# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte.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: 2026-10-09

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.

- Scrapfly: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #167 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json
- Zyte API: grade B, 69.7/100, rank #166 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zyte.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Scrapfly | Zyte API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 85 | Zyte API +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 85 | Scrapfly +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 72 | Scrapfly +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 55 | Scrapfly +15 |
| 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 | 77 | Scrapfly +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 66 | Scrapfly +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.6 · B** | **69.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapfly | Zyte API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape` | `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | 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 | 61 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.scrapfly.mcp/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-14 | 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 | yes | 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 | 14 stars, 21k npm/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-zyte.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "scrapfly", "b": "zyte"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare scrapfly zyte`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapfly.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zyte.json

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