ScrapeOwl vs ZenRows (2026): which should you pick?

Pick ScrapeOwl if

• Fits if you need residential proxies and geo-targeting in a scraper
• Works for people who want to hook scraping to Zapier

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you stay free: only the 1,000 sign-up credits
• Watch out: the page does not say how many credits each request costs
• Watch out: Bootstrap has a best-effort SLA, and a guaranteed one starts at Startup, $99
• Skip it if you want site templates, because it is a general scraper

Pick ZenRows if

• Fits if you scrape protected sites and want Google results from the same credits
• Works for AI agents that need web pages as Markdown or JSON

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a fixed SERP format, as the result groups vary with what Google or Bing shows
• Watch out: a page costs 1 credit plain, 5 rendered, 10 on premium proxies and 25 with both
• Watch out: residential bandwidth draws 25,000 credits per GB and the Browser 5 credits a minute
• Tight if you're on Free, which stops at 5,000 credits with no top-ups until the next month
• Pricey if your volume grows, as each plan's price steps up with its credit allowance

ScrapeOwl

• The pricing page does not say how many credits a request costs; options such as JS rendering and residential proxies are separate request parameters.
• Only the 1,000 sign-up credits are free, and the site does not say whether they renew.
• The Bootstrap plan has a best-effort SLA; a guaranteed SLA begins at Startup.
• Pages show a 2025 copyright date, so check that the service is current before committing.

ZenRows

• A standard page costs 1 credit, 5 with JavaScript rendering, 10 with premium proxies and 25 with both; residential bandwidth is 25,000 credits per GB.
• Search results come from fetching a Google or Bing results address and parsing the page, so the groups returned vary with what the page shows.
• The free plan stops at 5,000 credits until the next month; paid plans can buy top-ups up to ten times a billing period.
• Each paid plan's price rises with its credit allowance, in three steps (five for Scale).

ScrapeOwl

Element extraction

A request can name the elements to return, so no HTML parsing is needed; leaving the field empty returns the full page.

Residential proxies and geo-targeting

A premium_proxies option uses residential IPs, and a country can be set for localized results such as Amazon.fr and Amazon.ae.

JavaScript rendering

A render_js option runs Chrome instances, with optional custom JavaScript injected and screenshots for debugging.

Captcha avoidance

The homepage says requests avoid triggering captchas from Cloudflare, hCaptcha and Google reCAPTCHA.

No-code connectors

Requests can also be sent from Integromat, Parabola, Zapier and Postman as well as from cURL, Python, Ruby and Node.

ZenRows

Fetch

Returns any page as HTML, Markdown, JSON or a screenshot, getting past anti-bot walls, CAPTCHAs and fingerprint checks on protected sites.

Extract

Detects the data on a page and returns it as JSON with no selectors or schema to write. It currently costs nothing on top of the Fetch it uses.

Search results as JSON

Send a Google or Bing results address with a country and get organic results, related questions, videos and other groups back with their positions.

Crawl and Batch

Crawl collects every page behind a starting address, each billed as a Fetch; Batch runs large queued jobs with retries, webhooks and status tracking.

Browser

Drives a real browser for pages that need clicks, forms, logins or a session kept across a long job, billed at 5 credits a minute plus bandwidth.

MCP server, CLI and SDKs

An MCP server for Claude, Cursor and Codex, a command-line tool, and Python, Node and Go SDKs, all published as open source under MIT.

ScrapeOwl

• Bootstrap$29

  per month for 250,000 credits

  10 threads, best-effort SLA and basic support with a response within 24 hours.

• Startup$99

  per month for 1M credits

  25 threads, a guaranteed SLA and priority support with a response within 8 hours.

• Business$249

  per month for 3M credits

  50 threads, a guaranteed SLA and priority support with a response within 8 hours.

ZenRows

• Free$0

  5,000 credits a month, refreshed monthly with no rollover or top-ups, 5 concurrent requests and community support.

• Build$16

  per month for 45,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)

  20 concurrent requests, email support and top-ups. Rises to $33 a month for 120,000 credits ($39 billed monthly).

• Launch$58

  per month for 250,000 credits, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)

  50 concurrent requests and chat support. Rises to $108 a month for 700,000 credits ($129 billed monthly).

• Growth$166

  per month for 1.2M credits, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)

  100 concurrent requests, priority support and the residential network at scale. Rises to $333 a month for 3M credits ($399 monthly).

• Scale$458

  per month for 5M credits, billed annually ($549 billed monthly)

  200 to 400 concurrent requests and committed capacity options. Rises to $2,499 a month for 45M credits ($2,999 monthly).

• EnterpriseCustom

  Committed volume, 500 to 1,000+ concurrent requests, an SLA, a DPA and a dedicated account manager. Through sales.

ScrapeOwl

No public discounts listed.

ZenRows

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  Zenrows says paying yearly gives two months free (pay for 10, get 12), shown as a 17% saving, with the year's credits up front.