Crawlbase vs Zyte (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, Crawlbase and Zyte share a 2.4 GPA, neither has a free plan, and Crawlbase starts cheaper, at $99 a month against $100 a month.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Crawlbase
Crawling API with built-in scrapers, Google SERP to JSON included
Zyte
Web scraping API with ban handling, AI extraction and a SERP endpoint
Which one is for you
Pick Crawlbase if
- Fits if your workload is uneven and suits pay as you go with a hard spending cap
- Works for developers who want Google, Bing and other sites as JSON from one API
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: heavily defended sites cost 1.5 to 20 times a standard request, applied automatically
- Watch out: JavaScript rendering doubles any request, screenshots cost 2 credits and stored pages 0.5 credits a month
- Pricey if you want a subscription, which starts at $99 a month for 200,000 credits
- Tight if your usage swings, since a subscription's credits reset monthly and use past them is billed as you go unless you turn it off
Pick Zyte if
- Fits if you already write spiders in Scrapy and want them hosted next to the API
- Works for pulling up to 100 search results per call by country, language or city
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want the lower rates, which need a commitment of at least $100 a month
- Watch out: Zyte puts each site in one of five price tiers and reviews them every quarter, so a request's cost can change
- Watch out: screenshots ($1.34 per 1,000), AI extraction ($0.27 to $1.07 per 1,000 per data type), actions and residential IPs all cost extra
- Tight if you're only testing, as the $5 credit covers the first month and the account is suspended once it's spent
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACrawlbaseFair | 2.4GPAZyteFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPay as you go has no monthly fee and is billed per 1,000 requests, from $3.00 for the first 1,000 down to $0.02 at high volume. Subscriptions start at $99 a month for 200,000 credits, about $0.50 per 1,000, well above this category's $29.99 middle as a monthly bill. | CPay as you go needs no commitment: $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 plain responses and $1.01 to $16.08 rendered, by the tier Zyte puts a site in. The lower rates start with a $100 monthly commitment, in this category's dearest tenth, where search first pages are $0.63 per 1,000. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan: 1,000 credits on sign-up with no card, rising to 5,000 after some setup steps. They're a one-off, not a monthly allowance. | CNo free plan: $5 of credit for the first month with no commitment, and the account is suspended when it's spent until you set a spending limit. Scrapy Cloud keeps one free low-resource unit with 1-hour jobs. |
| Features | BGoogle results as JSON with organic results, ads, People Also Ask, the local pack and related searches, 100+ scrapers including Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yandex, JavaScript rendering, screenshots and an asynchronous crawler. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. | BBan handling that picks the IP type and browser per site, CAPTCHA solving, scripted browser actions, AI extraction to JSON, a search endpoint with up to 100 results, AI Overview content and city targeting, and Scrapy Cloud hosting. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one API with built-in scrapers, and hard spending caps per account or workspace. No rating on record, and a request's cost changes with how defended the site is. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: an MCP server for coding agents, and Scrapy if you already use it. No rating on record, and each site's cost depends on one of five tiers that Zyte assigns and reviews every quarter. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API and a Web MCP server, plus Claude, Cursor, LangChain, Zapier and n8n. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb, with an API, Scrapy, an MCP server for Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI and VS Code, plus Amazon S3, Google BigQuery and Google Sheets. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | Google results and other sites as JSON, pay as you go | scraping sites that block ordinary requests |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Crawlbase and Zyte. How we grade
Price against what you get
Crawlbase starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zyte starts at $100 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Crawlbase starts $1 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Crawlbase for less, and none scores higher than Zyte for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
At a glance
| Crawlbase | Zyte | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly | $100 per month minimum commitment |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 1,000 free credits on sign-up, up to 5,000 after setup steps, no card needed | $5 of free credit for the first billing month, with no commitment |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Crawlbase LLC | Zyte Group Limited |
| Price read from | crawlbase.com | zyte.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Crawlbase
- Without a subscription, pay as you go has no monthly fee and is billed in arrears per 1,000 requests, falling from $3.00 for the first 1,000 to $0.02 at high volume.
- Heavily defended sites cost 1.5 to 20 times a standard request, applied automatically, and JavaScript rendering doubles any request.
- A subscription's credits reset each month; use past them is billed as pay as you go unless you turn that off.
