ScrapFly charges $30/month for 200,000 credits on its Discovery plan, but browser requests cost +5 credits and residential proxies cost +25 credits per request. At scale, those add-ons make the real cost per successful scrape significantly higher than the headline number suggests.
If you're looking for ScrapFly alternatives that deliver better value — or more features, or simpler pricing — this comparison covers 8 options worth evaluating.
Key Takeaways
- ScrapFly's credit system obscures real costs — browser and residential requests eat credits fast
- ZenRows starts at $49/month with WAF bypass built in, no credit math required
- Crawlbase only charges for successful requests — complexity-based pricing means simple pages cost less
- SearchHive combines scraping, SERP, and deep extraction in one API with a free tier
- Apify offers the most flexible platform if you need custom scrapers and scheduling
1. ZenRows
ZenRows provides a universal scraping API with AI-powered anti-bot bypass. It handles Cloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, and other WAFs without extra charges per request type. One plan covers everything.
Pricing: Starter from ~$49/month. Volume discounts at scale.
Key features:
- AI Web Unblocker for WAF and CAPTCHA bypass
- Residential proxies with geolocation targeting
- Scraping Browser for headless tasks
- Pre-built solutions for e-commerce, real estate, SERP, jobs, and social media
# ZenRows — basic scraping with anti-bot bypass
import requests
API_KEY = "your_zenrows_key"
url = "https://example.com/products"
response = requests.get(
"https://api.zenrows.com/v1/batches",
params={
"apikey": API_KEY,
"url": url,
"js_render": "true",
"antibot": "true",
}
)
print(response.json())
2. SearchHive (ScrapeForge)
SearchHive's ScrapeForge handles proxy rotation, anti-bot bypass, and structured data extraction in a single API call. Unlike ScrapFly, it doesn't use a multi-tiered credit system that penalizes browser rendering.
Pricing: Free tier available. Contact for detailed pricing on scale plans.
Key features:
- Proxy rotation and anti-bot bypass included
- Structured JSON output
- SERP scraping alongside web scraping
- DeepDive for AI-ready content extraction
- Python SDK with clean API
# SearchHive ScrapeForge — web scraping in a single call
from searchhive import ScrapeForge
client = ScrapeForge(api_key="your_key")
result = client.scrape(
url="https://example.com/products",
render_js=True,
extract={"title": "h1", "price": ".price-tag"}
)
for item in result.data:
print(f"{item['title']}: {item['price']}")
3. ScrapingBee
ScrapingBee is a straightforward scraping API with headless browser rendering and proxy rotation. Their pricing is clear — flat monthly plans with a set number of API credits.
Pricing: Freelance $49/month, Startup $99/month, Business $249/month, Business+ $599/month. 1,000 free credits to start.
Key features:
- Headless browser with proxy rotation
- Residential and rotating proxies
- JavaScript rendering
- CAPTCHA handling
- Multiple SDKs (Python, Node.js, Ruby, PHP)
# ScrapingBee — render JavaScript pages
from scrapingbee import ScrapingBeeClient
client = ScrapingBeeClient(api_key='your_key')
response = client.get(
'https://example.com',
params={
'render_js': 'true',
'premium_proxy': 'true',
}
)
print(response.content.decode('utf-8'))
4. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI abstracts away the complexity of proxy rotation, CAPTCHA handling, and headless browsers. You send a URL, they return the HTML. Simple.
Pricing: Entry $49/month (100K credits), Medium $149/month (1M credits), Advanced $299/month. 5,000 free trial credits.
Key features:
- Handles proxies, CAPTCHAs, and browsers automatically
- Async scraper for high-volume workloads
- LangChain integration for AI agent pipelines
- Geographic targeting
- DataPipeline for no-code collection
# ScraperAPI — simplest possible scraping
import requests
API_KEY = "your_key"
payload = {"api_key": API_KEY, "url": "https://example.com"}
response = requests.get("http://api.scraperapi.com", params=payload)
print(response.text)
5. Bright Data
Bright Data operates the world's largest proxy network (72M+ residential IPs) and provides a full suite of scraping tools. It's enterprise-grade, which means enterprise pricing, but the infrastructure quality is unmatched.
