Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs Semrush
Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Semrush are both SEO tools tools. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is aimed at agencies and freelancers, while Semrush is aimed at agencies and enterprise. Screaming Frog SEO Spider costs less, from $23.25/mo versus $139/mo for Semrush. Both have a free plan.
Desktop crawler for technical SEO audits
All-in-one marketing intelligence
| Pricing | Freemium · $23 | Freemium · $139 |
| Starting price | $23.25/mo | $139/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 7 days |
| Built for | Agencies, Freelancers | Agencies, Enterprise |
| Platforms | macos, windows, linux | web |
| Country | GB · 2010 | US · 2008 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Screaming Frog SEO Spider if
Technical SEOs, agencies and in-house teams who audit sites regularly.
- Indispensable for technical audits
- Inexpensive annual licence
- Extremely flexible extraction
Look elsewhere if: Beginners wanting guided recommendations (Sitebulb, Seobility) or continuous monitoring.
Choose Semrush if
Agencies and marketing teams who need SEO plus paid and content tools in one place.
- Broadest marketing toolset in one subscription
- Huge keyword database and competitive intelligence
- Strong PPC research
Look elsewhere if: Backlink-focused SEOs who prefer Ahrefs or small sites needing basic tracking (SE Ranking, Mangools).
Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs Semrush pricing
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
- Free£0Crawl up to 500 URLs
- Paid licence£199/yearPer user; $279/yr in USD; bulk discounts from 5
Semrush
- Free$0For trying out the platform, no card required
- SEO$139/mo$117.33/mo annually; 5 sites, 500 tracked keywords
- Starter$199/mo$165.17/mo annually; SEO + AI Search, 50 prompts
- Pro+$299/mo$248.17/mo annually; 15 sites, 1,500 keywords
- AdvancedCustom40+ sites, 5,000+ keywords, API access
Screaming Frog SEO Spider · Key features
- Full site crawl with on-page SEO element analysis
- JavaScript rendering and crawl comparison
- Redirect chains, broken links, canonical and hreflang audits
- Structured data validation and sitemap generation
- Custom extraction (XPath, CSS, regex) and custom JavaScript
- GA, GSC, PageSpeed, Ahrefs, Moz and LLM API integrations
Cons
- Desktop app; depends on your machine's memory
- Dated interface with a learning curve
- No historical monitoring (crawl on demand)
Semrush · Key features
- Keyword research with Keyword Magic Tool and intent data
- Site Audit, Position Tracking and On Page SEO Checker
- Backlink Analytics and Link Building tool
- Advertising Research and PPC keyword tools
- Content toolkit: Topic Research, SEO Writing Assistant
- AI visibility toolkit for AI Overviews and chatbots
Cons
- Expensive, with add-ons for local, social and trends
- Interface can feel overwhelming
- Backlink index slightly behind Ahrefs for some
Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs Semrush: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Semrush?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider starts at $23.25/mo and Semrush at $139/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Semrush have a free plan?
Yes, both Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Semrush have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.