Check Engine vs JetOctopus
JetOctopus is an enterprise technical-SEO platform built around server log files. Check Engine is a $59 desktop app for Mac and Windows. Before any comparison is worth making, the important part: JetOctopus reads your server logs and Check Engine cannot, and on a large site that is the most valuable technical-SEO data there is.
What log analysis gives you that no crawler can
A crawler, Check Engine included, tells you what your site serves when something asks. Logs tell you what Googlebot actually did: which pages it fetched, how often, which it ignored for months, where it spent a crawl budget you did not know you were spending. Those are different questions, and the second cannot be inferred from the first. JetOctopus's product list leads with its Log Analyzer for that reason, and adds a JavaScript crawler, GSC and GA4 integration, position tracking, alerts and its own AI search visibility product.
If crawl budget on a large catalogue is your problem, a tool that cannot see your logs is not the answer, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.
Where the comparison actually sits: scale
Their In-House plans are metered in crawled URLs and log lines a month: 500,000 URLs and two million log lines on Growth, two million and eight million on Pro, five million and twenty-five million on Ultra, with an Unlimited tier quoted only as "Let's talk". Projects, seats and simultaneous crawls are unlimited on every tier. That is a platform for sites with hundreds of thousands to millions of pages and a team around them.
Their published rates: $459–$2,069/mo billed quarterly ($349–$1,559/mo billed annually); Unlimited tier is 'let's talk'. That works out at 4,188 US dollars for a year on the entry plan at the cheaper of the two rates, and 18,708 on the top priced plan. Check Engine is $59 once. Setting those numbers beside each other is close to meaningless, because they are not sold to the same buyer, but it does tell you which question you are asking. If a platform fee of several thousand dollars a year is a normal line item, JetOctopus is in your category and Check Engine is not.
What Check Engine does
99 checks across thirteen areas, on your own computer, with no account. -n 0
removes the page-count limit. A crawl still stops at its time limit of 15
minutes by default or 24 hours with Everything, its depth limit of
5 by default, or when it runs out of links. Re-running after each fix costs nothing because
nothing is metered. Four of those areas are not technical SEO at all: conversion, brand
consistency, AI search visibility and campaign tracking. Findings arrive as a ranked plan with
the fix written out, and the ordering formula is published.
One thing worth not claiming: an MCP integration. Check Engine ships one so that an AI assistant can run an audit, and JetOctopus's product list names one too. It is not a difference between them.
Which to buy
- Buy JetOctopus if you have server logs worth analysing, a site measured in hundreds of thousands of pages or more, and a budget that treats SEO tooling as infrastructure.
- Buy Check Engine if you want a deep audit of a site you can crawl from your own machine, ranked into an order, once, for a fixed price.
If scale is your problem but server logs are not, Screaming Frog is the other tool built for very large crawls and costs a fraction of this. Nothing here compares crawl accuracy or the quality of either tool's findings, which has not been measured. The facts above are what each vendor publishes about its own product.
Checked 19 October 2026. The factual claims about this product were read from its own pages on that date: its In-House plans are Growth, Pro and Ultra, priced 459, 1,089 and 2,069 US dollars a month quarterly, or 349, 809 and 1,559 billed annually, with an Unlimited tier quoted only as "Let's talk" (source); the plans are metered on crawled URLs and log lines per month: 500,000 URLs and 2 million log lines on Growth, 2 million and 8 million on Pro, 5 million and 25 million on Ultra, and custom on Unlimited (source); projects, seats and simultaneous crawls are unlimited on every tier, and the Agencies tab lists the same crawled-URL allowances with prices of its own, from 549 a month quarterly or 409 billed annually for Growth (source); its published product list leads with a Log Analyzer that tracks how Google and AI bots navigate a site, alongside a JavaScript crawler, GSC integration, AI search visibility, alerts and an MCP integration; its plan table adds GA4 integration and position tracking (source). Products change and pricing changes; if something here has gone out of date, tell us and it will be corrected. Everything else on this page is a comparison of approach, not a claim about their roadmap.
Check Engine is a one-time purchase for Mac and Windows: no account, no crawl credits, and the crawl runs
on your machine. Five optional checks fetch data it cannot produce alone; --offline
turns all five off.
$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.
On a Mac? Get the Mac version.
On your phone?
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
Common questions
Is Check Engine a JetOctopus alternative?
Not for log analysis, which is what JetOctopus is built around and Check Engine cannot do at all. For auditing a site you can crawl from your own machine and getting the fixes in priority order, Check Engine does that for a one-time price instead of an enterprise subscription.
Does Check Engine analyse server log files?
No. Check Engine audits what your site serves to a crawler. Logs record what crawlers actually did (which pages Googlebot fetched, how often, and which it ignored), and that cannot be inferred from a crawl. On a large site it is the more valuable of the two data sources.
How much does JetOctopus cost?
Its published In-House plans are $459–$2,069/mo billed quarterly ($349–$1,559/mo billed annually); Unlimited tier is 'let's talk', which is 4,188 US dollars for a year on the entry plan at the cheaper annual rate, with an Unlimited tier quoted only on request. Check Engine is $59 once. They are not sold to the same buyer.
Do both have an MCP integration?
Yes. Check Engine ships an MCP server so an assistant can run an audit, and JetOctopus's product list names an MCP integration too. It is not a difference between them, and this page does not present it as one.