“Is my website actually okay?” used to be a simple question. You checked that pages loaded, links worked, and Google was sending traffic. In 2026 the answer is harder: your site has to rank on Google, pass Core Web Vitals, meet accessibility expectations, and — the new one — show up when people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews for recommendations.
The good news: the tooling has never been broader. The bad news: vendors repackaged their plans in 2025–2026, headline prices hide gated features, and “AI visibility” is now its own confusing category.
This guide walks all three routes — DIY, mid-tier SaaS, and enterprise — with current prices, honest limitations, and a decision framework at the end.
The 5 things any real audit must cover
Before comparing tools, agree on what an audit should check. Five pillars:
Technical SEO
Can search engines crawl and index your site? Broken links, redirect chains, canonicals, robots directives, sitemaps.
On-page content
Titles, meta descriptions, headings, duplicate content, internal linking, search intent.
Design, UX & accessibility
Mobile usability, WCAG issues like contrast and missing alt text.
AI & structured data
Schema markup machines can parse, plus the 2026 addition: whether AI answer engines can find and cite you.
Page speed & Core Web Vitals
LCP, INP, and CLS measured against real-user data, not just a one-off lab test.
💡 The key insight
Almost no single tool covers all five well — the gaps are where your money goes.
The DIY route: free tools plus a checklist
You can build a legitimate audit at $0 from official tools. The stack we’d assemble:
- Google Search Console — the only tool with first-party Google data: clicks, impressions, index coverage, live URL Inspection. But shallow by design — a handful of issues where crawlers check 170+.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free) — the industry-standard desktop crawler, free up to 500 URLs per crawl, no signup. Catch: the cap, and no JavaScript rendering, so JS-heavy sites get under-crawled.
- Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) — the same engine as paid Ahrefs for sites you verify: a 170+ issue Site Audit, 5,000 crawl credits per month. Verified sites only — zero competitor research.
- Bing Webmaster Tools — free on-demand Site Scans for “common technical SEO/GEO issues,” keyword research, IndexNow, GSC import. Since Bing powers Copilot and ChatGPT search, it’s also a free AI-visibility signal.
- PageSpeed Insights — free, no login, the reference speed tool: lab diagnostics plus real-user Core Web Vitals from CrUX over 28 days.
- Lighthouse — free, open-source, built into Chrome DevTools: performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO per page. New in 2026: an experimental “Agentic Browsing” category (Chrome 150+) checking things like llms.txt discoverability — a first free signal of AI-agent readiness.
- Seobility Basic — the best “one free account” option: 1 project, 1,000 pages per crawl, plus a TF*IDF content tool that’s rare at $0.
- WAVE — free, unlimited manual accessibility checks with on-page annotations: contrast, alt text, form labels, headings.
- Schema.org Validator + Rich Results Test — the free structured-data pair: one validates your vocabulary, the other checks rich-result eligibility.
- GTmetrix Basic — Lighthouse-based reports with waterfall charts and monitoring for 1 URL. PSI is freer for pure CWV checks; the waterfall better diagnoses why a page is slow.
The honest DIY trade-offs
The real cost is time: you’re stitching ten tools together by hand — several hours for a first pass, plus recurring upkeep.
There are genuine gaps too. Nothing free monitors Core Web Vitals across your whole site — GTmetrix Basic can watch a single URL and PSI shows a 28-day snapshot per page, but nothing alerts you when real-user performance degrades sitewide. Accessibility depth is limited: WAVE itself says automated checks catch only a subset of WCAG issues, and free tools work one page at a time. And no free tool truly tracks AI-engine mentions — the Bing and Ahrefs Free signals are proxies, not measurement.
DIY is right for a new or small site, or for learning the ropes before paying.
Mid-tier SaaS: the $18-to-$549-a-month zone
This is where most growing businesses land. The market shifted in 2025–2026 — check current packaging before trusting older reviews.
Screaming Frog paid licence — £199/year. The price-performance outlier. The licence removes the 500-URL cap (the user guide cites 5 million URLs, bounded by your machine’s memory) and unlocks JavaScript rendering, saved crawls, scheduling, Accessibility (WCAG) and Mobile Usability audits, PageSpeed Insights/CrUX integration, and “crawl with OpenAI & Gemini” prompts. Missing: keyword/backlink/competitor data, dashboards, AI-visibility monitoring. For technical users, it’s unbeatable value.
Sitebulb — $18/mo Lite, $42/mo Pro. The most communicable output: 300+ prioritized, plain-English “Hints,” JS crawling included. But know the gating: Lite has no Performance/CWV, Mobile, Accessibility, Structured Data, Hreflang, or Scheduling reports — those are Pro. The 14-day no-card trial is Pro-equivalent, so a trial flatters the Lite plan.
Moz Pro — from $49/mo. AI Overviews by keyword, AI Visibility Dashboards, and tracked prompts in every tier — no add-on needed (Google AI Mode tracking starts at Medium, $179/mo). Trade-offs: smallest quotas in the group, weakest technical depth, no accessibility auditing.
SE Ranking — $103.20/mo billed annually. Best-value all-in-one: 250k pages per month in the audit, an On-Page Checker, 100 AI-search prompts per day at entry level. Its 14-day no-card trial is fully functional — the most generous here. White-label agency tooling costs +$69/mo.
Ahrefs — $29/mo Starter, $129/mo Lite. The second-largest backlink index lets it prioritize issues by link equity, and Site Audit pulls real CrUX field data via the PSI API. But Ahrefs never runs trials or discounts, and Starter is limited enough that Lite ($129/mo) is the realistic audit tier. AI visibility is an add-on; no accessibility auditing.
Semrush — $139/mo (SEO) or $199/mo (SEO + AI Search). The pricing story of the year. Semrush retired its legacy Pro/Guru/Business lineup in 2026; entry is now $139/mo for SEO alone, with AI visibility folded into bundles at $199/$299/$549/mo — included in every paid tier, though full LLM coverage (Grok, Claude) is Enterprise-only. Site Audit runs 130+ checks with scheduled cloud crawls. One caveat: its Core Web Vitals report uses Lighthouse lab data only — more below.
⚠️ The gating gotchas to watch
Headline prices rarely equal real cost: Sitebulb's useful reports sit behind Pro, Semrush reserves full AI engine coverage for Enterprise, SE Ranking gates history and seats to Growth, Ahrefs charges per-project AI add-ons. Read the feature matrix, not the pricing headline.
Enterprise platforms: “call us” pricing
Botify, Conductor, and Lumar play a different game, and their pricing pages say so: Botify’s is a demo form, Conductor publishes three usage-based tiers but no dollar figures, and Lumar gates everything behind a “Get Lumar Pricing” form. None offers a self-serve trial.
That’s not evasion; it’s who they’re for — sites where scale breaks normal tools:
- Botify — crawl, rendering, and log-file analysis at millions of URLs, for huge e-commerce and publisher sites.
- Conductor — the content-operations suite: briefs, Content Score, AI writing assistance, 24/7 monitoring. Strongest on content.
- Lumar — automated technical monitoring with health scores — and the only one of the three with genuine accessibility/WCAG metrics.
Who should buy: organizations with hundreds of thousands of pages and a procurement process. Who shouldn’t: anyone wondering whether their 40-page site is okay.
The new audit item: AI-search visibility
Two years ago, “does ChatGPT recommend my business?” wasn’t an audit question. Now it’s a product category: if customers ask AI engines instead of typing into Google, whether those engines mention and cite you is a measurable, legitimate audit item.
The dedicated tools:
- Otterly.AI — from $29/mo. Lowest credible entry: 15 prompts across 4 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot). Gemini, AI Mode, and Claude each cost extra.
- Peec AI — from $95/mo. 50 prompts, with a cited-sources view that turns measurement into an outreach list. The entry tier tracks only 3 of 6 engines per project.
- Profound — from $99/mo. The deepest enterprise stack, but Starter tracks ChatGPT only — realistically $399/mo is the multi-engine entry.
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit — from $99/mo per domain. Sentiment and share of voice across four engines — the only option unifying AI visibility with a full SEO suite in one account.
Headline prices understate real cost here: engine add-ons, per-domain pricing, and prompt caps scale quickly.
🆓 Free proxies exist
Bing's SEO/GEO Site Scan matters because Bing powers Copilot and ChatGPT search. Ahrefs Free's Web Analytics reports traffic from LLMs, so you can see whether AI engines already send you visitors. Neither replaces a real tracker, but they tell you whether you have a problem worth paying to measure.
Page speed and Core Web Vitals, in plain English
Every audit touches speed, but the jargon trips people up. Three metrics:
How long the biggest element takes to appear. Perceived load speed.
How fast the page responds to a click or tap. Responsiveness.
