Best Web Scraping APIs for Node.js Developers

Node.js is the natural home for web scraping — async I/O, a massive npm ecosystem, and first-class free JSON formatter handling make it the go-to runtime for data extraction pipelines. But choosing the right scraping API matters. A bad fit means fighting with callback hell, unexpected rate limits, or parsing HTML manually when you should be shipping.

This guide ranks the best web scraping APIs for Node.js developers in 2026, tested against what matters in real Node.js projects: TypeScript support, async/await patterns, SDK quality, and how well the API fits into existing Node.js toolchains.

Key Takeaways

• SearchHive has the best Node.js SDK — TypeScript types included, async/await native, structured JSON responses
• Axios + Cheerio remains the free self-hosted stack for simple scraping (no API needed)
• Puppeteer/Playwright handle JavaScript rendering but require you to manage infrastructure
• ScraperAPI is the most reliable proxy API for Node.js — simple HTTP interface, no SDK lock-in
• Apify offers the best Node.js-native scraping platform — it's built on Node.js and the Actor SDK is excellent

1. SearchHive

/blog/best-web-scraping-api-in-2026-complete-developer-comparison

SearchHive ships a first-party Node.js SDK with full TypeScript support. Responses are typed, errors are structured, and the API fits naturally into async/await patterns.

Pricing: Free tier (500 requests/month), Starter $29/month (10,000 requests), Pro $79/month (50,000 requests), Business $199/month (200,000 requests).

import { SearchHiveClient } from "@searchhive/sdk";

const client = new SearchHiveClient({ apiKey: process.env.SEARCHHIVE_KEY });

// Scrape a page with structured extraction
const result = await client.scrape({
  url: "https://example.com/products",
  extract: {
    products: {
      name: ".product-title",
      price: ".price-value",
      inStock: ".stock-status",
    },
  },
});

console.log(result.products);
// [{ name: "Widget Pro", price: "$49.99", inStock: "In Stock" }, ...]

// Search Google results
const search = await client.search({
  engine: "google",
  query: "typescript web scraping library",
});

for (const item of search.organic.slice(0, 5)) {
  console.log(`${item.title} — ${item.url}`);
}

Why it fits Node.js well:

• TypeScript types ship with the package — no @types/ needed
• Async/await throughout — no callbacks, no promises you have to wrap
• Structured responses map directly to interfaces — no manual JSON parsing
• Error types are specific (RateLimitError, AuthenticationError, ExtractionError)
• Works with Node.js 18+ and all major frameworks (Express, Fastify, NestJS)

The SDK also supports streaming for large extractions and batch operations for processing multiple URLs in parallel.

/compare/scraperapi

2. Apify

Apify is built on Node.js. The entire platform runs on it, and the Actor development SDK (apify) is the most mature Node.js scraping framework available.

Pricing: Free tier ($5 compute/month), Starter $49/month ($49 compute), Pro $249/month ($249 compute).

import { Actor } from "apify";

await Actor.init();

const requestQueue = await Actor.openRequestQueue();
await requestQueue.addRequest({ url: "https://example.com/page1" });

const crawler = new CheerioCrawler({
  requestQueue,
  async requestHandler({ $, request, enqueueLinks }) {
    const title = $("h1").text();
    const price = $(".price").text();
    await Actor.pushData({ url: request.url, title, price });

    // Follow pagination links
    await enqueueLinks({ globs: ["https://example.com/page/*"] });
  },
});

await crawler.run();
await Actor.exit();

Why Node.js developers like it:

• Native Node.js Actor SDK with TypeScript support
• CheerioCrawler for HTML, PuppeteerCrawler for JS rendering
• Built-in request queue, storage, and state management
• 2,000+ pre-built Actors — many written in TypeScript
• Deploy directly from npm or from Apify Console

Weakness: compute-based pricing is unpredictable. A headless browser Actor might cost $0.50-2.00 per run versus $0.01 for a simple HTTP scraper.

3. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI takes a different approach — no SDK required. It's a simple HTTP API that returns raw HTML, which you parse with whatever Node.js tools you prefer (Cheerio, JSDOM, linkedom).

Pricing: Hobby $49/month (5,000 requests), Startup $149/month (50,000 requests), Business $399/month (250,000 requests).

import axios from "axios";
import * as cheerio from "cheerio";

const { data: html } = await axios.get("http://api.scraperapi.com", {
  params: {
    api_key: process.env.SCRAPERAPI_KEY,
    url: "https://protected-site.com/listings",
    render: "true",
  },
});

const $ = cheerio.load(html);
const items = $(".listing-item")
  .map((_, el) => ({
    title: $(el).find(".title").text().trim(),
    price: $(el).find(".price").text().trim(),
  }))
  .get();

Why it works well with Node.js: no vendor lock-in. You use standard HTTP client + HTML parser patterns. Swap ScraperAPI for any proxy API without changing your parsing code.

Weakness: no structured output, no markdown conversion, no TypeScript SDK. You build everything yourself on top of raw HTML.

