Point-in-time scan versus ongoing crawl-and-log platform
OnCrawl and AI Crawl Score both produce findings about crawlability, but they differ in depth, data source, and intended site size. OnCrawl is a subscription technical-SEO platform; AI Crawl Score is a free, single-scan tool.
What OnCrawl does
OnCrawl, per its own site, combines its own site crawler with server log analysis to connect crawl data, log activity, and ranking data in one view. It reports crawl-budget efficiency, accessibility errors encountered during crawling, under-crawled pages, and resources blocked from bots. It has added an AI Search Lens tracking which parts of a site are cited or ignored by LLMs, and a Content Lens scoring content quality at scale. This requires connecting log data and running OnCrawl’s own crawler against a site, and is sold as an ongoing subscription aimed at mid-size to large sites with recurring technical-SEO needs.
What AI Crawl Score does
AI Crawl Score’s free readiness checker runs a single bounded scan of up to five pages via raw HTTP fetch: robots.txt rules by crawler identity, sitemap presence, JSON-LD structured data, and delivered-content checks. It does not crawl a full site, does not ingest logs, and does not track citation behavior over time the way OnCrawl’s AI Search Lens aims to.
Side by side
| Question | AI Crawl Score | OnCrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Crawl depth | Up to five pages, bounded | Full-site crawl, configurable |
| Log-file ingestion | No | Yes |
| AI-citation tracking | No | Yes, via AI Search Lens |
| Setup | None, paste a URL | Account, crawl configuration, log connection |
| Cost | Free | Paid subscription |
| Best fit | Quick technical check, any site size | Ongoing technical-SEO program, larger sites |
Which one fits your situation
Use AI Crawl Score when a fast, no-signup answer to “is anything obviously broken for crawlers on these key pages” is enough. Use OnCrawl when the work requires full-site crawl coverage, log-based crawl-budget analysis, and recurring tracking across hundreds or thousands of URLs, typically justified once a site is large enough that spot-checking a handful of pages misses real problems. Google’s helpful-content guidance applies to both scales of site; neither tool’s crawl findings substitute for that editorial judgment.
See faceted navigation crawl control, crawl budget for AI bots, and xml sitemap audit checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI Crawl Score crawl my whole site like OnCrawl?
No. It samples a bounded set of up to five pages per scan rather than crawling an entire site.
Can I use both tools together?
Yes. A free AI Crawl Score scan is a reasonable first check before committing to an OnCrawl subscription and full-site crawl setup.