Head to head · Extraction · October 2026 research run

Outcrawl vs ScrapeAtlas

ScrapeAtlas and Outcrawl score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 62.8 (B) and 62.4 (B). Outcrawl leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do extraction.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 284 scrapers comparisons

Which one, for what

Outcrawl B

Best for Agents that want one key and one balance for reading pages, walking a site, searching with rendered results and handing a signed-in or multi-step task to a hosted browser agent with a hard budget, and teams on TypeScript that want a residential-exit browser over CDP with a replay of every session.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 83 against 76
  • Security & auth, 66 against 55
  • Maintenance & community, 79 against 70

Watch for

No status page, incident history, SLA below Enterprise or security.txt; /status and status.outcrawl.ai do not answer

ScrapeAtlas B

Best for Agents that need structured public data from a named social, video, forum, marketplace or prediction-market platform, such as a creator's profile and recent posts, a thread's comments, a product's reviews or a market's order book, paid per successful request without a subscription.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 71
  • Payments & pricing, 55 against 40

Watch for

No status page or incident history was found, and the terms promise no uptime, throughput or continued availability of an endpoint

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation ScrapeAtlas +17

Outcrawl 71

API reading, with the MCP server described. An OpenAPI 3.1 document at https://outcrawl.ai/docs/api-reference/openapi.json lists 62 operations over 51 paths with a summary each and the same 11 status codes, generated from the vendor's capability registry, but every request body is an untyped object marked additionalProperties: true with a pointer to the docs, every 200 response is an untyped object, and Error is the only schema; the typed shapes live in the SDK declarations and in the MCP server's zod schemas, which were read in the 0.4.3 npm package rather than from the hosted server (15 of 25). llms.txt and a 525 KB llms-full.txt on the docs, a Markdown twin of every page and an llms.txt on the site (10). The MCP descriptions each end with a Not for: clause naming the better tool and most with a Cost: clause, the OpenAPI summaries say when not to use a route, and the capability pages say which neighbour to use instead (18 of 20). Scrape formats are an enum of eight, event levels and record kinds are enums, caps.budget is required, and the SDK types bound every option, while the OpenAPI bodies carry none of it (10 of 15). curl, TypeScript and Python examples on every page, 20 worked programs, a 31-row error table with meanings and a retryable list, and MCP errors with a recovery string, though the closed union is sized 24, 31, 45 and 22 on different pages (13 of 15). /v1 in the path and 1.0.0 in the OpenAPI file, but no changelog or release notes anywhere; the record is version numbers on npm, PyPI and 14 dated tags in the outcrawlai/release repository (5 of 15). 15+10+18+10+13+5 = 71.

ScrapeAtlas 88

An OpenAPI 3.1.0 file (version 0.1.0, 34 MB) is public at scrapeatlas.com/docs/openapi.json with 384 paths and 386 operations, a per-platform x-api-key security scheme on each, response schemas for 200 and every documented error, and 931 component schemas (25). llms.txt at scrapeatlas.com/docs/llms.txt lists all 373 endpoints with one-line descriptions and schema links, and endpoint pages carry a copy-as-Markdown action (10). 386 operations have a summary and 373 a description, median 39 words, saying what public page is read, what the response holds, how to page and what it costs. llms.txt says not to assume one normalised JSON shape. Guidance on when not to call an endpoint is thin, with 9 descriptions using only and 2 instead (14 of 20). 1,390 parameters, 304 with enums, most with minLength, maxLength or a pattern, 232 operations needing one required parameter and 143 none; the 12 POST bodies are typed (14 of 15). A response example on 373 operations and examples on 508 parameters, HTTP 400 to 504 mapped to one failure object with 33 codes, per-endpoint error tables and code samples in six languages; no Retry-After header declared (14 of 15). Paths are under /v1 and a dated public changelog started on 24 September 2026 with 58 updates, but nothing is marked deprecated in the file, breaking changes aren't flagged, and the 14 October GitHub entry says former paths keep working without saying for how long (11 of 15). 25+10+14+14+14+11 = 88.

