Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

BrowserAct vs Scrape.do

BrowserAct and Scrape.do score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 44.4 (E) and 44 (E). Scrape.do leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do scraping.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 501 scrapers comparisons

Best browser automation tools for AI agents · All 283 browser comparisons

Which one, for what

BrowserAct E

Best for Teams that want no-code, prompt-built scrapers an agent can rerun on a schedule.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 76 against 57
  • Security & auth, 41 against 23
  • Maintenance & community, 61 against 45

Watch for

No status page, SLA, 429 guidance or idempotency keys

Scrape.do E

Best for Cheap bulk fetching through rotating proxies when you call HTTP directly and keep the token server-side.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 40 against 23
  • Agent ergonomics, 62 against 49
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 25
  • Transparency & trust, 49 against 44

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Token travels in the query string on the main API

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation BrowserAct +19

BrowserAct 76

An OpenAPI 3.0.3 document behind the API reference (25). llms.txt on both the site and the docs, with Markdown pages (10). Endpoint descriptions explain the run flow (find a bot, read its input_schema, then run) and when to use the lighter status endpoint (14). Inputs are typed, but a run's input is an object shaped by each bot's own schema (10). Examples per endpoint and named error codes such as 10879 and 10127; no full error table found (10). The path carries v3, but no changelog was found (7). 25 + 10 + 14 + 10 + 10 + 7 = 76.

Scrape.do 57

No OpenAPI file found (0 of 25). llms.txt at scrape.do/documentation/llms.txt with Markdown pages (10). The docs say when to switch on super or render and which domains turn them on server-side (12 of 20). Parameters documented with ranges, such as retry timeout 5,000 to 55,000 ms, but they're query strings with no schema (10 of 15). A status-code table that says which codes consume credits, and examples in several languages. The error body format isn't documented (13 of 15). Dated public changelog, no API versioning (12 of 15).

Security & auth BrowserAct +18

BrowserAct 41

One account-wide API key type, revocable and listed with last-used time, but without scopes or expiry (18). Confirmation Required mode holds purchases and asset creation or deletion for approval in the BrowserAct page (14). Scraped pages are untrusted, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3). Keys show last use and runs keep logs (6). No security page, disclosure policy, certification or bug bounty found (0). 18 + 14 + 3 + 6 + 0 = 41.

Scrape.do 23

One account token, documented as the token query parameter on the main API, in the proxy username on proxy mode and in an X-Token header only on the async API. We found no scopes or rotation for it. Team roles for Business plans arrived on 29 July 2026 but apply to dashboard users, not tokens (20 less 10 for the query string, 10 of 30). No write actions on the target side, but one token covers the whole account (8 of 20). Every response is third-party page content and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0 of 15). Usage-stats endpoint and per-response cost headers, no per-request log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, security page or disclosure policy found. Proxy mode needs Scrape.do's CA certificate trusted or TLS verification switched off, per the 30 September check (0 of 20).

Reliability Scrape.do +17

BrowserAct 23

Hosted reading. No status page found (0) and no readable incident history (5). The docs say there are no rate limits, and give concurrency by plan (2 free, up to 20 for paid API users) and a 7-hour task cap (8). No 429 or retry guidance, and no idempotency keys on task creation (0). No SLA (0). No beta label on the API or MCP server (10). 0 + 5 + 8 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 23.

Scrape.do 40

No public status page. status.scrape.do returned 403 to our fetch again today, as it did on 30 September, and the site doesn't link it (0). No readable incident history, so 5 by the rubric (5). Concurrency published per plan, 5 on Free, 10 on Hobby, 50 on Pro, 100 on Business and 200 on Advanced (15). A 429 means the concurrency limit was hit and isn't billed, a 502 says to try again, and the service retries failed requests itself unless disableRetry=true, but there's no Retry-After or backoff guidance (10 of 15). No SLA on the pricing page, which claims a 99.98 per cent success rate instead (0). GA (10).

Maintenance & community BrowserAct +16

BrowserAct 61

browser-act-cli 1.6.2 on 5 November 2026, read from PyPI's release feed (30). Six CLI releases from 15 October to 5 November (20). A closed service with a support address, but no public changelog or issue tracker found (8). No official SDKs and no entry in the official MCP registry (0). The CLI package carries no licence or repository in its metadata (3). 30 + 20 + 8 + 0 + 3 = 61.

