Last month I was helping a friend set up a scraping pipeline for his side project. He’d been on ScrapingBee for a few months and liked it fine, but his monthly bill kept climbing in ways he couldn’t predict. The credit system was the problem.
What looked like 250,000 requests on paper turned into maybe 50,000 actual pages once JavaScript rendering ate through 5x the credits.
He asked me what else was out there. I spent a week looking at every ScrapingBee alternative I could find, checking pricing pages, testing free tiers, and reading the fine print on credit systems. This post is everything I found.
FlyByAPIs is a suite of structured data APIs on RapidAPI that returns clean JSON for Google SERP API , Amazon product data , Google Maps data , and more — starting with a free tier and no credit multipliers. We built it, so yes, I have skin in the game. I’ll be honest about where our tools make sense and where they don’t.
If you need generic web scraping with JavaScript rendering, I’ll point you somewhere else. No hard feelings.
5
Alternatives tested
$0.50
Cost per 1K req (Ultra)
5x
ScrapingBee JS credit drain
$0
Free tiers available
TL;DR: For structured data (Google search results, Amazon products), FlyByAPIs starts at $9.99/mo for 15K requests ($0.67/1K) and drops to $0.50/1K on the Ultra plan — with no credit multipliers. For generic web scraping of basic sites, ScraperAPI ($49/mo, 1 credit per basic request) and Crawlbase (pay-as-you-go from $0.20/1K) are the strongest options — but beware: ScraperAPI charges 25 credits per Google SERP request and 5 per Amazon request.
Here’s the short version: the right alternative depends on what you’re actually scraping.
Quick comparison: which alternative fits your project?
Before the deep dives, here’s the decision framework. Find your use case, pick your tool.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Cost per 1K requests | Free tier | JS rendering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FlyByAPIs | Budget + structured data | $0/mo | $0.50–0.67 | 200 req/mo | No |
| ScraperAPI | All-rounder | $49/mo | $0.49 basic / $12.25 SERP | 1,000 credits | Yes (+10 credits) |
| Crawlbase | Budget generic scraping | PAYG | ~$0.20–0.50 | 1,000 requests | Yes (separate token) |
| Apify | Flexibility + pre-built scrapers | $0/mo | ~$0.50–5.00 | $5 free credit | Yes |
| Zyte | Enterprise + AI extraction | PAYG | $0.06 basic / $7.68+ SERP | $5 trial credit | Yes (included) |
Why look for ScrapingBee alternatives?
ScrapingBee is a solid product. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Their generic web scraping API works, their proxy rotation is reliable, and they’ve added some interesting features like AI-powered data extraction and dedicated APIs for Google, Amazon, and YouTube.
So why are people searching for alternatives?
The credit system is confusing at scale
ScrapingBee's Freelance plan gives you 250,000 credits for $49/month. Sounds generous. But JavaScript rendering costs 5 credits per request, premium proxies cost 10-25 credits, and their Google Search API costs 10-15 credits per call. If most of your requests need JS rendering (and most modern websites do), those 250,000 credits become 50,000 actual requests. That's $0.98 per 1,000 for JS pages, not the $0.20 you see on the pricing page at first glance.
The Oxylabs acquisition
ScrapingBee was acquired by Oxylabs, and some developers have started re-evaluating. Acquisitions don't always mean worse service, but they do mean uncertainty about future pricing and product direction.
You might not need a Swiss army knife
ScrapingBee does everything: generic scraping, JS rendering, screenshots, AI extraction, structured APIs. If you specifically need Google search results or Amazon product data, you're paying for capabilities you'll never touch. A specialist tool can be cheaper and simpler.
1. FlyByAPIs — best for budget and structured data
This is us, so let me be direct about what we do and don’t do.
We offer five structured data APIs on RapidAPI: Google SERP API , Google Maps scraper , Amazon data API , Translator API , and Jobs Search API . You send a query, you get clean JSON back. No HTML parsing, no proxy management, no headless browsers.
