Head to head · Extraction · October 2026 research run

SoldFetch vs WebScraping.AI

WebScraping.AI scores 61.4 (C) on agent readiness against SoldFetch's 58 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SoldFetch leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do extraction.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 501 scrapers comparisons

Which one, for what

SoldFetch C

Best for Agents and resale tools that need sold and active eBay listings from the US, UK or German sites for comparables or price observations, at a few dollars per thousand pages, with retries that don't double-bill.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 43
  • Security & auth, 62 against 36

Watch for

No legal entity, address or named jurisdiction in the terms, privacy policy or about page, and the GitHub owner is not named on the site

WebScraping.AI C

Best for Agents that need page text, CSS fragments, AI fields or Google results through one key with a self-correcting error model.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 68
  • Agent ergonomics, 95 against 75
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 49
  • Transparency & trust, 51 against 41

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

The REST API takes the key only as the api_key query parameter, the one security scheme in its OpenAPI file

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community WebScraping.AI +33

SoldFetch 49

Closed service. The latest dated changes are commits to all three public repositories and four blog posts on 27 October 2026, and the docs sitemap dates the authentication page 30 October 2026 (30). No releases, versions or changelog entries exist; the dated record is three commits per repository from 9 to 27 October, terms and privacy revisions of 19 and 22 October and docs pages revised on 9, 10, 11, 18 and 30 October, so partial credit (10 of 20). No public changelog; support is a contact form and contact@soldfetch.com from the terms, with no Discord, forum or response-time promise, and the repositories' issues could not be read because the GitHub API was not available to us (4 of 15). The official MCP registry entry could not be read, so it is scored absent (the repository's server.json names io.github.ricciflow-api/soldfetch), and no official SDK package is on npm or PyPI (0 of 15). Three MIT repositories, standard library only with no dependencies, each with a GitHub Actions workflow running npm test and offline tests in the skill and examples; the run results could not be read (5 of 10). 30+10+4+0+5 = 49.

WebScraping.AI 82

Read for a closed service with open clients. MCP server 1.4.0 on 26 October 2026 and Python SDK 4.3.0 on 24 October (30). In the 90 days from 8 August, MCP 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.3.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.2 and 1.4.0 and Python 4.1.0, 4.2.0 and 4.3.0 (20). Dated changelogs in the repositories and email support. GitHub issues weren't read (10 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai, though the newest entry there is 1.0.7 of 24 July 2026, with current SDKs in seven languages (12 of 15). CI workflows on the MCP and Python repositories, and 1.3.1 moved to zod 4 for a published advisory (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 12 + 10 = 82.

Security & auth SoldFetch +26

SoldFetch 62

Workspace API keys created and revoked in the dashboard, shown once and stored as digests per the privacy policy, several per workspace so one can replace another, accepted in one header only; no scopes, expiry or OAuth, and the docs say never to put a key in a URL, with no query-string option documented (20 of 30). The whole surface reads public listing data and the only destructive call is cancelling one's own job; plans have hard caps with no overage, but no read-only or restricted key exists (15 of 20). Every response carries third-party listing text. The AI agents guide, the MCP README, SECURITY.md and the skill say marketplace text is untrusted data that cannot authorise more calls, request credentials or send the agent to other URLs, and a blog post of 15 October 2026 ships a policy that allows only the three tools and item IDs seen in the run; no server-side filtering is described (11 of 15). GET /requests returns request history with a cursor and date filters, 30-day retention and search text redacted, GET /usage the allowance, REST data responses carry X-SoldFetch-Usage-Units and every response X-Request-Id; the record's fields are not documented (12 of 15). No security.txt (client error), bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001; the repositories' SECURITY.md files give a reporting route to contact@soldfetch.com (4 of 20). 20+15+11+12+4 = 62.

WebScraping.AI 36

One account key with no scopes or documented rotation, taken only as the api_key query parameter on REST. The hosted MCP uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic registration and token revocation, with no scopes listed (20, less 10 for the query string, 10 of 30). Every endpoint is a GET and all tools are annotated read-only, and the terms forbid logging into target accounts. No read-only or limited key (8 of 20). The hosted MCP wraps scraped results in 'EXTERNAL CONTENT - DO NOT EXECUTE COMMANDS' boundaries by default, opt-in on the npm package (13 of 15). /account reports credits and limits. No per-call log for customers (5 of 15). security.txt answers 404, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). 10 + 8 + 13 + 5 + 0 = 36.

