# Scrape.do vs ZenRows

> ZenRows has a score of 75.1 (BB) against Scrape.do's 44 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is reliability, 47 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows.md (~1,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows.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

ZenRows has a score of 75.1 (BB) against Scrape.do's 44 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is reliability, 47 points.

- Scrape.do: grade E, 44/100, rank #406 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrape-do.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrape-do.json
- ZenRows: grade BB, 75.1/100, rank #43 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zenrows.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Scrape.do for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick ZenRows for reliability (+47), schema & documentation (+26), agent ergonomics (+17), security & auth (+18), payments & pricing (+45), maintenance & community (+42), transparency & trust (+26).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrape.do | ZenRows | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 87 | ZenRows +47 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 83 | ZenRows +26 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 79 | ZenRows +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 23 | 41 | ZenRows +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 80 | ZenRows +45 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 87 | ZenRows +42 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 75 | ZenRows +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **44 · E** | **75.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrape.do | ZenRows |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrape.do | ZenRows |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrape.do/` | `https://api.zenrows.com/v1/` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 44 |
| 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 | not listed | `io.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-09-18 |
| Popularity | 2 npm/wk | 21 stars, 35k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.8/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Scrape.do.** $29 for 250,000 basic credits, and 429s, 502s and most failures aren't billed. Token travels in the query string on the main API.

**ZenRows.** No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page. The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string.

## Before you call either

### Scrape.do

1. Start with the default data centre request (1 credit). Add `super=true` or `render=true` only after a block, since they cost 10 and 5
2. Pass `output=markdown` to get LLM-ready text instead of raw HTML
3. Read `Scrape.do-Request-Cost` from the response headers. Some domains cost 10 to 200 credits whatever you pass
4. Treat a 429 as too many concurrent requests and wait for one to finish
5. Keep URLs with `token=` out of logs and shared traces

### ZenRows

1. Start with mode=auto and let it escalate. Force js_render or premium_proxy only when you know the site needs it
2. Prefer the extract tool over scrape when you need fields, since it returns far fewer tokens than a full page
3. Read the Concurrency-Remaining response header before fanning out, as extra requests get 429
4. Set ZENROWS_AUTO_SIGNUP=false in stdio configs so a missing key fails loudly instead of creating an account

## Other comparisons with Scrape.do or ZenRows

- [Bright Data vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Bright Data vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-zenrows.md)
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- [Scrape.do vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-spider-cloud.md)
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- [Scrapeless vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapfly vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zenrows.md)
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- [Spider vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-zenrows.md)