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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Scrapfly vs Zyte API

Zyte API and Scrapfly score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 69.7 (B) and 69.6 (B). Scrapfly leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do scraping.

ScrapflyScrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) · HTTP API B69.6/100#167 of 841 Zyte APIZyte Group Limited · HTTP API B69.7/100#166 of 841

Which one, for what

Scrapfly B

Good for An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 95 against 85
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 72
  • Security & auth, 70 against 55
  • Maintenance & community, 84 against 77
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 66

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

The open-source MCP server registers 61 tools at once, a heavy tools/list

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 50

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

CategoryWeight this runScrapflyZyte APIEdge
Reliability16%205085Zyte API +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29585Scrapfly +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.28072Scrapfly +8
Security & auth14%17.57055Scrapfly +15
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88477Scrapfly +7
Transparency & trust7%8.87566Scrapfly +9
Negative events≤1500
Total69.6 · B69.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactScrapflyZyte API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorScrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC)Zyte Group Limited
Hosted endpointhttps://api.scrapfly.io/scrapehttps://api.zyte.com/v1/extract
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary 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 exposed6134
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.scrapfly.mcp/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-09-082026-10-05
Terms last updated2026-09-302026-09-22
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-142024-08-30
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity14 stars, 21k npm/wk42k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Scrapfly

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

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

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

Zyte API

  1. Send the API key as the Basic auth username with an empty password to https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract. Set only one of httpResponseBody or browserHtml, or one extraction field
  2. Ask for httpResponseBody before browserHtml. Browser requests cost about eight to thirteen times more per tier
  3. Retry 429, 503 and 520 after the Retry-After seconds, with backoff. They aren't billed. Don't retry 400, 401, 422 or 451
  4. Read statusCode in a 200 response. A target site's 404 comes back as a successful, billed Zyte API response
  5. Have the owner set a blocking spending limit on the key you use. A 403 /auth/account-suspended means the limit or the trial month ended

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Scrapfly or Zyte API?

Zyte API and Scrapfly score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 69.7 (B) and 69.6 (B). Scrapfly leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Do Scrapfly and Zyte API need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Scrapfly and Zyte API without installing anything?

Yes. Scrapfly has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.

Other comparisons with Scrapfly or Zyte API

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