Pricing (Google Search API):
| Plan | Price | Requests/month | Cost per 1K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | 200 | Free |
| Pro | $9.99 | 15,000 | $0.67 |
| Ultra | $49.99 | 100,000 | $0.50 |
| Mega | $149.99 | 400,000 | $0.375 |
Every request costs exactly one credit. No multipliers, no surprise bills. What you see on the pricing page is what you pay.
What you get: Real-time Google SERP results across 250 countries and 150+ languages. Organic results, People Also Ask, related searches, and autocomplete predictions — all as structured JSON, usually in under 2 seconds.
The Amazon scraper API covers 25 endpoints across 21 marketplaces, from product search to reviews to deals. And we’re actively expanding the API catalog.
Pros
Cheapest per-request cost for structured search and Amazon data
No credit multipliers — 1 request = 1 credit, always
Clean JSON output, no parsing needed
Free tier on every API to test before buying
Available on RapidAPI (unified billing, familiar SDK)
Cons
No generic web scraping — you can't point it at any URL
No JavaScript rendering
Limited to our API catalog (search, maps, Amazon, translation, jobs)
Smaller free tier than some competitors
Verdict: If you need Google search results, Amazon product data, or maps data, this is the cheapest and simplest option. If you need to scrape arbitrary websites with JS rendering, keep reading.
200 free requests/month. No credit card required.
2. ScraperAPI — best all-rounder
ScraperAPI is the closest thing to a drop-in ScrapingBee replacement. Same concept: send a URL, get back HTML (or structured data), with proxy rotation and JS rendering handled for you.
Pricing: Starts at $49/month for 100,000 API credits. They also have a 7-day free trial with 5,000 credits, plus 1,000 credits on the permanent free plan.
But here’s the catch: ScraperAPI also has credit multipliers. Basic website scraping costs 1 credit, but Amazon costs 5 credits, Google SERP costs 25 credits, and LinkedIn costs 30 credits per request. JS rendering adds 10 more credits on top. So those 100,000 credits give you 100K basic scrapes, but only 4,000 Google searches or 20,000 Amazon requests.
What you get: Generic web scraping with automatic proxy rotation, CAPTCHA handling, and geotargeting. They also offer Structured Data Endpoints (SDEs) that return parsed JSON for specific sites like Google, Amazon, and Walmart. Plus a DataPipeline feature for scheduled scraping jobs.
Pros
Basic web scraping at 1 credit per request — cheapest for generic sites
Structured Data Endpoints for Google, Amazon, Walmart
DataPipeline for scheduled batch scraping
Integration with Make (no-code)
Structured Data Endpoints return parsed JSON for Google, Amazon, Walmart
Cons
Heavy credit multipliers: Google SERP costs 25 credits, Amazon costs 5, JS rendering adds 10 more
Premium proxies and geotargeting still cost extra credits on some plans
Gets expensive at high volume — $249/month for 3M credits
Documentation could be better organized
Verdict: ScraperAPI is the best drop-in replacement for ScrapingBee if you need generic web scraping — basic sites cost just 1 credit. But watch the multipliers: Google SERP at 25 credits and Amazon at 5 credits per request can burn through your plan fast. For structured search or Amazon data, a dedicated API will be much cheaper.
3. Crawlbase — best budget option for generic scraping
Crawlbase (formerly ProxyCrawl) takes a different approach: pure pay-as-you-go with no monthly subscription required. You buy credits and use them at your own pace.
Pricing: No monthly minimum. Their Normal Requests token costs around $0.20 per 1,000 requests for static pages. JavaScript-rendered requests use a separate token and cost more — roughly $0.50 per 1,000. There’s a free tier of 1,000 requests to test things out.
What you get: A straightforward scraping proxy API. Send a URL, get back HTML. They handle proxy rotation, IP bans, and CAPTCHAs. They also offer a Crawler product for larger-scale jobs and a Storage API for saving scraped data. It’s not fancy, but it works.
