# fastCRW vs Scrapingdog

> fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) to Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingdog
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingdog.md (~5,300 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Scrapingdog leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do scraping.

- fastCRW: grade B, 64.3/100, rank #478 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crw.json
- Scrapingdog: grade E, 39.3/100, rank #1325 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingdog.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 501 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### fastCRW (B)

Good 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:
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 91 against 44
- Security & auth, 40 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 45

Also in its favour:
- Open source

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

### Scrapingdog (E)

Good for: A budget agent that wants parsed Google, Amazon or LinkedIn results and can keep the key out of logs.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 62 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Watch for: API key only travels in the URL query string


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: fastCRW +48

- 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.
- Scrapingdog (43): No OpenAPI spec found. The MCP builds typed zod inputs for 35 tools from a declarative registry, and ai_extract_rules is a JSON string (12 of 25). llms.txt per the 30 September check (10). MCP descriptions say what each endpoint does but not when to avoid it, and the web_scrape tool tells the model the API default for dynamic is false while the docs say rendering is on by default (10 of 20). Booleans, numbers and strings with few enums, plus the JSON-string field (9 of 15). Code examples on each docs page and 8 documented status codes (12 of 15). No changelog and no versioned API paths found (0).

### Maintenance & community: fastCRW +48

- 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.
- Scrapingdog (45): The SDKs and MCP server were first published on 31 July and 1 August 2026, 61 days ago. No API changelog or later release found (20). Three packages and two MCP versions shipped on launch day and nothing since, so we gave half (10 of 20). We couldn't read GitHub issues. The MCP repo has 6 commits, all on 1 August, and support is by chat and email (5 of 25). The MCP is in the official registry under the personal namespace io.github.Darshan972, though the vendor's SDK page links it as its own. SDKs are current (8 of 15). No CI, tests or tags in the MCP repo (2 of 10).

### Agent ergonomics: fastCRW +47

- 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.
- Scrapingdog (44): 35 MCP tools with no toolsets or subsets (5 of 25). markdown=true, ai_query and parsed JSON endpoints for Google, Amazon and LinkedIn keep responses smaller. No documented pagination or size limits on the raw scrape (12 of 20). 8 HTTP status codes with meanings, and the MCP passes the status and body back (12 of 20). Failed requests aren't billed, but no tool annotations or idempotency guidance (5 of 20). Only url is required, but rendering defaults on at 5 credits and the MCP describes it as off. Node and Python SDKs (10 of 15).

### Security & auth: fastCRW +35

- 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.
- Scrapingdog (5): One account key with no scopes, and we found no rotation or revocation docs (10). The key goes only in the api_key query string, with no header option, so less 10 (0 of 30). No read-only mode or least-privilege key. The API only reads third-party pages, so there are no destructive account actions (5 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance in the docs or the MCP README (0 of 15). No request log or per-call audit found (0 of 15). No security.txt per the 30 September check, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20).

### Reliability: Scrapingdog +12

- 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.
- Scrapingdog (62): UptimeRobot status page linked from the footer per the 30 September check. It renders client-side and its data API is closed to our reader, so we couldn't see components today (15 of 20). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 1 on Free up to 2,200 on the top plan (15). Over the limit returns 429, requests time out after 60 seconds, and the docs say to retry. Failures aren't billed. No Retry-After found (10 of 15). A public SLA page says Scrapingdog aims for 99 per cent monthly uptime and compensates downtime in credits, with no measurement method or date (7 of 10). Generally available (10).

### Payments & pricing: Scrapingdog +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.
- Scrapingdog (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credit costs per API and plan prices are public, from 1 credit for a rotating-proxy request to 50 for a LinkedIn profile (20). Free plan of 100 credits and 1 concurrent request, no card. The docs say 200 requests a month (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | fastCRW | Scrapingdog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 62 | Scrapingdog +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 91 | 43 | fastCRW +48 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 91 | 44 | fastCRW +47 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 5 | fastCRW +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Scrapingdog +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 45 | fastCRW +48 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 56 | fastCRW +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **64.3 · B** | **39.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | fastCRW | Scrapingdog |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nanofy OÜ | Scrapingdog (OpenData Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://fastcrw.com/mcp` | `https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 35 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.fastcrw/crw` | `io.github.Darshan972/scrapingdog-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-07-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-04 | 2026-01-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-07-17 |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.2k stars, 881 npm/wk | 0 stars, 41 npm/wk, 12 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### fastCRW

No score change since it was listed.

### Scrapingdog

- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.1 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## 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.

**Scrapingdog.** A plain request is 1 credit, about $0.20 per 1,000 on Lite. API key only travels in the URL query string.

## 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

### Scrapingdog

1. Add dynamic=false unless the page needs JavaScript. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1, whatever the MCP description says
2. Keep request URLs out of logs, since they carry api_key
3. Set client timeouts above 60 seconds and retry on 429 or timeout. Failures aren't billed
4. Prefer the parsed endpoints (Google, Amazon) over scraping the raw page when one exists

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, fastCRW or Scrapingdog?

fastCRW scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Scrapingdog leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do fastCRW and Scrapingdog need an API key?

fastCRW takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Scrapingdog needs an API key.

### Can an agent call fastCRW and Scrapingdog without installing anything?

Yes. fastCRW has a hosted endpoint at https://fastcrw.com/mcp and Scrapingdog at https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape.

### Are fastCRW and Scrapingdog open source?

fastCRW is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Scrapingdog.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingdog.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingdog.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "crw", "b": "scrapingdog"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare crw scrapingdog`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crw.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingdog.json

## Other comparisons with fastCRW or Scrapingdog

- [Apify MCP Server vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Bright Data vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-crw.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [BrowserAct vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browseract-vs-crw.md)
- [BrowserAct vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browseract-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Context.dev vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-crw.md)
- [Context.dev vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Crawl4AI vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-crw.md)
- [Crawl4AI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [fastCRW vs Decodo Web Data API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-decodo.md)
- [fastCRW vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-diffbot.md)
- [fastCRW vs jevcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-jevcrawl.md)
- [fastCRW vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [fastCRW vs Microlink](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-microlink.md)
- [fastCRW vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-olostep.md)
- [fastCRW vs Outcrawl](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-outcrawl.md)
- [fastCRW vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapeops.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapewise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapewise.md)
- [fastCRW vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [fastCRW vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [fastCRW vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [fastCRW vs WebScraping.AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-webscraping-ai.md)
- [fastCRW vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-zenrows.md)
- [fastCRW vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-zyte.md)
- [Decodo Web Data API vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decodo-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [jevcrawl vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jevcrawl-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Microlink vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microlink-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Olostep vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Outcrawl vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/outcrawl-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrape.do vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapewise vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapewise-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapfly vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapingBee vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs WebScraping.AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-webscraping-ai.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zyte.md)
- [fastCRW vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [fastCRW vs Qovia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-qovia.md)
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- [fastCRW vs SoldFetch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crw-vs-soldfetch.md)
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- [Scrapingdog vs SoldFetch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-soldfetch.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs fastCRW](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-crw.md)
- [ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeops-vs-scrapingdog.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp