ScraperAPI alternative: Web Scraper vs ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is a proxy and rendering endpoint: you send a URL and get the page back to parse yourself, with parsed JSON for supported sites. Web Scraper Cloud returns named fields from selectors you define visually, with proxies, CAPTCHA bypass, and bot protection bypass included, on a plan priced by concurrent scraping capacity.
Reviewed October 2026 Every claim below links to a current vendor page.
You want structured rows without writing a parser, and a plan fee that does not move with request volume or feature flags.
Your team already has parsing code and wants raw HTML with proxies and retries handled behind one endpoint.
Web Scraper vs ScraperAPI: features and pricing
Compare how Web Scraper and ScraperAPI handle setup, Cloud automation, integrations, proxies, and scaling. Web Scraper Scale is compared with ScraperAPI Advanced, the highest self-service plan each vendor prices publicly.
| CAPABILITY | Web Scraper Scale, $200 per month | ScraperAPI Advanced, $1,975 per month |
|---|---|---|
| Setup and creation | ||
| Where scrapers are built | Visual sitemap builder in a browser extension Free extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, with no code or desktop application required. | API calls or DataPipeline URL lists can be scheduled in the DataPipeline dashboard without code, but pages outside the supported domains come back as page content for your own parser. |
| Time to a working scraper | Faster than writing code Point at the data on the live page, or let the AI Sitemap Wizard map it, then check the result in the data preview. | Code to write and test For most websites, requests and HTML parsing are written and debugged in your own code. |
| Skills needed | Browser skills No programming language or HTML parsing to learn. | Programming A programming language, HTTP requests, and HTML parsing. |
| AI-assisted setup | AI Sitemap Wizard Maps repeated listing data, detects pagination and infinite scrolling, and follows item links to collect fields from detail pages. | AI Parser, via API Generates a parser from a few example URLs of one page type, using API credits; up to 5 parsers on this plan. |
| Manual selector control | Advanced Sitemap Builder Point and click, AI selector generation for listing and detail pages, and 10+ selector types for data, navigation, and clicks. | Your own parser Selectors and extraction logic live in your code. |
| Logins and site setup | Website State Setup Signs in or sets location, language, or currency before scraping, only when that state is missing, with passwords encrypted in Cloud. | Cookies, headers, and input steps Send cookies with each request and script input and click steps in a header. |
| Ready-made starting points | Sitemap Marketplace Ready-made sitemaps maintained by Web Scraper, available at no additional cost. | Structured data endpoints Selected targets such as Amazon and Google return parsed JSON or CSV; other pages come back as HTML, Markdown, or text. |
| When a website changes | Update a selector Fix the sitemap by point and click and sync it to Cloud, with nothing to redeploy. | Patch your parser Parsing changes go through your own code, tests, and deployment. |
| Cloud automation | ||
| Cloud execution | Web Scraper Cloud Runs sitemaps created in the Web Scraper extension remotely after sync or import. | Hosted API Requests execute on ScraperAPI infrastructure. |
| Queue, link following, and storage | Built into every job Cloud queues URLs, follows links and pagination, retries failed pages, and keeps results for 60 days. | DataPipeline and Crawler DataPipeline queues URL lists and keeps results for 30 days, and the Crawler follows links; each is set up separately. |
| Scheduling | Daily, interval, and custom CRON Intervals as short as 1 minute, with a selectable time zone and driver, proxy, and priority set per schedule. | DataPipeline schedules DataPipeline projects run hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or on a cron expression. |
| Rendering and execution modes | Full JS and Fast drivers Full JS loads pages in a full browser environment; Fast skips page JavaScript to scrape faster. | JavaScript rendering flag Rendering is a request option that consumes extra credits. |
| Retry behavior | Automatic retries of empty or failed pages Retries use a different proxy IP and browser fingerprint, and do not consume URL credits. CAPTCHAs and bot check pages are solved automatically. | Retries for up to 70 seconds Failed requests are retried for up to 70 seconds, and only 200 and 404 responses are charged, plus requests you cancel within 70 seconds. |
| Concurrency model | Concurrent scrapers Starts at 2 concurrent scrapers and scales with no set ceiling; add capacity at any time. A single job can expand to up to 5 concurrent scrapers. | 500 concurrent threads The number of requests that can run at once. |
| Data and integrations | ||
| Data cleaning | Parser, with no code Regex, replace, HTML stripping, virtual columns, and timestamp conversion, previewed on sample records and applied in Cloud. | Field types only AI Parser field descriptions and types shape extracted values; other value changes need your own code. |
| Data quality checks | Thresholds on every job Minimum records, maximum failed or empty pages, and minimum filled fields, with suggested values from a previous run. | Error reports only DataPipeline lists failed responses; no thresholds on records or fields. |
| API | Cloud API with an OpenAPI description Manage sitemaps, jobs, and schedules, and download results, with code examples for every programming language. | Scraping, Async, and DataPipeline APIs Async jobs and DataPipeline projects can be created, checked, and cancelled through the API. |
| Webhooks | Job status webhooks Sent when a job finishes, stops, or fails, with job and sitemap IDs and an optional custom ID, and retried if your endpoint does not respond. | Async job webhooks Async jobs report success or failure to your webhook, and DataPipeline can deliver results to one. |
| Data export formats | CSV, XLSX, JSON Each scraping job's data can be downloaded in all three formats. | HTML, Markdown, text, JSON, CSV JSON and CSV cover supported domains such as Amazon and Google; other pages return HTML, Markdown, or text. |
| Export integrations | Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Google Cloud, Azure The complete dataset is sent after each job finishes. | Zapier and n8n An official n8n node and a Zapier app in beta; no storage destinations are documented. |
| Notifications | Email and in-app alerts Alerts when a job fails or misses its data quality thresholds, with email and in-app channels set per alert type. | DataPipeline emails DataPipeline sends job status updates by email. |
| Image and file handling | Image export Downloads images during the scraping job using the Image selector and delivers the files to Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure Blob Storage. | Files by URL and screenshots Images, PDFs, and other files are fetched one URL per request, and screenshots cost extra credits; nothing is delivered to storage. |
| Scale and pricing | ||
| Plan compared | Scale, $200 per month $2,000 per year billed annually, $167 per month. | Advanced, $1,975 per month The largest self-service plan, with 21,500,000 API credits and 500 concurrent threads. |
| What the plan fee buys | Unlimited URL credits The fee buys concurrent scraping capacity, and page volume does not change it. | 21,500,000 API credits A standard request costs one credit; JavaScript rendering and premium proxies cost ten, and both together 25. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies | From $0.03 Fast driver on the included datacenter proxies; two scrapers at $200 per month cover about 4.3M URLs. | $0.09 One credit per standard request; some domains, such as Amazon and Google, cost more. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies | From $0.05 Full JS driver on the included datacenter proxies; two scrapers at $200 per month cover about 2.2M URLs. | $0.92 JavaScript rendering costs ten credits per request. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies | From $0.681 Full JS driver plus residential traffic, sold separately at $2.50 per GB. | $2.30 Premium proxies with rendering cost 25 credits per request. |
| Unused capacity | No credit ceiling Unlimited URL credits leave no balance to forfeit at the end of a cycle. | Credits do not roll over The balance resets at the billing cycle. |
| Included datacenter proxies | US, GB, and DE datacenter proxies Included at no additional cost. | Included in the credit cost Proxy selection is a request option rather than a separate line. |
| Residential proxies | Available at $2.50 per GB In 47 locations, billed on bandwidth used. | Premium proxy option Premium and residential requests consume several credits each. |
| Third-party fees | Marketplace sitemaps at no extra cost They run on your own plan, with no separate per-result charge. | None published No marketplace or per-result fees. |
| Cloud data retention | 60 days Scraped data stays available to download from Cloud for that period. | 30 days for DataPipeline results Job results from DataPipeline projects are stored for up to 30 days. |
1 Proxy traffic is sold separately, so the price is calculated based on a 250 KB page size.
Reasons to choose Web Scraper
No parser to write or maintain
Selectors are defined visually on the live page, or generated by the AI Sitemap Wizard, and return named columns, so nothing downstream has to turn HTML into a table.
