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SpiderHead vs Screaming Frog

Both crawl and audit on your own machine. Screaming Frog is the established paid desktop crawler with the widest built-in feature set; SpiderHead is free and open source, reads Screaming Frog exports, and adds a task backlog and fix rechecks for people and AI agents.

Checked 21 October 2026 against each vendor's own public pages. Sources below.

SpiderHead

Open-source crawler and audit toolkit

Free and open source; no paid tierRuns on your machine

Screaming Frog

SEO Spider desktop crawler

Paid licence $279 per user per year (1-4 licences)Runs on your machine

Compatibility at a glance

SpiderHead scores 71 on coverage and 83 on automation; Screaming Frog scores 92 and 75. Both out of 100, counted from the table.

Out of 24 capabilities we compare for every tool.

22both have
2only SpiderHead
0only Screaming Frog

Market map

Crawl, audit and data coverage / Automation and AI agents: SpiderHead 71·83, Screaming Frog 92·75, Sitebulb 88·58, Ahrefs Site Audit 75·75, Semrush Site Audit 63·75, SEOnaut 8·25, LibreCrawl 29·50, advertools 21·2500252550507575100100Crawl, audit and data coverage →Automation and AI agents →SpiderHeadScreaming FrogSitebulbAhrefs Site AuditSemrush Site AuditSEOnautLLibreCrawlAadvertools
Scores are counted from the table: yes = 1, partly = ½, no or not found in public docs = 0, as a share of the rows on each axis. Horizontal: Crawl, audit and data coverage (12 rows). Vertical: Automation and AI agents (6 rows). Hover or focus a marker for the breakdown; click to keep it open.

Coverage by group

Share of rows each tool covers in a group, 0–100, counted from the table below.

100Price and setup5 rows70
100Interfaces2 rows100
75AI agents and integrations2 rows50
67Crawl3 rows100
80Audit5 rows100
63Data sources4 rows75
100Reports and follow-up3 rows83
83Overall24 rows83

Using both

Yes. SpiderHead reads Screaming Frog CSV and XLSX exports offline and audits them with its own checks, with no Screaming Frog installation needed. Keep crawling in Screaming Frog and use SpiderHead for the task list, rechecks and MCP access.

Side by side

CapabilitySpiderHeadScreaming Frog
Price and setup
Free to useYes: Free and open source; no paid tierPartly: Paid licence $279 per user per year (1-4 licences)
Open sourceYes: Core MIT; Desktop GPL-3.0-or-later (PyQt5)No: Proprietary; free version is closed source
Runs on your machineYes: Crawl and storage run on your machineYes: Crawls run on your own machine
Works without an accountYes: No account; no hosted serviceYes: Licence key only; free version needs no sign-up
Free tierYes: No licence cap; default crawl cap 200 URLsYes: Free version crawls up to 500 URLs
Interfaces
Desktop appYes: PyQt5 app: macOS, Windows, LinuxYes: Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon/Intel), Linux
Command lineYes: seohead CLI, 230 commandsYes: Command-line crawling and exports
AI agents and integrations
MCP server for AI agentsYes: Local stdio server, 246 toolsYes: Official MCP server since v24.0; paid licence only
APIPartly: Python API; optional self-hosted job APINo: No public REST API found; it consumes third-party APIs
Crawl
JavaScript renderingPartly: Optional Playwright extra; raw HTML by defaultYes: Integrated headless Chromium rendering
Scheduled crawlsPartly: Writes launchd/cron/Task Scheduler trigger; no daemonYes: File > Scheduling with intervals and auto-exports
Custom extractionYes: Declarative extraction rules and content selectorsYes: XPath, CSS Path, regex, custom search
Audit
Audit checksYes: 280 checks (generated registry, CHECKS.md)Yes: Over 300 issues, warnings, opportunities (issues list)
HreflangYes: hreflang-check plus hreflang audit checksYes: Missing return tags, bad codes, non-200 URLs
Structured dataYes: schema-check/schema-build and Schema.org checksYes: Schema.org and Google rich result validation
Core Web Vitals / LighthousePartly: Lab render-check, CrUX field data; Lighthouse JSON suppliedYes: PageSpeed Insights API: Lighthouse and CrUX data
AccessibilityPartly: Static a11y checks only (lang, labels, alt)Yes: Automated WCAG checks using axe rules
Data sources
Google Search ConsoleYes: Search Console via provider (OAuth/service account)Yes: Search Analytics and URL Inspection APIs
Google Analytics 4Partly: Landing pages and page views via provider callsYes: GA4 API connection during a crawl
Backlink dataPartly: Donor-list verification and CSV import; no own indexPartly: Link metrics via Majestic, Ahrefs, Moz APIs
Keyword dataPartly: Via external providers (Wordstat, Arsenkin, DataForSEO)Partly: Only GSC query/position data per URL
Reports and follow-up
Report exportsYes: XLSX, DOCX, CSV, Markdown, JSON, PDF overviewYes: Spreadsheets, XML sitemaps, Google Sheets, Looker Studio
Task list and fix recheckYes: Task backlog, verify-fixes, remediation ledgerPartly: Re-crawl and compare crawls; no task tracker found
Reads Screaming Frog exportsYes: Screaming Frog CSV/XLSX export analysisYes: Native: opens .seospider and .dbseospider crawls
yespartlynonot found in public docs

