PMB vs Spider Cloud

Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and ratings

Analysis reviewed Live tool data as of 2026-09-01
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At a glance

DimensionPMBSpider Cloud
PricingFreeFreemium; $0.03 per 1,000 pages, AI Studio $6/mo add-on
Primary Use CasePersistent local memory for AI coding agentsWeb crawling/scraping API for AI agents
Key IntegrationMCP with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, ZedLangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen
Target UserDevelopers using AI coding agentsDevelopers building AI agents needing web data
Data PrivacyFully offline, no telemetry, open sourceCloud-based with open-source core; data connectors for storage
Latest NewsSpain blacklists Palantir; noise infusion banned by Census BureauBrowser AI commands, scraper catalog, data connectors

For developers who need persistent context for coding agents and value data privacy, PMB is a free, offline-first solution. For teams building AI agents that require real-time web data for RAG, Spider Cloud offers a scalable, cost-efficient scraping API with advanced anti-detection. Choose PMB if your pain is repetitive context loss; choose Spider Cloud if you need structured data from the web.

Try PMBTry Spider Cloud
PMB
PMB

Local-first persistent memory for AI coding agents via MCP.

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Spider Cloud
Spider Cloud

AI web scraping API: crawl, scrape, search any site into markdown or JSON at 10k req/min.

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Pricing
Free
Freemium
Plans
$0
$1/GB + $0.001/min compute
$40/mo (2 concurrency)
$6/mo
Popularity
2 views
7.5k views
Skill Level
Intermediate
Intermediate
API Available
Platforms
CLIDesktop
WebAPICLI
Categories
🧠 Agent Memory & Runtimes🔌 MCP Servers & Agent Tooling
🌐 Web Scraping & Search APIs🖱️ Browser & Computer-Use Agents
Features
Persistent SQLite memory file on disk
MCP-native integration with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Zed
Sub-millisecond classification and recall (~35 ms)
Auto-inject relevant lessons, decisions, and project overview on every prompt
Hybrid recall: BM25 + dense vectors + entity graph + RRF
Honest impact scoring: tracks whether each lesson is followed, flags dead memories
Local web dashboard with interactive entity graph (Map) and git-style timeline
Async writes: SQLite first, embedding and vector insert on background thread
Works offline, no API keys, no telemetry
Open source under Apache 2.0 license
Inspectable and exportable memory chunks
Entity nodes color-coded by type, sized by importance
Multi-project support with navigation lanes
Optional local LLM integration (Ollama) for summarization and graph extraction
Benchmarks: 94.6% recall@10 on LoCoMo, 88ms p50 recall at 2k memories
Scrape any website into markdown, JSON, or raw HTML
Full-site crawling at 100K+ pages/sec
10,000 core API requests per minute default
Web Search API: SERP + scraping + extraction in one call
/ai/search endpoint with relevance gate to skip irrelevant pages
Silk AI model: HTML-to-structured data and captcha solving on GPUs
Browser Cloud: full browser sessions over CDP
AI commands (Act, Extract, Observe) via WebSocket with AI Studio
Multiple output formats: HTML, raw, plain text, markdown, JSON, JSONL, CSV, XML
Stealth browser layer and Unblocker for anti-bot sites
Proxy pool with 215M+ residential and ISP IPs across 199+ countries
Robots.txt compliance on by default, disable per-request
data_connectors parameter: pipe results to S3, GCS, Google Sheets, Azure Blob, Supabase
extraction_schema parameter: AI output conforms to JSON schema
1,000+ ready-made scraper examples across 32 categories
Integrations
Claude Code
Cursor
Codex
Zed
Ollama
LangChain
LlamaIndex
CrewAI
FlowiseAI
AutoGen
Agno

What real users say: PMB vs Spider Cloud

Not marketing copy and not our opinion — a structured sweep of public discussion (reviews, forums, communities and video comments), showing what people praise and what they complain about for each tool.

PMB

81 mentions across 6 sources · 74% positive

Hacker News, Product Hunt, App Store, Bluesky, GitHub, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Local-first: all data stays on your disk, no cloud or API keys.
  • • Hybrid recall (BM25 + vectors + graph) delivers relevant memory in ~35 ms.
  • • Automatic write and read hooks integrate with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Zed.
  • • Honest impact scoring flags dead memories that agents don't follow.

