--- title: "Free Screaming Frog alternative | SEO Skill" description: "Free Screaming Frog alternative: free backlink, keyword and traffic tools, plus your own Search Console data in your AI agent. Compare features and price." canonical: "https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/screaming-frog" language: "en" --- # Free Screaming Frog alternative The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop website crawler that you download, install and run on your own computer, free for up to 500 URLs a crawl with a paid licence for more. SEO Skill is free: web tools for the everyday lookups, and your own Search Console, Google Analytics and keyword data in your AI agent. [Get started free](https://seoskill.dev/account) Run it in a terminal, then sign in with Google. Or run it on your machine Installs the CLI, signs you in and adds the skill to your agents. Site crawls and Bing data run this way, on your own machine. A crawl fetches many pages, and Bing blocks our hosted server. ## At a glance The four things most people compare first, from each product's own pages. ### SEO Skill Free use Every on-demand tool, no usage cap Paid $50 a month per site, for the weekly audit Works in web chat Yes Get started Free web tools with no account, or one URL in your AI agent ### Screaming Frog Free use Free up to 500 URLs a crawl Paid £199 a year Works in web chat No. The MCP server runs on your own computer, and the setup guides cover Claude Desktop and LM Studio only. Get started Create an account ## Free tools for the jobs you use Screaming Frog for No account and no key. Each one opens in your browser. [ ### robots.txt validator and tester Check a robots.txt file for errors and test whether specific crawler URLs are allowed or blocked. Open the robots.txt validator](https://seoskill.dev/tools/robots-txt-validator)[ ### XML sitemap validator Check a pasted, uploaded, or published XML sitemap for errors. Open the XML sitemap validator](https://seoskill.dev/tools/sitemap-validator)[ ### Canonical tag checker Inspect pasted HTML for missing, invalid, multiple, relative, or cross-site canonical links. Open the canonical tag checker](https://seoskill.dev/tools/canonical-checker)[ ### Internal linking tool Find the internal links your site is missing, placed in sentences you already wrote, plus orphan and weakly linked pages. Open the internal linking tool](https://seoskill.dev/tools/internal-linking-tool) ## Pick Screaming Frog if From Screaming Frog's own pages. - you want a full technical crawl of your site from your own computer with no account at all. - your site is under 500 URLs, so the free version covers it. - you want one fixed yearly price per user, with no monthly subscription. - you want an AI client on your desktop to start crawls and work with the crawl data through its MCP server. ## Pick SEO Skill if Free SEO tools in your browser, and your own search data in your AI agent. - You want the everyday lookups for free: backlinks, Domain Rating, competitor keywords, SERPs and traffic estimates, with no account. - You want your AI agent to answer from your own Search Console and Google Analytics data, not only from an index estimate. - You already pay for keyword data: SEO Skill uses your own DataForSEO or Ahrefs key, so you pay that provider and nothing on top. - You want a weekly crawl, daily index checks and drop alerts for $50 a month per site, with no seats to buy. ## Side by side Every fact we compared, with Screaming Frog's taken from the sources at the end of this page. SEO SkillScreaming Frog Get started SEO Skill: Use the free web tools with no account. For your own data, add https://seoskill.dev/mcp to your AI agent and sign in with Google (read only). Screaming Frog: Download the app and start crawling. The free version needs no sign up and no email. To remove the limits, buy a licence key on the website and enter it in the app. No free trial of the paid version is stated. What it does SEO Skill: Free web tools: backlink checker, Domain Rating, competitor keywords, SERP checker, traffic estimates, robots.txt, sitemap, schema and more. In your AI agent: Search Console reports (quick wins, low CTR, striking distance, content decay, cannibalization, traffic drops), page checks, index checks, before and after comparisons, and keyword research with your own key. A site crawler and internal links in the CLI. Screaming Frog: Crawls a site to find broken links, errors and redirects, page titles and meta data, meta robots and directives, hreflang, exact and near duplicate pages, structured data, mobile usability, AMP, spelling and grammar, and accessibility. It also generates XML sitemaps, site visualisations, crawl comparisons, segments, custom extraction and custom source code search, a Looker Studio crawl report, scheduled crawls and a command line interface. It can send crawl data to OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic or a local Ollama model with your own API key. It has an MCP server (since version 24.1) on the paid licence only: the AI client can run crawls, read and export crawl data, read and write files in one allowed folder, and run Node.js scripts if you turn that on. There is no API. Data SEO Skill: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, URL