diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 96e14f6bbb..85f96640d7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -9,5 +9,6 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - run: make url_check
       - run: make awesome_lint
       - run: make export
diff --git a/.github/workflows/update-metadata.yml b/.github/workflows/update-metadata.yml
index 9b01c206e0..19289d894c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/update-metadata.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/update-metadata.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
       - run: make update_metadata
+      - run: make url_check
       - run: make awesome_lint
       - run: make export
       - name: commit and push changes
diff --git a/.hecat/url-check.yml b/.hecat/url-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..de4327ce66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.hecat/url-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+steps:
+  - name: check URLs
+    module: processors/url_check
+    module_options:
+      source_directories:
+        - software
+        - tags
+      source_files:
+        - licenses.yml
+      check_keys:
+        - url
+        - source_code_url
+        - website_url
+        - demo_url
+      exclude_regex:
+        - '^https://github.com/[\w\.\-]+/[\w\.\-]+$' # don't check URLs that will be processed by the github_metadata module
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4ea8db3267..59c47147fa 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@ update_metadata: install
 	source .venv/bin/activate && \
 	hecat --config .hecat/update-metadata.yml
 
+.PHONY: url_check # check URLs for dead links or other connection problems
+url_check: install
+	source .venv/bin/activate && \
+	hecat --config .hecat/url-check.yml
+
 .PHONY: awesome_lint # check data against awesome-selfhosted guidelines
 awesome_lint: install
 	source .venv/bin/activate && \