Screaming Frog
Worth it
Confidence: High
Buy if you do technical SEO and need deep site crawls . it's the category default at a flat $279/year with a usable free tier.
New check
Comparison
Screaming Frog vs VisualSitemaps
Screaming Frog lands on Worth it, and VisualSitemaps lands on Depends.
VisualSitemaps
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're an agency or UX/SEO team that regularly needs fast visual site maps, competitor snapshots, or private-site crawls.
| Compare | Screaming Frog | VisualSitemaps |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Technical SEO teams | Agencies auditing client sites |
| Who it's not for | Non-technical marketers wanting one-click audits | One-off maps of small sites . the free 25-page tier already covers you |
| Privacy | No public breaches found; the VA's federal tool registry flags one vulnerability entry for the SEO Spider.14 | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | No support-quality evidence in sources | No support evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Reviewers overwhelmingly call it the go-to technical crawler, though some question the annual fee for occasional use.¹ | Users . especially agencies . praise how easy it is to generate visual sitemaps, though some Redditors prefer Screaming Frog for deep technical crawls. |
| Biggest gotcha | Free version caps crawls; larger sites push you to the $279/year license fast⁵ | Free tier stops at 25 pages; bigger sites push you into paid plans |
Pick Screaming Frog when
- Technical SEO teams
- Agencies auditing client sites
- Large-site owners needing deep crawls
When Screaming Frog is not a fit
- Non-technical marketers wanting one-click audits
- Anyone needing rank tracking or keyword data . it only crawls
- Small sites already covered by the free tier
- Cloud-first teams . this is a desktop app
Pick VisualSitemaps when
- Agencies auditing client sites
- UX teams mapping site structure
- SEO competitor-structure research
- Consultants replanning site architecture
When VisualSitemaps is not a fit
- One-off maps of small sites . the free 25-page tier already covers you
- Deep technical/SEO crawls . Screaming Frog does that better
- Teams wanting hand-designed sitemaps . Octopus.do fits better
- Buyers who need an enterprise-backed vendor . this team is tiny
Sources
review
- Screaming Frog Reviews - Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider review - TechRadartechradar.comreview
- Screaming Frog Review 2026: Pricing - CrawlRavencrawlraven.comreview
review
- Screaming Frog vs. Semrush - Exploding Topicsexplodingtopics.comreview
- WebKernelAI vs Screaming Frog - Cloud vs Desktop Auditwebkernelai.comreview
- Pricing - Screaming Frog SEO Spiderscreamingfrog.co.ukofficial
- SEO Spider Licencescreamingfrog.co.ukofficial
- Log File Analyser Pricingscreamingfrog.co.ukofficial
- Shazam Case Study - Screaming Frogscreamingfrog.co.ukofficial
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider - VA OIT TRMoit.va.govsecurity
- Screaming Frog Security Rating - UpGuardupguard.comsecurity
- SEO tools that I actually love - LinkedInlinkedin.comreview