Screaming Frog alternative When is the SEO Spider enough, and when do you need more?

Eleven tools that replace or complement Screaming Frog. With strengths, limits and prices, as of October 2026.

Michael Weber
Michael WeberFounder of searchVIU, around 20 years of SEO experience · updated on October 17, 2026

searchVIU is one of the tools in this comparison. How we compared them and where the information comes from is explained at the end of the page.

In short

You audit project by project, the website fits on your computer, and the budget is small.Stay with Screaming Frog
A large shop should be crawled regularly and automatically in the cloud, with monitoring between crawls.searchVIU
Errors should show up even when no audit is running, and alerts should be weighted by clicks.Screaming Frog plus searchVIU
A relaunch is coming up, and every URL should be compared before and after.searchVIU
You want to stay with a desktop crawler, but with better-explained hints, or move to the cloud later.Sitebulb
You want a low-cost desktop crawler with a scraper and a one-off license.Netpeak Spider
You want to schedule audits on your computer, including on Linux, and get rankings from the same suite.WebSite Auditor
You are looking for a free desktop crawler without a 500-URL limit.Beam Us Up
The website is too big for your computer, and you want to know the prices in euros up front.Audisto
SEO checks should run in the CI/CD pipeline and be able to stop builds.Lumar
Log files should be linked with the crawl on a large scale.Botify or Oncrawl
Your team already works with Semrush, and the website fits into 100,000 pages per audit.Semrush
A small website needs a low-cost suite with rankings and backlinks.Seobility
Your IT does not allow an external crawler.Stay with Screaming Frog

What Screaming Frog is today

Screaming Frog is a British SEO agency that builds two desktop programs, the SEO Spider and the Log File Analyser. The SEO Spider runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and is the standard tool for technical audits for many SEOs. The current version 24.3 dates from June 29, 2026. A license applies per user and year and, according to the product page, costs €245. Up to 500 URLs, the SEO Spider is free.

What Screaming Frog does well

  • Audits can be controlled in fine detail, with custom extraction via XPath, CSS or regex, custom JavaScript, source code search, segments and list mode.
  • Over 300 issues each have their own help page with guidance on fixing them.
  • JavaScript rendering with Chromium, form login and a freely selectable user agent make staging crawls possible too. With URL mapping, staging can be compared with live.
  • Prompts to OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic or Ollama run per URL with your own API key. A local MCP server starts and controls crawls.
  • Search Console, GA4, PageSpeed Insights and link metrics from Ahrefs, Majestic and Moz can be connected, each with its own access.
  • Getting started is cheap and immediate, without talking to sales.

How Screaming Frog monitors

Scheduling happens in the program itself, once or at fixed intervals. Since version 24, the SEO Spider automatically compares two scheduled crawls (Auto Compare) and sends the changes by email, such as new or removed pages and missing titles. The crawl runs on your computer, and it has to be switched on at that time. Screaming Frog does not offer a cloud product. A tutorial describes running it on a virtual machine you set up yourself on Google Cloud; each instance needs its own license. Between two crawls, the SEO Spider checks nothing, not even robots.txt and sitemaps. Slack, Teams or webhooks are not documented.

Why teams look for an alternative

There is usually one of three reasons behind it. Some are looking for a free or cheaper replacement. Others hit the limits of their computer, because the website is growing or a team needs to work with the crawl data together. A third group realizes that audits alone are not enough. Errors go live between two crawls and only show up in the next audit.

Which type of tool do you need?

The tools on this page work in four ways. The graphic shows schematically how each type checks over one week.

Desktop crawler

Runs on your computer. You start the crawl yourself or on a schedule, as long as the computer is on. This is how Screaming Frog, Sitebulb Desktop, Netpeak Spider, WebSite Auditor and Beam Us Up work.

MTWTFSS
Cloud crawler with scheduled crawls

Crawls the whole website at fixed times, without your own computer. In between, the tool checks nothing or only a list of URLs. This is how Sitebulb Cloud, Lumar, Botify, Oncrawl and Audisto work.

MTWTFSS
Full crawl plus Page Watch

Crawls the entire website every week, more often if you want, and checks the most important pages continuously, spread across the day. This is how searchVIU works.

MTWTFSS
Suite with audit

An audit at a fixed interval, plus rankings, backlinks and content tools in one interface. This is how Semrush and Seobility work.

MTWTFSS
Crawl of the websiteindividual requests in betweenSchematic, one week from Monday to Sunday

How often a cloud crawler crawls can usually be scheduled freely. Two questions make the difference. Is anything checked between two crawls? And does a computer have to run on your side for it?

Replace or complement?

Screaming Frog shows what the website looks like at the moment you crawl. What happens between two crawls, the SEO Spider does not see. Whether you replace or complement it depends on which problem you want to solve.

Who should stay with Screaming Frog

  • You audit project by project, for example as an agency, as a consultant or before a relaunch, and do not need ongoing monitoring.
  • The website fits on your computer. The data should stay local, or your IT does not approve an external crawler.
  • Flexibility for special questions matters more to you than a fixed schedule, and the budget is small.
  • Scheduling, Auto Compare and email are enough for you, and you can maintain your own VM.

If it should stay a desktop crawler

If you want to stay on your own computer, you have several alternatives. Sitebulb explains its hints in more detail and has a cloud version for later. Netpeak Spider comes with a scraper and a lifetime license. WebSite Auditor also schedules crawls on Linux and is part of a suite with a rank tracker. Beam Us Up is free. All four only check while a crawl is running.

If a large shop wants to crawl automatically

Large shops usually switch to a cloud crawler when they want to crawl regularly and automatically. Then no computer has to run on your side, crawls arrive on schedule, and the whole team works with the same data. The tools differ mainly in what happens between two crawls.

