What Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a website crawler that you install on your computer. It visits the pages of a site and checks them for more than 300 SEO issues. It finds broken links, redirects, missing page titles, duplicate pages and more. You can export the results to a spreadsheet. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. A free version crawls up to 500 URLs.
Who Should Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is useful for SEO specialists, agencies and website owners who want to run technical SEO audits. A URL is a web page address. Small sites can often use the free version. Larger sites and teams need a paid licence. Each user needs their own licence.
How Does Screaming Frog SEO Spider Work?
- Download the SEO Spider for Windows, Mac or Linux and install it.
- Enter the website address you want to check and start the crawl.
- Look at the results in the tabs, such as response codes, page titles and meta data. Each issue has an in-app explanation and a priority.
- Export the data to a spreadsheet, or send the list of errors to a developer.
- Buy a licence if you want to crawl more than 500 URLs or use advanced features.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Pricing and Plans
The screenshot shows a Free Version and a Paid Version. Prices are in British pounds (£). The Paid Version costs £199 per year for one licence. A licence lasts one year, and you must renew it after that. Licences are per user, so two people need two licences. The page lists lower prices for bulk buys of five or more: £189, £179 and £169 per licence. The screenshot shows yearly prices only.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Main Features and Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Version | Free | Not applicable | Crawls up to 500 URLs, no crawl configuration, no saving crawls |
| Paid Version (1 to 4 licences) | £199 per licence | Yearly | Unlimited* crawl limit, JavaScript rendering, scheduling, integrations |
| Paid Version (5 to 9 licences) | £189 per licence | Yearly | Same features as the paid version |
| Paid Version (10 to 19 licences) | £179 per licence | Yearly | Same features as the paid version |
| Paid Version (20+ licences) | £169 per licence | Yearly | Same features as the paid version |
Official pricing page: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/pricing
Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider Free?
Yes. The SEO Spider has a free version that needs no sign-up or email. It crawls up to 500 URLs in one crawl. It finds broken links, checks titles and meta data, and makes XML sitemaps. Crawl configuration, saving crawls, JavaScript rendering, scheduling and API integrations need a paid licence.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Key Features
Find Broken Links and Redirects
The crawler finds broken links (404 errors) and server errors. It also finds redirects, redirect chains and loops. You can export the errors and the pages that link to them. This feature is in the free version.
Page Titles, Meta Data and Duplicate Content
The SEO Spider checks page titles and meta descriptions that are too long, too short, missing or repeated. It finds exact duplicate pages. Near duplicate content checks are in the paid version.
JavaScript Rendering
Some sites build their pages with JavaScript. The paid version can render pages with a built-in Chromium browser. This lets it crawl sites made with Angular, React and Vue.js.
Google Integrations
The paid version connects to Google Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. This adds visits, search data and speed data to each URL in a crawl. It can also pull link data from Majestic, Ahrefs and Moz.
Scheduling and Crawl Comparison
You can schedule crawls and export the data on a set time. Crawl Comparison shows what changed between two crawls. It can also compare a staging site with the live site. Both are paid features.
Custom Extraction and AI Prompts
You can collect data from a page's HTML using XPath, CSS Path or regex. You can also set up custom AI prompts with OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama and Anthropic during a crawl. These are paid features.
Should You Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is the premier desktop crawler for technical SEO professionals, consultants and agencies requiring forensic audit capabilities on websites of any scale. Its free 500-URL tier offers immediate diagnostic value without registration, while the affordable annual licence unlocks headless JavaScript rendering, automated scheduling and deep integrations with Google APIs and external link indexers. This overview is based on publicly available product information and is not a hands-on review.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The free version has no sign-up and crawls up to 500 URLs.
- The paid licence is £199 per year, with lower prices for five or more licences.
- It checks for more than 300 SEO issues and explains each one in the app.
- It works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Cons
- The free version stops at 500 URLs and lacks many features, such as saving crawls and JavaScript rendering.
- Licences last one year, and you must renew them.
- Licences are per user, so teams pay for each person.
- The number of URLs you can crawl depends on your computer's memory and storage.
Popular Screaming Frog use cases
Fix Broken Links and Redirect Chains
You can crawl a site, list broken links and redirects, and send the list to a developer.
Clean Up Titles and Meta Descriptions
You can find page titles and descriptions that are missing, too long, too short or repeated.
Create XML Sitemaps
You can make an XML sitemap and an image sitemap from a crawl.
Crawl JavaScript Websites
You can render pages in the paid version to check sites built with React, Angular or Vue.js.
Frequently asked questions
Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider free?
Yes, there is a free version. It crawls up to 500 URLs and needs no sign-up. A paid licence costs £199 per year and removes the limit.
What are the limits of the Screaming Frog SEO Spider Free plan?
The free version crawls up to 500 URLs. It does not include scheduling, crawl configuration, saving crawls, JavaScript rendering, API integrations or free technical support.
How long does a Screaming Frog SEO Spider licence last?
A licence lasts one year. After that, you must renew it. The screenshot shows the price as per year.
Does Screaming Frog SEO Spider work on Mac and Linux?
Yes. The official site offers downloads for Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora).
Do I need a licence for each person on my team?
Yes. Licences are per user. Prices drop for bulk buys: £189 per licence for 5 to 9, £179 for 10 to 19, and £169 for 20 or more.
