# Diffbot vs ScrapingAnt

> Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) to ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F) for extraction. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingant
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingant.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingant.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingant.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do extraction.

- Diffbot: grade C, 54.3/100, rank #687 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/diffbot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/diffbot.json
- ScrapingAnt: grade F, 35.5/100, rank #934 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingant.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingant.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## 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 30
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 43
- Security & auth, 21 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 57 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 53

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

### ScrapingAnt (F)

Good for: A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

Watch for: API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Diffbot | ScrapingAnt | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 30 | Diffbot +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 43 | Diffbot +40 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 66 | ScrapingAnt +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 21 | 10 | Diffbot +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 5 | Diffbot +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 53 | Diffbot +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.3 · C** | **35.5 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Diffbot | ScrapingAnt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Diffbot Technologies Corp. | ScrapingAnt (DATAANT) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.diffbot.com/v3` | `https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for extraction | $0.90 per 1,000 pages | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Diffbot's Terms of Use. The Python client, the TypeScript client and the agent skills are MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-06-15 | 2024-07-16 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-29 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 9 npm/wk, 45 PyPI/wk | 90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (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.

**ScrapingAnt.** 10,000 free credits a month with no card. API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs.

## 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

### ScrapingAnt

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header rather than the query string
2. Use `/v2/markdown` for LLM input, and set `browser=false` on static pages to pay 1 credit instead of 10
3. Switch to `proxy_type=residential` only after a 423 (anti-bot) response. It raises a browser request from 10 to 125 credits
4. On the free plan a second concurrent request gets 409. Wait for the first to finish
5. Google, Bing and Yandex result pages come back as raw HTML through `/v2/general`, so you parse them yourself

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Diffbot or ScrapingAnt?

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Diffbot and ScrapingAnt need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Diffbot and ScrapingAnt without installing anything?

Yes. Diffbot has a hosted endpoint at https://api.diffbot.com/v3 and ScrapingAnt at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Diffbot or ScrapingAnt

- [Apify MCP Server vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Bright Data vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-diffbot.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Diffbot vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Olostep vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Scrapfly vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zyte.md)
- [Diffbot vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Diffbot vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-olostep.md)
- [Diffbot vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Diffbot vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Diffbot vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Diffbot vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-zyte.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-diffbot.md)