  • searchVIU crawls the whole website every week in the cloud, more often if you want, including with millions of URLs. Every URL is rendered in Chrome. Between crawls, Page Watch checks the most important pages continuously, spread across the day, and the robots.txt every 15 minutes. HTML and a screenshot are stored for every URL for six months, and searchVIU compares relaunches URL by URL.
  • Lumar crawls very fast and can be scheduled up to hourly. Protect checks SEO rules in the CI/CD pipeline. Prices are only available on request, and billing is based on a URL allowance per billing period.
  • Botify links the crawl with a large log file analysis and deploys changes without developers. Purchasing goes through sales, and Botify does not mention a trial.
  • Audisto from Gernsbach, Germany, crawls on a schedule, with tests you write yourself and public prices in euros. Monitoring starts at €199 per month for 10,000 pages.
  • Sitebulb Cloud and Oncrawl also crawl on a schedule. Sitebulb Cloud starts at £95 per month, and Oncrawl links the crawl with log data.
  • Semrush schedules the Site Audit daily or weekly in the cloud. For large shops, the limit matters. According to the help center, it is 20,000 to 100,000 pages per audit, depending on the toolkit tier.

Combining Screaming Frog with searchVIU

The SEO Spider remains your tool for audits and quick one-off questions. searchVIU takes care of the time in between. The whole website is crawled every week in the cloud, Page Watch checks the most important pages continuously, spread across the day, and the robots.txt every 15 minutes. Alerts are weighted by Search Console clicks. The whole team sees the history with HTML and a screenshot per URL.

The alternatives

Every card has the same fields. The information comes from the vendors' websites, pricing pages and documentation, last checked on October 17, 2026.

searchVIU

Ours

SEO monitoring and crawling for complex websites, with relaunch comparison, reports and data consulting. Project data in the EU.

ApproachFull crawl plus Page WatchMTWTFSS
Pricefrom €399 per month, 50,000 URLs included
DataProject data in the EU
searchVIU: overview of SEO issues in the demo project
searchVIU, issue overview in the demo project

Strengths

  • Full crawl every week, more often if you want. Every URL is rendered in Chrome at no extra cost.
  • Page Watch checks the most important pages continuously, spread across the day, from 1,000 pages depending on the project. If Page Watch detects a change, the alert usually arrives within a few minutes. searchVIU checks the robots.txt every 15 minutes and sitemaps daily.
  • Alerts are weighted by the share of affected URLs and Search Console clicks. They arrive by email, Slack, Teams or webhook.

Limits

  • searchVIU sees all other pages in the full crawl, once a week.
  • No CI/CD integration that can stop a build.
  • No SSO, interface in English.

Good fit for In-house SEO teams with complex websites, as well as agencies.

Add-ons AI visibility from €199, log file analysis from €199, Rank Tracking from €99 per month, each only together with SEO Monitoring. Migration Pack from €1,999 one-off. robots.txt and llms.txt monitoring are part of SEO Monitoring.

Consulting Up to 250,000 URLs: 30 minutes per month with the team
From 250,000 URLs: one hour per month with a senior consultant

Details on searchVIU
Price
Public, excl. VAT. From €399 per month, 50,000 URLs included. Larger websites according to a tiered scale, with guide prices in the calculator on the pricing page. Add-ons are only available together with SEO Monitoring. AI visibility costs from €199 per month with 300 prompts included, log file analysis from €199 and Rank Tracking from €99 with 500 keywords per market. The Migration Pack for relaunches costs from €1,999 one-off.
Specific to searchVIU
Before-and-after comparison per URL during a relaunch, weighted by clicks.
Security
ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, project data in the EU (Google Cloud). No AI training with customer data.

Compared with Screaming Frog Takes care of the time between audits. Crawl data and history are in the cloud and visible to the whole team. For ad hoc audits, Screaming Frog is more flexible and cheaper.

Sitebulb

Audit crawler from the UK with explained, prioritized hints. Available as a desktop app and in the cloud.

ApproachScheduled audits, desktop or cloudMTWTFSS
PriceDesktop from €15, Cloud from £95 per month
DataUK and USA, at Prostack

Strengths

  • Over 300 hints in Pro, sorted by priority and explained. Plus crawl maps and a comparison of source code and rendered page.
  • JavaScript rendering at no extra cost. The cloud runs without your own computer, without a project limit and without crawl credits.
  • MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT in all plans. Integration with GA, Search Console and Google Sheets.

Limits

  • According to Sitebulb, no ongoing monitoring. Scheduled audits with comparison are recommended instead.
  • Alerts on changes are not documented. No log file analysis, no rank tracking, no AI visibility.
  • Lite crawls 10,000 URLs per audit, without a schedule. Pro crawls 500,000, expandable to 2 million.

Good fit for Agencies, consultants and in-house teams who want well-presented audits. The cloud also suits many large websites.

Details on Sitebulb
Price
Public. Desktop Lite €15 per month or €150 per year, Pro €36 per month or €365 per year, per user. Whether net or gross is not stated. Sitebulb Cloud from £95 per month for at least two users. 14-day trial without a credit card.
Specific to Sitebulb
Explained, prioritized hints with crawl maps. Desktop app and cloud from one vendor.
Security
Data at Prostack in data centers in the UK and the USA. Sitebulb only names certificates for the data centers, such as ISO 27001 in the UK. According to Sitebulb, all suppliers work in compliance with GDPR; a DPA for customers is not described.

Compared with Screaming Frog Does the same job as Screaming Frog, the audit. The hints are explained in more detail, and there is a cloud version.

Netpeak Spider

Desktop crawler for technical audits with a built-in scraper, for Windows and macOS.

