Best Screaming Frog Alternatives: 7 Tools Compared
Looking for the best Screaming Frog alternatives? The right fit depends on what you need after a crawl: clearer reports, checks across a large site, or a fix you can pass to an AI coding agent. Here are seven tools, starting with HubSEO, and the workflow each one suits.
We analyzed 51 reviews and comments from the App Store, Trustpilot and YouTube about Screaming Frog alternatives and found that 27% mentioned missing core features.
Table of Contents
* HubSEO * Sitebulb: deeper analysis with visual reports * Semrush Site Audit: technical checks in a broader SEO suite * SquirrelScan: incremental checks across SEO and accessibility * Lumar: cloud crawling for large website estates * Crawly: a free desktop spider with Claude Code MCP integration * Seobility: a free tier for essential site checks * FAQ * Conclusion
1\. HubSEO
HubSEO is a self-serve tool that checks a live website for performance, SEO, AI readability and accessibility issues. It ranks the findings, then turns them into scoped prompts for external coding agents such as Claude Code or Cursor. HubSEO doesn’t change your website.
!Screenshot of the HubSEO website
That makes it a good fit if you’re a developer or site owner who wants to move from a finding to a fix without translating a long crawl export. Paste the prompt into your coding agent, review its proposed change, then deploy it yourself. HubSEO can rerun the same checks to see whether the issue is still flagged.
The free tier includes the full ranked check and the first fix prompt. Guests get one check every 30 days; a free registered account gets three checks per month. There’s no card needed, and nothing is installed on your site. For a fuller picture of what a live audit can check, see our free SEO audit report and tool.
This is a different job from a traditional desktop spider. HubSEO focuses on live-site evidence and a handoff to your coding workflow, rather than making you sort through raw crawl rows first. A cleared audit flag is evidence that a particular check passed. It isn’t a promise of higher Google rankings, indexing or visibility in AI answers.
Choose HubSEO when you want a ranked issue, a scoped prompt and a way to check the deployed result. You still decide whether the code change is safe and right for your site.
2\. Sitebulb: deeper analysis with visual reports
Sitebulb is a technical SEO auditing tool with the crawl depth of a desktop crawler and stronger visual reports. It’s designed to explain findings in a way that’s easier to act on, which suits consultants, agencies and teams sharing audit results with people who don’t work in technical SEO every day.
!Screenshot of the Sitebulb website
Instead of stopping at a list of crawl data, Sitebulb presents visual views of a site and explains why an issue may matter. That can help when you need to show a client or colleague where a problem sits, rather than sending over a spreadsheet and explaining every row yourself. Sitebulb is available as a desktop tool, with a cloud option for teams that need browser-based crawling.
Sitebulb starts at £13.50 per month with annual billing. That’s a useful point of comparison if you’re weighing a paid desktop audit tool against a free tier. HubSEO takes another route: its free check gives you ranked findings and a first fix prompt, while Sitebulb’s strength is visual presentation and audit explanation.
If you’re weighing audit tools for a software business, our guide to website optimisation tools for SaaS companies looks at how technical checks fit into that wider workflow.
Sitebulb is worth considering when people need help reading the audit, not only collecting crawl data. Check that its desktop or cloud setup suits how your team works before you choose.
3\. Semrush Site Audit: technical checks in a broader SEO suite
Semrush Site Audit is the technical audit tool within a broader SEO and marketing suite. Semrush also covers keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking and backlink intelligence, so it suits teams that want audit findings alongside wider search work.
!Screenshot of the Semrush Site Audit website
The audit is detailed and can help teams identify technical SEO issues quickly, cutting down on manual checking. That breadth is useful when several people share one SEO workflow. But if you only need to crawl a site and turn the findings into code changes, the wider suite may be more than the job calls for.
Technical checks are one part of an audit, not a substitute for checking how search engines treat a page. Google explains that robots.txt rules control crawler access, but a crawl restriction doesn’t necessarily keep a URL out of search results. Check page access and index status as separate questions.
For a broader audit plan, see the SEO audit checklist.
Semrush is a sensible fit if you’ll use its wider SEO tools as well as Site Audit. If your main need is a crawl-to-code loop, HubSEO is more focused: it gives you a ranked live-site finding, a prompt for an external coding agent and a way to check again after deployment. You can compare free audit options in our guide to free live website SEO audit tools.
Ready to turn audit findings into fixes?
4\. SquirrelScan: incremental checks across SEO and accessibility
SquirrelScan checks SEO, performance, security, accessibility and agent experience. Its standout difference is incremental scanning: it can use ETag, Last-Modified and content hashing to focus repeat checks on what has changed.
!Screenshot of the SquirrelScan website
This can suit developers who want to rerun audits as part of an ongoing coding workflow. SquirrelScan also has skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other coding agents, supporting a loop where an agent runs the audit, works on a fix and runs another check.
Its broader set of checks may be useful when your review needs to cover more than search basics. For instance, accessibility findings can sit beside SEO issues in the same site review. Accessible content helps people with disabilities use the web. An automated check can flag issues, but people should still review whether a site works for its intended users.
AI crawler access and human access aren’t the same test. If you’re checking how automated systems can read your pages, our roundup of AI crawler readiness checkers focuses on that separate question.
