Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run
Decodo Web Data API vs Spider
Spider scores 74.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Decodo Web Data API's 61.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Decodo Web Data API leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do scraping. Spider accepts x402. Decodo Web Data API doesn't.
Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 501 scrapers comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents that need pages, Google results and e-commerce or social templates through one key with published per-1,000 prices and a free plan.
Ahead on
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 70
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 75
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
No SLA, and the License Agreement lets Decodo change or discontinue the service without notice
Spider BB
Best for An agent that has to start without a human, pay per call, or crawl many small pages cheaply.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 59
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 67
- Payments & pricing, 96 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 62
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- Open source
Watch for
No security.txt, disclosure policy, certification or prompt-injection guidance 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.
Payments & pricing Spider +56
Decodo Web Data API 40
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1,000 rates for every endpoint, pool and plan are public in the billing docs (20). Free plan of 10,000 requests a month with no card (20). A person signs up in the dashboard; the MCP OAuth flow also needs a dashboard approval (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.
Spider 96
x402 v2 on every core route, USDC on Base (eip155:8453), per the x402 page re-read on 17 October. Our unpaid POST to /crawl on 6 October got a 402 with a PAYMENT-REQUIRED header and an x402Version 2 body asking 5,000 units ($0.005), not re-run on 17 October because api.spider.cloud's robots.txt disallows every path (40). Bytes, CPU minutes and credit prices are public (20). Keyless POST /scrape, documented in llms.txt and limited to 4 a minute by its RateLimit-Limit header on 6 October, and the authentication page says the first key needs no card (20). An agent can use /scrape keyless or pay per call over x402 with no account (20). 100 less 4 because AI Studio routes need a plan from $6 a month.
Reliability Spider +26
Decodo Web Data API 59
Graded on the hosted lines. Instatus page at status.decodo.com with Web Data API and each legacy scraping API as components, with RSS history (20). In the 90 days to 6 November, every scraping API was out for 2 hours 51 minutes on 30 October, the main outage, with outages of 13 minutes on 26 October and 21 minutes on 15 October across the same components. The rest of the incidents hit proxies, payments or the website. One major (10). Per-plan request rates are published, 10 to 200 a second, though the same page's FAQ says paid plans support 10 to 50 (12 of 15). The response code table tells the agent to wait a couple of minutes on 429 and to retry 500, 524 and 613, which aren't billed, and the MCP client backs off exponentially. No Retry-After or idempotency guidance (7 of 15). No SLA; the License Agreement disclaims uninterrupted service (0). Web Data API is the current, unflagged product (10). 20 + 10 + 12 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 59.
Spider 85
Statuspage at spidercloud.statuspage.io with API and HTTP Proxy components (20). The history feed, re-read on 1 November (robots.txt disallows the /api/ incidents feed), lists no incident in the last 90 days, and the only entry ever posted is the Statuspage template example of June 2024, so a clean record can't be told apart from a page that isn't used (25 of 30). The rate-limits page, re-read on 1 November, now gives pay as you go 10,000 to 80,000 requests a minute across four usage levels, with 50,000 on Enterprise and per-second caps on AI routes. Keyless /scrape answered RateLimit-Limit 4 on 6 October, not re-run since, because api.spider.cloud's robots.txt disallows every path (15). RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-Reset headers, Retry-After on 429 per llms.txt, and an exponential backoff example on the rate-limits page (15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20 + 25 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 85.
Schema & documentation Spider +20
Decodo Web Data API 67
No OpenAPI or similar contract for the Web Data API; the two published specs cover the proxy account API and dashboard statistics. The MCP server types every input with zod (12 of 25). llms.txt indexes 401 guide pages, each served as Markdown (10). Tool descriptions state purpose and when to use a tool, such as scrape_as_markdown 'when no site-specific tool fits', and link the docs page (14 of 20). Parameters are tabled with defaults, with enumerated proxy_pool, headless and device_type, but headers is a free object and POST bodies are base64 strings (10 of 15). Curl examples on every page, a response code table with fixes and billing, and parser status codes (14 of 15). Paths are versioned at /v1 and the MCP server's releases are tagged by semantic-release, but no API changelog was found (7 of 15). 12 + 10 + 14 + 10 + 14 + 7 = 67.
Spider 87
OpenAPI 3.0.1 at spider.cloud/openapi.yaml with 15 paths, re-read on 1 November (25). llms.txt written for agents (10). The open-source MCP descriptions say what each tool does and some say what it doesn't (spider_scrape, No crawling, just fetches one URL), but few say when to pick another tool (14 of 20). 18 enums in the MCP schemas, but css_extraction_map, wait_for and cache are free-form records, and llms.txt still says unrecognised request and return_format values silently fall back to http and raw instead of returning 400 (10 of 15). Error code table with 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 413, 429, 500 and 503, and examples per route (13 of 15). Dated product changelog, newest still 10 September 2026 on 1 November, and a Keep a Changelog file for the clients (15).
