# Scrapeless vs WebScraping.AI (slim)

> WebScraping.AI scores 61.4 (C) to Scrapeless's 55.9 (C) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-webscraping-ai.md (~5,050 tokens) · this version ~2,330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-webscraping-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-webscraping-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

WebScraping.AI scores 61.4 (C) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 55.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Scrapeless leads on reliability and transparency & trust. Both do scraping.

- Scrapeless: C 55.9, rank #852 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeless.min.md
- WebScraping.AI: C 61.4, rank #618 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/webscraping-ai.min.md
- Scrapeless, good for An agent that needs one key for unlocking, a remote browser and AI answer-engine scraping. Ahead on Reliability, 70 against 43; Transparency & trust, 58 against 51.
- WebScraping.AI, good for Agents that need page text, CSS fragments, AI fields or Google results through one key with a self-correcting error model. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 95 against 50; Payments & pricing, 40 against 35.

| Category | Scrapeless | WebScraping.AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 50 | 95 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 37 | 36 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 81 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 58 | 51 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Scrapeless | WebScraping.AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) | Urlooker LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapeless.com` | `https://mcp.webscraping.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 10 |
| MCP registry | `io.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server` | `io.github.webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai` |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Agent ergonomics, WebScraping.AI +45: Scrapeless 50 (25 MCP tools, 16 of them browser actions, with no toolsets or read-only subset (15 of 25). crawl_start takes limit and maxDepth, but scrape_markdown and scrape_html take only a URL, with no size or selector control (10 of 20). The MCP returns status_code, a code of rate_limited or api_error, and the upstream message. No API error catalogue found (10 of 20). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations and no idempotency guidance (0). Most tools need only a URL, and official SDKs exist for Node and Python (15).); WebScraping.AI 95 (Ten MCP tools (25). Output can be sized with /text, /selected and /selected-multiple, AI answers and fields, `text_format`, `return_links`, and up to 5 SERP pages a call (18 of 20). Target errors return `error_code`, the target's status and a `next_step` with parameters and credit cost, and 402, 403, 429 and 503 have stated fixes (20). Failed requests are free, the docs say automating `next_step` retries is safe, 503 carries Retry-After, and all ten tools carry readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false. No idempotency key, though every call is a read (18 of 20). Only `url` is required, but JavaScript is on by default at 5 credits. Official SDKs in seven languages and a CLI (14 of 15). 25 + 18 + 20 + 18 + 14 = 95.)
- Reliability, Scrapeless +27: Scrapeless 70 (Better Stack status page at status.scrapeless.com with four groups, Scrapeless API, Scraping Browser, website and dashboard, and residential proxies (20). Every monitor shows 100 per cent uptime over 90 days and the incident list reports none for September, October or November 2026. The list doesn't page back to August, so the earlier clean reading for August is kept (30). No rate-limit numbers found in the docs. The 30 September concurrency figures came from a script-loaded price file and are struck (0). The Results and Polling page documents 429 as rate limit exceeded with reduce-frequency guidance and a one-minute wait for 500s, with no idempotency keys (10). The pricing page names an Enterprise-level SLA but no SLA document is published (0). The APIs are generally available (10). 20 + 30 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 70.); WebScraping.AI 43 (Graded on the hosted lines. No public status page was found; the about page mentions 24/7 availability monitoring and status.webscraping.ai did not answer (0). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 2 on Free to 50 on the $249 plan, with a 30-second request ceiling (15). 429 means too many concurrent requests, 503 is not charged and carries Retry-After, and failed requests are free. No backoff guidance for 429 itself (13 of 15). No SLA; section 14.2 of the terms makes no uptime commitment (0). Generally available since 2019 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 43.)
- Schema & documentation, WebScraping.AI +23: Scrapeless 66 (No OpenAPI spec found. The API reference at apidocs.scrapeless.com lists about 30 schema definitions in its llms.txt, and the 25 MCP tools have typed zod inputs, one of which (crawl_start scrapeOptions) takes a free-form record (15 of 25). llms.txt with Markdown pages for every endpoint (10). MCP descriptions carry Restrictions, Valid and Invalid lines for most tools, though google_search's description is a run-on fragment (15 of 20). Inputs are typed with URL validation and some enums, plus the one free-form record (11 of 15). Request examples on each reference page, but no documented error responses or error code list found (7 of 15). Versioned API paths (v1, v2) and a CHANGELOG.md in the MCP repo, but no product changelog (8 of 15).); WebScraping.AI 89 (OpenAPI file (version 3.2.2) in YAML and JSON covering all 10 operations, and typed zod inputs on the MCP tools (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Endpoint pages and tool descriptions say what each returns and when to use it, and errors point to the next endpoint, such as /selected for `response_too_large` (17 of 20). Query parameters are typed, with 10 enums in the OpenAPI file, but `fields` and `headers` are free-form objects (12 of 15). Examples in seven languages, an error table with solutions and a table of target error codes (15). The spec carries a version and the MCP and SDK repositories keep dated changelogs and tags, but the API has no changelog page (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 89.)
- Transparency & trust, Scrapeless +7: Scrapeless 58 (The MCP server is open source but the LICENSE file says MIT while package.json says ISC. The API is closed, and the terms name NST LABS TECH LTD. with no address or governing law (15 of 30). The privacy policy gives no retention periods beyond tokens kept 24 hours. The Data Processing Agreement (v1.0, effective 7 August 2026, linked from the terms) covers sub-processor notice, SCCs for EEA transfers and deletion on termination, with no retention periods for scraped data (14 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). The DPA's Exhibit 2 names two sub-processors, Airwallex and Intercom, both in the United States, and no hosting location (10 of 20). 15 + 14 + 0 + 10 = 39.); WebScraping.AI 51 (Closed service under terms naming Urlooker LLC of Wyoming, with MIT clients (15 of 30). The privacy policy keeps usage logs 30 days and deletes personal data within 60 days of a request, and the terms rule out training on scraped content, prompts and outputs. But section 9.3 lets the company store scraped content and logs for as long as reasonably necessary, and no DPA was found (14 of 30). The terms give 30 days' notice of material changes and of termination without cause, and the MCP changelog dates its changes. No deprecation policy (8 of 20). Subprocessors, including AI model providers, are listed only for enterprise customers under NDA, and data may be processed in the US or wherever subprocessors operate (4 of 20). 15 + 14 + 8 + 4 = 41.)
- Payments & pricing, WebScraping.AI +5: Scrapeless 35 (No x402, MPP or L402. Crypto top-ups exist but aren't a machine payment protocol (0). The pricing page draws its rate tables by script. The docs publish per-unit rates, Crawl from $1.8 a GB plus $0.09 a browser hour and Web Unlocker from $0.20 per 1,000 URLs, and the Google Search API page gives volume rates below $0.50 per 1,000 on qualifying plans, but no full rate card is readable without script (15 of 20, a partial kept under the in-between rule). The Google Search API page says no credit card is required to start (20). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0 + 15 + 20 + 0 = 35.); WebScraping.AI 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credit costs per option and plan prices are public, with pay-as-you-go at $0.0002 a credit (20). Free plan of 2,000 credits a month with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.)