The OnCrawl alternative that runs on your machine
The free, local OnCrawl alternative for SEO audits that don't need enterprise cloud infrastructure — keep your data on your machine.
What crawler4seo does better
- crawler4seo is free — OnCrawl is enterprise-priced with annual contracts
- Your data stays on your machine — OnCrawl is cloud-only and requires uploading logs/site data
- No compromise on graph analysis: PageRank, HITS, connected components, real click-depth built-in
- Native MCP server — query your audit from Claude conversationally, no BI tool required
- Zero onboarding: download the app, crawl, audit. OnCrawl requires a sales cycle.
OnCrawl's strengths
- •Combines crawl data with server log analysis — unique among most competitors
- •Handles very large sites (millions of URLs) with distributed crawling
- •Dedicated data scientist segment with BigQuery / Looker integrations
- •Strong French-market presence and support
We try to stay honest — if one of these matters more than free + local + AI-native for your use case, OnCrawl is a legitimate choice.
crawler4seo vs OnCrawl
Feature-by-feature comparison across 24 dimensions — pricing, deployment, crawl capabilities, analysis depth, data ownership and AI integration.
| Feature | crawler4seo | 🇫🇷OnCrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
Starting price | Free (early access) | Enterprise (from ~$500/mo) |
Free tier Usable without paying | Included | Free trial |
License model | Free — desktop app | Annual contract |
Account required | ||
| Deployment | ||
Hosting | Local desktop | Cloud only |
macOS | Included | |
Windows | Included | |
Linux | Included | |
| Crawling | ||
URL limit (free/paid) | Unlimited | Plan-dependent |
JavaScript rendering | Included | |
Scheduled crawls | Included | |
Crawl diff / regression detection | Included | |
| Analysis | ||
On-page + technical SEO analyzers | 20 built-in | Enterprise-grade + logs |
Internal-link graph + PageRank | Included | |
Schema.org Rich Results eligibility | Included | |
hreflang reciprocity audit | Included | |
Core Web Vitals (real CrUX) | Included | |
Sitemap coverage cross-ref | Included | |
GEO audit (AI-engine readiness) Per-bot robots.txt rules for AI crawlers, llms.txt, schema coverage, JS-dependency risk | Included | |
| Data | ||
Data privacy | 100% local | Cloud — data uploaded |
Multi-sheet XLSX export | Included | |
Custom CSS/regex extraction | Included | |
| AI & Integrations | ||
MCP server (AI-native) | Included | |
CLI / local API | Included | |
Open source | Source-visible, binaries free | |
Data reflects publicly documented features and pricing as of April 2026. Please verify on each vendor's site for the latest changes.
Frequently asked questions
Things people ask before switching.
Is crawler4seo really free compared to OnCrawl?+
Yes. crawler4seo is free to download and use with no URL limit during early access — you don't need a credit card or an account. OnCrawl requires Enterprise — on request.
Does crawler4seo run locally or in the cloud?+
crawler4seo is a desktop app (Electron) that runs 100% on your machine. Your crawl data is stored in a local SQLite database and never leaves your computer. The only outbound traffic is the target site you crawl and an optional Google PageSpeed API call for Core Web Vitals.
Can I replace OnCrawl with crawler4seo?+
For most technical SEO audit workflows — yes. crawler4seo ships 20 analyzers (including a GEO audit for AI-engine readiness), internal-link graph with PageRank, Schema.org Rich Results eligibility, hreflang reciprocity, Core Web Vitals, sitemap coverage, crawl diffing and scheduled crawls. If your use case depends on OnCrawl-specific integrations we don't cover, you can run both side-by-side — crawler4seo is free.
What does "MCP integration" mean, and why does it matter?+
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is Anthropic's open protocol that lets AI assistants like Claude securely call tools on your machine. crawler4seo ships an MCP server, so you can point Claude at your crawl and ask questions like "which pages lost PageRank since yesterday?" or "list all Product pages with invalid Schema.org". No other crawler in this category ships this natively.
What platforms does crawler4seo support?+
macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and Linux (AppImage). All builds are free during early access.
Does crawler4seo do server log analysis like OnCrawl?+
Not today. If server log analysis is core to your workflow, OnCrawl is still the right tool. For everything else (on-page audit, graph analysis, Schema.org, hreflang, CWV, diffing), crawler4seo covers the ground at zero cost and locally.
Can I use crawler4seo on very large sites (> 1M URLs)?+
crawler4seo is optimized for the long tail of sites up to a few hundred thousand URLs — the range where desktop crawling is still practical. OnCrawl is better suited for enterprise sites with millions of URLs and distributed cloud crawling.
Try the OnCrawl alternative — free
Download crawler4seo and run a full technical audit in minutes. No account, no credit card, no URL limit. Your data stays on your machine.