JetOctopus vs Sitebulb in 2026: log-driven crawl intelligence vs prioritized audit hints
One ingests server logs to show what bots actually do on your site, GPTBot and ClaudeBot included. The other turns a crawl into a ranked list of 300+ hints you can hand straight to a developer. Both call themselves technical SEO crawlers; they solve the problem differently.
JetOctopus
Sitebulb- Sitebulb starts at $18/month with JavaScript rendering included on every plan; JetOctopus has no self-serve free entry point and starts at 293 EUR/month billed annually.
- JetOctopus ingests server log files to show real bot visits across 40+ bots including GPTBot and ClaudeBot; Sitebulb has no log analysis feature of any kind.
- Sitebulb ships 300+ prioritized Hints with built-in educational context explaining each issue; JetOctopus surfaces raw crawl, log, and GSC data without a hint-prioritization layer.
- JetOctopus has no user or project limits on any plan; Sitebulb charges $11/month per additional seat on Pro, with multi-user access only included once you reach Cloud at $125/month.
- Sitebulb Desktop runs locally with no cloud dependency, which matters for consultants who want full control over crawl settings; JetOctopus is cloud-only.
- JetOctopus counts one JavaScript crawl page as two HTML pages toward plan volume; Sitebulb includes JS rendering at no extra cost and with no volume penalty on every tier, including Lite.
- Sitebulb has an MCP server in development, still on a waitlist, for querying audit data through AI tools. JetOctopus already tracks AI crawler behavior (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) through live log analysis today.
JetOctopus and Sitebulb both crawl websites for technical SEO issues, but the resemblance mostly ends there. Sitebulb runs a crawl and hands back 300+ prioritized Hints, each with plain-language context explaining why it matters, which is why it has built a following among consultants who need to explain findings to non-technical clients. JetOctopus goes further upstream: it ingests actual server log files to show which pages Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and dozens of other bots really visit, at what frequency, something no crawl simulation can tell you. Sitebulb starts at $18 a month and runs locally if you want it to. JetOctopus has no self-serve entry point at all and starts at 293 EUR a month for a cloud-only platform built around log volume, not URL count. If the question is "what should I fix first," Sitebulb answers it clearly. If the question is "is crawl budget actually being wasted on pages that don't matter," only JetOctopus has the log data to answer it.
The tools at a glance
JetOctopus
SEO crawler and log analyzer for large sites that combines crawl data, server logs, GSC, and GA4 into one platform with no seat or project limits
JetOctopus is built for a question Sitebulb never touches: what is actually happening when a bot lands on your site. The log analyzer ingests server log files directly and shows which pages Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and dozens of other crawlers actually request, at what frequency, and where crawl budget is being spent on pages that don't deserve it. A simulated crawl can guess at crawlability; log data proves it.
The JavaScript crawler runs at up to 250 pages per second from the cloud with zero load on the target server, and it flags pages that render to nothing, content invisible to both search engines and AI systems. That speed and scale is the point: JetOctopus is built for sites with millions of URLs where a desktop crawler would choke, and the platform bundles in 16+ months of GSC data and GA4 alongside the crawl and log layers.
What it doesn't do is tell you what to fix first. There's no Hints system, no prioritized punch list, just crawl, log, and GSC data across six modules that assumes the person reading it already knows technical SEO. Combined with a 293 EUR/month starting price, no free tier, and pricing that scales by page and log volume rather than a flat seat count, JetOctopus is squarely built for teams already past the "what does this even mean" stage.
| Feature | 500K Plan 293 EUR/month (billed annually) | Add-on: Crawl from 138 EUR/month | Add-on: Logs from 86 EUR/month | Add-on: GSC from 43 EUR/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crawl pages included | 500K (or 250K JS) | Up to 10M+ | N/A | N/A |
| Log lines included | 2M | N/A | Up to 50M | N/A |
| User limits | None | None | None | None |
| Project limits | None | None | None | None |
| AI bot tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sitebulb
Website crawler for technical SEO audits with prioritized hints and visual reporting
Sitebulb's whole design premise is that a crawl report is useless if nobody acts on it. Every crawl surfaces issues through 300+ Hints, grouped by severity and category, each with educational context built in so a junior team member understands the why, not just the what. That's the opposite instinct from JetOctopus, which hands you raw data and expects you to know what matters.
It also runs two ways: Sitebulb Desktop installs locally and caps out at 500,000 URLs per audit on Pro, which covers the overwhelming majority of client sites a freelancer or small agency will ever touch. Sitebulb Cloud adds scheduled crawls, team collaboration, and capacity up to 10 million URLs for agencies working enterprise accounts, and the two sync natively so switching between them isn't a workflow change.
