# Bright Data vs fastCRW

> fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) to Bright Data's 56.9 (C) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-crw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-crw.md (~5,750 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Bright Data's 56.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bright Data leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do scraping.

- Bright Data: grade C, 56.9/100, rank #812 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bright-data.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bright-data.json
- fastCRW: grade B, 64.3/100, rank #478 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crw.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 501 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Bright Data (C)

Good for: Hard targets and site-specific structured data (Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Maps) at volume.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 69 against 40
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Watch for: No public status page or incident history

### fastCRW (B)

Good for: Agents that want Firecrawl-style scrape, crawl, map, search and extract at lower per-page cost, or a small self-hosted engine.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 50 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 74
- Agent ergonomics, 91 against 79
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 87

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Bright Data loses 6 points for them

Watch for: The status page shows a live check and an uptime objective but no incident history


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: Bright Data +29

- Bright Data (69): API keys carry one of five roles (Admin, Finance, Ops, Limit, User), can be given an expiry, and are revoked or refreshed in the control panel, and the hosted MCP also takes OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and one `mcp` scope (30). The README's default hosted setup still puts the key in the URL as `?token=`, a documented option, so less 10 (20). User-role keys can't change configuration, tools load by group, and tools carry readOnlyHint and destructiveHint, but browser tools can fill forms and click with no confirmation step from the server (14 of 20). Since 3.1.0 results from search, scrape, scraper, dataset and browser tools are wrapped as untrusted web content with a per-call marker, and since 2.12.0 a content gate, documented in the README and on by default, asks the user through MCP elicitation before returning page text that looks like instructions to change the MCP configuration (12 of 15). The MCP `session_stats` tool reports calls in a session. We didn't find a per-request log for operators (5 of 15). ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018, SOC 2 Type II under NDA, a public SOC 3, a managed private bug bounty and security fixes in the MCP changelog per the 1 October check. No security.txt (404 on 4 November). OSV holds no advisory for @brightdata/mcp (18 of 20). 20+14+12+5+18 = 69.
- fastCRW (40): The hosted MCP server publishes RFC 9728 metadata naming its own authorisation server, with PKCE S256, dynamic client registration and one scope, `mcp:tools`, and the API takes revocable Bearer keys from the dashboard. No key scopes or second scope found (22). The authentication page documents fastcrw.com/mcp/<API_KEY> as a way in, a key in the URL path, so less 10 (12 of 30). Tools mostly read, and data-source calls check approvals, but there is no read-only key or confirmation step for monitors (8 of 20). Managed LLM extraction, summaries and answers wrap scraped text in a nonce fence (crates/crw-extract/src/untrusted.rs), and the hardening guide treats pages as untrusted, but the MCP docs give agents no guidance on scraped content (7 of 15). Each response reports `creditsUsed`; no per-call log in the docs (5 of 15). SECURITY.md names security@fastcrw.com and GitHub private reporting with a 48-hour acknowledgement, and CI runs CodeQL and OpenSSF Scorecard. security.txt answers 404, and no bounty or certification found (8 of 20). 12 + 8 + 7 + 5 + 8 = 40.

### Schema & documentation: fastCRW +17

- Bright Data (74): No OpenAPI file found for the API. The MCP server has zod schemas on every tool, so partial credit (15 of 25). llms.txt at docs.brightdata.com with Markdown pages (10). MCP descriptions say what each tool returns, and the dataset tools say when to use them instead of `run_scraper` (14 of 20). Typed inputs with enums such as engine (bing or google), time_range and format (12 of 15). Per-product error catalogues for Web Unlocker, Browser API and scrapers, and curl examples (13 of 15). Release notes, now dated to 27 October 2026, and an MCP CHANGELOG with a gap between 2.6.0 and 2.10.0, per the 1 October reading (10 of 15).
- fastCRW (91): OpenAPI 3.1 for 11 paths at version 0.41.0 in docs/openapi.json, checked against the server in CI, and typed JSON Schema inputs on every MCP tool (25). llms.txt (86 lines), llms-full.txt and Markdown sources for every docs page (10). Tool descriptions state purpose and how to chain them (crawl returns a job id to poll, map returns URLs only, extract needs an LLM), and the docs have a choose-an-endpoint page, but few descriptions say when not to use a tool (14 of 20). Inputs are typed with required fields and a renderer enum, though crawl and extract take a free-form JSON Schema object (12 of 15). Examples on every page and an errors page with each HTTP status, errorCode and next step (15). Semver releases with a dated CHANGELOG that flags breaking changes (15). 25 + 10 + 14 + 12 + 15 + 15 = 91.

