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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Diffbot vs Scrape.do

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against Scrape.do's 43.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 167 scrapers comparisons

DiffbotDiffbot Technologies Corp. · HTTP API C54.3/100#687 of 950 Scrape.doScrape.do · HTTP API E43.7/100#880 of 950

Which one, for what

Diffbot C

Good for Agents that want typed article, product or discussion data from arbitrary pages without writing selectors, and teams that also want the Knowledge Graph.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 40
  • Schema & documentation, 83 against 57
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 57 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 46

Watch for

The token is sent as the token query parameter on Extract and Knowledge Graph calls. It is the only scheme in the OpenAPI file

Scrape.do E

Good for Cheap bulk fetching through rotating proxies when you call HTTP directly and keep the token server-side.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Token travels in the query string on the main API

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDiffbotScrape.doEdge
Reliability16%205540Diffbot +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28357Diffbot +26
Agent ergonomics13%16.26362Diffbot +1
Security & auth14%17.52123Scrape.do +2
Payments & pricing10%12.54035Diffbot +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85745Diffbot +12
Transparency & trust7%8.86846Diffbot +22
Negative events≤1500
Total54.3 · C43.7 · E

Facts side by side

FactDiffbotScrape.do
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorDiffbot Technologies Corp.Scrape.do
Hosted endpointhttps://api.diffbot.com/v3https://api.scrape.do/
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Diffbot's Terms of Use. The Python client, the TypeScript client and the agent skills are MITnone
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-06-152026-07-31
Terms last updatedno date givenno date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-08-29no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity9 npm/wk, 45 PyPI/wk2 npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Diffbot

Extract returns typed JSON for articles, products, discussions and other page types with no selectors to write, under a public OpenAPI 3.1 contract and a free plan that needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string, tokens carry no scopes, and no security page, certification or security.txt was found.

Scrape.do

$29 for 250,000 basic credits, and 429s, 502s and most failures aren't billed. Token travels in the query string on the main API.

Before you call either

Diffbot

  1. Call GET https://api.diffbot.com/v3/analyze?url=<encoded URL>&token=<token> when the page type is unknown. Use /v3/article or /v3/product to force one schema
  2. Keep the token out of logs and shared URLs. It sits in the query string, so any proxy or log that records the request URL records the token
  3. Stay under 5 calls a minute on Free, 5 a second on Startup and 25 a second on Plus. On 429 wait at least one second and back off
  4. Check a 200 response for errorCode. The official client raises ExtractionError when a 200 reports a failed extraction
  5. Set useProxy=default only when a site blocks the fetch. A proxied page costs 2 credits against 1
  6. Install diffbot from PyPI, not diffbot-python, which stopped at 0.3.0

Scrape.do

  1. Start with the default data centre request (1 credit). Add super=true or render=true only after a block, since they cost 10 and 5
  2. Pass output=markdown to get LLM-ready text instead of raw HTML
  3. Read Scrape.do-Request-Cost from the response headers. Some domains cost 10 to 200 credits whatever you pass
  4. Treat a 429 as too many concurrent requests and wait for one to finish
  5. Keep URLs with token= out of logs and shared traces

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Diffbot or Scrape.do?

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against Scrape.do's 43.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Diffbot and Scrape.do need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Diffbot and Scrape.do without installing anything?

Yes. Diffbot has a hosted endpoint at https://api.diffbot.com/v3 and Scrape.do at https://api.scrape.do/.

Other comparisons with Diffbot or Scrape.do

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