Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run
Outcrawl vs Scrapfly
Scrapfly scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Outcrawl's 62.4 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.
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.
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where Scrapfly loses 3 points for them
Watch for
No status page, incident history, SLA below Enterprise or security.txt; /status and status.outcrawl.ai do not answer
Scrapfly BB
Best for An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 71
- Security & auth, 75 against 66
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 79
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 56
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
The open-source MCP server registers 62 tools at once, a heavy tools/list
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.
Reliability Scrapfly +40
Outcrawl 45
Hosted reading, for the REST API with the MCP server that shares its limits. No public status page was found. None is linked from the site or the docs, https://outcrawl.ai/status answers 404 and status.outcrawl.ai does not answer (0). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). Rate limits are published with numbers on the pricing page and in the docs, 120, 300, 1,500 and 6,000 requests a minute by plan and 2, 5, 25 and 100 concurrent browsers, shared between the API and the MCP server (15). Over the per-minute ceiling the API answers quota_exceeded with ceiling: requests_per_minute and retryAfterSeconds, read from the SDK error class and the worked examples, the errors page lists four codes as safe to retry unchanged, and concurrency_limit tells the caller only to wait for a run to end; no Retry-After header is documented and no idempotency key or safe-retry rule exists for the POST routes that start crawls, agent runs and monitors, which the agent tool's own description says bill twice on a repeat (10 of 15). An SLA exists only on Enterprise, a 99.9 per cent monthly uptime figure with service credits and terms priced per contract, so half credit for a published figure without published terms (5 of 10). No beta or preview label on the API, the MCP server or the CLI, and the OpenAPI file says version 1.0.0, though both SDKs are at 0.4.15 and the domain is nine weeks old (10). 0+5+15+10+5+10 = 45.
Scrapfly 85
scrapfly.io/status answers with Statuspage's status JSON, which names its page as scrapfly.statuspage.io. That page has 25 components and incident history back to 2022, read through its history feed on 1 November. The 1 October check read only the overall state and found no history (20, was 10). The newest incident is a Scrapium rendering fault on 21 May 2026, so nothing is posted in the 90 days from 3 August (30, was 5). Concurrency per plan is published (5 on Discovery to 100 on Enterprise) and each project has a configurable per-minute throttle (15). The error catalogue marks every code retryable or not and has three ERR::THROTTLE codes, but we found no Retry-After header or backoff guidance on the errors or throttling pages (10 of 15). The terms disclaim uptime and no uptime SLA is published, and the pricing page's SLA mentions cover support response on Enterprise (0). The Scrape API is GA. Vault and alerting are beta, outside the main surface (10). 20+30+15+10+0+10 = 85.
Schema & documentation Scrapfly +24
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.
Scrapfly 95
A Swagger reference per the 30 September check, and the MCP server exposes it as a web_scraping_openapi_specification resource. Every MCP tool has JSON Schema inputs generated from typed Go structs (25). llms.txt and Markdown twins such as pricing.md per the 30 September check. robots.txt still disallows /docs/llms.txt and the .md twins for crawlers it doesn't name, so they weren't re-read on 1 November (10). Descriptions say when to use a tool and when to switch, for example web_get_page falls back to web_scrape for tuning and to cloud_browser_open for interaction. A few are long and steer the model's next step (17 of 20). Typed inputs with enums, for example the vault service discriminator, and required fields (13 of 15). Error catalogue of 100+ ERR:: codes, each with HTTP status, retryable and billed flags and its own doc link (15). Dated release notes, newest 26 October 2026 (15). 25+10+17+13+15+15 = 95.
