Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run
Scrapeless vs Zyte API
Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.
Which one, for what
Good for An agent that needs one key for unlocking, a remote browser and AI answer-engine scraping, and is happy to read the pricing JSON rather than llms.txt.
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search
Zyte API B
Good for An agent or pipeline that fetches protected pages and wants the service to choose proxy and browser per site and to bill only success, and teams already on Scrapy.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 75
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 50
- Security & auth, 55 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 53
Watch for
Request price depends on the target site's tier, from $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP requests and $1.01 to $16.08 with a browser on pay-as-you-go
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Scrapeless | Zyte API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 75 | 85 | Zyte API +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 66 | 85 | Zyte API +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 50 | 72 | Zyte API +22 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 55 | Zyte API +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 40 | Zyte API +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 81 | 77 | Scrapeless +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 66 | Zyte API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | 54.1 · C | 69.7 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Scrapeless | Zyte API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.scrapeless.com | https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Zyte's terms of service. The Python client is BSD 3-Clause, and the Agentic Web Data plugin is under Zyte's own end-user licence |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | io.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-08-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |
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.
Zyte API
One POST endpoint with an OpenAPI 3 contract picks proxies, browser rendering and extraction per site, bills only successful responses, and sends problem+json errors with Retry-After. Prices vary by target site across five tiers, so cost per request isn't known before the site is assigned one, and no dated API changelog was found.
Before you call either
Scrapeless
- Use scrape_markdown for reading pages and save the browser_* tools for clicks and logins, since browser time bills by the hour
- Call browser_close when done so the session and its billing stop
- Set limit on crawl_start. Unset, it defaults to 10,000 pages
- Crawls are asynchronous. Call crawl_start, then poll crawl_result with the returned id
- Set SCRAPELESS_API_KEY for the stdio server. Older guides use SCRAPELESS_KEY, which still works as a fallback
Zyte API
- Send the API key as the Basic auth username with an empty password to
https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract. Set only one ofhttpResponseBodyorbrowserHtml, or one extraction field - Ask for
httpResponseBodybeforebrowserHtml. Browser requests cost about eight to thirteen times more per tier - Retry 429, 503 and 520 after the
Retry-Afterseconds, with backoff. They aren't billed. Don't retry 400, 401, 422 or 451 - Read
statusCodein a 200 response. A target site's 404 comes back as a successful, billed Zyte API response - Have the owner set a blocking spending limit on the key you use. A 403
/auth/account-suspendedmeans the limit or the trial month ended
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Scrapeless or Zyte API?
Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Do Scrapeless and Zyte API need an API key?
Scrapeless needs an API key. Zyte API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Scrapeless and Zyte API without installing anything?
Yes. Scrapeless has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapeless.com and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/scrapeless-vs-zyte.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/scrapeless.json·/api/v1/tools/zyte.json - From a terminal
anchor compare scrapeless zyte(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "scrapeless", "b": "zyte"}at/mcp, no key