ZenRows Alternatives — 8 Anti-Bot Bypass Services Without the Premium Price

ZenRows built a solid reputation as a straightforward anti-bot scraping proxy. Send a URL, get rendered HTML — JavaScript challenges, CAPTCHAs, and fingerprint detection handled automatically. But starting at $49/mo for 50K requests and scaling quickly from there, it's not cheap for high-volume scraping.

Here are eight alternatives that provide anti-bot bypass capabilities at better price points, with stronger proxy infrastructure, or both.

Key Takeaways

• Cheapest per-request anti-bot scraping: SearchHive ScrapeForge at $0.0002-0.0003 per request
• Most reliable anti-bot infrastructure: Bright Data with the world's largest proxy network
• Best for JavaScript-heavy sites: ScrapingBee with dedicated Chrome rendering
• Best for AI/LLM workflows: Firecrawl with clean markdown output
• Best value overall: SearchHive at $49/mo for ~50K scrapes with search + research APIs included

1. Bright Data Web Unlocker

Best for: Maximum reliability — period

Bright Data's Web Unlocker is the gold standard for anti-bot scraping. It combines their 72M+ residential proxy network with automatic CAPTCHA solving, browser fingerprint rotation, and intelligent retry logic. If a request gets blocked, it automatically rotates to a fresh proxy and retries.

Pricing: Pay-per-successful-result. Simple requests ~$0.003, complex requests ~$0.01. You only pay for successful scrapes.

Pros: Highest success rate in the industry, pay only for results, enterprise SLAs available Cons: More expensive than ZenRows per request, complex pricing structure, overkill for simple sites

2. ScraperAPI

Best for: Simple, predictable pricing with anti-bot built in

ScraperAPI provides three tiers of rendering — Standard (no JS), Premium (partial JS), and Ultra (full browser). Proxy rotation and CAPTCHA handling are included at all tiers. The API is dead simple: append your target URL as a parameter.

Pricing:

ScraperAPI's Hobby plan at $49/mo gives you 100K requests — double ZenRows' Starter (50K for $49). Same price, twice the volume.

Pros: Generous free tier, simple API, more requests per dollar than ZenRows Cons: Proxy quality can be inconsistent, JS rendering costs extra credits

3. ScrapingBee

Best for: Sites that are heavy on JavaScript rendering

ScrapingBee runs real headless Chrome instances for every JS rendering request. If the site relies on React, Vue, Angular, or complex AJAX calls, ScrapingBee handles it reliably. Proxy rotation is included on all paid plans.

Pricing:

Note: JS rendering consumes 5-25 credits per request depending on complexity.

Pros: Best Chrome rendering quality, clean API, good documentation Cons: Expensive per JS-rendered request, small volume at the $49 tier

4. ScraperProxy

Best for: Budget-friendly rotating proxy API with basic anti-bot

ScraperProxy offers rotating proxies via a simple HTTP API. It handles IP rotation and basic anti-detection but doesn't include CAPTCHA solving or advanced fingerprinting. Good for sites with basic bot detection.

Pricing: Plans start at $75/mo for 5GB of bandwidth. Pay-per-GB model.

Pros: Cheap bandwidth pricing, simple setup, unlimited concurrent connections Cons: No CAPTCHA solving, no JS rendering, basic anti-bot only

5. ScrapingFish

Best for: Lightweight anti-bot scraping with clean output

ScrapingFish provides a rendering proxy API with JavaScript support and anti-bot features. It returns raw HTML that you parse yourself. Pricing is straightforward and competitive.

Pricing: Starts at $25/mo for 100K API credits. JS rendering costs 5 credits per request.

Pros: Cheap entry point, clean API, good for high-volume simple scraping Cons: Limited CAPTCHA solving, fewer proxy locations than competitors, smaller community

6. Oxylabs

Best for: Enterprise-grade web intelligence with datacenter and residential proxies

Oxylabs is Bright Data's main competitor. They operate a large proxy network (100M+ IPs) and offer a Web Scraper API that handles rendering and anti-bot. Their enterprise focus means strong compliance features, SLAs, and support.

