The free, open-source Sitebulb alternative

crawlie vs Sitebulb at a glance

Is crawlie a good Sitebulb alternative?

Yes, if you want Sitebulb's strengths — crawl comparisons and clear, prioritized guidance — without the subscription, plus a CLI and agent support. crawlie is free and open-source, runs the core technical-SEO and structured-data checks, renders JavaScript with headless Chrome, and explains every finding. Sitebulb still leads on visual crawl maps and reporting depth.

What does crawlie offer that Sitebulb doesn't?

It's free and open-source, so there's no subscription and you can read or extend the engine. It has a scriptable CLI for CI and an MCP server so AI agents can run audits. And it grades GEO — how citable your content is to AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity — which Sitebulb doesn't measure.

Does crawlie compare crawls the way Sitebulb does?

Yes. `crawlie diff` (and a Compare view in the desktop app) shows exactly what changed between two crawls: health and GEO score deltas, pages added and removed, and issues that were resolved or newly appeared — so you can verify a fix landed or catch a regression.

Where Sitebulb is still the better choice

No tool wins on everything — here's where Sitebulb currently leads, so you can choose with eyes open:

• Visual crawl maps and force-directed link graphs — Sitebulb's signature, great for seeing site architecture at a glance. crawlie reports the data but doesn't visualise it this way.
• Built-in Google Search Console and Analytics integrations layered onto the crawl.
• A deep, well-curated Hint library that explains issues in detail.

Frequently asked questions

Is crawlie free?

Yes — crawlie is free and open-source under the MIT licence. Sitebulb is a paid subscription.

Does crawlie compare two crawls like Sitebulb?

Yes. `crawlie diff` and the desktop Compare view show score deltas, pages added/removed, and resolved vs new issues between two crawls.

Does crawlie render JavaScript?

Yes. With the `--render` flag, crawlie loads each page in headless Chrome and audits the rendered DOM, so it sees client-rendered content — the same as Sitebulb. It also flags pages whose content only appears after JavaScript runs (the `content-requires-js` check).

Can AI agents use crawlie?

Yes. crawlie ships an MCP server and Claude Skills so an agent can run a full SEO audit and read the results.

Does crawlie have the visual crawl maps Sitebulb is known for?

Not currently. crawlie surfaces the same underlying data (depth, inlinks, link authority) in tables and scores, but doesn't render the visual crawl-map diagrams Sitebulb does.