# Bright Data vs Scrapfly

> Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Bright Data's 60.1 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 21 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapfly
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapfly.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapfly.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapfly.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

Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Bright Data's 60.1 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 21 points.

- Bright Data: grade C, 60.1/100, rank #254 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bright-data.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bright-data.json
- Scrapfly: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #107 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Bright Data for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Scrapfly for reliability (+15), schema & documentation (+21), security & auth (+13), transparency & trust (+15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Bright Data | Scrapfly | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 50 | Scrapfly +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 95 | Scrapfly +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 80 | Bright Data +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 70 | Scrapfly +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 84 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 77 | Scrapfly +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.1 · C** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Bright Data | Scrapfly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bright Data | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.brightdata.com/request` | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 69 | 61 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.brightdata/brightdata-mcp` | `io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-08 |
| Popularity | 2.6k stars | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Bright Data.** Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP. No public status page or incident history.

**Scrapfly.** The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.

## Before you call either

### Bright Data

1. Connect with OAuth or keep the `?token=` URL out of logs and shared configs
2. Add `groups=` or `tools=` to the MCP URL only for the extractors you need. The full set is 69 tools
3. Retry `reject_block` errors, since each attempt uses a different peer. Certificate and DNS errors fail the same way twice
4. Back off on a 429 `sr_rate_limit`. Bright Data throttles a target whose success rate drops
5. Use the batch tools for up to 10 searches or scrapes in one call

### Scrapfly

1. Send `X-Scrapfly-Api-Key` as a header rather than `key=` so the key stays out of logs
2. Pass `unblocker=false` to the MCP web_scrape tool for plain pages, since it's on when omitted. `asp` is the deprecated alias
3. Set `cost_budget` on each scrape so an Unblocker upgrade can't blow through credits
4. Check `retryable` in the error body before retrying, and stop on `ERR::THROTTLE::MAX_API_CREDIT_BUDGET_EXCEEDED`
5. Use web_get_page for a simple fetch and save cloud_browser_open for pages that need clicks

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