ScrapingBee Alternatives: When a Thin Scrape API Is Not Enough
Stay on ScrapingBee when a thin scrape API with JS at 5 credits and premium proxies at 10 or 25 matches the job, and Hobby’s 75,000 credits (or Freelance’s 250,000) cover the mix. Switch when you need hosted Markdown for agents (Firecrawl), published SERP hostname multipliers (ScraperAPI), a weighted toolkit with Browser minutes (ZenRows), an actor store (Apify), or raw proxy infrastructure (Bright Data or Oxylabs).
- Stay, official ScrapingBee prices rechecked November 6, 2026: Hobby $19 / 75,000 credits / 25 concurrent; Freelance $49 / 250,000 / 50; JS = 5; premium = 10 or 25 depending on JS; no rollover.
- Pairwise already published: ScrapingBee vs Apify. This page is the landscape.
By Unfair Advantage · Updated November 6, 2026. Related: ScrapingBee review · ScrapingBee pricing · ScrapingBee vs Apify.
1. When to stay — and when a different door is the right one
People who search “ScrapingBee alternatives” usually already know the API exists. They want a leave path that matches a constraint the thin credit bucket does not cover, or confirmation that they should stay. This page does that job. It does not replace the ScrapingBee review or ScrapingBee pricing.
Stay when…
- You collect HTML and like a small published weight table (1 / 5 / 10-or-25).
- Hobby’s 75,000 credits and 25 concurrent requests — or Freelance’s 250,000 and 50 — cover the mix.
- The pain is a number on ScrapingBee’s own table (credits or concurrency), not a new output contract.
Leave when…
- You need Markdown or JSON for agents from a hosted context API.
- You need published Google/Bing/LinkedIn multipliers, or Browser-minute and residential-as-credit meters.
- You need store actors or raw proxy GB.
Prices below come from each vendor’s official pricing materials, checked November 6, 2026. ScrapingBee has no affiliate button here. Firecrawl links are affiliate links because that program is validated.
2. Job matrix
| Job | First place to look | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Thin hosted scrape API | ScrapingBee | That is the product. See the review and pricing pages. |
| Hosted Markdown / JSON for agents | Firecrawl | Different category. |
| Scrape API with SERP hostname weights | ScraperAPI | Google/Bing 25, LinkedIn 30, JS included in the plan fee. |
| Weighted toolkit (Browser / residential-as-credits) | ZenRows | One wallet at 1 / 5 / 10 / 25, plus Browser minutes and residential GB. |
| Actor store and custom jobs | Apify | ScrapingBee vs Apify. |
| Proxy / unlocker infrastructure | Bright Data or Oxylabs | Bright Data vs Oxylabs. |
3. Staying on ScrapingBee
Stay if the constraint is still “I want a thin scrape API.” Official entry is Hobby at $19 / 75,000 credits. Overflowing Hobby on a 25-credit mix is a Freelance ($49) upgrade — 10,000 premium+JS pages are exactly 250,000 credits, Freelance’s entire bucket. That is not evidence you needed actors, Markdown, or residential GB. A concurrency queue at 25 parallel requests is likewise a Freelance (50) or Startup (100) step, documented on the pricing page.
Stay through the next billing cycle when the output is still HTML you parse yourself, the 1 / 5 / 10-or-25 weights still describe the work, and nobody has written a new job description. A migration to ScraperAPI rewrites hostname-weight assumptions and geotargeting options. A migration to Firecrawl rewrites the output contract. A migration to Apify rewrites the operating model. None of those rewrites is justified by “Hobby felt tight.”
Diagnose before you migrate. Write down last month’s URL classes (standard, JS, premium, premium+JS) and the concurrency you actually needed, then convert with the public 1 / 5 / 10-or-25 weights. If the number fits the next ScrapingBee plan, stay. Name the output contract in the same pass: if the next hop is a prompt or MCP, the leave path is Firecrawl even if ScrapingBee Hobby looks cheaper than Firecrawl Standard. If the buying criterion is a published Google = 25 or LinkedIn = 30 weight, the leave path is ScraperAPI — and the reason is the published table, not a guess that ScrapingBee’s dedicated Google API costs 1 credit.