ApproachDesktop crawlerMTWTFSS
Pricefrom $20 per month
Datalocally on your computer

Strengths

  • JavaScript rendering with Chromium and a scraper with regex, XPath and CSS.
  • Search Console and Google Analytics including GA4 in the crawl, export to Google Sheets.
  • Monthly subscription or lifetime license, additional users considerably cheaper.

Limits

  • Scheduling and crawl comparison are not documented. Ongoing monitoring is only available in the separate product Limonity On-Page.
  • Netpeak does not publish version numbers or a changelog, and the most recent blog post is from July 2024.
  • Log file analysis and AI features are not documented.

Good fit for Price-conscious SEOs and small agencies who want a classic desktop crawler.

Details on Netpeak Spider
Price
Public, in US dollars. Pro $20 per month, $193 per year or $496 one-off as a lifetime license. Free version for 500 URLs, 3-day trial.
Specific to Netpeak Spider
In this comparison, only Netpeak Spider offers a lifetime license.
Security
Local software, the data stays on your computer. Certifications are not documented.

Compared with Screaming Frog Works like the SEO Spider on your own computer, with a scraper and Google integration. Instead of an annual license, there is also a lifetime license.

WebSite Auditor

Desktop audit tool from SEO PowerSuite, for Windows, Mac and Linux.

ApproachDesktop crawler with schedulingMTWTFSS
PriceFree version, from €149 per year
DataDesktop, not stated

Strengths

  • Crawls and reports can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly.
  • Content optimization in the tool. Rankings and backlinks come from the other programs in the suite.
  • Regular updates, most recently version 4.62.11 from October 8, 2026.

Limits

  • Exporting and sending reports is only available in Enterprise.
  • A crawl comparison is not documented. The vendor only mentions Search Console and GA4 for other programs in the suite.
  • How the software stores data and whether it is certified is not documented.

Good fit for Small teams and freelancers who want audit, rankings and backlinks at low cost in one desktop suite.

Details on WebSite Auditor
Price
Public, in euros. Free version for 500 URLs, Professional €149 and Enterprise €359 per year. The whole suite costs from €349 per year.
Specific to WebSite Auditor
Desktop suite with Rank Tracker and backlink tool, also on Linux.
Security
Data storage and certifications are not documented.

Compared with Screaming Frog Also a desktop crawler, plus schedules and a suite with rankings and backlinks. Custom extraction works via CSS selector; custom JavaScript or AI prompts per URL are not documented.

Beam Us Up

Free desktop crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux, developed by an individual.

ApproachDesktop crawlerMTWTFSS
Pricefree
Datalocally on your computer

Strengths

  • Free, no URL limit is documented. According to the developer, tested with over 100,000 pages.
  • Version 2.0 from September 2026 adds JavaScript rendering, crawl comparison and a check of which AI bots the robots.txt allows.
  • MCP server and a command line that aborts in a pipeline on errors.

Limits

  • A private project without a company behind it. Support is not documented.
  • Search Console, GA4 and custom extraction are not documented.
  • Notifications are not documented.

Good fit for Freelancers and anyone looking for a free way to get started.

Details on Beam Us Up
Price
Free.
Specific to Beam Us Up
Free and yet with an AI bot check and an MCP server. In this comparison, only Beam Us Up has this combination.
Security
Local desktop software, crawling happens on your computer. The vendor does not name any certifications.

Compared with Screaming Frog Free and with crawl comparison. The tool is run by an individual, not a company.

Lumar

Cloud platform for the technical health of large websites, formerly Deepcrawl.

ApproachScheduled crawlsMTWTFSS
Pricenot public
DataAWS, region not named

Strengths

  • Very fast crawls with JavaScript rendering, schedulable up to hourly.
  • Protect checks SEO rules in the CI/CD pipeline and can stop a build.
  • AI visibility in six engines, MCP server for reading and acting.

Limits

  • No ongoing page monitoring, no dedicated robots.txt monitoring. The substitute is frequent crawls, which use up the URL allowance.
  • HTML and screenshots cost credits and are stored for 90 days. Seven crawls stay active.
  • No rank tracking, no redirect mapping. Interface and service in English.

Good fit for Enterprise teams and brands with several domains that want to build SEO checks into the development process.

Details on Lumar
Price
Not public. Price based on requirements, with a URL allowance per billing period; extra features such as stored HTML use credits. Entry via a demo.
Specific to Lumar
Protect, tests in the CI/CD pipeline with build stop.
Security
SOC 2 Type 2, SAML SSO, IP allowlist. Hosted on AWS, region not named.

Compared with Screaming Frog Cloud instead of desktop, with access for the team and very fast scheduled crawls. Prices are not public, and you start with a demo.

Botify

Platform for crawling, log file analysis and deploying SEO changes, with AI visibility. The AlertPanel monitoring is fully available from the Growth plan.

ApproachScheduled crawls, URL list dailyMTWTFSS
Pricenot public
Datanot published

Strengths

  • LogAnalyzer as a core module, with many log sources and up to 36 months of data.
  • PageWorkers deploys changes without developers.
  • Export to BigQuery, GCS, S3 and Redshift.

Limits

  • AlertPanel checks a URL list once every 24 hours.
  • Custom alerts need at least five crawls as a baseline, no webhook.
  • Rankings only from Search Console data, no classic rank tracking.

Good fit for Large websites with a focus on e-commerce, travel and publishing.

Details on Botify
Price
Not public. Five plans, AlertPanel fully available from Growth. Botify does not mention a trial.
Specific to Botify
SpeedWorkers serves pre-rendered pages to bots.
Security
SOC 2, SSO in enterprise plans, hosting location not published.