Pricing: Web Scraper API from ~$0.003-0.012 per request depending on complexity. Proxy plans from $180/mo.

Pros: Massive proxy network, enterprise features, good documentation, EU-based (GDPR) Cons: Expensive, enterprise-focused (not great for individual devs), steep minimum commitments

7. Firecrawl

Best for: AI applications that need anti-bot scraping with clean output

Firecrawl converts web pages into clean markdown or structured data, handling JavaScript rendering and basic anti-bot detection along the way. Their /interact endpoint (new) even lets agents interact with pages — click buttons, fill forms, navigate.

Pricing:

1 credit per page scrape. Markdown/structured output included.

Pros: Best output quality for AI/LLM use, agent interaction, crawl mode Cons: Expensive at scale, anti-bot not as robust as Bright Data/ZenRows

8. SearchHive — ScrapeForge

Best for: Developers who want anti-bot scraping, search, and research in one credit system

SearchHive's ScrapeForge endpoint provides JavaScript rendering, proxy rotation, anti-bot detection, and CAPTCHA solving. The differentiator: it shares credits with SwiftSearch (search) and DeepDive (research), so one subscription covers all three capabilities.

Pricing:

At $49/mo, ScrapeForge gives you roughly the same scraping volume as ZenRows' $49 Starter plan (50K requests) — but also includes 50K search queries and 10K+ research queries on the same credits.

import requests

API_KEY = "your_searchhive_key"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

# ScrapeForge — anti-bot scraping with JS rendering
result = requests.post("https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "url": "https://protected-site.com/data",
        "format": "markdown",
        "anti_bot": True,           # proxy rotation + CAPTCHAs + fingerprinting
        "wait_for": 3000,           # wait for JS rendering
        "timeout": 30000
    }
).json()

if result.get("success"):
    print(result["content"][:500])
else:
    print(f"Error: {result.get('error')}")

# Anti-bot protected e-commerce scraping
product_urls = [
    "https://example.com/product/12345",
    "https://example.com/product/67890",
]

for url in product_urls:
    scrape = requests.post("https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
        headers=headers,
        json={
            "url": url,
            "format": "json",
            "anti_bot": True,
            "extract": {
                "type": "auto"  # auto-detect and extract structured data
            }
        }
    ).json()
    
    if scrape.get("success"):
        data = scrape["content"]
        print(f"Product: {data.get('title', 'N/A')} — ${data.get('price', 'N/A')}")

# Full pipeline: search → scrape → analyze
search = requests.post("https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/swiftsearch",
    headers=headers,
    json={"query": "best python web scraping libraries 2026", "num_results": 10}
).json()

for r in search["results"][:5]:
    content = requests.post("https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
        headers=headers,
        json={"url": r["url"], "format": "markdown", "anti_bot": True}
    ).json()
    
    # Count mentions of different libraries in the content
    text = content.get("content", "")
    print(f"{r['title']}: {len(text)} chars scraped")

Pros: Cheapest anti-bot scraping, three APIs in one, clean markdown output, free tier Cons: No visual builder, requires coding, newer platform than ZenRows

Comparison Table

Recommendation

• Maximum reliability, budget no object: Bright Data Web Unlocker — highest success rates, pay only for results.
• Simple replacement for ZenRows at better value: ScraperAPI — same $49/mo gives you 2x the requests.
• Best for AI/agent workflows: Firecrawl — clean markdown output, agent interaction, crawl mode.
• Best value with the most capabilities: SearchHive ScrapeForge — anti-bot scraping, search, and research for $49/mo. You get ~50K scrapes plus search and research APIs on the same credits. ZenRows charges $49 for 50K scraping requests alone.

If ZenRows' pricing is your main complaint, SearchHive matches or beats it on price while adding search and research capabilities that ZenRows doesn't offer. If reliability is your pain point, Bright Data is the upgrade. Start free with SearchHive — 500 credits, no credit card.