Compare Top 5 ScrapingBee Alternatives by Pricing and Features

ScrapingBee is one of the fastest growing proxy service providers and a prominent web scraping API.

Explore ScrapingBee by covering its:

• Pros and cons
• Features and integrations
• Pricing plan & credit system
• Its top alternatives, such as:

ScrapingBee overview

ScrapingBee is a web scraping service that simplifies the process of gathering data from websites. It offers an HTML API that allows users to request data from websites, handle proxy management, and overcome common web scraping challenges.

ScrapingBee is designed to make web scraping more accessible and efficient for businesses, researchers, and developers, eliminating the need for managing complex infrastructure and proxies. Users can request data in various formats, making it a valuable tool for a wide range of applications, including data analysis, market research, and content aggregation.

Pros:

• Easy to use: 94% of the comments on Capterra scores ScrapingBee’s ease of use as 5 (See Figure 1).
• Features: Average score for ScrapingBee features is 4.9. Users specifically mentioned API reliability and premium proxy among top features (See Figure 1 & 2). 
• Customer support: Customer support also scores on the top for ScrapingBee. Users also mention the help of ScrapingBee blog along with customer service.

Cons:

• Costs: A major downside for ScrapingBee is related to the pricing plan. As pricing is based on API use, users find it challenging to plan and scrape small numbers of sites and pages (See Figure 2&3). 
• Speed: 7% of comments on Capterra complained about the response wait time when ScrapingBee renders web pages.

ScrapingBee features and integration

Core anti-blocking and evasion features

• Full JavaScript rendering (headless browser): Utilizing headless browser technology, ScrapingBee processes dynamic content regardless of screen size, ensuring accurate data extraction from client-side rendered web applications.
• Proxy management & rotation: ScrapingBee manages a premium pool of residential and datacenter proxies, automatically rotating them to prevent IP bans and seamlessly access geo-restricted content. You can also use your own proxy provider.
• CAPTCHA solving: Handles complex CAPTCHA challenges, ensuring uninterrupted access to protected websites and seamless data extraction.
• Custom headers & user-agents: Users can customize HTTP headers and user-agents in their requests to mimic different devices and browser behaviors.
• Geographic targeting: Select the geographic location of the proxy to access region-specific content and adhere to legal and compliance requirements.
• Concurrency: Supports simultaneous requests, allowing users to scrape multiple pages or websites efficiently and quickly.

AI-powered data extraction and post-processing

• AI Web scraping (New): Allows users to extract structured data by simply describing the required output in plain English (e.g., “Get the product name and price”), eliminating the need for complex CSS or XPath selectors.
• Integrated generative AI: Through the ChatGPT API Action, users can integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) directly into workflows for real-time data processing, such as summarizing articles or answering questions about page content.

Workflow and integration capabilities

• Workflow automation: Dedicated app integrations for no-code automation platforms, enabling users to create custom, automated data pipelines to AI Excel tools without writing complex code.
• Specialized E-commerce APIs: Highly focused, ready-to-use API endpoints for extracting structured product data from major platforms like Amazon and Walmart, vital for competitive monitoring and market research.
• Google search API: Provides a separate API for programmatic retrieval of Google search results, valuable for tasks like keyword research and tracking search engine rankings.

Data output and delivery

• API access control: Includes robust features for managing API access, rate limiting, and detailed usage monitoring.
• Web scraping API: The core API allows users to request data from websites with specific parameters, including element identification via CSS selectors.
• Flexible data formats: Users can request extracted data in various formats, including HTML, JSON, and XML, for seamless integration into a wide range of analysis applications.
• Screenshots: Capture screenshots of the entire web page or specific elements for visual monitoring, debugging, or creating visual archives.
• Near real-time data access: Supports time-sensitive data requirements via reliable scheduled polling of target websites.

ScrapingBee pricing

ScrapingBee uses a credit-based, subscription model where one API request consumes a variable number of credits based on the features used.

