Best Web Scraping APIs to Bypass DataDome: August 2026 Benchmark

Scrapfly is the best web scraping API for bypassing DataDome, with a 100% success rate across 8 web scraping APIs benchmarked against live DataDome-protected pages in August 2026. 6 of the 8 cleared DataDome at 50% or better, but only 3 held above 90%, and the gap between them came down to speed and cost.

DataDome is one of the toughest anti-bot systems on the web, and most scraping APIs either fail its device checks outright or pay for the bypass in speed and cost. The benchmark is refreshed twice a month, with no affiliate links and no sponsors.

Ranked by live DataDome success rate, best first:

1. 🥇 Scrapfly: 100% success on DataDome
2. 🥈 ZenRows: 96% success on DataDome
3. 🥉 String: 90% success on DataDome

Of the 8 APIs tested, 6 cleared DataDome at 50% or better, but only 3 Scrapfly, ZenRows and String stayed above 90%. The cheaper or faster options either traded away reliability or collapsed, with Scrapingdog clearing just 15%.

Top 8 web scraping APIs for DataDome, ranked

These are the best scraping APIs against a DataDome-protected target, Etsy.com.

#	Service	Success	Speed	Cost/1k		Code
1 🥇	Scrapfly	100%	15.9s	$3.85	(237) ★ 4.9	code
2 🥈	ZenRows	96%	14.7s	$6.9	(103) ★ 4.8	code
3 🥉	String	90%	16.3s	$0.4	—	code
4	Scraperapi	90%	14.4s	$4.9	(62) ★ 4.6	code
5	Firecrawl	82%	7.1s	$8.91	—	code
6	WebScrapingAPI	79%	35.9s	$2.71	—	code
7	ScrapingBee	17%	3.9s	$3.38	(137) ★ 4.9	code
8	Scrapingdog	15%	11.9s	$5.0	—	code

Data range Aug 14 – Aug 28

Ranking history: web scraping APIs vs DataDome over time

The 8 web scraping APIs for DataDome, reviewed

1. Scrapfly: 100% success on DataDome

Scrapfly cleared 100% of DataDome requests at $3.85 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 15.9s per request.

Consistency was the standout. It held its rate without device checks slipping through on retries, and that is also why its cost per successful request stays low. Few requests fail, so you rarely end up paying twice for the same page.

Pros:

• Highest success rate in the benchmark at 100%
• Competitive cost per successful request at $3.85/1k

Cons:

• Slow at 15.9s, better suited to batch than real-time work
• Credits do not carry over month-to-month.
• No annual plans are available.

2. ZenRows: 96% success on DataDome

ZenRows cleared 96% of DataDome requests at $6.90 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 14.7s per request.

It clears DataDome consistently without leading on price. Faster and cheaper providers clear it at similar or higher rates, so it works best when its mid-range latency is the right fit for you.

Pros:

• Reliably clears DataDome at 96%
• Competitive cost per successful request at $6.90/1k
• Fastest reliable provider at 14.7s

Cons:

• 4% of requests still fail, so expect some retries

3. String: 90% success on DataDome

String cleared 90% of DataDome requests at $0.40 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 16.3s per request.

It decides per URL whether DataDome needs a real browser and escalates on its own, and it only bills when content comes back, so the device checks it fails cost nothing. The catch is that the browser path DataDome forces bills 5x a standard fetch, so its headline rate is not the rate you pay here.

Pros:

• Reliably clears DataDome at 90%
• Cheapest cost per successful request among reliable providers at $0.40/1k
• Does not charge for blocked requests, so failed device checks cost nothing.
• Escalates to a real browser on residential proxies without a flag to set.

Cons:

• Slowest reliable provider at 16.3s
• 10% of requests still fail, so expect some retries
• The browser path DataDome forces bills 5x a standard fetch.
• No official SDKs and no webhook support.

4. Scraperapi: 90% success on DataDome

Scraperapi cleared 90% of DataDome requests at $4.90 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 14.4s per request.

You give up almost nothing on speed by picking it, and a small failure rate is easy to absorb with light retries. For latency-sensitive work it sits right behind the top spot and rarely lets a request through unsolved.

Cons:

• Slow at 14.4s, better suited to batch than real-time work
• Clears only 90%, below the 90% bar and too inconsistent for production

5. Firecrawl: 82% success on DataDome

Firecrawl cleared 82% of DataDome requests at $8.91 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 7.1s per request.

You are paying for its LLM-ready markdown output, which helps AI and RAG pipelines but is hard to justify on cost alone if you only need raw HTML.

Pros:

• Reasonable speed at 7.1s

Cons:

• Clears only 82.2%, below the 90% bar and too inconsistent for production

6. WebScrapingAPI: 79% success on DataDome

WebScrapingAPI cleared 79% of DataDome requests at $2.71 per 1,000 successful requests and averaged 35.9s per request.

The catch is speed, so it suits batch and overnight jobs where wall-clock time matters less than cost far better than real-time scraping.

