How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Zyte prices per successful request with automatic anti-bot handling, built by the maintainers of Scrapy, but rivals beat it on price, marketplace depth, or simplicity.
- Bright Data and Oxylabs lead on enterprise scale with the largest proxy networks, while Apify leads on ready-made scrapers.
- ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI are the budget API options for developers who want one simple endpoint.
- Credit, request, and compute-unit pricing behave very differently, so price your actual workload, not the headline plan.
- Scrape responsibly: respect website terms of service, robots directives, and privacy law, and do not use scraping to collect personal data without a lawful basis.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Bright Data | Largest proxy network | Pay as you go from $1.50/1,000 records | Yes |
 Oxylabs | Enterprise compliance | $49/month | Free trial |
 Apify | Ready-made scrapers marketplace | $29/month | Yes |
 ScrapingBee | Simple API for developers | From $19/month | Free trial |
 ScraperAPI | Beginner-friendly API | $49/month | Free trial |
 ZenRows | Anti-bot bypass | $69/month | Free trial |
 Octoparse | No-code visual scraping | See website | Yes |
 Scrapy | Free Python framework | Free | Yes |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best Zyte alternatives
Starting pricePay as you go from $1.50/1,000 records
Free planYes
Bright Data, formerly Luminati, is the largest proxy and scraping provider in this guide, with a network of over 150 million IPs across 195 countries and a library of thousands of pre-built, site-specific scrapers. Its Web Scraper API prices per successfully delivered record, from $1.50 per 1,000 records pay as you go or $499 a month for a larger included volume, with a free tier of 5,000 records a month.
The flat per-request rate is the catch: for easy pages with no bot protection, you pay for unblocking capacity you do not use, and 2026 cost comparisons put Bright Data among the most expensive options at high volume. For enterprises that need maximum reliability, country coverage, and compliance, Bright Data is the strongest choice. For simple scraping, cheaper APIs win.
What we like- Largest proxy network with over 150 million IPs
- Thousands of pre-built scrapers
- Strong enterprise reliability
Watch out for- Expensive at scale for easy pages
- Flat per-request pricing charges for unblocking you may not need
- Complex product range
#2Oxylabs
Best for: Enterprise compliance4.5/5 on
G2 (420 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit oxylabs.io
Starting price$49/month
Free planFree trial
Oxylabs is the enterprise compliance pick, with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 credentials and a residential proxy pool of over 177 million IPs. Its Web Scraper API starts from $49 a month with usage tiers, and 2026 benchmarks show stable latency and high success rates. The platform suits enterprises that need audit-ready infrastructure and large-scale coverage.
Cost is the watch item: at 500,000 easy pages a month, one 2026 comparison put Oxylabs far above cheaper APIs, and its Web Unblocker bills by traffic, which grows with page weight. For enterprises where compliance and reliability outweigh unit cost, Oxylabs is a strong fit. For budget scraping, look at ScrapingBee or ScraperAPI.
What we like- Enterprise compliance with SOC 2 and ISO 27001
- Large residential proxy pool
- Stable performance
Watch out for- Expensive per request at high volume
- Enterprise pricing climbs fast
- Web unblocker bills by traffic
#3Apify
Best for: Ready-made scrapers marketplace4.7/5 on
G2 (669 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit apify.com
Starting price$29/month
Free planYes
Apify is a platform rather than a single API: a marketplace of thousands of ready-made scrapers, called Actors, plus the infrastructure to run, schedule, and store results from your own scrapers. Plans start at $29 a month plus pay-as-you-go compute, with a free tier that includes a $5 monthly platform credit and no card required.
Compute-unit pricing makes comparison tricky: a heavy actor can cost far more per page than a simple API request, and one 2026 benchmark put Apify's cost for a million plain requests far above API rivals. The value is the marketplace and the platform: if a ready-made Actor covers your target site, you skip building and maintaining a scraper entirely. For teams that want ready-made scrapers and a full platform, Apify is unmatched.
