Q: Artur, What is the difference from Octopus.
do that has a free visual sitemap generator? Also, can I use VisualSitemaps for low fidelity sitemaps, wireframing and prototyping?
Thank you!
Artur_VisualSitemaps
Edited Feb 19, 2025A: Thanks Igor for your question.
UPDATE: Full Breakdown:
https://visualsitemaps.com/comparisons/visualsitemaps-vs-octopus-do-which-visual-sitemap-generator-is-better/
Here are the differences:
1. They don't crawl just any URLs - only sitemap.xml files.
Sitemaps.xml files are:
- Usually static, and usually never reflect the latest page content.
- A LOT of sites still don't have them.
- Limited in their data.
2. From those pages they can crawl, and don't take screenshots - so no way to annotate the content for planning with your team/clients. While we have a highly full-featured threaded annotation system:
https://support.visualsitemaps.com/en/articles/4220011-how-to-use-screenshot-annotations
3. They don't have a fancy AI to auto-compare content changes from crawl to crawl.
4. No CSV import for crawling.
5. They don't crawl privately accessible pages like dashboards and web apps.
We do! Here's Calendly's Dashboard: https://app.visualsitemaps.com/share/aa8c0d228e52aa867247dc39e31a01bc
The devil is in the details. Crawling is HARD, and we are always finding edge-cases and ways to cover more scenarios. We will be launching the ability to make wireframe sitemaps from scratch as they do now. There are many more minor differences between the two of us to mention.