Whether things jump around while loading. This is why you click the wrong button.
Just as important: lab vs. field data.
🧪 Lab data
A simulated test — one run, one device, one connection.
Use it to reproduce and fix problems, not to judge what Google sees.
🌍 Field data
From the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX): real users on real devices over 28 days.
This is the dataset that affects rankings — prioritize tools that report it.
This creates a real difference between tools. Semrush’s Site Audit CWV report is Lighthouse lab data only — Semrush’s own knowledge base acknowledges it can misstate real-user performance. Ahrefs and Screaming Frog pull actual CrUX field data via the PageSpeed Insights API. Free PSI gives you both — which is why it stays in every stack, paid or not.
Comparison tables
Pillar key: P1 Technical SEO · P2 On-page content · P3 Design & UX/accessibility · P4 AI & structured data · P5 Page speed & Core Web Vitals. Marks: ✅ full · ◐ partial · ❌ none.
Feature matrix
| Tool | Tier | Price entry point | P1 Tech SEO | P2 Content | P3 UX/A11y | P4 AI/Schema | P5 Speed/CWV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Free | $0 | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Lighthouse (DevTools/CLI/Node) | Free | $0 | ❌ | ◐ | ✅ | ◐ (experimental agentic audits) | ✅ |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider — free tier | Free | $0 (500-URL crawl cap) | ✅ (≤500 URLs) | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Ahrefs Free (formerly Webmaster Tools) | Free | $0 (verified sites only; 5k crawl credits/mo) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ (LLM-traffic analytics) | ◐ |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Free | $0 | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ (SEO/GEO + Copilot) | ❌ |
| Seobility Basic | Free | $0 (1 project, 1,000 pages/crawl) | ✅ | ✅ (incl. TF*IDF) | ◐ | ❌ | ◐ |
| Free speed testers (PageSpeed Insights + GTmetrix Basic) | Free | $0 | ❌ | ❌ | ◐ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Free validators (Schema.org Validator + Rich Results Test + WAVE) | Free | $0 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (WAVE) | ✅ (schema pair) | ❌ |
| Ahrefs (paid, Site Audit) | Mid | $29/mo Starter | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ◐ (Brand Radar / add-ons extra) | ✅ (CrUX via PSI API) |
| Semrush | Mid | $139/mo (SEO) · $199/mo (SEO + AI Search) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ (AI visibility bundled all paid tiers) | ✅ (Lighthouse lab only) |
| SE Ranking | Mid | $103.20/mo annual ($129 monthly) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ (100 prompts/day in Core) | ◐ |
| Sitebulb | Mid | $18/mo Lite ($42/mo Pro) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ (a11y/mobile Pro-gated) | ◐ (structured data Pro-gated) | ✅ (CrUX/PSI, Pro-gated) |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider — paid licence | Mid | £199/yr | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ (schema ✅; crawl-time LLM prompts, no AI-visibility monitoring) | ✅ (PSI/CrUX field + lab) |
| Moz Pro | Mid | $49/mo entry ($99 Standard) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (AI/GEO every tier) / ◐ schema | ◐ (quota-limited) |
| Enterprise suites (Botify · Conductor · Lumar) | Enterprise | Custom (no published pricing) | ✅ (Conductor ◐) | ◐–✅ (Conductor strongest) | ❌–✅ (only Lumar has WCAG metrics) | ◐ | ❌–◐ |
| AI-visibility trackers (Otterly.AI · Peec AI · Profound · Rankscale) | AI-specialty | From $29/mo (Otterly Lite) | ❌ (Rankscale ◐ AI-readiness audits) | ◐ | ❌ | ✅ (core product) | ❌ |
Cost table
Free / DIY — $0
| Tool | Entry price | Billing | Free trial/tier | What you get at entry level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | $0 | n/a | Entire product is free | First-party Google data: clicks/impressions/CTR/avg. position, index coverage, URL Inspection live test, CWV field report |
| PageSpeed Insights | $0 | n/a | Free, no login, unlimited manual tests + free API | Lab + field (CrUX, 28-day) CWV per page: LCP/INP/CLS/FCP/TTFB with official thresholds |
| Lighthouse | $0 | n/a | Free, open-source | Performance, accessibility, best-practices, SEO audits per page (DevTools/CLI/Node); NEW experimental Agentic Browsing category (Chrome 150+) |
| Screaming Frog — free version | $0 | n/a | Permanent free tier, no signup | Industry-standard desktop crawl up to 500 URLs: broken links, redirects, canonicals, titles/metas; no JS rendering, no saved crawls |
