ScrapingBee alternatives: 10 web scraping tools compared

Buyers look past ScrapingBee when a hard target pushes the credit meter, when credits expire each month, or when the job is not an API call at all. Replacements include other proxy-and-render APIs, a pay-per-request ladder, a marketplace of ready scrapers and point-and-click tools for people who do not write code.

Short answer: The first three alternatives to ScrapingBee in our web scraping tool ranking are ZenRows, Zyte and Scrapfly. The first three places are kept for challengers when the category has enough of them; the best-known brands come after that, in ranked order. Choose ZenRows if you want a Spanish API supplier with a permanent free tier. These 10 products are all in Best Web Scraping Tools in 2026; the notes say how each one compares with ScrapingBee.

Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.

ScrapingBee

#3 of 11 in our web scraping tool ranking

  • Pricing: Monthly plans published up to enterprise tiers; 1,000 free API credits at sign-up
  • Established in: France
  • Built for: Small engineering teams wanting public monthly prices and a French contracting entity
  • Not for: Non-developers who need a visual builder and a desktop interface
01

Why buyers look past ScrapingBee

  1. 01

    Hard sites multiply the credit cost

    The documentation prices a plain request from 1 credit, JavaScript rendering at 5, premium proxy at 10 or 25, and a stealth proxy at 75 per successful call. Auto mode charges whichever of those succeeds. A project that needs stealth on most pages uses a Hobby plan's 75,000 credits in about a thousand calls.

  2. 02

    Unused credits disappear monthly

    Credits last one month and do not roll over, and plans are priced from Hobby at $19 for 75,000 credits to Enterprise 120 at $5,799 for 120 million. A team with seasonal or bursty scraping pays for the peak plan all year or accepts lost credits in quiet months.

  3. 03

    Support and team features start at Business

    Priority email support, an account manager and team management begin on Business at $249 a month with 3 million credits. Hobby, Freelance and Startup users have none of those, which matters when a scraper breaks on a deadline or several colleagues share one account.

02

10 alternatives at a glance

Smaller vendors first, big brands after
AlternativeHeadquartersFree optionPricing model Switch ifOur rank
ZenRowsSpainYesPublishedyou want a Spanish API supplier with a permanent free tier#2
ZyteIrelandNo free tierPublishedyou want to pay by target difficulty rather than by feature flag#11
ScrapflyUnited StatesNo free tierPublishedyou need screenshots and several APIs under one key and meter#4
CrawlbaseNot stated by the vendorNo free tierPublishedyour volume swings and you would rather not hold a monthly plan#5
ApifyCzech RepublicYesPublisheda ready-made scraper for your target site exists and you would rather not build one#8
FirecrawlUnited StatesYesPublishedyou want page content for language models and the option to read the code#9
Web ScraperLatviaNo free tierPublishedyou want a visual tool and can run jobs from your own browser#1
Browse AICanadaYesPublishedyou track changes on a few sites and do not write code#6
OctoparseUnited StatesYesPublishedyour analysts build scrapers by clicking and want local runs first#7
DiffbotUnited StatesYesPublishedyou want structured entity data rather than raw page HTML#10
03

What each one does differently

ZenRows

Spain · Published

ZENROWS, S.L. is registered in Getxo, Spain, and keeps fetch, extract, crawl, batch and browser sessions on one credit balance, with a free plan of 5,000 monthly credits. Rendering and premium proxies stack, so a protected page reaches 25 credits. Residential traffic is also counted at 25,000 credits per GB.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you want a Spanish API supplier with a permanent free tier.

Read our review of ZenRows (position 2 of 11 on the web scraping tool list) →

Zyte

Ireland · Published

Zyte, based in Ireland, charges by site difficulty across five tiers, so one project can carry five different rates per 1,000 requests. Commitments of 100, 200 and 500 dollars a month bring discounts, and 5 dollars of credit comes at sign-up. A calculator wants your URLs before it quotes.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you want to pay by target difficulty rather than by feature flag.

Check Zyte in the ranked list (11 out of 11, web scraping tool) →

Scrapfly

United States · Published

Scrapfly, a bootstrapped US company, runs five APIs on one key. A datacenter call is 1 credit, rendering or the unblocker 5, residential IPs 25 and a full-page screenshot 60. Credits on sign-up (1,000) have no time limit, though the cheapest paid tier allows five concurrent requests and no overflow billing.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you need screenshots and several APIs under one key and meter.

