# Bright Data vs Spider

> Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Bright Data's 60.1 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Bright Data doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Bright Data's 60.1 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Bright Data doesn't.

- 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
- Spider: grade BB, 74.3/100, rank #49 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/spider-cloud.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Bright Data for agent ergonomics (+12), security & auth (+15).

Pick Spider for reliability (+45), schema & documentation (+13), payments & pricing (+56), transparency & trust (+7).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Bright Data | Spider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 80 | Spider +45 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 87 | Spider +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 70 | Bright Data +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 42 | Bright Data +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 96 | Spider +56 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 85 | Spider +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 69 | Spider +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.1 · C** | **74.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Bright Data | Spider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bright Data | Spider (BAGELMEN LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.brightdata.com/request` | `https://api.spider.cloud` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.0005/call |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 69 | 22 |
| 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` | `cloud.spider/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-07-19 |
| Popularity | 2.6k stars | 2.7k stars, 2.7k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Spider.** Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account. Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy.

## 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

### Spider

1. Every content route returns a JSON array, even /scrape. The status field is the page's, not the API call's
2. Leave request on smart and set return_format to markdown for LLM input
3. Set limit on /crawl. Unset, it caps only at your credit balance
4. Use /scrape with `stealth: true` instead of /unblocker, which is deprecated
5. Honour Retry-After on 429. Keyless use allows 4 requests a minute

## Other comparisons with Bright Data or Spider

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