# Onto vs ScrapingBee · Where each one fits
> ScrapingBee is built for scraping at volume, with rotating proxies, headless browsers, a Markdown scraper and AI extraction. Onto reads pages for agents and scores them for free, with no model in the pipeline.

**Source:** /compare/scrapingbee
**Extracted:** 2026-09-24T18:14:20.519Z

---
Compared · Onto vs ScrapingBee

## ScrapingBee collects at volume. _Onto reads for an agent, and scores it._

ScrapingBee is a scraping API: rotating proxies and headless browsers, with a Markdown scraper, AI extraction and an MCP server on top. Onto is narrower: a URL in, clean Markdown out, a free 0–100 score, and no model anywhere in the pipeline. It honours robots.txt on every read.

[Try the scanner free](/scanner) [All comparisons](/compare)

90

scrapingbee.com AIO score

80

buildonto.dev, ours

24 Sep 2026

both scanned

Shared ground

### What ScrapingBee and Onto both do.

Starting anywhere else would be dishonest. For a lot of jobs either one is a reasonable answer.

Markdown

#### Pages as Markdown

Both can hand back a page as Markdown instead of HTML.

MCP

#### An MCP server

Both connect to agents over MCP.

Free

#### 1,000 credits to start

ScrapingBee gives 1,000 trial credits; Onto gives 1,000 credits every month.

Line by line

### Where the two differ.

A dot marks who comes out ahead on the row, when anyone does. A dash means the product doesn't do it. Their side is from ScrapingBee's own site, 24 Sep 2026.

CapabilityOntoScrapingBee

Page → MarkdownYes · 1 credit a URL, cached an hour, failures refundedMarkdown scraper

JavaScript renderingNo · client-rendered pages come back flaggedYes · headless browsers

Rotating proxies—Yes

Structured extractionWhat the page declares (JSON-LD, OpenGraph, meta) · no model · 1 creditAI data extraction

A 0–100 score for the page0–100, every penalty named · /v1/score is free—

Hallucination-risk labellow, medium or high, per page—

MCP serverYes · six tools, OAuth or npxYes

Serve agents from your own site@ontosdk/next, for Next.js 14+—

Free1,000 credits a month1,000 trial credits

Paid$9, $49 or $250 a month, plus credit packsFrom $19 a month

Which to pick

### When to choose ScrapingBee instead.

Both columns are real. If the right-hand one describes you, use them.

#### Pick Onto if…

*   You're grounding an agent on pages and want to know which to trust.
*   You want a reader that honours robots.txt and names itself.
*   You run a Next.js site and want agents served Markdown from it.

#### Pick ScrapingBee if…

*   You're collecting at volume and need proxies and rendered pages.
*   The sites you need are JavaScript-heavy.
*   You want a model to pull fields out of the page.

Common questions

### Details worth knowing.

01Does Onto get past blocks?

No. Onto names itself as Onto-Reader and doesn't fetch a page whose robots.txt disallows GPTBot or every crawler, unless the site is one you've verified as yours. If getting past blocks is the job, a scraping API is the right tool. [About Onto-Reader](/about-bot).

02Does Onto render JavaScript?

No. It reads the HTML the server sends. A page that only fills in after scripts run comes back with a warning in `warnings`, so you know the Markdown may be thin.

03Is the score in every read?

`/v1/read` returns the Markdown with its metadata and stats. `/v1/score` returns the score alone and costs nothing; `/v1/read-and-score` returns both for 1 credit. [How the score works](/scoring).

About ScrapingBee, from its own pages on 24 Sep 2026: [ScrapingBee pricing](https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/) . About Onto: [the Read API docs](https://docs.buildonto.dev/api/read) and [pricing](/pricing). Prices on both sides change; check before you decide.

Decide for yourself

### Run the same URL through both.

The scanner is free and needs no account. Compare the actual output rather than the marketing.

[Open the scanner](/scanner) [All comparisons](/compare)

---
## Structured Data (JSON-LD)
```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "@id": "https://buildonto.dev/#org",
      "name": "Onto",
      "url": "https://buildonto.dev",
      "logo": "https://buildonto.dev/icon.png",
      "sameAs": [
        "https://x.com/buildonto",
        "https://github.com/ravixalgorithm/ontosdk"
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://buildonto.dev/#site",
      "url": "https://buildonto.dev",
      "name": "Onto",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://buildonto.dev/#org"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
      "name": "Onto",
      "applicationCategory": "DeveloperApplication",
      "operatingSystem": "Web",
      "url": "https://buildonto.dev",
      "description": "Onto serves AI agents clean Markdown from your own site, at the same URL, and shows you which agents came. Plus the AIO score, a Read API and an MCP server.",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://buildonto.dev/#org"
      },
      "offers": {
        "@type": "Offer",
        "price": "0",
        "priceCurrency": "USD",
        "description": "Free tier: 1,000 credits / month"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```