SEOnaut vs SiteOne Crawler (2026): which should you pick?

Pick SEOnaut if

• Fits if your site fits in 500 URLs and you want a free hosted crawler
• Works for teams that want to run their SEO crawler on their own server

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you outgrow Growth's 5 projects of 10,000 URLs, as more means emailing the developer
• Watch out: self-hosting needs Docker or Go plus MySQL, and HTTPS through a reverse proxy
• Not for you if you want support beyond email, as self-hosted copies go through GitHub Issues
• Skip it if you want free audits on a schedule, as only the paid Growth plan lists recurring audits

Pick SiteOne Crawler if

• Fits if you want a whole-site audit report without paying for a licence
• Works for developers adding a site quality gate to a CI pipeline

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want crawls run in the cloud, as it runs only on your own computer or server
• Watch out: single-page apps are crawled only in the optional browser mode, which renders them in Chromium
• Not for you if you want AI help with no bill elsewhere, as the assistant uses your own API key or a local model
• Tight if you want reports emailed, which needs an SMTP server of your own
• Watch out: the desktop app comes from the project's own links, not yet the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store

SEOnaut

• The hosted Growth plan stops at 5 projects and 10,000 URLs each; larger needs are handled by emailing the developer.
• Self-hosting needs Docker or Go plus a MySQL database, and the project recommends adding HTTPS through a reverse proxy.
• Support is by email for the hosted service and through GitHub Issues for self-hosted copies; there is no forum.
• Of the hosted plans, only the paid Growth plan lists recurring audits; Lite crawls run on demand.

SiteOne Crawler

• It runs on your own computer or server; there is no hosted crawler, and emailed reports need your own SMTP server.
• The AI assistant uses your own API key or local model, so any LLM charges come from that provider.
• Pages built by JavaScript are crawled only in the optional browser mode, which renders them in Chromium.
• The desktop app is downloaded from the project's links; its page says it is not yet in the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store.

SEOnaut

Issues ranked by severity

Each crawl produces a report that groups problems as critical, high or low, from broken links and redirect loops to duplicate titles and descriptions.

On-page and content checks

Audits titles, descriptions, heading order, hreflang tags, image alt text and file size, thin or duplicated content, canonicals and HTTP pages.

Crawl settings

The crawler can ignore robots.txt, follow nofollow links, include sitemaps and subdomains, check external links and log in to staging sites with HTTP Basic Auth.

Site structure and dashboard

Spots orphan and dead-end pages, checks response time and timeouts, and charts site health over time on a visual dashboard.

WACZ archives

Saves a crawled site as a WACZ web archive, keeping pages and assets for offline review or record-keeping.

Self-hosting with Docker

Written in Go with a MySQL database; the project publishes a Docker image and a Docker Compose file, and the interface can be translated.

SiteOne Crawler

Audit report and quality score

Each crawl ends in a self-contained HTML report with a 0 to 10 score, weighted 25% security and 20% each for performance, SEO and accessibility.

Site-wide checks

Covers SEO and OpenGraph tags, headings, redirects and 404s, security headers, SSL/TLS certificates, caching headers, content types and DNS.

JavaScript rendering and screenshots

An optional browser mode renders each page in Chromium so single-page apps are crawled, and can capture every page as an image, GIF or MP4.

CI/CD quality gate

The --ci option fails a build when scores fall below set thresholds, with JUnit XML output and annotations for GitHub Actions.

Offline clone and Markdown export

Saves a static mirror of a whole site, assets included, or converts its pages to Markdown and an llms.txt file.

Optional AI assistant

With your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini, or a local model, adds per-page SEO rewrites, spelling checks and a site summary.

SEOnaut

• Community$0

  The open-source edition under the MIT license, which you host and manage yourself on your own infrastructure.

• Lite$0

  Cloud hosted: 1 project with up to 500 URLs per project. No credit card required.

• Growth$9

  per month for 5 projects of up to 10,000 URLs each

  Cloud hosted: 5 projects, 10,000 URLs per project and recurring audits. An annual plan gives one month free.

SiteOne Crawler

• Free$0

  The desktop app and command-line crawler, run on your own computer, with free hosted links for sharing reports.

SEOnaut

• Annual discount

  One month free with annual billing

  SEOnaut's pricing FAQ says the annual plan gives one month free compared with paying monthly.

SiteOne Crawler

No public discounts listed.