# Scrapfly vs Scrapingdog

> Scrapfly has a score of 69.8 (B) against Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is security & auth, 65 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog.md (~1,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog.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 Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is security & auth, 65 points.

- 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
- Scrapingdog: grade E, 39.3/100, rank #425 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingdog.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Scrapfly for schema & documentation (+52), agent ergonomics (+36), security & auth (+65), maintenance & community (+39), transparency & trust (+20).

Pick Scrapingdog for reliability (+12).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrapfly | Scrapingdog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 62 | Scrapingdog +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 43 | Scrapfly +52 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 44 | Scrapfly +36 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 5 | Scrapfly +65 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 45 | Scrapfly +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 57 | Scrapfly +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **69.8 · B** | **39.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapfly | Scrapingdog |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) | Scrapingdog (OpenData Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` | `https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 61 | 35 |
| 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.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` | `io.github.Darshan972/scrapingdog-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-07-31 |
| Popularity | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk | 0 stars, 41 npm/wk, 12 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

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

**Scrapingdog.** A plain request is 1 credit, about $0.20 per 1,000 on Lite. API key only travels in the URL query string.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Scrapingdog

1. Add dynamic=false unless the page needs JavaScript. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1, whatever the MCP description says
2. Keep request URLs out of logs, since they carry api_key
3. Set client timeouts above 60 seconds and retry on 429 or timeout. Failures aren't billed
4. Prefer the parsed endpoints (Google, Amazon) over scraping the raw page when one exists

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