Best Web Scraping APIs to Bypass Cloudflare: July 2026 Benchmark

Scrapfly is the best web scraping API for bypassing Cloudflare, with a 95% success rate across 8 web scraping APIs benchmarked against live Cloudflare-protected sites in July 2026. Only 1 of the 8 cleared above 90%, and only 4 cleared 50% at all.

Cloudflare is the most widely deployed anti-bot and CDN on the web, and most scraping APIs either fail its JavaScript challenges outright or pay for the bypass in speed and cost. The benchmark is open source on GitHub and refreshed twice a month, with no affiliate links and no sponsors, so you can reproduce every number here yourself.

Ranked by live Cloudflare success rate, best first:

1. 🥇 Scrapfly: 95% success on Cloudflare
2. 🥈 Firecrawl: 86% success on Cloudflare
3. 🥉 WebScrapingAPI: 82% success on Cloudflare

Top 7 web scraping APIs for Cloudflare, ranked

Cloudflare protects one clean benchmark target, Indeed. Its per-target ranking lives on the Indeed page rather than being duplicated here.

#	Service	Success	Speed	Cost/1k		Code
1 🥇	Scrapfly	95%	7.5s	$7.18	(237) ★ 4.9	code
2 🥈	Firecrawl	86%	7.8s	$8.18	—	code
3 🥉	WebScrapingAPI	82%	19.1s	$2.71	—	code
4	Scraperapi	81%	2.3s	$4.9	(62) ★ 4.6	code
5	Zenrows	40%	5.8s	$6.9	(103) ★ 4.8	code
6	Scrapingbee	32%	2.0s	$3.37	(137) ★ 4.9	code
7	Scrapingant	15%	30.5s	$1.9	—	code

Data range Jul 03 – Jul 17

Ranking history: web scraping APIs vs Cloudflare over time

The 7 web scraping APIs for Cloudflare, reviewed

1. Scrapfly: 95% success on Cloudflare

Cloudflare screens every request on several signals at once: IP reputation, a TLS and HTTP/2 fingerprint, and a browser-side JavaScript challenge (Managed Challenge or Turnstile). Clearing it means passing all of them on the same request, which is what Scrapfly is built for. It cleared 95% of Cloudflare requests this run at $7.18 per 1,000 successful and 7.5s average. Consistency is the standout: it holds its rate without challenge pages slipping through on retries, so few requests fail and the cost per successful request stays low.

Pros:

• Highest success rate in the test, clearing Cloudflare's Managed Challenge and Turnstile without extra setup
• Only charges for successful scrapes, so failed requests cost nothing
• First-class SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go, and Rust, plus a Scrapy extension
• One asp flag turns on the full anti-bot stack, so there is little to tune

Cons:

• The entry (Discovery) plan caps concurrency at 5 requests, so high-throughput jobs need a higher tier
• The free tier is a one-time 1,000 credits, enough to prototype and smoke-test but not to benchmark at volume
• The dashboard could be more polished for usage monitoring and debugging

2. Firecrawl: 86% success on Cloudflare

Firecrawl runs a real browser, so it can execute Cloudflare's JavaScript challenge, and its draw is the output: it returns structured markdown rather than raw HTML, which saves a parsing step for LLM and RAG pipelines. It's one of the pricier options, so that saving has to be worth it. On Cloudflare it cleared 86% this run.

Pros:

• Returns LLM-ready markdown, saving a parsing step for AI and RAG pipelines
• Runs a real browser that can execute Cloudflare's JavaScript challenge

Cons:

• Among the highest cost per successful request; users cite pricing as the top complaint
• Renders a full browser on every page, so it is among the slowest options
• Clearing Cloudflare's challenge is compute-heavy, which is where that latency comes from

3. WebScrapingAPI: 82% success on Cloudflare

WebScrapingAPI's appeal is a low price per request and code examples across a broad set of languages. The trade-off on Cloudflare is latency: it runs slower than the fastest providers, so it suits batch and overnight jobs rather than latency-sensitive work. On Cloudflare it cleared 82% at 19.1s this run.

Pros:

• Low cost per request
• Language integrations for most stacks

Cons:

• Slow, so Cloudflare's compute-heavy challenge pushes it toward batch jobs
• No custom in-page JavaScript, which limits control over the challenge step
• Customer support is a recurring complaint in user reviews

4. Scraperapi: 81% success on Cloudflare

Scraperapi is built for speed and a simple integration: when it clears a request it tends to return fast. Cloudflare is the harder test for that model, because its browser-side JavaScript challenge needs a full browser rather than a fast request path. On Cloudflare it cleared 81% this run.

Pros:

• Fast when it clears, with a simple integration
• Broad language SDK support

Cons:

• A fast request path doesn't guarantee Cloudflare's JavaScript challenge is solved, so plan for retries
• Login-required sites and form filling are off-limits
• Geotargeting is gated by plan (US and EU only until the Business tier)

5. Zenrows: 40% success on Cloudflare

Zenrows is a general-purpose scraping API with JavaScript rendering and session support, positioned as an all-rounder. It renders a real browser, which is what Cloudflare's challenge requires, and on Cloudflare it cleared 40% this run. It fits when you want one general-purpose tool rather than optimizing hard for cost, speed, or maximum reliability.

Pros:

• Real-browser rendering and sessions for Cloudflare's browser-side challenge
• One general-purpose tool covers rendering, proxies, and CAPTCHA handling

Cons:

• Cloudflare challenges datacenter IPs before anything loads, and premium proxy geo-coverage is unclear
• Cost climbs on heavy or large-scale jobs, the recurring user complaint

6. Scrapingbee: 32% success on Cloudflare

Scrapingbee is fast and cheap per request, with JavaScript rendering for lighter targets. Cloudflare's interactive challenges (Managed Challenge, Turnstile) are the hard case for a lighter, HTTP-first tool, since they need genuine browser execution. On Cloudflare it cleared 32% this run.