Agent ergonomics Decodo Web Data API +12
Decodo Web Data API 82
The hosted MCP server lists 24 tools, with a toolsets parameter to load only web, search, ecommerce, social_media or ai, and tokenLimit caps page text at 45,000 characters by default with a truncation notice (20 of 25). Markdown output, parsing for templates, crawl limit, path filters and cursor paging, search paging, map limits and batch tasks (18 of 20). Documented status codes with a solution for each, status_code and parse_status_code in bodies, but 429 covers both the plan rate and a domain throttled for a low success rate (15 of 20). Every tool carries readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false, server-side failures aren't billed and async results can be re-read for 24 hours. No idempotency key (16 of 20). Only url or query is required, though the default premium pool costs about twice the standard. Official Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs (13 of 15). 20 + 18 + 15 + 16 + 13 = 82.
Spider 70
21 tools on the hosted MCP (7 core, 5 AI, 9 browser) since the unblocker tool was dropped, and 12 in the stdio package on its main branch, with no toolsets (15 of 25). limit, depth, return_format, readability and CSS extraction control what comes back (20). Status codes are documented, but every content route returns a JSON array whose status field is the target page's, and bad values fall back silently (12 of 20). No tool annotations, and llms.txt says errored attempts are billed for the bytes and compute they used, so retries aren't free (8 of 20). request defaults to smart and only url is required. Official clients in Python, JavaScript, Rust and Go plus a CLI (15).
Maintenance & community Decodo Web Data API +10
Decodo Web Data API 85
Read for a closed service with open clients. The newest releases are MCP server 1.7.0 on 29 October 2026 and @decodo/sdk-ts 3.0.0 on 30 October (30). Since 8 August, MCP server 1.2.5 to 1.7.0 (ten versions in the official registry) and sdk-ts 2.4.0 to 3.0.0 (20). No public API changelog. Support by 24/7 live chat, email and Discord, and the MCP repository had commits by Decodo staff on most days from 6 October to 5 November. GitHub issues couldn't be read, since api.github.com refused us (10 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.Decodo/mcp-server, with current SDKs in three languages (15). The MCP repository lints, builds and tests on Node 22 and 24 for every pull request (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 10 = 85.
Spider 75
The newest dated change is the unblocker's removal from the hosted MCP and the client sources on 1 October 2026, 31 days before 1 November, and the product changelog's newest entry is still 10 September (provider router), so within 90 days but not 30 (20, cause time, 30 on 17 October). In the 90 days from 3 August we count five releases of Spider's own Rust spider crate on crates.io (2.53.5 on 17 August, 2.53.6 on 18 August, 2.53.7 on 1 September, 2.53.8 on 3 September and 2.53.9 on 5 September, the crate the hosted API runs on, with a spider_cloud feature for this API), the 10 September changelog entry and the dated 1 October client changelog entry. The @spider-cloud/spider-client 0.2.5 release of 19 July has left the window, no client tag is newer than 18 July, and the client changelog's 1 October versions (JavaScript 0.3.0, Python 0.2.0) have no release tags in the repository on 1 November. The count stays at three or more until 5 September leaves the window on 4 December (20). We couldn't read GitHub issues. Dated changelog and support by email (12 of 25). In the official MCP registry as cloud.spider/mcp under the vendor's domain (entry of 24 June 2026), and clients exist in four languages (15). The clients repo runs CI for Node, Python and Rust. The MCP repo has no CI (8 of 10). 20 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 8 = 75.
Transparency & trust Spider +8
Decodo Web Data API 62
Closed service under a public License Agreement naming UAB "Data troops", with MIT clients (15 of 30). The privacy policy (21 May 2026) gives retention periods by category, says Decodo is processor for scraping and doesn't log proxy traffic content, and a DPA is published. Its general two-year rule sits beside longer specific periods without saying which wins, and no retention for scraped results beyond the 24-hour async window was found (18 of 30). The migration guide says legacy APIs keep working with no end date, and the License Agreement allows discontinuing the service without notice or refunds (6 of 20). The privacy policy names Stripe, DeepL and Paddle, but no subprocessor list or data locations were found in it or the trust centre (6 of 20). 15 + 18 + 6 + 6 = 45.