Compared with Screaming Frog Enterprise platform with log file analysis and deployment of changes. Purchasing goes through sales, and Botify does not mention a trial.

Oncrawl

French cloud platform for crawling and log file analysis, part of BrightEdge since 2022.

ApproachScheduled crawlsMTWTFSS
Pricenot public
DataGoogle Cloud, EU hosting as an option

Strengths

  • Log Analyzer reads logs continuously from Cloudflare, Google Cloud, AWS, Azure or via upload, without sampling.
  • Combines crawl, logs, Search Console, GA4 and your own datasets such as revenue. With its own query language and export to the data warehouse.
  • Alerts with thresholds by number of pages, by email and via webhook for Slack and Teams. Plus AI Assistant and an MCP server that read data and start crawls.

Limits

  • Oncrawl checks alerts at the end of a crawl. Monitoring of robots.txt and sitemaps is not documented.
  • AI visibility only via bot visits in the logs, without prompt queries. No rank tracking.
  • No public prices, no trial documented.

Good fit for Enterprise SEO teams in e-commerce and media with high log volumes who want to combine data themselves.

Details on Oncrawl
Price
Not public. Entry via a demo.
Specific to Oncrawl
The AI Search Lens counts AI citations from log data, i.e. visits from AI user bots, and follows them through to traffic.
Security
ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type I and II, DPA available. Google Cloud, EU hosting as an option. SSO not mentioned.

Compared with Screaming Frog Cloud platform with linked logs. The Screaming Frog Log File Analyser works offline with individual files.

Audisto

Cloud crawler from Gernsbach, Germany, with monitoring via scheduled crawls and custom tests.

ApproachScheduled crawlsMTWTFSS
PriceMonitoring from €199 per month (10,000 pages)
DataEU, location not named

Strengths

  • Custom tests with regex, XPath or CSS, with thresholds for alerts.
  • Full crawl schedulable up to hourly in the Monitoring plan, daily in the Crawler plan. JavaScript rendering in all plans.
  • Great analytical depth with 205 hints and PageRank and CheiRank analysis. Prices in euros are public.

Limits

  • Audisto checks nothing between two crawls. According to the documentation, alerts only by email.
  • No Search Console integration, no log files, no AI features.
  • Depending on the plan, three to five crawls are kept in detail.

Good fit for Technical SEOs and QA teams of large websites who want to define exactly what is checked.

Details on Audisto
Price
Public, excl. VAT, business customers only. Monitoring from €199 per month with 10,000 pages per crawl, €439 with 50,000 pages. The crawler alone is available from €99 per month. Audisto does not mention a trial.
Specific to Audisto
Freely programmable check rules, PageRank and CheiRank analysis.
Security
DPA for all customers, EU data centers (location not named). No certification mentioned.

Compared with Screaming Frog Cloud crawler from Germany with custom tests, without your own computer. More expensive than a Screaming Frog license, but with a fixed crawl schedule.

Semrush

International SEO suite with Site Audit, rank tracking, keyword, backlink and competitor data, and AI visibility. Part of Adobe since April 2026.

ApproachSuite, Site Audit daily or weeklyMTWTFSS
Pricefrom €134 per month
DataUSA

Strengths

  • Large proprietary database on keywords, backlinks, competitors and AI prompts, for many countries.
  • Daily Position Tracking, 500 to over 5,000 keywords depending on the plan. Prompt tracking is included in the plans, the MCP server from Starter.
  • Site Audit with over 140 checks, including AI bot blocks and llms.txt. Re-crawls run in the cloud daily or weekly.

Limits

  • According to the help center, 20,000 to 100,000 pages per audit, depending on the toolkit tier. JavaScript rendering is only available in the higher tiers.
  • Email notification after the audit, other channels only via Zapier. We did not find any monitoring of robots.txt or sitemaps for changes.
  • Data in data centers in the USA. Additional users and toolkits cost extra.

Good fit for Teams that want a large suite with worldwide data on keywords, backlinks and competitors, including an audit.

Details on Semrush
Price
Public, in euros. SEO €134, Starter €190, Pro+ €286 per month, cheaper with annual payment. Advanced on request. 7-day trial and a free plan. The AI Visibility Toolkit is available separately from $99 per month.
Specific to Semrush
Worldwide database on keywords, backlinks and AI prompts, plus tools for ads, social and content in the same suite.
Security
Data centers in the USA, PCI DSS Level 1. SSO via SAML is enabled by support, data processing via a Data Processing Addendum. The security page does not mention SOC 2 or ISO 27001.

Compared with Screaming Frog Audits run in the cloud on a schedule, without your own computer. Each audit has a fixed limit of 20,000 or 100,000 pages, and custom extraction and custom JavaScript as in the SEO Spider are missing.

Seobility

Low-cost SEO suite from Nuremberg, Germany, with website audit, rank tracking, backlinks, uptime check and content tools, for smaller websites and agencies.

ApproachAudit crawl at a fixed interval plus rankingsMTWTFSS
Pricefrom €59.90 per month
DataData location not named

Strengths

  • Audit, rank tracking, backlinks, uptime check and keyword and content tools in one subscription from €59.90 per month, plus a permanently free plan.
  • Rank tracking daily on desktop, every three days on mobile, with cities, Local Pack and AI Overviews tracking.
  • MCP server as a beta. It reads data and can add entries such as keywords.

Limits

  • At most 100,000 pages per project crawl, 25,000 in Premium and 50,000 in Professional.
  • Alerts only by email, no robots.txt or sitemap monitoring as a separate feature. An integration with Search Console or GA4 is not documented.
  • The classic API has been discontinued. AI Visibility Tracking is already listed in the packages but, according to the product page, still runs as a closed beta.

Good fit for Smaller websites, freelancers and agencies with many smaller client websites looking for an inexpensive suite.

