# Scrapeless vs Scrapfly

> Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is security & auth, 35 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapfly
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapfly.md (~1,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapfly.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapfly.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

Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is security & auth, 35 points.

- 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
- Scrapfly: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #107 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Scrapeless for reliability (+25).

Pick Scrapfly for schema & documentation (+29), agent ergonomics (+30), security & auth (+35), payments & pricing (+5), transparency & trust (+21).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrapeless | Scrapfly | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 50 | Scrapeless +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 95 | Scrapfly +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 80 | Scrapfly +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 70 | Scrapfly +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Scrapfly +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 84 | Scrapfly +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 77 | Scrapfly +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.3 · C** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapeless | Scrapfly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapeless.com` | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 61 |
| 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.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server` | `io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-08 |
| Popularity | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Scrapfly.** The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Scrapfly

1. Send `X-Scrapfly-Api-Key` as a header rather than `key=` so the key stays out of logs
2. Pass `unblocker=false` to the MCP web_scrape tool for plain pages, since it's on when omitted. `asp` is the deprecated alias
3. Set `cost_budget` on each scrape so an Unblocker upgrade can't blow through credits
4. Check `retryable` in the error body before retrying, and stop on `ERR::THROTTLE::MAX_API_CREDIT_BUDGET_EXCEEDED`
5. Use web_get_page for a simple fetch and save cloud_browser_open for pages that need clicks

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