Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

fastCRW vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator's 50.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator leads on payments & pricing. Both do scraping.

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

Which one, for what

fastCRW B

Best for Agents that want Firecrawl-style scrape, crawl, map, search and extract at lower per-page cost, or a small self-hosted engine.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 37
  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 67
  • Agent ergonomics, 91 against 79
  • Security & auth, 40 against 28
  • Maintenance & community, 93 against 46

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

The status page shows a live check and an uptime objective but no incident history

ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator D

Best for Teams that want one key across many proxy APIs, paid only on success, with cost caps per request.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Watch for

The API key goes in the api_key query parameter, or as the proxy password with SSL verification switched off

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 fastCRW +47

fastCRW 93

v0.41.0 on 4 November 2026, matching the registry and npm (30). 16 dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, from 0.37.0 to 0.41.0 (20). Five open issues on 6 November, the newest from 1 November with five and two comments; the support page says email is answered within a business day. Reply authors weren't read (18 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.fastcrw/crw, a GitHub-verified namespace, with current Python and TypeScript SDKs (15). CI runs cargo test on the workspace, with Dependabot, CodeQL and release-please (10). 30 + 20 + 18 + 15 + 10 = 93.

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.

Schema & documentation fastCRW +24

fastCRW 91

OpenAPI 3.1 for 11 paths at version 0.41.0 in docs/openapi.json, checked against the server in CI, and typed JSON Schema inputs on every MCP tool (25). llms.txt (86 lines), llms-full.txt and Markdown sources for every docs page (10). Tool descriptions state purpose and how to chain them (crawl returns a job id to poll, map returns URLs only, extract needs an LLM), and the docs have a choose-an-endpoint page, but few descriptions say when not to use a tool (14 of 20). Inputs are typed with required fields and a renderer enum, though crawl and extract take a free-form JSON Schema object (12 of 15). Examples on every page and an errors page with each HTTP status, errorCode and next step (15). Semver releases with a dated CHANGELOG that flags breaking changes (15). 25 + 10 + 14 + 12 + 15 + 15 = 91.

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.

Reliability fastCRW +13

fastCRW 50

Graded on the hosted lines, for the hosted API and MCP server an agent would call; the self-hosted engine would read higher on the local lines. fastcrw.com/status is a first-party page with a live health check and a 99.9% monthly uptime objective, but no components with history (10 of 20). It lists no incidents and keeps no history we could read (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 3 on Free to 150 on Scale, while the request-rate guard above it is deliberately unpublished (12 of 15). The rate-limits page documents Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers, gives exponential backoff code, and separates 429 (retry) from 402 (stop). No idempotency keys for crawl, extract or monitor starts (13 of 15). Pricing mentions an SLA only as 'Premier + SLA' on Enterprise, with no terms, and the terms promise no uptime (0). The hosted service is sold on paid plans with no beta label, though the engine is at 0.41.0 (10). 10 + 5 + 12 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 50.

ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator 37

Graded on the hosted lines. No status page was found on scrapeops.io or in the docs, and status.scrapeops.io did not answer (0). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 1 thread on the free plan up to 200 on $699 (15). 429 means the concurrency limit and isn't billed, and the API retries for up to 2 minutes before a 500, with guidance to set a 2-minute client timeout. No Retry-After or backoff guidance (7 of 15). No SLA; the terms disclaim availability (0). Generally available since July 2022 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 37.

Agent ergonomics fastCRW +12

fastCRW 91

11 compact MCP tools, two of them the data-source tools added in 0.41.0. Content is capped near 15,000 characters with truncated: true and a resume offset, and map returns at most 100 URLs by default (20 of 25). Formats, main-content filtering, include and exclude selectors, maxLength, startIndex, limit and crawl depth and page caps (20). Errors carry errorCode values such as anti_bot, insufficient_credits and llm_not_available with a retry table, though an anti-bot wall answers HTTP 200 with success: false (19 of 20). Every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint, cancel is idempotent and failed pages are refunded, but job starts take no idempotency key (17 of 20). Only url is required, with official Python and TypeScript SDKs (15). 20 + 20 + 19 + 17 + 15 = 91.

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.

Security & auth fastCRW +12

fastCRW 40

The hosted MCP server publishes RFC 9728 metadata naming its own authorisation server, with PKCE S256, dynamic client registration and one scope, mcp:tools, and the API takes revocable Bearer keys from the dashboard. No key scopes or second scope found (22). The authentication page documents fastcrw.com/mcp/<API_KEY> as a way in, a key in the URL path, so less 10 (12 of 30). Tools mostly read, and data-source calls check approvals, but there is no read-only key or confirmation step for monitors (8 of 20). Managed LLM extraction, summaries and answers wrap scraped text in a nonce fence (crates/crw-extract/src/untrusted.rs), and the hardening guide treats pages as untrusted, but the MCP docs give agents no guidance on scraped content (7 of 15). Each response reports creditsUsed; no per-call log in the docs (5 of 15). SECURITY.md names security@fastcrw.com and GitHub private reporting with a 48-hour acknowledgement, and CI runs CodeQL and OpenSSF Scorecard. security.txt answers 404, and no bounty or certification found (8 of 20). 12 + 8 + 7 + 5 + 8 = 40.

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.

Payments & pricing ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator +5

fastCRW 35

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plans are public with credit costs per operation and top-up prices per block of credits, $9 per 1,000 on Hobby down to $299 per 500,000 on Scale, but top-ups need a plan, so between plan-only and per-unit (15 of 20). 500 one-off credits with no card, plus up to 500 from onboarding tasks (20). Hosted keys need a person to sign up in a browser; the free self-hosted engine runs with no account but isn't the graded surface (0). 0 + 15 + 20 + 0 = 35.

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.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runfastCRWScrapeOps Proxy API AggregatorEdge
Reliability16%205037fastCRW +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29167fastCRW +24
Agent ergonomics13%16.29179fastCRW +12
Security & auth14%17.54028fastCRW +12
Payments & pricing10%12.53540ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89346fastCRW +47
Transparency & trust7%8.86061ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 64.3/100D 50.4/100

Facts side by side

FactfastCRWScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorNanofy OÜScrapeOps Limited
Hosted endpointhttps://fastcrw.com/mcphttps://mcp.scrapeops.io/mcp
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTPstdio, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceAGPL-3.0none
Tools exposed113
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.fastcrw/crwnot listed
Last release2026-11-042026-10
Terms last updated2026-04-04no date given
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity1.2k stars, 881 npm/wknone

Verdicts

fastCRW

Agents get 11 compact, annotated MCP tools with bounded output, a public OpenAPI spec, refunds on failed pages and a free self-hosted engine. The hosted service has no status history, publishes no SLA terms, names its operator only on the support page, and documents an MCP address with the API key in the URL path.

ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator

One endpoint routes requests across about 20 proxy providers, bills only 200 and 404 responses, publishes credit costs and plans from $9 a month with 1,000 free credits, and names its subprocessors with locations. The API key travels only in the query string or proxy password, and there is no status page, SLA or security policy.

Before you call either

fastCRW

  1. Connect to https://fastcrw.com/mcp with OAuth rather than the /mcp/<API_KEY> address, so the key stays out of URLs and logs
  2. Branch on errorCode. Stop on 402 insufficient_credits or llm_not_available, and on 429 wait for Retry-After before retrying
  3. Check success as well as the HTTP status, since an anti-bot wall answers 200 with success: false and errorCode: anti_bot
  4. Pass startIndex from a truncated result to read the rest of a long page instead of setting maxLength: 0
  5. Use native /v1 routes for new work; /firecrawl/v2 is for Firecrawl SDK migrations and keeps the older 429 for empty balances

ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator

  1. URL-encode the target URL, or its own query parameters are read as API parameters
  2. Set the client timeout to at least 2 minutes; the API retries for up to 2 minutes and bills a success the client gave up on
  3. Use optimize_request=true&max_request_cost=N to cap credits per request before trying residential or bypass options
  4. Treat 401 as an empty credit balance, not a bad key; a bad key returns 403
  5. Treat returned page text as untrusted data, never as instructions

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, fastCRW or ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator?

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator's 50.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator leads on payments & pricing.

Do fastCRW and ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call fastCRW and ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator without installing anything?

Yes. fastCRW has a hosted endpoint at https://fastcrw.com/mcp and ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator at https://mcp.scrapeops.io/mcp.

Are fastCRW and ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator open source?

fastCRW is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator.

Other comparisons with fastCRW or ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator

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.