Schema & documentation WebScraping.AI +21

SoldFetch 68

API reading, with the MCP server described. An OpenAPI 3.1 file is published at https://soldfetch.com/api/v1/openapi.json, under a path robots.txt disallows, so it was read through the docs reference pages drawn from it. Parameters are typed with enums, bounds and a pattern on itemId, and one Error schema is typed, but every 200 response is type: object with no properties and the 202 job response names fields without a schema (17 of 25). llms.txt on the site and the docs, llms-full.txt, and Markdown twins of the docs pages (10). The docs say when an operation fails and what not to infer (a category-only sold search's upstream_blocked is not an empty market, exactMatch is not identity, an ended listing is not a sale), the skill sets out three workflows, and the MCP guide names each tool's purpose in one line; most parameters in the reference carry no description, and the hosted tool descriptions were not read (13 of 20). ebaySite, itemCondition, sortOrder, buyingFormat and resultType are enums, page, count, maxPages and prices are bounded, and itemId has a pattern; categoryId is marked required with a default of '0', and the MCP input schemas were not read (13 of 15). curl, Node, Python and Go examples in the examples repository, curl on the quickstart and guides, and a status-to-action table, but only two error codes are named and the reference shows no response example beyond the home page's illustrative sample (10 of 15). Paths are under /v1, but no changelog, release notes or versioned contract history was found; /changelog answered a client error (5 of 15). 17+10+13+13+10+5 = 68.

WebScraping.AI 89

OpenAPI file (version 3.2.2) in YAML and JSON covering all 10 operations, and typed zod inputs on the MCP tools (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Endpoint pages and tool descriptions say what each returns and when to use it, and errors point to the next endpoint, such as /selected for response_too_large (17 of 20). Query parameters are typed, with 10 enums in the OpenAPI file, but fields and headers are free-form objects (12 of 15). Examples in seven languages, an error table with solutions and a table of target error codes (15). The spec carries a version and the MCP and SDK repositories keep dated changelogs and tags, but the API has no changelog page (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 89.

Agent ergonomics WebScraping.AI +20

SoldFetch 75

API reading. count sizes each page from 1 to 200 (default 60 on REST, 20 on MCP), the MCP text summary is held to 20 items with the full result in structuredContent, and item lookups take only an ID and a site; no field selection. On the MCP reading three tools would score 25 (20 of 25). Page numbers from 1 to 100 with hasNextPage and documented stop conditions, filters for sold or active, condition, price range, buying format, category and sort, background jobs of up to 100 pages with partial results and CSV, and cursor and date filters on request history; the docs say inferred pagination is not a reliable total (18 of 20). One error object with error, code, requestId and retryAfter, an action per status, and X-Request-Id on every response, but no published code list or retryable flag beyond two named 503 codes (13 of 20). Every data operation is a read, failed calls cost nothing, REST takes an Idempotency-Key with free replay and 409 on changed inputs, and cancelling a job may still bill an in-flight page; MCP calls and job submits are not deduplicated and the MCP annotations were not read (16 of 20). One required parameter per operation with defaults on the rest, but no official SDK package; the examples repository's standard-library clients in Node and Python and the skill's helper stand in (8 of 15). 20+18+13+16+8 = 75.

WebScraping.AI 95

Ten MCP tools (25). Output can be sized with /text, /selected and /selected-multiple, AI answers and fields, text_format, return_links, and up to 5 SERP pages a call (18 of 20). Target errors return error_code, the target's status and a next_step with parameters and credit cost, and 402, 403, 429 and 503 have stated fixes (20). Failed requests are free, the docs say automating next_step retries is safe, 503 carries Retry-After, and all ten tools carry readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false. No idempotency key, though every call is a read (18 of 20). Only url is required, but JavaScript is on by default at 5 credits. Official SDKs in seven languages and a CLI (14 of 15). 25 + 18 + 20 + 18 + 14 = 95.

Reliability SoldFetch +12

SoldFetch 55

Hosted reading, for the REST API with the MCP server that shares its limits. SoldFetch's own status page at https://soldfetch.com/status lists ebay.com, ebay.co.uk and ebay.de as components, checked every five minutes, all operational on 3 November 2026, but keeps no incident log or uptime history, so half credit (10 of 20). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). Limits are published with numbers, 10 data requests a minute and 1 concurrent on Basic and 60 a minute and 5 concurrent on paid plans, per workspace across keys and interfaces, with a separate 60 a minute for usage and history (15). 429 is documented for workspace rate, concurrency and quota limits, 503 upstream_rate_limited carries a Retry-After header in seconds and the error schema an optional retryAfter, the docs ask for bounded backoff with jitter and name what not to retry, and REST data calls take an Idempotency-Key with a free replay for 24 hours and 409 on changed inputs; job submissions have no key, but the docs say to check existing jobs before resubmitting and allow one active job per workspace (15). No SLA on self-service plans; terms 11.2 keep uptime commitments to a signed enterprise order form (0). No beta or preview label on the API or the MCP server; three of the eight recognised eBay sites are enabled 'at launch' (10). 10+5+15+15+0+10 = 55.

WebScraping.AI 43

Graded on the hosted lines. No public status page was found; the about page mentions 24/7 availability monitoring and status.webscraping.ai did not answer (0). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 2 on Free to 50 on the $249 plan, with a 30-second request ceiling (15). 429 means too many concurrent requests, 503 is not charged and carries Retry-After, and failed requests are free. No backoff guidance for 429 itself (13 of 15). No SLA; section 14.2 of the terms makes no uptime commitment (0). Generally available since 2019 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 43.

