SiteCheck 3 min read

SiteCheck vs desktop SEO crawlers

Desktop SEO spiders are deep audit suites you install. SiteCheck is a cheaper browser report for broken links, redirects, SEO basics, and SSL without a licence.

Pick SiteCheck when you want a plain-English website health report in the browser: broken links, HTTP errors, redirects, SEO basics, and SSL — free for a one-off scan of up to 25 pages, no account, no card. Pick a desktop SEO crawler (Screaming Frog SEO Spider is the usual name in this category) when you need a deep, configurable crawl on your machine, hundreds of issue types, and saved crawl projects. Screaming Frog's free crawl limit and paid licence price are published on their pricing page; they change.

Different shapes

SiteCheck runs in the browser. You give a site URL and get a report. Free: one-off, up to 25 pages. Starter is $9/month or $90/year (1 site, 100 pages, weekly scans, email reports). Pro is $19/month or $190/year (5 sites, 500 pages, daily scans, email alerts). Agency is $49/month or $490/year (25 sites, client-ready reports, CSV). What the report covers is in what a website health report covers.

Desktop SEO spiders install on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs; a paid licence is £199 per user per year (their published figure) for unlimited crawls subject to machine memory, scheduling, JS rendering, and a long list of advanced checks. That is the right tool for a technical SEO who lives in crawl exports.

SiteCheck is not trying to be that suite. It is trying to be the cheaper, faster punch list for freelancers, small sites, and agencies who need the common defects without buying a desktop licence.

Side by side

  • Install. SiteCheck: none. Desktop spider: yes.
  • Free scope. SiteCheck: 25 pages, full report of its checks. Screaming Frog free: up to 500 URLs, fewer features than the paid licence.
  • Paid entry. SiteCheck Starter $9/mo. Screaming Frog paid licence £199/year per user.
  • Recurring scans. SiteCheck paid plans email on a schedule. Free desktop crawls are manual unless you buy scheduling in the paid licence.
  • Depth. Desktop suites win on configurable extraction, API integrations, and specialist SEO tabs. SiteCheck wins on "open the URL, read the report, fix the list."

When to choose SiteCheck

  • Pre-launch or post-redesign cleanup for a small site.
  • A client-ready health pass without installing software on their machine.
  • Weekly or daily re-scans on a budget ($9–$19/month) instead of a £199/year desktop seat.
  • You already know you want broken links, redirects, titles/meta/H1, robots, sitemap, TLS, mixed content, noindex, and canonicals — the list in the SiteCheck report.

How to run it: how to inspect a website for health problems.

When a desktop crawler may fit better

  • You crawl thousands of URLs and need the paid spider's configuration.
  • You need JS rendering, custom extraction, or Search Console / analytics integrations inside the crawler.
  • Your job title is technical SEO and the spider is already your daily driver.

After the inspection

A full report answers "what is wrong on this crawl?" It will repeat known 404s every time. For alerts only when a working link newly fails, baseline the cleaned site in Mortise — see website inspection vs new-break alerts and broken-link alerts without an SEO suite.