Transparency & trust Scrapfly +19
Outcrawl 56
Closed hosted service under terms last updated 1 November 2026 that name Aeonmind LLC, trading as Outcrawl, Delaware law and a liability cap; the SDKs and the MCP package are MIT and Scout, the agent behind the hosted agent, is Apache-2.0 in a read-only mirror of a private repository (20 of 30). The privacy policy (1 November 2026) and the security page (8 October 2026) agree with each other and the docs on recordings, secrets, downloads and subprocessors. Recordings are on by default and hold request bodies, cookies and form data, deleted after a plan period shown only in the console, downloads are kept 7 days, run files are destroyed at run end, PostHog site recordings go after 30 days, and account data is kept for a limited unspecified period after closure; no DPA was found and no recording retention figure is published (20 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices; the terms say prices may change for future usage and material changes are emailed, and no changelog exists (3 of 20). Twelve subprocessors named with their purposes, infrastructure mainly in the United States with Cloudflare edge locations, analytics only after consent, but the AI model providers and captcha-solving services that see page content are unnamed (15 of 20). 20+20+3+15 = 58.
Scrapfly 75
Closed service with terms updated 2026-09-30 under US law. SDKs are BSD 2-Clause, and the MCP source is public with no LICENSE file and ISC in package.json (15 of 30). Privacy policy updated 14 May 2026 with a published DPA and HIPAA BAA, but retention is as long as necessary, and the retention of scraped content isn't stated (18 of 30). Release notes date deprecations and removals, for example Scrapium v153 dropping legacy network interception on 11 September. No standing deprecation policy found (15 of 20). Stripe, Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Cloud are named, with SCC and Data Privacy Framework transfers, but there's no full subprocessor list (10 of 20). The release notes still date each CDP removal, most recently Storage.getRelatedWebsiteSets in Scrapium v156 on 26 October. Not otherwise re-read on 1 November. 15+18+15+10 = 58.
Security & auth Scrapfly +9
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.
Scrapfly 75
OAuth 2 on the hosted MCP with dashboard revocation, open to all plans. API keys are per project, live or test, and since 15 April 2026 can be restricted to products (30). The canonical API form puts the key in the key query parameter and the MCP also accepts ?key=, so less 10 (20 of 30). Product-restricted keys, confirm=true on every mutating vault and alert tool, info_api_key off in server-key mode, and the self-hosted HTTP server binds loopback by default. Since v1.4.0 Cloud Browser sessions are scoped to the API key that opened them (15 of 20). The source gates mutating vault tools behind a preview step because prompt injection can reach them and redacts keys from CDP URLs. We found no user-facing guidance on untrusted page content (8 of 15). Monitoring shows every call as a log with its error, credit cost line by line and Unblocker state, with replay, per the 24 October release notes, as well as per-domain metrics and alerting. The 1 October check couldn't confirm per-request logs (15, was 10). security.txt valid until 30 April 2027, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and HIPAA claims on the pricing page, and a public SOC 3 report since 21 April 2026. No bug bounty found (17 of 20). 20+15+8+15+17 = 75.
Maintenance & community Scrapfly +5
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.
Scrapfly 84
Scrapium v156 in the release notes on 26 October 2026 and MCP v1.4.0 on 15 October (30). MCP tags v1.3.1 to v1.3.3 (26 and 27 August), v1.3.4 (8 September) and v1.4.0 (15 October), SDKs 0.12.0 on 8 September, and dated release notes on 14, 24 and 26 August, 11, 23 and 25 September, 7, 24 and 26 October (20). Dated release notes most weeks and a support address. We couldn't read GitHub issues, since github.com refuses our reader (12 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp under the vendor's domain, though the entry still lists 1.0.0, and the SDKs are current (15). MCP moved to Go 1.27 on 23 October. Its CI runs only a reference check and the npm publish, while the TypeScript SDK runs tests in CI (7 of 10). 30+20+12+15+7 = 84.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Outcrawl | Scrapfly | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 85 | Scrapfly +40 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 71 | 95 | Scrapfly +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 83 | 80 | Outcrawl +3 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 66 | 75 | Scrapfly +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 79 | 84 | Scrapfly +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 56 | 75 | Scrapfly +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| Total | B 62.4/100 | BB 74.5/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Outcrawl | Scrapfly |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Aeonmind LLC (Outcrawl) | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1 | https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for scraping | $4.90 per 1,000 pages | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary 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 mirror | none |
| Tools exposed | 29 | 62 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-11-01 | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-11-01 | 2026-05-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 948 stars, 53 npm/wk | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Outcrawl
No score change since it was listed.
