Screaming Frog Log File Analyser vs OctopusOn Log Analyser
Looking for a free SEO log file analyser? OctopusOn Log Analyser reads your server logs on your own computer, verifies Googlebot and AI crawlers, and has no limit on log lines or projects.
OctopusOn Log Analyser vs Screaming Frog Log File Analyser
Both are desktop log file analysers for SEO. Here is how they differ.
| Feature | OctopusOn Log Analyser | Screaming Frog Log File Analyser |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, $0; there is no paid version | Free with limits; £99 per year |
| Log lines | No limit | 1,000 free; unlimited with a licence |
| Projects | No limit | 1 free; unlimited with a licence |
| Source code and licence | Open source, MIT or Apache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| Windows, macOS and Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Log formats | Nginx, Apache and custom formats, IIS, CloudFront, AWS ALB and ELB, HAProxy, Traefik, JSON logs (Caddy, Cloudflare, Google Cloud, Akamai), CSV | Apache, W3C Extended (IIS, NGINX) and Amazon ELB |
| Search engine bot verification | Official IP lists and reverse DNS | Yes |
| Most and least crawled URLs, crawl frequency | Yes | Yes |
| Response codes, broken links and redirects | Yes | Yes |
| Uncrawled and orphan URLs | Against URL lists, sitemaps and crawl exports | Against imported URL data |
| Exports | Excel, CSV, JSON | Yes |
Screaming Frog details come from screamingfrog.co.uk (Log File Analyser 7.1), checked on 18 October 2026; prices and features may change. Screaming Frog is a trademark of Screaming Frog Ltd. OctopusOn is not affiliated with or endorsed by Screaming Frog.
No 1,000-line limit
The free Screaming Frog Log File Analyser stops at 1,000 log events and one project. OctopusOn Log Analyser has no paid version, so months of logs from every site are free.
- 10 million lines in about 15 seconds on a laptop
- Stored as Parquet at about 8% of the raw log size
- gzip, zstd, bzip2 and zip archives or whole folders; re-imports are de-duplicated
Googlebot and AI crawler verification
User agents are easy to fake, so every bot hit is checked.
- 111 bots in nine categories, including AI training, AI search and AI assistants
- Official IP lists of Google, Bing, OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Apple, DuckDuckGo and others, plus forward-confirmed reverse DNS
- Every hit is verified, spoofed or unverified; add your own bots by IP range or reverse DNS
Reports beyond the basics
Answer crawl budget questions with ready-made reports or your own queries.
- robots.txt compliance: which bots fetched blocked URLs
- Alerts when bot activity leaves its 14-day norm
- Country and network lookups on your own computer
- Visits referred by AI assistants
- 39 ready-made reports and a query language with saved queries
When Screaming Frog may suit you better
We want you to pick the right tool. Screaming Frog's Log File Analyser may fit better if:
- you want logs and crawls from the vendor of the SEO Spider you already use
- you need vendor support
- its free version is enough: a quick look at up to 1,000 log lines
Log File Analyser alternative questions
Is there a free alternative to the Screaming Frog Log File Analyser?
Yes. OctopusOn Log Analyser is free and open source, with no limit on log lines or sites. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Do my logs leave my computer?
No. Logs are imported, stored and analysed locally. Only the public crawler IP lists and, if you turn it on, the IP geolocation database are downloaded.
Which log formats can I import?
Nginx and Apache (combined, common and custom formats), IIS and CloudFront (W3C), AWS ALB and ELB, HAProxy, Traefik, JSON logs from Caddy, Cloudflare, Google Cloud and Akamai, and CSV or TSV. The format is detected automatically.
Can it find orphan pages?
Yes. Compare bot activity with a URL list, an XML sitemap or a crawl export to see pages bots never crawl and crawled pages missing from your list.
Is OctopusOn affiliated with Screaming Frog?
No. OctopusOn is an independent open-source project. Screaming Frog is a trademark of Screaming Frog Ltd.
Analyse your server logs for free
Download OctopusOn Log Analyser, drop in a log file and see what Googlebot and AI crawlers really do.
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