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SiteRune vs Lighthouse
· Configuration notes, not a newsroom.
Lighthouse is a lab score of one URL in a synthetic browser. SiteRune is a crawler brief with CMS dialect and ship files. You probably want both. They are not substitutes.
LIDifferent instruments
Lighthouse (and PageSpeed Insights) execute a browser, paint a filmstrip, and score LCP/INP/CLS in a lab. That is the right tool for runtime performance of a single URL.
SiteRune does not run a headless Chrome. It fetches HTML and headers from this vantage point, walks a handful of interior URLs, fingerprints the CMS, and writes nginx / Vercel / WordPress snippets plus an AI-search chapter Lighthouse does not have.
When to use which
- Lighthouse: you changed a hero image and need INP/LCP proof.
- SiteRune: you need to know if GPTBot is banned, if /pricing is noindex, if HSTS is missing, and what to paste this week.
- Both: after you ship the SiteRune playbook, re-run Lighthouse on the money URL.
Capability table
| Capability | SiteRune | Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in the browser / hosted | Hosted web app | Chrome DevTools / PSI |
| Installation required | No | no (in Chrome) |
| Lab Core Web Vitals (LCP/INP/CLS) | No | Yes |
| Field / CrUX data | No | Via PageSpeed Insights |
| Multi-page HTML crawl | Yes | One URL per run |
| Technical SEO (titles, canonicals, robots) | Yes | Partial |
| Security headers | Yes | No |
| CMS fingerprint + dialect | Yes | No |
| AI crawler / llms.txt checks | Yes | No |
| Implementation-ready config files | Yes | No |
| Backlink analysis | No | No |
| Keyword research | No | No |
| Free tier | Guest scans + Launch | Free |
Lighthouse executes a browser. SiteRune fetches HTML and headers. They answer different questions.
FAQ
Does SiteRune replace lighthouse?
No. Use the comparison table. SiteRune is a hosted configuration brief with CMS dialect and ship files. It does not replace rank tracking, backlink graphs, lab Core Web Vitals, or a desktop site-wide crawl.
What does a SiteRune scan actually fetch?
HTML and headers from this vantage point, robots.txt, sitemap, llms.txt, security.txt, and a polite walk of same-origin interiors. No headless Chrome. No exploits.
Run it on a live URL
Same scan engine. Guest scans stay free.