Extract content from any website without running a headless browser. Compare the top web scraping APIs by price, features, and ease of use.
Last updated: March 2026
Running your own scraper means managing headless browsers, proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and IP bans. Scraping APIs handle all of that via a simple HTTP request.
Modern sites use React, Vue, Angular. A simple HTTP request returns empty HTML. Scraping APIs run a real browser to render the full page.
Cloudflare, reCAPTCHA, rate limiting. Scraping APIs rotate IPs and handle challenges so you get the data, not a block page.
Instead of parsing raw HTML with cheerio or BeautifulSoup, some APIs return clean JSON with title, content, links, and metadata already extracted.
Puppeteer needs 200MB+ RAM per instance. At scale, that means dedicated servers. APIs let you scrape from serverless functions, edge workers, or simple scripts.
Side-by-side comparison of the top web scraping APIs. All data verified as of March 2026.
| Feature | ScrapingBee | ScraperAPI | Crawlbase | Zyte | Frostbyte |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 1,000 credits | 5,000 credits | 1,000 credits | No free tier | 200 credits |
| Signup required | Email + password | Email + password | Email + password | Email + company info | No (one API call) |
| JS rendering | Yes (5 credits) | Yes (10 credits) | Yes (5 credits) | Yes | Yes (1 credit) |
| Structured data | Partial (AI extract) | No (raw HTML) | Partial | Yes (Smart Proxy) | Yes (JSON) |
| Anti-bot bypass | Yes (premium proxies) | Yes (auto-rotate) | Yes | Yes (Zyte Proxy) | Basic |
| Proxy rotation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Geo-targeting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Paid from | $49/mo | $49/mo | $29/mo | $300/mo | $1 (pay-as-you-go) |
| Other APIs included | No | No | No | No | 40+ APIs |
Detailed pros and cons for each provider based on real-world usage.
Popular choice for JS rendering
Most generous free tier
Cheapest paid tier
Enterprise-grade extraction
Structured extraction, zero friction
Monthly cost for 10,000 scraping requests with JavaScript rendering enabled.
Scrape any URL and see structured results. No signup, no API key needed for this demo.
Get started in seconds. One API call returns structured page data.
# 1. Get a free API key (no signup form)
curl -X POST https://agent-gateway-kappa.vercel.app/api/keys/create
# 2. Scrape any URL
curl "https://agent-gateway-kappa.vercel.app/api/scrape?url=https://example.com" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
# Response: structured JSON with title, text, links, meta tags
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
const BASE = 'https://agent-gateway-kappa.vercel.app';
async function scrape(url) {
const res = await fetch(
`${BASE}/api/scrape?url=${encodeURIComponent(url)}`,
{ headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}` } }
);
return res.json();
}
const data = await scrape('https://news.ycombinator.com');
console.log(data.title); // "Hacker News"
console.log(data.links); // Array of extracted links
console.log(data.text); // Clean text content
import requests
API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
BASE = "https://agent-gateway-kappa.vercel.app"
def scrape(url):
resp = requests.get(
f"{BASE}/api/scrape",
params={"url": url},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
)
return resp.json()
data = scrape("https://news.ycombinator.com")
print(data["title"]) # Hacker News
print(data["links"][:5]) # First 5 links
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"net/http"
"net/url"
)
func main() {
target := url.QueryEscape("https://news.ycombinator.com")
endpoint := "https://agent-gateway-kappa.vercel.app/api/scrape?url=" + target
req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", endpoint, nil)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY")
resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
defer resp.Body.Close()
var data map[string]interface{}
json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&data)
fmt.Println(data["title"])
}
Pick the right tool for your specific use case.
You need to scrape sites with aggressive anti-bot protection (Cloudflare, Akamai) and want AI-powered data extraction. Good for e-commerce scraping at scale.
You want the most free credits to start (5,000) and are comfortable parsing raw HTML. Best for developers who already use cheerio or BeautifulSoup.
You need both scraping and crawling, want to store results, or need webhook notifications for async jobs. Good value at $29/mo.
You're running enterprise-scale crawling with millions of pages, need Scrapy Cloud integration, or require SLA guarantees. Overkill for most projects.
You want to start scraping in seconds (no signup form), need structured JSON output, or want scraping as part of a larger API toolkit (screenshots, DNS, IP geo, crypto).