Roundup

Best web scraping APIs in 2026

Ten APIs that fetch, render and extract web pages for you, compared on what they cost per 1,000 successful requests and what they actually do.

Short answerUpdated October 4, 2026

There is no single best web scraping API: Bright Data, Oxylabs and Zyte suit large jobs on heavily protected sites, Firecrawl suits crawling sites into LLM-ready markdown, and ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee, Scrapfly, ZenRows and Ujeebu suit general developer work at lower prices. On published monthly plans, a JavaScript-rendered page costs from about $0.42 per 1,000 (ScrapingBee Business) and $0.50 (Ujeebu Pro) to $1.50 (Bright Data Web Unlocker), and up to $16.08 on Zyte's hardest site tier. Shortlist two or three by use case and test them on your own target sites during their free trials.

Disclosure: Ujeebu publishes this page and Ujeebu is one of the ten APIs. We list it where it fits, with its weaknesses, and every competitor fact links to the vendor's own page.

Picks by use case

Ten web scraping APIs and what each is best at

Grouped by the job each one does best, not scored. Prices are the vendors' published monthly plans as of October 4, 2026.

Firecrawl

Best for: crawling sites into LLM-ready markdown

An open-source crawler and scraping API built for AI applications: it crawls or maps a site and returns clean markdown or structured JSON.

Strengths

Open source (AGPL), can be self-hosted
Crawl, map, scrape and search endpoints designed for LLM pipelines
Free plan with 1,000 credits a month

Weaknesses

Every page costs at least 1 credit, so simple pages cost the same as rendered ones
JSON extraction adds 4 credits per page
No raw proxy access or SERP-only plans

Pricing: Hobby $19 a month for 5,000 credits; Standard $99 for 100,000 credits ($0.99 per 1,000 pages).
Firecrawl pricing · Ujeebu vs Firecrawl · Firecrawl alternatives

Bright Data

Best for: enterprise jobs on heavily protected sites

A web data platform with its own proxy networks, Web Unlocker, a SERP API, a scraping browser and ready-made datasets.

Strengths

Flat $1.50 per 1,000 Web Unlocker requests, rendering and unblocking included
Residential, ISP, mobile and datacenter proxies sold separately
Datasets and managed collection for teams that do not want to scrape

Weaknesses

Simple pages cost the same $1.50 per 1,000 as hard ones
Many separate products and price sheets to learn
Enterprise onboarding (KYC) before some proxy products

Pricing: Web Unlocker and SERP API $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go, $1.30 on the $499 Scale plan; 5,000 free Unlocker requests a month.
Bright Data pricing · Ujeebu vs Bright Data

Zyte

Best for: Scrapy teams and managed extraction

The company behind Scrapy. Zyte API handles bans and rendering and can return extracted product, article or job data.

Strengths

Built by the Scrapy maintainers, with Scrapy Cloud hosting
Automatic extraction for common page types
Managed data delivery if you do not want to run scrapers

Weaknesses

Price depends on a site tier Zyte assigns: $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 plain requests and $1.01 to $16.08 rendered
Harder to forecast cost before a job runs

Pricing: Pay as you go with no minimum; monthly commitments of $100, $200 or $500 lower the per-1,000 rates; $5 free credit.
Zyte pricing · Ujeebu vs Zyte

ScraperAPI

Best for: simple high-concurrency scraping and ecommerce targets

A long-running proxy and scraping API with structured endpoints for Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Google and a no-code DataPipeline scheduler.

Strengths

Structured endpoints for major ecommerce sites
Up to 500 concurrent threads on larger plans
Async jobs and DataPipeline scheduling

Weaknesses

Rendering costs 10 credits and a Google request 25, so rendered pages cost $4.90 per 1,000 on the $49 plan
Geotargeting limited to the US and EU below the Business plan

Pricing: Hobby $49 a month for 100,000 credits; Startup $149 for 1,000,000; Business $299 for 3,000,000; 7-day trial with 5,000 credits.
ScraperAPI pricing · Ujeebu vs ScraperAPI

Ujeebu

Best for: mixed scraping, SERP and AI answer workloads on a budget Our product

One API and one credit pool for scraping with rendering and proxies, Google SERP, ChatGPT and Gemini answers, article extraction, markdown, screenshots and PDFs.