Where each one is stronger

SpiderHead

  • Free with no URL cap from a licence; Screaming Frog's free version stops at 500 URLs.
  • Audits Screaming Frog exports offline: the same data, a second set of checks and a task list.
  • Every check reports a finding, a clean pass, skipped or failed, so missing evidence is never shown as clean.
  • Task backlog, recheck of fixes and a remediation ledger after the release.

Screaming Frog

  • Mature, widely used crawler with a very large built-in issue list (over 300 as published).
  • Built-in headless Chromium rendering with raw-versus-rendered HTML comparison.
  • Direct API connections to Google Search Console, GA4, PageSpeed Insights, Majestic, Ahrefs and Moz inside the crawl.
  • Axe-based accessibility checks and Schema.org/rich result validation.
  • Saved crawl files, scheduling with auto-exports, and crawl comparison, with a free tier of 500 URLs.

320 Screaming Frog issues, mapped

We mapped every issue on Screaming Frog's public issues list to SpiderHead's check registry (10 October 2026).

Without Accessibility (92 issues): 117 full · 49 partly · 62 not matched.

  • H16 · 0 · 0
  • Sitemaps6 · 0 · 0
  • Pagination6 · 0 · 1
  • Hreflang10 · 1 · 1
  • URL9 · 1 · 1
  • Canonicals8 · 1 · 1
  • Page Titles7 · 2 · 0
  • Links9 · 1 · 2
  • Meta Description6 · 2 · 0
  • Response Codes11 · 2 · 2
  • Images5 · 0 · 2
  • Directives7 · 1 · 2
  • Validation6 · 1 · 3
  • Structured Data3 · 0 · 3
  • Content5 · 5 · 1
  • Security5 · 7 · 0
  • H22 · 2 · 1
  • Mobile2 · 0 · 4
  • JavaScript2 · 10 · 4
  • PageSpeed2 · 4 · 13
  • Accessibility4 · 3 · 85
  • AMP0 · 1 · 15
  • Search Console0 · 8 · 2
  • Analytics0 · 0 · 4

Tabs sorted by coverage; numbers are full · partly · not matched.

  • Screaming Frog's list is read from its public issues page and summarised, not copied.
  • A partial match means a related check exists with a different threshold or scope, or the logic exists in a separate tool and is not yet a crawl finding.
  • For two issues (near duplicates and non-indexable URLs in the sitemap) the full match holds for Screaming Frog exports but not yet for SpiderHead's native crawl.
  • Native crawls and Screaming Frog are different collectors and may discover different URL populations.

Questions

How much does Screaming Frog SEO Spider cost?
The pricing page on the check date lists $279 per licence per year for 1-4 licences, with lower per-licence prices from 5 licences. A free version crawls up to 500 URLs. Licences are per user.
Does it have an MCP server?
Yes. Version 24.0 (19 May 2026) added an official SEO Spider MCP server. The user guide describes it as a paid-licence feature requiring version 24 and database storage mode; not all features are supported.
Does it run locally and need an account?
It runs as a desktop app on Windows, macOS and Linux, and crawls from your machine. The pages reviewed describe a licence key, not an account sign-in.

How we compared

  • Every cell comes from the vendor's own public pages (product, documentation, pricing, release notes, repository) on 21 October 2026.
  • “Not found in public docs” means we could not confirm it from an official source, not that the feature is missing. Charts count it as 0.
  • Prices and plans change. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
  • Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.

Sources

Screaming Frog is a trademark of Screaming Frog Ltd. Names and icons identify the products compared; SpiderHead is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Screaming Frog Ltd. Owners can ask us to remove an icon via contact.

More Screaming Frog comparisons

Screaming Frog vs SitebulbDesktop and cloud SEO crawlerScreaming Frog vs Ahrefs Site AuditCloud SEO crawler inside an all-in-one SEO platformScreaming Frog vs Semrush Site AuditCloud SEO platform module (technical site audit)Screaming Frog vs SEOnautOpen-source web-based SEO auditing tool (self-hosted or hosted)Screaming Frog vs LibreCrawlOpen-source web-based SEO crawler (self-hosted)Screaming Frog vs advertoolsPython library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawlerAll tools, one table8 SEO crawlers and audit tools

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