Best ScraperAPI Alternatives: 5 Faster, Cheaper Options That Actually Work

When your web scraping tool costs $8.49 per 1,000 requests and takes 15+ seconds to respond, you're not just losing money—you're losing time you'll never get back. ScraperAPI might work for basic scraping, but there are alternatives that deliver better speed, lower costs, and the same reliability without surprise charges eating into your budget.

Look, I'm not here to trash ScraperAPI entirely. They've built something that works—92.70% success rate is solid, and those pre-built templates? Actually pretty handy if you're just getting started with e-commerce or SERP scraping.

But here's the thing: when you're scraping at scale, slow response times compound fast. And when "certain domains" suddenly require super premium proxies that spike your costs? That's when you start looking around.

I spent time testing alternatives across Amazon, Indeed, GitHub, Zillow, Capterra, Google, and Twitter. Ran the numbers on speed, success rates, and actual costs per thousand requests. What I found surprised me—there are options out there that crush ScraperAPI on speed while charging half the price.

What ScraperAPI Actually Gets Right

Before we dive into alternatives, let's be fair about where ScraperAPI delivers.

The success rate is legit. 92.70% across mainstream sites means your scraping jobs won't randomly fail at 2 AM. It's not the highest out there, but it's reliable enough that you can set up your scripts and trust they'll run.

Those templates save real time. If you've never built a scraper before, having pre-configured setups for pagination, rate limiting, and data extraction is genuinely useful. You're not reinventing the wheel for common patterns.

That's about where the good news ends.

Why People Start Looking for Alternatives

The speed problem is real. 15.7 seconds average per request doesn't sound terrible until you're scraping 10,000 pages. That's 43+ hours of pure waiting time. Meanwhile, faster alternatives finish the same job in under 3 hours.

The pricing gets expensive fast. That $8.49 per 1,000 requests is already steep, but it's the "super premium proxies" requirement on tougher sites that kills you. Some domains suddenly cost 3-5x more, and you don't always know which ones until you're already committed.

When you're running a business, unpredictable costs are worse than high costs. At least with high costs, you can budget.

1. Scrape.do: The Speed Demon

If ScraperAPI is a reliable sedan, Scrape.do is a sports car that costs less to run.

3.2 seconds average response time. That's nearly 5x faster than ScraperAPI. When you're scraping thousands of pages, that difference is massive—what takes ScraperAPI 44 hours takes Scrape.do about 9 hours.

98.52% success rate means fewer failed requests to retry. Combined with that speed, you're getting more done in less time with less babysitting.

$0.75 per 1,000 requests with transparent pricing that doesn't suddenly spike. No "super premium proxy" surprises. No wondering if this particular domain is going to cost you 10x more.

The catch? No pre-built templates like ScraperAPI has. You'll need to write your own extraction logic, which honestly isn't that hard if you know basic Python or JavaScript. If you're looking for a web scraping solution that combines blazing speed with rock-solid reliability, 👉 check out what thousands of developers are switching to for their scraping needs—tools that prioritize transparent pricing and performance over marketing hype.

When to choose it: You need maximum speed and reliability without pricing surprises. You're comfortable writing your own extraction code or already have scraping scripts you want to make faster.

2. Oxylabs: The Enterprise Option

Oxylabs is what you go with when you need absolutely everything and budget isn't the primary concern.

92.52% success rate with a massive proxy network covering every geographic region and use case you can imagine. They've built infrastructure designed for enterprise operations that can't afford downtime.

The bandwidth pricing model is interesting—you pay for data transferred instead of requests made. For large-scale operations, this can actually work out cheaper than per-request pricing once you understand the math.

But $75/month minimum for 8GB (roughly 20K requests with rendering) is steep if you're just starting out or running smaller operations. And figuring out how many GB you'll actually need? That takes some trial and error.

When to choose it: You're running enterprise-scale operations with specialized geographic requirements. You have the budget to experiment with bandwidth-based pricing and need comprehensive proxy coverage.

3. ScrapingBee: The AI Twist

ScrapingBee took a different approach—they added AI-powered extraction that understands plain-English instructions.

92.69% success rate works reliably across most popular sites. The AI extraction engine is legitimately cool—you can tell it "extract all product prices" in natural language instead of writing complex selectors.

11.7 seconds average response time is slower than some alternatives but still faster than ScraperAPI. Not blazing fast, but workable.

Here's where it gets tricky: Base price is $0.20 per 1,000 requests, which sounds great. But popular domains can spike to $15 per 1,000. Same unpredictable pricing problem as ScraperAPI, just with different numbers.

When to choose it: You need AI-powered extraction for complex data parsing and don't want to write detailed extraction code. You're willing to accept variable pricing for the convenience.

4. ZenRows: The Balanced Choice

ZenRows sits in an interesting middle ground—faster than ScraperAPI, reliable, without forced parameter traps.

10.0 seconds average response time and 92.64% success rate gives you solid performance without breaking the bank. It's not the fastest, but it's consistently quick.

No forced parameter traps is a big deal. Some providers automatically enable expensive features "for your success" when they're not actually needed. ZenRows doesn't play that game as aggressively.

But $69/month starting price is higher than ScraperAPI's $49, and some domains still force both render and premium parameters (costing 25 requests per call). Not ideal, but more transparent than some alternatives.

When to choose it: You want faster speeds than ScraperAPI with reasonable pricing and don't need pre-built templates. You appreciate transparent pricing without hidden parameter traps.

5. Bright Data: Maximum Reliability

Bright Data went all-in on one thing: making sure your requests succeed.

98.44% success rate is the highest in the industry. When you absolutely cannot afford failed requests, this is where you land.

Static pricing at $1.50 per 1,000 requests removes all guesswork. Difficult domain? $1.50. Simple page? Also $1.50. For enterprise operations where predictability matters more than optimizing every penny, this model works.

The downside is obvious: You're paying premium prices even for basic pages that don't need it. And there's no free tier—just free trials.

When to choose it: You're running enterprise operations where maximum reliability and predictable pricing justify the higher costs. Failed requests cost you more than the price difference.

What Actually Matters When Choosing

Forget the marketing fluff. Here's what actually impacts your scraping operations:

Speed compounds. A 5-second difference per request doesn't sound like much until you're scraping 50,000 pages. That's 69 hours of difference. Choose tools that respect your time.

Transparent pricing beats low pricing. A tool that costs $2 per 1,000 requests consistently is better than one that costs $0.50 usually but spikes to $15 on the domains you actually need to scrape.

Success rate is non-negotiable. Anything below 90% means you're constantly re-running failed requests. Above 95%? That's where scraping becomes reliable instead of frustrating.

My Take

If you're currently using ScraperAPI and feeling the pain of slow speeds and unpredictable costs, Scrape.do gives you the biggest performance jump at the lowest price. The lack of templates matters less than you think—writing basic extraction code is easier than dealing with surprise charges.

If you need maximum reliability and have enterprise budget, Bright Data's static pricing and 98.44% success rate removes uncertainty entirely.

If you're somewhere in the middle, ZenRows offers a solid balance without aggressive upselling tactics.

The web scraping landscape has evolved beyond the point where slow speeds and surprise pricing are acceptable trade-offs. Tools exist now that deliver better performance at lower costs with transparent pricing models that don't penalize you for scraping protected sites. For large-scale data collection that demands both speed and reliability, 👉 explore solutions that thousands of teams trust for mission-critical scraping operations—because your time and budget are too valuable to waste on outdated tools. ScraperAPI pioneered accessible web scraping APIs, but the field has moved forward. Choose tools that match where you're trying to go, not where you started.