# Scrapingdog vs Spider

> Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapingdog doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-spider-cloud
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-spider-cloud.md (~1,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-spider-cloud.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-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: 2026-10-04

Spider has a score of 74.3 (BB) against Scrapingdog's 39.3 (E). Both do scraping. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 56 points. Spider accepts x402. Scrapingdog doesn't.

- 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
- 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 Scrapingdog for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Spider for reliability (+18), schema & documentation (+44), agent ergonomics (+26), security & auth (+37), payments & pricing (+56), maintenance & community (+40), transparency & trust (+12).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Scrapingdog | Spider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 62 | 80 | Spider +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 87 | Spider +44 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 44 | 70 | Spider +26 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 5 | 42 | Spider +37 |
| 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) | 45 | 85 | Spider +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 69 | Spider +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **39.3 · E** | **74.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapingdog | Spider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapingdog (OpenData Labs) | Spider (BAGELMEN LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape` | `https://api.spider.cloud` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.0005/call |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 35 | 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.github.Darshan972/scrapingdog-mcp` | `cloud.spider/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-07-19 |
| Popularity | 0 stars, 41 npm/wk, 12 PyPI/wk | 2.7k stars, 2.7k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

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

**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

### 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

### 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

## Other comparisons with Scrapingdog or Spider

- [Bright Data vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Bright Data vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Olostep vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Olostep vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrape.do vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrape.do vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapfly vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapfly vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapingAnt vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScrapingBee vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapingBee vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapingdog vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Spider vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-spider-cloud.md)