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Screaming Frog vs advertools

Screaming Frog (SEO Spider desktop crawler) and advertools (Python library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawler) on the same 24 capabilities, with a source for every cell and charts counted from the table.

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

Screaming Frog

SEO Spider desktop crawler

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

advertools

Python library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawler

Free, MIT licence; no paid tierRuns on your machine

Compatibility at a glance

Screaming Frog scores 92 on coverage and 75 on automation; advertools scores 21 and 25. Both out of 100, counted from the table.

Out of 24 capabilities we compare for every tool.

10both have
12only Screaming Frog
2only advertools

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.

70Price and setup5 rows100
100Interfaces2 rows0
50AI agents and integrations2 rows25
100Crawl3 rows33
100Audit5 rows20
75Data sources4 rows13
83Reports and follow-up3 rows33
83Overall24 rows38

Side by side

CapabilityScreaming Frogadvertools
Price and setup
Free to usePartly: Paid licence $279 per user per year (1-4 licences)Yes: Free, MIT licence; no paid tier
Open sourceNo: Proprietary; free version is closed sourceYes: Yes, MIT licence
Runs on your machineYes: Crawls run on your own machineYes: Runs in your own Python environment
Works without an accountYes: Licence key only; free version needs no sign-upYes: None for crawling (some SERP APIs need own keys)
Free tierYes: Free version crawls up to 500 URLsYes: No limits; free library
Interfaces
Desktop appYes: Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon/Intel), LinuxNo: Python library, no native app
Command lineYes: Command-line crawling and exportsNot found in public docs: No CLI documented; used from Python
AI agents and integrations
MCP server for AI agentsYes: Official MCP server since v24.0; paid licence onlyNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
APINo: No public REST API found; it consumes third-party APIsPartly: Python API; no hosted web API
Crawl
JavaScript renderingYes: Integrated headless Chromium renderingNo: Not built in; scrapy-playwright mentioned
Scheduled crawlsYes: File > Scheduling with intervals and auto-exportsNo: No built-in scheduler; run via your own cron
Custom extractionYes: XPath, CSS Path, regex, custom searchYes: CSS and XPath selectors via crawl()
Audit
Audit checksYes: Over 300 issues, warnings, opportunities (issues list)No: No fixed audit checklist; raw crawl data columns
HreflangYes: Missing return tags, bad codes, non-200 URLsPartly: Extracts alternate/hreflang links; no audit report
Structured dataYes: Schema.org and Google rich result validationPartly: Extracts JSON-LD columns; no validation
Core Web Vitals / LighthouseYes: PageSpeed Insights API: Lighthouse and CrUX dataNo: Not documented for the crawler
AccessibilityYes: Automated WCAG checks using axe rulesNo: Not documented
Data sources
Google Search ConsoleYes: Search Analytics and URL Inspection APIsNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
Google Analytics 4Yes: GA4 API connection during a crawlNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
Backlink dataPartly: Link metrics via Majestic, Ahrefs, Moz APIsNo: No backlink data in the crawler
Keyword dataPartly: Only GSC query/position data per URLPartly: SERP functions for Google and YouTube (own API keys)
Reports and follow-up
Report exportsYes: Spreadsheets, XML sitemaps, Google Sheets, Looker StudioPartly: JSON Lines output; parquet conversion; pandas
Task list and fix recheckPartly: Re-crawl and compare crawls; no task tracker foundPartly: compare() diffs two crawls; no task tracking
Reads Screaming Frog exportsYes: Native: opens .seospider and .dbseospider crawlsNo: Not documented
yespartlynonot found in public docs

Where each one is stronger

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.

advertools

  • Fully scriptable in Python with every Scrapy setting exposed, so crawl behavior is highly customisable
  • Crawl output is tidy tabular data for pandas, including large crawls through parquet conversion
  • Also covers sitemap and robots.txt downloads, log-file parsing and SERP API helpers in one package
  • Free MIT-licensed code with no URL limits or account

Questions

Which is cheaper, Screaming Frog or advertools?
Screaming Frog: Paid licence $279 per user per year (1-4 licences). advertools: Free, MIT licence; no paid tier. Prices as published on 21 October 2026; check the vendors' pricing pages before you buy.
Does Screaming Frog or advertools run on my own machine?
Screaming Frog: crawls run on your own machine. advertools: runs in your own Python environment.
Can AI agents use Screaming Frog or advertools?
MCP server — Screaming Frog: official MCP server since v24.0; paid licence only; advertools: not found in public docs. API — Screaming Frog: no public REST API found; it consumes third-party APIs; advertools: python API; no hosted web API.
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.
Is advertools an audit tool with reports?
No fixed audit checklist is published. It extracts page elements into data tables, and the analysis is done by the user in pandas; a few helpers cover links, images, redirects and crawl comparison.

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

Compare with SpiderHead

SpiderHead vs Screaming FrogSEO Spider desktop crawlerSpiderHead vs advertoolsPython library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawlerAll tools, one table8 SEO crawlers and audit tools

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