COMPARE · FOR AGENCIES

Ahrefs broken-link checker vs Bulk URL Checker: when to keep Ahrefs, when to add this.

Ahrefs is the standard for backlink discovery and you should keep paying for it. The question is what to use for the recurring monthly link health pass on the discovered links. That's a different shape, and Ahrefs prices accordingly.

What Ahrefs is great at

Ahrefs runs the largest live backlink index outside Google itself. For discovery, scoring, and SEO research, it's the standard tool. The Site Explorer is unmatched for "who links to this domain and how strong are those links." If you're already paying for Ahrefs, keep paying for it. We're not trying to replace that.

Where the broken-link-checker side stops fitting

The Ahrefs Broken Link Checker (and the Site Audit's link-health pass) is built around the assumption that:

You have one site (project) per audit.
You re-run on Ahrefs' cadence inside their UI.
You consume the report inside Ahrefs.

For agencies running monthly link health for 20 clients, this breaks down in a few specific ways:

Per-project / per-seat economics get ugly. Each client needs to be a project. Cost scales linearly with client roster, on top of the seat cost for analysts.
The data Ahrefs has is its index, not real-time.For "is this URL live right now," you want a fresh check, not Ahrefs' last crawl from N days ago. That latency shows up in client conversations as "why didn't we know about this sooner?"
No agency-shaped deliverable. You get an Ahrefs-branded interface, not a client-branded PDF. To produce the deliverable, you still export to Sheets and copy into a template.
No multi-client view across the roster. "Of my 20 clients, which has the worst link rot this month?" requires opening 20 projects and comparing.
Optimized for one URL list shape: the site you added. If you have a list of URLs that aren't the project's own (a backlink portfolio you're tracking, an outreach prospect list, a content audit), it's a workaround.

Honest comparison

	Bulk URL Checker	Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
Best for	Recurring multi-client link health	Backlink discovery + per-site audit
Status check freshness	Real-time on every run	Ahrefs index, last crawl
Multi-client workspaces	Up to 20 isolated buckets	Per-project, seat costs scale
White-label PDF	Yes, your branding	Limited templates, Ahrefs-branded UI
Custom URL list import	Yes, paste / CSV / API	Limited to project sites
Anti-block layer	Proxy rotation + rate limits	Built-in to crawler
Slack alerts on broken links	Yes, per workspace	Email notifications only
Backlink discovery	No	Industry-leading
Domain Rating, traffic estimates, SERP data	No	Yes, comprehensive
Pricing	$499/mo for 20 client workspaces	$129+/mo entry, scales with seats and projects

The actual pattern: use both

Most SEO agencies we've talked to don't replace Ahrefs. They keep Ahrefs for the work it's great at:

Backlink discovery and competitor research.
Quarterly comprehensive site audits.
Content gap analysis, keyword research, SERP tracking.

And they add Bulk URL Checker for the recurring monthly pass:

Export the backlink list from Ahrefs, drop it into the client's workspace.
Schedule daily or weekly checks so you know within hours when something breaks.
White-label PDF generates monthly with your agency's branding, ready to forward.
Slack alert fires the moment a tracked backlink goes 404 in between cycles.

The recurring agency workflow

One workspace per client. Pull the URL inventory once (sitemap + Ahrefs backlink export + GSC URL list), drop it in. Set the cadence. The branded report lands in your inbox at the end of each cycle, ready to forward. Total touch time per client per month: minutes, not hours.