Details on Seobility
Price
Public, excl. VAT. Free €0 with 100 pages per crawl, Premium €59.90, Professional €99.90, Agency €209.90 per month. 20% cheaper with annual payment, 14-day trial.
Specific to Seobility
Permanently free plan, backlinks and WDF*IDF tools in the entry price. The uptime check runs every minute in the Agency package, otherwise every 3 to 60 minutes.
Security
Head office in Nuremberg. Seobility does not name the data location, certification or DPA on its website. The privacy policy names Cloudflare as CDN.

Compared with Screaming Frog Cloud audit with rankings, backlinks and content tools in one suite. The crawl has a fixed limit of 100,000 pages per project.

Stay with Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Desktop crawler from the UK for technical audits, for Windows, macOS and Linux. The Log File Analyser is a separate product.

ApproachCrawl on your own computerMTWTFSS
Price€245 per year per user
Datalocally on your computer

Strengths

  • Very deep audits with over 300 issues, custom extraction, custom JavaScript and AI prompts per URL.
  • Compares two crawls, including staging against live via URL mapping. Since version 24 with email after scheduled crawls and a local MCP server.
  • Inexpensive and ready to go immediately, free version for 500 URLs. Runs in your own network, without allowlisting an external crawler's IP.

Limits

  • Scheduled crawls only run while the computer or your own VM is running. In between, the tool checks nothing, not even robots.txt and sitemaps.
  • Alerts only by email, without weighting by clicks.
  • License per person, crawl data is stored locally. The size of a crawl depends on memory and disk space.

Good fit for Technical SEOs, agencies and in-house teams who carry out in-depth audits themselves.

Details on Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Price
Public. €245 per year per user according to the product page, $279 according to the pricing page, volume discount from five licenses. Free version up to 500 URLs. The Log File Analyser is a separate product for €129 per year.
Specific to Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Runs locally in your own network, no IP allowlisting needed. Custom JavaScript and AI prompts per URL in the crawl, with your own API key.
Security
Local software, data stays on your computer. A trust page, certifications and SSO are not documented.

Compared with Screaming Frog Keep using the SEO Spider as a desktop crawler. With a schedule, automatic crawl comparison and email, you can build simple monitoring on your own VM.

Comparison at a glance

At the top are the capabilities for technical SEO monitoring, below them three that belong more to a suite. Hover over a cell or tap it to see what the rating is based on.

