# Scrapingdog vs Zyte API

> Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zyte
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zyte.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-vs-zyte.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingdog-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 scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

- Scrapingdog: grade E, 39.2/100, rank #810 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingdog.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

### Scrapingdog (E)

Good for: A budget agent that wants parsed Google, Amazon or LinkedIn results and can keep the key out of logs.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: API key only travels in the URL query string

### 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 62
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 44
- Security & auth, 55 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 45
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 55

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 | Scrapingdog | Zyte API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 62 | 85 | Zyte API +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 85 | Zyte API +42 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 44 | 72 | Zyte API +28 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 5 | 55 | Zyte API +50 |
| 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) | 45 | 77 | Zyte API +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 66 | Zyte API +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **39.2 · E** | **69.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapingdog | Zyte API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapingdog (OpenData Labs) | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape` | `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API 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 | 35 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.Darshan972/scrapingdog-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-01-13 | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-07-17 | 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 | not found in the text | 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 | 0 stars, 41 npm/wk, 12 PyPI/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Scrapingdog or Zyte API?

Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Scrapingdog and Zyte API need an API key?

Scrapingdog needs an API key. Zyte API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Scrapingdog and Zyte API without installing anything?

Yes. Scrapingdog has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Scrapingdog or Zyte API

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