ScraperAPI alternatives: 6 options compared on published price
Proxy-rotating scraping API billed in API credits, with per-domain credit costs. Looking for something different? These are the vendors in our data closest to ScraperAPI by product type and shared price metrics, compared on published prices checked . Prices only, not quality.
partial verification from $49/mo MCP: Yes · ScraperAPI full pricing page
What to weigh about ScraperAPI first
Drawn from the ScraperAPI record on this site: its published watch-outs and the figures we could not verify.
Watch-outs
- Credit cost varies by domain: Google SERP = 25 credits, bot-protected sites 11+.
- Credits reset monthly with no rollover.
- Use the dashboard's Domain Cost Estimator before committing.
Could not verify
- Credit multiplier for JavaScript rendering not stated on the pricing page/FAQ.
- Per-credit PAYG rate for Scaling and above is not published.
- Bonus-credit offer makes included credits ambiguous; not normalized.
Alternatives at a glance
How these were chosen: a fixed rule counts the price metrics both vendors publish plus category overlap. The order is by that score. It is not by price, popularity or commercial relationship; FetchIndex has an affiliate relationship with Firecrawl only (disclosure).
| Alternative | Category | Shared price metrics | Free tier | MCP / agent support | Verification | Head-to-head |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data alternatives to Bright Data | Proxies & unblockers | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page, SERP query | Unlocker and SERP APIs: 5K requests/month free, no card (as stated on their pricing pages). Browser API page lists a 1 GB monthly free tier. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| Crawl4AI alternatives to Crawl4AI | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, SERP query | Self-hosting is free forever (you pay your own infra). Cloud: 1,000 free credits/month, no card. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| Scrapfly alternatives to Scrapfly | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | 1,000 credits on signup, no card, no time limit (one-time allotment). | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| ScrapingBee alternatives to ScrapingBee | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | 1,000 free API credits, no card (trial grant). | Yes | full verification | ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee |
| ZenRows alternatives to ZenRows | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | 5,000 credits/month, no card, every primitive except standalone residential proxies. | Yes | partial verification | ScraperAPI vs ZenRows |
| Zyte alternatives to Zyte | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | $5 free credit trial; 30 days, no commitment. | Yes | full verification | ScraperAPI vs Zyte |
Price comparison by use case
Basic page fetch
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScraperAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zyte | $0.06 per 1,000 | $500/mo commitment - Tier 1 HTTP | $500/mo | 1.6x cheaper |
| ScrapingBee | $0.083 per 1,000 | Business | $249/mo | 1.1x cheaper |
| Scrapfly | $0.0909 per 1,000 | Enterprise | $500/mo | about the same price |
| ZenRows | $0.0916 per 1,000 | Scale | $458/mo | about the same price |
| ScraperAPI | $0.095 per 1,000 | Scaling | $475/mo | this vendor |
| Crawl4AI | $0.3327 per 1,000 | Cloud Scale | $499/mo | 3.5x more expensive |
| Bright Data | $0.9995 per 1,000 | Crawl API $1,999 | $1999/mo | 10.5x more expensive |
Protected / anti-bot page
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScraperAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zyte | $0.61 per 1,000 | $500/mo commitment - Tier 5 HTTP | $500/mo | 1.7x cheaper |
| ScraperAPI | $1.04 per 1,000 | Scaling | $475/mo | this vendor |
| Bright Data | $1.30 per 1,000 | Unlocker Scale ($499) | $499/mo | 1.2x more expensive |
| ScrapingBee | $2.08 per 1,000 | Business | $249/mo | 2.0x more expensive |
| Scrapfly | $2.27 per 1,000 | Enterprise | $500/mo | 2.2x more expensive |
| ZenRows | $2.29 per 1,000 | Scale | $458/mo | 2.2x more expensive |
SERP query (structured search results)
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScraperAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crawl4AI | $0.6653 per 1,000 | Cloud Scale | $499/mo | 3.6x cheaper |
| Bright Data | $1.31 per 1,000 | SERP Scale ($499) | $499/mo | 1.8x cheaper |
| ScraperAPI | $2.38 per 1,000 | Scaling (Google = 25 credits) | $475/mo | this vendor |
Estimated monthly cost at example volumes
Basic page fetch, using the cost calculator model: cheapest published plan that covers each volume, including published overage rates. Free tiers are not subtracted. Open the calculator with these inputs.