### Agent ergonomics: fastCRW +12

- Bright Data (79): Since MCP 3.1.0 (15 October 2026) all 32 tools are on by default, with `groups=` and `tools=` on the hosted URL or GROUPS and TOOLS locally to narrow them (5 for more than 30, plus 10 for the filters, 15). Markdown, text, HTML or JSON-LD output from the scrape tools, content cut at 200,000 characters, batch tools of up to 5 searches or 5 URLs and filterable dataset search, but no general field selection (15 of 20). Error codes with a retry-or-fix classification, and since 4.3.0 the local server uses the hosted server's codes (`rate_limited`, `invalid_input`, `quota_exceeded`) (17 of 20). Since 4.1.0 every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and openWorldHint, with browser click and type marked destructive. Billing counts successful requests, and there are no idempotency keys (17 of 20, as firecrawl-mcp and apify-mcp). One required secret and auto-created zones, and official Python (`brightdata-sdk`) and JavaScript SDKs in the docs index (15). 15+15+17+17+15 = 79.
- fastCRW (91): 11 compact MCP tools, two of them the data-source tools added in 0.41.0. Content is capped near 15,000 characters with `truncated: true` and a resume offset, and map returns at most 100 URLs by default (20 of 25). Formats, main-content filtering, include and exclude selectors, maxLength, startIndex, limit and crawl depth and page caps (20). Errors carry `errorCode` values such as anti_bot, insufficient_credits and llm_not_available with a retry table, though an anti-bot wall answers HTTP 200 with `success: false` (19 of 20). Every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint, cancel is idempotent and failed pages are refunded, but job starts take no idempotency key (17 of 20). Only `url` is required, with official Python and TypeScript SDKs (15). 20 + 20 + 19 + 17 + 15 = 91.

### Reliability: fastCRW +10

- Bright Data (40): No public status page found. status.brightdata.com doesn't resolve and the docs index and security overview link none (0). No readable incident history, so 5 by the rubric (5). The SERP API fair-use page gives 1,000 requests a minute for unfunded accounts with HTTP 429 above it and a header that reads the account's limit, paid Web Unlocker plans state unlimited concurrency, and the free tier is 5,000 requests a month (15). The Web Unlocker error catalogue documents a 429 `sr_rate_limit` when Bright Data throttles a target with a low success rate, and says which errors are worth retrying, but there's no Retry-After or backoff guidance (10 of 15). The pricing page names a Premium SLA for Enterprise and claims 99.99 per cent uptime, with no SLA terms published (0). GA (10). 0+5+15+10+0+10 = 40.
- fastCRW (50): Graded on the hosted lines, for the hosted API and MCP server an agent would call; the self-hosted engine would read higher on the local lines. fastcrw.com/status is a first-party page with a live health check and a 99.9% monthly uptime objective, but no components with history (10 of 20). It lists no incidents and keeps no history we could read (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 3 on Free to 150 on Scale, while the request-rate guard above it is deliberately unpublished (12 of 15). The rate-limits page documents Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers, gives exponential backoff code, and separates 429 (retry) from 402 (stop). No idempotency keys for crawl, extract or monitor starts (13 of 15). Pricing mentions an SLA only as 'Premier + SLA' on Enterprise, with no terms, and the terms promise no uptime (0). The hosted service is sold on paid plans with no beta label, though the engine is at 0.41.0 (10). 10 + 5 + 12 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 50.

### Maintenance & community: fastCRW +6

- Bright Data (87): MCP v4.3.0 on 2 November 2026 (30). Ten MCP releases since 6 August, 2.11.2 (11 September), 2.11.3 (15 September), 2.12.0 (8 October), 3.0.0 (11 October), 3.1.0 (15 October), 4.0.0 (18 October), 4.1.0 (20 October), 4.1.1 (29 October), 4.2.0 (1 November) and 4.3.0, and product release notes dated 19, 24 and 27 October (20). Issues not read (GitHub's pages refuse our reader); outside pull requests such as #200 were merged within a week, and the 1 October count of 13 open issues stands (12 of 25). io.github.brightdata/brightdata-mcp in the official registry under a GitHub-verified namespace, now at 4.3.0, the latest release (15). Tests run in CI on every push, and the release workflow runs the tests and `npm audit signatures` before publishing with provenance (10). 30+20+12+15+10 = 87.
- fastCRW (93): v0.41.0 on 4 November 2026, matching the registry and npm (30). 16 dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, from 0.37.0 to 0.41.0 (20). Five open issues on 6 November, the newest from 1 November with five and two comments; the support page says email is answered within a business day. Reply authors weren't read (18 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.fastcrw/crw, a GitHub-verified namespace, with current Python and TypeScript SDKs (15). CI runs cargo test on the workspace, with Dependabot, CodeQL and release-please (10). 30 + 20 + 18 + 15 + 10 = 93.

