11 Best URL Scanners to Check If a Link is Safe

You must undoubtedly depend on URL Scanner tools to inspect a site for any malicious infection if you want to safeguard yourself against phishing activities and viruses.

URL Scanning is in charge of examining the web link against domain risk history information to see if any suspicious files are being concealed. Even trustworthy websites can have buried malicious code that enters your system and starts installing automatically.

Some URL scanner tools also warn you about phishing activities and malware threats. Do you worry about unintentionally disclosing your confidential data? It is necessary to check the website before accessing it to ensure your information won’t be stolen since phishing could be a more significant threat than viruses and malware infections.

In this article, we’ve compiled the list of best URL scanners to Check whether a link is safe or not.

Let’s get rolling!

Domain Reputation

Domain Reputation tools by WhoisXML API allow users to scan domain names and IP addresses to check if they have been reported as malicious on various malware databases. The products also perform several domain infrastructure analyses, including WHOIS Domain Check, SSL Vulnerability Check, MX Record Configuration Analysis, and others, and assign a security infrastructure score. This helps users immediately assess if they are interacting with suspicious or malicious web property.

The tools consider dozens of infrastructure-related parameters crucial to a domain’s or an IP address’s safety and security. 

The product line includes a/an:

• API with output queries in JSON and XML. The API allows making as many as 15 requests per second.
• GUI lookup tool that allows users to quickly check a domain name or an IP address and download the results in JSON format.

Check this product sheet to learn how WhoisXML API’s Domain Reputation products can help with your use case. 

URL Void

URLVoid is one of the best and most powerful online tools for URL scanning. It scans a website using more than 30 blocklist engines and web assessment utilities, making finding malicious and deceptive URLs easier. Enter the URL in the space provided and click on “Scan Website” to check for malicious code.

For developers, URLVoid also provides a URL reputation API. You can quickly identify potentially dangerous and fraudulent URLs using this Reputation API. This API uses inbuilt and pre-programmed standards to find possibly harmful URLs.

Many cyber security firms are using it to expedite the examination of cyber threats, making it easier to spot possibly hazardous sites and URLs that have been flagged as threats by several reliable sources.

Criminal IP

Criminal IP is an up-and-coming security OSINT search engine with a revolutionary IP-based search system and tracking technology. Domain Search is a Criminal IP feature that scans target domains in real-time and provides exhaustive information on that domain with a final 5-level risk score, detection for the probability of phishing, mapped IP, real IP, tech stack, redirection, DNS record, certificates, etc. 

This service has the added benefit of scan-detecting completely new malicious links that have not yet been registered in the existing database. Once a certain domain URL is put to scan, a scanner is launched to conduct scanning and AI-driven analysis, diagnosing whether URLs are malicious and should be blocked accordingly. This service provides direct URL search, to-the-point keyword search, and easy-to-use filters to aid users in finding what they need.

Sucuri SiteCheck

SiteCheck, a free URL scanner offered by Sucuri, can examine a website URL for embedded malware by inspecting source and configuration files. Sucuri is a well-known enterprise that provides various services and tools to safeguard websites against malware infection and Advanced persistent threats and services to restore compromised sites on the internet.

It also utilizes its proprietary approach that deals exclusively in identifying malicious files in the form of embedded code and shows the precise position of a payload, in contrast to other tools, which use 3rd parties scanning engine. It provides a full range of security monitoring services to diagnose and eradicate malicious programs.

Norton Safe Web

Safe Web is a powerful reputation service provided by Norton for URL scanning to check for embedded malicious code and infected files. Paste the URL or site address into the input field, then hit the search button to have it checked for malware.

It is an easy-to-use tool that provides immediate and effective results. It helps block suspicious URLs included in emails or even gather in-depth threat intelligence data about a URL.

Google Transparency Report

Google Transparency Report is one of the outstanding and most reliable URL scanning services for finding embedded malicious infections. Enter the URL you want to check and click enter to continue. Google safe browsing technology instantly warns the website owner through the search console if any dangerous websites are identified.

Google automatically displays cautionary messages in web browsers and on Google Search when anyone tries to access it. It employs its proprietary technology for identifying malware, unlike other well-known URL checking tools that scan from other providers.

PhishTank

PhishTank is a global community repository for research information about online phishing. PhishTank enables the user to determine whether a link is secure or not rather than searching for any malicious infections.

This website maintains a significant record of internet sites that engage in phishing activity, allowing you to check for suspectable links and determine which sites are secure to view.

PhishTank offers an open API for programmers and academic researchers to incorporate anti-phishing information into existing solutions. The website allows everyone to validate links that other visitors previously submitted.

VirusTotal

VirusTotal uses an aggregated and comprehensive data methodology to detect harmful and malicious URLs. Simply input the target web URL in the input field and click Enter to conduct a website scan.

It provides both public and private API Services for programmers. These APIs can be used to develop a customized URL checker tool on your website. However, they are only permitted for non-commercial purposes.

This tool can examine the file hashes, IP addresses, and URLs. It detects harmful links and websites by cross-referencing all the most recent virus scan results of URL scanning providers with over 60 other services. And finally, the test results can be instantly shared with the security community for future reference.

IP Quality score

IPQS malicious URL scanner is one of the most highly recommended URL checker tools to scan for malware infections and Phishing Links. Enter a URL and click Enter to start the scan. It uses a blacklist registry library and deep learning algorithms to examine the target URL.

Users can perform a phishing inspection using the available recent threat info and live-data analysis and also can conduct parked domain detection to find fake websites that are frequently utilized for spamming.

Additionally, it shows other helpful information like risk score, status code, content type, and web server name.

ScanURL

ScanURL is another autonomous web service that accepts the URL query input through a secure and encrypted HTTPS linkage to scan for phishing and malicious file infections. It uses reputable 3rd party web services to scan the URLs and websites.

This URL scanner has an easy-to-use interface and provides basic “how-to” guidelines for identifying harmful links. Also, you can share test results with other members using a sharable link.

Email veritas

Email veritas provides an accessible and reliable URL scanner tool to scan any URL or website on the internet. Simply enter the target address and click the “Search” button to continue.

It immediately scans and provides a detailed assessment report on potential threats and other helpful details like HTTP status code and redirection chain.

Wrapping Up

Gaining admin privileges to infect webpages with malicious code and implant exploits is an increasing motive for hackers. This methodology allows the malware to be distributed over a wide range of systems without using the typical computing resources needed by attackers.

The challenge of identifying harmful links and preventing damage to our systems never ends. Encourage better browsing habits and follow internet safety rules before clicking suspicious links to avoid getting infected with malware.

You may also be interested in learning about the best Cyber Attack Simulation Tools to Improve Security.