Strengths

Rendered pages at $0.50 to $0.82 per 1,000, plain fetches at 1 credit
Google searches at $0.50 to $0.82 per 1,000
Failed requests are not billed; MCP server for agents

Weaknesses

Smaller company with far fewer public reviews than the leaders (1 review on Capterra as of October 2026)
Premium proxy with rendering costs 25 credits, more than a flat unlocker price on hard sites
No raw proxy access and no ready-made datasets

Pricing: Starter $49 a month for 300,000 credits; Growth $119 for 1,000,000; Pro $299 for 3,000,000; 5,000 trial credits, no card.
Ujeebu pricing · Scrape API

ScrapingBee

Best for: small teams that want a simple API

A straightforward scraping API with headless rendering, proxies, a screenshot option and AI-assisted extraction.

Strengths

Simple request model and clear docs
Low per-page price at higher tiers
Plans from $19 a month

Weaknesses

JavaScript rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits; stealth proxy requests cost 75
Some features, such as geotargeting, are reserved for higher plans

Pricing: Freelance $49 for 250,000 credits; Startup $99 for 1,000,000; Business $249 for 3,000,000 (about $0.42 per 1,000 rendered pages).
ScrapingBee pricing · Ujeebu vs ScrapingBee

Scrapfly

Best for: developers who want fine control over anti-bot settings

A scraping API with an anti-scraping-protection mode, browser rendering, screenshots and extraction, plus detailed request logs.

Strengths

Per-request logs and a monitoring dashboard
Base requests at 1 credit, rendering +5
Free plan with 1,000 credits

Weaknesses

Residential proxies cost 25 credits, 30 with rendering
Bandwidth above 1 MB per request is billed extra

Pricing: Discovery $30 for 200,000 credits; Pro $100 for 1,000,000 (about $0.60 per 1,000 rendered pages); Startup $250 for 2,500,000.
Scrapfly pricing · Ujeebu vs Scrapfly

ZenRows

Best for: a low entry price with anti-bot handling

A scraping API and scraping browser focused on getting past anti-bot systems, billed only for successful requests.

Strengths

Entry plan at $16 a month
Only successful requests are charged
Residential proxy bandwidth available (25,000 credits per GB)

Weaknesses

Rendering costs 5 credits and premium proxies with rendering 25
Premium proxies with rendering cost 25 credits: about $3.46 per 1,000 on Growth

Pricing: Build $16 for 45,000 credits; Launch $58 for 250,000; Growth $166 for 1,200,000 (about $0.69 per 1,000 rendered pages).
ZenRows pricing · Ujeebu vs ZenRows

Apify

Best for: ready-made scrapers for specific sites

A platform and marketplace of scrapers (Actors) for sites such as Google Maps, Instagram and Amazon, plus the open-source Crawlee library.

Strengths

Thousands of ready-made Actors for specific websites
Scheduling, storage and integrations built in
Open-source Crawlee for your own crawlers

Weaknesses

Cost depends on each Actor and on compute units, so it is harder to compare per request
Quality varies between community Actors

Pricing: Free $5 of usage a month; Starter $19; Scale $199; compute at $0.16 to $0.20 per compute unit.
Apify pricing · Ujeebu vs Apify

Oxylabs

Best for: enterprise ecommerce and search targets

A proxy provider with a Web Scraper API priced per result, with lower rates for Amazon and Google than for other sites.

