# squirrelscan review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source site audit CLI whose fixes are written for coding agents Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. squirrelscan is an open-source (MIT) command-line website auditor that checks a site against 300+ rules for SEO, performance, security, accessibility and readiness for AI agents. Its reports are written so coding agents such as Claude Code and Cursor can apply the fixes. Local audits are free and unlimited; cloud audits with browser rendering, AI analysis and published reports run on monthly credits. - **Category:** Technical SEO & Site Audits - **Made by:** Nineprimes Pty Ltd - **Website:** https://squirrelscan.com - **Runs on:** Web, macOS, Windows, Linux - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you don't use a terminal, as it's a command-line tool first. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, squirrelscan has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19 per month, billed monthly. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Local CLI audits are free and unlimited. A free account adds 500 cloud credits a month (about 5 cloud audits of up to 500 pages) and a weekly audit of one site. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Unlimited local audits, 500 cloud credits a month, 500 pages per cloud audit and a weekly scheduled audit of one site. No card needed. | | Pro | $19 per month, billed monthly | 3,000 credits a month (an audit costs 50 plus 2 per page), 2,000 pages per audit, daily audits of all sites and score history. $190 a year. | | Team | $29 per seat / month, billed monthly | Minimum 2 seats. 3,000 pooled credits per seat, 10,000 pages per audit, roles, shared projects and white-label reports. $290 per seat a year. | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom contracts and invoiced billing for larger teams, with single sign-on on request. | Read from https://squirrelscan.com/pricing on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with squirrelscan before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Two months free with annual billing** (Annual discount): Annual billing is 12 months for the price of 10: Pro is $190 a year and Team $290 per seat a year, with credits still arriving monthly. Source: https://squirrelscan.com/pricing ## Key features - **300+ audit rules in 22 categories:** Checks core SEO, crawlability, links, schema, hreflang, Core Web Vitals, security headers, accessibility, E-E-A-T signals and AI crawler readiness such as llms.txt. - **Fixes written for coding agents:** Every finding comes with its fix in output an agent can apply. Skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others run an audit, fix and re-audit loop. - **CLI, MCP server and CI gate:** A single binary for macOS, Windows and Linux, a local MCP server that exposes the audit as agent tools, and exit codes that can fail a build on score or severity. - **Incremental crawling:** Re-crawls use ETag, Last-Modified and content hashing to skip unchanged pages, and an interrupted crawl resumes from a checkpoint. - **Reports in seven formats:** A health score and letter grade, with output as a self-contained HTML file, Markdown or console text for people, and LLM, JSON, XML or text for agents. - **Cloud audits:** Signed in, audits add headless-browser rendering for JavaScript sites, AI page analysis, technology detection, dead-link checks, scheduled runs and published reports. ## Good for - Developers who fix sites with Claude Code, Cursor or another coding agent - Free, unlimited site audits from the command line - CI pipelines that should fail a build when the audit score drops - Agencies that need white-label audit reports, on the Team plan ## Worth knowing - The terms call it a beta product, and the CLI is still at version 0.0.x. - Cloud audits cost 50 credits plus 2 per page, and 1 more per external link checked; monthly credits reset and do not roll over. - Free cloud audits stop at 500 pages with one weekly scheduled site, and only paid plans can buy top-ups ($1 per 100 credits, from $10). - Team is sold per seat with a 2-seat minimum, and pooled credits, roles and white-label reports come only with it. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. squirrelscan is a free, open-source command-line auditor that checks a site against 300+ rules and writes each fix so Claude Code or Cursor can apply it. But it's a terminal tool still at version 0.0.x and called beta in its terms, and JavaScript rendering, AI analysis and scheduled runs come only with cloud audits that spend credits. - **Value for money: A.** Local audits from the MIT-licensed CLI are free and unlimited on your own computer. Cloud audits go further on Pro at $19 a month ($190 a year), between this category's cheaper quarter and its middle. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Local CLI audits cost nothing and have no cap. A free account adds 500 cloud credits a month, about 5 cloud audits of up to 500 pages, and a weekly audit of one site, with no card. - **Features: C.** 300+ rules across SEO, crawlability, links, schema, hreflang, Core Web Vitals, security headers, accessibility and AI crawler readiness, with CI exit codes and an MCP server. The gaps: the terms call it beta, and browser rendering for JavaScript sites is cloud only. - **Ease of use: D.** No rating on record. It's a command-line binary, so you work in a terminal or through a coding agent, and cloud audits mean watching a credit balance. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Mac, Windows and Linux, with cloud audits and published reports on the web, and skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI and Windsurf. No phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from squirrelscan's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among technical SEO tools - squirrelscan's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 64 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade, and level with 8. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 62 of 83) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $19 a month, against a middle price of $22.41 for the category: 23 of the 52 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 25 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/technical-seo ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Nothing squirrelscan does is plain enough to make in a weekend. The 4 things listed below take a company. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 64 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade. It costs $228 a year. squirrelscan is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: A crawler that checks every page of a site. - You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows and Linux that stay in step with each other. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, ChatGPT, GitHub **Tags:** Site audit, Open source, AI features, Public API ## Alternatives - [Unlighthouse](https://toolgpa.com/tools/unlighthouse): Free open-source tool that runs Lighthouse on every page of a site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/squirrelscan-vs-unlighthouse) - [SiteOne Crawler](https://toolgpa.com/tools/siteone-crawler): Free open-source site crawler and audit report, as an app or CLI. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/siteone-crawler-vs-squirrelscan) - [Screaming Frog SEO Spider](https://toolgpa.com/tools/screaming-frog): Desktop website crawler for technical SEO audits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/screaming-frog-vs-squirrelscan) - [Lighthouse](https://toolgpa.com/tools/lighthouse): Google's open-source audit of page speed, accessibility and SEO. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lighthouse-vs-squirrelscan) - [Sitebulb](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sitebulb): Website auditing crawler for Windows and Mac, with a cloud edition. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/sitebulb-vs-squirrelscan) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://squirrelscan.com/pricing - https://squirrelscan.com/ - https://squirrelscan.com/about - https://squirrelscan.com/terms Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/squirrelscan Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).