Screaming Frog SEO Spider vs URL Profiler in 2026: Site crawler vs bulk URL data enrichment
Both run as desktop apps and both output a spreadsheet full of data, but they start from opposite ends. Screaming Frog discovers URLs by crawling; URL Profiler enriches a URL list you already have with link metrics, content scores, and contact data.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
URL Profiler- Screaming Frog discovers URLs by crawling links from a seed domain. URL Profiler does not crawl; it processes a URL list you already have and enriches each row with additional data.
- URL Profiler connects to Moz, Majestic, Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and PageSpeed APIs to pull link metrics, traffic, and performance data in one run, but requires you to supply your own API keys for the third-party sources. Screaming Frog connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights, with no third-party link metric integrations.
- URL Profiler scrapes email addresses and WHOIS registration data across an entire URL list, a feature aimed at link building and outreach prospecting. Screaming Frog has no email or WHOIS harvesting capability.
- Screaming Frog includes server log analysis in its standard £199 a year license. URL Profiler has no log analysis feature at all.
- URL Profiler's Pro plan processes up to 1,000,000 URLs per import for $25.95 a month billed yearly; its Solo plan caps at 5,000 URLs per import for $19.95 a month. Screaming Frog's paid license has no URL cap for £199 a year.
- Both tools are desktop-only with no web interface: Screaming Frog runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux; URL Profiler runs on Windows and Mac, including server deployment on Pro and Agency plans.
- Neither tool tracks AI Overviews citations, ChatGPT mentions, or any other AI search visibility signal; both are scoped to traditional crawl and bulk-data workflows.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider and URL Profiler are two of the few remaining serious desktop tools in SEO, and the resemblance ends around there. Screaming Frog discovers URLs itself: it starts from a seed and follows every link it finds, cataloguing status codes, redirects, and metadata as it goes, with server log analysis included for £199 a year. URL Profiler does not crawl a site to find URLs at all; you feed it a list, and it enriches every row with whatever you configure, link metrics from Moz, Majestic, or Ahrefs (using your own API keys), five separate readability scores, scraped email addresses and WHOIS data, social share counts, PageSpeed scores, and Google Analytics traffic, all in a single pass across up to a million rows. One tool answers "what is wrong with this site." The other answers "tell me everything about this list of URLs."
The tools at a glance
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
The industry-standard desktop crawler for technical SEO audits.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawls a site the way a search bot does, following every link it finds and cataloguing status codes, title tags, canonicals, and redirects along the way. It runs locally, so the free version stops at 500 URLs while the £199 a year license removes the cap entirely, with Chromium-based JavaScript rendering and custom XPath, CSS, or regex extraction included in the same price.
Server log analysis is bundled into the standard license, which is unusual at this price point. Upload your Apache, Nginx, or IIS logs and the Spider maps which URLs Googlebot is actually visiting against your site structure, turning the tool into a crawl-budget diagnostic as well as a structural auditor.
What it will not do is enrich a URL list with third-party link metrics, scrape contact emails, or pull WHOIS data. It discovers and audits; it does not go looking for who owns a domain or what their Domain Authority is. For that kind of bulk enrichment work, it needs a companion tool.
| Feature | Free Free (limited to 500 URLs) | Single License £199/year | 5-9 Licenses £189 per license/year | 10-19 Licenses £179 per license/year | 20+ Licenses £169 per license/year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| URL limit | 500 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Server log analysis | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google integrations | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| JavaScript rendering | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom extraction | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
URL Profiler
Bulk URL auditing desktop app that collects link metrics, content data, social signals, and email addresses across thousands of URLs at once.
URL Profiler starts where a crawl ends: you give it a list of URLs, whether that is a Screaming Frog export, a competitor backlink file, or a prospecting sheet, and it enriches every row with whatever data sources you configure for that run. Link metrics from Moz, Majestic, and Ahrefs (bring your own API keys), five readability scores, scraped email addresses, WHOIS registration data, social share counts, PageSpeed scores, and Google Analytics traffic can all be pulled in a single pass.
It is built by 301 Media LLC and has been an agency staple for over a decade specifically because it collapses tasks that would otherwise mean checking four or five separate tools by hand. Link auditors use it to qualify backlink prospects with metrics and contact emails in one export; content teams use it to combine traffic, readability, and status codes into a single content-inventory spreadsheet.
