A Jina Reader alternative for the pages Reader can't get into, and for structured JSON.
Jina Reader is a genuinely good tool. Point it at a readable page and it gives you clean markdown, fast and cheap. Where people come looking for something more is two places: the harder pages behind real anti-bot walls, and wanting structured JSON for specific fields rather than the whole page as markdown. Haunt is built for exactly that. Send a URL and a plain-English prompt, get the JSON you asked for, and get an honest reason when a page is genuinely blocked.
The short version
Different jobs. Reader is excellent for turning an easy page into markdown. Haunt is for the pages that fight back, and for when you want specific fields as clean JSON, not the whole page.
If that is the job you have, this is the tool for it.
Built for the pages that block you.
A lot of the web is easy to read, and for those pages a reader is perfect. The trouble starts with bot walls, captchas, logins and heavy JavaScript. Haunt puts its work into getting through those honestly, and when it genuinely cannot, it tells you why instead of handing back an empty page.
Structured JSON, not just markdown
Markdown of the whole page is great for reading. When you need three specific fields off a product or listing page, you want those fields, typed and clean. Haunt takes a plain-English prompt and returns exactly that as JSON, with grounding checks so it never invents a value that was not there.
The differences that actually change your day.
Honest comparison, only the axes that matter when you are choosing between us.
| Haunt | Jina Reader | |
|---|---|---|
| Easy, readable pages | Handles them fine. | Excellent, fast and cheap. A great fit. |
| Hard pages: bot walls, captcha, login, heavy JS | Built for these, with an honest reason when a page truly can't be read. | Lighter anti-bot handling; harder pages can come back thin or empty. |
| Output | Structured JSON for the fields you ask for, or clean Markdown. | Clean Markdown of the page. |
Jina Reader details from jina.ai, checked 8 July 2026. Reader is a good tool; this page is only about where Haunt fits differently. If anything is out of date, tell us and we will correct it. Honest comparisons only.
An honest no beats a confident fake yes.
The failure that hurts most is the silent one. A page is blocked, and instead of saying so, a tool hands back an empty or thin result that poisons everything your agent does next. Haunt refuses to return data it cannot find on the page, and only charges when a call actually returns data.
Built for agents
Haunt ships as an MCP server as well as a REST API, so an agent in Claude or another runtime calls it as a native tool. No page content kept after the call.
Point it at a page that's been giving you trouble.
One API call, or one MCP tool. 1,000 free credits, no card. If it can't read the page it tells you and charges you nothing. That is the whole pitch.