Broken Link Checker vs Show External Links (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Broken Link Checker has a higher user rating (3.8/5 from 592 reviews) and leads in active installations (500K+ vs 10). Both are free WordPress plugins. Broken Link Checker has accumulated 22M+ total downloads while Show External Links has 1.7K+.
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Broken Link Checker | Show External Links | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 3.8/5 | ◄ | 1/5 |
| Total Reviews | 592 | ◄ | 1 |
| Active Installs | 500K+ | ◄ | 10 |
| Total Downloads | 22M+ | ◄ | 1.7K+ |
| Support Resolution | 71% | N/A | |
| Last Updated | 3 weeks ago | ◄ | 7 years ago |
| First Released | 2007 | 2019 | |
| Age | 19 years | 7 years | |
| WP Requires | 5.2+ | 4.8+ | |
| PHP Requires | 7.4+ | 5.6+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 2.4.8 | 1.0.1 |
Rating Breakdown
Broken Link Checker
Show External Links
Download Trends
Recent Reviews
Broken Link Checker Reviews
False Positives for Broken Links EVERY TIME
I have used this plugin for years and it’s always been problematic, but now it gives every single link a false positive and then I have to manually check and dismiss each one. If I bulk rescan all of
Thank you
Thank you very much your work developers. I am very grateful for your wok and for your helpful plugin <3. I was migrating from my old CMS to WordPress and on my WordPress Localhost PC I successfully a
Useful by annoyingly inaccurate.
I’ve been using this plugin on 3 of my main sites for several years. It reports too many false positives when it encounters a crawler violation when checking the URLs. I have NEVER been able to connec
Show External Links Reviews
No reviews yet
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Comparison and analysis by PluginSift.