Website Crawlers
Sitebulb: what it does, what it costs
A technical crawler that explains why each issue matters, not just that it exists.
Sitebulb at a glance
Every row is a verified field or an honest absence. A row is dropped rather than filled with an em dash, so the length of this table says how complete the record is.
| What it is | A technical crawler that explains why each issue matters, not just that it exists. |
|---|---|
| Category | Website Crawlers |
| Best suited for | The audit is a deliverable someone else has to act on |
| Starting price | From $18/month (Lite); Pro $42/month |
| Free plan | No |
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Main strength | Prioritised hints explain why an issue matters, which is most of the work in a client audit |
| Main limitation | Desktop plans are per user, with extra seats at $11 a month each |
| Evidence | Primary-source researched |
| Closest alternatives | Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Semrush, Google Search Console |
| Pricing checked | 9 August 2026 |
| Record checked | 9 August 2026 |
What Sitebulb is
Sitebulb crawls a site for technical SEO problems, as desktop software or a hosted cloud product. The crawl itself is not what distinguishes it — most credible crawlers find the same faults. The output is: every issue arrives as a prioritised hint with an explanation of why it matters and what to do about it.
That difference decides who it is for. A raw export of 4,000 issues is a list only a specialist can act on, and most of the work in a client audit is turning that list into an argument. Sitebulb does a large part of that translation, which is why it tends to win where the deliverable leaves your own screen.
The extras follow the same idea: crawl maps that show architecture visually, internal link analysis showing where authority pools, and crawl comparison between two audits so you can show what a sprint actually fixed. It is slower than Screaming Frog on very large sites, and it holds no keyword, rank or backlink data at all.
What you can use it for
- Produce a technical audit a client can read and act on without a specialist translating it
- See site architecture and internal link distribution as a map rather than a spreadsheet
- Compare two crawls to show exactly what a technical sprint fixed
- Validate structured data and Core Web Vitals in the same pass as the crawl
The features that matter for SEO
Each one says what it does and the SEO job it serves. A vendor feature list without that second half tells you nothing you could not read on their own site.
Prioritised hints with explanations
Groups every finding into a hint that states the issue, its priority, why it matters and how to resolve it.
The difference between an issue list and an audit. This is what makes the output usable by a developer who does not do SEO.
Crawl maps
Renders site architecture as an interactive visual map by crawl depth and internal linking.
Shows orphaned sections and depth problems in a form a stakeholder understands immediately, which a URL export never achieves.
Internal link analysis
Reports internal link counts, depth and the distribution of link equity across the site.
Identifies the commercial pages starved of internal links — usually the cheapest ranking gain available on an established site.
JavaScript rendering
Crawls with rendering enabled and reports what appears only after execution.
Necessary on any modern framework, and the check that catches content a crawler never receives.
Crawl comparison
Diffs two audits of the same site and lists what changed.
Turns "we fixed the technical debt" into a defensible before-and-after, which is what a retainer review needs.
Core Web Vitals and performance auditing
Measures performance metrics during the crawl and reports them per URL.
Finds the templates with a performance problem rather than the single URLs, which is where the fix actually belongs.
White-label export
Exports audits to branded PDF and Excel.
Removes the manual step between a finished crawl and a client deliverable.
Pricing and limits
Starting price: From $18/month (Lite); Pro $42/month Checked 9 August 2026 Vendor’s own pricing page
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | $18 /mo 15% off with yearly billing |
|
| Pro | $42 /mo 15% off with yearly billing |
|
| Cloud Server | From $125 /mo |
|
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Prioritised hints explain why an issue matters, which is most of the work in a client audit
- Crawl maps and internal link analysis surface problems that a URL export hides
- JavaScript rendering handles modern frameworks properly
- Bootstrapped and independent, with steady development on one job
Limitations
- Desktop plans are per user, with extra seats at $11 a month each
- No keyword research, rank tracking or backlink data
- Slower than Screaming Frog on very large sites
- Cloud Server jumps to $125 a month, a wide gap above the $42 desktop tier
- No free tier — evaluation is a 14-day trial
Who it is for, and who should skip it
Worth it if
- The audit is a deliverable someone else has to act on
- Architecture and internal linking are part of the diagnosis
- You want to show change between two crawls over time
Skip it if
- You need the fastest possible crawl on a very large site
- You want one tool that also covers keywords and links
- A raw export is all you need, and $279 a year for unlimited crawling is the better deal
Alternatives to Sitebulb
Each one answers when it is the better choice, which is the only thing a list of competitors is useful for.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider Choose it when you want unlimited raw crawling at a fixed annual cost and can interpret the export yourself.
- Semrush Choose it when scheduled cloud auditing alongside keyword and competitor data matters more than crawl depth.
- Google Search Console Choose it when you need to know what Google indexed, which no crawler can tell you.
Sources and verification
Last verified 9 August 2026 11 days ago
Pricing 9 August 2026 Plans 9 August 2026 Features 9 August 2026
- Sitebulb pricing Pricing page verifies pricing, plans, limits checked 9 August 2026
- Sitebulb resources and documentation Documentation verifies features, platforms checked 9 August 2026
What changed
- 9 August 2026 — Pricing checked against the vendor's page; Lite $18/month, Pro $42/month, Cloud Server from $125/month.
Questions
Sitebulb or Screaming Frog?
Screaming Frog if you are interpreting the crawl yourself and want unlimited raw output for $279 a year. Sitebulb if the audit is going to someone else, because its hints explain why each issue matters and its crawl maps make architecture problems visible to non-specialists.
Does Sitebulb have a free version?
No. There is a 14-day trial, then plans start at $18 a month for Lite as of 9 August 2026.
Can Sitebulb crawl in the cloud?
Yes, through Cloud Server from $125 a month, which removes project limits and does not depend on your own machine being on. The desktop plans crawl locally.