| Ahrefs Free | $0 | n/a | Free indefinitely, no card (ownership verification) | Site Audit (170+ issues, 5,000 crawl credits/mo per project), Site Explorer (1,000 rows), Web Analytics (1M events), 1 AI Content Helper doc/mo |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | $0 | n/a | Entire product is free | On-demand Site Scan (“SEO/GEO issues”), URL inspection, IndexNow, keyword research, backlinks, Copilot AI assistant, 16 months performance data, GSC import |
| Schema.org Validator + Rich Results Test | $0 | n/a | Free, no login | Structured-data vocabulary/syntax validation + Google rich-result eligibility per URL or pasted code |
| WAVE (online + browser extensions) | $0 | n/a | Free, unlimited manual checks | Visual WCAG checks (contrast, alt text, labels, headings, ARIA) with on-page annotations; extensions work on private/dynamic pages |
| GTmetrix Basic | $0 | n/a | Free account | Lighthouse-based speed report with Web Vitals, waterfall, monitoring/alerts for 1 URL; ~1-week report retention |
| Seobility Basic | $0 | n/a | Permanent free plan | 1 project, 1,000 pages/crawl, 10 tracked keywords, TF*IDF content tool; 3-day recrawl wait |
Mid-tier SaaS (~$5.99–$549/mo range across the group)
| Tool | Entry price | Billing | Free trial/tier | What you get at entry level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTmetrix Lite (upgrade from Basic) | $5.99/mo | Billed yearly | n/a (Basic is the free tier) | 50 on-demand tests/mo, more locations/devices, monitoring beyond the 1-URL free cap |
| Sitebulb Desktop Lite | $18/mo | Monthly; 15% off yearly | 14 days, no card (trial = Pro-equivalent) | 1 user, 10,000 URLs/audit, 300+ prioritized “Hints”, JS crawling included; Performance/Mobile/A11y/Structured-Data reports gated to Pro ($42/mo) |
| Seobility Premium (upgrade from Basic) | €49.90/mo | Monthly; 20% annual discount | 14-day free trial | 3 projects, 25,000 pages/crawl, 300 keywords, unlimited re-crawls, backlink analysis |
| Ahrefs Starter | $29/mo | Monthly; up to 17% off annual | None — “We never run discounts”; Ahrefs Free is the eval path | Entry into the paid suite; realistic Site Audit tier is Lite $129/mo (100k crawl credits/mo, 25k pages/project) |
| Moz Pro entry plan | $49/mo | Monthly; 20% off yearly | 7 days (Medium plan); card requirement not officially stated | Single-site plan with AI/GEO features included (AI Overviews by keyword, AI Visibility Dashboard, tracked prompts); Standard $99/mo ($79 annual) |
| SE Ranking Core | $103.20/mo annual ($129 monthly) | Monthly or annual (~20% off) | 14 days, no card, fully functional | 10 projects, 250k pages/mo audit, On-Page Checker, 100 AI-search prompts/day across 5 LLMs included |
| Semrush SEO plan | $139/mo ($117.33 annual) | Monthly; ~17% off annual | 7 days (card entered at signup); $0 free account without card exists | Full SEO toolkit: Site Audit (130+ checks incl. CWV lab report), On Page SEO Checker; AI visibility requires the $199 Starter bundle |
| Semrush Starter (SEO + AI Search) | $199/mo ($165.17 annual) | Monthly; ~17% off annual | 7 days | Everything above + bundled AI-search visibility tracking (50 tracked prompts/day, sentiment); Pro+ $299 / Advanced $549 add content optimization, API, share of voice |
| Screaming Frog paid licence | £199/licence/yr (bulk to £169 at 20+) | Annual licence | No timed trial — free 500-URL version is the eval tier | Unlimited* crawl (memory-bounded; user guide cites 5M URLs), JS rendering, saved crawls/scheduling, Accessibility (WCAG) + Mobile Usability audits, PSI/CrUX integration, custom extraction, OpenAI/Gemini crawl prompts |
Enterprise platforms — custom pricing
| Tool | Entry price | Billing | Free trial/tier | What you get at entry level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botify | Custom — no published pricing | Sales-led contract | Demo only, no self-serve trial | Enterprise-scale crawl + rendering + log-file analysis (millions of URLs), AI-integrated SEO capabilities |
| Conductor | Custom — usage-based, 3 tiers (Essentials/Growth/Enterprise); no dollar figures published | Usage-based annual contract | Demo-led | Content-ops suite: content briefs, Content Score, AI Writing Assistant (60 drafts/yr at Essentials), 24/7 monitoring (ContentKing), 500 tracked keywords, AEO reporting |
