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Sitebulb vs advertools

Sitebulb (Desktop and cloud SEO 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.

Sitebulb

Desktop and cloud SEO crawler

Paid subscription; Cloud from £95/month (FAQ)Local or cloud

advertools

Python library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawler

Free, MIT licence; no paid tierRuns on your machine

Compatibility at a glance

Sitebulb scores 88 on coverage and 58 on automation; advertools scores 21 and 25. Both out of 100, counted from the table.

Out of 24 capabilities we compare for every tool.

9both have
9only Sitebulb
3only 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.

30Price and setup5 rows100
50Interfaces2 rows0
50AI agents and integrations2 rows25
100Crawl3 rows33
100Audit5 rows20
63Data sources4 rows13
50Reports and follow-up3 rows33
65Overall24 rows38

Side by side

CapabilitySitebulbadvertools
Price and setup
Free to useNo: Paid subscription; Cloud from £95/month (FAQ)Yes: Free, MIT licence; no paid tier
Open sourceNo: Proprietary commercial softwareYes: Yes, MIT licence
Runs on your machinePartly: Desktop crawls locally; Cloud runs in browserYes: Runs in your own Python environment
Works without an accountPartly: Cloud and MCP need an account; Desktop not statedYes: None for crawling (some SERP APIs need own keys)
Free tierPartly: 14-day trial equal to Pro, no card; no free tierYes: No limits; free library
Interfaces
Desktop appYes: Windows 10/11 (64-bit), macOS Sonoma+ (Apple/Intel)No: Python library, no native app
Command lineNot found in public docs: Not found in public docsNot found in public docs: No CLI documented; used from Python
AI agents and integrations
MCP server for AI agentsYes: Official read-only MCP for Claude/ChatGPT, Desktop and CloudNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
APINo: Cloud: no API yet; webhooks and Data Studio connectorPartly: Python API; no hosted web API
Crawl
JavaScript renderingYes: Evergreen Chromium rendering, all plans, toggleableNo: Not built in; scrapy-playwright mentioned
Scheduled crawlsYes: Scheduled/recurring audits on Pro and CloudNo: No built-in scheduler; run via your own cron
Custom extractionYes: Content Extraction (CSS selector, regex) and Content SearchYes: CSS and XPath selectors via crawl()
Audit
Audit checksYes: 300+ Hints (vendor Hints page)No: No fixed audit checklist; raw crawl data columns
HreflangYes: Hreflang report/checkerPartly: Extracts alternate/hreflang links; no audit report
Structured dataYes: Structured Data validator reportPartly: Extracts JSON-LD columns; no validation
Core Web Vitals / LighthouseYes: Web Vitals and Lighthouse via Chrome, sampled (default 10%)No: Not documented for the crawler
AccessibilityYes: Accessibility audit, 35+ Hints linked to axe guidesNo: Not documented
Data sources
Google Search ConsoleYes: Search Console data, keywords and URL InspectionNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
Google Analytics 4Yes: GA4 (or Universal) visitor data in auditsNot found in public docs: Not found in public docs
Backlink dataNot found in public docs: Not found in public docsNo: No backlink data in the crawler
Keyword dataPartly: Keywords report from Search Console data onlyPartly: SERP functions for Google and YouTube (own API keys)
Reports and follow-up
Report exportsYes: Custom PDF reports, Data Studio, Google Sheets; CSV/XLSXPartly: JSON Lines output; parquet conversion; pandas
Task list and fix recheckPartly: Prioritized Hints and audit-to-audit comparisonPartly: compare() diffs two crawls; no task tracking
Reads Screaming Frog exportsNot found in public docs: Not found in public docsNo: Not documented
yespartlynonot found in public docs

Where each one is stronger

Sitebulb

  • Prioritized Hints (300+) explain each issue and why it matters, which suits client-facing audits.
  • Customizable PDF reports and Data Studio / Google Sheets connectors for stakeholder reporting.
  • Cloud edition supports team collaboration on shared crawl data and crawls up to 10 million URLs per audit.
  • Built-in Search Console and GA4 integration, including URL Inspection data and orphan-page discovery.
  • Site-wide Web Vitals and Lighthouse collection in the crawl, with findings grouped across pages.

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, Sitebulb or advertools?
Sitebulb: Paid subscription; Cloud from £95/month (FAQ). advertools: Free, MIT licence; no paid tier. Prices as published on 21 October 2026; check the vendors' pricing pages before you buy.
Does Sitebulb or advertools run on my own machine?
Sitebulb: desktop crawls locally; Cloud runs in browser. advertools: runs in your own Python environment.
Can AI agents use Sitebulb or advertools?
MCP server — Sitebulb: official read-only MCP for Claude/ChatGPT, Desktop and Cloud; advertools: not found in public docs. API — Sitebulb: cloud: no API yet; webhooks and Data Studio connector; advertools: python API; no hosted web API.
How much does Sitebulb cost?
It is a paid subscription with a 14-day free trial (equivalent to Pro desktop, no card). Desktop has Lite (10,000 URLs per audit) and Pro (500,000 URLs); Cloud requires 2+ users and starts from £95/month per the FAQ. Desktop prices were not readable on the pricing page; yearly plans save 15%.
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

Sitebulb is a trademark of Sitebulb Limited. 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 Sitebulb Limited or advertools project (open source). Owners can ask us to remove an icon via contact.

Compare with SpiderHead

SpiderHead vs SitebulbDesktop and cloud SEO crawlerSpiderHead vs advertoolsPython library with a Scrapy-based SEO crawlerAll tools, one table8 SEO crawlers and audit tools

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