ScraperAPI is a popular web scraping tool founded in 2018. It was created by a team of developers with a shared vision: to help companies collect clean, insightful data without getting blocked.
Having built many web scrapers, we repeatedly went through the tiresome process of finding proxies, setting up headless browsers, and handling CAPTCHAs. That’s why we decided to start ScraperAPI, it handles all of this for you so you can scrape any page with a simple API call!
Overall ScraperAPI performs well with Scrapeway's benchmarks showing it has a great anti-bot bypass success rate, speed and reliability.
ScraperAPI features are on par with industry average, offering features like residential proxy support, geolocation, and Javascript rendering.
Pros
- Effective scraper blocking bypass.
- Integrations for Python, Javascript, Ruby, PHP, NodeJS
- Automatic data parsing option.
- Detailed web dashboard for reviewing scraping performance.
- Web scheduler (called Datapipeline) that can scrape and deliver results on a defined schedule at extra cost.
- Web UI player for testing and experimenting.
Cons
- Steep entry point at $49.
- Often charges for blocked requests.
- Small geolocations pool.
- Limited javascript rendering feature set.
- Credits do not carry over month-to-month.
Scraperapi vs Other Services
Here's how Scraperapi compares against other web scraping APIs in terms of success rate, speed and cost.
| # | Service | Success % | Speed | Cost $/1000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scrapfly |
97%
|
5.8s
|
$2.71
|
|
| 2 | Scraperapi |
80%
|
7.7s
|
$6.46
|
|
| 3 | Scrapingbee |
75%
|
4.7s
|
$3.71
|
|
| 4 | Zenrows |
73%
|
6.1s
|
$4.39
|
|
| 5 | WebScrapingAPI |
68%
|
13.2s
|
$6.02
|
|
| 6 | Scrapingdog |
65%
|
8.1s
|
$1.96
|
|
| 7 | Scrapingant |
56%
|
11.7s
|
$2.47
|
This data is based on the averages of Scrapeway's weekly benchmarks covering 12 most popular web scraping targets and overall:
- Scraperapi has an above-average success rate of 80.2% compared to industry average of 73.3%
- Scraperapi has an above-average scraping speed of 7.7s compared to industry average of 8.2s
- Scraperapi has an above-average price of $6.5/1000 scrapes compared to industry average of $4.0
Scraperapi Benchmarks
Scrapeway runs weekly benchmarks for Scraperapi for the most popular web scraping targets.
| Target | Success % | Speed | Cost $/1000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
80%
|
7.7s
|
$6.46
|
||
|
100%
|
5.0s
|
$2.45
|
||
|
100%
|
5.6s
|
$4.9
|
||
|
100%
|
6.3s
|
$4.9
|
||
|
100%
|
6.6s
|
$2.45
|
||
|
100%
|
7.4s
|
$9.8
|
||
|
99%
|
7.1s
|
$9.8
|
||
|
97%
|
8.0s
|
$4.9
|
||
|
97%
|
8.0s
|
$4.9
|
||
|
84%
|
9.0s
|
$14.7
|
||
|
4%
|
22.3s
|
$12.25
|
||
|
0%
|
-
|
-
|
Scraperapi Pricing
ScraerAPI is a credit-based service where each scrape request can cost 1-30 credits depending on the used features, scraped website type and the required anti-bot bypass.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Concurrency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $49 | 100,000 | 20 |
| Startup | $149 | 1,000,000 | 50 |
| Business | $299 | 3,000,000 | 100 |
| Enterprise | - | - | - |
Overall ScraperAPI entry point plan is well below industry average though it evens out with higher tiers.
Scraperapi Features
Overall, ScraperAPI offers a wide range of features matching the industry average. It offers the standard feature set of for all plans:
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Integrations | Python, Javascript, Ruby, PHP, NodeJS |
| Proxy support | Datacenter default, Residential optional, Mobile for custom plans |
| Geolocation | 2 countries (13 for the highest tier) |
| Webhook support | Yes |
| Javascreipt rendering | Yes, at extra cost |
| Custom JS evaluation | No |
| Browser control | No |
| Screenshots | No |
| Sessions | Yes, persistent IP for 15min |
To add, ScraperAPI offers some unique features at no extra cost included with every plan:
- Structured data scraping for select targets: Amazon, Google, Walmart.
- Autoparse which will attempt to extract relevant data from the HTML as JSON automatically.
- Datapipeline (beta) - tool for scheduling scraping tasks at extra credit cost.