Full crawlDoes the tool capture every URL, including JavaScript?
Monitoring between crawlsDoes it notice changes without waiting for the next crawl?
Alerts by impactDoes the important stuff come first, without the noise?
History per URLCan you see what changed when, with HTML and a screenshot?
Checks before releaseAre errors on staging caught?
Relaunch and migrationIs there a per-URL comparison in the product?
Combining dataCrawl, Search Console, analytics and logs in one place?
Standard reportsAre there ready-made reports that stay up to date?
Reports on demandDoes the vendor build reports for you with its own data pipeline?
Log file analysisAre bot requests analyzed?
Service and consultingDoes someone help you with setup and analysis?
Security and data protectionCertification, data location, DPA?
Price and getting startedAre prices public?
Beyond that
AI visibility, GEO
Rankings and Search Console performance
Working with AIAI assistant or MCP with the data?
Full crawl: Yes. With a license, no fixed URL limit; the size depends on memory and disk space. JavaScript rendering with Chromium. The free version crawls 500 URLs.
Monitoring between crawls: No. Only scheduled crawls, which require the computer or your own VM to be running. robots.txt and sitemaps are not requested between crawls.
Alerts by impact: Partial. Since version 24, an email with the changes between two crawls. According to Screaming Frog, the priorities are generic, and there is no weighting by clicks. Email only.
History per URL: Partial. Comparison of two locally stored crawls in database mode, with a license. No timeline per URL, the data is stored on one person's computer.
Checks before release: Partial. Staging can be crawled with form login or HTTP auth and compared with live via URL mapping. A CI/CD integration is not documented.
Relaunch and migration: Partial. Crawl comparison with change detection. Redirect mapping only as a workflow in a tutorial, without weighting by clicks.
Combining data: Partial. Search Console, GA4, PageSpeed Insights and link metrics per crawl. No data warehouse, no web API, the data is stored locally.
Standard reports: Yes. Many exports and bulk reports, a crawl overview and a template for Looker Studio.
Reports on demand: No. You build your own analyses yourself via exports, Sheets and Looker Studio. It is not described that Screaming Frog builds reports for customers.
Log file analysis: Partial. A separate desktop program, the Log File Analyser for €129 per year. Import of log files, verification of genuine AI bots. It is not linked to the team's crawl.
Service and consulting: Partial. Technical support by email for license holders. Training costs extra, from £500 for two hours.
Security and data protection: Partial. The data stays locally on the computer. A trust page, certifications and SSO are not documented, and the license is per person.
Price and getting started: Yes. €245 per user per year according to the product page, $279 according to the pricing page. Free version up to 500 URLs, download without contact details.
AI visibility, GEO: No. Prompts per URL in the crawl. The SEO Spider does not measure how the website appears in AI answers.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Partial. Search Console data per crawl, no rank tracking.
Working with AI: Yes. Local MCP server that starts crawls and triggers exports while the program is running. Plus prompts per URL with your own API key.
Full crawl: Yes. Full crawl every week, every URL rendered in Chrome. More often is possible but rarely necessary.
Monitoring between crawls: Yes. Page Watch checks the most important pages continuously, spread across the day, from 1,000 pages depending on the project. The weekly full crawl checks all other pages. If Page Watch detects a change, the alert usually arrives within a few minutes by email, Slack, Teams or webhook. Plus robots.txt every 15 minutes and sitemaps daily.
Alerts by impact: Yes. Weighted by the share of affected URLs and Search Console clicks, with severities and custom rules per segment. Email, Slack, Teams, webhook. Other tools weight alerts too, Conductor for example by an importance score.
History per URL: Yes. Full HTML and a screenshot per URL, week by week, with diffs. 6 months by default.
Checks before release: Partial. Crawls staging and DEV regularly, including behind password protection. Staging Monitoring is in its pilot phase. No CI/CD integration.
Relaunch and migration: Yes. Before-and-after comparison per URL, weighted by clicks. Plus redirect mapping and export. The Migration Pack costs from €1,999 one-off.
Combining data: Yes. Crawl, Search Console, GA4, rankings, AI answers and log files in one project. BigQuery on request.
Standard reports: Yes. Over 80 standard reports, updated every week.
Reports on demand: Yes. searchVIU builds reports beyond the standard reports to your requirements, including with a dedicated data pipeline. Example: products per category, matched against log files and traffic.
Log file analysis: Yes. Add-on from €199 per month. Analyzes bot requests, including AI bots, with verification of genuine bots. Cloudflare and other log sources.
Service and consulting: Yes. Setup by searchVIU. Data consulting included, 30 minutes per month with the team, from 250,000 URLs one hour with a senior consultant. Consulting in German and English, interface in English.
Security and data protection: Yes. ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, project data in the EU (Google Cloud), no AI training with customer data, granular roles. No SSO.
Price and getting started: Yes. From €399 per month, 50,000 URLs included. Larger websites according to a tiered scale, guide prices in the calculator. Entry via a demo.
AI visibility, GEO: Yes. Add-on from €199 per month, 300 prompts included. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode weekly, more engines and daily queries can be added. Reports on share of voice, sentiment, recommendations and cited sources, plus the sources AI answers cite for competitors but not for you. robots.txt for AI bots and llms.txt monitoring once a day are part of SEO Monitoring.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Yes. Rank Tracking as an add-on from €99 per month, 500 keywords per market included. Weekly, daily possible. SEO Performance Monitoring with Search Console data.
Working with AI: Yes. AI assistant and MCP server at no extra cost. The MCP server reads the project's data and cannot change anything.
Full crawl: Yes. Desktop Pro crawls 500,000 URLs per audit, expandable to 2 million. The cloud has no project limit. JavaScript rendering at no extra cost.
Monitoring between crawls: No. According to its own comparison page, no continuous monitoring. As a substitute, Sitebulb names scheduled cloud audits.
Alerts by impact: No. Hints are sorted by priority. Only an email at the end of an audit is documented; Sitebulb does not describe alerts on changes.
History per URL: Partial. Any two audits can be compared, plus trends. Whether HTML and screenshots are stored is not documented.
Checks before release: Not documented. No public information on staging crawls.
Relaunch and migration: Partial. Audits can be compared. There is a guide and a course on migration, but no tool in the product.
Combining data: Partial. Search Console, GA4, Google Sheets and Looker Studio. No logs, no API documented.
Standard reports: Yes. Over 300 explained hints, PDF export and automatic reporting for clients in the cloud.
Reports on demand: No. A report service from the vendor is not documented.
Log file analysis: No. No log file analysis.
Service and consulting: Partial. Support from the team that builds the tool. Enterprise support as an add-on.
Security and data protection: Partial. Data centers at Prostack in the UK and the USA. ISO 27001 applies to the data center. According to Sitebulb, all suppliers work in compliance with GDPR; a DPA for customers is not described.
Price and getting started: Yes. Prices public. Desktop Lite from €15, Pro from €36 per month, Cloud from £95. 14-day trial.
AI visibility, GEO: No. Not available.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Partial. Keyword data from Search Console in the crawl, no rank tracking.
Working with AI: Yes. MCP server in all plans, for Claude and ChatGPT, since version 10 from September 2026.
Full crawl: Yes. Desktop crawl with Chromium rendering. Pro without a URL limit, the size depends on your computer. Free version for 500 URLs.
Monitoring between crawls: No. Only checks during a crawl. Monitoring is only available in the separate product Limonity On-Page.
Alerts by impact: Not documented. Notifications are not documented for the Spider.
History per URL: Not documented. Projects can be saved. A crawl comparison is not documented.
Checks before release: Partial. Staging can be crawled like any website; there is no dedicated feature for it.
Relaunch and migration: Not documented. A feature for relaunch or migration is not documented.
Combining data: Partial. Search Console and Google Analytics including GA4, export to Google Sheets.
Standard reports: Yes. Over 100 issues by severity, plus PDF reports.
Reports on demand: No. Reports built by the vendor are not described.
Log file analysis: Not documented. A log file analysis is not documented.
Service and consulting: Not documented. The scope of support and consulting is not documented.
