# Microlink vs ScrapingAnt (slim)

> Microlink scores 65.9 (B) to ScrapingAnt's 35.8 (F) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microlink-vs-scrapingant.md (~5,150 tokens) · this version ~2,530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microlink-vs-scrapingant.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microlink-vs-scrapingant
- 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)

Microlink scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.8 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do scraping.

- Microlink: B 65.9, rank #395 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microlink.min.md
- ScrapingAnt: F 35.8, rank #1371 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingant.min.md
- Microlink, good for Agents that need link previews, screenshots, PDFs, metadata or a page as Markdown from one GET. Ahead on Reliability, 52 against 30; Schema & documentation, 89 against 43; Agent ergonomics, 82 against 66; Security & auth, 44 against 10; Payments & pricing, 47 against 40; Maintenance & community, 86 against 5; Transparency & trust, 75 against 56. Also Runs on your own machine.
- ScrapingAnt, good for A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

| Category | Microlink | ScrapingAnt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 52 | 30 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 43 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 82 | 66 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 44 | 10 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 47 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 5 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 75 | 56 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Microlink | ScrapingAnt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Microlink Labs, S.L. | ScrapingAnt (DATAANT) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.microlink.io/mcp` | `https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Tools exposed | 24 | 3 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2024-07-16 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 805 npm/wk | 90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Microlink +81: Microlink 86 (@microlink/mcp 2.8.17 and microlink.io 1.1.4 on 31 October 2026, and October changelog entries for the API (30). 31 MCP releases tagged since 17 September and the October changelog's API changes (20). No open issues on microlinkhq/microlink, a monthly changelog, and email and feedback-form support (18 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry under its own namespace, though the server card names io.microlink/mcp; the JavaScript SDK is current (8 of 15). Lint, tests and coverage run on pull requests (10). 30 + 20 + 18 + 8 + 10 = 86.); ScrapingAnt 5 (No changelog or dated API change found, and the newest SDK release is Python 2.1.0 on 2024-07-16 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). No public changelog. Support by email (3 of 15). The JavaScript client was last released 2022-05-06, the MCP server isn't in the official registry, and the only registry entry is a third-party wrapper (0). The Python client has a code-check workflow, but neither SDK has moved in over two years (2 of 10).)
- Schema & documentation, Microlink +46: Microlink 89 (OpenAPI 3.1 at microlink.io/openapi.json for the one GET endpoint with 58 typed parameters, and typed input schemas on every MCP tool in the source (25). llms.txt of 527 lines, auth.md, an API catalogue and Markdown copies of every docs page (10). Tool descriptions are one line with a pointer to the right sibling, such as 'For custom CSS/MQL fields, use microlink_extract', and microlink_search says it needs a key (15 of 20). Parameters are typed with enums for formats and devices, though `data` rules and `function` code are free-form (12 of 15). Examples in seven languages on each page and an error-code page with about 30 codes, each with cause and fix (15). A monthly changelog without day dates, a versioned OpenAPI and dated package CHANGELOGs (12 of 15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 15 + 12 = 89.); ScrapingAnt 43 (No OpenAPI or Swagger spec found. The MCP docs give a typed parameter table for the 3 tools (8 of 25). docs.scrapingant.com/llms.txt returns 404 and no Markdown twins were found (0). MCP descriptions are one line each, such as Fetch a URL and return raw HTML content, with no when-to-use guidance (8 of 20). Few parameters, typed, with proxy_type as an enum of `datacenter` or `residential` (10 of 15). Request examples on every docs page and an errors page with 8 status codes and their meanings (12 of 15). Versioned paths (v1 and v2) and no changelog (5 of 15).)
