ScrapingBee alternatives: 6 options compared on published price
Web scraping API with headless-browser rendering, proxies and AI extraction. Looking for something different? These are the vendors in our data closest to ScrapingBee by product type and shared price metrics, compared on published prices checked . Prices only, not quality.
full verification from $19/mo MCP: Yes · ScrapingBee full pricing page
What to weigh about ScrapingBee first
Drawn from the ScrapingBee record on this site: its published watch-outs and the figures we could not verify.
Watch-outs
- Default JS rendering means 5 credits per request unless you turn it off.
- Premium+JS pages cost 25 credits.
Could not verify
- No overage/top-up rate published on the pricing page.
- Page shows '/mo' prices; annual-discount terms not stated.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scrapfly alternatives to Scrapfly | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, JavaScript-rendered page, Protected / anti-bot page | 1,000 credits on signup, no card, no time limit (one-time allotment). | Yes | full verification | ScrapingBee vs Scrapfly |
| ZenRows alternatives to ZenRows | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, JavaScript-rendered page, Protected / anti-bot page | 5,000 credits/month, no card, every primitive except standalone residential proxies. | Yes | partial verification | ScrapingBee vs ZenRows |
| Zyte alternatives to Zyte | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, JavaScript-rendered page, Protected / anti-bot page | $5 free credit trial; 30 days, no commitment. | Yes | full verification | ScrapingBee vs Zyte |
| Crawl4AI alternatives to Crawl4AI | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, JavaScript-rendered page | 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 |
| ScraperAPI alternatives to ScraperAPI | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | 1,000 free credits/month (max 5 concurrent) per the FAQ; 7-day trial with 5,000 credits. | Yes | partial verification | ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI |
| Bright Data alternatives to Bright Data | Proxies & unblockers | Basic page fetch, Protected / anti-bot page | 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 |
Price comparison by use case
Basic page fetch
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zyte | $0.06 per 1,000 | $500/mo commitment - Tier 1 HTTP | $500/mo | 1.4x cheaper |
| ScrapingBee | $0.083 per 1,000 | Business | $249/mo | this vendor |
| Scrapfly | $0.0909 per 1,000 | Enterprise | $500/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| ZenRows | $0.0916 per 1,000 | Scale | $458/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| ScraperAPI | $0.095 per 1,000 | Scaling | $475/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| Crawl4AI | $0.3327 per 1,000 | Cloud Scale | $499/mo | 4.0x more expensive |
| Bright Data | $0.9995 per 1,000 | Crawl API $1,999 | $1999/mo | 12.0x more expensive |
JavaScript-rendered page
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapingBee | $0.415 per 1,000 | Business | $249/mo | this vendor |
| Scrapfly | $0.4545 per 1,000 | Enterprise | $500/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| ZenRows | $0.458 per 1,000 | Scale | $458/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| Zyte | $0.48 per 1,000 | $500/mo commitment - Tier 1 rendered | $500/mo | 1.2x more expensive |
| Crawl4AI | $0.6653 per 1,000 | Cloud Scale | $499/mo | 1.6x more expensive |
Protected / anti-bot page
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zyte | $0.61 per 1,000 | $500/mo commitment - Tier 5 HTTP | $500/mo | 3.4x cheaper |
| ScraperAPI | $1.04 per 1,000 | Scaling | $475/mo | 2.0x cheaper |
| Bright Data | $1.30 per 1,000 | Unlocker Scale ($499) | $499/mo | 1.6x cheaper |
| ScrapingBee | $2.08 per 1,000 | Business | $249/mo | this vendor |
| Scrapfly | $2.27 per 1,000 | Enterprise | $500/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
| ZenRows | $2.29 per 1,000 | Scale | $458/mo | 1.1x more expensive |
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 | ScrapingBee | Scrapfly | ZenRows | Zyte | Crawl4AI | ScraperAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $19.00 Hobby | $30.00 Discovery | $16.00 Build (annual billing) | $1.30 Pay as you go - Tier 1 HTTP | $10.00 Cloud Starter | $44.10 Hobby (annual billing) |
| 100,000 | $49.00 Freelance | $30.00 Discovery | $58.00 Launch (annual billing) | $13.00 Pay as you go - Tier 1 HTTP | $99.00 Cloud Builder | $44.10 Hobby (annual billing) |
| 1,000,000 | $99.00 Startup | $100 Pro | $166 Growth (annual billing) | $100 $100/mo commitment - Tier 1 HTTP | $395 Cloud Builder | $149 Startup |
Which alternative fits which job
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- ScraperAPI: Proxy-rotating scraping API billed in API credits, with per-domain credit costs. Tends to fit: Simple 'send URL, get HTML' scraping at modest volume. Watch-out: Credit cost varies by domain: Google SERP = 25 credits, bot-protected sites 11+.
- 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.
When ScrapingBee is still the better choice
- Developers wanting simple HTTP scraping with JS rendering
- Mid-volume jobs with predictable monthly budgets
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest alternative to ScrapingBee?
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 $0.083 for ScrapingBee (Business). 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 ScrapingBee?
Alternatives with a recurring free tier in our data: ZenRows (5,000 credits/month, no card, every primitive except standalone residential proxies); Crawl4AI (Self-hosting is free forever (you pay your own infra). Cloud: 1,000 free credits/month, no card); ScraperAPI (1,000 free credits/month (max 5 concurrent) per the FAQ; 7-day trial with 5,000 credits); 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). Free-tier limits change often; check the vendor page.
Which ScrapingBee alternatives support MCP?
ScrapingBee: yes. Alternatives with a documented MCP server in our data: Scrapfly, ZenRows, Zyte, Crawl4AI, ScraperAPI, Bright Data.
Keep exploring
- ScrapingBee pricing
- Scraping APIs
- Cost calculator
- Which tool?
- ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee
- ZenRows vs ScrapingBee
- Firecrawl vs ScrapingBee
- Scrapfly vs ScrapingBee
- Zyte vs ScrapingBee
Use-case guides
- RAG and LLM ingestion
- Ecommerce price monitoring
- JavaScript-heavy sites
- Anti-bot protected sites
- Browser automation for agents
Corrections welcome: [email protected]. Each vendor page lists the official sources used.