XML-Sitemaps.com has been generating XML sitemaps online since 2004. It's the tool that launched many people's first sitemap — paste a URL, click a button, download an XML file. Sitemap Generator does the same core task, but adds URL health monitoring, automatic scheduled refresh, and a dashboard built for ongoing site maintenance rather than one-time sitemap creation.
If you need a sitemap right now, once, for a small site — XML-Sitemaps.com works. If you need your sitemap to stay current automatically, and want to know when pages break, you need something more.
The short answer
Choose XML-Sitemaps.com for a one-time, no-account sitemap of a small static site. Choose Sitemap Generator for a sitemap that stays current automatically, with URL health monitoring and 404 alerts — especially for sites with dynamic content or regular publishing.
Quick Comparison
| Sitemap Generator | XML-Sitemaps.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Year launched | Modern platform | 2004 — one of the oldest sitemap tools |
| Account required | Yes — for saving and scheduling | No — completely anonymous use |
| Ease of use | Very high — URL → dashboard | Very high — URL → XML download |
| Pricing (entry) | Free tier with ongoing access | Free (500 pages); premium from ~$3.99/mo |
| Auto-refresh scheduling | Yes — cloud-native | No — manual re-generation only |
| Broken link detection | Yes | No |
| Redirect analysis | Yes | No |
| URL health report | Yes | No — crawl data only |
| Dashboard / history | Yes — full project history | No — stateless, one-time generation |
| JavaScript support | Standard crawl | No — HTML-only crawl |
| Sitemap index | Yes | Yes — for large sites |
| Best for | Ongoing site maintenance + SEO health | One-time sitemap generation, static sites |
What XML-Sitemaps.com Does Well
XML-Sitemaps.com's strength is its simplicity and zero-friction entry. No sign-up, no dashboard, no credit card. Enter a URL, configure a few options (crawl frequency, priority, excluded URLs), hit generate, and download the XML file. For a small, static website that doesn't change often — a portfolio, a local business site, a simple landing page — this workflow is perfectly adequate.
The free plan handles up to 500 pages. Premium plans go up to 50,000 pages at ~$3.99–$11.99/month, making it genuinely one of the cheapest options for large-site sitemap generation.
Where XML-Sitemaps.com Falls Short
- No automatic refresh. XML-Sitemaps.com has no scheduling feature at any price tier. Every time you publish new pages or delete old ones, you need to return to the site, re-crawl, and re-upload a new sitemap to Google Search Console manually. For sites that publish regularly, this becomes a maintenance burden that gets skipped.
- No URL health monitoring. XML-Sitemaps.com generates your sitemap — it does not tell you which URLs returned 404, which are redirecting, or which may have broken since the last crawl. It has no health report or alert system.
- No JavaScript support. The crawler is HTML-only. If your site is built with React, Next.js, Vue, or any JavaScript-rendered framework, XML-Sitemaps.com will miss pages that require JavaScript to render. This is a significant limitation for modern web apps.
- No saved history. Each generation is stateless. There's no dashboard showing your previous crawls, no comparison between this week's sitemap and last week's, no record of what changed. You get a file, and that's it.
- No redirect detection. If a URL in your sitemap has started redirecting, XML-Sitemaps.com won't flag it. Google may submit the redirect destination to the index, creating a discrepancy between your sitemap and actual page locations.
Where Sitemap Generator Is the Better Choice
- Set-and-forget scheduling. Sitemap Generator auto-refreshes your sitemap on a configurable schedule. Your sitemap file stays current as you publish — without you needing to do anything. This is the single biggest gap between the two tools.
- URL health as a first-class report. Every crawl produces a health report: which URLs returned 200, which are 404, which are redirects, and what your overall health score is. This turns every sitemap refresh into a site health check.
- 404 alerts. Get notified when pages break between scheduled crawls, before Google discovers the issue. XML-Sitemaps.com has no alerting capability whatsoever.
- Project history. Sitemap Generator maintains a crawl history, so you can track your site's URL count, health score, and newly broken links over time.
- Better for dynamic sites. Blogs, e-commerce stores, and content-heavy sites that publish and unpublish pages regularly need a sitemap that reflects the current state of the site — not the state it was in 3 months ago when someone last ran a manual generation.
Pricing Compared
| Plan | Sitemap Generator | XML-Sitemaps.com |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Yes — with dashboard + scheduling | Yes — 500 pages, no account required |
| Entry paid | Affordable monthly | ~$3.99/mo (10,000 pages) |
| Mid tier | Accessible pricing | ~$7.99/mo (25,000 pages) |
| High volume | Custom | ~$11.99/mo (50,000 pages) |
| Auto-refresh | Yes — included | No — at any tier |
| Health monitoring | Yes — included | No — at any tier |
XML-Sitemaps.com is genuinely cheap — if all you need is a file. But auto-refresh and health monitoring are not available at any price point, which means comparing prices alone misses the feature gap entirely.
Who Should Choose Which
Choose XML-Sitemaps.com if you are:
- Setting up a small, static site (portfolio, local business, simple landing page) that rarely changes
- Generating a one-time sitemap with no plans for recurring updates
- Needing the absolute cheapest solution for large-volume XML generation
- Preferring zero-account, completely anonymous sitemap generation
Choose Sitemap Generator if you are:
- Running a blog, e-commerce store, or any site that publishes or removes content regularly
- Wanting your sitemap to stay current automatically without manual re-generation
- Needing to know when pages start returning 404 or redirect errors
- Looking for a project dashboard with crawl history and trend tracking
- Building a JavaScript-rendered site that an HTML-only crawler will miss
Frequently Asked Questions
Does XML-Sitemaps.com have automatic refresh?
No — XML-Sitemaps.com is a one-time generation tool. There is no account-level scheduling, no saved projects, and no automatic re-crawl at any price tier. Every update requires you to manually return to the site, re-crawl, download a new file, and re-upload to Google Search Console.
Is XML-Sitemaps.com safe to use?
Yes — it's a long-established tool (20+ years) with a simple, static output. It generates an XML file from your publicly accessible pages; it doesn't require account creation or payment details for the free tier. There are no reported security concerns with the service itself.
Can XML-Sitemaps.com crawl JavaScript-rendered pages?
No. XML-Sitemaps.com is an HTML crawler only. If your site uses client-side rendering (React, Vue, Angular, Next.js in SPA mode), pages that require JavaScript execution to expose their content or links will be missed. The sitemap will be incomplete.
Is the XML output from XML-Sitemaps.com accepted by Google?
Yes — XML-Sitemaps.com produces standard XML sitemap output compatible with Google Search Console. The file format is correct. The limitation is not the format but the freshness: a sitemap generated manually months ago may include outdated URLs or miss new pages published since the last generation.