Standard pricing plans (Monthly)

• Freelance plan: The Freelance plan is designed for small-scale web scraping projects, typically starting at $49 per month, offering 150,000 API credits. These credits represent the number of requests you can make using ScrapingBee’s services and include a concurrency limit of 10 simultaneous requests, providing flexibility for individual users and small projects.
• Startup plan: The Startup plan is priced at $99 per month, targeting growing businesses and serious data projects. It offers a substantial increase to 1,000,000 API credits and a higher concurrency limit of 50 simultaneous requests, enabling faster and larger-volume data collection.
• Business plan: The Business plan costs $249 per month and is suitable for established businesses with high-demand scraping needs. This tier provides 3,000,000 API credits and a robust concurrency limit of 100 simultaneous requests, designed to handle enterprise-level data throughput and stability.
• Business+ plan: The Business+ plan, starting at $599 per month, is tailored for the largest-scale operations and custom requirements. While pricing begins at $599, the included credits and concurrency limits are handled on a “Contact for Details” basis, indicating this plan is customized to the client’s specific high-volume infrastructure needs.

Understanding the credit system

The cost of a single API request is determined by the parameters applied.

Since JavaScript rendering is enabled by default, most standard requests cost 5 credits. Users should monitor their feature usage closely to avoid rapidly depleting their monthly credit quota.

Top 5 ScrapingBee alternatives

Here are some of the top ScrapingBee competitors for different levels of complexity and size of projects:

ScrapingBee vs Bright Data

Bright Data is primarily a Web Data Collection Platform and Proxy Service that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for public web data extraction.

Features

Bright Data is built for enterprise-grade scalability and deep-level control:

• Massive & diverse proxy network: Operates large and diverse proxy network(Residential, Mobile, ISP, Datacenter).
• Comprehensive scraping solutions: Offers a suite of specialized tools beyond simple API access, including a Web Scraper API, an AI-driven Web Unlocker for bypassing anti-bot defenses, and a Web Scraper IDE for building and managing custom scrapers directly on the platform.
• Granular geo-targeting: Provides highly specific geo-targeting (country, city, ZIP code, ASN), critical for location-specific data collection (e.g., localized pricing or ad verification).

Pricing

Bright Data offers a flexible, customizable, usage-based pricing structure rather than a fixed subscription model:

• Core model: Pricing is predominantly based on bandwidth consumption (GB) for its proxy network and many of its scraping solutions.
• Proxy-specific pricing: Costs vary significantly based on the proxy type, with separate pricing tiers for Datacenter, Residential, Mobile, and ISP proxies.
• Plans: Users can choose between: 
  • Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG): Requires no monthly subscription
  • Commitment plans: offer discounted rates for higher, pre-committed usage.

ScrapingBee vs. Smartproxy (Decodo)

Smartproxy (now Decodo) is a web data collection platform offering a wide array of proxy solutions.

Features

Decodo provides control and variety across its infrastructure:

• Proxy variety: Offers a full suite of Residential (55M+ IPs), Datacenter, Mobile, and ISP proxies, while ScrapingBee focuses on its API with premium proxy options.
• Geo-targeting: Provides granular targeting up to city, US states, and ZIP code levels for residential proxies, exceeding ScrapingBee’s general geotargeting options.
• Specialized scrapers: Features a No-Code Scraper and specialized scraping APIs (SERP, E-Commerce, Social Media) with JSON/HTML parsing, which contrasts with ScrapingBee’s general API approach.
• Proxy flexibility: Supports both rotating and sticky sessions (up to 30 mins) on its proxy network, giving users more control over IP behavior than a typical API call.

Pricing

Decodo offers granular pricing for its proxy services compared to ScrapingBee’s credit-based tiers:

• Core model: Proxy services are predominantly priced per GB of bandwidth, offering greater transparency on resource consumption.
• Scraper API: Offers 3,000 free requests per month for each of its scraping APIs, a feature not matched by ScrapingBee’s free trial.
• Plans: Provides fine-grained scaling with plans starting at a low minimum ($6 for 2 GB), making it accessible for small-scale users.
  • PAYG: Offers a Pay-As-You-Go option for residential proxies ($3.5/GB).