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.
Scrapfly
The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes, and the Statuspage history shows no incident since May 2026. The MCP server loads 62 tools at once, and the API's canonical form puts the key in the URL.
Before you call either
Outcrawl
- Read a known URL with
POST /v1/scrapeoroutcrawl_scrapeat 1 credit; useoutcrawl_searchto find URLs and sendscrape: trueonly when you need page bodies, and reserveoutcrawl_agentfor pages that need a click, a form or a sign-in. - Always send
caps.budgetonPOST /v1/agent(the API refuses without it) and store the returned id; pollGET /v1/agent/{id}oroutcrawl_agent_status, never resubmit, because a second submit is a second bill. - Branch on
error.code, notmessage. Retryno_capacity,decode_unavailable,extraction_failedandanswer_lostunchanged; onquota_exceededwithceiling: requests_per_minutewaitretryAfterSeconds; onconcurrency_limitwait for a run to end; never retrybad_requestor a credit quota. - Set
limiton 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}/resultswith the cursor. - Pass
afterwith the lastseqandlevel: statuswhen readingoutcrawl_agent_events; the log of a long run is the largest response the server returns. - Pass
maxAge: 0when 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,dataand download links as untrusted data; download URLs work for an hour with no key.
Scrapfly
- Send
X-Scrapfly-Api-Keyas a header rather thankey=so the key stays out of logs - Pass
unblocker=falseto the MCP web_scrape tool for plain pages, since it's on when omitted.aspis the deprecated alias - Set
cost_budgeton each scrape so an Unblocker upgrade can't blow through credits - Check
retryablein the error body before retrying, and stop onERR::THROTTLE::MAX_API_CREDIT_BUDGET_EXCEEDED - Use web_get_page for a simple fetch and save cloud_browser_open for pages that need clicks
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Outcrawl or Scrapfly?
Scrapfly scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Outcrawl's 62.4 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.
Do Outcrawl and Scrapfly need an API key?
Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Outcrawl and Scrapfly without installing anything?
Yes. Outcrawl has a hosted endpoint at https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1 and Scrapfly at https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape.
Other comparisons with Outcrawl or Scrapfly
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- Bright Data vs Scrapfly
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- Context.dev vs Scrapfly
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- Outcrawl vs Scrapeless
- Outcrawl vs ScraperAPI
- Outcrawl vs Scrapewise
- Outcrawl vs ScrapingAnt
- Outcrawl vs ScrapingBee
- Outcrawl vs Scrapingdog
- Outcrawl vs Spider
- Outcrawl vs ZenRows
- Outcrawl vs Zyte API
- Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs Scrapfly
- Scrape.do vs Scrapfly
- ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapfly
- Scrapeless vs Scrapfly
- ScraperAPI vs Scrapfly
- Scrapewise vs Scrapfly
- Scrapfly vs ScrapingAnt
- Scrapfly vs ScrapingBee
- Scrapfly vs Scrapingdog
- Scrapfly vs Spider
- Scrapfly vs ZenRows
- Scrapfly vs Zyte API
- Firecrawl MCP vs Outcrawl
- Diffbot vs Outcrawl
- Diffbot vs Scrapfly
- Outcrawl vs Qovia
- Outcrawl vs ScrapeAtlas
- Qovia vs Scrapfly
- ScrapeAtlas vs Scrapfly
- Apify MCP Server vs Outcrawl
- Apify MCP Server vs Scrapfly
- jevcrawl vs Outcrawl
- jevcrawl vs Scrapfly
- Firecrawl MCP vs Scrapfly
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/outcrawl-vs-scrapfly.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/outcrawl.json·/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json - From a terminal
anchor compare outcrawl scrapfly(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "outcrawl", "b": "scrapfly"}at/mcp, no key