SEO Tools

Screaming Frog SEO Spider review

Desktop website crawler that audits technical SEO on your own machine, sold as a per-user annual licence.

Researched by Max Benz · Facts checked October 24, 2026 · How we research

Screaming Frog SEO Spider at a glance

Category
SEO Tools
Starting price
$279 per user per year (USD, 1-4 licences)
Pricing model
per user
Public pricing
Yes
Free plan
Yes
Free trial
No
Contract
annual licence
G2 rating
4.7 (84 reviews)
Founded
2010
Headquarters
Henley-on-Thames, UK
Integrations
Google Analytics, Google Search Console

Who Screaming Frog SEO Spider is for

Choose Screaming Frog SEO Spider if

  • Technical SEOs and agencies who want deep, local crawls at a low per-user price.
  • Teams that need custom extraction and JavaScript rendering without per-crawl credits.
  • Small sites under 500 URLs via the free version.

Look elsewhere if

  • Teams wanting a cloud platform with keyword research and rank tracking.
  • Non-technical users who want prioritized, plain-language audit reports.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider pricing

Screaming Frog SEO Spider plans as published on October 24, 2026
PlanPriceUnitNotes
Free0Crawls capped at 500 URLs
Paid licence$279user/yearUnlimited crawl limit (memory bound), JS rendering, GA/GSC integrations, saved crawls, support

Volume tiers per licence per year in USD: 5-9 $265, 10-19 $249, 20+ $235. USD prices read from the vendor pricing page with currency set to USD (?wmc-currency=USD). GBP list: 199 / 189 / 179 / 169.

What Screaming Frog SEO Spider really costs

Per seat per month
About $19.58 ($235 per year at 20+ licences)
Billing
Annual only.
20 users per year
20 x $235 = $4,700 per year.
Renewal terms
Annual licence; optional auto-renew chosen at purchase, no notice period, cancel via account subscriptions.
Recent price change
GBP 149 to 199 in Jan 2023; USD/EUR adjusted to $279/EUR245 in May 2025 (FAQ page)

Cheaper per seat than Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog SEO Spider features by buying criteria

Screaming Frog SEO Spider features, checked October 24, 2026
CriterionWhat we found
Technical site auditDesktop crawler; unlimited URLs on paid licence limited by RAM/storage; JavaScript rendering.
Project and credit limitsFree: 500 URLs per crawl; paid: no URL cap.
Pricing model and transparencyFlat per-user annual licence with volume tiers.
Target company sizeTechnical SEOs, agencies and in-house teams of any size.

What reviewers say about Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Praised for

  • Very comprehensive crawl data.
  • Reasonable licence price.
  • Many export options.

Common complaints

  • Post-crawl analysis less guided than some rivals.

Themes paraphrased from public reviews on G2 and similar sites, not quotes.

What most Screaming Frog SEO Spider reviews leave out

  • Licence is per user not per device; transferable to a new user once per annual term.
  • Expired licence reverts to the 500-URL free mode.
  • Auto-renew must be chosen at purchase and cannot be added later.
  • Crawl data is stored locally by default.
  • Price rose from GBP 149 to 199 in January 2023.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider alternatives

  • SitebulbAgencies wanting readable audit reports with hints and PDF output.
    From GBP 95 per month (Cloud); Desktop monthly prices not confirmed
  • SemrushMarketing teams that want keyword, audit, backlink and AI visibility tools in one login.
    EUR 112.52/month billed annually (SEO plan), EUR 134 billed monthly
  • AhrefsSEO and link-building teams who value backlink and competitor data.
    $29/month (Starter); $129/month (Lite)
  • SE RankingSmall agencies that need white-label reports and many client projects (via Agency Pack)
    EUR 87.20/month billed annually (Core); EUR 109/month billed monthly
  • ClearscopeContent teams and agencies that want unlimited users on a flat monthly price.
    $129/month (Essentials)
  • Google Search ConsoleEvery site owner as the first-party source of Google query and click data.
    Free

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from Screaming Frog SEO Spider's own pricing, product or documentation pages, G2 and company records, checked on October 24, 2026. Unknown values are left out instead of estimated.

Sources (5)
  1. pricing page (screamingfrog.co.uk)
  2. licence FAQ (screamingfrog.co.uk)
  3. company about page (screamingfrog.co.uk)
  4. g2.com
  5. capterra.com