# Olostep vs Scrapeless

> Olostep has a score of 63.1 (B) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 37 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeless
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeless.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeless.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeless.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

Olostep has a score of 63.1 (B) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 37 points.

- Olostep: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #210 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/olostep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/olostep.json
- Scrapeless: grade C, 54.3/100, rank #326 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapeless.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Olostep for schema & documentation (+18), agent ergonomics (+37), payments & pricing (+30).

Pick Scrapeless for reliability (+15), security & auth (+7), maintenance & community (+23).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Olostep | Scrapeless | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 75 | Scrapeless +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 66 | Olostep +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 50 | Olostep +37 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 28 | 35 | Scrapeless +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 65 | 35 | Olostep +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 81 | Scrapeless +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 56 | Olostep +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **63.1 · B** | **54.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Olostep | Scrapeless |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Olostep Technologies, Inc. | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.olostep.com` | `https://api.scrapeless.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 25 |
| 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 | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.olostep/olostep-mcp-server` | `io.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-07-15 | 2026-09-16 |
| Popularity | 24 stars, 8.9k npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Olostep.** OpenAPI 3.0.3 for every endpoint and a structured error body. The x402 challenge came back with no payment requirements in our probe.

**Scrapeless.** Hosted streamable HTTP MCP at api.scrapeless.com/mcp with header auth, plus a stdio package, both in the official MCP registry. llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search.

## Before you call either

### Olostep

1. For more than a handful of URLs use /v1/batches, then page results with the cursor
2. Pass `storage.expires_in` if you need results after about 7 days
3. Don't ask for json output without a `parser` or an `llm_extract` schema
4. Hosted MCP wants `Authorization: Bearer`, stdio wants OLOSTEP_API_KEY. Mixing them up shows 0 tools
5. Check the 402 body before paying over x402. Our probe got an empty one

### Scrapeless

1. Use scrape_markdown for reading pages and save the browser_* tools for clicks and logins, since browser time bills by the hour
2. Call browser_close when done so the session and its billing stop
3. Set limit on crawl_start. Unset, it defaults to 10,000 pages
4. Crawls are asynchronous. Call crawl_start, then poll crawl_result with the returned id
5. Set SCRAPELESS_API_KEY for the stdio server. Older guides use SCRAPELESS_KEY, which still works as a fallback

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