Pros:

• Fast response times
• Low sticker cost per request

Cons:

• An HTTP-first approach is exposed by Cloudflare's Turnstile and Managed Challenge
• Credits burn quickly once JavaScript rendering or premium proxies are enabled
• No mid-usage plan between the small and large tiers

7. Scrapingant: 15% success on Cloudflare

Scrapingant is a lightweight, low-sticker-price API with JavaScript rendering and session support, aimed at smaller jobs. Cloudflare's layered screening is a demanding target for a lightweight tool, and on Cloudflare it cleared 15% this run.

Pros:

• Low sticker price
• JavaScript rendering for Cloudflare's browser-side checks

Cons:

• A lightweight stack struggles against Cloudflare's combined IP, TLS, and JavaScript checks
• Charges for some blocked requests, so failed challenges still cost
• Small provider with a thin public track record

What makes Cloudflare hard to scrape

Cloudflare sits as a reverse proxy in front of the origin server, so every request is screened before it ever reaches the site. It scores requests on several signals at once, and a scraper has to look right on all of them.

The first is IP reputation. Datacenter ranges are flagged instantly, which is why scrapers that don't rotate through residential or mobile addresses get challenged before anything else loads.

The second is TLS and HTTP/2 fingerprinting. Cloudflare inspects the low-level handshake (cipher order, extensions, header order) to build a JA3/JA4 fingerprint. A plain HTTP client like requests or axios produces a signature no real browser would, so a mismatch gets you blocked no matter how clean the IP.

On top of that sit JavaScript challenges. Managed Challenge and Turnstile run browser-side proof-of-work and environment checks that a headless client either can't execute or runs in a detectably automated way.

Finally there are behavioral signals like mouse movement, timing, and navigation patterns. These flag sessions that act like a script rather than a person.

This is why most APIs in the ranking fail or score low. Clearing Cloudflare means getting the IP, the TLS fingerprint, the JavaScript execution, and the browser environment all consistent at once, and getting any one wrong means the request is challenged. It also explains why the providers that do clear it tend to be slower or more expensive: solving the challenge costs real compute.

How to choose a web scraping API for Cloudflare

Match the choice to your binding constraint. The ranked table is sorted by current success rate; use it alongside this guidance rather than a fixed order.

• Reliability first. Scrapfly leads on Cloudflare and holds its rate across sessions, which is what production pipelines need when failed requests create downstream problems. Its cost per successful request is lower than the headline rate suggests, because few requests fail.
• Cost or speed. Among the providers still clearing Cloudflare this run, sort the table by cost per successful request or by speed and pick accordingly. Don't build on the ones that fail the JavaScript challenge.

Avoid choosing on sticker price. The metric that matters on Cloudflare is cost per successful request: a cheap API that fails most requests has a far higher real cost per usable result, so judge providers on that rather than the headline rate.

How we benchmark web scraping APIs against Cloudflare

We independently benchmark 8 web scraping APIs against live Cloudflare-protected targets, 1,000+ requests per service, twice a month. No affiliate links, no sponsors, no providers with early access to results. The full benchmark is open source on GitHub, so you can reproduce every result yourself.

Every API is tested against the same URLs concurrently, and cost is measured per 1,000 successful requests on entry-plan pricing. That way a cheap API that fails often scores worse than its sticker price suggests. Latest data: Jul 03 – Jul 17, 2026.

Frequently asked questions about scraping Cloudflare

Can web scraping APIs reliably bypass Cloudflare in 2026?

Yes, the best ones do. In this benchmark, 1 cleared above 90% and 4 cleared above 50%. The rest failed more requests than they delivered. Reliability varies widely between providers, so the API matters more than the fact that it can be done.

What's the cheapest web scraping API that actually works on Cloudflare?

Sort the ranked table by cost per successful request and read down to the first provider still clearing Cloudflare this run; that's the cheapest option that actually delivers. Lower sticker prices appear in the ranking but often fail too many requests to make their rate meaningful.

Why do some APIs score low on Cloudflare?

Because they send plain HTTP requests without solving Cloudflare's defenses. A client that doesn't match a real browser's TLS/HTTP-2 fingerprint, can't execute the JavaScript challenge (Managed Challenge or Turnstile), or uses flagged datacenter IPs gets blocked before any content loads.

Does bypassing Cloudflare require JavaScript rendering?

Usually, yes. Cloudflare's interactive challenges run browser-side, so an API needs a real browser engine to execute and pass them. The providers that clear Cloudflare reliably here all render JavaScript; the ones relying on raw HTTP requests score lowest.

How often is this benchmark updated?

Twice a month. We re-run all the APIs against the same live targets, 1,000+ requests each, and republish the rankings. The benchmark is open source on GitHub and carries no affiliate links or sponsors, so the numbers reflect measured results only.

Conclusion

For Cloudflare-protected targets, Scrapfly is the API to beat: the highest success rate in the test at a low cost per successful request, held consistently across sessions. Below it the standings shift between runs, so use the live table, sorted by current success rate, and judge on cost per successful request rather than sticker price.

The benchmark refreshes twice a month, so check it before committing.

Other anti-bots: DataDome · PerimeterX · Kasada · Imperva  ·  Cloudflare targets: Indeed  ·  Hub: All anti-bot benchmarks