# Manifold vs SpyFu API (slim)

> Manifold scores 53.2 (D) to SpyFu's 48.1 (D) for keyword data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/manifold-mcp-vs-spyfu.md (~3,750 tokens) · this version ~2,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/manifold-mcp-vs-spyfu.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/manifold-mcp-vs-spyfu
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Manifold scores 53.2 (D) on agent readiness against SpyFu API's 48.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SpyFu API leads on schema & documentation. Both do keyword data.

- Manifold: D 53.2, rank #959 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/manifold-mcp.min.md
- SpyFu API: D 48.1, rank #1135 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spyfu.min.md
- Manifold, good for A founder or marketer who wants keyword, ranking, backlink and audit lookups inside an MCP client, with AI answer, social, ad library and lead lookups on the same balance, and who values a stated price per call. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 54 against 16; Transparency & trust, 60 against 38. Also Free to start without a card.
- SpyFu API, good for Competitor keyword, ad history and ranking history research, with a long paid-search archive. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 75 against 66.

| Category | Manifold | SpyFu API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 45 | 45 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 75 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 68 | 65 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 54 | 52 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 54 | 16 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 38 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Manifold | SpyFu API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Manifold (Jesse Sibley, sole trader) | SpyFu, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp` | `https://api.spyfu.com/apis` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for keyword data | $0.25 per call | not published |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under Manifold's terms of service (version 1.0, 30 September 2026). The server's source isn't published. The companion marketing-skills repository on GitHub is MIT | Proprietary, under SpyFu, Inc.'s terms and conditions |
| Tools exposed | 108 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.manifoldmcp/manifold` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-13 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Manifold +38: Manifold 54 (A closed service with no changelog and no tagged release. The docs' tool table grew from 81 to 108 tools between the 8 October and 4 November readings, and the SEO tool pages date a change in the traffic figures DataForSEO supplies to 1 November 2026 (30). The marketing-skills plugin repository, published from the vendor's private repository, has 19 release commits from 26 September to 2 November 2026 that raise the version in its manifests, with no tag or changelog entry. Untagged version bumps aren't counted as releases (hyperqwen, perplexity-space), so fewer than three dated entries fall in the 90 days from 6 August (0, a threshold line, from 10). Support is by email to the founder with a stated reply time of one working day, plus a `submit_feedback` tool and GitHub issues on the skills repository, unread on 4 November (6 of 15). The server is in the official MCP registry under `com.manifoldmcp` per the 8 October check (15). The server's source and CI aren't public, and the skills repository has no CI workflow (3 of 10). 30+0+6+15+3 = 54.); SpyFu API 16 (Closed service. No changelog. The newest dated docs change found is 13 July 2026 (the rate-limits and pricing pages' updatedAt), 116 days before this check (10). Reference pages are dated between August 2025 and 9 July 2026, so fewer than three dated changes in 90 days (0). A help centre and support email, with no public changelog or tracker (6 of 15). No official SDK (0). No package to judge (0). 10+0+6+0+0 = 16.)
- Transparency & trust, Manifold +22: Manifold 60 (Closed service under public terms, version 1.3 of 22 October 2026. The skills repository is MIT (15 of 30). The privacy policy (version 1.5, effective 3 November 2026) has a retention table by data type and the terms include data processing terms with a signed DPA on request. Gaps remain. The policy's connected accounts are Search Console and Bing only, while the docs' analytics tools read Google Analytics 4, feedback reports are kept with no time limit, and ICO registration is still stated as pending (22 of 30). No deprecation policy for tools. Section 2.5 of the terms allows tools and providers to be removed at any time, with notice where a change materially reduces what was paid for, and 30 days' notice of price rises and of material changes to the terms (7 of 20). Cloudflare, PostHog, Clerk, Autumn, Stripe, Resend, Google, Microsoft and DataForSEO are named with their roles, and 14 days' notice of sub-processor changes is kept, but the social-data and email-lookup providers named on 8 October are now listed only by type. Data is stored in the United Kingdom and the EEA and processed also in the United States (13 of 20, from 16). 15+22+7+13 = 57.); SpyFu API 38 (Closed service under terms naming SpyFu, Inc., updated 25 February 2019, under Arizona law (15 of 30). The privacy policy carries no date, retention periods, controller or named processors, and says data is moved to the United States (5 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices found (0 of 20). No subprocessors named; data location is the United States (3 of 20). 15+5+0+3 = 23.)
- Payments & pricing, Manifold +20: Manifold 40 (Read with the hosted rubric. No x402, MPP or L402 found. Payment is by card through Autumn and Stripe (0). Credit costs are published without login for every tool, and the plans page prices credits from 2.00 cents on the $20 Pro plan to 1.00 cent on the $2,000 Max plan, with top-ups at 40 credits a dollar (20). Every free workspace gets 250 credits a month with no card, where the 8 October check found 500 once (20). A person signs in with Google or email in a browser to create the account, approve an OAuth client or copy an API key (0). 0+20+20+0 = 40.); SpyFu API 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-row prices for every endpoint are public on the developer site (20). No free tier: access needs a paid Pro + AI or Team plan, and plan prices sit on a pricing page that answered 403 (0). A person signs up and pays in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.)
- Schema & documentation, SpyFu API +9: Manifold 66 (We couldn't call `tools/list` without an account, so the JSON Schema of the tools wasn't read. The docs build each tool page from the description the server sends and list every parameter with defaults and maxima, which we count as a partial contract (12 of 25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and `Accept: text/markdown` (10). Each documented tool has 'Use when', 'Not for', 'Returns' and 'Cost' sections, and 'Not for' names the tool to call instead (20). Parameters are documented with allowed values, required flags and limits, and no free-form JSON input was seen, but the schema itself is unread (10 of 15). Each tool has an example input and a list of returned fields, and ten typed errors are documented with whether each is charged. No sample responses (12 of 15). No changelog and no versioning policy were found. The registry entry gives version 1.0.0 per the 8 October check (2 of 15). 12+10+20+10+12+2 = 66.); SpyFu API 75 (Every reference page embeds an OpenAPI 3.1 definition with security schemes and responses, but no single downloadable file is linked (20 of 25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Descriptions say what each endpoint returns and how it differs from its neighbours ('unlike term-based endpoints...') (17 of 20). Typed parameters with descriptions, examples and required flags (12 of 15). 200, 400, 401 and 500 in the definitions and a 429 example, little on error bodies (11 of 15). v2 in every path, but no changelog (/changelog answered 404) (5 of 15). 20+10+17+12+11+5 = 75.)