What we like- Marketplace of thousands of ready-made scrapers
- Free tier with $5 monthly credit
- Scheduling and storage built in
Watch out for- Priced in compute units, not requests, which complicates comparison
- Costs rise fast for heavy actors
- You run your own logic
Starting priceFrom $19/month
Free planFree trial
ScrapingBee is the budget API pick for developers who want one simple endpoint. It handles proxies, headless rendering, and CAPTCHAs through a single API call, with strong documentation and fast, stable latency in 2026 benchmarks. Entry pricing is listed from $19 a month for a Hobby tier with 75,000 credits in some guides, and from $49 a month for 250,000 credits in API comparisons, so confirm the current tier before budgeting.
Credits are feature-weighted: a plain request costs one credit, while JavaScript rendering costs five, which changes the math for dynamic sites. A one-time trial of 1,000 credits lets you test before paying. For developers who want a simple, well-documented API at a low price, ScrapingBee is the best default.
What we like- One simple endpoint with JavaScript rendering
- Strong documentation
- Fast and stable latency
- SOC 2 compliant
Watch out for- Credits are feature-weighted, so rendering costs more
- Entry plan allowances vary by guide
- No marketplace of scrapers
Starting price$49/month
Free planFree trial
ScraperAPI is the beginner-friendly option, with a single endpoint that handles proxies, headless rendering, and CAPTCHAs automatically, and documentation in six or more languages. Plans start at $49 a month for 100,000 credits, with a 7-day trial of 5,000 credits. For a developer's first scraping project, it is the easiest tool to get running.
Benchmarks show a wider latency spread than ScrapingBee or Zyte, and success rates trail the leaders in some tests. For simple projects and learning, ScraperAPI is excellent. For latency-sensitive or high-success-rate production work, test it against ScrapingBee and Zyte on your actual targets.
What we like- Easiest API to start with
- Handles proxies and rendering automatically
- Good docs in many languages
Watch out for- Higher latency spread than rivals
- Credits are feature-weighted
- Success rates trail leaders in some benchmarks
Starting price$69/month
Free planFree trial
ZenRows positions itself on anti-bot bypass, with AI-powered parsing and a proxy pool of around 55 million IPs. Plans start at $69 a month for 250,000 basic requests, with a trial of 1,000 credits. It suits teams scraping protected sites where standard requests get blocked, and its AI parsing can return structured data without a separate parser.
Success rates vary by target in benchmarks, and the entry price is higher than ScrapingBee's. For protected sites where other APIs fail, ZenRows is worth testing. For easy sites, cheaper APIs cover the same job at lower cost.
What we like- Strong anti-bot bypass
- AI-powered parsing
- Large proxy pool
- Good for protected sites
Watch out for- Higher entry price than ScrapingBee
- Success rates vary by target
- Pricing is credit-based
#7Octoparse
Best for: No-code visual scraping4.8/5 on
G2 (52 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit octoparse.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
Octoparse is the no-code pick for non-developers. A visual point-and-click builder lets you select data on a page without writing code, with templates for popular sites and cloud extraction for scheduled runs. A free tier covers basic use, and paid plans add cloud runs and higher volume.
Code-based tools are more flexible for complex or heavily protected sites, and larger Octoparse plans are quote-based. For a business user who needs data from a website without hiring a developer, Octoparse is the most accessible tool in this guide.
What we like- Visual point-and-click builder for non-developers
- Templates for popular sites
- Cloud extraction available
Watch out for- Less flexible than code for complex sites
- Pricing is quote-based for larger plans
- Desktop app focus
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Scrapy is the free framework behind Zyte itself: Zyte was built by Scrapy's maintainers. It is free and open source, gives Python teams complete control over crawling, parsing, and pipelines, and has a huge community and extension ecosystem. For teams with Python skill, it is the most flexible and cheapest option, since there is no subscription at all.
