# Scrapfly vs Spider

> Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Scrapfly's 69.8 (B). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapfly doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-spider-cloud
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-spider-cloud.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-spider-cloud.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-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 Scrapfly's 69.8 (B). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapfly doesn't.

- 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
- 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 Scrapfly for schema & documentation (+8), agent ergonomics (+10), security & auth (+28), transparency & trust (+8).

Pick Spider for reliability (+30), payments & pricing (+56).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrapfly | Spider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 80 | Spider +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 87 | Scrapfly +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 70 | Scrapfly +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 42 | Scrapfly +28 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 96 | Spider +56 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 85 | Spider +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 69 | Scrapfly +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.8 · B** | **74.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapfly | Spider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) | Spider (BAGELMEN LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` | `https://api.spider.cloud` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.0005/call |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 61 | 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.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` | `cloud.spider/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-07-19 |
| Popularity | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk | 2.7k stars, 2.7k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

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

**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

### 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

### 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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