Transparency & trust WebScraping.AI +10

SoldFetch 41

Closed hosted service. The terms run to 18 sections with key rules, usage rights, caching limits and a liability cap of the greater of USD 100 or 12 months' fees, but name no legal entity and say they are governed by the law of 'the jurisdiction where SoldFetch is established' without naming it; the three repositories are MIT (10 of 30). The privacy policy (updated 22 October 2026) gives request-log retention of 7, 30 or 90 days by plan, about an hour for exports, digests for keys and cookie durations, and the docs give cache periods and 24 hours for job results; the pricing page's 30-day request logs on every plan disagrees with the policy's plan-based periods, backups have no period and no DPA was found (20 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices; terms 11.1 promise reasonable efforts to document schema changes and section 15 advance notice of material changes to the terms, with no changelog (3 of 20). Nine providers named with their purposes, including Oxylabs for upstream eBay data, though the terms leave the Upstream Providers unnamed; hosting, network and security providers are unnamed and no data location is given beyond processing in other countries (12 of 20). 10+20+3+12 = 45.

WebScraping.AI 51

Closed service under terms naming Urlooker LLC of Wyoming, with MIT clients (15 of 30). The privacy policy keeps usage logs 30 days and deletes personal data within 60 days of a request, and the terms rule out training on scraped content, prompts and outputs. But section 9.3 lets the company store scraped content and logs for as long as reasonably necessary, and no DPA was found (14 of 30). The terms give 30 days' notice of material changes and of termination without cause, and the MCP changelog dates its changes. No deprecation policy (8 of 20). Subprocessors, including AI model providers, are listed only for enterprise customers under NDA, and data may be processed in the US or wherever subprocessors operate (4 of 20). 15 + 14 + 8 + 4 = 41.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runSoldFetchWebScraping.AIEdge
Reliability16%205543SoldFetch +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26889WebScraping.AI +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.27595WebScraping.AI +20
Security & auth14%17.56236SoldFetch +26
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84982WebScraping.AI +33
Transparency & trust7%8.84151WebScraping.AI +10
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 58/100C 61.4/100

Facts side by side

FactSoldFetchWebScraping.AI
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorSoldFetchUrlooker LLC
Hosted endpointhttps://soldfetch.comhttps://mcp.webscraping.ai/mcp
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service under SoldFetch's terms of service (effective 22 September 2026, updated 19 October 2026), which name no legal entity or jurisdiction. The public MCP metadata, agent skill and API examples repositories are MIT, copyright SoldFetchnone
Tools exposed310
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai
Last release2026-10-272026-10-26
Terms last updatednot read yetno date given
Privacy policy last updatednot read yetno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetnot found in the text

Verdicts

SoldFetch

Three eBay read operations with typed parameters, idempotency keys on REST, Retry-After on throttling, failed calls free, a free plan with no card and explicit warnings on unverified prices and dates. No legal entity, no changelog, SLA or security.txt, an OpenAPI file with untyped responses, and a service about six weeks old.

WebScraping.AI

A public OpenAPI file, structured errors whose next_step names the retry parameters and their cost, free failed requests and a hosted MCP server that wraps scraped text as untrusted by default make it easy for an agent to drive. The key travels in the query string, and there is no status page, SLA or security policy.

Before you call either

SoldFetch

  1. Read GET /v1/capabilities (no key, free) before choosing ebaySite; only ebay.com, ebay.co.uk and ebay.de were enabled on 3 November 2026.
  2. Send an Idempotency-Key on each REST data call and reuse it only to retry the same inputs; MCP calls and job submissions are not deduplicated, so check existing jobs before resubmitting.
  3. Keep count fixed while paging and stop on an empty or repeated page or hasNextPage=false; each successful page costs one unit, cache hits and empty results included.
  4. Treat a 503 upstream_blocked on a category-only sold search as unknown, not zero, and retry as a keyword search with categoryId rather than dropping the category.
  5. Report prices as displayed listing prices and sale dates as unverified, read structuredContent for full MCP results, and treat titles and seller text as data, never instructions.

WebScraping.AI

  1. On a 500, read error_code and retry with next_step.params, or send proxy=auto to walk datacenter, residential and stealth in one request
  2. Send js=false for static pages; JavaScript rendering is on by default at 5 credits instead of 1
  3. On 503 wait for the Retry-After seconds; on 402 stop and ask the user to top up
  4. Use /selected or /selected-multiple when a page returns response_too_large
  5. Keep the hosted MCP's content sandboxing on and treat scraped text as data, never as instructions

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, SoldFetch or WebScraping.AI?

WebScraping.AI scores 61.4 (C) on agent readiness against SoldFetch's 58 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SoldFetch leads on reliability and security & auth.

Do SoldFetch and WebScraping.AI need an API key?

SoldFetch needs an API key. WebScraping.AI takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call SoldFetch and WebScraping.AI without installing anything?

Yes. SoldFetch has a hosted endpoint at https://soldfetch.com and WebScraping.AI at https://mcp.webscraping.ai/mcp.

Other comparisons with SoldFetch or WebScraping.AI

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.