Agents that need a hosted MCP fetch, search and extraction toolset
Teams that prefer API credits over procuring raw proxy GB and running browsers
WHEN TO RECONSIDER
Find the actual friction
Premium or stealth proxies and rendering change credits per request; 75,000 credits do not necessarily mean 75,000 rendered residential pages.
The hosted MCP URL embeds the API key as a query parameter and shares account credits/concurrency limits; keep the entire URL secret.
START WITH THE CHANGE YOU NEED
Three routes worth comparing
Scrapfly
Keep a managed extraction API
Scrapfly and ScrapingBee both wrap web retrieval in a managed API and publish MCP tools. Scrapfly exposes selectable scrape pools, rendering and anti-bot handling, plus separately metered Cloud Browser access. ScrapingBee exposes HTML retrieval, rendering, premium proxies and search tools. Which settings produce usable output determines the credit comparison.
Before you switch
Skip this route if your application needs a reusable proxy address rather than an API response.
Firecrawl's hosted/local MCP exposes site search, scrape, map, crawl and browser Interact under shared credits. ScrapingBee's hosted MCP supplies scraping, extraction, screenshots and search using ordinary API credits and shared concurrency. The key distinction is site traversal versus feature-priced page extraction.
Before you switch
Confirm the returned format and the cost of a complete crawl, not only one successful page.
DataImpulse sells prepaid proxy GB that it says does not expire. ScrapingBee sells managed HTML API results and hosted MCP calls under monthly credits, with rendering and premium proxy options changing the draw. The relevant comparison is a crawler's continuing traffic balance versus feature-dependent extraction credits.
Before you switch
Choose a raw proxy only if your team can maintain fetching, retries and extraction.
Fixed monthly API-credit plans with concurrency limits; endpoint features such as premium/stealth proxies and JavaScript rendering consume different credit amounts. The hosted MCP server adds no surcharge but draws from the same account credits, with a shared global concurrency limit as well as the account limit. Prices exclude VAT.
Write down the last issue that made you consider switching. If it was a bill, compare the minimum commitment and expiry rules for the same monthly volume. If it was incomplete data, compare a proxy connection with a managed scraping API. If it was engineering time, count the browser maintenance and parsing work you would still own after switching.
Call the HTML API with an API key and URL, choose render_js and premium_proxy/stealth_proxy where needed, or connect an MCP client to the hosted endpoint with the account key in its query string. Proxy mode is separately documented for existing HTTP clients.
Keep one small job on the current provider while you evaluate the replacement. Preserve the same target sample and required output so you can identify what improved.
