Jetoctopus web crawler and log analyzer review

Flexible on-page SEO analytics platform

Jetoctopus hero image
(Image: © Jetoctopus)

TechRadar Verdict

JetOctopus offers a very good on-page SEO analytics platform, with a range of flexible options for crawling, analyzing logs, and GSC integration. However, some SEO agencies may find the lack of additional tools makes it uncompetitive.

Pros

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    Flexible plan options

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    Multiple on-page tools

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    Simple and easy to use interface

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    Good support

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    Free trial with 100,000 URLs

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    Annual discounts

Cons

  • -

    Not comprehensive

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    Pricing may not be competitive

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Jetoctopus aims to be one of the best on-page SEO tools, by providing a web crawler, log analyzer, and Google Search Console (GSC) visualizations. It can help identify problems with a website for SEO purposes.

We went to work, and put it to the test, seeing how useful this SEO tool is, how it performs, and compare it to the other SEO tools out there. 

Jetoctopus pricing

Jetoctopus allows for a range of flexible plans. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: Pricing

As mentioned, JetOctopus offers three different analytics services in its package: crawl, log analysis, and GSC visualization, with the price determined according to the volume of analysis required. You subscribe to an All-Inclusive plan that combines all three, with the option to increase the overall package, or add individually to the service that more is needed of 

The entry level package starts with 100k of Crawl Pages, 1M Log Lines, 1 Google Search Console Property, a 1 hour onboarding call, and no SEO Expert Analysis. Paying monthly has a cost of $176 monthly, or the option for an annual discount by paying $1584 annually- a savings of $528 (at an effective cost of $132/month by paying annually to save you the drudgery of doing the math).

Then there is the option to build on this basic package with add-on options. For example, to bring it up to 1M pages to crawl, adds $330 monthly, or $2970 when paid annually. Similarly, bringing it up to 10 GSC properties raises the cost by $110 monthly, or $990 annually.

Alternatively, there is a No Limits package which allows for pages to be crawled and logs to be analyzed as frequently as required each month. There is no pricing given, and company contact is required for a custom quote.

The website indicates a free trial, but contact is required, and the details are amorphous for the length of the trial, or if credit card info is required.

Jetoctopus crawler indexing

The Jetoctopus crawler provides information on indexing. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: Features

Below are the main characteristics that Jetoctopus offer

Crawler:  The crawler runs a check of your websites, and identifies and reports on any issues potentially causing problems for search engines. This includes issues such as missing meta data, redirect issues, and general indexing problems. Attractive visualizations provide information by category, depth, along with load times and status codes.

Log Analyzer:  The Log Analyzer provides information primarily on bots and bot behavior, empowering you to track how Google, Bing, and other search engine bots handle your website and pages, including badly behaving bots. This gives you granular control of which bots can access your websites, with the knowledge that blocking bad actors will often improve website performance.

Google Search console:  This module provides a connection from your Jetoctopus account to your GSC account. This feature then tracks the performance of your keywords on a daily basis. Included visualizations are for pages with up or down movement, the most trafficked pages, as well as general ranking positions for your keywords. It also provides information on potential website problems.

Jetoctopus overview

Jetoctopus provides an overview of potential website problems. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: Interface and Use

Relatively easy to use and get started with, JetOctopus takes a while for a new user to identify all of the different options and information points to work most with. We appreciate the simple three column layout, with two narrow navigation columns on the left, and data visualizations presented on the rest of the screen.

The interface packs in a lot of information, but avoids appearing cluttered. With everything clearly displayed and differentiated, it’s easy to navigate between different visualizations and data sets as required. There is a plethora of information provided, and while good to see, it can be initially overwhelming until you can narrow your focus to key pointers.

Another issue is that we did find the crawler somewhat slow to get running. Support is always on hand, and while we were told that there was an option to increase the number of threads for crawling, we didn’t encounter it. This underlines the point that the crawler has quite a number of options available in the advanced settings, which are not consistently easy to find.

Something we did note in the reporting are some potential technical issues flagged as “critical” that perhaps were not. However, you can create your own filters to drill through the data more efficiently- a neat feature to see. An additional option is to compare crawls, so you can see which issues have been resolved, along with which have yet to be addressed.

Jetoctopus log analyzer

Jetoctopus offers a useful log analyzer as a key module. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: Support

Support for JetOctupus is a strong point. Asking for help is as close as a human-user chat box on the website, both at the front end and back end. We found the responses were prompt, and also sent to email so you had a copy of the information. Email notices are also provided when crawls had completed, and there are a number of tutorial videos very visibly placed around the tools and website for easy reference as required. All in all, it gave the total impression of a well-supported product. 

Jetoctopus link analysis

Jetoctopus can provide a link analysis across a website or an individual page. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: The Competition

JetOctopus is an example of the very wide range of SEO analytics tools currently on the market. It competes somewhere between existing established tools such as Ahrefs and the SEO Spider by Screamingfrog.

Screamingfrog also offers a crawler to allow for a SEO audit for on-page issues such as meta-data, broken links, and other technical concerns – however, it’s arguably not so detailed or comprehensive as Jetoctopus. However it is cheaper, with a free plan offering up to 500 URLs to crawl, and the paid version offering unlimited for $209 a year.

Alternatively, Ahrefs is one of the most comprehensive SEO tool platforms out there, with the inclusion of a crawler as part of its Site Audit feature. There’s plenty of overlap in the reporting information between Ahrefs and JetOctopus, but with pricing starting from $99 a month for Ahrefs it makes it a comprehensive and affordable option, with a very wide range of other additional SEO tools bundled in.

 JetOctopus positions itself against the likes of Botify, Oncrawl and Deepcrawl. 

Jetoctopus word analysis

Jetoctopus can provide an analysis of the number of average words on a page. (Image credit: Jetoctopus)

Jetoctopus: Final Verdict

JetOctopus has a clean interface and is a (mostly) easy to use SEO tool, focused on covering analytics from a range of different angles. With more comprehensive SEO platforms such as Ahrefs offering a more robust set of tools, and the cheaper Screamingfrog offering some similar functionality, JetOctopus offers only a little more than either when it comes to on-page SEO analytics. The more important question is how useful that will be for most folks.

Consider us a little skeptical of JetOctopus when beginning this review, as it looked on initial glance a little pricey for yet another analytics tool that doesn’t offer all of the wider features of the big names we’re used to. However, after a week’s test, and pushing its functionality, it’s clear that it is a useful standalone platform in itself, and definitely worth considering.

One limitation is the number of URLs that can be crawled or analyzed via logs, with JetOctopus being overkill for very small websites, and becoming expensive for the larger ecommerce websites. There is the offer of a free trial to test out the functionality for yourself.

Overall, we’re less than convinced that SEO agencies will find JetOctopus useful when they are already subscribed to the big platforms such as Ahrefs or SEMrush. However, for web designers and web developers, along with small business owners, we can see it providing a value proposition for these groups that don’t need a full range of SEO tools, but just something to cover essential on-page issues and analytics for ensuring the websites they manage are delivering on the performance required.

Brian Turner

Brian has over 30 years publishing experience as a writer and editor across a range of computing, technology, and marketing titles. He has been interviewed multiple times for the BBC and been a speaker at international conferences. His specialty on techradar is Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, covering everything from office suites to IT service tools. He is also a science fiction and fantasy author, published as Brian G Turner.

With contributions from