Moz Link Explorer vs. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Moz Link Explorer
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Link Explorer from Moz is a link building utility, replacing the former Open Site Explorer. Moz describes Link Explorer as a highly accurate link tool that lets users check the backlink profile and Domain Authority of any site. Moz was acquired by iContact in June, 2021.
$99
per month
Screaming Frog
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
N/A
$149
per year
Pricing
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Editions & Modules
Moz Pro
$99
per month
Moz Link Explorer
Free
Paid Version
$149.00
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Considered Both Products
Moz Link Explorer
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Google Trends
Chose Moz Link Explorer
I picked because I have more experience with Moz.
Chose Moz Link Explorer
I think Moz Link Explorer is a great add-on to the overall Moz tool, but compared to Ahrefs, it’s not as robust because Ahrefs' main focus is on the backlink profile. I like SEMRush’s function of being able to reach out to websites directly from the platform and track all of …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
When it still existed, Open Site Explorer was one of, if not the, best freemium SEO tools. Not only did its free-tier offer amazing insights and data for SEO strategy, but its paid program offered additional resources for SEO. I think it worked better than screaming frog …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Ahrefs is an awesome tool and, I'd say, more in-depth than Open Site Explorer. It tends to give more detailed lists of inbound links. But, we use Open Site Explorer because we use other tools in Moz Pro. We track our domain authority (a Moz concept) and we use the MozBar to …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Ahrefs is much more comprehensive than Open Site Explorer. If you are in need of a deep backlink analysis there are better options out there for your money. If you need a quick look at the state of a client's backlink profile than OSE is for you. It will give you the top …
Chose Moz Link Explorer
Yahoo! Site Explorer is no longer available outside of a Bing Webmaster Tools account. While there are plenty of fee-based link evaluation tools, Moz's Open Site Explorer provides a robust set of features and metrics in its free version that no other site can match. Moz also …
Screaming Frog
Chose Screaming Frog
RankPro, Semrush, Keyword Hero, GetKeywords and KeywordSpy
Chose Screaming Frog
The biggest difference between DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog is cost. Screaming Frog is significantly cheaper, and fits within a budget much easier. For most websites that aren't huge it crawls quicker to. DeepCrawl is the better tool for analysing larger websites and is easier …
Chose Screaming Frog
Please note that, while Screaming Frog is a great tool for scanning the website all it is, is a tool that scans the website. For deeper analysis or for keyword analysis, please take a look at tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs for your medium size business, or Conductor for a …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog provides some similar benefits as the other tools but offers a wealth of other scanning options that the other tools don’t. I like how every scan of a URL (yours, a competitor’s, or any URL) provides 30+ points of data. The other tools offer other benefits that …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider does so much...a lot of these tools, in theory, should be used together because they lend big picture insights. But Screaming Frog SEO Spider is excellent because it can work directly with tools like Google Analytics.
Chose Screaming Frog
There aren't many direct competitors for Screaming Frog SEO Spider that I've found. Tools such as Moz provide similar outcomes, but in a completely different manner and with a different workflow. I can't really compare them.
Chose Screaming Frog
The choice to go with Screaming Frog was really mostly about price and the fact that it does almost the same exact thing. There are a few things that DeepCrawl does that Screaming Frog doesn't, but it wasn't worth the increase in price.
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog has a free version, so it competes with the paid programs (like Moz) solely in the fact that it can be used without incurring a budget line item. Compared to many other programs that also offer free scans, Screaming Frog is fast and much more customizable. Since …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is far superior to the host of free crawling tools available online and does not limit you to a certain number of pages as many other tools do. We were looking for just a crawling tool and not a more robust SEO tool like Moz, so this was perfect for us.
Chose Screaming Frog
I use several tools that can do much of what Screaming Frog can do - SemRush and SEO Powersuite. However, for what we use Screaming Frog for, it is the best tool. During a 15-minute phone call with a potential new client, I can crawl the site and determine what shape the site …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog seems to be the most thorough at crawling a website. Almost too thorough ;). But it is spreadsheet-like and so allows sorting and filtering in a simple way. But in general, with Screaming Frog I trust that it gets everything when it crawls a website.
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is different than a tool like SEMrush. It is a crawler that allows you to see the data like Google would see it when they crawl your site. A tool like SEMrush, or MOZ, gives you more analysis around SEO for the website you are reviewing. I wouldn't want to be …
Chose Screaming Frog
Our company also uses Website Auditor from the SEO PowerSuite by LinkAssistant and it's a great tool with a lot of fancy features and even an IA (information architecture) visualization which shows you how your website looks and how your pages interconnect.

Screaming Frog is a …
Chose Screaming Frog
Authority Labs is good for a limited function--tracking keyword rankings (though its keyword suggestion capability has recently improved as well) but doesn't do the page crawling that Screaming Frog does. Serpstat and SEMRush both have a lot more functions but also cost …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a downloadable desktop app. Its minimalist design makes for a straight forward seamless site crawling SEO experience. We use all these products and Screaming Frog fits in nicely as a member of our SEO product team. Each product has its strengths and weaknesses …
Chose Screaming Frog
The HTML-heavy little platform, Screaming Frog, is my favorite crawler compared to DeepCrawl and SEMRush. Partially precisely due to the fact that the tool doesn't try to give me recommendations or tell me what to do. Many similar tools go above and beyond to prescribe …
Chose Screaming Frog
The tools I mentioned are in the same space, tools for SEO, but aren't website scrapers like Screaming Frog. We haven't found another tool that we like as much for providing simple and straight forward insights about a website.
