Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs Sitebulb

Both crawlers come from the United Kingdom, yet they reach buyers by different routes. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is installed on your own computer, offers a free edition limited to 500 URLs, and charges a yearly licence in euros whose crawl size is bounded by memory and storage. Sitebulb also runs on the desktop, adds a browser-based Cloud edition with live team collaboration, and explains more than 300 issues through built-in hints. A 14-day Pro trial needs no card, whereas Screaming Frog has no trial and relies on its free edition. Which one fits depends on whether crawling stays with one person or becomes a shared client deliverable. Both are British, so currency matters.

Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.

Both are reviewed in full in our website crawler software ranking: Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Sitebulb.

1. 01

   How many URLs before a wall

   The free edition of Screaming Frog halts at 500 URLs yet carries the same feature list as the licensed one. The licence removes the stated cap, so the real ceiling depends on the memory and storage you allocate on your machine. Sitebulb publishes numbers instead: Lite audits up to 10,000 URLs, Pro reaches 500,000 and can be stretched to 2 million, while Cloud allows 10 million URLs for each audit. Sitebulb therefore offers the larger stated ceilings, whereas Screaming Frog offers a free edition with no time limit. Anyone planning very big crawls should budget hardware for Screaming Frog.

   Edge: Sitebulb

2. 02

   Yearly spend with several seats

   A price ladder is printed only for Screaming Frog: EUR 245 per user a year for one to four licences, EUR 235 each from five, EUR 219 from ten and EUR 209 from twenty. Sitebulb is harder to total. Extra Pro users start at GBP 7 a month, Cloud begins at GBP 95 a month and needs at least two users, and a yearly plan carries a 15% discount. The basic desktop fee was missing from the text read, so a full Sitebulb quote cannot be built. For an agency adding seats, the confirmed ladder favours Screaming Frog.

   Edge: Screaming Frog SEO Spider

3. 03

   Testing before you commit money

   Sitebulb gives a 14-day Pro trial, requiring no credit card and allowing cancellation whenever you like. That trial lets a consultant run a large site past the 500-URL barrier of the free spider before any invoice exists. Screaming Frog describes no trial at all on its pricing page. Its free edition is the only no-cost route listed, and free technical support comes with it. If you only need to check small sites, the free edition is enough and costs nothing. For judging a big audit tool beforehand, Sitebulb's route gives more room. That makes Sitebulb the gentler way to test.

   Edge: Sitebulb

4. 04

   Where your crawl data lives

   Screaming Frog is downloaded for Windows, for macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel, and for Linux on Ubuntu and Fedora. A hosted edition is not described, so each crawl sits on the computer that ran it. Sitebulb sells two editions: Desktop runs locally, and Cloud runs in a browser and supports team collaboration in real time, with no project limits listed. Colleagues who want to open the same results together will find that only on the Sitebulb side. One person working alone will hardly miss it. Screaming Frog's text mentions no shared workspace. Screaming Frog therefore keeps everything on a single computer by default.

   Edge: Sitebulb

5. 05

   Help with reading the findings

   Sitebulb Pro attaches built-in explanations to more than 300 SEO issues. It also produces customisable PDF reports, spreadsheet exports and data visualisations, and connects to Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google Sheets, though automatic export is reserved for Pro. Screaming Frog presents itself as trusted by thousands of SEOs and agencies for technical audits and lists a separate Log File Analyser. An explanation layer for each issue is not named there. A consultant who must turn crawl output into a client document will probably save time with Sitebulb's reporting. Screaming Frog stays plainer, which some auditors actually prefer.

   Edge: Sitebulb

6. 06

   Who runs each business

   Screaming Frog calls itself a UK based SEO agency and the maker of the SEO Spider and the Log File Analyser, so the software grows out of daily crawling work. Sitebulb is operated by Sitebulb Limited under company number 12125600, registered in Biddenden, Kent, and its co-founders are named as Gareth Brown and Patrick Hathaway. Its about page names no parent company. Neither vendor mentions an outside owner in the text read. A buyer who cares about accountability gets a clear British answer from both, so this round ends level. Both vendors are therefore easy to identify before purchase.

   Depends on the buyer

Does the free Screaming Frog version leave out any features?

Nothing is listed as missing. Screaming Frog says the free version has an identical feature list to the paid one.

The difference is a crawl limit of 500 URLs, and free technical support is listed alongside it. Buying a licence lifts the stated cap, after which memory and storage decide how far a crawl goes.

How many people must sign up for Sitebulb Cloud?

At least two users are required, starting from GBP 95 a month, and no project limits are listed. Sitebulb's FAQ adds that cloud plans for large teams can pass GBP 20k a year.

A single person is therefore pointed towards the Desktop Lite edition. Cloud only makes sense when colleagues will genuinely share audits.

Can a company pay by purchase order?

Sitebulb allows invoice or purchase order only on yearly plans, with card or PayPal otherwise. Screaming Frog's pricing page, as read, says nothing about payment methods.

It does state that each licence runs for one year and has to be renewed. A finance team that insists on purchase orders should ask Screaming Frog directly.

• Screaming Frog pricing page: EUR price ladder by seat count, the 500-URL free version and the one-year licence term.
• Screaming Frog home page: Windows, macOS and Linux downloads, the UK agency self-description and the Log File Analyser.
• Sitebulb pricing page: Lite and Pro URL limits, Cloud from GBP 95 with two users, the 14-day trial, 15% yearly discount and payment methods.
• Sitebulb home page: Desktop and Cloud editions, the 300+ issue hints, report exports and Google integrations.
• Sitebulb about page: Sitebulb Limited company number 12125600, the Biddenden office and the two named co-founders.