### Payments & pricing: Bright Data +5

- Bright Data (40): No x402, MPP or L402. Issue #126 asks for x402 and is open (0). Web Unlocker and SERP at $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests, $1.30 on Scale, published without a login (20). 5,000 requests a month, 'No credit card required' (20). A person has to sign up and create a key in the control panel (0).
- fastCRW (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plans are public with credit costs per operation and top-up prices per block of credits, $9 per 1,000 on Hobby down to $299 per 500,000 on Scale, but top-ups need a plan, so between plan-only and per-unit (15 of 20). 500 one-off credits with no card, plus up to 500 from onboarding tasks (20). Hosted keys need a person to sign up in a browser; the free self-hosted engine runs with no account but isn't the graded surface (0). 0 + 15 + 20 + 0 = 35.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Bright Data | fastCRW | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 50 | fastCRW +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 91 | fastCRW +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 91 | fastCRW +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 69 | 40 | Bright Data +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Bright Data +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 93 | fastCRW +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 60 | Bright Data +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.9 · C** | **64.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Bright Data | fastCRW |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bright Data | Nanofy OÜ |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.brightdata.com/request` | `https://fastcrw.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 32 | 11 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.brightdata/brightdata-mcp` | `io.github.fastcrw/crw` |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-16 | 2026-04-04 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-14 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 2.6k stars | 1.2k stars, 881 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Bright Data

- -3.1 on 4 November 2026: product, new evidence, negative event
- +0.2 on 27 October 2026: new evidence
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### fastCRW

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Bright Data.** Bright Data bills only successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP, and its MCP server now wraps scraped content as untrusted. There's no public status page or incident history, and MCP 4.2.0 and 4.3.0 changed tool inputs and outputs in minor releases without notice.

**fastCRW.** Agents get 11 compact, annotated MCP tools with bounded output, a public OpenAPI spec, refunds on failed pages and a free self-hosted engine. The hosted service has no status history, publishes no SLA terms, names its operator only on the support page, and documents an MCP address with the API key in the URL path.

## Before you call either

### Bright Data

1. Connect with OAuth or keep the `?token=` URL out of logs and shared configs
2. Set `groups=` or `tools=` on the MCP URL to load only the tools you need. With neither, all 32 load
3. Send `country` and `page` to the search tools from 4.3.0. `geo_location` and `cursor` now return `invalid_input`
4. Expect JSON with a `content` field from `scrape_as_markdown` since 4.2.0, and use the browser tools for pages that need JavaScript
5. Back off on a 429 `sr_rate_limit` or `rate_limited`. Bright Data throttles a target whose success rate drops

### fastCRW

1. Connect to https://fastcrw.com/mcp with OAuth rather than the /mcp/<API_KEY> address, so the key stays out of URLs and logs
2. Branch on `errorCode`. Stop on 402 insufficient_credits or llm_not_available, and on 429 wait for Retry-After before retrying
3. Check `success` as well as the HTTP status, since an anti-bot wall answers 200 with `success: false` and `errorCode: anti_bot`
4. Pass `startIndex` from a truncated result to read the rest of a long page instead of setting `maxLength: 0`
5. Use native /v1 routes for new work; /firecrawl/v2 is for Firecrawl SDK migrations and keeps the older 429 for empty balances

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Bright Data or fastCRW?

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Bright Data's 56.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bright Data leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do Bright Data and fastCRW need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Bright Data and fastCRW without installing anything?

Yes. Bright Data has a hosted endpoint at https://api.brightdata.com/request and fastCRW at https://fastcrw.com/mcp.

### Are Bright Data and fastCRW open source?

No open-source release is listed for Bright Data. fastCRW is open source (AGPL-3.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Bright Data or fastCRW

- [Bright Data vs BrowserAct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-browseract.md)
- [Bright Data vs Context.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-context-dev.md)
- [Bright Data vs Crawl4AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-crawl4ai.md)
- [Bright Data vs Decodo Web Data API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-decodo.md)
- [Bright Data vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-diffbot.md)
- [Bright Data vs jevcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-jevcrawl.md)
- [Bright Data vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Bright Data vs Microlink](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-microlink.md)
- [Bright Data vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-olostep.md)
- [Bright Data vs Outcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-outcrawl.md)
- [Bright Data vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapeops.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapewise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapewise.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Bright Data vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Bright Data vs WebScraping.AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-webscraping-ai.md)
- [Bright Data vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Bright Data vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-zyte.md)
- [BrowserAct vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browseract-vs-crw.md)
- [Context.dev vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-crw.md)
- [Crawl4AI vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-crw.md)
- [fastCRW vs Decodo Web Data API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-decodo.md)
- [fastCRW vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-diffbot.md)
- [fastCRW vs jevcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-jevcrawl.md)
- [fastCRW vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [fastCRW vs Microlink](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-microlink.md)
- [fastCRW vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-olostep.md)
- [fastCRW vs Outcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-outcrawl.md)
- [fastCRW vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapeops.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapewise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapewise.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [fastCRW vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [fastCRW vs WebScraping.AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-webscraping-ai.md)
- [fastCRW vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-zenrows.md)
- [fastCRW vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-zyte.md)
- [Bright Data vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Bright Data vs Qovia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-qovia.md)
- [fastCRW vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [fastCRW vs Qovia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-qovia.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [fastCRW vs SoldFetch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-soldfetch.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Bright Data](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-bright-data.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-crw.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp