Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run
fastCRW vs Scrapewise
fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapewise's 60 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Scrapewise leads on security & auth and 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 45
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 79
- Agent ergonomics, 91 against 72
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 79
- Transparency & trust, 60 against 54
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source
Watch for
The status page shows a live check and an uptime objective but no incident history
Best for Agents that need e-commerce prices, Amazon and Google data, or recurring price monitoring with cleaning and product matching, paid per page in euros.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 56 against 40
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
Watch for
No status page, SLA, security.txt, disclosure policy or certification found
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.
Agent ergonomics fastCRW +19
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.
Scrapewise 72
Since 22 October 2026 a Full (LLM_FULL) key lists every tool, 113 in the tool catalogue and 114 operations in the MCP subset of the spec, and the ?toolsets= address that kept the setup tools out of the default list is no longer documented, so more than 30 tools (5). A Read (LLM_READ) key lists only the read tools, a read-only subset of 48 (5 added back). Cursor pagination with limit up to 1,000, q, sort, from and to filters, and job results in pages of 100 (20). Error codes an agent can branch on, such as WALLET_INSUFFICIENT_BALANCE, scope_rejected, cost_exceeded, SCRAPER_RUN_ACTIVE and MCP_SHOP_LIMIT, with a troubleshooting table, though two envelope shapes are documented (16 of 20). Idempotency keys on paid tools and REST create and run, a same-name retry rule for list runs, and preview tokens before deletes. Annotations are documented but only some appear in the spec, and tools/list was not read (16 of 20). Few required fields and a free quote_only check, but only a Python SDK (10 of 15). 10 + 20 + 16 + 16 + 10 = 72.
Security & auth Scrapewise +16
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.
Scrapewise 56
Scoped keys (USER for REST, LLM_READ and LLM_FULL for MCP) stored as hashes, revocable at once, several per account with last-used time, rotated by mint and revoke. No expiry and no finer scopes (26 of 30). LLM_READ cannot run paid tools or write, and deletes need a preview token committed within 5 minutes. Since 22 October the setup and destructive tools are no longer opt-in for a Full key, and LLM_FULL has no per-tool consent (16 of 20). A documented prompt-injection contract and guidance, but it rests on a type: "scraped" content block that the MCP specification of 25 November 2025 does not define, and the docs' statement that Anthropic's clients honour it by default was not confirmed (8 of 15). Every call is logged with a correlation id and key prefix and the wallet ledger itemises charges, but the operator sees logs only through support (6 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found, security.txt still 404 on 2 November (0 of 20).
Maintenance & community fastCRW +14
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.
Scrapewise 79
Read as a closed service. Changelog items dated 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23 October 2026 (30). At least three dated changes in 90 days, the September entry and the October items among them (20). A public changelog, a support address and site chat. Two outside issues on the MCP repository from 11 and 15 October had no reply per the 15 October check; GitHub's issue pages couldn't be read on 2 November (8 of 15). Verified namespace in the official MCP registry, version 0.1.1 still the latest on 2 November (15). The Python SDK has CI and trusted publishing at version 0.1.0, Beta, with no commit since 7 October (6 of 10). 30 + 20 + 8 + 15 + 6 = 79.
Schema & documentation fastCRW +12
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.
Scrapewise 79
Public OpenAPI 3.1 for the whole REST surface (247 operations on 2 November, 224 on 15 October) and an MCP subset (114 operations, 93 on 15 October), and MCP tools are generated from it with JSON Schema inputs (25). llms.txt, agents.md and pricing.md on scrapewise.ai, though docs.scrapewise.ai has no llms.txt (10). The data tools' descriptions say when to use each, what it returns, its price and that it is free or paid. Setup tools carry one-line descriptions (16 of 20). Required fields are marked and there are 55 enums in the MCP subset, but limits such as 1 to 20 results sit in prose, not as constraints, and paid tools wrap arguments in a body object (10 of 15). Request examples throughout, error codes listed with fixes, but the docs show two error envelope shapes and the MCP subset documents only 200, 204, 400 and 402 (10 of 15). A changelog with six entries, the newest items dated by day up to 23 October 2026, one evolving spec with no version prefix, and a one-release deprecation rule (8 of 15).
Transparency & trust fastCRW +6
fastCRW 60
The engine and MCP server are AGPL-3.0 and the SDKs MIT, while the hosted control plane is closed under terms that name no legal entity (25 of 30). The terms say crawled data is handled transiently with zero data retention for approved accounts, but the privacy policy is undated, names no controller, gives no retention periods and mentions no DPA (10 of 30). The CHANGELOG flags breaking changes, deprecated v2 extract routes return a warning on every response, and the October 2026 402 change is dated in the docs, with no standing notice policy (10 of 20). Local data-source telemetry is disclosed with an opt-out. The privacy policy names Stripe, Google Analytics, Google Ads and an X pixel, but infrastructure and search providers are unnamed and no data location is given (8 of 20). 25 + 10 + 10 + 8 = 53.
Scrapewise 54
Closed service with terms under Estonian law, but the terms name no legal entity and claim ownership of all collected and derived data. The MCP manifest and Python SDK are MIT (15 of 30). The 90-day retention agrees across the terms, pricing.md and billing docs. The privacy policy still speaks of subscriptions and plan limits, calls service data confidential while the terms claim ownership of it, and no DPA or retention period for logs was found (10 of 30). The API reference states a one-release deprecation rule and the changelog records changed columns with old rows left as they were (8 of 20). Analytics tools on the website named, chat stored on Hetzner in Germany, Stripe and Firebase named in the docs, but no subprocessor list or data locations for the service (5 of 20).
Reliability fastCRW +5
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.
Scrapewise 45
Read with the hosted lines. No status page found on scrapewise.ai, the docs, llms.txt or agents.md on 2 November 2026 (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits documented with numbers, per account per second and per day by plan (30 a second and 50,000 a day on STARTER up to 1,000 and 100,000,000 on BUSINESS, 2 a second unauthenticated), and 30 requests a second per key on the MCP gateway, plus an hourly cost ceiling there (15). 429 carries Retry-After and X-RateLimit-Remaining, Idempotency-Key is supported on scraper create and run, and paid MCP tools take an idempotency_key remembered for 24 hours (15). No SLA found (0). The API and MCP server are not marked beta, though AI control is in a test phase (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 45.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | fastCRW | Scrapewise | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 45 | fastCRW +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 91 | 79 | fastCRW +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 91 | 72 | fastCRW +19 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 40 | 56 | Scrapewise +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 40 | Scrapewise +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 93 | 79 | fastCRW +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 60 | 54 | fastCRW +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | B 64.3/100 | C 60/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | fastCRW | Scrapewise |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nanofy OÜ | BEBOTECH OÜ |
| Hosted endpoint | https://fastcrw.com/mcp | https://mcp.scrapewise.ai/mcp |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 113 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | io.github.fastcrw/crw | ai.scrapewise/scrapewise |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-04 | 2025-10-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-10-29 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.2k stars, 881 npm/wk | 1 stars, 30 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
fastCRW
No score change since it was listed.
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.
Scrapewise
Paid MCP tools each take a free quote_only price check and idempotency keys, keys are read-only or full-access, and euro prices start at €0.15 per 1,000 plain pages. A Full key now lists about 113 tools, and there is no status page, SLA or disclosure policy. The terms claim ownership of all scraped data.
Before you call either
fastCRW
- Connect to https://fastcrw.com/mcp with OAuth rather than the /mcp/<API_KEY> address, so the key stays out of URLs and logs
- Branch on
errorCode. Stop on 402 insufficient_credits or llm_not_available, and on 429 wait for Retry-After before retrying - Check
successas well as the HTTP status, since an anti-bot wall answers 200 withsuccess: falseanderrorCode: anti_bot - Pass
startIndexfrom a truncated result to read the rest of a long page instead of settingmaxLength: 0 - Use native /v1 routes for new work; /firecrawl/v2 is for Firecrawl SDK migrations and keeps the older 429 for empty balances
Scrapewise
- Call each paid tool with
quote_only: truefirst, then repeat with the sameidempotency_keyso a retry is charged once - Expect about 113 tools from a Full key; use a Read key, which lists 48 read tools, when the task only reads saved rows or job results
- Use an LLM_READ key unless the task needs paid tools or writes, since LLM_FULL has no per-tool consent
- Treat 402 WALLET_INSUFFICIENT_BALANCE as final and ask the user to top up; on 429 wait for Retry-After, on 429 cost_exceeded wait for the next hour, and stop a run before deleting its scraper (409 SCRAPER_RUN_ACTIVE)
- Scrape many addresses with one
scrapewise_run_scraper_url_listcall (up to 5,000) and retry with the same name, never one scraper per address
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, fastCRW or Scrapewise?
fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapewise's 60 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Scrapewise leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.
Do fastCRW and Scrapewise need an API key?
fastCRW takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Scrapewise needs an API key.
Can an agent call fastCRW and Scrapewise without installing anything?
Yes. fastCRW has a hosted endpoint at https://fastcrw.com/mcp and Scrapewise at https://mcp.scrapewise.ai/mcp.
Are fastCRW and Scrapewise open source?
fastCRW is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Scrapewise.
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- Scrapewise vs Scrapingdog
- Scrapewise vs Spider
- Scrapewise vs WebScraping.AI
- Scrapewise vs ZenRows
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- fastCRW vs Firecrawl MCP
- Firecrawl MCP vs Scrapewise
- fastCRW vs Qovia
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- fastCRW vs SoldFetch
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- Apify MCP Server vs fastCRW
- Apify MCP Server vs Scrapewise
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- ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator vs Scrapewise
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/crw-vs-scrapewise.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/crw.json·/api/v1/tools/scrapewise.json - From a terminal
anchor compare crw scrapewise(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "crw", "b": "scrapewise"}at/mcp, no key