# Apify MCP Server vs ZenRows

> Apify scores 76.5 (BB) to ZenRows's 74.8 (BB) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows.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 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.

- 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
- ZenRows: grade BB, 74.8/100, rank #64 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zenrows.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 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

| Category | Weight | Apify MCP Server | ZenRows | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 87 | ZenRows +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 83 | Apify MCP Server +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 79 | Apify MCP Server +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 41 | Apify MCP Server +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 95 | 80 | Apify MCP Server +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 95 | 87 | Apify MCP Server +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 72 | Apify MCP Server +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **76.5 · BB** | **74.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Apify MCP Server | ZenRows |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Apify | ZenRows |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.apify.com` | `https://api.zenrows.com/v1/` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $1/call | payer tooling only |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 35 | 44 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.apify/apify-mcp-server` | `io.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-18 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2025-07-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2024-09-01 |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 8.6k stars, 15k npm/wk | 21 stars, 35k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or ZenRows

- [Apify MCP Server vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.md)
- [Bright Data vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Olostep vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapfly vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapingBee vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Spider vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ZenRows vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zenrows-vs-zyte.md)
- [Diffbot vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Bright Data](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-bright-data.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-diffbot.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-olostep.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
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