| Lumar | Custom — “Get Lumar Pricing” form-gated | Sales-led contract | Form/demo-led | Enterprise cloud crawler: scheduled crawls, JS rendering, change detection, health scores, accessibility/WCAG metrics, GEO/AEO positioning |
AI-visibility add-ons / specialists
| Tool | Entry price | Billing | Free trial/tier | What you get at entry level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI Lite | $29/mo ($25 annual) | Monthly or annual | Free trial for new users (official FAQ); “7-day, no card” is third-party | 15 search prompts, 4 AI engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot), unlimited team members; Gemini/AI Mode/Claude are paid add-ons |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar — Basic custom-prompt package | $50/mo standalone (includes Ahrefs Free account) | Monthly | No trial ever; free preview on Brand Radar landing page | 2,500 custom-prompt checks/mo; 439M+ prompt database across 7 AI surfaces. Note: elsewhere on its site Ahrefs quotes standalone Brand Radar “from $199/mo” — the $50 figure is the custom-prompt package on the official pricing page |
| Peec AI Starter | $95/mo | Monthly | 1-week free trial, no card (widely reported) | 50 prompts, 1 project, choose 3 of 6 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini), cited-sources view, unlimited users |
| Profound Starter | $99/mo | Billed yearly | No free plan on pricing page; third-party reports a Growth trial | ChatGPT tracking only, 50 prompts; realistic multi-engine entry is Growth $399/mo (3 engines, 100 prompts) |
| Rankscale Pro | $99/mo | Monthly, credit-based (1,200 credits) | No trial terms stated on the official page; third-party reports conflict | ~4,800 AI responses, 10 dashboards, all 10+ engines included on every tier (no per-engine add-ons); free AI Readiness audit for any URL without registration |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo (1 domain, 25 prompts) | Monthly | No dedicated toolkit trial; free Semrush plan includes a basic AI-visibility check + 100-page AI-readiness audit | AI brand sentiment + share of voice across ChatGPT, AI Overviews/AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity; Semrush One bundle (SEO + AI Visibility) from $199/mo |
Decision table — which audit path is right for you?
| Your situation | Recommended path | Suggested tools | Rough budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand-new DIY site owner | Free DIY stack — stitch together official free tools | GSC (indexing + queries) + Screaming Frog Free if ≤500 URLs or Seobility Basic (1,000 pages, all-in-one) + PSI/GTmetrix (speed) + WAVE (a11y) + Schema Validator/RRT (schema) + Bing WMT (GEO angle) | $0 |
| Freelancer with client sites | One paid desktop crawler + free per-site tools | Screaming Frog paid licence (£199/yr) and/or Sitebulb Lite→Pro ($18–$42/mo) for client-friendly reports; Ahrefs Free on verified client sites | ~£199/yr + $18–$42/mo |
| Growing SMB (first paid tool) | Entry all-in-one SaaS with trial | SE Ranking Core ($103.20/mo annual, 14-day no-card trial) or Moz Pro entry ($49/mo, AI/GEO included) | ~$50–$130/mo |
| In-house marketing manager | Full suite with AI visibility bundled | Semrush Starter SEO + AI Search ($199/mo) or Moz Pro Medium ($179/mo, $143 annual); SE Ranking Growth ($223.20/mo annual) | ~$180–$300/mo |
| Multi-location business / agency | Agency-grade suite + cloud/desktop crawler for deep dives | SE Ranking Growth + Agency Pack ($223.20 + $69/mo, white-label); Sitebulb Cloud from $125/mo; Screaming Frog licences at bulk rates (£169–£189) | ~$300–$500/mo |
| Enterprise e-commerce / publisher | Enterprise platform (procurement-led) + specialist crawlers | Botify, Conductor, or Lumar (all custom/demo-gated; only Lumar adds WCAG metrics) alongside Screaming Frog/Sitebulb for ad-hoc deep crawls | Custom — official prices not published; third-party reports suggest five-figure annual contracts |
| Business worried about AI-search visibility | Add a dedicated AI-visibility tracker, or pick a suite with AI bundled | Cheapest: Otterly Lite $29/mo or Ahrefs Brand Radar Basic package $50/mo; bundled: Semrush Starter $199/mo, SE Ranking Core ($103.20), Moz (from $49); free proxies: Bing WMT SEO/GEO + Ahrefs Free LLM-traffic analytics | $0 (proxies) to ~$99/mo add-on |
How to decide: a simple framework
Start free. Even if you plan to buy a tool eventually, run the DIY stack first. A weekend with GSC, Screaming Frog Free, PSI, and WAVE will surface your site’s worst problems (there are usually two or three) and teach you what an audit measures.
