6 best Screaming Frog alternatives in 2026

A Screaming Frog SEO Spider licence costs $279 a year per user, so every colleague who crawls needs one of their own. Without a licence it stops at 500 URLs and leaves out JavaScript rendering, saved crawls and scheduling, and every crawl runs on your own computer. People look for an alternative when they want audits a client can read, crawls that run on someone else's servers, or a quick check without installing anything.

Facts here come from Screaming Frog's pricing page, FAQ, user guide and release history, and from other vendors' own pages, in US dollars, as of October 2026.

Quick comparison: best Screaming Frog alternatives

1. seogeoaeo.ai

Best for: a founder, marketer or AI agent who wants to check a small site, or a few pages after a release, without installing a crawler.

seogeoaeo.ai is not a desktop crawler. It runs checks on our servers, one job per tool, and you pay for each run in credits. The closest thing to a crawl is Orphan Page Finder. It crawls up to 150 pages from your homepage, following links the way Googlebot does and skipping URLs your robots.txt blocks for Googlebot. It reads up to 10 sitemap files and 10,000 sitemap URLs, then compares the two lists. A run costs 20 credits and reports:

• sitemap pages that nothing links to
• indexable pages missing from the sitemap
• pages four or more clicks deep
• broken internal links
• sitemap URLs that redirect, fail or are noindex

Plans start at $29 a month for 2,000 credits, enough for 100 runs of Orphan Page Finder. Startup costs $69 for 5,000 credits, Scale $199 for 22,000 and Enterprise $499 for 130,000. Every plan includes every tool in the browser and through MCP or REST.

Why teams choose seogeoaeo.ai

Smaller tools each cover one job a crawler does, so you pay only for the check you need:

• Broken Internal Link Finder checks up to 30 same-site links on one page for 4xx and 5xx errors, main content first, for 15 credits.
• HTTP Status Bulk Checker returns the status code, redirect target and response time for up to 20 pasted URLs, for 20 credits.
• Redirects, Headers & Host Checker follows one URL's redirect chain, checks that the http, https, www and bare hosts end at one URL, and finds response headers that hurt crawling or indexing, for 10 credits.
• Indexing & Canonical Checker shows whether Google and Bing may crawl and index a URL, from its status, robots.txt, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and canonical, for 8 credits.
• On-Page SEO Checker checks a page's title, meta description, search snippet and H1 to H6 outline, for 8 credits.
• XML Sitemap Validator checks one sitemap or sitemap index against the sitemaps.org protocol and Google's limits, for 10 credits.
• Hreflang Checker validates a page's hreflang codes and fetches each language version to confirm it loads and links back, for 10 credits.

The website check runs a set of these on your homepage and up to two more pages, and shows the price before you start. Add the site structure check and it includes the 150-page Orphan Page Finder crawl. A preview of your home page costs no credits.

Because every plan includes MCP and REST, a coding agent such as Claude Code or Cursor can run a check after it ships a page and read the result itself. The agents page has the setup.

seogeoaeo.ai vs Screaming Frog

You give up depth. One Orphan Page Finder crawl stops at 150 pages, our tools read the HTML your server sends and don't follow links that JavaScript adds after the page loads, and the single-page tools don't check broken external links or backlinks from other sites. If your site has thousands of pages or JavaScript navigation, a crawler below is the better tool.

2. Sitebulb

Best for: an SEO who hands audits to clients or colleagues who aren't crawler experts.

Sitebulb is the closest match to Screaming Frog. It is a desktop crawler too, and every plan includes JavaScript crawling, duplicate content checks, crawl maps and Google Analytics, Search Console and Sheets connections. Its hints explain each issue and sort them by priority, more than 100 on Lite and more than 300 on Pro.

• Strengths: the priority hints make an audit readable without a crawler expert. Both Lite and Pro include an MCP server. Pro adds audit comparisons, scheduled audits and custom PDF reports.
• Weaknesses: Lite stops at 10,000 URLs per audit. Pro allows 500,000 URLs per audit, which you can raise to 2 million, but it still runs on your computer.
• Pricing: Lite costs $18 a month or $180 a year, and Pro $42 a month or $425 a year. There is a 14-day trial, and yearly plans save about 15%.