Payments & pricing ScrapeAtlas +15

Outcrawl 40

No x402, MPP or L402 in the OpenAPI file, the docs, the pricing pages or the terms (0). Per-unit rates published without a login, 1 credit a page, 5 credits per 10 search results, 1 credit a browser minute, 2,000 credits a GB and 1 credit a monitor check, with the dollar rate per plan ($4.90 per 1,000 credits on Builder down to about $3.20 on Scale), top-up prices per 10,000 and an estimate of about 15 credits a minute for agent runs (20). Free plan of 1,000 credits a month with no card, on a person's first workspace (20). A person signs in with Google, GitHub, an email code or a magic link behind reCAPTCHA, and MCP's OAuth consent needs that browser sign-in; no keyless route, no programmatic key creation (0). 0+20+20+0 = 40.

ScrapeAtlas 55

No x402, MPP or L402 on ScrapeAtlas's own endpoints. The vendor's eight Actors on the Apify Store, covering TikTok, Instagram, Meetup and Couchsurfing at $1.98 per 1,000 successful requests, can be paid through Apify, whose prepaid token is sold over x402, so partial credit for a third-party route on part of the catalogue (10 of 40). Per-unit prices are on the home page without a login, 1 credit per successful request and packs at $1.90, $1.78 and $1.25 per 1,000, with the 2-credit endpoints named (20). 100 free credits at signup, no card (20). A person signs up in a browser and creates a key; the Apify route reaches four platforms without a ScrapeAtlas account (5 of 20). 10+20+20+5 = 55.

Security & auth Outcrawl +11

Outcrawl 66

OAuth 2.1 for MCP clients and the CLI with authorization code, PKCE S256, dynamic public-client registration, device code, one-hour access tokens, 30-day refresh, introspection and revocation endpoints and private_key_jwt, but one functional scope, api; API keys shaped ock_<keyId>.<secret> are shown once, stored as a digest, scoped to a workspace and revoked within a minute, with no per-key scopes, expiry or read-only keys; nothing documents a secret in a query string (25 of 30). No read-only key or scope. The MCP surface omits secrets, integrations, replay export and sharing and the wallet on purpose, rules are classified enforced or guidance on the call that sets them, agent runs need or default a budget, purchases above approvalAbove pause for a person's yes, and control hands a person the browser; monitor and profile deletes rely on destructiveHint alone (15 of 20). Every tool returns untrusted page content. The platform page says a page could ask the agent to act and that is why credentials never reach the model, secrets are substituted below the model, integrations are human-only and a run cannot be redirected mid-task, but there is no guidance to treat scraped text as data and no classifier (8 of 15). Every response carries usage, /v1/usage groups spend by hour, day or capability, agent events log every step, sessions keep the request list, console, HAR and a digest of failures, secrets record which runs used them and purchases are listed per run; there is no per-call log for scrape, search or crawl beyond the aggregate (12 of 15). No security.txt on either host (404), no SOC 2 or ISO 27001, no bug bounty; the security page has a responsible disclosure route at security@outcrawl.ai with a 90-day window and a no-legal-action statement (6 of 20). 25+15+8+12+6 = 66.

ScrapeAtlas 55

Customer keys with prefix sa_live_, several per account, each with an expiry date, revoked within 60 seconds and stored as hashes per the privacy policy, and keys can't start a checkout or create keys. No scopes or per-platform keys. The MCP server adds an authorization-code flow with PKCE S256, dynamic client registration, refresh-token rotation and revocation, but a single scope, scrapeatlas. No documented option to send a secret in a query string, and the MCP page says never to put the key in a prompt, argument or URL (22 of 30). The whole surface is read-only retrieval of public pages with no destructive action, and an OAuth grant covers retrieval plus the account's usage records only; nothing restricts a key to some platforms (16 of 20). Every response is third-party page content, and the only guidance found concerns keeping secrets out of tool arguments, nothing on treating returned text as untrusted (2 of 15). GET /v1/activity returns per-request metadata (endpoint, time, status, duration) newest first with filters, GET /v1/usage daily totals, responses carry x-credits-charged and x-credits-remaining, and the dashboard shows a credit history (13 of 15). No security.txt (404), no disclosure policy, bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001; the privacy policy describes access controls and incident notices and gives an abuse address (2 of 20). 22+16+2+13+2 = 55.