Pay when time becomes the bottleneck, not when curiosity does. The triggers: your site outgrows the 500-URL free crawl cap, you’re re-running manual checks monthly, or you need reports a client or boss can read. Freelancers should look at the Screaming Frog licence (£199/yr) or Sitebulb — one client project often covers the cost. A growing business buying its first all-in-one should trial SE Ranking (14 days, no card) or Moz (AI features from $49/mo). If AI visibility is a board-level question, Semrush’s Starter bundle ($199/mo) consolidates it — though its speed data is lab-only.
Enterprise platforms and agencies make sense at a different scale: hundreds of thousands of pages, regulatory accessibility exposure, or no one in-house with the hours to own this. The question then isn’t which tool — it’s who operates it. If you can’t staff the audit function, an agency running mid-tier tools beats an enterprise platform nobody logs into.
📌 Whichever route you choose
Cover all five pillars. The most common failure mode isn't picking the wrong tool — it's auditing technical SEO and speed while ignoring accessibility and AI visibility.
📚 Sources appendix — all URLs checked 2026-07-27 ▾
Sources Appendix
All URLs checked 2026-07-27 unless noted. Deduplicated across the three fact sheets; each URL appears once.
Free / DIY — official
- https://search.google.com/search-console/about — Google Search Console positioning (free)
- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553 — GSC Performance report metrics
- https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about — PageSpeed Insights lab + field data, CWV metrics, official thresholds (LCP ≤ 2,500 ms, CLS ≤ 0.1, INP ≤ 200 ms)
- https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview — Lighthouse definition, run modes (DevTools/CLI/Node)
- https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/agentic-browsing/scoring — Lighthouse experimental Agentic Browsing category (Chrome 150+, WebMCP origin trial)
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ — Screaming Frog free 500-URL limit; £199/year licence; restricted-features list
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/user-guide/configuration/ — “500 URL crawl limit… replaced with 5 million URLs” (licensed)
- https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools — Ahrefs Free: 3 tools, 170+ issues, limits (unlimited verified sites; 5,000 crawl credits/mo per project; 1,000 backlinks/keywords visible; 1M analytics events; 1 AI doc/mo); free-vs-paid differences; GSC “handful of issues” comparison
- https://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster/ — Bing Site Scan (“on-demand site audit tool… SEO/GEO issues”), SEO/GEO reports, backlinks, keyword research
- http://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/refreshed-webmaster-tools-7c7d2533 — full Bing Webmaster Tools toolset (URL inspection, Site explorer, IndexNow, robots.txt tester, etc.)
