# Apify MCP Server vs ScrapingBee

> Apify scores 76.5 (BB) to ScrapingBee's 59.2 (C) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScrapingBee's 59.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScrapingBee leads on reliability. Both do scraping. Apify MCP Server accepts x402. ScrapingBee doesn't.

- Apify MCP Server: grade BB, 76.5/100, rank #28 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apify-mcp.json
- ScrapingBee: grade C, 59.2/100, rank #557 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingbee.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingbee.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## 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:
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 92 against 68
- Security & auth, 62 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 95 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 95 against 85
- Transparency & trust, 86 against 63

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

### ScrapingBee (C)

Good for: Agents that mix general scraping with ready-made Google, Amazon and YouTube endpoints and want spend capped per call.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 65

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.4 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where Apify MCP Server loses 5 points for them

Watch for: remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Apify MCP Server | ScrapingBee | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 70 | ScrapingBee +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 60 | Apify MCP Server +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 68 | Apify MCP Server +24 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 37 | Apify MCP Server +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 95 | 40 | Apify MCP Server +55 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 95 | 85 | Apify MCP Server +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 63 | Apify MCP Server +23 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **76.5 · BB** | **59.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Apify MCP Server | ScrapingBee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Apify | ScrapingBee (Oxylabs group) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.apify.com` | `https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | yes, from $1/call | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 35 | 18 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.apify/apify-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-11 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2024-07-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2024-07-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 8.6k stars, 15k npm/wk | 132 stars, 49k npm/wk, 72k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | 4/5 (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.

**ScrapingBee.** Dedicated Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini endpoints next to the general HTML API. remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL.

## 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

### ScrapingBee

1. Send render_js=false for static pages and files. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1
2. Use mode=auto with max_cost=25 to stop it escalating to 75-credit stealth requests
3. Keep the MCP URL with ?api_key= out of logs and shared configs
4. Back off exponentially on 429 from the MCP, since its concurrency is shared across customers
5. Expect 404 and 410 from the target to be billed. Other failures aren't

## Questions

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

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScrapingBee's 59.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScrapingBee leads on reliability.

### Do Apify MCP Server and ScrapingBee need an API key?

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

Yes. Apify MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.apify.com and ScrapingBee at https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/.

### Are Apify MCP Server and ScrapingBee open source?

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


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "apify-mcp", "b": "scrapingbee"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare apify-mcp scrapingbee`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apify-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingbee.json

## Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or ScrapingBee

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