Pricing: Residential proxies ~$4-8/GB. Datacenter ~$0.06-0.11/GB. Unlocker/Browser API: custom pricing.
Key features:
- 72M+ residential IPs — largest proxy network
- Web Unlocker API for all anti-bot systems
- Pre-collected Datasets for common targets
- Web Archive API with 50PB+ of historical data
- Retail Intelligence analytics platform
6. Oxylabs
Oxylabs is one of the oldest and most established proxy providers. Their 100M+ residential IP network and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification make them popular with enterprises that need compliance guarantees.
Pricing: Residential proxies ~$6-15/GB. Datacenter ~$180/month for 100 IPs.
Key features:
- 100M+ residential IPs worldwide
- Residential, datacenter, mobile, ISP, and SOCKS5 proxies
- Web Scraper API, SERP Scraper API, E-Commerce Scraper API
- City-level geo-targeting
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified
7. Crawlbase
Crawlbase uses complexity-based pricing — you only pay for successful requests, and simpler pages cost less. This is a fundamentally different model from ScrapFly's flat credit system.
Pricing: Standard API $3.00/1K requests (first tier), Smart AI Proxy $4.50/1K. Volume discounts up to 99% at scale. 1,000 free requests.
Key features:
- Only charges for successful requests
- Complexity-based pricing (simple pages cost less)
- Smart AI Proxy for JavaScript-heavy sites
- Enterprise Crawler for large-scale projects
- No setup fees
8. Apify
Apify is a cloud-based automation platform with an Actor store of 1,000+ pre-built scrapers. If you need custom scraping logic, scheduled runs, and data storage, it's the most flexible option here.
Pricing: Free plan. Starter $5/month, Scale $29/month + usage, Business $199/month + usage.
Key features:
- Actor store with pre-built scrapers for popular sites
- Custom actor development with Python/Node.js SDK
- Built-in proxy management
- Scheduler for automated runs
- Integrations with Zapier, Slack, Google Sheets
# Apify — run a pre-built actor
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("your_token")
run = client.actor("apify/web-scraper").call(run_input={
"startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}],
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item)
Comparison Table
| Platform | Starting Price | Free Tier | Anti-Bot Bypass | Proxy Types | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZenRows | ~$49/mo | No | Yes (AI) | Residential, datacenter | All-in-one scraping |
| SearchHive | Free tier | Yes | Yes | Rotating, residential | AI-ready data pipelines |
| ScrapingBee | $49/mo | 1K credits | Yes | Rotating, residential | Simple scraping API |
| ScraperAPI | $49/mo | 5K credits | Yes | Rotating, residential | AI agent integration |
| Bright Data | ~$4/GB | Trial | Yes | 72M+ residential | Enterprise scale |
| Oxylabs | ~$6/GB | No | Yes | 100M+ residential | Compliance-focused |
| Crawlbase | $3/1K reqs | 1K free | Yes | Multiple | Pay-per-success model |
| Apify | $0 (free) | Yes | Yes | Built-in | Custom scrapers + scheduling |
Recommendation
For most developers, SearchHive offers the best balance of price, features, and simplicity. The free tier lets you test without commitment, and combining ScrapeForge (web scraping) with SwiftSearch (SERP) and DeepDive (content extraction) means one API key covers all your data needs. Read the SearchHive docs to get started.
If you need dedicated WAF bypass and have a larger budget, ZenRows at $49/month is a strong ScrapFly replacement with simpler pricing.
For projects with high-volume scraping where you need to control every variable, Crawlbase is worth evaluating — its complexity-based pricing can be significantly cheaper than per-credit models at scale.