# ScrapeGraphAI vs ZenRows

> ZenRows has a score of 75.1 (BB) against ScrapeGraphAI's 68.3 (B). Both do scraping. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-zenrows
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-zenrows.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-zenrows.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-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 ScrapeGraphAI's 68.3 (B). Both do scraping. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points.

- ScrapeGraphAI: grade B, 68.3/100, rank #128 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapegraphai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapegraphai.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 ScrapeGraphAI for schema & documentation (+5), payments & pricing (+10).

Pick ZenRows for reliability (+23), agent ergonomics (+7), maintenance & community (+17), transparency & trust (+14).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ScrapeGraphAI | ZenRows | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 64 | 87 | ZenRows +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 83 | ScrapeGraphAI +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 79 | ZenRows +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 39 | 41 | ZenRows +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 80 | ScrapeGraphAI +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 87 | ZenRows +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 75 | ZenRows +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.3 · B** | **75.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ScrapeGraphAI | ZenRows |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ScrapeGraphAI | ZenRows |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com` | `https://api.zenrows.com/v1/` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | payer tooling only |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 20 | 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 | `io.github.ScrapeGraphAI/scrapegraph-mcp` | `io.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-09-18 |
| Popularity | 2.4k npm/wk, 46k PyPI/wk | 21 stars, 35k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.8/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**ScrapeGraphAI.** An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup. Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages.

**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

### ScrapeGraphAI

1. Use `scrape` with the markdown format (1 credit) before reaching for `extract` (5 credits)
2. Read `GET https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com/api/agent/protocols` for current packs and prices before paying over x402
3. MCP tool calls stop at 60 seconds. Use `crawl_start` and poll for anything longer
4. Back off 1, 2 then 4 seconds on a 429 `rate_limit_exceeded`. No Retry-After is sent
5. Use Orthogonal's x402 gateway when you need to pay per call without a key

### 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 ScrapeGraphAI or ZenRows

- [Bright Data vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Bright Data vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Olostep vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Olostep vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapfly vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapingBee vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Spider vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-zenrows.md)