Inspection, Clicky, and DataForSEO or Ahrefs with your own key. Bing Webmaster Tools in the CLI. Free Domain Rating by Ahrefs on research rows. Screaming Frog: Its own crawl of your site, run from your computer, Google Analytics (GA4), Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse and CrUX data through the API, or Lighthouse run locally), Link metrics integration, OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic or Ollama, with your own account Where you use it SEO Skill: Your browser for the web tools. Claude Code, Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Le Chat and any remote MCP client for your own data. Screaming Frog: Desktop app for Windows, Desktop app for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Desktop app for Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora), Claude Desktop (MCP), LM Studio (MCP) In Claude or ChatGPT on the web SEO Skill: Yes Screaming Frog: No. The MCP server runs on your own computer, and the setup guides cover Claude Desktop and LM Studio only. Free SEO Skill: Every on-demand tool, with no usage cap and no time limit. Screaming Frog: Free version with no sign up: up to 500 URLs per crawl, with no limit on the number of sites. Crawls cannot be saved or opened, the configuration options are locked, and custom source code search, custom extraction, the Google Analytics and Search Console integrations, JavaScript rendering and the MCP server need a licence. Technical support is for licensed users. No free trial of the paid version is stated. Paid plans SEO Skill: The weekly site audit is $50 a month per site: weekly crawl, daily Google index checks, stored history, drop and return alerts, and a Monday email and webhook. Cancel any time. Screaming Frog: £199 per licence a year for 1 to 4 licences. £189 per licence a year for 5 to 9, £179 for 10 to 19 and £169 for 20 or more. Licences are per user and last 1 year, then you renew. When a licence expires the app goes back to the free version. The pricing page also shows prices in US dollars and euros. Can it change your site SEO Skill: Read-only Google sign-in. Your agent can start the paid audit for a site, which returns a Stripe Checkout link for you to open. Screaming Frog: No changes to your site or to Google are stated. Through the MCP server the AI client can write files and run Node.js scripts on your own computer, inside the folder you allow. Your data SEO Skill: Search Console and analytics rows are fetched on each request and never stored, except what the paid weekly audit keeps for its sites. Your linked accounts and saved keys are kept, encrypted. Screaming Frog: Its FAQ says data from Google Analytics and other Google APIs is only accessible locally on your machine. Crawls are stored on your computer in database storage mode. Crawl data you send to OpenAI or Gemini goes to those services. History SEO Skill: Google's 16 months, read live. With the weekly audit, crawl and index history for the sites you audit. Screaming Frog: Not stated. You can keep your own saved crawls and compare them over time with a licence. Licence SEO Skill: Hosted service, with the CLI and local MCP server open source (Apache 2.0) Screaming Frog: Paid desktop licence ## Move from Screaming Frog in a few minutes Nothing to migrate: SEO Skill reads your accounts live. When you are done, remove Screaming Frog from your agent and revoke its access. - [Add SEO Skill to your agentUse the setup box above, or the steps for your client on the integrations page.](https://seoskill.dev/integrations) - ### Check your access Ask "list my Search Console properties". Every Google account you link shows up. - [Add your research keySave a DataForSEO or Ahrefs key on your account page if you use keyword research.](https://seoskill.dev/account) - ### Keep what you still need Projects and history you built in Screaming Frog stay there. SEO Skill reads Search Console live, so you can run both while you decide. ## More comparisons Other ways to give your agent search data, next to SEO Skill. [ ### AccuRanker Free: No. Paid: $249 a month (Professional). Free AccuRanker alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/accuranker)[ ### Ahrefs Free: Free account, verified sites. Paid: $29 a month (Starter). Free Ahrefs alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/ahrefs)[ ### AnswerThePublic Free: Free, 3 searches a day. Paid: US$20 a month (Starter). Free AnswerThePublic alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/answerthepublic)[ ### Majestic Free: Free account, limits not stated. Paid: $49.99 a month (Lite). Free Majestic alternative](https://seoskill.dev/alternatives/majestic) ## Questions about Screaming Frog Sources for Screaming Frog, read 3 November 2026: [Features, free 500 URL limit, licence prices, bulk discounts, downloads for Windows, macOS and Linux](https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/pricing/), [No sign up for the free version, licence features, expiry, per user licences, no API, local Google data, supported systems](https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/faq/), [MCP server on the paid licence, tools, Claude Desktop and LM Studio setup, AI providers, PageSpeed Insights modes](https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/user-guide/configuration/).