Strengths

Per-result pricing by target type
Proxy networks sold alongside the API
Free trial up to 2,000 results

Weaknesses

Rendered results cost about $1.25 to $1.35 per 1,000
Aimed at business buyers; plans start at $49

Pricing: Micro $49 for up to 98,000 results; Starter $99; Advanced $249; JavaScript rendering $1.25 to $1.35 per 1,000.
Oxylabs pricing

Side by side

Comparison table

Price per 1,000 JavaScript-rendered pages is normalized at each vendor's plan closest to $100 to $300 a month: plan price divided by included credits, times the credits a rendered page costs.

Web scraping APIs compared, published prices as of October 4, 2026
API	Best for	Entry paid plan	Per 1,000 rendered pages	Free trial or tier	Also offers
Firecrawl	LLM-ready crawling	$19 (5,000 credits)	$0.99 (Standard $99)	1,000 credits a month	Crawl, map, search, open source
Bright Data	Protected sites at scale	Pay as you go	$1.50 ($1.30 on Scale $499)	5,000 Unlocker requests a month	Proxies, datasets, SERP API
Zyte	Scrapy teams	Pay as you go	$1.01 to $16.08 by site tier	$5 credit	Scrapy Cloud, automatic extraction
ScraperAPI	Ecommerce targets	$49 (100,000 credits)	$1.00 (Business $299)	7-day trial, 5,000 credits	Structured endpoints, DataPipeline
Ujeebu	Scraping plus SERP and AI answers	$49 (300,000 credits)	$0.60 (Growth $119), $0.50 (Pro $299)	5,000 credits, no card	SERP, ChatGPT and Gemini answers, MCP
ScrapingBee	Simple API for small teams	$19 (75,000 credits)	$0.42 (Business $249)	Free trial	Screenshots, AI extraction
Scrapfly	Anti-bot control	$30 (200,000 credits)	$0.60 (Pro $100)	1,000 credits	Screenshots, extraction
ZenRows	Low entry price	$16 (45,000 credits)	$0.69 (Growth $166)	Free plan, 5,000 credits	Scraping browser, proxies
Apify	Ready-made site scrapers	$19	Varies by Actor	$5 usage a month	Actor marketplace, Crawlee
Oxylabs	Enterprise ecommerce and search	$49 (98,000 results)	$1.30 (Starter $99)	Up to 2,000 results	Proxies, per-target pricing

Rendered-page prices exclude premium or residential proxy surcharges, which every vendor except Bright Data Web Unlocker and Zyte (tier-based) adds on top. For plain pages without a browser, Ujeebu, ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee, Scrapfly and ZenRows charge 1 credit, roughly $0.08 to $0.15 per 1,000 at the tiers in the table.

Buyer checklist

What should you look for in a web scraping API?

Short answer: look at the success rate on your own target sites, the real cost per successful page once credit multipliers are applied, and whether the API covers the extras you need (rendering, geotargeting, SERP, extraction) without a second vendor.

Success rate on your targets. Vendors are strong on different sites. Run the same 200 to 500 of your real URLs through two or three APIs during their free trials and count successful, complete responses.
Cost per successful page, not per credit. A credit can buy a plain fetch, a rendered page or a fraction of a premium request. Multiply the plan's price per credit by the credits your typical request costs (rendering is usually 5 to 10 credits, premium proxies 10 to 75).
Billing on failures. Check that failed and blocked requests are free. Ujeebu, ZenRows, Bright Data and Zyte all say they bill successful requests only.
JavaScript rendering and anti-bot. Single-page apps and protected sites need a headless browser, rotating residential proxies and CAPTCHA handling. Confirm the price of the combination, not of each feature alone.
Geotargeting. If you need country or city results, check which plans include it.
Output you can use. Raw HTML, extracted JSON, markdown for LLMs, screenshots or PDFs. Extraction built into the API saves parsing code.
Search and AI answers. If you also track Google results or what ChatGPT and Gemini say, an API that covers them on the same credits avoids a second contract.
Concurrency and limits. Concurrent requests per plan decide how fast a large job finishes.
Developer experience. SDKs for your language, clear errors, logs, and an MCP server if AI agents will call it.
Terms and compliance. Data processing terms, where proxies come from, and support response times for production use.

