Crawl Cove vs Sitebulb
The Sitebulb alternative
with ranking data built in.
Sitebulb is a strong auditor with helpful hints, but ranking and Core Web Vitals data still mean wiring up Google integrations, and its plans are organised around audit projects and credits. Crawl Cove keeps the explained-recommendations approach, bundles Google Search Console, Bing and Core Web Vitals for free, and prices simply per seat.
Windows only desktop app for Windows 10 and 11 — no Mac or Linux version
No card required · Windows · Then from £14.99/mo · Cancel any time
Comparison
Crawl Cove vs Sitebulb, line by line.
| Capability |
Crawl Cove
|
Sitebulb |
|---|---|---|
| Explained recommendations per issue |
Crawl Cove
Plain-English fixes
|
Sitebulb Hints & insights |
| Google Search Console + Bing |
Crawl Cove
Free, built in
|
Sitebulb Connect per project |
| Core Web Vitals (CrUX + Lighthouse) |
Crawl Cove
Free, every audit
|
Sitebulb Via integration |
| Audit / project limits |
Crawl Cove
No URL caps
|
Sitebulb Plan-based limits |
| Multi-client projects & history |
Crawl Cove
Native
|
Sitebulb Project-based |
| Versioned audits (prove the fix) |
Crawl Cove
Built in
|
Sitebulb Audit history |
| Pricing model |
Crawl Cove
Simple per seat
|
Sitebulb Tiered by usage |
Why switch
Three reasons teams move from Sitebulb.
Every issue explains itself
A severity-ranked to-do list with a plain-English fix for each finding, instead of raw data spread across tabs or dashboards.
Explore the features →Ranking data + CWV included
Google Search Console, Bing, CrUX and Lighthouse are built in and free — no paid API keys, no per-feature gates, no suite subscription.
See what every plan includes →Built for many client sites
Separate projects, histories and reports per client — all private and on your machine, for Windows.
Download for Windows →Pick by job
Which Sitebulb alternative fits your work?
Sitebulb is a genuinely good auditor, so "alternative" here rarely means "something better at everything". It usually means one of three things: you want the same explained-audit approach without the tier gating, you want it cheaper, or you want it in the cloud. Here is the honest map, including where Sitebulb itself is still the right answer.
Crawl Cove
Best for: Teams who want every check on every plan, with ranking data included.
The same explained-recommendations approach, but structured data, hreflang, accessibility and performance checks are on every plan rather than the top tier — and Search Console, Bing and Core Web Vitals are built in free. Windows only.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Best for: Custom extraction, XPath and total configurability.
Less hand-holding than Sitebulb and no hint library to speak of, but unmatched flexibility if you scrape bespoke fields at crawl scale. Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Sitebulb Cloud
Best for: Crawling at real scale, or a team sharing one set of audit data.
If the reason you are looking is that the desktop app is tied to your machine, the answer may be Sitebulb’s own cloud product rather than a different vendor. It starts around £95/month, so it is a step up in cost, not a sideways move.
Semrush Site Audit
Best for: Teams already paying for the whole suite.
The crawl sits next to keywords and backlinks, so nothing is a separate tool. You are buying a suite subscription rather than an auditor, and the crawl is shallower than a dedicated desktop one.
Ahrefs Site Audit
Best for: Teams whose real need is the backlink index.
A competent crawl bundled alongside the index you actually came for. If links are the job, that bundling makes good sense and the audit is a bonus.
The honest part
What Sitebulb does better than we do
Sitebulb has been refining this product for years and it shows. Four things it genuinely does better, so you can decide with the real trade-off in front of you rather than a rigged table.
It runs on a Mac
Sitebulb Desktop installs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS. Crawl Cove is Windows only, with no macOS or Linux build and none promised. If your team is on Macs, this comparison ends here and Sitebulb is your answer — we would rather say that in the first item than bury it in a footnote.
Crawl Maps and the visual reporting
Sitebulb’s crawl maps and diagrams are the best in the category, and if the report itself is what you hand a client, that visual polish does real commercial work. Our reports are clear, but they are not that.
A deeper, older hint library
Sitebulb Pro ships over 300 hints, refined across years of real audits and edge cases. We explain every issue we find, but we do not yet match that breadth — a mature hint library is accumulated, not written in an afternoon.
A cloud option and a bigger ceiling
Sitebulb Pro handles up to 500,000 URLs per audit, and Sitebulb Cloud goes further again with no project limits and shared team data. Crawl Cove crawls locally on your machine. For enterprise-scale sites, or a team that must share one crawl, that is a real gap.
So the switch is worth it if what frustrates you is the tier gating — paying for a plan and still finding structured data, hreflang, accessibility or performance checks sat behind the tier above, then wiring up integrations per project to get ranking data. If instead you need Mac support, crawl maps, or half a million URLs in one audit, Sitebulb is the better buy and we would rather you kept it.
Worth repeating before you click anything: Crawl Cove is Windows 10 and 11 only. There is no macOS or Linux build. Sitebulb runs on both Windows and macOS, so if you are on a Mac it stays the answer — we would rather tell you here than sell you a trial that cannot run.