3. Netpeak Spider

Best for: the lowest price for a desktop crawler with no URL limit.

Netpeak Spider Pro has no URL limit and sells a lifetime licence. Its version without a licence also stops at 500 URLs, but Netpeak's feature table includes JavaScript rendering, custom scraping and Search Console data on it, which Screaming Frog keeps for paid licences.

• Strengths: $193 a year is less than one Screaming Frog licence, and a one-time payment of $496 avoids renewals.
• Weaknesses: saving projects needs Pro. The trial lasts only 3 days.
• Pricing: Pro costs $20 a month, $193 a year or $496 for a lifetime licence, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

4. JetOctopus

Best for: sites too big for one computer, and teams that want logs next to the crawl.

JetOctopus runs crawls on its own servers, so a 2-million-URL crawl doesn't tie up your laptop. Growth covers 500,000 crawled URLs and 2 million log lines a month.

• Strengths: JavaScript rendering, crawl comparison, unlimited projects and seats, and 12 months of data. The 7-day trial needs no credit card.
• Weaknesses: the price. Growth costs more a month than a Screaming Frog licence costs a year, and crawling is capped by URLs a month.
• Pricing: Growth costs $349 a month billed annually, or $459 billed quarterly. Pro costs $809 a month billed annually for 2 million URLs.

5. SE Ranking

Best for: a team that wants a site audit in the same suite as rank tracking.

SE Ranking Core includes 250,000 audited pages a month, plus rank tracking, AI answer tracking and MCP access. A suite checks pages against its own issue list and keeps the history in the browser.

• Strengths: one subscription covers the audit and the tracking, and the crawl runs in the cloud.
• Weaknesses: less control over what is crawled and extracted than a desktop crawler.
• Pricing: Core costs $129 a month, or $103.20 billed annually, with a 14-day trial.

6. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Best for: auditing a site you own at no charge.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools audits sites you verify. Each verified project gets 5,000 crawl credits a month, and only HTML pages that return a 200 status use them, so broken URLs and redirects don't count against the limit.

• Strengths: no charge, and the crawl runs in the cloud.
• Weaknesses: it covers only sites you can verify, and 5,000 pages a month is small for a large site.
• Pricing: no charge.

Semrush includes Site Audit from its SEO plan at $139 a month, or $117.33 billed annually, which may be enough if you already pay for it. Lumar, formerly Deepcrawl, sells cloud crawling to enterprises on quotes. Google Search Console isn't a crawler, but its Page indexing report shows which pages Google itself crawled and left out, which no third-party crawl can tell you. Use it alongside any tool above.

Screaming Frog pricing, and when it's still the right choice

A licence covers one person for one year. That person can install it on more than one computer and crawl any number of sites, but a colleague needs a licence of their own. There is no monthly plan, and Screaming Frog says it offers no discounts beyond these bulk prices. You can get a full refund within 14 days of buying.

Licences don't renew unless you turn on auto renewal. When one expires, the SEO Spider goes back to the 500-URL version, its configuration options lock and crawls you saved can't be opened until you renew.

What you get without a licence

Without a licence, the SEO Spider crawls up to 500 URLs, with no sign-up. It still finds broken links, errors and redirects, analyses page titles and meta descriptions, reviews meta robots and other directives, audits hreflang, finds exact duplicate pages, generates XML sitemaps and draws site visualisations. That covers a quick check of a small site.

A licence removes the 500-URL limit and adds:

• JavaScript rendering, which matters when links or content only appear after scripts run.
• Saved crawls, crawl comparison and scheduled crawls.
• The crawl configuration, custom robots.txt, custom source code search, custom extraction and custom JavaScript.
• Near-duplicate content, structured data validation, spelling and grammar, mobile usability and accessibility checks.
• Connections to Google Analytics, Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, link metrics tools and AI providers.
• Forms-based login for sites behind a password, segmentation and a Looker Studio crawl report.
• Technical support.

