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

Pick ScrapingBee if

• Fits if you need to scrape the pages behind the results as well as Google itself
• Works for feeding web pages to AI agents as Markdown or JSON

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: JavaScript rendering is on by default and makes a request cost 5 credits instead of 1
• Watch out: a Google search costs 10 to 15 credits, so Hobby's 75,000 credits is 5,000 to 7,500 searches
• Skip it if you need Bing or other engines, as Google is the only search engine it lists
• Tight if your usage swings, since credits last a month and don't roll over
• Pricey if you need priority support or team management, which start at $249 a month

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

ScrapingBee

• A request costs 1 credit at its simplest, 5 with JavaScript rendering (on by default), and 10 or 25 with premium proxies.
• A Google search costs 10 credits with Light Request enabled and 15 otherwise.
• Credits last one month and do not roll over; only successful requests are charged.
• Priority support, an account manager and team management start at the $249 Business plan.

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).

ScrapingBee

Headless browser rendering

Pages load in headless Chrome, with waits for selectors, set viewports and headers, and scripted clicks, scrolls and form fills before the scrape.

Proxy rotation and geotargeting

Proxies rotate on every request, with premium and stealth proxies for harder sites and routing through more than 200 countries and territories.

Google Search API

A dedicated endpoint returns Google results as JSON, with organic results, ads, local results, related questions and related searches.

AI and rule-based extraction

Pull fields out with CSS or XPath rules, describe them in plain language with an AI query, or get any page back as clean Markdown.

Ready-made scraper APIs

Separate endpoints for Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini answers, a sub-second search API and an employee search API.

CLI, MCP server and SDKs

A command-line tool, an MCP server and Python and Node.js SDKs connect the API to coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.

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.

ScrapingBee

• Hobby$19

  per month for 75,000 API credits

  25 concurrent requests, with JavaScript rendering, premium proxies, geotargeting, screenshots and the dedicated scraper APIs included.

• Freelance$49

  per month for 250,000 API credits

  50 concurrent requests and the same features as Hobby.

• Startup$99

  per month for 1,000,000 API credits

  100 concurrent requests and the same features as Hobby.

• Business$249

  per month for 3,000,000 API credits

  200 concurrent requests, and adds priority email support, a dedicated account manager and team management.

• Business +$599

  per month for 8,000,000 API credits

  400 concurrent requests with everything in Business.

• Enterprise 14$999

  per month for 14,000,000 API credits

  500 concurrent requests. Larger Enterprise tiers run up to $5,799 a month for 120 million credits and 900 concurrent requests.

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.

ScrapingBee

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.