Free SEO Spider.
Crawl analysis, issue detection, image audits, crawl comparison, and Claude Code integration. Everything Screaming Frog charges £259 a year for, completely free, forever.
- Unlimited pages per crawl
- 17 SEO issues detected automatically
- Compare crawls to catch regressions
- Query your crawl data from Claude Code
- Free
- No trial, no limit, ever
- Unlimited
- Pages per crawl
- 17
- Issue types detected
- MCP
- Claude Code integration built in
What it does
A full SEO toolset.
For free.
Crawly is a desktop app that runs locally on your machine, stores crawl data in a local database, and never sends your data anywhere.
Full Site Crawl
Spider entire sites with no hard page limit, or paste a list of specific URLs. Configure depth, concurrency, and rate limiting. See status codes, redirect chains, response times, page size, and more.
17 Automated Issues
Covers missing title tags, duplicate H1s, broken links, mixed content, missing security headers, and more. Every issue is grouped by severity so you know where to focus first.
Image Audit
Every image across every crawled page. See total counts, unique sources, and instantly surface pages with missing alt text that are costing you accessibility and ranking signals.
Crawl Comparison
Run two crawls and diff them side by side. See exactly which pages were added, removed, or changed between deploys, migrations, or audits. No spreadsheets required.
Claude Code Integration
Crawly ships as an MCP server for Claude Code. Once set up, you can ask Claude Code to query your crawl database directly. Which pages are missing H1s? List all 4xx URLs. Surface patterns across hundreds of pages without touching a CSV.
Custom Extraction
Define your own CSS selectors and search patterns to extract any data from every page. Pull product prices, schema presence, tracking scripts, or anything else your audit needs.
Automated issue detection
17 issues. Detected on every crawl.
Crawly categorises every issue by severity (errors, warnings, and opportunities) so you know exactly where to focus first.
See it in action
Built for SEOs, not spreadsheets.
A clean, fast desktop interface for Mac, Windows, and Linux. No browser tab. No cloud sync. Just your data, instantly accessible.
Screaming Frog alternative
The best free Screaming Frog alternative
Screaming Frog is the industry standard SEO crawler, and for good reason. But at £259 a year, it prices out freelancers, in-house teams, and anyone who only needs to run 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 desktop SEO spider that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux, crawls unlimited pages, detects 17 issue types automatically, and includes features the paid version of Screaming Frog still does not have, like a Claude Code MCP integration and built-in security header checks.
If you need a capable, free Screaming Frog alternative that does not expire after 14 days or lock core features behind a paywall, Crawly is it. No subscription. No page cap on paid plans. Just a free download.
Feature comparison
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 | CrawlyFree | SF Free | SF Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | £259 / year |
| Page limit | Unlimited | 500 | Unlimited |
| Saved crawl history | |||
| Crawl comparison (diff) | |||
| Issues dashboard | Limited | ||
| Image audit | Limited | ||
| Hreflang audit | |||
| Security header checks | |||
| Duplicate content detection | |||
| Claude Code MCP integration | |||
| Custom CSS extraction | Limited | ||
| Multiple user agents | Limited | ||
| List mode crawl |
Screaming Frog pricing correct as of April 2026. Feature comparison based on publicly available documentation.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a free alternative to Screaming Frog?
- Yes. Crawly is a completely free desktop SEO spider available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Unlike Screaming Frog's free tier, Crawly has no URL cap at all. It crawls unlimited pages, detects 17 issue types, 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 on standard crawls, no expiring trial, and no paid tier. It is built and maintained by Dynamically, a Liverpool-based SEO agency, 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, including a Claude Code MCP integration that lets you query your crawl database directly, 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?
- Yes. Crawly is a desktop application that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. All crawl data is stored locally on your machine and never sent to any external server.
- What SEO issues does Crawly detect?
- Crawly automatically checks for 17 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 so you can prioritise fixes quickly.
- What is the difference between Crawly and Sitebulb?
- Sitebulb is a paid crawler starting at around £13.50 per month, known for strong data visualisations. Crawly is completely free and focuses on a fast, no-nonsense crawl workflow with a Claude Code MCP integration built in. If budget is a constraint or you prefer a lightweight tool without a subscription, Crawly is the better choice.
Free beta access
Be first to try Crawly.
Crawly is currently in beta. Drop your details below and we'll send you a download link as soon as it's ready. No spam, just the link.
Want a full SEO audit too?
Crawly handles the technical crawl. Our team at Dynamically handles the strategy: content gaps, link building, GEO, and everything in between.