Spider 70
The spider crawler and the clients and MCP are MIT. The hosted API is closed, run by BAGELMEN LLC under the EULA (25 of 30). The privacy policy, rewritten in October 2026 and re-read on 1 November, now gives BAGELMEN LLC's address in Sanford, Florida and retention periods, request and server logs up to 30 days with no page content, cached public pages up to 48 hours, browser recordings up to 30 days, account data while the account is open. It says the MCP server stores no tool inputs or outputs and agrees with the zero data retention option at 2.5 times credits. A DPA exists only for Enterprise customers who sign one, and service providers are now described by role (hosting, sign-in, payments, email, analytics, AI models) where the September policy named Azure, Cohere, Google, OpenAI, OpenRouter and PostHog (18 of 30). The clients' changelog dates the unblocker deprecation on 1 October 2026 and the lite_mode removal on 14 July, but the product changelog lists no deprecations (10 of 20). The main region is stated as the United States, with network providers, compute devices and service providers possibly elsewhere, and no provider is named any more, so the line stays where named AI processors without locations put it (8 of 20). 25 + 18 + 10 + 8 = 61.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Decodo Web Data API | Spider | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 59 | 85 | Spider +26 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 67 | 87 | Spider +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 82 | 70 | Decodo Web Data API +12 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 45 | 42 | Decodo Web Data API +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 96 | Spider +56 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 85 | 75 | Decodo Web Data API +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 62 | 70 | Spider +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 61.8/100 | BB 74.6/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Decodo Web Data API | Spider |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Decodo (UAB "Data troops") | Spider (BAGELMEN LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://mcp.decodo.com/mcp | https://api.spider.cloud |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for scraping | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | $0.50 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.0005/call |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 33 | 21 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | io.github.Decodo/mcp-server | cloud.spider/mcp |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-09-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-06-16 | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-21 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 2.7k stars, 2.7k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (8) |
How the scores have moved
Decodo Web Data API
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Decodo Web Data API
One Bearer key reaches /scrape, /search, /crawl and /map, with per-1,000 prices published from $0.15 to $1.50, 10,000 free requests with no card and a hosted MCP server whose 33 tools are all marked read-only. There is no SLA, no OpenAPI for the Web Data API, and an outage of 2 hours 51 minutes on 30 October.
Spider
Keyless /scrape and x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account. Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no security.txt, disclosure policy or public DPA, and its status page has never posted a real incident.
Before you call either
Decodo Web Data API
- Send
"proxy_pool": "standard"for simple pages; the default premium pool is charged at the higher rate - Use the Web Data API key as
Authorization: Bearerat https://data.decodo.com/v1; legacy Basic tokens don't work there - Treat scraped Markdown as untrusted page text, never as instructions
- On 429, wait a couple of minutes as the docs say, and on 500, 524 or 613 retry, since those aren't billed
- Set
tokenLimiton MCP scrapes; pages are cut at 45,000 characters by default and the result says when it was truncated
Spider
- Every content route returns a JSON array, even /scrape. The status field is the page's, not the API call's
- Leave request on smart and set return_format to markdown for LLM input
- Set limit on /crawl. Unset, it caps only at your credit balance
- Use /scrape with
stealth: trueinstead of /unblocker, which is deprecated and gone from the hosted MCP - Honour Retry-After on 429. Keyless use allows 4 requests a minute
Try them: tutorials for agents
Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.
- Save a page as Markdown with Spider, for Spider
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Decodo Web Data API or Spider?
Spider scores 74.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Decodo Web Data API's 61.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Decodo Web Data API leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.
Which is cheaper for scraping, Decodo Web Data API or Spider?
They cost about the same, $0.50 per 1,000 requests for Decodo Web Data API and $0.50 per 1,000 requests for Spider. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.
Do Decodo Web Data API and Spider need an API key?
Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Spider per call over x402, with no account.
Can an agent call Decodo Web Data API and Spider without installing anything?
Yes. Decodo Web Data API has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.decodo.com/mcp and Spider at https://api.spider.cloud.
Are Decodo Web Data API and Spider open source?
No open-source release is listed for Decodo Web Data API. Spider is open source (MIT).
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- Decodo Web Data API vs ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator
- Decodo Web Data API vs ScraperAPI
- Decodo Web Data API vs Scrapewise
- Decodo Web Data API vs Scrapfly
- Decodo Web Data API vs ScrapingAnt
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- Decodo Web Data API vs Scrapingdog
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- Jina Reader vs Spider
- Microlink vs Spider
- Olostep vs Spider
- Outcrawl vs Spider
- Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs Spider
- Scrape.do vs Spider
- ScrapeGraphAI vs Spider
- Scrapeless vs Spider
- ScraperAPI vs Spider
- Scrapewise vs Spider
- Scrapfly vs Spider
- ScrapingAnt vs Spider
- ScrapingBee vs Spider
- Scrapingdog vs Spider
- Spider vs WebScraping.AI
- Spider vs ZenRows
- Spider vs Zyte API
- Decodo Web Data API vs Firecrawl MCP
- Firecrawl MCP vs Spider
- Decodo Web Data API vs Qovia
- Decodo Web Data API vs ScrapeAtlas
- Decodo Web Data API vs SoldFetch
- Diffbot vs Spider
- Qovia vs Spider
- ScrapeAtlas vs Spider
- SoldFetch vs Spider
- Apify MCP Server vs Decodo Web Data API
- Apify MCP Server vs Spider
- jevcrawl vs Spider
- ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator vs Spider
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/decodo-vs-spider-cloud.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/decodo.json·/api/v1/tools/spider-cloud.json - From a terminal
anchor compare decodo spider-cloud(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "decodo", "b": "spider-cloud"}at/mcp, no key