Lighthouse vs SEO Score API (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Lighthouse if

• Fits if you're a web developer fixing speed and accessibility problems on a page
• Works for adding automated page audits to continuous integration

Look elsewhere if

• Too light for watching a whole site, as it audits one page per run
• Skip it if you don't want to install Node 22 and Chrome, which the command-line and Node routes need
• Watch out: the Agentic Browsing category is experimental, needs Chrome 150 or later and an origin trial for its WebMCP audits
• Not for you if you planned to use the extension on local sites or pages behind a login, which it can't test

Pick SEO Score API if

• Fits if you want a build to fail when a page's SEO score drops
• Works for developers adding page checks to their own apps or dashboards

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need backlinks, keyword research or rank tracking, which it doesn't do
• Tight if you're on Free, with 20 audits a month and only 2 checks per category shown
• Pricey if you want Deep Site Audits, which start on Pro at $39 a month or $12 for a single audit
• Watch out: extra AI citation checks cost $10 for 500, and the pages don't say which AI engines are checked
• Watch out: the product is labeled as being in public beta

Lighthouse

• The command-line and Node workflows need Google Chrome and Node 22 or later installed.
• Audits one page per run; Lighthouse CI or another tool is needed to watch for regressions across a site.
• The Agentic Browsing category is experimental, needs Chrome 150 or later, and its WebMCP audits need an origin trial.
• The Chrome extension cannot test local sites or pages behind a login; Google recommends DevTools instead.

SEO Score API

• It audits pages only: no backlinks, keyword research or rank tracking, which the vendor says to get from suites such as Ahrefs or Moz.
• Deep Site Audits come only with Pro (20 a month) and Ultra (100), or as credit packs from $12 for one audit to $499 for 100.
• Extra AI citation checks cost $10 for 500 or $36 for 2,000; the pages read do not say which AI engines are checked.
• The product is labeled as being in public beta.

Lighthouse

Four audit categories

Scores performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO, and each failed audit links to a page on why it matters and how to fix it.

Several ways to run it

A Lighthouse panel in Chrome DevTools, an npm command-line tool, a Node module for CI systems, a Chrome extension, or PageSpeed Insights with nothing to install.

Pages behind a login

Audits any page, public or requiring authentication; the DevTools workflow can also test local sites.

Agentic Browsing audits

An experimental category checks llms.txt, WebMCP tool registration and accessibility for agents, shown as a pass ratio rather than a 0 to 100 score.

Reports and sharing

Save reports as HTML or JSON, open them in the Lighthouse Viewer, and share them as secret GitHub gists.

Stack packs and plugins

Stack packs give advice specific to the CMS or framework a site uses, and plugins let developers add their own audit categories.

SEO Score API

80+ checks per URL

Titles, headings, canonical tags, robots.txt, sitemaps, structured data, Open Graph, page weight and accessibility, each marked pass, warning or fail with a fix.

AI readability and GEO audits

26 checks on whether AI crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read a page, including llms.txt and bot access; GEO audits measure visibility to AI search.

SXO, AEO and AIO scores

Paid plans score search experience, how well a page answers questions for snippets and AI Overviews, and how easily language models can take it in.

Deep Site Audit

An asynchronous audit of about 90 seconds against a 14,000+ check catalog across nine areas, with an AI pass and a scan for leaked API keys.

Monitoring and history

Watch scores on a set of URLs, pull a page's score history, run batch audits, and share HTML reports and score badges.

SDKs, CI and agents

Python, Node.js and Go clients, an n8n node, an MCP server, a Claude Code skill and a GitHub Action that fails a build when a score drops.

Lighthouse

• Open source$0

  Every audit category, HTML and JSON reports, the Lighthouse Viewer, stack packs and plugins.

SEO Score API

• Free$0

  20 audits a month on 50+ checks, with partial results, no history and no AI citation tracking.

• Starter$5

  per month for 200 audits, billed monthly

  All 80+ checks, SXO, AEO and AIO scores, AI citation tracking with 15 prompts, 5 monitored URLs and 30 days of history.

• Basic$15

  per month for 1,000 audits, billed monthly

  Adds 1 GEO audit a month, 30 tracked prompts, 10 monitored URLs and 90 days of history.

• Pro$39

  per month for 5,000 audits, billed monthly

  20 Deep Site Audits, 5 GEO audits, 75 tracked prompts, 25 monitored URLs, a year of history and priority support.

• Ultra$99

  per month for 25,000 audits, billed monthly

  100 Deep Site Audits, 10 GEO audits, 200 tracked prompts, 50 monitored URLs, unlimited history and dedicated support.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom audit volume and limits on an annual agreement with invoicing. Through sales.

Lighthouse

No public discounts listed.

SEO Score API

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  SEO Score API bills paid plans yearly for the price of 10 months: Starter is $50 a year and Pro $390, with monthly allowances unchanged.