Foglift vs Google Lighthouse
Lighthouse measures performance, accessibility, and SEO basics. Foglift goes further with GEO analysis, AI search readiness, security grading, and 29 standalone tools — all free.
| Feature | Foglift | Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever | Free (built into Chrome) |
| GEO / AI search analysis | ✓ 7-check GEO score | ✕ Not available |
| AI crawler detection | ✓ GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc. | ✕ Not checked |
| Performance audit | ✓ Core Web Vitals via PageSpeed API | ✓ Comprehensive performance metrics |
| SEO audit | ✓ Full SEO score with A-F grades | ✓ Basic SEO checklist |
| Accessibility audit | ✓ 15 WCAG checks | ✓ Comprehensive a11y audit |
| Security headers | ✓ 6 headers + security grade | ✕ Not checked |
| Schema/structured data | ✓ JSON-LD depth analysis | ✓ Basic structured data check |
| Standalone tools | 29 free tools | ✕ Single audit only |
| PDF export | ✓ Branded PDF report | ✓ JSON/HTML export |
| API access | ✓ Free REST API | ✓ CI/CD integration (npm) |
| MCP server | ✓ For AI coding assistants | ✕ Not available |
| Blog / guides | 46+ SEO + GEO guides | Documentation only |
| Online scanner | ✓ No install needed | Chrome DevTools or PageSpeed Insights |
| Monitoring/tracking | Pro plan: weekly monitoring | ✕ One-time audit only |
| Competitor comparison | ✓ Side-by-side site comparison | ✕ Single page only |
Choose Foglift when...
- ✓You want to know how your site performs in AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews)
- ✓You need a quick online scan without installing anything
- ✓You want security header analysis and grading
- ✓You need standalone SEO tools (robots.txt generator, schema generator, etc.)
- ✓You want to compare two websites side by side
- ✓You need an API for automated scanning in CI/CD
Choose Lighthouse when...
- →You need the most granular performance metrics (Time to Interactive, Speed Index, etc.)
- →You want detailed accessibility axe-core audit results
- →You need PWA (Progressive Web App) compliance checking
- →You want to audit locally (before deployment)
- →You need the npm package for CI integration with custom configs
The GEO Gap: What Lighthouse Misses
Google Lighthouse was built for a world where Google was the only search engine that mattered. In 2026, AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude are driving a growing share of traffic and citations.
Foglift's GEO score checks 7 factors that determine whether AI search engines can find, understand, and cite your content:
- • AI Crawler Access — Are GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot allowed in robots.txt?
- • Structured Data Depth — Does your schema markup provide enough context for AI extraction?
- • FAQ Detection — Do you have FAQ sections that AI can directly cite?
- • Entity Markup — Are key entities (people, organizations, products) marked up?
- • Content Structure — Is your content organized with clear headings for AI parsing?
- • Citation Formatting — Are statistics and claims formatted for AI quotation?
- • Meta Quality — Are your meta tags descriptive enough for AI summarization?
Security Headers: A Blind Spot for Lighthouse
Lighthouse checks if your site uses HTTPS, but it doesn't audit individual security headers. Foglift checks 6 critical security headers and gives an overall security grade:
- • HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)
- • X-Content-Type-Options
- • X-Frame-Options / CSP frame-ancestors
- • Content-Security-Policy
- • Referrer-Policy
- • Permissions-Policy
The Bottom Line
Lighthouse is an excellent performance auditing tool. Foglift complements it by adding GEO analysis, security grading, and 29 standalone tools. Use both — run Lighthouse for deep performance metrics, and Foglift for the AI-search and security dimensions Lighthouse doesn't cover.