Open the Scrapfly profile, 4th of 11 in the web scraping tool guide →

Crawlbase

Not stated by the vendor · Published

Crawlbase LLC bills successful requests only, on a ladder where each volume bracket has its own rate, and the first 5,000 requests are free. No monthly fee is needed unless you buy a credit block, and a spend cap is optional. Heavily defended sites carry an automatic 1.5 or 2 multiplier.

Switch from ScrapingBee if your volume swings and you would rather not hold a monthly plan.

Our web scraping tool guide puts Crawlbase at 5 of 11; read why →

Apify

Czech Republic · Published

Apify Technologies s.r.o. in Prague runs a marketplace where scrapers are packaged as Actors, each setting its own price per event or per usage. Subscriptions bundle prepaid usage, anything beyond is invoiced afterwards, and unused prepaid amounts expire monthly. Budgeting is therefore done Actor by Actor.

Switch from ScrapingBee if a ready-made scraper for your target site exists and you would rather not build one.

Check Apify in the ranked list (8 out of 11, web scraping tool) →

Firecrawl

United States · Published

Firecrawl is the trade name of SideGuide Technologies, Inc., and its GitHub repository is published under AGPL-3.0. One credit covers a page across scrape, crawl and map, while JSON, Question and Highlight output adds 4 more, and 403 or 404 pages still cost a credit.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you want page content for language models and the option to read the code.

Read our review of Firecrawl (position 9 of 11 on the web scraping tool list) →

Web Scraper

Latvia · Published

Web Scraper comes from Adazi in Latvia as a browser extension that the vendor calls free for unlimited local use, plus a Cloud product billed by scrapers and concurrent jobs. Selectors are built visually, and anything scheduled or proxied needs Cloud. A 7-day trial covers it.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you want a visual tool and can run jobs from your own browser.

Open the Web Scraper profile, 1st of 11 in the web scraping tool guide →

Browse AI

Canada · Published

Browse AI Inc., a British Columbia corporation, sells no-code robots that capture and monitor pages. The limits are websites rather than requests: 2 on the free plan, 5 on Personal and 10 on Professional, with robots unlimited and 50 free monthly credits. Extra websites cost a monthly add-on.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you track changes on a few sites and do not write code.

More on Browse AI: ranked 6 of 11 in web scraping tool →

Octoparse

United States · Published

Octopus Data Inc. of Irvine, California, offers a visual scraper with a local desktop mode and a cloud mode. The free plan holds 10 tasks and 50,000 exported rows monthly, and cloud runs, IP rotation and CAPTCHA solving begin on paid tiers. Residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving are add-ons.

Switch from ScrapingBee if your analysts build scrapers by clicking and want local runs first.

See the full Octoparse entry, ranked 7 of 11 among web scraping tool products →

Diffbot

United States · Published

Diffbot Technologies Corp. in Menlo Park prices extraction, crawl, language and Knowledge Graph APIs from one credit pool, with a free plan of 10,000 monthly credits. A page extraction is 1 credit and a graph entity export 25. Crawl access begins on the Plus tier, and the free plan allows five requests a minute.

Switch from ScrapingBee if you want structured entity data rather than raw page HTML.

More on Diffbot: ranked 10 of 11 in web scraping tool →

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Which alternative for which situation

  1. 01

    You want a European API supplier with a permanent free tier

    ZenRows: The company is registered in Spain and the free plan carries 5,000 monthly credits.

  2. 02

    You would rather pay per request than per monthly plan

    Crawlbase: Only successful requests are billed on a graduated ladder, and the first 5,000 requests are free.

  3. 03

    You want screenshots and several APIs under one key

    Scrapfly: Five APIs share one key, with the full-page screenshot at 60 credits and 1,000 sign-up credits without expiry.

  4. 04

    Your team does not write code

    Web Scraper: The browser extension is free for local use and selectors are built visually; scheduling needs Cloud.

  5. 05

    You want a ready-made scraper for a known site

    Apify: Actors are priced individually per event or usage, so check the price of the specific one you need.