ScrapingBee vs. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is an enterprise-grade web data collection provider.

Features

Oxylabs is designed for large-scale, high-performance data collection:

• Proxy network scale: Offers residential proxy networks for large-scale collection and a massive pool of Datacenter, ISP, and Mobile proxies.
• Advanced features: Provides Next-Gen Residential proxies with features like automatic fingerprint generation and an auto-retry system for high success rates.
• Specialized scrapers: Features highly optimized, domain-specific APIs (SERP, E-Commerce, Real Estate Scrapers) that deliver pre-parsed JSON data, in addition to a Custom Parser for tailored HTML-to-JSON conversion.

Pricing

Oxylabs’ pricing is structured for enterprise volume and advanced features, offering Pay-As-You-Go for specific products:

• Core model: Residential proxy pricing is based on GB of bandwidth (starting at $45/month for 13 GB), structured for predictable, high-volume budgets.
• Next-gen proxies: The advanced Next-Gen Residential proxies are priced based on the amount of traffic, with charges applied only for successfully fulfilled requests.
• PAYG: Offers a Pay-As-You-Go option for both residential ($10/GB) and mobile proxies ($30/GB).

ScrapingBee vs. Webshare

Webshare is primarily a proxy provider for smaller companies.

Features

Webshare competes on basic, accessible proxy provision and a simplified experience:

• Simplicity and UI: Focuses on a simple, beginner-friendly UI and self-service dashboard, making it accessible for non-developers or smaller teams compared to ScrapingBee’s developer API.
• Custom rotation: Allows for custom rotation duration for its IPs, typically set to every 5 minutes.
• Proxy specialization: Offers a straightforward, non-API-dependent proxy service, allowing users to integrate with their own scraping framework.

Pricing

The pricing model is centered on proxy sales, not a unified scraping API, offering a different cost structure. It also lacks Pay-as-you-go flexibility.

• Core model: Pricing for residential proxies is subscription-based by GB of bandwidth, with a clear focus on being budget-friendly.
• Plan: The minimum package for residential proxies starts at $7 for 1 GB, representing a significantly lower entry cost than ScrapingBee’s lowest subscription tier ($49/month).

ScrapingBee vs. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI is a direct competitor offering a unified Web Scraping API solution, similar to ScrapingBee, but differentiating on pricing structure and specific feature access.

Features

ScraperAPI features include:

• Advanced features: Includes advanced features like 30+ country geo-targeting and automatic CAPTCHA handling as standard within its all plans.
• ML-powered reliability: Utilizes statistical analysis and machine learning to determine the optimal proxy and header combination, auto-retrying failed requests for 60 seconds to maximize success rates.
• Scalability: Offers a highly competitive 3,000,000 API credits and 100 concurrent threads on its Standard Business Plan, providing high-volume throughput.

Pricing

ScraperAPI offers a straightforward, credit-based subscription model with a key difference in feature cost:

• Core model: Pricing is based on a credit-per-API-call model, similar to ScrapingBee.
• Plan: The Standard Business Plan is priced at $299/month for 3,000,000 credits.
  • Geo-targeting cost: Geotargeting across 30+ countries is included at no additional credit cost, whereas in ScrapingBee, it often requires premium proxies (5-25 credits).

Further reading

Explore more on web scraping APIs and proxy providers by checking out

• Decodo vs Bright Data: Price & Performance Analyzed
• Top 7 Proxy Providers: Pricing & Features Compared
• Comparing the Best Enterprise Proxy Servers

Reference Links

1.

Compare ScrapingBee vs Bright Data 2025 | Capterra

Industry Analyst

Hazal Şimşek

Industry Analyst

Follow On

Hazal is an industry analyst at AIMultiple, focusing on process mining and IT automation.

View Full Profile

Be the first to comment

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.

Name

Email Address

Comment

0/450

Post Comment