Sitebulb built its reputation on making audits easier to understand: prioritised hints, clear explanations and visual reports clients actually read. If that’s what you value, you’ll recognise the same idea in Crawlens. The difference is mostly in what you pay, and for what.
When is Sitebulb the better choice?
- You’re on a Mac. Sitebulb Desktop runs on Windows and Mac. Crawlens is Windows-only for now.
- You crawl beyond 100,000 URLs. Sitebulb Pro audits up to 500,000 URLs. Crawlens stops at 100,000 per crawl.
- You want more checks and visuals. Sitebulb Pro lists 300+ hints, crawl maps, a spell checker and accessibility checks. Crawlens has 70 rules and no crawl maps.
- Your team needs the cloud. Sitebulb Cloud runs in the browser for teams. Crawlens is desktop only.
Where is Crawlens different?
Pro features without the subscription
Sitebulb has no free plan. Lite limits audits to 10,000 URLs and leaves out several features that need Pro: audit comparison, scheduled audits, customised PDF reports, performance, structured data, and international and hreflang reports. Crawlens includes all of those free, for crawls of up to 100,000 URLs.
Server logs in the same audit
Crawlens imports Apache, Nginx and IIS logs, verifies real Googlebot requests, and joins them to the crawl, flagging indexable pages Googlebot never visits and URLs Googlebot requests that the crawl didn’t find. Log analysis isn’t listed among Sitebulb’s desktop plan features.
AI access on both sides
Both Sitebulb and Crawlens offer an MCP server, so you can bring audits into Claude and other AI assistants. Crawlens’s is free, read-only and runs on your computer; see how to connect it.
Can you use both?
Yes. Crawlens imports Sitebulb exports with one row per URL (CSV or Excel) and maps the columns automatically. It also imports Screaming Frog, Ahrefs and Semrush Site Audit exports, so you can bring earlier audits into one place and compare them with fresh Crawlens crawls.
Which should you choose?
Choose Sitebulb if you’re on Mac, need audits above 100,000 URLs, want crawl maps, spelling and accessibility checks, or need a cloud tool for a team.
Choose Crawlens if you’re on Windows, your sites fit within 100,000 URLs per crawl, and you want audit comparison, scheduling, PDF reports, Google data and log analysis without a subscription.
Sitebulb’s 14-day trial and Crawlens’s free download make it easy to run both on the same site and compare.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Sitebulb?
Yes. Crawlens is a free desktop SEO crawler for Windows. It crawls up to 100,000 URLs and includes audit comparison, scheduled crawls, PDF reports, structured data and hreflang checks, which need Sitebulb Pro.
Does Sitebulb have a free version?
No. Sitebulb offers a 14-day free trial that is equivalent to Sitebulb Pro and needs no credit card. After that it's a paid subscription, Lite or Pro.
How many URLs can Sitebulb Lite crawl?
10,000 URLs per audit. Sitebulb Pro raises that to 500,000. Crawlens crawls up to 100,000 URLs per crawl for free.
Can I import Sitebulb data into Crawlens?
Yes. Crawlens imports CSV or Excel exports with one row per URL from Sitebulb, as well as Screaming Frog, Ahrefs and Semrush, and maps the columns automatically.
Does Crawlens run on Mac like Sitebulb?
Not yet. Crawlens runs on Windows; Mac and Linux versions are planned. Sitebulb Desktop runs on Windows and Mac.
Sources
Screaming Frog and Sitebulb are trademarks of their respective owners. Crawlens is not affiliated with them.