Every tool below is good at something. The question is what you need checked. We read each vendor’s feature pages and documentation in October 2026 and marked what each one covers. Where the documentation didn’t let us confirm a feature, the cell says so instead of guessing. There are no prices here: plans change often, and every vendor publishes its own.
The comparison
| What it checks | NetWebMediaFree audit | SemrushSite Audit | AhrefsSite Audit | Screaming FrogSEO Spider | SE RankingWebsite Audit | Sitebulb | PageSpeed InsightsGoogle Lighthouse | GTmetrix | SEOptimer | HubSpotWebsite Grader | MDN HTTP Observatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free to use | YesFull report, email only | PartialFree account: 100-page audit | PartialFree for sites you verify | PartialFree up to 500 URLs | Not found14-day trial | Not found14-day trial | YesFree | PartialLimited free account | PartialBasic free audit | YesFree, email required | YesFree, open source |
| Pages checked per run | PartialUp to 30 pages | YesWhole site | YesWhole site | YesWhole site | YesWhole site | YesWhole site | PartialOne URL | PartialOne URL | PartialSmall crawl | PartialOne URL | PartialOne host |
| Technical SEO crawl: status codes, redirects, canonicals, indexing | PartialCore checks on the sample, robots.txt obeyed | Yes140+ checks | Yes170+ issues | Yes300+ issues | Yes115+ checks | Yes300+ hints | PartialSingle-page basics | Not found | PartialSmall crawler | Not found | Not found |
| On-page SEO: titles, descriptions, H1, alt text, duplicates | YesAcross every page checked | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | PartialMeta and alt basics | Not found | Yes | PartialTitle, H1, meta | Not found |
| Speed with real-user Core Web Vitals (lab + field data) | YesLighthouse + Chrome UX Report | PartialLab metrics | PartialPageSpeed-based | YesPageSpeed + CrUX | YesCore Web Vitals | YesLighthouse | YesLab + CrUX field data | YesLab + CrUX | YesLCP, CLS, INP | PartialSpeed basics | Not found |
| Accessibility (WCAG) | YesLighthouse axe-core rules | PartialSeparate scanner | Not found | Yesaxe, 90+ rules | Not found | Yes60 WCAG hints | Yesaxe subset | Not verified | PartialOne check | Not found | Not found |
| Security: HTTPS, certificate, security headers, cookies | YesUp to 18 checks, graded A–F | PartialTLS, mixed content | PartialMixed content, HTTP links | PartialHeaders, cookies, forms | PartialMixed content | PartialHTTPS hints | PartialSome headers | Not verified | PartialSSL, redirect | PartialSSL only | YesHeaders, cookies, SRI |
| Email spoofing protection (SPF, DMARC, DKIM) and domain expiry | YesAll four | Not found | Not found | Not found | PartialDomain expiry (API) | Not found | Not found | Not found | PartialSPF, DMARC, DNS | Not found | Not found |
| Outdated WordPress and JavaScript libraries with published vulnerabilities | YesWordPress, PHP, jQuery and more, with CVE ids | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | PartialLists detected libraries | Not verified | Not verified | Not found | Not found |
| AI-search readiness: AI crawler access, JavaScript-only content, llms.txt | Yes7 AI crawlers + JS-only content | YesAI Search Health, 8 bots | YesAI crawler checks | PartialAI-bot log analysis | YesPaid add-on | PartialThrough MCP | PartialNew agentic audits | Not found | Yesllms.txt, AI crawlers | PartialSeparate AI Search Grader | Not found |
| Local SEO: Google Business Profile, local schema, reviews | YesProfile link, map, phone match, reviews | PartialSeparate toolkit | Not found | Not found | PartialLocal audit | Not found | Not found | Not found | YesProfile, schema, reviews | Not found | Not found |
| Lead capture and conversion: forms, click-to-call, WhatsApp, chat | YesForms, tel: links, WhatsApp, chat, CTAs | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| Analytics and cookie consent: GA4, Tag Manager, pixels, consent banner | YesGA4, GTM, pixels, consent | PartialGoogle Analytics link | Not found | PartialCookie inventory | Not found | PartialGA and GTM hints | Not found | Not found | PartialPixel and analytics | Not found | PartialCookie flags |
| Structured data (schema) | YesLocalBusiness completeness + your exact JSON-LD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not verified | Yes | PartialManual check | Not found | PartialPresence, local | Not found | Not found |
| Social profiles and sharing tags (Open Graph) | YesProfiles checked live + OG and cards | Partial | Partial | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not found | Not found | YesOG, cards, pixel | Not found | Not found |
| Competitor side by side | YesSame audit on a rival | YesGap tools | YesSite Explorer | Not found | YesResearch module | Not found | Not found | Not verified | Not verified | Not found | Not found |
| Backlinks and domain authority | Not foundNot included | Yes | YesFlagship | PartialThrough an API | Yes | Not verified | Not found | Not found | Yes | Not found | Not found |
| Scheduled monitoring and alerts | PartialManual re-checks | Yes | YesAlways-on | PartialScheduled crawls | Yes | Yes | Not found | YesHourly alerts | Yes | Not found | Not found |
| Score and shareable report | Yes0–100, PDF, English and Spanish | YesScore, PDF | PartialScore, CSV | PartialPriorities, exports | Yes | YesPrioritised, PDF | PartialScores, no PDF | YesGrade, PDF | YesA+ to F, PDF | Partial0–100 score | PartialGrade |
| Fixes delivered: paste-ready code or done for you | YesCode + done-for-you services | PartialAI suggestions | PartialPatches | PartialAI prompts | Not verified | PartialDeveloper hand-off | Not found | Not found | PartialAI writer | Not found | Not found |
Scroll sideways to see every tool. The first column stays in place.
