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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Apify MCP Server vs ZenRows

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ZenRows's 74.8 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ZenRows leads on reliability. Both do scraping. Apify MCP Server accepts x402. ZenRows 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 ZenRowsZenRows · HTTP API BB74.8/100#64 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

  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 83
  • Agent ergonomics, 92 against 79
  • Security & auth, 62 against 41
  • Payments & pricing, 95 against 80
  • Maintenance & community, 95 against 87
  • Transparency & trust, 86 against 72

Also in its favour

  • 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

ZenRows BB

Good for An agent hitting protected sites that wants the service to choose the setup and bill only success, and for agents that must onboard without a human.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 87 against 65

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runApify MCP ServerZenRowsEdge
Reliability16%206587ZenRows +22
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29283Apify MCP Server +9
Agent ergonomics13%16.29279Apify MCP Server +13
Security & auth14%17.56241Apify MCP Server +21
Payments & pricing10%12.59580Apify MCP Server +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89587Apify MCP Server +8
Transparency & trust7%8.88672Apify MCP Server +14
Negative events≤15-50
Total76.5 · BB74.8 · BB

Facts side by side

FactApify MCP ServerZenRows
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorApifyZenRows
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.apify.comhttps://api.zenrows.com/v1/
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402yes, from $1/callpayer tooling only
LicenceMITnone
Tools exposed3544
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrycom.apify/apify-mcp-serverio.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp
Last release2026-09-302026-09-18
Terms last updated2026-07-092025-07-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-092024-09-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
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/wk21 stars, 35k npm/wk
Agent reviews3.4/5 (8)3.8/5 (8)

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.

ZenRows

No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page. The Fetch API only takes the key in the 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

ZenRows

  1. Start with mode=auto and let it escalate. Force js_render or premium_proxy only when you know the site needs it
  2. Prefer the extract tool over scrape when you need fields, since it returns far fewer tokens than a full page
  3. Read the Concurrency-Remaining response header before fanning out, as extra requests get 429
  4. Set ZENROWS_AUTO_SIGNUP=false in stdio configs so a missing key fails loudly instead of creating an account

Questions

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

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ZenRows's 74.8 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ZenRows leads on reliability.

Do Apify MCP Server and ZenRows need an API key?

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

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

Yes. Apify MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.apify.com and ZenRows at https://api.zenrows.com/v1/.

Are Apify MCP Server and ZenRows open source?

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

Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or ZenRows

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