Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs Sitebulb
We give Screaming Frog SEO Spider a 2.4 GPA and Sitebulb a 2.6, out of 4.0. Screaming Frog SEO Spider grades higher on the free plan. Sitebulb grades higher on ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Desktop website crawler for technical SEO audits
Sitebulb
Website auditing crawler for Windows and Mac, with a cloud edition
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAScreaming Frog SEO SpiderFair | 2.6GPASitebulbGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BGraded against its alternatives. A licence is $279 a year per user, about $23.25 a month, with no crawl limit and JavaScript rendering. Only Sitebulb Lite is cheaper, and it stops at 10,000 URLs; Semrush and Ahrefs cost about five times as much. | BGraded against its alternatives. Lite is $180 a year, $15 a month, for 1 user and 10,000 URLs per audit, cheaper than Screaming Frog's $279 and far under Semrush or Ahrefs. Pro, with scheduling and comparisons, is $425 a year. |
| Free plan and trial | BA free version with no sign-up crawls up to 500 URLs with the core audits, for as long as you like, so small sites can live on it. It can't save crawls, change settings, render JavaScript or pull in Google data. | CNo free plan, but the 14-day trial needs no card and works like Sitebulb Pro on the desktop. |
| Features | CIt does the crawling job fully: 300+ issues, JavaScript rendering, custom extraction, scheduling, crawl comparison and sitemaps. But that's one part of SEO, with no keyword research, rank tracking or backlink index. | CIt does the audit job fully: 100+ hints on Lite or 300+ on Pro, JavaScript crawling on every plan, crawl maps and MCP. But auditing is one slice of SEO, and Lite lacks scheduling, comparisons and several report types. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Enter a URL and it crawls, but reading the results takes technical SEO knowledge, and custom extraction runs on XPath, CSS Path or regex. | BNo rating on record, but this is the friendly crawler: install it, start an audit, and each problem comes ranked by priority and explained in plain terms. |
| Platforms and integrations | CA program for Windows, Mac and Linux, linked to Google Analytics, Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, OpenAI, Gemini, Looker Studio and Sheets. Computers only, with no web or phone version. | BDesktop apps for Windows and Mac plus Sitebulb Cloud in the browser, with Google Analytics, Search Console, Sheets, Looker Studio, Claude and ChatGPT. The cloud version is priced separately, from $125 a month. |
| Best for | technical site audits on your own computer | site audits explained in plain words |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Sitebulb. How we grade
Price against what you get
Screaming Frog SEO Spider starts at $23.25 a month when paid by the year for each person and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Sitebulb starts at $18 a month and scores 2.7.
Sitebulb scores higher and starts $5.25 a month lower. Of the other SEO tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Screaming Frog SEO Spider for less, and none scores higher than Sitebulb for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider starts at $279 per user / year. Sitebulb starts at $18 per month, billed monthly.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a free plan. Sitebulb does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Screaming Frog SEO Spider lists a Linux app.
- Only Sitebulb lists a web app.
At a glance
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Sitebulb | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $279 per user / year | $18 per month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | Free version, no sign-up: crawls up to 500 URLs at a time with the core audits, but cannot save crawls, change the crawl configuration, render JavaScript or use integrations. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 14-day free trial equal to Sitebulb Pro desktop, no credit card |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Screaming Frog Ltd | Sitebulb Limited |
| Price read from | screamingfrog.co.uk | sitebulb.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
- Technical SEOs auditing large sites from their own computer
- Site migrations, where redirects and staging need checking against production
- Small sites under 500 URLs, which can use the free version indefinitely
Sitebulb
- SEO consultants and agencies who want audits explained for clients
- Freelancers auditing small sites on a low monthly budget
- Teams that need to crawl very large sites from the cloud
Worth knowing
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.
Sitebulb
- Lite caps each audit at 10,000 URLs and lacks scheduling, comparisons and several report types.
- Desktop crawls are limited by the computer: Pro's default cap is 500,000 URLs, raisable to 2 million.
- Sitebulb Cloud is priced separately, from $125 a month, and needs at least 2 users.
- Purchase order and invoice payment is only for yearly plans.
Key features
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.
Sitebulb
- Prioritized hints
- Each audit flags issues against 100+ hints on Lite or 300+ on Pro, ranked by priority and explained in plain terms.
- JavaScript crawling
- Render JavaScript-heavy sites during a crawl on every plan, at no extra cost.
- Audit comparison and scheduling
- On Pro, compare audits to see what changed and schedule audits to run automatically, with auto-export to Google Sheets.
- Crawl maps and reports
- See site structure as visual crawl maps, and on Pro produce customized PDF reports for clients.
- Pro-only checks
- Pro adds performance and mobile, structured data, hreflang, spelling, accessibility and AMP reports.
- MCP access
- Connect audits to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools through Sitebulb's MCP server, included on every plan.
Plans
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.
Sitebulb
Lite$18
per month, billed monthly
Desktop, 1 user, 10,000 URLs per audit, 100+ hints, JavaScript crawling, crawl maps and GA, GSC and Sheets integration.
Pro$42
per month, billed monthly
Desktop price for 1 user; more users from $11 a month each. 500,000 URLs per audit, 300+ hints, scheduling, comparisons, PDF reports.
Sitebulb Cloud$125
per month and up, billed monthly
Browser-based cloud crawling for 2+ users, no project limits, recurring crawls and Data Studio integration.
Ways to pay less
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.
Sitebulb
- Annual discount
Save 15% with yearly plans
Paid yearly, Lite is $180 a year and Pro $425 for 1 user, with extra users at $115.60 a year; Sitebulb Cloud starts at $1,500 a year.