Pick SquirrelScan when incremental checks and coding-agent support match your workflow. If your main goal is a ranked audit with a scoped prompt and a repeat check on the live site, compare that process directly with HubSEO before settling on a tool.
5\. Lumar: cloud crawling for large website estates
Lumar is a cloud crawler for organisations that need to audit very large websites. It’s what DeepCrawl became, and its focus is enterprise-grade operations, including audits across millions of pages and direct CI/CD pipeline integration.
!Screenshot of the Lumar website
That scale can matter when a site has too many pages for occasional manual checks, or when teams need audit results tied to their deployment process. A cloud crawl also differs from a desktop spider: it’s built for large site estates and team workflows, not simply a one-off crawl run from an individual computer.
The listed price range is from £99 to more than £400 per month. That makes Lumar a fit to assess when enterprise-scale crawling is part of the requirement, rather than a default pick for a small site or a freelancer.
Before you choose a large-scale crawler, be clear about the job it must do. Do you need to audit millions of pages, connect checks to a deployment pipeline, or simply find what’s wrong on a smaller live site? HubSEO is designed for the last of those: it ranks findings and gives you a prompt to take to an external coding agent.
Lumar’s price and scale point to a specific use case. If your site and team don’t need enterprise crawling, a smaller audit workflow may be easier to manage.
6\. Crawly: a free desktop spider with Claude Code MCP integration
Crawly is a free desktop SEO spider for Mac, Windows and Linux. It also has a Claude Code MCP integration, so you can query its crawl database through Claude Code. Built-in security header checks give developers another reason to consider it for a desktop audit.
!Screenshot of the Crawly website
That setup suits a developer who wants a desktop crawler and a way to ask an AI coding agent about crawl findings. MCP integration is different from a ready-made fix prompt: it lets Claude Code query the crawl data, while you remain responsible for deciding what to change and checking the result.
Crawly is a strong candidate if cost is your main concern and you’re happy to work from a desktop app. It gives you a spider without a paid licence, while HubSEO focuses on checking a live site, ranking findings and generating a scoped prompt for an external agent.
If you’re deciding how to hand technical findings to an agent, our guide to using Claude Code and Cursor for SEO audits explains the prompt-and-check workflow. Keep a human review in the loop before you deploy generated code.
Choose based on the output you need. Crawly connects crawl data to Claude Code; HubSEO supplies ranked findings and a fix prompt, then lets you rerun its checks against the live site.
7\. Seobility: a free tier for essential site checks
Seobility is an all-in-one SEO tool with a free tier covering one project and up to 1,000 pages. It suits a small business that needs an initial site audit and can work within that project and page allowance.
!Screenshot of the Seobility website
That free tier makes Seobility worth a look if you can’t justify paying for a wider SEO suite yet. It gives you a place to start with site checks, without requiring a paid plan as your first move. The key is to compare the allowance with the size of the site you need to audit.
Here’s a simple way to judge the fit:
Your situation| How Seobility’s free tier fits| What to check next ---|---|--- One small site with no more than 1,000 pages| One project fits the stated free allowance| Review the findings and decide whether the audit answers your questions Several sites to manage| The free tier covers one project| Decide which site needs the first audit A larger site| The stated free allowance covers up to 1,000 pages| Check whether that page limit fits the audit you need
Seobility and HubSEO solve different parts of the handoff. Seobility is a low-cost way to begin with site checks. HubSEO’s free check includes ranked findings and a first fix prompt, which you can pass to an external coding agent. In either case, look at the affected pages before making changes across a site.
For a one-project audit within its page limit, Seobility’s free tier is a reasonable starting point. If you want the audit to feed directly into an AI-assisted repair workflow, test HubSEO’s free check as well.
FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Screaming Frog?
HubSEO is a good free choice if you want a live-site audit with ranked findings and a first fix prompt. Guests get one check every 30 days, and free registered accounts get three checks per month. Crawly is another free option if you specifically want a desktop spider with Claude Code MCP integration.
Which Screaming Frog alternative is best for AI coding agents?
HubSEO is designed to turn ranked live-site findings into scoped prompts for external AI coding agents, then rerun the same checks after you deploy. SquirrelScan has skills for coding agents, and Crawly lets Claude Code query its crawl database through MCP. The best fit depends on whether you need prompts, agent access to crawl data or both.
Is Sitebulb better than Screaming Frog?
Sitebulb may be a better fit when visual reports and explanations will help your team act on crawl findings. Screaming Frog may suit people who prefer a desktop crawler and raw crawl data. The right choice depends on how you review results and who needs to use them, not on a single feature comparison.
Which alternative is best for a very large website?
Lumar is built for cloud crawling across large website estates, including audits of millions of pages and CI/CD pipeline integration. It’s the option to assess if your organisation needs enterprise-scale crawling. For a smaller website, start by checking whether a simpler live-site audit or desktop crawler covers the pages you need.
Do website audit tools improve Google rankings?
No audit tool can guarantee better rankings. A crawler can flag technical issues, but fixing a flag doesn’t promise that Google will index a page or rank it higher. Check the affected URL, make a change only when it’s right for your site, then use the same audit to see whether the reported issue has cleared.
Conclusion
If you want audit findings turned into AI-ready fix prompts and checked again after deployment, start with HubSEO’s free live-site check. You’ll get the ranked audit and first prompt without a card. Review the evidence, pass the prompt to your coding agent, then rerun the check after your change goes live.
