# Crawl4AI vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator (slim)

> ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator scores 50.4 (D) to Crawl4AI's 43.9 (E) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-scrapeops.md (~5,700 tokens) · this version ~2,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-scrapeops.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-scrapeops
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator scores 50.4 (D) on agent readiness against Crawl4AI's 43.9 (E), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Crawl4AI leads on security & auth, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do scraping.

- Crawl4AI: E 43.9, rank #1224 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crawl4ai.min.md
- ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator: D 50.4, rank #1057 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeops.min.md
- Crawl4AI, good for Agents that need cheap page-to-Markdown at volume, Google results and search in one key, or a free self-hosted Python crawler. Ahead on Security & auth, 46 against 28; Payments & pricing, 45 against 40; Maintenance & community, 83 against 46; Transparency & trust, 70 against 61. Also Open source.
- ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator, good for Teams that want one key across many proxy APIs, paid only on success, with cost caps per request. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 67 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 67. Also Runs on your own machine; No incidents deducted, where Crawl4AI loses 10 points for them.

| Category | Crawl4AI | ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 35 | 37 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 55 | 67 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 67 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 46 | 28 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 45 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 83 | 46 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Crawl4AI | ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | CONTEXT4AI PTE LTD | ScrapeOps Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.crawl4ai.com/mcp` | `https://mcp.scrapeops.io/mcp` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Price for scraping | $0.50 per 1,000 pages | not published |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 16 | 3 |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-15 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-15 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 87k stars, 368k PyPI/wk | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Crawl4AI +37: Crawl4AI 83 (Library v0.9.5 on 14 October 2026, 23 days before 6 November, and the cloud added /serp on 8 October (30). v0.9.3 (31 August), v0.9.4 (23 September) and v0.9.5 (14 October) in the 90 days from 8 August (20). 56 open issues on 6 November, the newest triaged with Bug, Needs Triage, In-progress, Root caused or Done labels within days, plus a Discord. Reply authors weren't read (20 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry, and the cloud has no official SDK; the Python library is current on PyPI (8 of 15). The security workflow runs a test suite and a default-posture gate, and releases are built and checked with twine. No general test workflow on push found (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 20 + 8 + 5 = 83.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 46 (Read for a closed service. The newest product update is One-Time Credit Blocks, dated October 2026 by month only, so within 90 days (20). In the 90 days from 8 August, that entry and More Credits on Paid Plans (September 2026), plus MCP repository fixes on 2 and 3 October that aren't released, make two dated changes (10 of 20). Public changelog by product and support by email. GitHub issues weren't read (8 of 25). The MCP server's server.json names io.github.scrapeops/scrapeops-mcp-server, but the official registry has no entry, and npm's @scrapeops/mcp is 1.0.1 of 1 January 2026 while the repository says 1.1.0 (5 of 15). The MCP repository has tests but no CI workflow (3 of 10). 20 + 10 + 8 + 5 + 3 = 46.)
- Security & auth, Crawl4AI +18: Crawl4AI 46 (Bearer keys, shown once and regenerable, with 3 to 30 keys per plan. claude.ai and ChatGPT sign in through a flow that advertises one scope, `mcp`, and each app shows as a revocable key. No per-key scopes, and the docs don't offer the key in a URL (22 of 30). A key can call billing routes, and the MCP `topup` and `recharge` tools charge the saved card, though llms.txt tells agents to ask first and accounts can set a spend cap. No read-only key (6 of 20). Scraped pages are untrusted text and no prompt-injection guidance was found in llms.txt or the API docs (0). Per-call cost, balance and fetch path in response headers and fields, no access log documented (6 of 15). The security page (4 October 2026) gives a disclosure process with fix targets and says SOC 2 is in progress, and the library publishes GitHub advisories with reporter credits. security.txt redirects to a 404, and no bounty found (12 of 20). 22 + 6 + 0 + 6 + 12 = 46.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 28 (One account API key with no scopes or documented rotation, sent as the `api_key` query parameter, the only option documented for the endpoint, or as the proxy password with SSL verification off. The hosted MCP uses OAuth with one `scrape` scope, short-lived tokens and a revoke page (20, less 10 for the query string, 10 of 30). Scraping only reads, the tools are annotated read-only and `max_request_cost` caps spend, but POST requests go to targets and there's no read-only key (8 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance for returned pages was found (0 of 15). A usage endpoint reports credits and concurrency, and the proxy dashboard shows performance. No per-call audit log for customers (7 of 15). security.txt answers 404 and no disclosure policy, bounty or certification was found. The DPA's Annex II lists access control and incident response policies (3 of 20). 10 + 8 + 0 + 7 + 3 = 28.)
- Schema & documentation, ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator +12: Crawl4AI 55 (No OpenAPI or similar contract for the cloud API, and the MCP tool schemas are only in the live tools/list, which needs a key. /v1/prices is machine-readable but covers prices, not calls (0). llms.txt of 304 lines written for agents (10). Each endpoint says what it is for and when to choose another, such as trying without a proxy first, using `browser` only when `auto` misses content and /scrape/jobs for slow lists (16 of 20). Parameters are listed with types, defaults, allowed values (`format` both, md or html; `proxy` none, isp or residential) and limits, in prose (10 of 15). Curl examples per endpoint and documented error strings per status with whether each is charged (14 of 15). No changelog for the cloud API, only dated notes such as /serp 'added 8 Oct 2026'. The library has a dated CHANGELOG (5 of 15). 0 + 10 + 16 + 10 + 14 + 5 = 55.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 67 (No OpenAPI or similar spec. The MCP server's three tools have typed inputs in its source (10 of 25). llms.txt and llms-full.txt index the docs for models (10). Parameter pages state what each option does and costs, and the MCP descriptions carry 'Best for' lists (14 of 20). Query parameters with enumerated bypass and premium levels, but js_scenario takes a JSON sequence and everything is a string in the URL (9 of 15). Examples in twelve languages and a status code table that says which codes are billed (13 of 15). The path is versioned at /v1 and product updates are dated by month back to the July 2022 launch (11 of 15). 10 + 10 + 14 + 9 + 13 + 11 = 67.)
- Agent ergonomics, ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator +12: Crawl4AI 67 (16 MCP tools, six of them for billing and support (15 of 25). `format` md or html, `parse` opt-in blocks, batch limits and job results paged 500 at a time over HTTP and 50 over MCP (16 of 20). String error codes an agent can branch on (blocked, login-wall, no-answer, busy, no_credit, plan_cap, spend_cap), each with whether it is charged (18 of 20). Failed and cancelled calls aren't charged and `jobs_submit` takes an idempotency key, but no tool annotations are documented and two tools can charge the saved card (10 of 20). Only `url` or `q` is required. There is no official SDK for the cloud API; the docs give curl and standard-library Python and Node examples (8 of 15). 15 + 16 + 18 + 10 + 8 = 67.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 79 (Three MCP tools (25). Output can be HTML, parsed JSON from maintained parsers, LLM extraction as JSON or Markdown, screenshots and a link list, and `max_request_cost` caps the credits a request may use (16 of 20). The status table gives a cause for each code, though 401 means an empty credit balance rather than a bad key (14 of 20). Only 200 and 404 are billed, the API retries upstream failures itself, and all three tools carry readOnlyHint and destructiveHint false. No idempotency key (16 of 20). Only the key and url are required. Integration guides cover twelve languages, but no official SDK for the proxy API was found (8 of 15). 25 + 16 + 14 + 16 + 8 = 79.)
- Transparency & trust, Crawl4AI +9: Crawl4AI 70 (The library is Apache-2.0 and the cloud is closed under terms that name CONTEXT4AI PTE LTD (22 of 30). The privacy policy gives retention periods (account plus 90 days, usage records 13 months, logs 90 days), but none for crawled content, and llms.txt says repeated URLs are served from a shared archive while the security page says fetched pages are used only to answer the request (18 of 30). The legacy cloud API closed on 6 November 2026 with a migration guide but no dated notice found, and the terms promise notice of material changes only 'where reasonable' (8 of 20). Subprocessors named with their locations on the security page, with EU storage of account records (18 of 20). 22 + 18 + 8 + 18 = 66.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 61 (Closed service under terms naming ScrapeOps Limited of Ireland, with an MIT MCP server (15 of 30). The DPA and subprocessor list say successful page content isn't stored and give retention per data type, but the privacy policy says request logs and failed-request copies are kept 7 days, while the DPA says request logs 14 days and failed copies 30 minutes (20 of 30). No deprecation policy. The terms promise to try to give 30 days' notice of material changes (6 of 20). Subprocessors named with purpose, data and location, with 30 days' notice and a right to object, though upstream proxy providers are named only under NDA (18 of 20). 15 + 20 + 6 + 18 = 59.)
- Payments & pricing, Crawl4AI +5: Crawl4AI 45 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-endpoint credit costs, effort multipliers and plan rates are public at /v1/prices without a login, with 1 credit = $0.001 (20). 1,000 free credits a month, no card (20). A 7-day pass key comes from a click on api.crawl4ai.com without an account, which is still a person in a browser, and a permanent key needs email verification (5 of 20). 0 + 20 + 20 + 5 = 45.); ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credit costs per option and all twelve plan prices are public (20). Free plan of 1,000 credits a month with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser, with SMS verification for sign-ups flagged as higher risk per the subprocessor list (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.)