- Security & auth, Microlink +34: Microlink 44 (One API key per account in the `x-api-key` header, with no scopes, rotation or expiry documented. auth.md says to keep it out of URLs and no query option is documented (20 of 30). Tools are reads apart from microlink_function, which runs caller-supplied code against the page in Microlink's browser, and the checkout tools never return a key (10 of 20). Pages come back as Markdown and text, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs, auth.md or the MCP README (0). A request id on every response, with no per-call log for the customer documented (4 of 15). security.txt is valid to 28 July 2027 and links a responsible-disclosure policy and acknowledgements. No bug bounty or certification found (10 of 20). 20 + 10 + 0 + 4 + 10 = 44.); ScrapingAnt 10 (One account API key with no scopes, and we found no documented rotation or revocation (10). API Basics tells you to send x-api-key as a query parameter, a documented option, so less 10 (0 of 30). The header form works and the SDKs use it. No read-only mode, and /v2/general can send POST, PUT and DELETE to target sites with no confirmation step (5 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found for the HTML, Markdown or text it returns (0 of 15). The Ant-credits-cost header and a subscription status endpoint show spend per call. No request log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20).)
- Reliability, Microlink +22: Microlink 52 (Graded on the hosted lines. microlink.io/status exists but is drawn by script, showing only 'Please wait' to our reader, and status.microlink.io failed through our proxy, so components and history are unchecked and scored absent (0). No readable history (5). Free and keyed quotas are published, 5 and 25 requests a day and 2 at a time, with paid quotas from 46,000 a month and x-rate-limit headers on every response (15). 429 with ECONCURRENCY says to wait a second and retry, a quota 429 gives the reset time, and every call only reads, but there is no Retry-After header documented (12 of 15). The terms commit to 99.9% uptime on paid plans, with service credits only under an Enterprise agreement (10). Generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 10 + 10 = 52.); ScrapingAnt 30 (No status page linked from the site or docs (0). No readable incident history (5). The free plan allows 1 concurrent request and paid plans have no concurrency cap, with timeout settable from 5 to 60 seconds. No per-minute limits published (8 of 15). The errors page documents 409 for the concurrency limit and 423 for anti-bot detection with advice to retry or change settings. No 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance (7 of 15). No SLA found (0). The API is generally available (10).)
- Transparency & trust, Microlink +19: Microlink 75 (The API is closed under terms naming Microlink Labs, S.L. with its registry details, and the SDK, MCP server and the libraries behind it are MIT (20 of 30). The DPA, updated 30 October 2026, gives cache retention of 24 hours by default up to 31 days, logs 15 days and deletion within 15 days, but the privacy policy is undated, names no controller and gives no periods (20 of 30). The terms promise advance notice before a paid feature is materially reduced, and the changelog records changes by month, with no notice period (10 of 20). Subprocessors list updated 16 October 2026, with services, data types and locations (18 of 20). 20 + 20 + 10 + 18 = 68.); ScrapingAnt 56 (Closed service with terms naming DATAANT SP. Z O.O., registered in Poland (KRS 0000848755). The SDKs are Apache 2.0 (15 of 30). The privacy policy, last updated 3 November 2020, gives 12-month retention after an account closes, names processors and mentions DPAs with clients. It predates the MCP server and AI extractor, and doesn't say whether scraped content is stored (18 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Processors and locations named, Sendgrid in Ireland, Paddle in the UK, Google Analytics and Amazon hosting in the USA (15 of 20).)
- Agent ergonomics, Microlink +16: Microlink 82 (24 MCP tools in @microlink/mcp 2.8.17 with no toolset filter found (15 of 25). `filter` selects fields, `embed` returns one field as the body, and Markdown and text tools return only page content (18 of 20). Error codes such as EAUTH, ERATE, ECONCURRENCY, EPRO and EPROXYNEEDED with documented fixes (19 of 20). Every tool but microlink_function sets readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false, and calls are reads with a cache and `force` to refresh. No idempotentHint (18 of 20). Only `url` is required; official JavaScript SDK (@microlink/mql) and CLI, with examples in seven languages but no other official SDK found (12 of 15). 15 + 18 + 19 + 18 + 12 = 82.); ScrapingAnt 66 (3 compact MCP tools (25). Markdown and text endpoints, AI extraction, wait-for-selector and a JSON extended response, but no output-size limit on the MCP tools (12 of 20). 8 documented status codes, and 422 returns a detail field (14 of 20). Requests are reads of third-party pages and failures aren't billed, but there are no tool annotations or retry guidance beyond 423 (5 of 20). Only url is required, though browser defaults to true at 10 credits. Python and JavaScript clients exist but are stale (10 of 15).)