4SEO vs Screaming Frog SEO Spider (2026): which should you pick?

Pick 4SEO if

• Fits if your Joomla site wants one extension instead of several SEO add-ons
• Works for site owners who plan content from Search Console data

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if your site isn't on Joomla, as that's all it runs on
• Not for you if you want to try it first, since there's no free edition or stated trial
• Pricey if you run more than 3 sites, as unlimited sites need PRO at $249 a year
• Watch out: it keeps working after a year, but downloads and helpdesk access stop until you renew

Pick Screaming Frog SEO Spider if

• Fits if you're a technical SEO who audits large sites from your own computer
• Works for sites under 500 URLs, which the free version crawls with no time limit

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want keyword research, rank tracking or backlinks, as it only crawls
• Not for you if you'd rather not learn technical SEO terms, XPath or regex
• Tight if your computer is short on memory or storage, since crawl size depends on it, and there's no web or phone version
• Pricey if a team needs it: licences are $279 per user a year, so two people need two
• Watch out: the free version can't save crawls, render JavaScript, schedule audits or connect to Google data

4SEO

• Runs only on Joomla (versions 3, 4, 5 and 6).
• The $95 plan covers support and updates for up to 3 sites; more sites need 4SEO PRO at $249 a year.
• Payments do not renew automatically: the software keeps working after a year, but downloads and helpdesk access stop until you renew.
• There is no free edition or stated trial; Weeblr's free tools are separate products such as the SEOInfo browser extension.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Licences are per user and last one year; two people need two licences.
• It is a desktop app, so crawl size depends on the computer's memory and storage.
• The free version cannot save crawls, render JavaScript, schedule audits or connect to Google data.

4SEO

Background site crawl

Crawls the site like a search engine to find duplicate URLs, add canonical links, flag duplicate titles and descriptions, and list broken links and PHP errors.

Search Console insights

Pulls keywords and pages from Google Search Console into keyword and page opportunity lists, a cannibalization report and a position tracker covering up to 16 months.

Titles and descriptions

Set the title, description and robots tags of any page in one place, with a live Google results preview, from the admin or from the front end.

Structured data and llms.txt

Adds structured data to Joomla articles automatically and to other content through rules, writes Open Graph and Twitter Card tags, and can publish Markdown pages listed in llms.txt.

Real Core Web Vitals

Measures Core Web Vitals from actual visitors rather than a lab test, and shows which pages fail.

Sitemaps, redirects and error pages

Builds an XML sitemap of canonical pages and submits it to Google and Bing, sends changes to IndexNow, and handles wildcard redirects and custom error pages.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Technical SEO audit

Find broken links, server errors, redirect chains, missing or duplicate titles and descriptions, and directives such as noindex and canonicals.

JavaScript rendering

With a licence, render pages in a built-in Chromium to crawl sites built with frameworks such as React, Angular and Vue.

Custom extraction and search

Pull any data from page HTML with XPath, CSS Path or regex, and search source code across a whole crawl (licence only).

Google and AI integrations

Pull Google Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights data into a crawl, or run pages through OpenAI and Gemini (licence only).

Scheduling and crawl comparison

Schedule crawls with exports to Google Sheets or run them from the command line, and compare crawls or staging against production.

Site visualisations and sitemaps

See site structure as force-directed and tree diagrams, and generate XML and image sitemaps from a crawl.

4SEO

• 4SEO$95

  per year for up to 3 sites

  1 year of support and updates for up to 3 sites, on Joomla 3 to 6. GPL license with unlimited installations; payments do not recur.

• 4SEO PRO$249

  per year for unlimited sites

  The same extension with 1 year of support and updates for any number of sites; aimed at agencies.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Free$0

  Up to 500 URLs per crawl, broken links, redirects, metadata, duplicates, XML sitemaps and site visualisations.

• Paid licence$279

  per user / year, for 1 to 4 licences

  No crawl limit beyond memory and storage, saved crawls, scheduling, JavaScript rendering, crawl comparison, integrations and support. £199 in pounds.

4SEO

• Other savings

  Discount for renewing before a subscription ends

  Weeblr's FAQ says customers who renew before their subscription expires get a discount; it does not state the amount.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

• Other savings

  Volume pricing from 5 licences

  Buying 5 to 9 licences at once costs $265 each a year, 10 to 19 cost $249 each, and 20 or more cost $235 each, against $279 for 1 to 4.