WebScrapingAPI vs ZenRows (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, ZenRows grades higher than WebScrapingAPI: 2.4 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
ZenRows grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
WebScrapingAPI
Scraper and SERP APIs with monthly Google search plans
ZenRows
Web scraping API for protected sites, priced by monthly credits
Which one is for you
Pick WebScrapingAPI if
- Fits if you only need Google and want a fixed number of searches each month
- Works for teams that also buy proxies or a general scraping API from the same vendor
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Bing, DuckDuckGo or Yandex without a sales review, as only Google is priced
- Watch out: each keyword counts once per market, device and refresh, so tracking adds up fast
- Pricey if you need general scraping too, as the Scraper API is a separate plan from $19 a month
- Watch out: residential proxies from $8.50 per GB and managed data from $299 a month sit outside these plans
- Tight if you're testing, with 100 trial searches and no free plan
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
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAWebScrapingAPIFair | 2.4GPAZenRowsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStarter is $28 a month for 10,000 Google searches, between this category's cheaper quarter and its middle, at $2.80 per 1,000. Grow is $130 for 50,000, still $2.60 per 1,000. | BBuild is $16 a month on yearly billing, $19 monthly, inside this category's cheaper quarter, for 45,000 credits. A page is 1 credit plain and 25 with rendering and premium proxies, so that's 1,800 to 45,000 pages. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan: a trial of 100 Google searches. That's enough to check the parsing, not to run anything. | CA free plan for good with no card: 5,000 credits a month with every tool except standalone residential proxies. At 25 credits for a rendered page on premium proxies that's 200 pages, and there are no top-ups. |
| Features | CGoogle web, image, video, news, shopping and job results with domain, location, language, device and result window, as JSON, CSV or HTML. The gap is in the listing: Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yandex sit only on Custom plans priced after a review. | CFetch past anti-bot walls, Extract to JSON with no selectors, Crawl, Batch and a real Browser. The gap is in the listing: search results come from parsing a Google or Bing results page, so the groups returned vary with what the page shows. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one Google endpoint with parsed output and bulk processing. No rating on record, and no client libraries or integrations named in the listing. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: Python, Node and Go SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, all open source. No rating on record, and a request's cost changes with rendering and proxy choices. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with a REST API and no integrations, SDKs or MCP server named in the listing. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and Codex, plus Clay, Make, n8n, Zapier, LangChain and LlamaIndex. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | Google results on a fixed monthly search count | scraping protected pages on one credit balance |
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: WebScrapingAPI and ZenRows. How we grade
Price against what you get
WebScrapingAPI starts at $28 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ZenRows starts at $16 a month and scores 2.3.
ZenRows scores higher and starts $12 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, 9 score higher than WebScrapingAPI for less, and 1 scores higher than ZenRows 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
| WebScrapingAPI | ZenRows | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $28 per month for 10,000 Google searches | $16 per month for 45,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | 5,000 credits a month with every tool except standalone residential proxies, 5 concurrent requests and community support. No card needed. |
| Free trial | Trial plan with 100 free Google searches | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Everything Data Solutions SRL | Zenrows |
| Price read from | webscrapingapi.com | zenrows.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
WebScrapingAPI
- Only the Google plans have published prices; Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yandex are quoted after a review.
- Usage is counted per request, so each keyword is multiplied by every market, device and refresh you track.
- The Scraper API is a separate subscription: 5,000 free requests, then $19 a month for 7,000 requests up to $599 for 450,000.
- Residential proxies start at $8.50 per GB and the managed data service at $299 a month, both outside these plans.
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).
Key features
WebScrapingAPI
- Google Search API
- Query Google web, image, video, news, shopping or job results and set the Google domain, location, language, device and result window.
- Parsed results
- Responses come back as JSON collections of organic results and other result modules with request metadata, or as CSV or raw HTML.
- Other search engines
- Separate endpoints return Bing results as JSON, localized Yandex result pages by region and device, and DuckDuckGo results.
- Scraper API
- A general scraping API with JavaScript rendering, proxy rotation, anti-bot handling, country targeting and automatic parsing, from $19 a month.
- Proxies and ready data
- Residential, datacenter and ISP proxies, an Amazon data API, a dataset marketplace, a web archive and a managed data service.
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.
Plans
WebScrapingAPI
Starter$28
per month for 10,000 Google searches
Every plan includes global locations, parsed results, bulk processing, all devices, image search and JSON, CSV or HTML output.
Grow$130
per month for 50,000 Google searches
The same Google features as Starter with a larger monthly allowance.
Business$550
per month for 250,000 Google searches
The same Google features as Starter with a larger monthly allowance.
Pro$1,600
per month for 1,000,000 Google searches
The same Google features as Starter with the largest published allowance.
CustomCustom
Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yandex searches, larger volumes and production support, priced after a review with the sales team.
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.
Ways to pay less
WebScrapingAPI
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, WebScrapingAPI or ZenRows?
As of Oct 23, 2026, ZenRows is cheaper to start with: $16 a month, against $28 a month for WebScrapingAPI. WebScrapingAPI starts at $28 per month for 10,000 Google searches, and ZenRows starts at $16 per month for 45,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, WebScrapingAPI or ZenRows?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only ZenRows has a free plan. WebScrapingAPI 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.