missing anchor: a warning, not a broken link, with the reason on the result.

• Your own pages are checked from the stored content first, then from the published page itself, which is requested once through the same safe HTTP path as every other check and remembered for ten minutes.
• Anchors on other websites are not checked unless you turn that on in Settings → Anchors. Then the check for such a link is one GET request instead of HEAD, and Rotbane reads up to 1 MB of the page.
• #top, empty #, #! and #/ app routes, text fragments (#:~:text=), and #name=value fragments are skipped. Ids are matched exactly, so #Plans and #plans are different, as in browsers.

1.1.1

• Links list: the Recheck and Ignore domain row buttons are now spaced apart instead of running together.

1.1.0

• Soft 404 detection v2: the site’s 404 template, deep links that redirect to a home page (can be turned off), “not found” phrases in more than 30 languages, and your own phrases.
• New SSL error status, with a plain reason for expired, self-signed, wrong-name, and untrusted certificates.
• New Not public status for links to drafts, pending, scheduled, private, and trashed posts, with automatic recheck when the post is published or restored.
• Optional webhook alert for new problems only (off by default, public https:// addresses only, SSRF-guarded).
• WP-CLI: new list, show, and recheck commands.
• Abilities API support on WordPress versions that include it.
• Bengali (bn_BD) translation updated.

1.0.0

• First release.
• Broken links, redirects, blocked hosts, soft 404s, mixed content, and video embeds, each with a plain-language reason.
• Missing anchor status for links whose #section is not on the target page. Same-page (#id) and same-site (/page/#id) links are checked; other sites optionally (Settings → Anchors).
• Missing anchors have their own card, filter, badge, and "Why?" explanation, an Anchor column in the CSV export, and a summary line in the email digest. The block editor panel lists them too.
• Bengali (bn_BD) translation.