Security and data protection: Partial. The data stays local. Certifications are not documented.
Price and getting started: Yes. Public in US dollars, from $20 per month or $496 as a lifetime license.
AI visibility, GEO: No. Not available.
Rankings and Search Console performance: No. No rank tracking in the Spider.
Working with AI: Not documented. AI features or MCP are not documented.
Full crawl: Yes. Desktop crawl without a URL limit in the paid versions, JavaScript can be switched on. Free version for 500 URLs.
Monitoring between crawls: No. Crawls can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly. In between, the program checks nothing.
Alerts by impact: Partial. The vendor mentions problem notifications without naming a channel. Reports by email only in Enterprise.
History per URL: Not documented. A crawl comparison is not documented.
Checks before release: Partial. Staging can be crawled like any website; there is no dedicated feature for it.
Relaunch and migration: Not documented. A feature for relaunch or migration is not documented.
Combining data: Partial. PageSpeed via API key. The vendor only mentions Search Console and GA4 for other programs in the suite.
Standard reports: Yes. Standard audits and printable reports.
Reports on demand: No. Reports built by the vendor are not described.
Log file analysis: Not documented. A log file analysis is not documented.
Service and consulting: Not documented. Consulting is not documented.
Security and data protection: Not documented. Data storage and certifications are not documented.
Price and getting started: Yes. Public in euros, Professional €149, Enterprise €359 per year.
AI visibility, GEO: Not documented. Not documented for WebSite Auditor.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Partial. Not in the Auditor, but in the Rank Tracker of the same suite.
Working with AI: Not documented. AI features or MCP are not documented.
Full crawl: Yes. Crawls schedulable up to hourly, with JavaScript rendering.
Monitoring between crawls: Partial. No ongoing monitoring. The substitute is frequent crawls or Protect, both of which use up the URL allowance. No dedicated robots.txt monitoring.
Alerts by impact: Partial. Thresholds by number of affected URLs, Smart Alerts with two levels. In the app, by email, Slack and Teams. Lumar reports the results of Protect checks via webhook, but names no webhook for Monitor alerts. Weighting by clicks or traffic is not documented.
History per URL: Partial. HTML and full-page screenshots per URL for credits, stored for 90 days. Seven active crawls, older ones are archived after 60 days.
Checks before release: Yes. Protect checks SEO rules in the CI/CD pipeline and can stop a build.
Relaunch and migration: Partial. Comparison against a test site and Changed Metrics. No redirect mapping.
Combining data: Yes. Search Console, GA4, Adobe Analytics, a summary of the logs, GraphQL API and Looker connector.
Standard reports: Yes. Over 250 reports for every crawl.
Reports on demand: Partial. Custom reports from filters and columns, custom metrics. The professional services mention tailored dashboards, price not published.
Log file analysis: Partial. Only a summary of the logs, from Splunk, Logz.io or upload.
Service and consulting: Partial. Customer success, plus professional services as packages or monthly support. Whether included in the price is not published. English only.
Security and data protection: Partial. SOC 2 Type 2 and SAML SSO. Hosted on AWS, region not named, no information on a DPA.
Price and getting started: No. No public prices, entry via a demo.
AI visibility, GEO: Yes. Six AI engines, up to daily.
Rankings and Search Console performance: No. No rank tracking.
Working with AI: Yes. MCP server for reading and acting. We did not find a chat assistant.
Full crawl: Yes. Crawl schedulable up to hourly in the Monitoring plan, daily in the Crawler plan. JavaScript rendering in all plans.
Monitoring between crawls: No. Only checks in the scheduled crawl.
Alerts by impact: Partial. Alerts only for tests you create yourself, by email according to the documentation. Only the marketing page mentions Slack, Teams and Jira.
History per URL: Partial. Three to five crawls in detail, depending on the plan.
Checks before release: Partial. Crawl staging and compare it with live. No CI/CD integration documented.
Relaunch and migration: Partial. Compare staging with live. No redirect mapping, consulting costs extra.
Combining data: No. No integration with Search Console or GA4. API and exports.
Standard reports: Yes. Over 200 hints and topic dashboards per crawl.
Reports on demand: No. No report builder documented. The services only mention consulting.
Log file analysis: No. No log file feature in the software. Audisto offers log file analysis as consulting.
Service and consulting: Partial. Help with setup, phone support from 100,000 pages, consulting costs extra. Support in German and English.
Security and data protection: Partial. DPA for all customers, data centers in the EU without a named location. No certification mentioned.
Price and getting started: Yes. Full price scale public, in euros.
AI visibility, GEO: No. Not available.
Rankings and Search Console performance: No. Not available.
Working with AI: No. Not available.
Full crawl: Partial. According to the help center, 20,000 to 100,000 pages per audit, depending on the toolkit tier. JavaScript rendering is only available in the higher tiers.
Monitoring between crawls: No. Scheduled re-crawls daily or weekly. Ongoing monitoring of individual pages is not documented.
Alerts by impact: Partial. Severities per issue, email after the audit. Other channels only via Zapier.
History per URL: Partial. Comparison of two crawls. We did not find a history with HTML or screenshots.
Checks before release: Partial. Site Audit with Basic Auth.
Relaunch and migration: No. A tool for relaunch or migration is not described in the plans or the knowledge base.
Combining data: Partial. Google Analytics connection in Site Audit, log files via upload, plus API and Looker Studio.
Standard reports: Yes. Reports and dashboards for the toolkits, with PDF export.
Reports on demand: Partial. Report builder and white label. Reports by the vendor are not described.
Log file analysis: Partial. Log File Analyzer via upload, for Googlebot and, according to the vendor, AI crawlers too.
Service and consulting: Partial. Help center and onboarding. A consulting scope is not published.
Security and data protection: Partial. Data centers in the USA, PCI DSS Level 1, SSO via SAML through support. SOC 2 or ISO 27001 are not mentioned on the security page.
Price and getting started: Yes. €134 to €286 per month public, Advanced on request. Free plan and 7-day trial.
AI visibility, GEO: Yes. Daily prompts in the plans, plus the AI Visibility Toolkit from $99 per month.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Yes. Daily rank tracking, 500 to over 5,000 keywords depending on the plan.
Working with AI: Yes. MCP server from the Starter plan.
Full crawl: Partial. Crawl interval freely selectable in days. 25,000 to 100,000 pages per project depending on the package; the JavaScript crawling technology is not documented.
Monitoring between crawls: Partial. Uptime check for one selectable URL per project, every 1 to 60 minutes depending on the package, every minute only in the Agency package. It does not check robots.txt or sitemaps.
Alerts by impact: Partial. Email for critical problems during a crawl, issues by severity. Other channels are not documented.
History per URL: Partial. History of values from crawl to crawl. A comparison per URL with HTML or screenshot is not documented.
Checks before release: Partial. Crawling with HTTP password protection is possible. Seobility does not specifically mention staging environments.
Relaunch and migration: No. No tool in the product. Seobility offers a checklist in its blog and a free redirect check.
Combining data: No. Rankings and backlinks come from its own data. Seobility does not describe an integration with Search Console or GA4, and the classic API has been discontinued.
Standard reports: Yes. Reports on audit, rankings and backlinks as PDF or CSV, also white label, plus weekly email reports.
Reports on demand: No. Ready-made PDF reports with white label, with little customization. Seobility does not describe a report builder or reports by the vendor.
Log file analysis: No. No log file analysis in the product.
Service and consulting: Partial. Support by email, and by phone in the Agency package. Consulting in the package is not documented.
Security and data protection: Not documented. Based in Germany. The website does not name the data location, certification or DPA.
Price and getting started: Yes. From €59.90 per month, excl. VAT. Free account and 14-day trial.
AI visibility, GEO: Partial. AI Overview tracking per keyword is live. AI Visibility Tracking for ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode is listed in the packages but, according to the product page, still runs as a closed beta.
Rankings and Search Console performance: Partial. Rank tracking daily on desktop, every three days on mobile, with cities and Local Pack. A Search Console integration is not documented.
Working with AI: Partial. Seobility MCP in beta, reads and adds entries. An AI assistant in the tool is not documented.

