The best free Screaming Frog alternative
Crawly is a free, native macOS SEO crawler. No £259/year licence. No 500-URL cap. No Java runtime. And it includes features Screaming Frog still does not have.
Why SEOs are switching from Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is the industry standard SEO crawler, and for good reason - it is powerful and well-maintained. But at £259 a year per licence, it prices out freelancers, in-house teams, and anyone who only runs audits occasionally. The free version caps you at 500 URLs, which barely covers a small business website.
Crawly was built to close that gap. It is a free, native macOS SEO spider that crawls unlimited pages, detects 19 issue types automatically, and includes features the paid version of Screaming Frog still does not have - like a Claude Code MCP integration that lets you query your crawl data directly from your terminal, and built-in security header checks.
If you need a capable free Screaming Frog alternative that does not expire after a trial or lock core features behind a paywall, Crawly is it.
Crawly vs Screaming Frog
The free version of Screaming Frog caps you at 500 URLs. The paid version is £259 a year. Crawly gives you more, for nothing.
| Feature | Crawly Free | SF Free | SF Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | £259 / year |
| Page limit | Unlimited | 500 URLs | Unlimited |
| Platform | Native macOS | Java (Win/Mac/Linux) | Java (Win/Mac/Linux) |
| Apple Silicon native | Yes | Via JVM | Via JVM |
| Claude Code MCP | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-tab crawling | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Saved crawl history | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Crawl comparison (diff) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Issues dashboard | ✓ | Limited | ✓ |
| Image audit | ✓ | Limited | ✓ |
| Hreflang audit | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Security header checks | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Near-duplicate detection | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom CSS extraction | ✓ | ✗ | Paid only |
| Multiple user agents | ✓ | Limited | ✓ |
| List mode crawl | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| XML sitemap export | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Screaming Frog pricing correct as of May 2026. Based on publicly available feature documentation.
See it in action
Clean, native macOS interface. No Java. No browser tab. Just your data.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a free alternative to Screaming Frog?
- Yes. Crawly is a completely free desktop SEO crawler for macOS. Unlike Screaming Frog's free tier, Crawly has no URL cap at all. It crawls unlimited pages, detects 19 issue types automatically, audits images, saves crawl history, and lets you compare crawls over time.
- Is Crawly really free? What is the catch?
- There is no catch. Crawly is free to download and use with no page cap, no expiring trial, and no paid tier. It is built and maintained by Limely Ltd as a tool for the SEO community.
- Can Crawly replace Screaming Frog?
- For most SEO use cases, yes. Crawly covers the core workflow: full site crawls, on-page issue detection, image auditing, redirect chain analysis, and crawl comparisons. It also includes features Screaming Frog does not offer at any price tier - including Claude Code MCP integration and built-in security header checks.
- How many pages can Crawly crawl?
- Crawly has no hard page limit. You can crawl as many pages as the site has. You can also configure crawl depth, concurrency, and rate limiting to suit the size of the site you are auditing.
- Does Crawly work on Mac and Windows?
- Crawly is currently a native macOS application (Apple Silicon and Intel). It is not available for Windows or Linux at this time.
- What SEO issues does Crawly detect?
- Crawly automatically checks for 19 issue types across titles, meta descriptions, headings, status codes, redirects, indexability, images, security headers, content duplication, and hreflang. Issues are grouped by severity into errors, warnings, and opportunities.
- What is the difference between Crawly and Sitebulb?
- Sitebulb is a paid crawler starting at around £13.50 per month, known for its data visualisations. Crawly is completely free, native to macOS, and focused on a fast crawl workflow with Claude Code MCP integration built in.
Looking for a free SEO spider for Mac? See why Crawly is the best free SEO spider for Mac · How to query your crawl data with Claude Code
Also comparing? Crawly vs Sitebulb · Crawly vs JetOctopus
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