- Screenshots cost 2 credits each and stored pages 0.5 credits a month.
Zyte
- Without a commitment, pay as you go costs $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000 rendered ones, up to $100 a month.
- Each site sits in one of five price tiers that Zyte assigns and reviews quarterly, so the cost of a request depends on the site.
- Screenshots ($1.34 per 1,000), automatic extraction ($0.27 to $1.07 per 1,000 per data type), actions and residential IPs cost extra.
- When the $5 free credit runs out, the account is suspended until a spending limit is set.
Key features
Crawlbase
- Crawling API
- Fetches any page with rotating residential proxies, CAPTCHA and block handling included, optional JavaScript rendering in a real browser, and full-page screenshots.
- Google SERP Scraper
- Turns a Google search address into JSON with organic results, ads, People Also Ask, the local pack and related searches, at the same price as raw HTML.
- Built-in scrapers
- More than 100 scrapers return structured JSON from sites such as Amazon, Walmart, LinkedIn, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex and Tripadvisor.
- Enterprise Crawler
- Crawls asynchronously at scale and delivers the results to storage, for jobs too large to run request by request.
- Smart AI Proxy and Cloud Storage
- A single proxy endpoint that rotates residential IPs, and storage that keeps crawled pages for 0.5 credits a page a month.
- Spend caps and MCP server
- Set a hard spending cap on the account or a workspace, and give AI agents live web data through the Web MCP server.
Zyte
- Automatic ban handling
- Zyte API chooses between datacenter and residential IPs and browser rendering for each site, solves CAPTCHAs and rotates IPs, and charges only for successful responses.
- Browser rendering and actions
- Render JavaScript in a headless browser, script clicks, form fills and navigation, keep sessions, take screenshots and download files of up to 100MB.
- AI extraction
- Automatic extraction returns product, article, job and other page types as JSON; custom attributes let you describe extra fields, billed by AI tokens.
- Search results endpoint
- Returns up to 100 organic results in one call, with AI Overview content and country, language or city targeting. Pages 2 to 10 cost about 29% less than page 1.
- Scrapy Cloud
- Hosting for Scrapy spiders: a free low-resource unit with 1-hour jobs and 7 days of data, or $9 a month per unit for unlimited run time and 120 days.
- Zyte MCP
- A remote MCP server lets agents such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI and VS Code fetch pages, extract data and run crawls.
Plans
Crawlbase
Starter$99
per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.50 per 1,000 credits, or $1,089 a year with yearly billing. Use past the block continues as pay as you go.
Scale 500K$199
per month for 500,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.40 per 1,000 credits, or $2,189 a year with yearly billing.
Scale 1M$349
per month for 1,000,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.35 per 1,000 credits, or $3,839 a year with yearly billing.
Growth$599
per month for 2,000,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.30 per 1,000 credits, or $6,589 a year with yearly billing.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom volume above 2 million credits a month, with SLAs and invoicing. Through sales.
Zyte
Standard, $100 commitment$100
per month minimum commitment
$0.10 to $0.95 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.75 to $12.00 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones, by site tier. Search first pages $0.63 per 1,000.
Standard, $200 commitment$200
per month minimum commitment
$0.08 to $0.76 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.60 to $9.60 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones. Search first pages $0.51 per 1,000.
Standard, $500 commitment$500
per month minimum commitment
$0.06 to $0.61 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.48 to $7.68 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones. Search first pages $0.40 per 1,000.
EnterpriseCustom
Larger volume discounts, $200 of free credit, 10,000 requests a minute, onboarding engineers and 24/7 support with SLAs. Through sales.
Ways to pay less
Crawlbase
- Annual discount
One month free with yearly billing
Crawlbase's pricing page says yearly billing gives one month free, about 8% off: Starter is $1,089 a year instead of $99 a month.
Zyte
- Education
Free Scrapy Cloud unit for students
Zyte's Scrapy Cloud pricing page says students get the benefits of one purchased unit, normally $9 a month, for free.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Crawlbase or Zyte?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Crawlbase is cheaper to start with: $99 a month, against $100 a month for Zyte. Crawlbase starts at $99 per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly, and Zyte starts at $100 per month minimum commitment.
Which has a free plan, Crawlbase or Zyte?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither Crawlbase nor Zyte has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.