4. The main leave paths
Firecrawl — when the job is LLM context
Official hosted plans: Free $0 / 1,000 credits; Hobby $19 or $16 annual display / 5,000; Standard $99 or $83 / 100,000. Basic scrape is 1 credit; JSON scrape is 5. Ten thousand Markdown pages overflow Hobby (5,000) and fit Standard at $99. If your next hop is a prompt, a chunker, or MCP, this is the leave path — not a cheaper ScrapingBee. See the Firecrawl review.
ScraperAPI — SERP multipliers and included JS
Hobby $49 ($44.10 annual) / 100,000 credits / 20 threads; Startup $149 / 1,000,000 / 50; Business $299 / 3,000,000 / 100. Standard page 1 credit; Amazon 5; Google and Bing 25; LinkedIn 30; Cloudflare/Datadome/PerimeterX +10. JS rendering and premium proxies are included in the plan fee, so you do not pay a ScrapingBee-style 5× for JS — you pay a higher entry sticker and, for Google, a 25× page weight instead. Credits do not roll over. See ScraperAPI review.
ZenRows — toolkit wallet
Free 5,000 credits / 5 concurrent / no top-ups. Build monthly from $19 / 45,000 credits (B1); annual display from $16. Weights: standard 1, JS 5, premium 10, protected 25. Browser = bandwidth + 5 credits per minute; residential = 25,000 credits per GB. Failed requests are not charged; 404 and 410 bill. Leave here if you needed those extra meters on the same wallet, not another thin fetch API. See ZenRows review.
Apify — actors and a store
Free $0 / $5 included usage; Starter $19 ($17 annual) / $19 included. Unused usage expires. Most store actors are pay-per-event; the vendor’s Instagram example is $2.30 per 1,000 results (10,000 results = $23). Pairwise: ScrapingBee vs Apify.
Bright Data or Oxylabs — infrastructure
Bright Data residential PAYG listed at $8/GB, shown at $4.00/GB with named coupon RESIGB50; committed rows from $499 / 141 GB. KYC before Residential or Mobile. Oxylabs shared-credit subscription: Starter $15, Basic $100, Flexible $500, Enterprise from $2,500; residential from $6/GB on the lower columns. See Bright Data vs Oxylabs.
5. The same 10,000 pages, five different meters
Use this as a compass, not a bake-off.
- ScrapingBee standard: 10,000 credits → Hobby at $19. JS: 50,000 credits, still Hobby. Premium+JS at 25: 250,000 credits → Freelance at $49 exactly.
- Firecrawl Markdown: 10,000 credits → Standard at $99 (Hobby holds only 5,000). JSON: 50,000 credits, still Standard. You also get the context-API product, which is the point of leaving.
- ScraperAPI generic HTML: 10,000 credits fit Hobby at $49. Google at 25×: 250,000 credits fit Startup at $149 (1,000,000). JS does not add a 5× on top; it is included.
- ZenRows standard: 10,000 credits fit Build B1 at $19 (45,000). Protected at 25: 250,000 credits → Launch L1 at $69 exactly.
- Apify: no honest flat number. Starter is $19 of usage. The Instagram example at $2.30 / 1,000 results would price 10,000 results at $23.
The compass does not say ScrapingBee “wins” at $19 — that $19 only holds if the 10,000 pages stay at 1 or 5 credits. Protected or premium+JS, ScrapingBee is a $49 Freelance story and ZenRows protected is a $69 Launch story, while ScraperAPI generic HTML is still $49 unless those pages were Google (then $149). Switching without naming the URL class is how teams pay twice.
