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We get asked this all the time: how is Sitebulb different to Screaming Frog. We like Screaming Frog a lot. As SEOs, we used it every day. But we found there were a few things we'd like to improve, so we built our own website crawler. In some ways, it's similar and in lots of ways, it's very different. In fact, you may decide – as many customers do – to use both! (Here's a PDF that will help you make that business case.)
| Feature | Sitebulb | ScreamingFrog |
|---|---|---|
| On-page SEO analysis | ||
| Internal link analysis | ||
| Google Analytics Integration | ||
| Looker Studio Connector | ||
| Site Visualizations/Crawl Maps | ||
| Free JavaScript crawling | ||
| Evergreen Chromium rendering | ||
| User-friendly UI | ||
| Cloud version | ||
| Ability to scale | ||
| Stakeholder-friendly issue explanations | ||
| Performance auditing | ||
| No project limits |
Sam Torres
Gray Dot Company
What Screaming Frog reviewers complain about most is the tool’s interface being outdated and not user-friendly. When you're trying to do an audit using Screaming Frog, you have to:
Look at a massive list of URLs, digging through data in tool and/or spreadsheet export
Try to make sense of it, try to spot the underlying pattern
Figure out the potential severity/impact
Realize you need to investigate further
Return to the big list of URLs/spreadsheet
By contrast, one of the main things Sitebulb users love is its audit-friendly workflow and user-friendly interface.
Once a crawl is started with Sitebulb, the tool begins the audit process for you, providing real-time feedback of issues it finds. Sitebulb then categorizes, prioritizes, and explains these issues, so you get an immediate sense of what needs doing to move the needle.
This is the Sitebulb way:
Issues amalgamated and prioritized, so you can triage issues WITHOUT having to dig into data
Potential severity presented from the outset
Dig into a list of URLs and/or export only AFTER you’ve decided to investigate further
This upended workflow makes Sitebulb the perfect tool for experienced and beginner tech SEOs alike.
“We’re big fans of Screaming Frog and we still use it now. However...as a tool, it’s not very intuitive, and it takes a long time to learn all the things you can do with it and how to do those things. Sitebulb Hints and issue prioritization has helped us spot those obvious things that are holding back client performance quicker. This means we can get results for our clients quicker.”
Another key difference between the two tools is that Screaming Frog is desktop only, with no cloud capabilities. This means it may not be a user’s first choice for crawling larger websites or working collaboratively.
Sitebulb on the other hand does offer a cloud version, which makes it the only crawler on the market with both desktop and cloud capabilities. We know SEOs love building their own solutions (Screaming Frog even has a guide on how to make it run in the cloud) but it’s actually surprisingly expensive and slow.
Sitebulb has done the heavy-lifting for you, offering a cloud crawler that is a fraction of the cost of traditional enterprise crawlers and much more affordable than you might think.
“Sitebulb Cloud more than pays for itself versus the desktop software. ... We've always been fans of Sitebulb... To have it accessible all the time to everyone is exactly what we were looking for and didn't know we needed."
Mark Williams-Cook
Candour
See how Sitebulb Cloud compares to Botify
See how Sitebulb Cloud compares to Lumar
See how Sitebulb Cloud compares to JetOctopus
See how Sitebulb Cloud compares to OnCrawl
With plenty of 5-star reviews on Capterra, Screaming Frog has a lot of fans. A UK-based SEO agency, their SEO Spider Tool is straightforward and the dashboard presents its technical SEO suggestions all in one place.
It’s a great crawler that can be used alongside tools such as GA and Semrush for a more powerful audit, though some reviewers feel that the need to use multiple tools to get the complete list of features they need makes it less appealing.
The main things Screaming Frog reviewers complain about on G2 are storage and functionality issues due to it being desktop only, and the UI needing refreshment and improvement. By contrast, these are some of the areas in which Sitebulb’s reviews really shine.
What do you like best about Sitebulb?
Usability and functionality really impress me.
Jan 04, 2023
What do you like best about Sitebulb?
The thing I've noticed is that it is very easy to use. This app has an excellent user experience that is very simple to be used for any user level, whether it is a novice or a beginner or an expert. I use this platform regularly to detect bugs or any issues on our client pages. And I have to say that the hint function is very incredible.
Dec 08, 2020
We like to think of the battle between Sitebulb vs Screaming Frog as a friendly one. We’ve known each other a long time and think we make each other better. We’ve tried to be as objective as possible in this comparison; the bottom line is that Sitebulb and Screaming Frog have different strengths, which is why so many SEOs end up using both tools. For auditing speed, ease of use, JavaScript crawling, and cloud capabilities, Sitebulb is the obvious choice. For a quick crawl, when you know what you're looking for, you can just as easily use Screaming Frog.
If you're new to Sitebulb, you can give it a 14-day free test drive, which will also give you a flavour of what to expect with Cloud.
