CrawlForge vs Zyte
MCP-native web scraping for AI agents versus Zyte's enterprise Scrapy-origin platform with tiered per-website pricing.
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Overview
CrawlForge and Zyte serve very different parts of the web scraping market. Zyte is the company behind Scrapy with a 15+ year track record, an enterprise-grade API, and tiered per-website pricing (sites scored 1-5 by difficulty, charged $0.06-$1.27 per 1,000 responses at scale). CrawlForge is a newer MCP-native platform with 20 tools and flat per-call credit pricing designed for AI agents.
Zyte's strength is massive-scale scraping with expert-managed data extraction services, pre-built Smart Proxy Manager for hard sites, and a deep Scrapy ecosystem. CrawlForge's strength is developer-friendly AI integration — agents on Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf call tools directly through MCP, no wrapping needed.
Pricing models also differ sharply. Zyte charges per response with per-site difficulty tiers and minimum monthly commitments. CrawlForge charges flat credits per tool call with no minimum commitment and a 1,000-credit free tier. For high-volume, high-difficulty enterprise scraping, Zyte is usually cheaper per request. For AI agent workflows and mixed tool use, CrawlForge is simpler and more predictable.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | CrawlForge | Zyte | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | MCP-native, 20 tools | REST API, Scrapy Cloud, Smart Proxy Manager | |
| Heritage | New (2026) | 15+ years, creators of Scrapy | |
| AI Agent Integration | Direct MCP tool calls | REST API, no MCP support | |
| Pricing Model | Flat credits per tool call | Per-response, tiered by site difficulty ($0.06-$1.27/1K) | |
| Minimum Commitment | None | $100-$500/mo commitment for best rates | |
| Deep Research | Multi-source with conflict detection | Not available | |
| Enterprise Features | Business tier | Full enterprise suite, managed extraction services | |
| Scrapy Ecosystem | Not applicable | First-class Scrapy integration, Scrapy Cloud | |
| Free Tier | 1,000 credits (one-time) | $5 free trial credit, 30 days | |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not yet | ISO 27001 certified |
Pricing Comparison
| Tier | CrawlForge | Zyte |
|---|---|---|
| Free / Trial | 1,000 credits (one-time) | $5 free credit, 30 days |
| Starter | $19/mo — 5,000 credits | Pay-as-you-go from $0.13/1K responses |
| Professional | $99/mo — 50,000 credits | $100/mo minimum — discounted rates |
| Business | $399/mo — 250,000 credits | $500/mo minimum — best rates; Enterprise custom |
Why Choose CrawlForge
- MCP-native for AI agent workflows (Zyte has no MCP support)
- Flat per-tool credit pricing with no minimum commitment
- 20 tools covering research, monitoring, structured extraction
- Larger free tier (1,000 credits vs $5 trial)
- Simpler forecasting — no per-site difficulty tiering
- Built-in deep_research with conflict detection
Where Zyte Shines
- +15+ years of scraping experience and infrastructure maturity
- +Home of Scrapy — first-class integration with the open-source framework
- +Smart Proxy Manager with per-site difficulty tiering
- +ISO 27001 certification for enterprise compliance
- +Managed data extraction services (human-supported pipelines)
- +Cheaper per-response at very high volume with commitment
The Verdict
Pick CrawlForge if you are building AI agents and want MCP-native tool access without wrapping REST endpoints. The flat credit pricing, 20 tool primitives, and no-commitment free tier make it ideal for developer-driven projects.
Pick Zyte if you are running enterprise-scale scraping with predictable volume per site, already invested in Scrapy, need ISO 27001 compliance, or want managed data extraction services. Zyte is the right tool for mature data pipelines at scale; CrawlForge is the right tool for AI agent-driven applications.
Which one should you pick?
- You are building Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf agents and want MCP-native tool access.
- You prefer flat per-tool credits over Zyte's per-response tiered model.
- You do not want a $100-$500/mo minimum commitment.
- Your scraping is mixed — fetch, extract, research, monitor — rather than pure high-volume crawls.
- You want deep_research and change tracking built in.
- You have an existing Scrapy codebase and want first-class Zyte integration via Scrapy Cloud.
- You need ISO 27001 certification or enterprise compliance documents CrawlForge does not yet provide.
- You are scraping at volume where Zyte's $500/mo commitment unlocks the best per-response rates.
- You want managed/human-assisted data extraction services (Zyte Data) rather than self-serve APIs.
- Your target sites have per-site difficulty profiles that match Zyte's tiering well.
Migration example
Swap a Zyte API scrape request for a CrawlForge extract_content call. (Check Zyte docs for latest API shape.)
Before — Zyte
typescript// Before: Zyte API
const res = await fetch('https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { Authorization: `Basic ${btoa(process.env.ZYTE_API_KEY + ':')}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://example.com', browserHtml: true }),
});
const { browserHtml } = await res.json();After — CrawlForge
typescript// After: CrawlForge
const res = await fetch('https://www.crawlforge.dev/api/v1/tools/extract_content', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.CRAWLFORGE_API_KEY}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://example.com' }),
});
const { content } = await res.json();Frequently Asked Questions
Is CrawlForge a Scrapy replacement?
No — Scrapy is an open-source Python framework and CrawlForge is a hosted API. You would not migrate a Scrapy codebase to CrawlForge directly. You would migrate a set of scraping operations from Zyte's API or Scrapy Cloud to CrawlForge tool calls.
How does Zyte's per-response pricing compare to CrawlForge credits?
Zyte charges per successful response with per-site difficulty tiers (1-5) and minimum monthly commitments for best rates. A simple page at $500/mo commitment is $0.06 per 1K responses; an advanced browser-rendered page is $7.68 per 1K. CrawlForge charges flat credits per tool call (1-10 credits) with no commitment, which makes small and mixed workloads simpler to forecast.
Does CrawlForge have anything like Zyte Smart Proxy Manager?
stealth_mode handles residential proxies and fingerprint rotation, but Zyte's Smart Proxy Manager has 15+ years of per-site profile tuning that CrawlForge does not match yet. For sites where Zyte has deep profile data, they will scrape more reliably.
Is CrawlForge enterprise-ready?
CrawlForge has a Business tier and is production-stable, but Zyte has ISO 27001 certification and a 15+ year enterprise track record CrawlForge cannot claim yet. For strict compliance or extremely high volume, Zyte is still the safer enterprise choice.
Can I use CrawlForge for AI agents the way I cannot with Zyte?
Yes. CrawlForge is MCP-native, so agents on Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP host discover and call tools automatically. Zyte is REST-only — you would have to wrap its endpoints in an MCP server yourself.
Related resources
Getting started
Install CrawlForge MCP and run your first scrape in under a minute.
Browse all 20 tools
See every scraping, extraction, and research tool with credit costs.
Use cases
Lead enrichment, price monitoring, RAG pipelines, and more.
Pricing
Free 1,000 credits, then $19/mo Starter. Compare every plan.
All comparisons
See how CrawlForge stacks up against every major scraping API.
MCP web scraping guide
Why MCP-native scraping outperforms REST for AI agents.
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