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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Apify MCP Server vs ScrapingAnt

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do scraping. Apify MCP Server accepts x402. ScrapingAnt 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 ScrapingAntScrapingAnt (DATAANT) · HTTP API F35.5/100#934 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 30
  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 43
  • Agent ergonomics, 92 against 66
  • Security & auth, 62 against 10
  • Payments & pricing, 95 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 95 against 5
  • Transparency & trust, 86 against 53

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

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

ScrapingAnt F

Good for A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runApify MCP ServerScrapingAntEdge
Reliability16%206530Apify MCP Server +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29243Apify MCP Server +49
Agent ergonomics13%16.29266Apify MCP Server +26
Security & auth14%17.56210Apify MCP Server +52
Payments & pricing10%12.59540Apify MCP Server +55
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8955Apify MCP Server +90
Transparency & trust7%8.88653Apify MCP Server +33
Negative events≤15-50
Total76.5 · BB35.5 · F

Facts side by side

FactApify MCP ServerScrapingAnt
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorApifyScrapingAnt (DATAANT)
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.apify.comhttps://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402yes, from $1/callno
LicenceMITnone
Tools exposed353
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
MCP registrycom.apify/apify-mcp-servernot listed
Last release2026-09-302024-07-16
Terms last updated2026-07-09no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-09no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity8.6k stars, 15k npm/wk90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3.4/5 (8)3.5/5 (2)

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.

ScrapingAnt

10,000 free credits a month with no card. API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs.

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

ScrapingAnt

  1. Send the key in the x-api-key header rather than the query string
  2. Use /v2/markdown for LLM input, and set browser=false on static pages to pay 1 credit instead of 10
  3. Switch to proxy_type=residential only after a 423 (anti-bot) response. It raises a browser request from 10 to 125 credits
  4. On the free plan a second concurrent request gets 409. Wait for the first to finish
  5. Google, Bing and Yandex result pages come back as raw HTML through /v2/general, so you parse them yourself

Questions

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

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Do Apify MCP Server and ScrapingAnt need an API key?

Apify MCP Server takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ScrapingAnt 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 ScrapingAnt without installing anything?

Yes. Apify MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.apify.com and ScrapingAnt at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general.

Are Apify MCP Server and ScrapingAnt open source?

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

Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or ScrapingAnt

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