Frequently Asked Questions
Is this safe? Will scanning slow my site down?
Yes, it's safe. We make a single HTTP request to your site — the same thing a regular visitor's browser does. We don't run any JavaScript on your server, we don't submit forms, we don't try to log in, and we don't hit your site repeatedly. One request, one page load, that's it. Your site won't notice. If your site has bot protection (Cloudflare, etc.), it might block our request — in that case we'll tell you what happened instead of guessing.
Who pays for this? What's the catch?
There's no catch. Sitescore is free because we built it for ourselves and figured other people would find it useful too. We pay for the AI model (Anthropic's Claude) and the hosting out of pocket. We don't show ads. We don't sell your data. We don't upsell you into a $299/month "premium audit." If we ever add paid features, they'll be clearly labeled and separate from the free scan.
What does "looks like 2014" actually mean?
Web design has changed a lot in the last decade. Sites built in 2014 tend to have telltale signs: image sliders, tiny text, cluttered layouts, stock photos of handshakes, and designs that don't adapt to phone screens. When we say your site "looks like 2014," we mean it has visual patterns that customers — consciously or not — associate with outdated, possibly abandoned businesses. It doesn't mean the site is broken. It means it's giving off the wrong first impression.
Can I scan a site I don't own?
Technically, yes — we're just loading a publicly accessible URL, the same thing Google does when it crawls the web. But if the site's terms of service prohibit automated access, you should respect that. We built this so business owners can check their own sites. Scanning a competitor to see how they stack up? Probably fine. Running hundreds of scans against a site you don't own? Don't do that.
Why don't I score 100/100?
A perfect score would mean your site is flawless across all four dimensions — modern design, prominent contact info, visible trust signals, and fully mobile-optimized. Almost nobody scores 100. Even well-built sites usually have room to improve in at least one area. The score isn't meant to make you feel bad — it's meant to show you where the low-hanging fruit is. Check the "Quick Wins" section of your report for the easiest things to fix first.
How is this different from a Google Lighthouse audit?
Lighthouse measures technical performance — page load speed, accessibility markup, SEO meta tags. It's a developer tool. Sitescore measures what a customer sees: does the site look modern, can I find the phone number, do I trust this business, does it work on my phone? They're complementary tools with different audiences. Lighthouse tells your developer what to fix. Sitescore tells you, the business owner, whether your site is costing you customers.