What it needs from your computer

Screaming Frog crawls from your own computer and IP address, so your hardware sets the limit. It starts in database storage mode with 2GB of memory allocated. The user guide says 8GB of RAM is generally enough for crawls under 200,000 URLs, and recommends an SSD and 16GB of RAM to crawl more than 1 million, with 4GB allocated to the SEO Spider for crawls up to 2 million URLs. A crawl runs only while that computer is on, and scheduled crawls run there too.

What Screaming Frog does well

For a big site, $279 a year is hard to beat. There is no URL quota and no limit on sites, where cloud crawlers charge by URLs crawled a month.

The configuration goes deep. Custom extraction pulls any element with XPath, CSS selectors or regex, and custom JavaScript runs your own snippet on each page. Version 21 added OpenAI, Gemini and Ollama, so you can run a prompt against every page or create embeddings. Version 22 added Anthropic and semantic similarity, which flags pages so close in meaning that they compete. Version 24.0, released on May 19, 2026, added an MCP server so AI assistants such as Claude can work with the SEO Spider, though Screaming Frog says not every feature works through it yet. A command-line mode runs crawls on a server with no screen, and the separate Log File Analyser reads server logs.

Where Screaming Frog's pages disagree

• Currency. The FAQ says the price is in pounds sterling and buyers outside the UK should check the exchange rate, while the pricing page sells in US dollars and euros too.
• MCP version. The release history lists the MCP server in version 24.0, while the FAQ names 24.1 as the version that has it. Version 24.0 also had a bug that broke the Claude extension for some non-English languages, so install the latest version first.
• AI providers. The free-versus-paid table says "Crawl with OpenAI & Gemini", while the release history lists Ollama from version 21 and the version 22 announcement adds Anthropic.

Who should stay with Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog suits consultants and in-house SEOs who crawl large or many sites and want full control over what is fetched and extracted, for the price of one yearly licence. It also suits crawling staging sites behind a login, or sites that only allow your IP address.

It's a weaker fit if you need audits a client can read without help, crawls that run when your computer is off, or a team where each person would need their own licence.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Screaming Frog alternative?

Sitebulb is the closest match: a desktop crawler that explains and ranks each issue, from $18 a month. For sites too big for one computer, JetOctopus crawls in the cloud. To check a small site or a few pages without installing anything, seogeoaeo.ai charges per run.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Screaming Frog?

Netpeak Spider Pro costs $193 a year, or $496 once for a lifetime licence, with no URL limit. Sitebulb Lite costs $180 a year for audits of up to 10,000 URLs. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools audits sites you verify at no charge.

How much does Screaming Frog cost?

A licence costs $279 a year per user, or £199 in the UK, falling to $235 each when you buy 20 or more. There is no monthly plan, and you can get a full refund within 14 days.

Can you use Screaming Frog without a licence?

Yes, for up to 500 URLs with no sign-up. You lose JavaScript rendering, saved and scheduled crawls, structured data checks and the Google Analytics and Search Console connections.

Which Screaming Frog alternatives have an MCP server or API?

Sitebulb includes an MCP server on Lite and Pro, and SE Ranking Core includes MCP access. seogeoaeo.ai includes MCP and REST on every plan. Screaming Frog itself added an MCP server in version 24.

Which Screaming Frog alternative is right for you?

• You check a small site, or a few pages after each release, or through an agent: seogeoaeo.ai.
• You hand audits to clients or colleagues: Sitebulb.
• You want a desktop crawler for the lowest price: Netpeak Spider.
• Your site is too big for one computer: JetOctopus.
• You already want an SEO suite: SE Ranking or Semrush.
• You only audit sites you own and don't want to pay: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, with Google Search Console.

Whichever crawler you choose, our SEO audit guide and website audit checklist cover what to check, and our guide to orphan pages explains how to fix each one a crawl finds. To start on a small site, crawl it from the homepage and compare what links reach with what your sitemap lists.