A mixed month that looks like a reason to leave — and is not: 6,000 standard + 3,000 JS + 1,000 premium+JS = 6,000 + 15,000 + 25,000 = 46,000 credits. That is still Hobby at $19. The same 10,000 URLs all on the 25-credit path are 250,000 credits and Freelance at $49. Teams often leave after seeing the second shape once, without asking whether the first shape is their typical month.
A month that is a reason to compare ScraperAPI: 10,000 Google result pages. ScraperAPI publishes 25 credits each = 250,000 credits, which fits Startup at $149 (JS included in the plan fee). ScrapingBee’s public 1 / 5 / 10-or-25 table does not print a Google hostname weight, even though a dedicated Google API is listed as an included feature. If published SERP multipliers are the buying criterion, that absence is a leave reason — not a license to assume the calls cost 1 credit, and not a license to invent 25.
A month that is a reason to compare ZenRows: 5,000 JS pages cost 25,000 credits on both vendors. Add 20 hours of Browser time and ZenRows bills 1,200 minutes × 5 = 6,000 credits for time, then residential GB at 25,000 credits each. ScrapingBee’s card includes screenshots and CSS/XPath extraction rules but does not publish a Browser-minute or residential-GB credit meter the way ZenRows does. If you needed those extra meters on one wallet, ZenRows is the leave path. If you only needed JS rendering, both vendors charge 5 credits and ScrapingBee Hobby ($19 / 75,000) still holds 5,000 JS pages with room left.
6. Pitfalls when you switch
- Comparing $19 stickers across ScrapingBee, Firecrawl, ZenRows, and Apify.
- Leaving because a 25-credit month emptied Hobby — that is Freelance, not a new category.
- Moving to Firecrawl for raw HTML to “save money,” or to Apify for 10,000 generic pages you could have fetched at 1 credit.
- Assuming another vendor’s failed requests are free just because one toolkit documents that rule.
- Treating ScrapingBee’s dedicated Google API as if it published ScraperAPI’s Google = 25 weight — or as if it were 1 credit. The card includes the feature; it does not print that multiplier.
7. Decision
| If this is the constraint… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Thin scrape API still matches | Stay on ScrapingBee. Recalculate the plan first. |
| You need hosted LLM context | Evaluate Firecrawl. |
| You need SERP hostname weights | Evaluate ScraperAPI. |
| You need a toolkit wallet | Evaluate ZenRows. |
| You need actors | Evaluate Apify. |
| You need proxies / an unlocker | Evaluate Bright Data or Oxylabs. |
Do not switch by default. Switch when the job changed. If the job did not change, the cheaper-looking row elsewhere is probably measuring a different unit.
8. FAQ
What is the best ScrapingBee alternative?
There is not one. Firecrawl for LLM context, ScraperAPI for SERP weights, ZenRows for a toolkit wallet, Apify for actors, Bright Data or Oxylabs for infrastructure.
Is ScrapingBee cheaper than ScraperAPI?
Hobby is $19 vs ScraperAPI Hobby $49, but the meters differ. 10,000 generic pages fit both entry packs; 10,000 Google pages are a published 250,000-credit ScraperAPI story (Startup at $149) and an unpublished weight on ScrapingBee — do not invent that row.
Should I leave if premium+JS emptied Hobby?
Usually no. That is Freelance ($49) on the pricing page. Leave if you never wanted a thin scrape API.
Should I leave ScrapingBee for ZenRows if I need screenshots?
Not on that feature alone. ScrapingBee lists screenshots and CSS/XPath extraction rules as included on the plan cards we fetched. Leave for ZenRows when you need Browser minutes and residential GB metered as credits on the same wallet, not when you needed a screenshot.
Do you earn a commission?
Firecrawl links on this page may earn a commission. Other tools have hidden placeholders only.
9. Sources
- ScrapingBee official pricing page (checked November 6, 2026)
- Firecrawl, ScraperAPI, ZenRows, and Apify official pricing pages (checked November 6, 2026)
- Bright Data official proxy-network page and Oxylabs official pricing page (checked November 6, 2026)