Methodology

How we compared these APIs

We picked ten APIs that AI assistants and search results commonly name for web scraping API questions, from our own October 2026 check of ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews answers plus the top search results for these queries, and added Ujeebu because we make it.

Prices: read from each vendor's public pricing page and credit documentation on October 4, 2026, monthly billing, US dollars. We normalized to the price per 1,000 successful requests at a given plan: plan price divided by included credits, times the credits one request of that type costs.
Features: taken from the vendors' own documentation. Where a feature is not documented we say so rather than assume it is missing.
What we did not do: we did not run a success-rate benchmark for this page. Success rates depend heavily on the target site; independent benchmarks such as Proxyway's annual web scraping API report and AIMultiple's tests are a better reference, and your own trial on your own URLs is the best one.
Order: the list is grouped by use case, not ranked by score.

We review this page every quarter and when a vendor changes its pricing. Corrections are welcome through the link at the bottom of the page.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which web scraping API do experts recommend?

Experts do not agree on one API; they recommend by use case. In our October 2026 check of 27 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, Firecrawl, Bright Data, ScraperAPI and ScrapingBee were each named in 17 or more, with Apify (13) and Zyte (10) next. Bright Data, Oxylabs and Zyte are the enterprise options for heavily protected sites, and independent benchmarks such as Proxyway's yearly report and AIMultiple's tests compare their success rates. For general developer work at a lower unit price, ScrapingBee, Scrapfly, ZenRows and Ujeebu are the usual shortlist. Test two or three on your own target sites before you commit.

How much does a web scraping API cost per month?

Entry plans cost $16 to $49 a month, and production plans for a few hundred thousand to a few million requests cost $99 to $500 a month. At mid tiers, a JavaScript-rendered page costs about $0.42 to $1.50 per 1,000 depending on the vendor, and heavily protected sites cost more: up to $16.08 per 1,000 on Zyte's hardest tier. Our web scraping API pricing guide works through examples.

What is the cheapest web scraping API with good reviews?

On published prices, the lowest cost per 1,000 rendered pages at mid tiers is ScrapingBee Business ($0.42), Ujeebu Pro ($0.50), Scrapfly Pro ($0.60) and ZenRows Growth ($0.69); for small volumes, ZenRows ($16) and ScrapingBee ($19) have the lowest entry plans. ScrapingBee, ZenRows, ScraperAPI and Bright Data have far more public reviews on G2 and Capterra than Ujeebu, which has 1 Capterra review (5.0 out of 5) as of October 2026, so check current ratings there before you decide.

What should I look for in a web scraping API?

Success rate on your own target sites, the real cost per successful page after credit multipliers, free failed requests, JavaScript rendering and anti-bot handling at a known price, geotargeting, usable output (JSON, markdown, screenshots), concurrency, and SDKs or an MCP server for your stack.

Do I need proxies if I use a web scraping API?

Usually not. Scraping APIs rotate proxies for you and include them in the request price; you pick a proxy level (datacenter, premium or residential) per request. You only need a separate proxy provider if you run your own scrapers or browsers.

Is web scraping legal?

Scraping publicly available data is generally lawful in the US, but terms of service, copyright, personal data rules such as GDPR and CCPA, and computer misuse laws can apply depending on what you collect and how. This is not legal advice: check with a lawyer for your specific use.

Sources

Prices and features come from each vendor's public pricing and documentation pages, checked on October 4, 2026. Prices change; check the vendor page before you buy.

Related comparisons and guides

Ujeebu publishes this page and sells one of the products on it. We do our best to keep it accurate and fair; if you see an error or a price that changed, please let us know.

Test it on your own targets

Benchmarks and price tables only go so far. Run your real URLs through two or three of these APIs during their free trials and compare success rate and cost per successful page.

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