What frustrates them

  • • No cloud or team-synced version, only local storage.
  • • Stale or reversed decisions can still surface without manual pruning.
  • • Automatic memory injection uses context window tokens, reducing solution runway.
  • • Only one maintainer; open issues may take time to resolve.

Researched Jul 4, 2026

Spider Cloud

41 mentions across 2 sources · 0% positive — critical

YouTube, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Competitive pay-as-you-go pricing at $1/GB with no expiry.
  • • Default rate limit of 10,000 requests per minute is generous.
  • • Broad output formats (HTML, markdown, JSON, CSV) cover diverse needs.
  • • Integrated Web Search API bundles SERP and extraction for AI agents.

What frustrates them

  • • No community feedback to confirm reliability or performance.
  • • Self-reported metrics lack independent verification.
  • • Stealth browser success may vary across real sites.
  • • Potential legal risks from scraping; compliance is user's responsibility.

Researched Aug 26, 2026

Who should pick which

  • Solo developer using Claude Code daily
    Pick: PMB

    PMB provides persistent local memory that eliminates the need to re-explain project context each session, and it's free.

  • Team building a RAG pipeline for real-time news
    Pick: Spider Cloud

    Spider Cloud's fast crawling API with structured output and 99.9% success rate is ideal for ingesting web data into a RAG system.

  • Privacy-conscious developer
    Pick: PMB

    PMB works fully offline with no telemetry, no API keys, and is open source, ensuring complete data control.

  • Developer needing scraped e-commerce data
    Pick: Spider Cloud

    Spider Cloud's scraper catalog with 1,000+ examples and anti-detection features is perfect for extracting product data at scale.

  • Team using multiple AI agents (Claude, Cursor, Zed)
    Pick: PMB

    PMB integrates with all major coding agents via MCP, providing shared memory across tools without cloud dependency.

Frequently Asked Questions

PMB vs Spider Cloud: which should you choose?

For developers who need persistent context for coding agents and value data privacy, PMB is a free, offline-first solution. For teams building AI agents that require real-time web data for RAG, Spider Cloud offers a scalable, cost-efficient scraping API with advanced anti-detection. Choose PMB if your pain is repetitive context loss; choose Spider Cloud if you need structured data from the web.

Can PMB be used with non-coding agents?

PMB is designed for coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Zed) via MCP; its memory context is tailored for software development, but it could be adapted for other MCP-compatible agents.

Does Spider Cloud support CAPTCHA solving?

Yes, Spider Cloud includes Silk, a custom AI model for extraction and CAPTCHA solving, plus Browser AI commands that can handle complex interactions.

Is there a free tier for Spider Cloud?

Spider Cloud offers a freemium model; the exact free tier limits are not stated in the docs, but it likely includes a small number of pages. For cost, it's $0.03 per 1,000 pages.

Can I self-host Spider Cloud?

Yes, Spider Cloud has an open-source core available on GitHub, but cloud features like Browser AI commands and data connectors may not be fully available in the self-hosted version.

Does PMB work without an internet connection?

Yes, PMB works fully offline; all processing is local with no need for API calls or cloud services.

Which tool is better for ethical scraping?

Both tools respect robots.txt; Spider Cloud has anti-detection features to avoid blocking, which may raise ethical concerns if used on non-public data. PMB doesn't scrape the web.

Can I export memories from PMB?

Yes, PMB memory chunks are inspectable and exportable; the SQLite file can be directly accessed, and the dashboard provides export options.

Does Spider Cloud protect my API keys?

Spider Cloud requires an API key for cloud usage; users should secure it as with any cloud service. PMB does not use API keys.

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Explore each tool further

PMB
View PMB reviewPMB alternatives
Spider Cloud
View Spider Cloud reviewSpider Cloud alternatives

Browse these categories

Best AI Agent Memory & Runtimes toolsBest AI Web Scraping & Search APIs toolsBest AI MCP Servers & Agent Tooling toolsBest AI Browser & Computer-Use Agents tools
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Last reviewed: July 2, 2026