Software review
Screaming Frog Review
The desktop crawler every technical SEO still opens first.
Technical SEOs and consultants who need a fast, configurable one-off crawl and are comfortable in a desktop tool rather than a dashboard.
Our go-to for anything that needs a genuinely custom crawl — the XPath extraction has pulled data no dashboard tool exposes. The tradeoff is real: it's a desktop app you drive yourself, not a service you check in on.
- From
- $21 / mo
- Free tier
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.5 / 5
Overview
Screaming Frog's SEO Spider is a Windows/macOS/Linux desktop crawler rather than a hosted dashboard: you point it at a site, it crawls locally, and you get raw, exportable data with no vendor-imposed project limit. Custom extraction via XPath, CSS Path or regex covers cases a packaged audit tool doesn't anticipate. The free version genuinely works up to 500 URLs; past that it's a single annual licence, not a subscription.
Best for
Technical SEOs and consultants who need a fast, configurable one-off crawl and are comfortable in a desktop tool rather than a dashboard.
Not for
Teams who want continuous, scheduled monitoring with alerts rather than a crawl you run yourself.
How it performs
Each row is either our editorial view, drawn from using the product and reading around it, or a capability listed in the vendor’s own documentation — tagged so you know which. None of it is a controlled benchmark.
Genuinely capable free tier up to 500 URLs — no time limit, no card required
EEditor’s viewCustom extraction handles edge cases no off-the-shelf audit tool covers
EEditor’s viewOne-time annual licence is cheap next to any SaaS platform's audit module
EEditor’s viewDesktop crawler with no cloud project limits
DDocsCustom extraction via XPath, CSS Path and regex
DDocsJavaScript rendering for SPA and JS-heavy sites
DDocsGoogle Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights API integration
DDocsPricing record
Captured from the vendor’s pricing page. Prices change — this is dated.
| Plan | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 URLs per crawl, most core features included |
| Licence | $21 | Billed as a single £199/year licence, not a monthly subscription — removes the crawl limit |
Vendors change plans often — confirm before you buy.
Sources: pricing and feature information captured from www.screamingfrog.co.uk on 16 Sept 2026. Editor comments are our own judgement, not vendor statements.