- https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/June-2025/Start-Using-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-to-Improve-Your-Site-Visibility — Copilot in BWT, 16 months performance data, GSC import
- https://validator.schema.org/ — Schema.org Validator (URL or code input)
- https://blog.schema.org/ — May 21, 2021: validator.schema.org announced as new home of the Structured Data Testing Tool
- https://search.google.com/test/rich-results — Rich Results Test: URL/code testing, smartphone/desktop user agents
- https://wave.webaim.org/ — WAVE free online tool + free Chrome/Firefox/Edge extensions; WCAG scope; “facilitates human evaluation”
- https://wave.webaim.org/api/ — WAVE API pricing (100 free credits; $0.025–0.04/credit; $10 minimum)
- https://gtmetrix.com/ — GTmetrix free account positioning; Lighthouse metrics, Web Vitals, CrUX
- https://gtmetrix.com/pricing/ — GTmetrix PRO plans: Lite $5.99/mo (50 tests), Core $10.99 (150), Advanced $25.99 (unlimited*), Expert $50.99 (unlimited*), billed yearly
- https://gtmetrix.com/faq.html — Basic users monitor 1 URL; Basic report retention 1 week
- https://gtmetrix.com/blog/basic-analysis-with-gtmetrix/ — Basic account options (limited mobile devices, 1 monitored URL); updated May 2026
- https://www.seobility.net/en/pricing/ — Seobility free Basic (1 project, 1,000 pages/crawl, 10 keywords, 3-day recrawl wait); Premium €49.90/mo + 14-day trial; Agency €179.90/mo
Mid-tier — official
- https://ahrefs.com/pricing — Ahrefs plans ($29 Starter / $129 Lite / $249 Standard / $449 Advanced; Enterprise $1,499); “We never run discounts”; also source for Brand Radar custom-prompt packages $50/$100/$250 (used in the Enterprise & AI section)
- https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (renders https://www.semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/) — Semrush 2026 plans: SEO $139/mo; Starter/Pro+/Advanced SEO + AI Search $199/$299/$549/mo; ~17% annual discount
- https://www.semrush.com/kb/1102-how-do-you-collect-data-to-measure-core-web-vitals-in-site-audit — Semrush CWV methodology (Lighthouse lab data)
- https://seranking.com/pricing.html — SE Ranking Core $103.20/mo annual ($129 monthly); Growth $223.20/$279; Agency Pack +$69/mo; 14-day no-card fully functional trial
- https://sitebulb.com/subscriptions/pricing/index/ (= sitebulb.com/pricing/) — Sitebulb Desktop Lite $18/mo (10,000 URLs), Pro $42/mo (500,000 URLs); 14-day no-card Pro-equivalent trial
- https://sitebulb.com/subscriptions/pricing/server/ — Sitebulb Cloud from $125/mo
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/pricing/ — Screaming Frog licence £199/yr (bulk £189/£179/£169); free 500-URL version as eval tier
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/tutorials/how-to-audit-core-web-vitals/ — Screaming Frog CWV auditing via PSI/CrUX
- https://moz.com/products/pro/pricing — Moz Pro $49/mo entry; Standard $99 ($79 annual); Medium $179 ($143 annual); Large $299 ($239 annual)
- https://moz.com/checkout/freetrial/signup/pro_medium/monthly — Moz 7-day trial terms
Enterprise & AI — official
- https://www.botify.com/pricing — Botify: demo-gated, no published prices
- https://www.conductor.com/pricing/ — Conductor: 3 usage-based tiers (Essentials/Growth/Enterprise), no dollar figures
- https://www.lumar.io/pricing/ — Lumar: form-gated “Get Lumar Pricing”; GEO/AEO positioning; accessibility metrics testimonial
- https://otterly.ai/pricing — Otterly.AI Lite $29 / Standard $189 / Premium $489 + add-on table (Gemini, AI Mode, Claude)
- https://peec.ai/pricing — Peec AI plan structure and prompt limits (prices render client-side)
- https://peec.ai/ai-instructions — Peec AI official vendor page with $95/$245/$495 table; “choose 3” of 6 engines on Starter
- https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing — Profound Starter $99 (ChatGPT only, 50 prompts) / Growth $399 (3 engines, 100 prompts) / Enterprise custom
- https://www.semrush.com/kb/1626-ai-visibility-features — Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit from $99/mo (1 domain, 25 prompts); Semrush One from $199/mo; free plan includes basic AI-visibility check + 100-page AI-readiness audit
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/best-generative-engine-optimization-tools/ — official Semrush blog (2026-07-20) corroborating toolkit pricing
- https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar — Brand Radar: 439M+ prompt database across 7 AI surfaces
- https://rankscale.ai/pricing — Rankscale Pro $99 / Growth $385 / Enterprise $780; “starting at $99/mo”; credit-based (0.25 credits per engine per prompt)
Third-party context (labelled; not used for primary figures)
