ScraperAPI vs Scrapfly (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, Scrapfly grades higher than ScraperAPI: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
Scrapfly grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ScraperAPI
Web scraping API with Google search endpoints, priced in API credits
Scrapfly
Web scraping API with anti-bot unblocking, browsers and AI extraction
Which one is for you
Pick ScraperAPI if
- Fits if you scrape Google alongside Amazon, Walmart or eBay on one key
- Works for large batches that need retries and scheduling, through the async API or DataPipeline
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: a Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, so Hobby's 100,000 credits is about 4,000 searches
- Skip it if you need rankings outside the US and EU below Business at $269.10 a month
- Pricey if you need rendering, premium proxies or screenshots, which add 10 credits each
- Tight if you run out mid-month, as credits don't roll over and pay-as-you-go starts at Scaling, $427.50
- Tight if you're on Free, with 1,000 credits a month, about 40 Google searches
Pick Scrapfly if
- Fits if you track rankings on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex or Baidu from your own code
- Works for developers who want scraping, a hosted browser and screenshots on one key
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: a request costs 1 credit plain, 5 with a browser, 25 on residential proxies and 60 for a full-page screenshot
- Tight if your usage spikes on Discovery, which stops at its quota with no pay-as-you-go overflow
- Pricey if you need a team, since Discovery and Pro are single-user and team management starts at $250 a month
- Tight if your usage swings, as credits reset at renewal and don't roll over
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAScraperAPIFair | 2.4GPAScrapflyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CHobby is $44.10 a month on yearly billing ($49 monthly), at the dear end of this category's usual range. A Google or Bing request is 25 credits, so 100,000 credits is about 4,000 searches, around $11 per 1,000. | CDiscovery is $30 a month for 200,000 credits, this category's middle. What that buys swings with the request: 1 credit plain, 5 with a browser or the Unblocker, 25 with residential proxies, so 8,000 to 200,000 pages. Pro is $100 for 1 million. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 7-day trial of 5,000 credits with no card, then a free plan of 1,000 credits a month. At 25 credits a search, that's 40 Google searches. | CNo free plan: 1,000 credits on sign-up with no card and no time limit, across every product. They don't renew, and at 25 credits on residential proxies that's 40 requests. |
| Features | CGoogle Search, Shopping, Maps, News and Jobs endpoints, Bing, rendering, async jobs and a no-code DataPipeline. The gap is in the listing: Hobby and Startup geotarget only the US and EU, and country targeting starts at Business, $269.10. | BSearch results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex and Baidu with positions and SERP features as JSON or CSV, anti-bot unblocking, proxies in more than 190 countries, a cloud browser, a site crawler, AI extraction and screenshots. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: SDKs, a CLI and ready Google endpoints that need no rendering turned on. No rating on record, and credit costs stack up by site and option. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one flag for unblocking, SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust and Scrapy, and a CLI. No rating on record, and the credit cost of each request changes with its options. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, plus LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n and Zapier. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and a hosted MCP server for Claude, Cursor, Cline and Windsurf, plus Zapier, Make, n8n, LangChain, LlamaIndex and CrewAI. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | Google results alongside shop and site scraping | scraping protected sites and several search engines |
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: ScraperAPI and Scrapfly. How we grade
Price against what you get
ScraperAPI starts at $44.10 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Scrapfly starts at $30 a month and scores 2.7.
Scrapfly scores higher and starts $14.10 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, 8 score higher than ScraperAPI for less, and none scores higher than Scrapfly 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
| ScraperAPI | Scrapfly | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $44.10 per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly) | $30 per month for 200,000 API credits |
| Free plan | Free plan after the trial: 1,000 API credits a month and 5 concurrent threads, no credit card needed. A Google or Bing request costs 25 credits. | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial with 5,000 API credits, no credit card required | 1,000 free API credits on sign-up, no card needed and no time limit |
| Web | ||
| Made by | ScraperAPI | Joam Intelligence, LLC |
| Price read from | scraperapi.com | scrapfly.io |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
ScraperAPI
- A Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, so Hobby's 100,000 credits cover about 4,000 Google searches.
- JavaScript rendering, premium proxies and screenshots each add 10 credits, and bypassing bot protection adds 10 more.
- Credits reset each billing cycle with no rollover; pay-as-you-go past the allowance starts at the Scaling plan.
- Hobby and Startup can only geotarget the US and EU; country-level targeting starts at Business.
