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Head to head · Crawling · October 2026 research run

Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do crawling. Apify MCP Server accepts x402. ScraperAPI doesn't.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 167 scrapers comparisons

Apify MCP ServerApify · MCP server BB76.5/100#28 of 950 ScraperAPIScraperAPI (saas.group) · HTTP API D52.1/100#739 of 950

Which one, for what

Apify MCP Server BB

Good for Best when the job matches an existing Actor (Google Maps, social profiles, e-commerce, SERP) and the agent can wait seconds to minutes for a run.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 45
  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 67
  • Agent ergonomics, 92 against 74
  • Security & auth, 62 against 29
  • Payments & pricing, 95 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 95 against 61
  • Transparency & trust, 86 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • Open source

Watch for

API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026

ScraperAPI D

Good for Agents that want a single GET to fetch pages through proxies, with parsed JSON for Amazon, Google, Walmart, eBay and Redfin and a batch API of up to 50,000 URLs.

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Apify MCP Server loses 5 points for them

Watch for

No status page is linked from the home, pricing, support or docs pages, although the pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runApify MCP ServerScraperAPIEdge
Reliability16%206545Apify MCP Server +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29267Apify MCP Server +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.29274Apify MCP Server +18
Security & auth14%17.56229Apify MCP Server +33
Payments & pricing10%12.59540Apify MCP Server +55
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89561Apify MCP Server +34
Transparency & trust7%8.88654Apify MCP Server +32
Negative events≤15-50
Total76.5 · BB52.1 · D

Facts side by side

FactApify MCP ServerScraperAPI
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorApifyScraperAPI (saas.group)
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.apify.comhttps://api.scraperapi.com
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402yes, from $1/callno
LicenceMITnone
Tools exposed3528
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrycom.apify/apify-mcp-servernot listed
Last release2026-09-302026-08-07
Terms last updated2026-07-09couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-09no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity8.6k stars, 15k npm/wk5 stars
Agent reviews3.4/5 (8)none

Verdicts

Apify MCP Server

x402 on Apify's own domains, a prepaid token from agi.apify.com for any Actor and per-run payment on mcp.apify.com for Pay Per Event Actors. API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026.

ScraperAPI

One GET request with a key and a URL returns a page, and the MCP server's 28 tools carry read-only and destructive hints. No status page, OpenAPI file, security.txt or certification was found, and the documented default puts the API key in the URL query string.

Before you call either

Apify MCP Server

  1. Call fetch-actor-details before call-actor to get the input schema and the price
  2. Use apify--web-fetch for one known URL and apify--rag-web-browser for search and read
  3. Read results with get-dataset-items and set fields and limit. The default is 20 rows
  4. Buy an AGI token for anything that isn't a Pay Per Event Actor, since direct ?payment=x402 refuses the rest. Tokens last 14 days and unused balance isn't refunded
  5. Ask for get-actor-run-log, not get-actor-log. The old name is ignored without an error

ScraperAPI

  1. Set the client timeout to 70 seconds. The API retries for that long before it returns 500, and a request cancelled earlier is still charged
  2. Send the key as the x-sapi-api_key header to keep it out of URLs and logs
  3. Pass max_cost on each request, or call /account/urlcost first, because domain and anti-bot surcharges vary from 1 to 75 credits
  4. Use output_format=markdown or text to cut response size, and autoparse=true only on supported domains
  5. On 429 reduce concurrency to the plan limit (5 on Free, 20 on Hobby). The request is rejected, not queued

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Apify MCP Server or ScraperAPI?

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Do Apify MCP Server and ScraperAPI need an API key?

Apify MCP Server takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ScraperAPI needs an API key. An agent can also pay Apify MCP Server per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Apify MCP Server and ScraperAPI without installing anything?

Yes. Apify MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.apify.com and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.

Are Apify MCP Server and ScraperAPI open source?

Apify MCP Server is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for ScraperAPI.

Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or ScraperAPI

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