Yes: included in the product, also as an add-on. Anything that costs extra is stated in the cell. · Partial: only part of it or only in certain plans. · No: not available. · Not documented: the vendor makes no public statement on this. The Screaming Frog column stands for the licensed SEO Spider, the Sitebulb column for Desktop and Cloud. Botify, Oncrawl and Beam Us Up only appear in the cards.

It does not have to be a single tool. Some teams use Screaming Frog for audits and a cloud tool for the monitoring in between.

What searchVIU does not replace

If one of these points matters to you, another tool fits better, or you stay with Screaming Frog.

Quick one-off questions in self-service

searchVIU is not a desktop tool that you start yourself for a quick question and configure freely. Custom extraction is usually set up by support. For questions like these, Screaming Frog remains the right tool.

Custom JavaScript and AI prompts per URL

searchVIU does not offer custom JavaScript, source code search and LLM prompts per URL in the crawl as self-service settings.

MCP that controls crawls

The searchVIU MCP server only reads. It cannot start crawls or trigger exports. The Screaming Frog MCP server controls the Spider locally.

Crawling without approval

searchVIU crawls from outside, and many websites need an IP allowlisting for that. Screaming Frog runs in your own network.

Price for occasional audits

If you only audit now and then, a Screaming Frog license is considerably cheaper. For a one-off log analysis, the Log File Analyser is enough.

Link metrics, spell check, SSO

searchVIU has no link metrics from Ahrefs, Majestic or Moz, no spell check and no sitemap generator. There is no single sign-on. The interface is in English, consulting is available in German and English.

Frequently asked questions

What do large shops use instead of Screaming Frog?
If you want to crawl regularly and automatically, you usually switch to a cloud crawler. searchVIU crawls the whole website every week in the cloud, more often if you want, with every URL rendered in Chrome. Between crawls, Page Watch checks the most important pages. Lumar schedules crawls up to hourly and checks SEO rules in the CI/CD pipeline. Botify links the crawl with log files. Audisto crawls on a schedule, with custom tests and prices in euros. If you already use Semrush, you can schedule the Site Audit daily or weekly, according to the help center with 20,000 to 100,000 pages per audit, depending on the toolkit tier.
Is there a free alternative to Screaming Frog?
Beam Us Up is a free desktop crawler; no URL limit is documented. Netpeak Spider and WebSite Auditor have free versions for 500 URLs, like Screaming Frog itself. Sitebulb can be tested for 14 days, and Seobility has a free plan. Open-source crawlers such as LibreCrawl also exist; LibreCrawl runs as a self-hosted web app and is not part of this comparison.
Can Screaming Frog run in the cloud?
Screaming Frog does not offer a cloud product. A tutorial describes how to run the SEO Spider on a virtual machine you set up yourself on Google Cloud. Each instance needs its own license. As an example, the tutorial gives 3.1 million URLs in around two days on a machine with 8 vCPUs and 32 GB RAM.
Can Screaming Frog monitor a website?
Since version 24, the SEO Spider automatically compares two scheduled crawls and sends the changes by email. Checks only happen at the time of the crawl, and your computer or your own VM has to be running for that. robots.txt and sitemaps are not requested between crawls, and channels other than email are not documented.
Screaming Frog or Sitebulb?
Both are audit crawlers. Sitebulb explains its hints in more detail and has a cloud version. Screaming Frog can be configured more freely for special questions and is inexpensive at €245 per user and year. Sitebulb Desktop costs from €15 per month (Lite, 10,000 URLs per audit), Pro €36 per month. As of October 17, 2026.
How much does Screaming Frog cost?
According to the product page, €245 per user and year. The pricing page lists $279 for one to four licenses, with a scale down to $235 from 20 licenses. The Log File Analyser costs €129 per year. As of October 17, 2026.

How we compared

We read the vendors' websites, pricing pages and documentation, as of October 17, 2026. Review portals and third-party estimates are not included. We did not use accounts or trials for this comparison. The information on searchVIU comes from our own product.

Vendors change their products and prices, and we may also overlook something. If any information seems outdated or wrong to you, write to us. We will check it and update the page.

Sources (41)

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