Scrape.do 45

Last changelog entry on 31 July 2026, a Gemini scraper API (20). Two dated entries since 3 July, 29 and 31 July, against the three the rubric asks for (10 of 20). Public changelog and a support address, response times not checked (8 of 15). The only official SDK, @scrape-do/client, hasn't shipped since 13 November 2024 (5 of 15). No public repository or CI to check (2 of 10).

Agent ergonomics Scrape.do +13

BrowserAct 49

Graded on the API, since the MCP tool list isn't published. Task results come back whole, with no field selection found (10). Lists of bots, templates and tasks are paginated (15). Errors carry numeric codes with documented meanings for a few cases (12). No idempotency key on task creation; webhooks and a status endpoint avoid polling loops (5). No official SDK in two languages; the CLI is Python (7). 10 + 15 + 12 + 5 + 7 = 49.

Scrape.do 62

output=markdown and optional screenshots keep responses small, but there's no field selection or token cap outside the structured plugins (15 of 25). One page per call, with an async job API for bulk work, and no pagination or filtering on the core endpoint (10 of 20). Status codes documented with billing behaviour (15 of 20). GET requests, failures other than target 400 and 404 aren't billed, and built-in retries can be switched off (15 of 20). Two required parameters, but the only official SDK is the Node client last released on 13 November 2024 (7 of 15).

Payments & pricing Scrape.do +10

BrowserAct 25

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and credit costs per bot build, run and workflow step are public, but there is no direct per-call price (15). A free plan with 200 credits; whether it needs a card isn't stated (10). A person signs up and creates the key in the dashboard (0). 0 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 25.

Scrape.do 35

No x402, MPP or L402. The pricing page lists card, crypto and bank wire (0). Credit costs per request type and per domain are public, but credits come only with monthly plans, with no pay-as-you-go (15 of 20). Free plan, 1,000 successful requests a month with every feature, no card (20). A person signs up in a browser to get a token (0).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrowserActScrape.doEdge
Reliability16%202340Scrape.do +17
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27657BrowserAct +19
Agent ergonomics13%16.24962Scrape.do +13
Security & auth14%17.54123BrowserAct +18
Payments & pricing10%12.52535Scrape.do +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86145BrowserAct +16
Transparency & trust7%8.84449Scrape.do +5
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 44.4/100E 44/100

Facts side by side

FactBrowserActScrape.do
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHongkong Ziniao Technology Co., LimitedScrape.do
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.browseract.com/mcp/https://api.scrape.do/
TransportsStreamable HTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-11-052026-07-31
Terms last updated2025-05-15no date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-05-15no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone2 npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (2)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

BrowserAct

Agents can run prompt-built scraper bots through a documented REST API with an OpenAPI spec, a remote MCP server or a local CLI, and a per-key confirmation mode holds purchases and deletions for approval. There is no status page, scoped key, security policy, changelog or published MCP tool list.

Scrape.do

$29 for 250,000 basic credits, and 429s, 502s and most failures aren't billed. Token travels in the query string on the main API.

Before you call either

BrowserAct

  1. Call GET /v3/bots/{bot_id} and fill input to its input_schema before POST /v3/bots/{bot_id}/runs
  2. Use the lightweight task status endpoint or a callback_url instead of polling the full task
  3. Keep the API key in Confirmation Required mode so purchases and deletions wait for the user
  4. Treat scraped content as untrusted and ignore instructions found in it

Scrape.do

  1. Start with the default data centre request (1 credit). Add super=true or render=true only after a block, since they cost 10 and 5
  2. Pass output=markdown to get LLM-ready text instead of raw HTML
  3. Read Scrape.do-Request-Cost from the response headers. Some domains cost 10 to 200 credits whatever you pass
  4. Treat a 429 as too many concurrent requests and wait for one to finish
  5. Keep URLs with token= out of logs and shared traces

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, BrowserAct or Scrape.do?

BrowserAct and Scrape.do score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 44.4 (E) and 44 (E). Scrape.do leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Do BrowserAct and Scrape.do need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call BrowserAct and Scrape.do without installing anything?

Yes. BrowserAct has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.browseract.com/mcp/ and Scrape.do at https://api.scrape.do/.

Other comparisons with BrowserAct or Scrape.do

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.