checkbot.io Review, Pricing & Features

Checkbot is a Chrome/Edge extension for SEO audits, broken link checking, and site crawling. See features, pricing, pros, cons, and FAQs for developers and…

Category
Marketing
Pricing
Freemium (free tier plus paid Pro subscription), from Free; paid Pro plans available (exact pricing set by developer, billed quarterly or yearly)
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2017
Headquarters
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

What Checkbot checks and how it works

Checkbot runs directly inside the Chrome or Edge browser as an extension, which means there is no separate application to install or server-side crawler to configure. Once activated on a site, it crawls hundreds of pages in parallel, checking each against more than 50 rules covering SEO, HTML/CSS/JavaScript validity, mobile-friendliness, and basic security posture. On the SEO side specifically, it flags broken internal and external links, missing or duplicate page titles and meta descriptions, heading structure issues, canonical URL problems, unoptimized image ALT attributes, robots.txt misconfigurations, redirect chains, and 404 or other error responses, giving users a prioritized list of issues to fix directly in the browser rather than requiring them to export data to a separate report first.

Pricing model and who uses it

Checkbot follows a freemium model built around a genuinely usable free tier: the free version supports unlimited checks on small websites, with no artificial time limits on how often a site can be re-crawled. This makes it accessible to solo developers, bloggers, or small-business owners who just want an occasional health check on their own site. The paid Checkbot Pro tier is aimed at professionals and agencies who need to check larger or more complex sites, work with localhost or staging environments protected by HTTP authentication, export raw crawl data to CSV for deeper analysis, generate polished PDF reports to share with clients, and customize crawl behavior (such as depth, page limits, or included/excluded URL patterns). Because it was built and is maintained by a single independent developer, Sean Wilson, rather than a large SEO software company, Checkbot has positioned itself as a lightweight, no-frills, highly focused alternative to larger enterprise SEO platforms, appealing especially to developers who want quick, in-browser answers rather than a full marketing-suite subscription.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Free tier offers genuinely unlimited checks on small websites with no time restrictions
  • Runs directly in the browser with no separate software install required
  • Covers more than 50 checks spanning SEO, code validation, mobile-friendliness, and basic security in one tool
  • Highly rated by users, with around 80,000 Chrome Web Store users and a 4.9-star rating
  • Fast, ad hoc auditing workflow well suited to developers who want quick answers without a full SEO platform subscription

Cons

  • As a browser extension, it is inherently limited to what can be crawled and processed within the browser environment, unlike dedicated desktop crawlers for very large sites
  • Built and maintained by a single independent developer, which may raise concerns about long-term support compared to larger SEO software vendors
  • Pro-tier pricing and feature gating require checking the current checkbot.io site, as it is not consistently published across third-party listings
  • Lacks the broader marketing suite features (keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking) found in larger all-in-one SEO platforms
  • Best suited to technical users comfortable interpreting raw crawl and validation output rather than marketers wanting simplified dashboards

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Checkbot used for?

Checkbot is a Chrome and Edge browser extension used to audit websites for SEO issues, broken links, HTML/CSS/JavaScript errors, mobile-friendliness problems, and basic security concerns by crawling hundreds of pages at once.

Is Checkbot free?

Checkbot has a free tier that allows unlimited checks on small websites at any frequency. A paid Checkbot Pro tier adds features like localhost crawling, PDF reports, CSV export, and custom crawl settings.

Who created Checkbot?

Checkbot was created by Sean Wilson, an independent web app developer based in Edinburgh, UK, who built it from a personal toolkit of website-testing utilities.

Does Checkbot work on localhost or staging sites?

Checking localhost sites and sites protected by HTTP authentication is a paid Checkbot Pro feature, not included in the free tier.

How many checks does Checkbot perform?

Checkbot crawls websites and checks for more than 50 common problems based on best practices recommended by Google and Mozilla, covering SEO, code validity, mobile-friendliness, and security.

Is Checkbot available for browsers other than Chrome?

Checkbot is distributed as an extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, both of which are Chromium-based browsers.

How does Checkbot compare to Screaming Frog?

Checkbot is a lighter-weight, browser-based alternative to desktop crawlers like Screaming Frog, well suited to quick, ad hoc audits rather than very large-scale enterprise crawls.

Can Checkbot generate reports for clients?

Yes, but only on the paid Pro tier, which includes the ability to generate PDF audit reports and export crawl results to CSV.

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