Semble 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

DimensionSembleSpider Cloud
PricingFree, open-sourceFreemium: pay as you go, ~$0.03/1k pages; AI Studio add-on $6/mo
Primary PurposeCode search for AI coding agentsWeb data extraction for AI/LLMs
Core TechnologyTree-sitter chunking, Model2Vec embeddings, BM25, RRF hybrid retrievalRust engine, rotating proxies, AI extraction (Silk model), Browser Cloud
IntegrationsClaude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, VS Code, MCPLangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, FlowiseAI, AutoGen, Agno, Dify, S3, GCS, Supabase
Best ForDevelopers using AI coding agents needing fast, local code searchAI agents needing real-time web data for RAG
Latest NewsNo recent updates in last 90 daysBrowser AI commands (Act, Extract, Observe) via WebSocket; Scraper catalog with 1,000+ examples

These tools aren't direct competitors: Spider Cloud excels at web data extraction for AI/LLM pipelines, while Semble is a local code search library for AI coding agents. Choose based on your data source—web or code.

Try SembleTry Spider Cloud
Semble
Semble

Open-source code search for AI agents that cuts token use by ~98% on CPU.

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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
4 views
7.5k views
Skill Level
Intermediate
Intermediate
API Available
Platforms
CLIPlugin
WebAPICLI
Categories
💻 Code & Development🔌 MCP Servers & Agent Tooling
🌐 Web Scraping & Search APIs🖱️ Browser & Computer-Use Agents
Features
Natural-language code search
Code-aware chunking via tree-sitter
Static Model2Vec embeddings with potion-code-16M
BM25 lexical retrieval for identifiers and APIs
Reciprocal Rank Fusion of semantic and lexical scores
Adaptive weighting for symbol-like vs. natural-language queries
Definition boosts for defining vs. referencing chunks
Identifier stem matching (e.g., 'parse config' matches 'parseConfig')
File coherence reranking
Noise penalties for test files, legacy code, and stubs
Indexes local paths and git URLs
MCP tools: search and find_related
Zero-setup install via 'semble install'
Runs entirely on CPU, milliseconds per query
Uninstall via 'semble uninstall'
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
OpenCode
Gemini
VS Code
MCP
LangChain
LlamaIndex
CrewAI
FlowiseAI
AutoGen
Agno

What real users say: Semble 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.

Semble

41 mentions across 4 sources · 55% positive — mixed

Hacker News, Product Hunt, GitHub, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Near-instant indexing: 250ms for an average repo, faster than alternatives.
  • • Query latency of ~1.5ms — snappy even on large codebases.
  • • Claims 98% fewer tokens than grep+read, with verifiable savings per repo.
  • • Zero-setup: runs on CPU, no API keys, no GPU required.

What frustrates them

  • • MCP integration hangs on Codex-cli and other agents, causing frustration.
  • • First-run session can deadlock on Windows 10 for up to 20 minutes.
  • • No agent-level benchmarks to support the 98% token savings claim.
  • • Custom tree-sitter grammars not supported, limiting language coverage.

Researched Jul 3, 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

  • AI Agent Builder needing real-time web data for RAG
    Pick: Spider Cloud

    Spider Cloud's API extracts structured web data (markdown, JSON) at low cost, with AI-powered extraction and Browser AI commands for dynamic pages, easily integrated into LangChain or LlamaIndex pipelines.

  • Developer using Claude Code for large codebase navigation
    Pick: Semble

    Semble integrates directly with Claude Code and other coding agents via MCP, providing fast, token-efficient code search with hybrid retrieval and local simplicity.

  • Data Team needing to scrape thousands of pages for an LLM dataset
    Pick: Spider Cloud

    Spider Cloud's rotating proxies, high success rate (99.9%), and data connectors to S3/GCS/Supabase make it ideal for bulk, reliable web data collection.

  • Solo developer wanting private code search without cloud costs
    Pick: Semble

    Semble is free, open-source, runs entirely on CPU, and indexes repos in milliseconds—perfect for a single dev seeking instant code answers without external dependencies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Semble vs Spider Cloud: which should you choose?

These tools aren't direct competitors: Spider Cloud excels at web data extraction for AI/LLM pipelines, while Semble is a local code search library for AI coding agents. Choose based on your data source—web or code.

Are Spider Cloud and Semble competitors?

No. Spider Cloud extracts web data; Semble searches local code. They serve different use cases.

Which tool is better for RAG pipelines?

Spider Cloud, because it fetches and structures web content for LLM context. Semble is for code retrieval, not web data.

What is the pricing model for Spider Cloud?

Freemium pay-as-you-go: ~$0.03 per 1k pages. Failed requests are free. AI Studio add-on is $6/mo.

Is Semble really free?

Yes, it's fully free and open-source. No API keys, GPU, or subscriptions required.

Does Spider Cloud support dynamic content?

Yes, via Browser AI commands (Act, Extract, Observe) through WebSocket, plus AI-powered extraction for complex layouts.

Can Semble search across multiple repositories?

Yes, it indexes local paths and git URLs, making it possible to search across multiple repos.

What integrations does Spider Cloud offer?

LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, FlowiseAI, AutoGen, Agno, Dify, plus data connectors to S3, GCS, Google Sheets, Azure Blob, Supabase.

What integrations does Semble offer?

Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, VS Code, and MCP (Model Context Protocol).

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Explore each tool further

Semble
View Semble reviewSemble alternatives
Spider Cloud
View Spider Cloud reviewSpider Cloud alternatives

Browse these categories

Best AI Code & Development 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 3, 2026