4. Puppeteer + Stealth

Puppeteer is Google's official Node.js library for controlling headless Chrome. Combined with puppeteer-extra and puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth, it handles JavaScript rendering and basic anti-bot detection.

Cost: Free (open source). Infrastructure costs vary by hosting.

import puppeteer from "puppeteer-extra";
import StealthPlugin from "puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth";

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.goto("https://example.com", { waitUntil: "networkidle2" });

const data = await page.evaluate(() => {
  const items = [];
  document.querySelectorAll(".product").forEach((el) => {
    items.push({
      name: el.querySelector("h3")?.textContent,
      price: el.querySelector(".price")?.textContent,
    });
  });
  return items;
});

await browser.close();

Strengths: Free, full browser control, excellent for dynamic content, large community.

Weakness: you manage infrastructure (servers, proxies, scaling), no built-in retry logic, memory-heavy (each page loads a full browser instance), Cloudflare-protected sites still need additional measures.

5. Playwright

Microsoft's answer to Puppeteer. Supports Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit. Generally faster and more reliable than Puppeteer for automated browsing.

Cost: Free (open source).

import { chromium } from "playwright";

const browser = await chromium.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();

await page.goto("https://example.com");
const items = await page.$$eval(".product", (elements) =>
  elements.map((el) => ({
    name: el.querySelector("h3")?.textContent?.trim(),
    price: el.querySelector(".price")?.textContent?.trim(),
  }))
);

await browser.close();

Strengths: Multi-browser support, auto-wait for elements, better API design than Puppeteer, built-in screenshot/PDF.

Weakness: same infrastructure burden as Puppeteer, less stealth plugin ecosystem than Puppeteer.

6. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee offers a Node.js SDK alongside their HTTP API. The SDK handles request formatting and response parsing.

Pricing: Free tier (1,000 credits/month), Startup $49/month (100,000 credits), Business $99/month (300,000 credits).

import ScrapingBee from "scrapingbee";

const client = new ScrapingBee.Client(process.env.SCRAPINGBEE_KEY);
const response = await client.get({
  url: "https://example.com",
  params: {
    render_js: "true",
    extract_rules: JSON.stringify({
      title: "h1",
      price: ".price",
    }),
  },
});

const data = JSON.parse(response.data);

Best for: developers who want a managed API with an official Node.js SDK but don't need structured extraction or LLM features.

7. Cheerio + Axios (Self-Hosted)

The free, self-hosted approach. Axios for HTTP requests, Cheerio for HTML parsing with jQuery-like syntax. No API costs, no rate limits beyond what you set.

Cost: Free. You pay for your own servers/proxies.

import axios from "axios";
import * as cheerio from "cheerio";

const { data: html } = await axios.get("https://example.com", {
  headers: { "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 ..." },
});

const $ = cheerio.load(html);
const products = $(".product")
  .map((_, el) => ({
    name: $(el).find("h2").text(),
    price: $(el).find(".price").text(),
    url: $(el).find("a").attr("href"),
  }))
  .get();

Best for: static websites (no JS rendering needed), learning, prototyping, and situations where API costs don't make sense.

Weakness: no proxy rotation, no anti-bot bypass, no JS rendering, you handle retries and errors manually, blocked by most modern anti-bot systems.

Feature Comparison

Node.js Ecosystem Integration

How well does each option fit into common Node.js patterns?

Express/Fastify API endpoints: SearchHive and ScraperAPI work best — async/await response patterns map directly to route handlers.

cron expression generator jobs (node-cron): Any HTTP API works. Apify has its own scheduler. Puppeteer/Playwright need server infrastructure.

Serverless (Vercel, AWS Lambda): HTTP APIs (SearchHive, ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee) work great. Puppeteer/Playwright need specialized serverless browser layers (chrome-aws-lambda, Playwright AWS).

Background workers (BullMQ, Bull): All options work. SearchHive and ScraperAPI are simplest to queue since each request is independent.

CLI tools (Commander, yargs): SearchHive's SDK and Cheerio+Axios are the most CLI-friendly — simple sync-ish patterns, no browser lifecycle management.

Recommendation

For most Node.js projects: SearchHive — the TypeScript SDK, structured output, and built-in anti-detection mean you spend time on your application, not on scraping infrastructure. The free tier is enough to prototype.

For complex scraping with custom logic: Apify — the Actor SDK is the most complete Node.js scraping framework, and the marketplace saves enormous development time.

For self-hosted with full control: Puppeteer or Playwright — free, powerful, but you manage everything yourself.

For simple proxy rotation: ScraperAPI — reliable, no SDK lock-in, works with standard axios/fetch patterns.

For static sites: Cheerio + Axios — free, fast, zero dependencies beyond the two packages.

Get Started

Install the SearchHive Node.js SDK:

npm install @searchhive/sdk

Sign up for the free tier — 500 requests/month, no credit card needed. TypeScript types included. Full documentation at docs.searchhive.dev.