The trade-off is depth in the direction JetOctopus specializes in. There's no server log ingestion, so Sitebulb can tell you a page looks crawlable in a simulated visit but can't confirm Googlebot or GPTBot actually requested it. For teams whose real problem is crawl budget waste on a multi-million-page site, that gap matters. For everyone running audits on sites under a few hundred thousand URLs, $18 a month with JS rendering included covers the job well.
| Feature | Lite $18/month | Pro $42/month | Cloud From $125/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| URLs per audit | 10,000 | 500,000 | Up to 10 million |
| SEO Hints | 100+ | 300+ | 300+ |
| JavaScript crawling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team collaboration | No | Add-on +$11/user | Included (2+ users) |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | JetOctopus | Sitebulb |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.6/10 | 88/100 |
| Server log analysis | Yes, core feature (40+ bots) | No |
| AI bot crawl tracking | Yes, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and more | No |
| JavaScript rendering | Yes (JS crawl page counts as 2 HTML pages) | Yes, included on every plan at no extra cost |
| Prioritized hints / recommendations layer | No, raw crawl, log, and GSC data without a hint layer | Yes, 300+ prioritized Hints with educational context |
| Desktop option (no cloud dependency) | No, cloud-only | Yes, Sitebulb Desktop |
| GSC integration | Yes, 16+ months via bulk API | Yes, GA / GSC / Sheets integration |
| Seat / user limits | None on any plan | Single-user on Lite; $11/mo per seat add-on on Pro; included on Cloud (2+ users) |
| API access | Included across all modules | Not publicly listed on any plan |
| Starting price | 293 EUR/mo | $18/mo |
Which should you choose?
JetOctopusSitebulbSitebulbJetOctopusJetOctopusSitebulbSitebulbThe real dividing line isn't site size, it's whether you need proof or guidance. Sitebulb simulates a crawl and tells you what to prioritize, which is exactly what most audits need. JetOctopus reads actual server logs and tells you what bots really did, which is the only way to settle an argument about whether crawl budget is genuinely being wasted. A site with a few hundred thousand pages rarely needs log-level proof. A site with millions of URLs and an unclear indexation story usually does, and no amount of Hints will substitute for that data.
Bottom line
Start with Sitebulb if you're auditing sites under a few hundred thousand URLs and want a prioritized list of fixes for $18 a month, with the option to run entirely offline. Move to JetOctopus once the question stops being "what's wrong with this page" and becomes "is crawl budget actually the bottleneck," at which point 293 EUR a month buys log-verified answers that a simulated crawl, however well organized, cannot provide.
Frequently asked questions
Is JetOctopus or Sitebulb better for a freelance SEO consultant with a handful of small clients?
Sitebulb is the better fit for most freelance consultants. At $18/month, the Lite plan includes JavaScript rendering, GA/GSC integration, and 100+ prioritized Hints, which covers the majority of small-to-mid client sites without requiring a platform built for millions of URLs. JetOctopus's 293 EUR/month entry point is built for enterprise scale that most freelance client rosters don't need.
Does Sitebulb analyze server logs like JetOctopus does?
No. Sitebulb has no server log analysis feature; it works entirely from simulated crawls, run either locally through Sitebulb Desktop or in Sitebulb Cloud. JetOctopus's log analyzer is a core, separate module that ingests actual server log files to show which bots, including Googlebot, GPTBot, and ClaudeBot, really visited which pages.
Can JetOctopus run locally like Sitebulb Desktop?
No, JetOctopus is a cloud-only platform. Sitebulb is the one with a local option: Sitebulb Desktop installs on a workstation and handles up to 500,000 URLs per audit on the Pro plan, while Sitebulb Cloud adds team collaboration and scales to 10 million URLs for larger accounts.
Which tool gives a clearer list of what to fix first on a technical audit?
Sitebulb is purpose-built for this. Its 300+ Hints are grouped by severity and category with educational context explaining why each issue matters, which is designed specifically to turn a crawl into an action list. JetOctopus surfaces crawl, log, and GSC data without an equivalent prioritization layer, which suits teams that already know how to interpret raw technical SEO data.
Why does JetOctopus cost so much more than Sitebulb?
The two tools are priced for different scales of problem. Sitebulb's Lite plan at $18/month covers a single user auditing up to 10,000 URLs. JetOctopus's 293 EUR/month base plan includes unlimited users and unlimited projects, but its price reflects server log ingestion, 16+ months of GSC history, and AI bot tracking across 40+ crawlers, capabilities that Sitebulb does not offer at any price.
Does either tool track AI crawlers like GPTBot or ClaudeBot?
JetOctopus does, as a core feature: its log analyzer tracks more than 40 bots including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot, letting teams compare AI crawler behavior against Googlebot. Sitebulb has no bot-tracking or log analysis capability; its only AI-adjacent feature is an MCP server, still in a waitlist phase, that would let AI tools query Sitebulb's own audit data rather than track how AI crawlers behave on your site.