Pros
True pay-as-you-go — no subscription, no wasted credits
Some of the lowest per-request pricing for basic scraping
Simple API — minimal learning curve
1,000 free requests to start
Separate tokens for static vs JS rendering (pay only for what you need)
Cons
No structured data endpoints — you get raw HTML and parse it yourself
Fewer features than ScraperAPI or ScrapingBee (no AI extraction, no scheduled jobs)
Documentation is sparse compared to bigger competitors
Less community support and fewer integrations
Verdict: Crawlbase is for the developer who wants cheap, simple, no-commitment scraping and doesn't mind parsing HTML. If your scraping needs are straightforward and you don't want a monthly bill, this is the most wallet-friendly option for generic web scraping.
Pro tip
Before committing to any scraping tool, calculate your actual cost per request based on the features you'll use. Most pricing pages show the cheapest possible rate — which assumes basic static HTML scraping without JS rendering, premium proxies, or geotargeting.
4. Apify — best for flexibility and pre-built scrapers
Apify is a different animal entirely. It’s not just a scraping API — it’s a platform with over 21,000 pre-built scrapers (they call them “Actors”) that you can run, modify, and chain together.
Pricing: Free tier includes $5 worth of platform credits per month. Paid plans start at $29/month. The tricky part: Apify charges based on compute units (memory and CPU time), not per request. A simple scraper might cost $0.50 per 1,000 pages. A complex one running headless Chrome on a heavy site could cost $5.00 per 1,000 pages.
It depends entirely on the Actor and the target site.
What you get: A marketplace of scrapers for almost any site you can imagine — Google, Amazon, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Zillow, you name it. If someone has built an Actor for it, you can use it immediately without writing code. You can also build custom Actors in JavaScript or Python, schedule them, and chain them into workflows.
Pros
21,000+ pre-built scrapers — chances are someone already built what you need
Extremely flexible — custom code, scheduling, webhooks, workflows
Free tier to test
Active community and marketplace
Great for non-standard scraping targets
Cons
Compute-based pricing is unpredictable — hard to budget
Pre-built Actors vary wildly in quality and maintenance
Learning curve is steeper than a simple API call
Proxy rotation is an add-on, not included by default
Can get expensive fast for high-volume jobs
Verdict: Apify is perfect if you need to scrape something unusual (social media, real estate sites, niche platforms) and want a pre-built solution you can deploy in minutes. It's overkill for straightforward search or product data, and the variable pricing makes it hard to predict costs at scale.
5. Zyte — best for enterprise and AI-powered extraction
Zyte (formerly Scrapinghub, the company behind the Scrapy framework) is the enterprise player in this list. They have the longest track record in web scraping and the deepest infrastructure.
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go with a $5 trial credit. Costs range from $0.06 per 1,000 for simple unrendered pages (with a $500/mo commitment) to $16.08 per 1,000 for complex browser-rendered sites on PAYG. For Google SERP specifically, Zyte hides the pricing behind a login — but since Google now requires browser rendering (as of January 2025), expect to pay at least $7.68–$16.08 per 1,000 SERP requests depending on your commitment level. They also offer commitment tiers at $100–$500/month for volume discounts.
What you get: The Zyte API handles proxy rotation (all proxy types — datacenter, residential, mobile), JS rendering, and their signature AI-powered data extraction. Point it at a product page, and it returns structured product data without you writing parsing rules.
They also integrate deeply with Scrapy if you’re already using that framework. ISO 27001 certified, which matters if compliance is a concern.
Pros
AI extraction that actually works — structured data from any product page without custom rules
Deep Scrapy integration
Massive proxy network with all proxy types
ISO 27001 certification (enterprise compliance)
Cheapest option for simple unrendered pages ($0.06/1K with $500/mo commitment)
G2 rating of 4.5 stars
Cons
Pricing varies wildly by site complexity — hard to estimate costs upfront
No simple flat-rate plan for small projects
Minimum $5 commitment to even start testing
AI extraction quality depends on the site — works great on e-commerce, less reliable on unusual layouts
The platform can feel overwhelming for a simple scraping task
Verdict: Zyte is the right choice if you're scraping at enterprise scale, need compliance certifications, or want AI-powered extraction without writing parsing code. For a solo developer with a side project, it's probably more infrastructure than you need.
