How Check Engine compares
Each of these names at least one thing the other tool does better, because a comparison that never concedes anything is an advertisement.
$59once
For Macs with Apple silicon or Intel, macOS 12 or later, and 64-bit Windows
Priced in US dollars. Checkout shows your currency and any local tax.
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Launch price: $29.50 once, through 30 November. From 1 December: $59. Buy applies the code FOUNDINGDOCKET for you; if the checkout shows $59, enter it under ‘Have a discount code?’.
Screaming Frog is $279 a year. Ahrefs plans with Site Audit run $129–$449 a month. Check Engine is $59 once. Screaming Frog’s price read 4 November 2026, Ahrefs’ 9 November 2026.
30 days, no conditions, no questions asked. Refund policy
Intel Mac? Get the Intel version
The three kinds of tool, and which question each answers
Most comparisons between SEO tools are unhelpful because they compare things built to answer different questions. There are broadly three:
- Crawlers: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb. You point them at a site and they return everything, at scale, sortable. The question they answer is "what is on my site". They are very good at it and Check Engine does not attempt that scale.
- Platforms: Ahrefs, Semrush. A web-scale index of links and keywords, with a site audit attached. The question is "where do I stand against everyone else", and nothing on a desktop can answer it, because the answer requires having crawled the web.
- Auditors: where Check Engine sits. The question is "what should I change, in what order", which is a judgement rather than a dataset, and it is the one that needs no subscription because the data it needs is your own site.
The practical consequence: if you already pay for a platform, Check Engine does not replace it. It replaces the part of it you open once a month and then export to a spreadsheet.
When not to use Check Engine
If you need keyword positions or a backlink profile, none of these pages will help. Check Engine has neither and is not building either. If your crawl is hundreds of thousands of URLs, use a crawler built for it. Check Engine's desktop app runs on macOS 12 or later (Apple silicon or Intel) and on 64-bit Windows. Linux runs the command line only.
Each comparison below names at least one thing the other tool does better. That is not modesty; a comparison page that concedes nothing tells you only that its author wanted your money.
Check Engine vs Screaming Frog
Raw crawl data versus a ranked plan. Screaming Frog supports custom extraction and crawls at far greater scale; Check Engine does not.
Check Engine vs Sitebulb
Both draw your site architecture: Sitebulb interactively, Check Engine as rings by depth sized by link equity. Check Engine covers AI visibility, conversion and tracking, which Sitebulb does not.
Check Engine vs Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs has a web-scale index and Check Engine never will. What you get for $129 a month if the audit is the part you use.
Check Engine vs Semrush Site Audit
Semrush now checks AI crawler access per bot, tracks issue trends over time and runs 140+ checks. Where a one-time local auditor still makes sense.
SE Ranking vs Screaming Frog
Not a Check Engine comparison first: a metered cloud audit against an unmetered local crawler, which is the real difference between them. Where Check Engine fits, and the two things it does not do.
Check Engine vs Google Lighthouse
The one here that is not an alternative. Lighthouse is free, it is Google's, and you should keep running it. Its SEO category is ten scored checks on one URL, and a crawl is what sits outside that.
Check Engine vs Google Search Console
A division of labour rather than a comparison. Search Console holds your real queries, index status and field Core Web Vitals, and nothing replaces it. What it cannot answer is what is wrong with a page today.
Check Engine vs Scrutiny
Both are apps you buy once and run on a Mac rather than subscribe to. Scrutiny is the stronger link checker and has been shipping far longer; Check Engine ranks what it finds and covers conversion, brand and AI visibility, which Scrutiny does not.
Check Engine vs crawler.sh
Both run locally with no account, and they agree about almost everything except purpose: crawler.sh turns sites into Markdown for AI training, and caps pages per session.
Check Engine vs CrawlRaven
Close to Check Engine's pitch, and cheaper only in its first months. It joins Search Console and GA4 to a technical audit sold by the month, with a lifetime plan beside it; Check Engine's audit is bought once and has no page allowance.
Check Engine vs JetOctopus
It reads your server logs, which Check Engine cannot do at all, and meters crawling in hundreds of thousands to millions of URLs. An enterprise platform against a desktop app you buy once.
Check Engine vs Profound
An answer-engine tracker sold by demo, with no crawler in its published platform list. It reports whether AI assistants mention you; Check Engine checks whether their crawlers can reach you.
Check Engine vs Sitechecker
It tracks rankings and whether five AI models mention your brand; Check Engine does neither. What Check Engine checks is whether those crawlers can reach you at all: a precondition rather than the same question.
Check Engine vs SEOptimer
The cheapest way in, and built for selling audits: reports on a custom domain and an embeddable lead-capture audit. The real difference is the meter: SEOptimer buys you a set number of crawls a month, Check Engine does not count them.