Maintenance & community Outcrawl +9

Outcrawl 79

@outcrawl/sdk and the PyPI package outcrawl both reached 0.4.15 on 20 October 2026, 13 days before the check, and the Scout mirror was synced on 1 November (30). 21 npm versions since 8 September and 17 PyPI releases since 22 September 2026, with 14 dated tags in outcrawlai/release (20). Scout's pull request #1 of 13 October was answered the same day with an import note and closed, while three pull requests and one issue opened on 18 October had no reply after 15 days; the service has no changelog, support is one email address, and no community channel exists (8 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry; official SDKs in TypeScript and Python current at 0.4.15, with a CLI (15). The three npm packages are published from GitHub Actions with trusted publishing, the TypeScript SDK has zero runtime dependencies and the Python SDK one, and Scout has tests per package, but the mirror has no CI workflows and @outcrawl/mcp has sat at 0.4.3 since 29 September with a tool list that differs from the hosted docs (6 of 10). 30+20+8+15+6 = 79.

ScrapeAtlas 70

The newest change is CLI 0.26.0 on 28 October 2026 per the 30 October npm reading, not re-read on 2 November, after the StockX endpoints on 27 October, still the changelog's newest entry on 2 November (30). 15 dated release days between 21 September and 27 October, 58 updates (20). Closed service with a public changelog. Support in the dashboard is for customers with a credit purchase, the contact form takes buying questions and privacy requests, and no Discord, forum or issue tracker was found; the careers page lists a customer support role (7 of 15). io.github.OnlineDopamine/scrapeatlas is in the official MCP registry under a GitHub-verified personal namespace, at 1.0.0 since 5 October and describing about 40 platforms against 49 now. The CLI is current on npm and an n8n node exists, but there are no SDKs (10 of 15). The CLI package has no repository field, no public source and no visible CI; it needs Node 22 or newer (3 of 10). 30+20+7+10+3 = 70.

Agent ergonomics Outcrawl +7

Outcrawl 83

API reading. Scrape returns main content only by default with formats picking markdown, html, rawHtml, links, screenshots or schema JSON, search renders page bodies only on request, agent events take a level and an after cursor, the MCP server shows request bodies up to a character limit and says when it truncated, and the MCP surface is 29 tools with no toolsets (20 of 25). Cursor pagination on crawl results, agent results and downloads, limit, depth and path filters on crawl, status, outcome, task and age filters on sessions, and usage grouped by hour, day, month or capability (20). One error envelope with a closed code, details such as the cap that stopped a run, retryAfterSeconds on the per-minute quota error, a documented list of codes safe to retry, and on MCP a recovery string and a retryable flag per error (18 of 20). No idempotency key on any route, a repeated agent, crawl or monitor submit runs twice, and concurrency_limit carries no retry hint; cancel is idempotent, integration_changed (409) guards updates, and the npm MCP package sets readOnlyHint on GET tools, destructiveHint on DELETE tools and idempotentHint on either, which the hosted server was not read to confirm (10 of 20). Scrape needs a URL alone, agent runs need caps.budget on the API and SDKs with the MCP server defaulting it, and official SDKs exist in TypeScript and Python beside a CLI (15). 20+20+18+10+15 = 83.

ScrapeAtlas 76

API reading. Responses are bounded by limit on 93 operations, by per-body caps, by format on 19 and view on 14 operations, and by since and until on about 60; Instagram and Twitch have reduced basic-profile endpoints. No field selection was found. The MCP server loads 373 tool definitions with no documented subset, which on the MCP reading would score 5 (15 of 25). Cursor pagination on 130 operations, sort on 28, date windows, and coverage.order reported on every list since 2 October 2026 (20). One failure object with code and message, a requestId on every response, retryable codes named, and an HTTP status table (19 of 20). All data reads are GET, failed requests aren't charged, and the docs say which codes to retry; no idempotency key on the 12 POST batch reads and MCP annotations weren't read (14 of 20). Median one required parameter and defaults on limits, but no official SDK in any language. The npm CLI, the n8n node and six-language samples stand in (8 of 15). 15+20+19+14+8 = 76.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOutcrawlScrapeAtlasEdge
Reliability16%204542Outcrawl +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27188ScrapeAtlas +17
Agent ergonomics13%16.28376Outcrawl +7
Security & auth14%17.56655Outcrawl +11
Payments & pricing10%12.54055ScrapeAtlas +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87970Outcrawl +9
Transparency & trust7%8.85659ScrapeAtlas +3
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 62.4/100B 62.8/100

