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

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

Pick URL Profiler if

• Fits if you audit long backlink lists for a penalty clean-up
• Works for building a content inventory of a site in one spreadsheet

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: its pages still list PageRank, Alexa and Google+, and the newest update post is from November 2019
• Not for you if you don't have Moz, Majestic or Ahrefs API access, which the link metrics need
• Tight if you're on Solo, with 1 desktop device and 5,000 URLs per import
• Skip it if your computer is short on memory, as it needs 3 GB free and most desktops manage 50,000 to 100,000 URLs a run

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.

URL Profiler

• Link metrics come through Moz, Majestic and Ahrefs API access that you connect yourself.
• Solo is limited to one device, desktop only, and 5,000 URLs per import.
• It needs at least 3 GB of free memory; the vendor says most desktops handle 50,000 to 100,000 URLs per run.
• Its pages still list sources such as PageRank, Alexa and Google+, and the newest update post on its blog is dated November 2019.

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.

URL Profiler

Bulk link metrics

Pulls domain and URL metrics for thousands of URLs at once from the Moz, Majestic and Ahrefs APIs.

Unnatural link audits

Scores each backlink for a penalty clean-up, giving the reasons behind each score, and checks anchor text.

Content audits

Builds a content inventory with readability scores, topic, sentiment and Google Analytics visit data for each page.

Technical checks

Returns the HTTP status and final redirect target of each URL, robots and canonical access, and Google PageSpeed scores.

Contact and social data

Finds email addresses on a site and in WHOIS records, plus a domain's social accounts, for outreach lists.

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.

URL Profiler

• Solo$19.95

  per month, billed yearly ($29.95 billed monthly)

  1 device licence, desktop only, up to 5,000 URLs per import and unlimited URLs a month.

• Pro$25.95

  per month, billed yearly ($39.95 billed monthly)

  2 device licences on a desktop or server, up to 1,000,000 URLs per import.

• Agency$64.95

  per month, billed yearly ($99.95 billed monthly)

  20 device licences for up to 20 users employed by the agency, up to 1,000,000 URLs per import.

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.

URL Profiler

• Annual discount

  Save 35% with yearly billing

  URL Profiler's pricing page states a 35% saving for yearly billing: Solo is $19.95 a month billed yearly instead of $29.95 monthly.