Screaming Frog vs Surfer

Screaming Frog focuses on Technical SEO; Surfer focuses on Content optimization.

• 0documented differences
• 0documented the same for both
• 18documented for one tool only
• 2unknown for both

Billing

Screaming Frog: Annual billing required

Surfer: Month-to-month billing

Free plan

Screaming Frog: Yes · Free version

Surfer: Unknown

Free trial

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: Yes · 7 days, card required

AI engines tracked

Screaming Frog: None documented

Surfer: ChatGPT (confirmed from Standard); AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini (confirmed from Pro)

Documented differences

Both tools documented, and the support or plan differs.

No capability differences are documented beyond AI engine coverage and pricing. 18 are documented for one tool only, so whether they differ is not known.

Documented for one tool only

No documentation was found for the other tool. That is unknown, not a missing capability.

• Unknown for Screaming Frog: AI visibility monitoring, Automated content generation, Content optimization, Keyword research, Rank tracking, Citation and source tracking, AI competitor benchmarking, Prompt tracking, Content briefs, Content refresh
• Unknown for Surfer: Technical site audit, Backlink analysis, Server log analysis

• Prices are listed in different currencies (GBP for Screaming Frog, USD for Surfer) and shown as the vendors list them. Screaming Frog's £199/yr per user is about $265/yr per user at the ECB reference rate of 27 Oct 2026.
• Screaming Frog's lowest listed price requires annual billing; compare it with the other tool's annual-billing price where one is listed.
• The lowest listed plans are not necessarily equivalent. Check plan limits before comparing prices.

Plans

Screaming Frog:

• Free versionFree
  Limits of Free version

  Up to 500 URLs per crawl. Includes broken links, redirects, page titles and meta data, directives, hreflang, exact duplicates, XML sitemaps and site visualisations. Crawl configuration, saved crawls and the advanced features are in the paid licence.

• Licence · per user · annual commitment£199/yr billed annually
  Limits of Licence

  Per user; licences last 1 year and are then renewed. No URL crawl limit (depends on memory and storage). Adds crawl configuration, saved crawls, scheduling, JavaScript rendering, custom extraction, AI prompts during crawls and API integrations. Bulk prices: £189 (5–9 licences), £179 (10–19), £169 (20+) per licence per year.

Surfer:

• Discovery$59/mo month-to-month$49/mo billed annually
  Limits of Discovery

  120 documents; Track 0 AI prompts; tracks 10 pages. 1 team seat.

• AI Search Analytics$95/mo month-to-month$82/mo billed annually
  Limits of AI Search Analytics

  AI visibility only: 50 AI prompts refreshed daily, 5 brand spaces; no content-creation documents listed. 5 team seats.

• Standard$119/mo month-to-month$99/mo billed annually
  Limits of Standard

  360 documents; Track 25 AI Prompts, refreshed weekly, across ChatGPT only. 3 team seats.

• Pro$219/mo month-to-month$182/mo billed annually
  Limits of Pro

  Track 50 AI Prompts, refreshed daily; adds Contentful integration, MCP. 5 team seats.

• Peace of Mind$359/mo month-to-month$299/mo billed annually
  Limits of Peace of Mind

  Track 100 AI Prompts, refreshed daily; unlimited* documents (fair usage policy); Zapier, API Access. 10 team seats.

• EnterpriseContact sales — Custom pricing
  Limits of Enterprise

  Talk to Surfer Expert; SSO, white-label, custom limits

Prices last verified

Screaming Frog: 27 Oct 2026

Surfer: 27 Oct 2026

Contentful

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: DocumentedConfirmed from ProAvailability on lower plans not verified.

Google Analytics

Screaming Frog: DocumentedConfirmed from Licence, the lowest paid planAvailability on the free plan not verified.

Surfer: Unknown

Google Search Console

Screaming Frog: DocumentedConfirmed from Licence, the lowest paid planAvailability on the free plan not verified.

Surfer: Unknown

Looker Studio

Screaming Frog: DocumentedConfirmed from Licence, the lowest paid planAvailability on the free plan not verified.

Surfer: Unknown

Public API

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: Listed* (not yet verified)

WordPress

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: Documented (publishing)Confirmed from StandardAvailability on lower plans not verified.

Zapier

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: DocumentedConfirmed from Peace of MindAvailability on lower plans not verified.

“Unknown” means we found no vendor documentation for it, not that it is unavailable.

Built for (vendor-stated)

Screaming Frog: Unknown

Surfer: Agencies

Best suited for (SEOFinder editorial)

Screaming Frog:

• Technical site audits run from a desktop computer.
• Auditing sites of up to 500 URLs with the free version before buying a licence.

Surfer:

• Agencies delivering on-page SEO.
• Teams producing many articles (360 documents on Standard, unlimited under a fair-use policy on Peace of Mind).

Each vendor's own pages, read on the dates shown. SEOFinder has not independently tested these products.