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

Pick LibreCrawl if

• Fits if you want a crawler with no URL limit and no licence fee
• Works for agencies hosting one crawler for a whole team on their own server

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you don't want to install anything, as there's no hosted version and the demo is down
• Watch out: on Windows the automatic Python install is off, so you need Docker or a manual setup
• Not for you if you'll put it on a shared network as it comes, since it runs without sign-in by default
• Watch out: one developer maintains it with outside help, and support goes through GitHub

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

LibreCrawl

• There is no hosted version: you install it with Docker or Python 3.8 or later, and the public demo has been taken down.
• On Windows the startup script's automatic Python install is temporarily disabled, so Docker or a manual Python setup is needed.
• It runs in local mode without sign-in by default; sharing it on a network means setting a secret key and turning authentication on.
• It is maintained by one developer, PhialsBasement, with outside contributors; bugs and feature requests go through GitHub.

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.

LibreCrawl

Technical SEO checks

Finds broken links, redirect chains and loops, duplicate content, title and meta problems, schema errors, hreflang and canonical issues, and missing alt text.

JavaScript rendering

Uses Playwright and Chromium to crawl React, Vue, Angular and Next.js sites, in headless mode for speed or headed mode for debugging.

Large crawls

No URL cap; memory profiling and virtual scrolling are there to keep crawls of a million or more URLs stable, with the limit set by your hardware.

Exports

Export crawl data as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, picking the fields you want, with no limit on the number or size of exports.

Multi-user sessions

Several users can crawl at the same time in separate sessions; a production mode adds sign-in and user tiers, and a local mode skips them.

Plugins and REST API

A plugin is one JavaScript file that adds a tab with the crawl data, shared through a Plugin Workshop; a REST API starts, stops and exports crawls.

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.

LibreCrawl

• Free$0

  The full crawler, which you install and host yourself with Docker or Python. Every feature is included.

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.

LibreCrawl

No public discounts listed.

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.