04

When ScrapingBee is still the right choice

ScrapingBee remains a good fit when you want one HTTP call that renders JavaScript, rotates proxies and returns the page. Every plan from Hobby upward includes rendering, proxies and geotargeting, only successful responses are charged, and failed auto-mode calls cost 0. For modest volumes on ordinary sites, the plan ladder is easy to predict.

05

What moving off ScrapingBee involves

  1. 01

    Rewrite the request parameters, not the parsing

    Your parsing code can stay, but flags such as render_js, premium_proxy and stealth_proxy have other names and costs elsewhere. Run a sample of your real URLs through the new tool and compare credits spent per successful page before picking a plan.

  2. 02

    Check what counts as a billable request

    ScrapingBee charges for 200, 404 and 410 responses. Other tools bill on different rules, and some charge for error pages. Test blocked and missing pages, and set concurrency to match the new plan before you shift production traffic.

06

Questions about replacing ScrapingBee

6 answers
What does ScrapingBee cost?

Plans run monthly from Hobby at $19 for 75,000 credits and 25 concurrent requests, through Freelance $49, Startup $99, Business $249 and Business+ $599, to Enterprise tiers up to $5,799 for 120 million credits. Prices exclude VAT, and no yearly price is listed.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, 1,000 free API credits are given at sign-up with no credit card required. Those credits cover a short test only, since JavaScript rendering costs 5 per request and premium proxies cost 10 or 25.

How many credits does a hard target use?

The documentation lists 75 credits per successful call with a stealth proxy, 25 for a premium proxy with rendering, 10 without rendering and 5 for rendering alone. Stealth does not support custom headers or cookies, which limits some logged-in jobs.

Do unused credits roll over?

No. The pricing page says credits last one month and do not roll over. If your volume is uneven, look at tools priced per request, such as Crawlbase, or at ones with sign-up credits that have no time limit, such as Scrapfly.

Who runs ScrapingBee?

The category text names VostokInc, a French company with a Paris address, as the operator. If you want another European API supplier, ZenRows is registered in Spain, Zyte is in Ireland and Apify in the Czech Republic.

Which alternatives need no code?

Web Scraper, Browse AI and Octoparse build scrapers visually. Web Scraper's extension is free for local use, Browse AI has a free plan with 50 monthly credits, and Octoparse has one with 10 tasks. Scheduling and proxies generally need a paid tier.

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Sources

Checked 8 November 2026
  • ScrapingBee pricing: Hobby $19 to Enterprise 120 $5,799, credits and concurrency, 1,000 free credits, no rollover, charged on 200/404/410, Business support.
  • ScrapingBee documentation: Rendering 5, premium proxy 10 or 25, stealth proxy 75 credits, auto mode, stealth limits.
  • ZenRows pricing: Free plan 5,000 credits, 1, 5, 10, 25 credit costs, 25,000 credits per GB residential, Getxo Spain.
  • Zyte pricing: Five difficulty tiers, commitments of 100, 200, 500 dollars, 5 dollars free credit, Ireland.
  • Scrapfly pricing: 1, 5, 25 and 60 credit costs, 1,000 sign-up credits, five concurrent requests on cheapest tier.
  • Crawlbase pricing: Graduated per-request rates, 5,000 free requests, 1.5 and 2 multipliers, optional spend cap.
  • Apify pricing: Actors priced per event or usage, prepaid usage expires monthly, Prague.
  • Firecrawl pricing: 1 credit per page, 4 extra credits for JSON output, AGPL-3.0 repository, free 1,000 credits.
  • Web Scraper pricing: Free extension for local use, Cloud by scrapers and concurrency, 7-day trial, Latvia.
  • Browse AI pricing: Free plan 50 credits, 2, 5 and 10 websites by plan, extra website add-on.
  • Octoparse pricing: Free 10 tasks and 50,000 rows, cloud and IP rotation on paid tiers, add-ons.
  • Diffbot pricing: Free 10,000 credits, 1 credit per page, 25 per entity, crawl from Plus, five requests a minute free.
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Who wrote this

Last reviewed 8 November 2026

Sebastiaan Smits

Founder · Amsterdam, Netherlands

Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.

Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 8 November 2026. How we review.

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