- https://www.allable.ai/blog/ahrefs-webmaster-tools/ — AWT vs GSC comparison context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://www.websitelinter.com/blog/ahrefs-webmaster-tools-vs-websitelinter/ — AWT verification friction, structured-data checks context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://www.experte.com/seo/free-seo-tools — Screaming Frog free-tier reputation context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://linuxblog.io/gtmetrix-made-me-switch-to-speedvitals/ — GTmetrix free-tier history context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://www.debugbear.com/software/gtmetrix-speed-test — GTmetrix free-test-limit corroboration, 2025-11 (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://ecommerceparadise.com/seobility-review-2026-… — Seobility free-plan reputation context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://webaloha.co/tools/schema-markup-validator/ — Rich Results Test type-coverage caveat (~30 types) (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://www.debugbear.com/software/ahrefs-core-web-vitals — Ahrefs CrUX/PSI setup context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://www.debugbear.com/software/semrush-core-web-vitals — Semrush lab-data limitation context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://clarorank.com/ahrefs-pricing/ — Ahrefs 2026 packaging context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://clarorank.com/se-ranking-pricing/ — SE Ranking 2026 packaging context (checked 2026-07-27)
- https://checkthat.ai/brands/conductor/pricing — Conductor Vendr ranges $26.8K–$500K+/yr, 2026-07-06 (not official)
- https://sgaindex.com/articles/technical-seo-tools-comparison-screaming-frog-sitebulb-lumar — Lumar ~$2K/mo estimate, 2026-05-28 (single low-authority source; not official)
- https://citedindex.com/peec-ai — Peec AI EUR price display, 2026-07-24
- https://citedindex.com/semrush-ai-visibility-toolkit — Semrush per-domain/prompt add-on details, 2026-07-25
- https://trakkr.ai/reviews/semrush-review/pricing — Semrush toolkit trial/add-on details, 2026-07-13
- https://toolsignal.site/articles/geo-aeo-tools-profound-peec-otterly-2026 — AI-visibility category price map, 2026-07-15
- https://indexly.ai/blog/profound-pricing/ — Profound plan detail, 2026-07-13
- https://www.vezadigital.com/post/best-llm-optimization-tools-2026 — Ahrefs Lite $129 report, 2026-07-23
- https://max-productive.ai/ai-tools/rankscale/ — Rankscale trial claim (conflicts with #63)
- https://llmpulse.ai/blog/best-rankscale-ai-alternatives/ — conflicting Rankscale trial claim, 2026-07-08
- https://bevisible.app/software/compare/sitebulb-vs-botify — Botify custom-pricing confirmation, 2026-06-16
Note: GTmetrix’s older official blog post citing “5 free tests per month” (https://gtmetrix.com/blog/gtmetrix-pro-plans-explained/) was deliberately excluded from the published post per the research flag list — only the current-official 1-URL monitoring limit and 1-week retention are used.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a website audit cost in 2026?
Anywhere from $0 to a custom enterprise contract. A capable DIY stack (Search Console, Screaming Frog Free, PageSpeed Insights, WAVE) costs nothing but time. Mid-tier SaaS tools run roughly $18–$550 per month; Screaming Frog's licence is £199 per year. Enterprise platforms like Botify, Conductor, and Lumar publish no prices — they're sales-led contracts.
Can I audit my own website for free?
Yes, for most small sites. Combine Google Search Console (indexing, queries), Screaming Frog Free (500-URL crawls) or Seobility Basic (1,000 pages), PageSpeed Insights (speed), WAVE (accessibility), and Bing Webmaster Tools (SEO/GEO checks). Expect gaps: no sitewide, ongoing Core Web Vitals monitoring and partial accessibility coverage.
What is the best free website audit tool?
There's no single best one — free tools specialize. Screaming Frog Free is the deepest technical crawler (500-URL cap). Ahrefs Free checks 170+ issues on sites you verify. PageSpeed Insights is the reference for Core Web Vitals. WAVE leads on accessibility. Seobility Basic is the strongest all-in-one free account, including a TF*IDF content tool.
Do I need to track AI search visibility yet?
Check the free signals first. Bing Webmaster Tools runs SEO/GEO site scans (Bing powers Copilot and ChatGPT search), and Ahrefs Free shows traffic from LLMs. If those reveal real AI-referral traffic, dedicated trackers start at $29/mo (Otterly.AI); Moz, SE Ranking, and Semrush bundle AI tracking into paid plans.
What's the difference between lab and field Core Web Vitals data?
Lab data is a simulated one-off test — useful for diagnosing fixes. Field data comes from real Chrome users via the CrUX report over 28 days — it's what Google actually uses. Semrush's Site Audit reports lab data only; Ahrefs and Screaming Frog pull CrUX field data via the PageSpeed Insights API. Free PageSpeed Insights shows both.
When should I hire an agency instead of buying a tool?
When nobody on your team has the hours to run the tools consistently. Enterprise platforms (Botify, Conductor, Lumar) suit sites with hundreds of thousands of pages. Below that scale, an agency operating mid-tier tools usually beats software nobody logs into. Buy tools when you have time; buy help when you don't.