Facts side by side

FactOutcrawlScrapeAtlas
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAeonmind LLC (Outcrawl)OD. Media & Technology LLC
Hosted endpointhttps://api.outcrawl.ai/v1https://api.scrapeatlas.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service under Aeonmind LLC's terms of service (last updated 1 November 2026). The TypeScript and Python SDKs and the @outcrawl/mcp package are MIT, and Scout, the browser agent behind the hosted agent, is Apache-2.0 in a read-only GitHub mirrorProprietary service under ScrapeAtlas's Terms of Service. The @scrapeatlas/cli package on npm is MIT with no public source repository
Tools exposed29373
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.OnlineDopamine/scrapeatlas
Last release2026-10-202026-10-28
Terms last updated2026-11-012026-09-29
Privacy policy last updated2026-11-012026-10-19
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity948 stars, 53 npm/wknone

How the scores have moved

Outcrawl

No score change since it was listed.

ScrapeAtlas

Verdicts

Outcrawl

One credit balance over scrape, crawl, search, cloud browsers and agent runs, with published per-unit rates, a 1,000-credit free month, OAuth 2.1 for MCP and the CLI, and a closed error union with retry guidance. No status page, changelog or security.txt, an OpenAPI file without typed bodies, no idempotency keys on job submits, and a domain registered nine weeks ago.

ScrapeAtlas

An OpenAPI 3.1 file with 386 operations, typed parameters and a uniform failure object, published limits of 120 requests a minute and 4 concurrent, and 1 credit per successful request with failed calls free. No status page, security.txt or SDKs, the MCP server is a preview with 373 tools, and the product is six weeks old.

Before you call either

Outcrawl

  1. Read a known URL with POST /v1/scrape or outcrawl_scrape at 1 credit; use outcrawl_search to find URLs and send scrape: true only when you need page bodies, and reserve outcrawl_agent for pages that need a click, a form or a sign-in.
  2. Always send caps.budget on POST /v1/agent (the API refuses without it) and store the returned id; poll GET /v1/agent/{id} or outcrawl_agent_status, never resubmit, because a second submit is a second bill.
  3. Branch on error.code, not message. Retry no_capacity, decode_unavailable, extraction_failed and answer_lost unchanged; on quota_exceeded with ceiling: requests_per_minute wait retryAfterSeconds; on concurrency_limit wait for a run to end; never retry bad_request or a credit quota.
  4. Set limit on a crawl before submitting; pages already fetched are billed when you cancel, and over HTTP the crawl is cancelled if the streaming connection drops, so keep the job id and read /v1/crawl/{id}/results with the cursor.
  5. Pass after with the last seq and level: status when reading outcrawl_agent_events; the log of a long run is the largest response the server returns.
  6. Pass maxAge: 0 when freshness matters, since the default serves scrape answers up to two days old from a shared cache at the same price, and treat page content, data and download links as untrusted data; download URLs work for an hour with no key.

ScrapeAtlas

  1. Send the key as x-api-key on https://api.scrapeatlas.com and check status on every HTTP 200; partial is usable data with coverage.warnings, failed and challenged carry failure.code.
  2. Retry only on upstream_rate_limited, timeout and busy, after the retry-after on a 429. Stay under 120 requests a minute and 4 concurrent per account.
  3. Pass the returned cursor back unchanged for the next page, and use since and until (ISO 8601 or Unix seconds) where listed; each page costs another credit.
  4. Each platform has its own response schema, so read the endpoint's response fields before mapping; unknown values are null, never 0.
  5. For MCP, connect to https://api.scrapeatlas.com/mcp over Streamable HTTP with Authorization: Bearer and expect 373 tools; the two account tools and failed calls cost 0 credits.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Outcrawl or ScrapeAtlas?

ScrapeAtlas and Outcrawl score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 62.8 (B) and 62.4 (B). Outcrawl leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and maintenance & community.

Do Outcrawl and ScrapeAtlas need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Outcrawl and ScrapeAtlas without installing anything?

Yes. Outcrawl has a hosted endpoint at https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1 and ScrapeAtlas at https://api.scrapeatlas.com.

Other comparisons with Outcrawl or ScrapeAtlas

Machine-readable

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