Pros:

• Does not charge for blocked requests.

Cons:

• Slow at 35.9s, better suited to batch than real-time work
• Clears only 78.5%, below the 90% bar and too inconsistent for production

7. ScrapingBee: 17% success on DataDome

ScrapingBee cleared just 17% of DataDome requests, failing roughly 8 in 10. We can't recommend it for DataDome-protected targets right now, whatever its speed and price look like on paper.

8. Scrapingdog: 15% success on DataDome

Scrapingdog cleared just 15% of DataDome requests, failing roughly 8 in 10. We can't recommend it for DataDome-protected targets right now.

What makes DataDome hard to scrape

DataDome sits in front of the origin as a reverse proxy, so every request is scored before it reaches the site. It weighs several signals at once, and a scraper has to look right on all of them. Get one wrong and the request is challenged or blocked.

The first signal is IP reputation. DataDome flags datacenter ranges almost instantly, so scrapers that don't rotate through residential or mobile addresses get challenged before the page loads. Clean, well-sourced proxies are the baseline for getting past this stage, not an optional upgrade you add later.

The second is TLS and HTTP/2 fingerprinting. DataDome inspects the low-level handshake, including cipher order and header order, to build a fingerprint. A plain client like requests or axios produces a signature no real browser would, so a mismatch gets you blocked even with a clean IP.

On top of that come device and JavaScript checks. DataDome runs browser-side scripts that fingerprint the device and verify the environment. A headless client either can't execute them or runs them in a way that looks automated, and that mismatch alone is enough to trip a challenge.

Finally there are behavioral signals like mouse movement, timing, and navigation patterns. These flag sessions that act like a script instead of a person. DataDome leans on them heavily, which is why simple header spoofing rarely works for long against it on real targets.

This is why most APIs in the ranking fail or score low. Clearing DataDome means getting the IP, the TLS fingerprint, the JavaScript execution, and the device environment all consistent at the same time. Any single mismatch sends the request straight back to a challenge. It also explains why the providers that do clear it tend to be slower or pricier: solving device and JavaScript checks costs real compute, and that shows up in both latency and cost per successful request across the benchmark.

How to choose a web scraping API for DataDome

Match the choice to your constraint. If you need reliability above all, DataDome cleared on the first pass and at scale, Scrapfly leads at 100% and pairs it with a low cost per successful request, which makes it the default for production work.

If you want almost the same reliability with top-tier speed, ZenRows is the fastest reliable option at 14.7s with a manageable 96% success rate, the natural pick when latency matters and you can absorb a tiny failure rate with light retries.

Avoid choosing on sticker price alone. The metric that matters on DataDome is cost per successful request. A cheap API that fails often costs more per usable page than a mid-priced one that clears almost everything on the first try, so judge providers on that rather than the headline rate.

How we benchmark web scraping APIs against DataDome

We independently benchmark 8 web scraping APIs against live DataDome-protected targets, 1,000+ requests per service, twice a month. No affiliate links. No sponsors. Just data. Every API is tested against the same URLs at the same time, under the same conditions.

Cost is measured per 1,000 successful requests on entry-plan pricing, so a cheap API that fails often scores worse than its sticker price suggests. For DataDome the clean target is Etsy, which is protected by DataDome alone, so the numbers reflect that anti-bot and nothing else. These results cover Aug 14 – Aug 28, 2026.

Frequently asked questions about scraping DataDome

Can web scraping APIs reliably bypass DataDome in 2026?

Yes, the best ones do. In the latest benchmark, 6 of 8 APIs cleared DataDome at 50% or better, and 3 (Scrapfly, ZenRows and String) held above 90%. The top-ranked API cleared 100% of requests. Reliability varies widely between providers, so the API you pick matters more than the fact that it can be done.

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

String, at $0.40 per 1,000 successful requests with a 90% success rate, the lowest cost per successful request among the providers that clear DataDome reliably.

Why do some APIs score so low on DataDome?

Because they send requests that don't match a real browser. A client that fails DataDome's TLS or HTTP/2 fingerprint, can't run its device and JavaScript checks, or uses flagged datacenter IPs gets blocked before any content loads. Tools without a real browser engine and quality proxies tend to score lowest.

Does bypassing DataDome require JavaScript rendering?

Usually, yes. DataDome's device and behavioral checks run browser-side, so an API needs a real browser engine to execute and pass them. The providers that clear DataDome reliably here all render JavaScript, while the ones leaning on raw HTTP requests are the ones that score lowest.

How often is this benchmark updated?

Twice a month. We re-run all 8 APIs against the same live targets, 1,000+ requests each, and republish the rankings. The benchmark carries no affiliate links or sponsors.

Conclusion

For DataDome-protected targets, Scrapfly is the API to beat: 100% success at a low cost per successful request and the fastest reliable speed in the test, with only ZenRows and String keeping pace above 90%.

The cheaper and slower options have their place, but on DataDome the decision comes down to cost per successful request. This page (refreshed twice a month) is the place to check the latest numbers before you commit.

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