| Requests / month | ScraperAPI | Bright Data | Crawl4AI | Scrapfly | ScrapingBee | ZenRows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $44.10 Hobby (annual billing) | $15.00 Crawl API PAYG | $10.00 Cloud Starter | $30.00 Discovery | $19.00 Hobby | $16.00 Build (annual billing) |
| 100,000 | $44.10 Hobby (annual billing) | $150 Crawl API PAYG | $99.00 Cloud Builder | $30.00 Discovery | $49.00 Freelance | $58.00 Launch (annual billing) |
| 1,000,000 | $149 Startup | $1,500 Crawl API PAYG | $395 Cloud Builder | $100 Pro | $99.00 Startup | $166 Growth (annual billing) |
Which alternative fits which job
- Bright Data: Large proxy networks plus Web Unlocker, SERP, Crawl and Browser APIs, datasets and scrapers. Tends to fit: Hard anti-bot targets at scale. Watch-out: Many products with separate pricing pages; check which one you need.
- Crawl4AI: Open-source (Apache-2.0) LLM-friendly crawler, with an optional hosted Cloud API. Tends to fit: Free, self-hosted crawling for RAG. Watch-out: Self-hosting means you handle browsers, proxies and blocks.
- Scrapfly: Scraping, screenshot, extraction and cloud-browser APIs on one key and one credit pool. Tends to fit: Anti-bot-heavy scraping with transparent credit multipliers. Watch-out: Residential/Unblocker requests burn 5-25x the base credits.
- ScrapingBee: Web scraping API with headless-browser rendering, proxies and AI extraction. Tends to fit: Developers wanting simple HTTP scraping with JS rendering. Watch-out: Default JS rendering means 5 credits per request unless you turn it off.
- ZenRows: Fetch, extract, crawl, batch and browser primitives on one credit balance. Tends to fit: Protected sites where you want a single credit meter. Watch-out: Monthly-billed and annual-billed rates differ by about 17%; check which one you compare against.
- Zyte: Zyte API: automatic unblocking, rendering and extraction with per-site difficulty tiers. Tends to fit: Per-site fair pricing where easy sites are very cheap. Watch-out: Cost varies 10x+ by site tier; you must check your target domains.
When ScraperAPI is still the better choice
- Simple 'send URL, get HTML' scraping at modest volume
- Teams that value predictable monthly credit plans
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest alternative to ScraperAPI?
For basic page fetch, Zyte has the lowest published price among the alternatives listed: $0.06 per 1,000 ($500/mo commitment - Tier 1 HTTP) versus $0.095 for ScraperAPI (Scaling). That is price only: check reliability on your own targets, and note the cheapest plan can require a larger monthly spend.
Is there a free alternative to ScraperAPI?
Alternatives with a recurring free tier in our data: Bright Data (Unlocker and SERP APIs: 5K requests/month free, no card (as stated on their pricing pages). Browser API page lists a 1 GB monthly free tier); Crawl4AI (Self-hosting is free forever (you pay your own infra). Cloud: 1,000 free credits/month, no card); ZenRows (5,000 credits/month, no card, every primitive except standalone residential proxies). Free-tier limits change often; check the vendor page.
Which ScraperAPI alternatives support MCP?
ScraperAPI: yes. Alternatives with a documented MCP server in our data: Bright Data, Crawl4AI, Scrapfly, ScrapingBee, ZenRows, Zyte.
Keep exploring
- ScraperAPI pricing
- Scraping APIs
- Cost calculator
- Which tool?
- ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee
- Firecrawl vs ScraperAPI
- ScraperAPI vs ZenRows
- Zyte vs ScraperAPI
Use-case guides
Corrections welcome: [email protected]. Each vendor page lists the official sources used.