Silkpath vs Screaming Frog: a free, browser-based alternative
Silkpath is a free website crawler that runs in the browser, with AEO and GEO checks built in: AI crawler access, a firewall test for AI bots, llms.txt and answer-ready content. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a mature desktop crawler with more settings and JavaScript rendering; its free version stops at 500 URLs. Many people use both.
At a glance
| Silkpath | Screaming Frog SEO Spider | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | In the browser, with a crawler server | Desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux |
| Install | None | Download and install |
| Price | Free | Free up to 500 URLs; paid licence beyond that |
| Pages per crawl | Up to 50,000 URLs by default | 500 URLs free; limited by your computer with a licence |
| AEO checks built in | FAQ and HowTo schema, question headings, direct answers, author bylines | Possible with custom extraction |
| GEO checks built in | AI crawler rules, AI firewall test, llms.txt, entity schema, citations, dates | Possible with custom extraction or custom JavaScript |
| JavaScript rendering | No: reads raw HTML and warns about JavaScript sites | Yes, with a licence |
| Crawl history | Saved automatically, with compare and a Recycle Bin | Saved crawls with a licence |
| Scheduled crawls | Yes | Yes, with a licence |
| Exports | PDF, Excel, CSV, share links, ZIP of the site's HTML | CSV, Excel, Google Sheets and many bulk reports |
| Settings and integrations | The essentials | Very many, with Google Analytics, Search Console and other APIs |
Matched counts. For the checks both tools share (titles, meta descriptions, headings, thin content, duplicates), Silkpath's rules were tuned against Screaming Frog reports of real sites, so the numbers line up.
When Silkpath is the better fit
- You want an audit without installing anything, from any computer or phone.
- You need to know whether AI tools can reach and cite the site: robots.txt rules for AI agents, the firewall, llms.txt and entity schema.
- The site has more than 500 pages and you have no licence.
- You want a clean PDF or Excel report to hand to a client or a team.
When Screaming Frog is the better fit
- The site builds its content with JavaScript and needs a rendering crawler.
- You need its deep configuration, API integrations or very large crawls on your own machine.
Using both is common: Silkpath for quick, shareable SEO, AEO and GEO audits, Screaming Frog for rendering and deep custom work.
Screaming Frog and SEO Spider are trademarks of Screaming Frog Ltd. Silkpath is not affiliated with Screaming Frog. Details about Screaming Frog come from its public website and may change.
Questions and answers
Is Silkpath really free?
Yes. The app is free to use, and its crawler server runs on free hosting plans.
Can Silkpath replace Screaming Frog?
For many audits, yes, especially when AEO and GEO matter. For sites that need JavaScript rendering, use a rendering crawler such as Screaming Frog as well.
Audit a website with Silkpath
Enter a website address and Silkpath crawls every page, then reports SEO, AEO and GEO problems page by page, with PDF, Excel and CSV exports.
Read next
Features
Every check Silkpath runs, section by section, and what you get out of a crawl.
AI Crawler Checker
Is your site open to GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot? The agents, the rules and how to check.
About
Who built Silkpath and why: Raj Meena, founder and designer.