The real pricing comparison
Numbers tell the story better than I can. Here’s what each tool actually costs at different volumes for the most common use case — scraping web pages with JavaScript rendering enabled:
| Volume | ScrapingBee | Our APIs* (structured data) | ScraperAPI | Crawlbase | Apify | Zyte |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10K requests | $49 (50K credits) | $9.99 | $49 basic / $122 SERP | ~$5 | ~$5–50 | ~$1 basic / $77–161 SERP |
| 100K requests | $99 (500K credits) | $49.99 | $49 basic / $1,225 SERP | ~$50 | ~$50–500 | ~$13 basic / $768–1,608 SERP |
| 400K requests | $249 (2M credits) | $149.99 | $249 basic / $4,900 SERP | ~$200 | ~$200–2,000 | ~$50 basic / $3,072–6,432 SERP |
Our pricing is for structured data APIs (Google Search, Amazon, etc.) — flat rate, no multipliers. ScraperAPI’s “basic” column is for simple websites at 1 credit each. Their “SERP” column shows Google search scraping at 25 credits per request. Same plan, very different costs depending on what you’re scraping.
The takeaway: for structured data (search results, product data, maps), our APIs are dramatically cheaper — the gap widens at scale. For generic web scraping of basic websites, Crawlbase and ScraperAPI offer good value. But the moment you scrape Google or Amazon through ScraperAPI, the credit multipliers eat your budget fast.
Key takeaway: Credit multipliers are the hidden cost in web scraping APIs. Always calculate your actual cost per request based on the features you need (JS rendering, premium proxies) — not the headline price on the pricing page.
How to choose: a decision tree
Still not sure? Here’s how I’d think about it:
"I need Google search results, Amazon data, or maps data"
→ Our Google SERP API. Cheapest, simplest, structured JSON. No contest.
"I need to scrape any website with JS rendering"
→ ScraperAPI. Best for generic sites at 1 credit each. But Google SERP costs 25 credits per request — check if a dedicated SERP API is cheaper for your volume.
"I need cheap, simple scraping with no monthly commitment"
→ Crawlbase. Pay-as-you-go, low per-request cost, no frills.
"I need to scrape something unusual (social media, niche sites)"
→ Apify. Check their Actor marketplace first. Someone probably already built it.
"I need enterprise-grade scraping with compliance and AI extraction"
→ Zyte. ISO 27001, AI-powered parsing, Scrapy integration.
"I need a bit of everything"
→ Start with ScraperAPI for generic scraping, add our structured data APIs where the price is better. Two tools, best of both worlds.
If you’re focused on SERP data specifically, check our breakdown of the cheapest SERP APIs for a deeper pricing comparison across 10 providers. And if you’ve already looked at SerpApi, here’s our SerpApi alternatives comparison with 7 cheaper options.
The bottom line
There’s no single “best” ScrapingBee alternative because it depends on what you’re actually building. A side project that needs Google SERP API is a completely different problem from an enterprise pipeline scraping thousands of e-commerce sites.
My recommendation for most solo developers: start with the free tiers. Test our APIs if you need structured data from search, Amazon, or maps. Test ScraperAPI if you need generic web scraping. Both let you validate your project before spending anything.
The web scraping market has gotten competitive enough that you don’t have to overpay. Use that to your advantage.
"If you're coming from ScrapingBee specifically because of the credit math, I get it. We went through the same frustration before building FlyByAPIs. That's why our pricing is flat: 1 request = 1 credit, no multipliers."
1 request = 1 credit. No multipliers. No surprises.
Oriol.