Where each one is strongest
Where NetWebMedia leads
- One report covers what usually takes four or five tools: SEO, speed with real-user Core Web Vitals, security, accessibility, AI-search readiness, local presence and lead capture.
- Email spoofing protection — SPF, DMARC and DKIM — plus domain expiry. None of the SEO crawlers in this table document those checks.
- Conversion checks — forms, click-to-call, WhatsApp, chat — that no other tool here measures.
- Outdated WordPress and JavaScript libraries matched to their published CVE ids.
- Fixes, not just findings: code your web person can paste, or NetWebMedia does the work. Reports in English and Spanish.
Where others go further
- Crawl depth: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Semrush and Ahrefs crawl whole sites. Ours checks up to 30 pages per run — the whole site for most small businesses, not for a large one.
- Backlinks: Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking and SEOptimer keep link indexes. We don’t measure backlinks.
- Monitoring: Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Sitebulb, GTmetrix and SEOptimer re-check on a schedule and alert you. Ours re-checks when you run it.
- Header deep-dives: MDN’s HTTP Observatory scores headers in more depth (CORS, subresource integrity, cookie prefixes).
If you need those, use them — several are free for a site you own. If you want one report a business owner can act on, with the fixes, start with ours.
Questions
Which website audit tool is best for a small business?
It depends on the job. For a whole-site technical crawl, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Semrush and Ahrefs go deepest. For one report a business owner can act on — SEO, speed with real-user data, security, accessibility, AI-search readiness, local presence and lead capture together, with the fixes — NetWebMedia’s free audit covers more ground than any single tool in this comparison.
Is NetWebMedia’s audit really free?
Yes. Enter your website and an email address and the full 19-dimension report appears on screen in about a minute. No login and no card.
Does the free audit scan my site for vulnerabilities?
It runs a passive security check: only what a normal page visit and public DNS reveal — HTTPS, the certificate, security headers, cookies, outdated WordPress and JavaScript libraries, and the SPF, DMARC and DKIM records that stop people sending email as you. It never requests hidden paths, tries logins or sends attack traffic. The paid Security Check adds exposed-file tests on a site you own, paste-ready fixes and re-checks.
How did you compare the tools?
We read each vendor’s own feature pages and documentation in October 2026. A tick means the vendor documents the check; “Not found” means we could not find it in the vendor’s published docs; “Not verified” means the docs did not let us confirm it either way. Features change — check the vendor’s page before you buy.
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Free, no login, about a minute: 19 dimensions plus the security screen.
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Vendor pages read in October 2026. Features change — check the vendor’s own page before you buy.
- Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/kb/542-site-audit-issues-list
- Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/kb/1626-ai-visibility-features
- Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/kb/1361-accessibility-scan-and-monitor
- Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/site-audit
- Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools
- Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/blog/new-features/
- Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/issues/
- Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/faq/
- SE Ranking: https://seranking.com/website-audit.html
- SE Ranking: https://seranking.com/api/data/website-audit/
- Sitebulb: https://sitebulb.com/hints/
- Sitebulb: https://sitebulb.com/release-notes/
- Google: https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about
- Google: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview
- GTmetrix: https://gtmetrix.com/blog/field-crux-data-is-now-available-in-gtmetrix/
- SEOptimer: https://www.seoptimer.com/free-tools
- HubSpot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/website-grader-relaunch
- HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ai-search-grader
- MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory
- MDN: https://github.com/mozilla/http-observatory/blob/master/httpobs/docs/scoring.md