Web Scraper extensionScheduling and delivery are built in
Daily, interval, and custom CRON schedules run in Cloud, the finished dataset goes to Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Google Cloud, or Azure, and webhooks report when each job ends.
SchedulerOne plan, one line item
Scraping, scheduling, datacenter proxies, parsing, and delivery sit inside the Cloud plan, with no separate proxy bill, no per-request multiplier, and no charge for retrying failed pages.
Web Scraper pricingWeb Scraper Scale vs ScraperAPI Advanced
Each side is shown at its highest self-service plan with published pricing.
Web Scraper Cloud · Scale
$200 per month
Or $2,000 per year billed annually, $167 per month
- Capacity
- Unlimited URL credits
- Concurrency
- Starts at 2 concurrent scrapers, scales with no set ceiling; a single job can use up to 5
- Proxies
- US, GB, and DE datacenter proxies included; residential in 47 locations at $2.50 per GB
- Plan limitation
- Capacity grows by adding concurrent scrapers, at a lower price per scraper as you add more; residential proxy traffic is billed on usage
- Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies
- From $0.03
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies
- From $0.05
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies
- From $0.681
ScraperAPI · Advanced
$1,975 per month
Or $1,777.50 per month billed annually.
- Capacity
- 21,500,000 API credits
- Concurrency
- 500 concurrent threads
- Proxies
- Included in the credit cost; premium requests consume more credits
- Plan limitation
- Credits do not roll over, and rendering and premium proxies multiply the cost per request
- Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies
- $0.09
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies
- $0.92
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies
- $2.30
The two prices do not buy the same unit
A ScraperAPI credit covers one standard request, but JavaScript rendering and premium proxies multiply that cost, and some domains cost more. Web Scraper charges for concurrent scraping capacity, with unlimited URL credits and no charge for retries.
- The ScraperAPI figures count one credit for a plain request, ten with rendering, and 25 with rendering on premium proxies, with no domain multiplier.
- ScraperAPI returns HTML, so parser development and maintenance are not counted in either figure.
- 1 Proxy traffic is sold separately, so the price is calculated based on a 250 KB page size.
If your pipeline already parses HTML and you only need proxies, retries, and rendering behind one endpoint, a request API drops into existing code with a single URL change.
Switching from ScraperAPI
Do we still need a parser?
No. A sitemap defines the fields, so Cloud returns named columns rather than HTML for your code to interpret.
How does the bill change?
A credit balance that multiplies with rendering and proxy options is replaced by a capacity plan. The fee buys concurrent scrapers with unlimited URL credits, and retried empty or failed pages cost nothing extra.
What about hard targets?
Datacenter proxies for the US, GB, and DE are included, residential proxies are available at $2.50 per GB when a target website requires them, and CAPTCHAs and bot check pages are solved automatically.
How does data reach our systems?
Results are retrieved through the API or delivered to Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure after each job. Webhook notifications report job status and identifiers.
See it applied to your use case
Compare Web Scraper with other tools
Most teams shortlist two or three tools. These pages cover the same capabilities and plan tiers.
Try it on the website you want to scrape
Use the 7-day free trial, with no credit card required, to run Web Scraper Cloud on the website you need data from.
This comparison reflects publicly available information and our understanding of the products as of October 2026. Features, pricing, and other details may change over time, so we recommend verifying current information directly with each provider before making a decision. All product names, trademarks, logos, and brands belong to their respective owners and are referenced solely for identification and comparison purposes. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is implied.