Switching
How to switch from Sitebulb without losing your audit history
Four steps and one client site. You keep your Sitebulb licence running the whole time, so nothing is at risk.
-
Step 1 of 4
Export your last audit first
Before anything else, export the most recent audit for each client from Sitebulb. Audit history does not transfer between tools — nobody’s does — so the export is your record of where each site stood. Ten minutes now, and you never need the old licence to answer "what did it look like in July?".
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Step 2 of 4
Crawl one real client site in both
Not a demo site. Run a real client in Sitebulb and in Crawl Cove and compare the findings. Expect substantial overlap on the technical checks — both are proper crawlers — and expect the difference to show up in what is included rather than what is detected.
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Step 3 of 4
Connect Search Console and Bing once
Both are built in and free, connected once rather than wired up per project, and Core Web Vitals come with them from CrUX field data plus Lighthouse. For most people switching from Sitebulb this is the moment the difference lands: the ranking data is simply there, next to the crawl.
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Step 4 of 4
Make your first crawl the new baseline
Your first Crawl Cove audit becomes version 1, and every later crawl diffs against it. Combined with the Sitebulb exports you took in step one, you keep a continuous story for the client across the switch rather than a gap in the record.
Try it on a real client site before you decide anything — 14 days, no card.
No card required · Windows · Then from £14.99/mo · Cancel any time
FAQ
Switching from Sitebulb.
- Is Crawl Cove a good Sitebulb alternative?
- Crawl Cove is a desktop SEO crawler that explains the fix for every issue, bundles Google Search Console, Bing and Core Web Vitals for free, and works across multiple client projects — all on your machine. Plans start from £14.99/mo with every feature included, which makes it a strong Sitebulb alternative for agencies and in-house SEOs.
- Can I replace my Sitebulb workflow with Crawl Cove?
- Yes. Crawl Cove runs the same kind of local, deterministic crawl, then adds a plain-English fix for every finding, a severity-ranked to-do list, and multi-client projects — with Search Console, Bing and Core Web Vitals bundled free rather than gated behind setup or extra cost.
- Does Crawl Cove keep my data private?
- Yes. Crawl data and client information stay on your machine and secrets are encrypted — a local-first privacy model with no cloud account holding your crawls. The app only contacts our servers to verify your licence and check for updates; your crawl and client data are never transmitted.
- What is the difference between Sitebulb Lite and Pro?
- Sitebulb’s own pricing page puts the headline difference at crawl size: Lite caps an audit at 10,000 URLs, Pro at 500,000. The difference that tends to matter more is what Lite leaves out — their FAQ lists performance and mobile friendly, structured data, international and hreflang, spell checking, accessibility, AMP, scheduling and auto-export to Google Sheets as Pro-only, alongside limits on crawl speed and content extraction. Crawl Cove has three plans and every check is on all of them; the tiers differ only by how many devices and client projects you get. Checked August 2026.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to Sitebulb?
- Crawl Cove starts at £14.99 a month for a single seat and single client project, with no URL cap and no per-feature paywall, and there is a 14-day free trial with no card required. Whether that is cheaper than the Sitebulb plan you would actually need depends on your tier and seat count — Sitebulb also charges from £7 per month for each extra user, and its desktop prices are shown dynamically on their pricing page, so compare against their live figures rather than ours. Checked August 2026.
- Does Sitebulb include Google Search Console and Core Web Vitals?
- Sitebulb integrates with Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Sheets, connected per project, and its performance and mobile-friendly reports sit on the Pro tier rather than Lite. In Crawl Cove, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are connected once and included on every plan, and Core Web Vitals run on every audit using CrUX field data plus Lighthouse, with no paid PageSpeed API key. Checked August 2026.
- Does Crawl Cove run on Mac?
- No. Crawl Cove is Windows 10 and 11 only, with no macOS or Linux build. Sitebulb Desktop runs on both Windows and macOS, so if you are on a Mac then Sitebulb remains the better answer for you — we would rather say so plainly than take a trial signup that could never work.
- Can I keep my Sitebulb audit history if I switch?
- Audit history does not transfer between crawlers, in either direction. Export your most recent audit per client from Sitebulb before you switch and keep it as the record of where each site stood. Your first Crawl Cove crawl then becomes version 1, and every audit after it is compared against that baseline, so the client-facing story stays continuous even though the underlying tool changed.
Compare with other tools
-
Desktop crawler
Crawl Cove vs Screaming Frog
Read the comparison → -
Cloud SEO suite
Crawl Cove vs Semrush
Read the comparison → -
Cloud SEO suite
Crawl Cove vs Ahrefs
Read the comparison →
Put Crawl Cove to work
- Two crawlers compared →
- Every tool, side by side →
- Local crawler vs cloud suite →
- How the crawl works →
Stop guessing.
Start fixing.
Crawl Cove runs on your machine, connects to your real ranking data, and tells you exactly what to fix first — no per-feature paywalls, no spreadsheets, no guesswork.
No card required · Windows · 14-day refund policy on paid plans