Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Xenu's Link Sleuth VS W3C Markup Validation Service

Compare Xenu's Link Sleuth VS W3C Markup Validation Service and see what are their differences

Xenu's Link Sleuth logo Xenu's Link Sleuth

Xenus Link Sleuth checks Web sites for broken links.

W3C Markup Validation Service logo W3C Markup Validation Service

Validates HTML markup of web pages, one at a time.
  • Xenu's Link Sleuth Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-01-11
  • W3C Markup Validation Service Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-08-30

Xenu's Link Sleuth features and specs

  • Free of Charge
    Xenu's Link Sleuth is completely free to use, making it accessible for individuals and organizations with limited budgets.
  • Fast Scanning
    The software is known for its speed in scanning websites and detecting broken links, saving users a significant amount of time.
  • Detailed Reports
    Generates comprehensive reports that include detailed information about URL status, redirect chains, and other essential data.
  • Low Resource Usage
    Xenu's Link Sleuth is lightweight and requires minimal system resources, making it an ideal choice for older or less powerful computers.
  • Simple Interface
    The user interface is straightforward and easy to navigate, even for those who may not be highly technical.

Possible disadvantages of Xenu's Link Sleuth

  • Windows Only
    The software is available only for Windows, limiting its accessibility for users on MacOS and Linux operating systems.
  • Outdated Interface
    The interface design is quite dated, which may detract from the user experience for those accustomed to modern software aesthetics.
  • No Built-in Scheduling
    Xenu's Link Sleuth lacks the ability to schedule scans, which can be inconvenient for regular maintenance tasks.
  • Limited Customer Support
    There is minimal official customer support available, so users may have to rely on community forums or other unofficial resources for assistance.
  • Lack of Additional SEO Features
    The tool focuses solely on link checking and does not offer additional SEO features like keyword analysis or competitor tracking that some other tools provide.

W3C Markup Validation Service features and specs

  • Standards Compliance
    The W3C Markup Validation Service ensures that your web pages conform to established web standards, helping to improve web interoperability and accessibility.
  • Error Identification
    The service identifies errors and warnings in your HTML and XHTML documents, making it easier to debug and fix these issues to improve code quality.
  • Improved Compatibility
    By validating your markup, you can better ensure that your web pages are compatible with various browsers and devices, providing a more consistent user experience.
  • Free of Charge
    The validation service is provided by W3C at no cost, making it an accessible tool for developers of all levels to enhance their web projects.
  • Educational Tool
    For beginners in web development, the W3C Validator can serve as an educational resource by highlighting common mistakes and promoting best practices in coding.

Possible disadvantages of W3C Markup Validation Service

  • Limited to Syntax
    The validator primarily checks for syntax errors and does not assess other vital web development aspects such as design or functionality.
  • Outdated Standards
    The tool relies on W3C's standards, which can sometimes lag behind real-world usage and popular web development trends, potentially limiting its relevance.
  • Overly Strict
    The validator can be overly strict, flagging non-critical issues that may not impact user experience but are still considered 'errors' by the tool.
  • Misinterpretation of Results
    Less experienced developers might misinterpret the validator's results, focusing too much on achieving perfect validation without understanding the real impact on usability.
  • Lack of Support for Modern Frameworks
    As a markup validator, it might not fully support or correctly evaluate modern JavaScript frameworks that generate markup dynamically.

Xenu's Link Sleuth videos

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W3C Markup Validation Service videos

A Walkthrough the W3C Markup Validation Service

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Xenu's Link Sleuth and W3C Markup Validation Service)
SEO Tools
60 60%
40% 40
SEO
52 52%
48% 48
SEO Monitoring
100 100%
0% 0
Website Monitoring
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, W3C Markup Validation Service seems to be a lot more popular than Xenu's Link Sleuth. While we know about 98 links to W3C Markup Validation Service, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Xenu's Link Sleuth. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Xenu's Link Sleuth mentions (6)

  • Show HN: I am launching the beta of Bernard, a link checker for your website
    I still haven't found a good modern equivalent to http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Show HN: I am launching the beta of Bernard, a link checker for your website
    Good list of free and open source link checkers here: https://www.devopsschool.com/blog/list-of-free-open-source-self-hosted-application-to-check-broken-links-url-check-on-web-page/ I've been using Xenu's Link Sleuth (https://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html) forever, but I should probably try some others out and see if there's something better now. Xenu's is also a funny throwback to the old web, sort of like... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • SEO Tools the best out there. Try these
    Xenu’s Link Sleuth Http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html Diagnostic, Technical SEO Winner of the ugliest-SEO-tool-on-the-planet award, Xenu is also one of the most useful. Crawl entire sites, find broken links, create sitemaps, and more. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How to use unix linkchecker to thoroughly check any site
    If you want to a tool to crawl through your site looking for 404 or 500 errors, there are online tools (e.g. The W3C's online link checker), browser plugins for Firefox and Chrome, or windows programs like Xenu's Link Sleuth. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • What's a good basic web site's HTML checker?
    I used to use http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html to check my bookmarks.html and personal web sites, but it's outdated and no longer supported. Is there a free replacement that work well to show broken links, redirected links, etc.? Source: about 3 years ago
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W3C Markup Validation Service mentions (98)

  • HTML Validation
    How to use HTML Validation service 👇 Step 1: Access the HTML validator ● Open the HTML validator in your web browser i.e go to https://validator.w3.org/. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • WebKit Fix: Quirk News.Y Combinator to Skip TextAutoSizing
    Looking at the html of HN's pages, can't blame them really. Running though https://validator.w3.org/ , the result is abysmal. At this rate, if web browsers started requiring sites to output HTML that is somewhere in the realm of normalcy, HN would sooner shut down than consider ever updating. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • We Need to Talk More About Conformance, If We Want to Stop Fantasy HTML
    Whether you’re a frontend developer, lead, or manager, reconsider your expectations and practices if you haven’t yet chosen not to ship erroneous HTML. The more of us decide to talk about using actual HTML on our sites and in our apps, and lead by example, the better for our users and clients, and the better for our craft and profession. On the engineering side of web development, it’s HTML first—if it is HTML. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • What is cross-browser compatibility, and why should you care?
    Validate Your Code Include tools like W3C code validation service and CSS validator to ensure your code meets web standards. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • What You Need to Know About Domain and Hosting
    ===> Click here to run your code through the HTML validator. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Xenu's Link Sleuth and W3C Markup Validation Service, you can also consider the following products

Screaming Frog SEO Spider - The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a small desktop program (PC or Mac) which crawls websites’ links...

Rocket Validator - Site-wide Accessibility and HTML validation made easy. With a single click, Rocket Validator will check thousands of web pages on your site for Accessibility and HTML conformance, producing a detailed, actionable report on seconds.

Pulno - SEO Audit and Website Analysis. Pull up your SEO.

PageSpeed Insights - PageSpeed is addon for ...

LinkChecker - LinkChecker is a free, GPL licensed website validator.

Total Validator - Total Validator can check your website to help ensure that it is accessible, uses valid HTML and CSS, has no broken links, and is free from spelling mistakes.