# Run five website checks before your next release

> Use Lighthouse, Unlighthouse, lychee, Lighthouse CI and web-vitals for different website checks.

Source: https://fullbytedeveloper.com/blog/five-free-website-audit-tools
Keyword: CRAWLKIT
Published: 2026-11-05

A website needs several kinds of checks. Lighthouse audits a page, a link checker finds broken destinations, and browser measurements show what happens during visits. Our CRAWLKIT post collects five free tools for these jobs.

Run scans on a site you own. Replace `https://example.com` in the examples with your URL.

## Start with one page

Lighthouse can run just its SEO category [1]. This command gives you a focused report to work through before scanning more pages.

```bash
npx lighthouse https://example.com --only-categories=seo
```

Read each failed audit and check the affected element. A passing automated report does not prove that every page is indexed or that its content answers a visitor's question.

## Check across the site

Unlighthouse discovers pages and runs Lighthouse audits across them. Its current homepage documents the v1 beta command and requires Node.js 24.13.1 or later [2].

```bash
npx unlighthouse@beta --site https://example.com
```

This explicitly selects a beta release. Review the discovered URLs before treating the report as coverage of your whole site. Pages behind authentication or without discoverable links need separate attention.

## Find broken links

lychee checks URLs in websites, Markdown and HTML. On macOS, its documented Homebrew installation is [3]:

```bash
brew install lychee
lychee https://example.com
```

Inspect failures before changing links. An unavailable destination or a server that blocks automated requests needs a different response from a typo in your own URL.

## Repeat audits after changes

Lighthouse CI runs audits and can enforce assertions in a build process [4]. Its setup needs a configuration file describing what to collect and check.

```bash
npm install -g @lhci/cli
```

Follow the linked getting-started guide to configure your site's build directory or URLs. Once that configuration exists, run:

```bash
lhci autorun
```

Choose assertions that reflect the pages you are releasing, then compare results after changes. Installing the CLI alone does not add a check to your deployment pipeline.

## Measure visits in the browser

The `web-vitals` package measures Core Web Vitals in the browser [5]. Install it in a project with a client-side build:

```bash
npm install web-vitals
```

Start with the documented console example:

```ts
import { onCLS, onINP, onLCP } from 'web-vitals';

onCLS(console.log);
onINP(console.log);
onLCP(console.log);
```

Some callbacks wait for interaction or a change in page visibility. This example only logs locally. Collecting measurements across visitors requires connecting the callbacks to an analytics endpoint [5].

## Keep the results separate

Use the page audit to identify issues, the site scan to find repeated problems, and the link checker to find broken destinations. Add repeatable build checks once the configuration is useful. Browser measurements then help you see how released pages behave during actual visits.

## Sources

1. [GoogleChrome: Lighthouse](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/lighthouse)
2. [Unlighthouse](https://unlighthouse.dev/)
3. [lycheeverse: lychee](https://github.com/lycheeverse/lychee)
4. [Lighthouse CI: getting started](https://googlechrome.github.io/lighthouse-ci/docs/getting-started.html)
5. [GoogleChrome: web-vitals](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/web-vitals)

## Original posts

- [Instagram reel](https://www.instagram.com/fullbytedeveloper/reel/DfVDkD8lUka/)