Scrapfly
- A request costs 1 credit as plain HTTP on a datacenter IP, 5 with a browser or the Unblocker, 25 with residential proxies and 60 for a full-page screenshot.
- Discovery stops when its credits run out; only Pro and above continue as pay as you go.
- Credits reset at renewal and do not roll over. Failed requests are not charged.
- Discovery and Pro are single-user accounts; team management starts at Startup for $250 a month.
Key features
ScraperAPI
- Google structured data endpoints
- Ready-made endpoints return Google Search, Shopping, Maps, News and Jobs results as JSON, without needing JavaScript rendering turned on.
- Proxy rotation and anti-bot handling
- Rotating proxy pools, premium residential and mobile IPs, CAPTCHA handling and automatic retries, with geotargeting by country on Business and up.
- JavaScript rendering and screenshots
- Load dynamic pages in a headless browser, follow a rendering instruction set, and capture screenshots of the result.
- Asynchronous API and DataPipeline
- Submit up to 50,000 jobs that retry until they succeed, or schedule large scraping jobs in DataPipeline without writing code.
- AI Parser and LLM-ready output
- Train a custom parser to get clean JSON from any source, or ask for pages as text or Markdown for language model pipelines.
- MCP server and integrations
- An MCP server, a CLI and SDKs, with LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n and Zapier integrations.
Scrapfly
- Web Scraping API with Unblocker
- One flag handles anti-bot systems, browser rendering, proxy rotation and retries, with residential and datacenter proxies in more than 190 countries.
- Search result scraping
- Send a query with a location and get positions, titles, URLs, snippets and SERP features back as JSON or CSV from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex or Baidu.
- Cloud Browser and Crawler APIs
- Drive a hosted Chromium with Playwright or Puppeteer and keep sessions between calls, or crawl a whole site in one job with path filters and webhooks.
- Data Extraction API
- Turn pages into JSON with ready-made models for products, articles, reviews and jobs, with CSS or XPath templates, or with plain-language AI prompts.
- Screenshot API
- Full-page or viewport captures in PNG, JPEG or WebP, with auto-scroll and scheduled captures sent to a webhook.
- MCP server, CLI and SDKs
- A hosted MCP server for Claude, Cursor, Cline and Windsurf, a command-line tool, and SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust and Scrapy.
Plans
ScraperAPI
Free$0
1,000 API credits a month and 5 concurrent threads, to keep scraping after the trial ends.
Hobby$44.10
per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
20 concurrent threads, geotargeting in the US and EU only, and 30 days of analytics history.
Startup$134.10
per month for 1M API credits, billed annually ($149 billed monthly)
50 concurrent threads, with US and EU geotargeting only.
Business$269.10
per month for 3M API credits, billed annually ($299 billed monthly)
100 concurrent threads, country-level geotargeting worldwide and unlimited analytics history.
Scaling$427.50
per month for 5M API credits, billed annually ($475 billed monthly)
200 concurrent threads, and the first plan with pay-as-you-go credits past the monthly allowance.
Professional$877.50
per month for 10.5M API credits, billed annually ($975 billed monthly)
300 threads and priority support. Advanced is $1,777.50 a month billed annually for 21.5M credits; Enterprise is custom above 22M.
Scrapfly
Discovery$30
per month for 200,000 API credits
5 concurrent requests, 1 week of logs and one user. Stops at the quota, with no pay-as-you-go overflow.
Pro$100
per month for 1,000,000 API credits
20 concurrent requests, 2 weeks of logs and one user. Extra credits at $3.50 per 10,000.
Startup$250
per month for 2,500,000 API credits
50 concurrent requests, 3 weeks of logs and team management. Extra credits at $2.00 per 10,000.
Enterprise$500
per month for 5,500,000 API credits
100 concurrent requests, 4 weeks of logs, team management and premium support. Extra credits at $1.20 per 10,000.
CustomCustom
Negotiated volume above 5.5 million credits, with committed concurrency, dedicated residential IPs, a BAA and 24/7 support.
Ways to pay less
ScraperAPI
- Annual discount
10% off with yearly billing
ScraperAPI's pricing page lists 10% off every self-serve plan when billed yearly: Hobby is $44.10 a month instead of $49.
Scrapfly
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ScraperAPI or Scrapfly?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Scrapfly is cheaper to start with: $30 a month, against $44.10 a month for ScraperAPI. ScraperAPI starts at $44.10 per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly), and Scrapfly starts at $30 per month for 200,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, ScraperAPI or Scrapfly?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only ScraperAPI has a free plan. Scrapfly does not, though it has 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.