# Scrapeless vs Spider

> Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 61 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapeless doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Scrapeless's 54.3 (C). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 61 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapeless doesn't.

- 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
- Spider: grade BB, 74.3/100, rank #49 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/spider-cloud.json

## Which one, for what

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

Pick Spider for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+21), agent ergonomics (+20), security & auth (+7), payments & pricing (+61), transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrapeless | Spider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 80 | Spider +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 87 | Spider +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 70 | Spider +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 42 | Spider +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 96 | Spider +61 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 85 | Spider +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 69 | Spider +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.3 · C** | **74.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapeless | Spider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) | Spider (BAGELMEN LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapeless.com` | `https://api.spider.cloud` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.0005/call |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 22 |
| 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` | `cloud.spider/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-07-19 |
| Popularity | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk | 2.7k stars, 2.7k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Spider.** Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account. Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy.

## 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

### Spider

1. Every content route returns a JSON array, even /scrape. The status field is the page's, not the API call's
2. Leave request on smart and set return_format to markdown for LLM input
3. Set limit on /crawl. Unset, it caps only at your credit balance
4. Use /scrape with `stealth: true` instead of /unblocker, which is deprecated
5. Honour Retry-After on 429. Keyless use allows 4 requests a minute

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