# Jina Reader vs Scrapfly

> Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Jina Reader's 45.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 52 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapfly
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapfly.md (~1,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapfly.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapfly.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: 2026-10-05

Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Jina Reader's 45.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 52 points.

- Jina Reader: grade E, 45.3/100, rank #402 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jina-reader.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jina-reader.json
- Scrapfly: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #107 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Jina Reader for reliability (+10).

Pick Scrapfly for schema & documentation (+52), security & auth (+38), payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+19), transparency & trust (+16).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jina Reader | Scrapfly | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 50 | Jina Reader +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 95 | Scrapfly +52 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 80 | Scrapfly +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 32 | 70 | Scrapfly +38 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Scrapfly +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 84 | Scrapfly +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 77 | Scrapfly +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.3 · E** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jina Reader | Scrapfly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Jina AI (Elastic) | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://r.jina.ai/` | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 61 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Popularity | 12k stars | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Jina Reader.** One URL prefix, no key needed, Markdown back. No price per token in any currency on the public page.

**Scrapfly.** The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.

## Before you call either

### Jina Reader

1. Prefix the URL, `https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com`, and read the Markdown
2. Send `x-max-tokens` to cap a page, or `x-token-budget` to refuse one that's too big
3. Use `x-target-selector` when you need one part of a page
4. Keyless is 20 requests a minute and can't search. Add a key for loops or s.jina.ai
5. Send `x-no-cache: true` when a page may have changed or a blocked response got cached

### Scrapfly

1. Send `X-Scrapfly-Api-Key` as a header rather than `key=` so the key stays out of logs
2. Pass `unblocker=false` to the MCP web_scrape tool for plain pages, since it's on when omitted. `asp` is the deprecated alias
3. Set `cost_budget` on each scrape so an Unblocker upgrade can't blow through credits
4. Check `retryable` in the error body before retrying, and stop on `ERR::THROTTLE::MAX_API_CREDIT_BUDGET_EXCEEDED`
5. Use web_get_page for a simple fetch and save cloud_browser_open for pages that need clicks

## Other comparisons with Jina Reader or Scrapfly

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