The cost is engineering time: you build proxies, anti-bot handling, scheduling, and storage yourself, or you pay a service like Zyte or ScrapingBee to handle them. For a Python team that wants full control and has the skill to run infrastructure, Scrapy is unmatched. For everyone else, a managed API is cheaper in time.
What we like- Free and open source
- Unmatched control for Python teams
- Huge community and extension ecosystem
Watch out for- You build and maintain everything
- No proxies or anti-bot handling built in
- Needs developer skill
How we chose
We compared scraping tools that replace Zyte's core job: fetching web pages reliably at scale, handling proxies and anti-bot measures, and returning usable data. We weighed success rate, latency, pricing model, ease of use, and ecosystem from vendor pages and 2026 scraping API benchmarks. We left out pure proxy sellers without a scraping API and contact-data tools that do not scrape pages. Prices are starting rates from 2026 comparisons and vary by workload, so price your actual pages, not the headline plan.
How to pick a Zyte replacement
Start with your team's skill and your targets' difficulty. Python teams with infrastructure skill should shortlist Scrapy, possibly with a managed API for hard targets. Developers who want one endpoint should shortlist ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI. Enterprises should shortlist Bright Data and Oxylabs. Teams that want ready-made scrapers should shortlist Apify. Non-developers should shortlist Octoparse. Protected-site work should shortlist ZenRows. Then benchmark on your actual targets, since success rates vary by site.
Price your real workload, not the plan
Scraping pricing hides the real cost in units: credits, requests, records, compute units, and gigabytes all meter differently. Take your real workload, including pages per month, JavaScript rendering needs, and target difficulty, and price it on each candidate. One 2026 comparison found the same 500,000 easy pages cost $65 on Zyte, $99 on ScrapingBee, and over $500 on some enterprise APIs. Your numbers will differ, but the spread will be just as wide.
Scrape legally and respectfully
Scraping is a powerful tool with legal and ethical limits. Respect website terms of service and robots directives, do not collect personal data without a lawful basis, do not bypass access controls to reach non-public data, and rate-limit your requests so you do not harm the target site. When in doubt, get legal advice before scraping at scale, especially for personal data or copyrighted content.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zyte still a good scraping API?
Yes. Zyte's API is fast in 2026 benchmarks, with the lowest latency in one comparison, and its per-successful-request pricing with difficulty tiers makes it cheapest for easy pages. Teams leave Zyte mainly for marketplace depth, enterprise proxy scale, or a simpler pricing model, not because the API is weak.
What is the cheapest scraping API?
For easy pages, Zyte itself is often cheapest per request, while ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI are cheapest among simple APIs for moderate volumes. At very high volume, the cheapest option depends on target difficulty and rendering needs, so benchmark your actual workload rather than trusting a headline rate.
Do I need proxies to scrape?
For small, polite scraping of public pages, often no. For scale, protected sites, or geo-targeted data, yes, and that is what managed APIs provide. Building your own proxy rotation is possible with Scrapy but takes ongoing maintenance, which is why most teams pay an API to handle it.
Can I scrape without writing code?
Yes, with Octoparse's visual builder or Apify's ready-made Actors. Both let non-developers extract data without code, though complex or protected sites may still need a developer. Start with a ready-made Actor or template for your target site before building anything custom.
Is web scraping legal?
It depends on what you scrape, how you access it, and your jurisdiction. Scraping public data respectfully is widely practiced, but bypassing access controls, violating terms of service, collecting personal data without a lawful basis, or reproducing copyrighted content can create legal risk. Get legal advice for large-scale or sensitive scraping projects.
Sources we checked (8)
- https://brightdata.com
- https://oxylabs.io
- https://apify.com
- https://www.scrapingbee.com
- https://www.scraperapi.com
- https://www.zenrows.com
- https://www.octoparse.com
- https://scrapy.org
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.