Best Free Website Audit Tools 2026: 7 Options Compared
Best free Website Audit Tools compared: Ahrefs, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Seobility, Google Search Console and 3 more, with free-plan limits, platforms and prices from official pages checked October 24, 2026.
•3 min read•SEO Tools
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Free (Ahrefs Free: unlimited verified sites, Site Audit 5K crawl credits per project per month, Site Explorer shows up to 1K backlinks and keywords); paid from $29 per month (Starter; Lite is $129 monthly) | Web browser | Regular audits on sites you own | Docs only |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Free (Free version crawls up to 500 URLs); paid from $279 per user/year (paid licence) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Detailed technical crawls of small sites | Docs only |
| Seobility | Free (Basic plan: 5 checks per day); paid from $69.9 per month (Premium, 50 checks per day) | Web browser | A quick on-page report | Docs only |
| Google Search Console | Free (Free service; Google states no usage plans) | Web browser | What Google itself reports | Docs only |
| Lighthouse | Free (Free and open source; runs in Chrome DevTools or from the command line) | Chrome DevTools, CLI (Node.js) | Page speed and quality checks | Docs only |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Free (Free: backlinks report for your own site and up to two competitors, Site Scan crawler, SEO reports) | Web browser | A second crawler on a verified site | Docs only |
| SEOnaut | Free (Free and open source; self-host with Docker and MySQL. A hosted version exists at seonaut.org) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Self-hosted audits for developers | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You have a site under 500 pages (Screaming Frog SEO Spider is the pick)
- You want a monthly audit with a dashboard (Ahrefs is the pick)
- You need to check one slow page (Lighthouse is the pick)
- You want to self-host the crawler (SEOnaut is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You need paid-tier features, uptime guarantees or support that these free plans leave out
A website audit tool crawls your pages and flags problems such as broken links, missing titles, redirect chains and slow pages. Free versions limit the crawl, so match the limit to your site's size. Ahrefs Free runs Site Audit with 5,000 crawl credits per verified project each month. Screaming Frog crawls up to 500 URLs in its free desktop version, which covers most small sites in full. Seobility's Basic plan gives 5 checks per day online. Google Search Console reports indexing and page experience issues for your own verified property, and Bing Webmaster Tools offers a Site Scan crawler for the same. Lighthouse audits a single page for performance, accessibility and SEO in Chrome, so it complements a crawler rather than replacing one. SEOnaut is open source: you can self-host it with Docker and MySQL and it groups problems into critical, high and low. An audit finds symptoms, not priorities, so sort by what affects indexed pages first. Run one before a redesign and one after, then compare issue counts. Crawl budgets and robots rules can hide pages from a crawler, so confirm the crawl found all the URLs you expected. For a site under 500 pages, a desktop crawler plus Search Console is a complete free setup.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs Free includes Site Audit checking 170+ issues with 5,000 crawl credits per verified project a month. You must verify ownership of the site.
Price: Free (Ahrefs Free: unlimited verified sites, Site Audit 5K crawl credits per project per month, Site Explorer shows up to 1K backlinks and keywords); paid from $29 per month (Starter; Lite is $129 monthly) (Ahrefs pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Regular audits on sites you own.
Compare: Ahrefs alternatives
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Free version crawls up to 500 URLs on your own machine; the paid licence is $279 per user per year. Fast and thorough for small sites.
Price: Free (Free version crawls up to 500 URLs); paid from $279 per user/year (paid licence) (Screaming Frog SEO Spider pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. Proprietary desktop software.
Best for: Detailed technical crawls of small sites.
Compare: Screaming Frog SEO Spider alternatives
Seobility
Online audit with 5 checks per day on the Basic plan. Premium raises that to 50 checks a day for $69.90 a month.
Price: Free (Basic plan: 5 checks per day); paid from $69.9 per month (Premium, 50 checks per day) (Seobility pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: A quick on-page report.
Worth knowing: Premium has a 14-day trial.
Google Search Console
Shows indexing status and page issues that Google found on your verified site. It does not crawl on demand like a dedicated audit tool.
Price: Free (Free service; Google states no usage plans) (Google Search Console pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary free service.
Best for: What Google itself reports.
Worth knowing: Covers your own verified sites only, not competitors.
Lighthouse
Apache-2.0 tool in Chrome DevTools and a CLI that scores performance, accessibility and SEO for one page at a time.
Price: Free (Free and open source; runs in Chrome DevTools or from the command line) (Lighthouse pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Chrome DevTools, CLI (Node.js). Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 31k GitHub stars · latest release v13.6.0 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Page speed and quality checks.
Worth knowing: Has an seo category beside performance, accessibility and best practices. CLI needs Node 22 or later.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Site Scan is an on-demand crawler grouping Errors, Warnings and Notices, per third-party guides; one review says some flagged errors were inaccurate.
Price: Free (Free: backlinks report for your own site and up to two competitors, Site Scan crawler, SEO reports) (Bing Webmaster Tools pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary free service.
Best for: A second crawler on a verified site.
SEOnaut
MIT-licensed auditor you self-host with Docker and MySQL, which reports issues as critical, high or low. A hosted version exists at seonaut.org.
Price: Free (Free and open source; self-host with Docker and MySQL. A hosted version exists at seonaut.org) (SEOnaut pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 844 GitHub stars · last commit Oct 8, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted audits for developers.
Which one to pick
- You have a site under 500 pages: Screaming Frog SEO Spider
- You want a monthly audit with a dashboard: Ahrefs
- You need to check one slow page: Lighthouse
- You want to self-host the crawler: SEOnaut
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Ahrefs, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Seobility, Google Search Console, Lighthouse, Bing Webmaster Tools, SEOnaut: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you commit.
Related guides
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing, license and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-24: Ahrefs, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Seobility, Google Search Console, Lighthouse, Bing Webmaster Tools, SEOnaut. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.