Horseman
Streamline content creation, SEO, and analytics with AI-driven efficiency.. [Paid]
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What is Horseman?
Horseman is an endlessly configurable crawling companion for extracting and analyzing website data across entire sites. It is built around reusable JavaScript snippets, so users can automate custom checks, transforms, and extractions rather than being limited to fixed crawl templates.
The tool supports crawling the web with GPT integration, letting snippets output prompts that run through GPT 3.5 with the user's own OpenAI API key. It also includes an AI helper that can generate snippets from plain-English descriptions, which lowers the barrier for people who do not want to write JavaScript manually.
Horseman includes more than 120 built-in snippets, plus newer features like Insights for deeper exploration, sitewide explore tables, and per-column exploration. The website highlights many SEO, performance, accessibility, and content-oriented checks, such as H1 analysis, meta descriptions, content extraction, redirects, robots.txt, schema, images, lazy-loaded resources, and more.
It is aimed at frontend developers, performance analysts, digital agencies, accessibility experts, SEO specialists, JavaScript engineers, and other users who want highly customizable crawling and reporting. The site positions Horseman as especially useful for people who need flexible site auditing, technical SEO workflows, and automated content analysis on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Horseman pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
The website presents Horseman with Early Bird pricing through GitHub Sponsors. It lists a Sponsor plan for 1 device limit, a Sponsor++ plan for 3 device limit, and a Sponsor+++ plan with custom device limit. The listed bonus extras include a sponsor badge on your GitHub profile, access to early development versions of other sites and tools when available, and the ability to disable the support message on CLI tools. The site does not show a free tier in the pricing section, and GPT features require the user's own OpenAI API key.
Horseman pros
- Highly configurable crawling workflow
- Snippet-based automation model
- Works with custom JavaScript
- AI-generated snippets from descriptions
- GPT 3.5 prompt output support
- Over 120 built-in snippets
- Insights feature for deeper exploration
- Sitewide explore tables
- Per-column exploration views
- Pass/fail indicators at cell level
- CSV export support
- JSON export support for nested tables
- NDJSON export for larger crawls
- Customizable CSV separator
- Supports custom Chrome binary
- Blocks service workers for accuracy
- Allows custom headers and user agents
- Regex include and exclude discovery rules
- CSP-blocked sites can still be crawled
- Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux
Horseman cons
- Requires your own OpenAI API key for GPT features
- Depends on JavaScript snippets for advanced use
- Can be overwhelming for non-technical users
- Some features are still evolving in v0.3
- Uses GitHub Sponsors for access/payment
- No mention of a permanent free tier on the site
- Some advanced output requires understanding snippet configuration
- Custom snippet creation may be less performant in some cases
- Feature set is heavily oriented toward technical SEO and crawling
- Some capabilities rely on Chrome-based crawling setup
Frequently asked questions about Horseman
What is Horseman?
Horseman is a crawling companion designed for extracting, exploring, and analyzing website data with highly configurable snippets. It focuses on technical crawling workflows rather than fixed, one-size-fits-all audits.
Who is Horseman for?
The site targets frontend developers, performance analysts, digital agencies, accessibility experts, SEO specialists, JavaScript engineers, and similar users. It is best suited to people who want custom site checks, reporting, and deeper technical analysis.
How does Horseman work?
Horseman uses snippets, which are small pieces of JavaScript that interact with pages and return data. You can use built-in snippets or create your own to automate checks and extractions across an entire site.
Do I need to know JavaScript?
No, not necessarily. The site says you can describe the information you want and let the AI helper write the snippet for you, which makes the tool more approachable for non-JavaScript users.
What AI features does Horseman include?
Horseman includes GPT integration and an AI helper for snippet generation. It can combine page data or send the entire page to GPT for analysis, and snippets can output prompts that run through GPT 3.5 using your own OpenAI API key.
How many snippets are included?
The site says Horseman includes over 120 built-in snippets. The changelog also mentions new snippets, updated snippets, and improved categorization as the product evolved.
What kinds of checks can Horseman run?
The website highlights checks such as H1 analysis, meta descriptions, content extraction, schema, redirects, robots.txt, images, lazy-loaded resources, render-blocking resources, social accounts, canonical issues, and performance-related signals.
What export options does Horseman support?
Horseman supports CSV export, JSON export including nested tables, and NDJSON export for crawls that exceed the JavaScript JSON size limit. It also supports sitewide CSV export for explore tables.
What platforms does Horseman run on?
The site says Horseman is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The macOS support includes Intel and M1/M2 machines.
How is Horseman priced?
Horseman is sold through GitHub Sponsors with Early Bird pricing. The site lists Sponsor, Sponsor++, and Sponsor+++ options with different device limits, plus extras like a sponsor badge, early access to development versions, and the ability to disable support messages on CLI tools.