One runs in your browser. The other runs on your machine.
Screaming Frog is the industry-standard desktop SEO crawler. It's powerful, flexible, and beloved by technical SEOs. Kaitico is a cloud-based audit tool — enter a URL, get a report. Two fundamentally different approaches.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Kaitico | Screaming Frog |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in | Cloud (browser) | Desktop application |
| Setup required | None | Download + install + configure |
| Site-wide crawl | ✅ | ✅ |
| Technical SEO checks | ✅ 20+ automated | ✅ Raw data, manual analysis |
| SEO health score | ✅ 0-100 score | ❌ Raw data only |
| Prioritized issue list | ✅ By severity | ❌ You sort and filter manually |
| GEO analysis | ✅ | ❌ |
| JavaScript rendering | ✅ Server-side | ✅ Via Chrome integration |
| Custom extraction | ❌ | ✅ Regex, XPath, CSS selectors |
| API access | Planned | ✅ |
| Crawl large sites (100K+ pages) | Limited by plan | ✅ (paid version) |
Pricing
Screaming Frog — Free version crawls up to 500 URLs. Paid license is £259/year (~$330) for unlimited crawls.
Kaitico — Pay-per-use credits. No software to install.
Screaming Frog's annual license is a good deal for heavy users. But you also need a machine powerful enough to run it — large crawls eat RAM and CPU.
The experience gap
Screaming Frog gives you raw data. Lots of it. Tabs full of URLs, status codes, headers, response times. It's incredibly powerful in the hands of someone who knows what to look for. But for someone who just wants to know "what's wrong with my site," it's overwhelming.
Kaitico gives you answers. Crawl your site, get a health score, see prioritized issues sorted by severity. No configuration, no data analysis skills required. The tradeoff: less flexibility, less raw data.
When Kaitico fits better
- You want answers, not raw data
- Non-technical team members need to understand the report
- You don't want to install or maintain desktop software
- You need a quick audit without configuration
- GEO readiness matters to you
When Screaming Frog fits better
- You're a technical SEO who loves diving into data
- You need custom extraction rules (regex, XPath)
- You crawl very large sites (100K+ pages)
- You need to integrate with other tools via API
- You want full control over crawl configuration
They actually complement each other
Many SEO professionals use both: Kaitico for quick health checks and client-facing reports, Screaming Frog for deep technical investigations. It's not either-or.