Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

BrowserAct vs ScrapingAnt

BrowserAct scores 44.4 (E) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.8 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScrapingAnt 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 43
  • Security & auth, 41 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 61 against 5

Watch for

No status page, SLA, 429 guidance or idempotency keys

ScrapingAnt F

Best for A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 30 against 23
  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 49
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 25
  • Transparency & trust, 56 against 44

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs

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.

Maintenance & community BrowserAct +56

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.

ScrapingAnt 5

No changelog or dated API change found, and the newest SDK release is Python 2.1.0 on 2024-07-16 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). No public changelog. Support by email (3 of 15). The JavaScript client was last released 2022-05-06, the MCP server isn't in the official registry, and the only registry entry is a third-party wrapper (0). The Python client has a code-check workflow, but neither SDK has moved in over two years (2 of 10).

Schema & documentation BrowserAct +33

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.

ScrapingAnt 43

No OpenAPI or Swagger spec found. The MCP docs give a typed parameter table for the 3 tools (8 of 25). docs.scrapingant.com/llms.txt returns 404 and no Markdown twins were found (0). MCP descriptions are one line each, such as Fetch a URL and return raw HTML content, with no when-to-use guidance (8 of 20). Few parameters, typed, with proxy_type as an enum of datacenter or residential (10 of 15). Request examples on every docs page and an errors page with 8 status codes and their meanings (12 of 15). Versioned paths (v1 and v2) and no changelog (5 of 15).

Security & auth BrowserAct +31

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.

ScrapingAnt 10

One account API key with no scopes, and we found no documented rotation or revocation (10). API Basics tells you to send x-api-key as a query parameter, a documented option, so less 10 (0 of 30). The header form works and the SDKs use it. No read-only mode, and /v2/general can send POST, PUT and DELETE to target sites with no confirmation step (5 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found for the HTML, Markdown or text it returns (0 of 15). The Ant-credits-cost header and a subscription status endpoint show spend per call. No request log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20).

Agent ergonomics ScrapingAnt +17

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.

ScrapingAnt 66

3 compact MCP tools (25). Markdown and text endpoints, AI extraction, wait-for-selector and a JSON extended response, but no output-size limit on the MCP tools (12 of 20). 8 documented status codes, and 422 returns a detail field (14 of 20). Requests are reads of third-party pages and failures aren't billed, but there are no tool annotations or retry guidance beyond 423 (5 of 20). Only url is required, though browser defaults to true at 10 credits. Python and JavaScript clients exist but are stale (10 of 15).

Payments & pricing ScrapingAnt +15

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.

ScrapingAnt 40

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credit costs per request type (1 to 125) and plan prices are public (20). 10,000 free credits a month, no card (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).

Transparency & trust ScrapingAnt +12

BrowserAct 44

Closed service with published terms naming the operating company and governing law (15). The privacy policy of 15 May 2025 states retention by category and that crawled data is kept per plan and deletable by the user (15). No deprecation policy or notices found (0). No sub-processors or data locations named (3). 15 + 15 + 0 + 3 = 33.

ScrapingAnt 56

Closed service with terms naming DATAANT SP. Z O.O., registered in Poland (KRS 0000848755). The SDKs are Apache 2.0 (15 of 30). The privacy policy, last updated 3 November 2020, gives 12-month retention after an account closes, names processors and mentions DPAs with clients. It predates the MCP server and AI extractor, and doesn't say whether scraped content is stored (18 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Processors and locations named, Sendgrid in Ireland, Paddle in the UK, Google Analytics and Amazon hosting in the USA (15 of 20).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrowserActScrapingAntEdge
Reliability16%202330ScrapingAnt +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27643BrowserAct +33
Agent ergonomics13%16.24966ScrapingAnt +17
Security & auth14%17.54110BrowserAct +31
Payments & pricing10%12.52540ScrapingAnt +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8615BrowserAct +56
Transparency & trust7%8.84456ScrapingAnt +12
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 44.4/100F 35.8/100

Facts side by side

FactBrowserActScrapingAnt
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHongkong Ziniao Technology Co., LimitedScrapingAnt (DATAANT)
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.browseract.com/mcp/https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general
TransportsStreamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
Tools exposednone3
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-11-052024-07-16
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
Popularitynone90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/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.

ScrapingAnt

10,000 free credits a month with no card. API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs.

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

ScrapingAnt

  1. Send the key in the x-api-key header rather than the query string
  2. Use /v2/markdown for LLM input, and set browser=false on static pages to pay 1 credit instead of 10
  3. Switch to proxy_type=residential only after a 423 (anti-bot) response. It raises a browser request from 10 to 125 credits
  4. On the free plan a second concurrent request gets 409. Wait for the first to finish
  5. Google, Bing and Yandex result pages come back as raw HTML through /v2/general, so you parse them yourself

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, BrowserAct or ScrapingAnt?

BrowserAct scores 44.4 (E) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.8 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScrapingAnt leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Do BrowserAct and ScrapingAnt need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call BrowserAct and ScrapingAnt without installing anything?

Yes. BrowserAct has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.browseract.com/mcp/ and ScrapingAnt at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general.

Other comparisons with BrowserAct or ScrapingAnt

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