It does not discover URLs on its own the way a crawler does, and every third-party metric source requires your own API subscription and key. There is also no dashboard, no scheduling, and no reporting layer, output is raw CSV for you to work with elsewhere. Pro plans process up to 1,000,000 URLs per import for $25.95 a month billed yearly, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required.
| Feature | Solo $19.95/month (billed yearly) | Pro $25.95/month (billed yearly) | Agency $64.95/month (billed yearly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max URLs per import | 5,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Device licenses | 1 | 2 | 20 |
| Link metrics (Moz/Majestic/Ahrefs) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email and WHOIS harvesting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Analytics integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Screaming Frog SEO Spider | URL Profiler |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Full-site technical SEO crawl and audit | Bulk enrichment of an existing URL list |
| URL discovery method | Follows links from a seed URL | No discovery; requires an input list |
| Full-site crawling | Yes | No |
| Server log analysis | Yes, included | No |
| Third-party link metrics (Moz/Majestic/Ahrefs) | No | Yes (bring your own API keys) |
| Email / WHOIS harvesting | No | Yes |
| Content readability scoring | No | Yes (5 readability metrics) |
| Google Analytics integration | Yes | Yes |
| JavaScript rendering | Yes | No |
| Custom data extraction | Yes (XPath, CSS, regex) | No |
| Max URLs per run | Unlimited (paid license) | 5,000 (Solo) / 1,000,000 (Pro, Agency) |
| Deployment model | Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) | Desktop app (Windows, Mac; server on Pro/Agency) |
| Free trial | No (free tier instead) | Yes (14 days, no card) |
| Starting price | Free / £199/yr | $19.95/mo |
Which should you choose?
Screaming Frog SEO SpiderURL ProfilerScreaming Frog SEO SpiderURL ProfilerScreaming Frog SEO SpiderURL ProfilerURL ProfilerThese two are frequently used together rather than as alternatives, because the natural workflow is sequential: crawl first, enrich second. Screaming Frog discovers what exists on a site and what is broken about it; URL Profiler takes any list of URLs, whether that came from a Screaming Frog export, a link prospecting sheet, or a competitor's backlink file, and layers on link metrics, readability scores, and contact data that a crawler was never built to collect. Buying one instead of the other only makes sense if your work never touches the other half of that workflow.
Bottom line
Get Screaming Frog first if you are starting from zero; at £199 a year it covers structural auditing, which is the more frequent need, and its free tier is a real evaluation option. Add URL Profiler once your work involves link prospecting, outreach, or content inventories that need metrics beyond what a crawl surfaces, its Pro plan at $25.95 a month is cheap enough that the 14-day free trial is worth running against a real client list before deciding. Just budget separately for Moz, Majestic, or Ahrefs API access, since URL Profiler does not include those subscriptions itself.
Frequently asked questions
Can URL Profiler discover URLs on a site the way Screaming Frog does?
No, URL Profiler does not crawl a site to discover URLs on its own; it requires you to supply a URL list, which is often a Screaming Frog export, a sitemap, or a prospecting sheet. Screaming Frog is the tool that actually walks a site's link structure to find every URL in the first place.
Do I need my own Moz, Majestic, or Ahrefs subscription to use URL Profiler?
Yes, for the link metric features specifically. URL Profiler connects to Moz, Majestic, and Ahrefs APIs to pull Domain Authority, Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and similar metrics in bulk, but you must supply your own API keys and active subscriptions for each source you want to use. Features like email harvesting, WHOIS lookups, and readability scoring do not require third-party keys.
Does Screaming Frog scrape email addresses or WHOIS data like URL Profiler?
No, Screaming Frog has no email or WHOIS harvesting capability at all; it is scoped to structural crawling, not contact discovery. URL Profiler is built specifically for that use case, scraping emails and pulling domain WHOIS registration data across an entire URL list in the same pass as its other checks.
Which tool is better for a link building or outreach team?
URL Profiler is the better fit for link building and outreach, since it combines link metrics, email harvesting, and WHOIS data in one bulk run, which is exactly the data prospecting teams need to qualify and contact targets. Screaming Frog has no equivalent contact-discovery or third-party link metric features.
Is URL Profiler cheaper than Screaming Frog?
On a monthly basis URL Profiler's Solo plan at $19.95 a month looks cheaper, but Screaming Frog's £199 a year license works out to roughly £16.60 a month with no URL cap, versus URL Profiler Solo's 5,000 URL per import limit. The two are not really substitutes though, since they collect different kinds of data.
Do either Screaming Frog or URL Profiler track AI Overviews or ChatGPT citations?
No. Neither tool has any AI search visibility feature; Screaming Frog is scoped to structural crawling and URL Profiler to bulk URL data enrichment, and neither tracks AI Overviews inclusion, ChatGPT mentions, or any other LLM citation signal. A dedicated AI visibility tool is a separate purchase if that data matters for your reporting.