Chose Screaming Frog
I have not used any similar tools to Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Chose Screaming Frog
Even though Screaming Frog is the industry standard, that doesn't mean that it's without its flaws. The crawl visualization is sub-par compared to Sitebulb, and the UX/UI looks like it's from the 90s and hasn't been updated since then. Tools like Deepcrawl and Sitebulb are …
Chose Screaming Frog
SEMrush is not a dedicated on-demand SEO crawler like Screaming Frog. SEMRush is more of a digital marketing suite that happens to offer SEO crawling along with other marketing tools. As such, it's much more of a commitment; which you'll notice with a monthly cost versus a …
Chose Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is probably the best non-client facing SEO audit tool in terms of technical SEO. There are other tools on the market that do a more complete job of keyword tracking, competitive analysis, and backlink profiles...however, for analyzing the technical SEO …
Chose Screaming Frog
We have a deep crawl integration with another tool and still find the information on DeepCrawl valuable because this tool is better at listing out reccomendations. However, Screaming Frog is easier to use, doesn't have limits on how many crawls it can run (on the Pro plan we …
Features
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Moz Link Explorer
8.1
Ratings
5% above category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
8.7
Ratings
12% above category average
Keyword analysis8.30 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Backlink management9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking8.30 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Page grader7.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics8.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Site recommendations8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Task management5.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Moz Link Explorer
7.4
Ratings
3% below category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
9.5
Ratings
22% above category average
Local SEO8.30 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Social SEO7.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile SEO7.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Global SEO6.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Moz Link Explorer
7.2
Ratings
16% below category average
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
8.8
Ratings
4% above category average
Multi-domain support5.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools9.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.5 out of 10
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.6
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Moz Link ExplorerScreaming Frog SEO Spider
Likelihood to Recommend
It is helpful if you are trying to understand where a site stands in terms of the links coming to it from different websites. It is less helpful in terms of providing specific actions or steps to take to get more links. However, it is a part of a larger Moz package so other areas provide information that can help there.
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Screaming Frog tracks the crawl level, internal links, outbound links, title tags, and meta descriptions of the pages it crawls. It also adds HTTP status codes, title tag length, meta description length, H1, H2 tags and lengths, and canonical tags. Many of these elements are also broken into their own tabs at the top so that you can easily focus in on problem areas. You can right-click on any URL for many more options. The program is definitely valuable to anyone who is looking to gauge factors regarding SEO. However, if you are not a web designer/admin, you're going to lack an understanding of the information it provides.
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Pros
  • It links in with Moz’s domain authority concept, which we use as our main metric of how well our SEO works.
  • It shows you which sites link to you, and ranks to them by domain authority. This helps us understand where our best inbound links come from, and to hopefully target those valuable partners for more links.
  • It shows you which keywords you rank for, your position on the search engine results pages for each keyword, and how difficult it is to rank for those keywords. We use this to spot where we rank on the second or third page for medium difficulty keywords. We’ll then write content to target those keywords.
Read full review
  • Collects all indexed HTML pages of the site. This helps for when we are redirecting old URLs to the URLs of a clients new site.
  • Finds all page titles that are too long or too short and allows us to address them more quickly than waiting for a program such as Moz. It's more immediate.
  • If we have duplicate meta data on pages, this program allows us to find them, sort them, export them and take care of them in a timely manner. In our business (as for many) time is money.
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Cons
  • Lack of instant export of data. Adds to a queue rather than being instant.
  • Advanced reports are needed for larger websites and come at the cost of a subscription to Moz Pro.
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  • Customizing the crawler - It takes a little bit of playing around with the settings to understand what each of them controls and what options need to be checked or unchecked to get the right amount of information.
  • Cannot Crawl a large site - Screaming Frog runs out of memory when asked to crawl a large site, even after playing around with memory settings and allocating additional memory.
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Likelihood to Renew
No renewal is necessary with the free version!
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The tool has become integrated into our teams daily workings and I have yet to find a tool other than scremaing frog to replicate all of our use cases for it. It's a great tool and we're sticking with it
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Usability
No answers on this topic
The main problem of Screaming Frog SEO Spider is it being an offline software which limits itself to a single pc and that creates problem when multi user agents want to get involved or even work on it, it’s a difficult task to collaborate on it and do research for keywords at one place
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Support Rating
I’m not qualified to give a rating for this because I’ve never used support specifically for Moz Link Explorer. On the site there are “what’s new” and “help” sections to help those who need further assistance. Also there is a ton of great content regarding SEO and backlinks on the Moz website.
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Screaming Frog is a relatively primitive system, and doesn't need to be supported by devs or other software. Screaming Frog does interface directly with some programs that are most needed (Google Analytics, Search Console, Page Speed Insights), so that's convenient. It isn't widely supported by other programs, but it also doesn't need to be.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
If the software was a little easier to use for beginners, there really wouldn't be an issue
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Alternatives Considered
I think Moz Link Explorer is a great add-on to the overall Moz tool, but compared to Ahrefs, it’s not as robust because Ahrefs' main focus is on the backlink profile. I like SEMRush’s function of being able to reach out to websites directly from the platform and track all of your progress in there.
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The biggest difference between DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog is cost. Screaming Frog is significantly cheaper, and fits within a budget much easier. For most websites that aren't huge it crawls quicker to. DeepCrawl is the better tool for analysing larger websites and is easier to use in some ways, with a very friendly interface and some extras features that are useful. Ultimately price was the deciding factor though.
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Return on Investment
  • Took hours of manual work and programatically did it in a few clicks
  • Gave a game plan for future SEO strategies
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  • It has allowed me to make impactful and intelligent recommendations to clients. This has in turned deepened the client relationships and led to steady ongoing ROI.
  • It has also allowed me to diagnose interesting technical issues for non-client sites (like Forbes) which formed the basis for very cool company blog posts.
  • The investment is very low - this tool does 99% of what I need for a fraction of what other industry crawlers costs. Kudos to the Screaming Frog team!
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ScreenShots