1v1 Pricing Showdown
Bright Data vs ScraperAPI
Side-by-side pricing breakdown for Web Scraping Tools decision-makers
Prices in USD, verified from the United States. Regional pricing may vary.
When choosing between Bright Data and ScraperAPI for your web scraping tools stack, the right answer depends on three things: your budget, the specific features you actually use day-to-day, and your tolerance for renewal-price increases. Below we lay out the prices each vendor advertises today (verified against their live pricing pages), the plan limits that decide whether they'll fit your team, and the features that differ between them.
Bright Data starts at $300/mo; ScraperAPI starts at $44/mo. The cheaper headline price isn't always the cheaper total cost — renewal pricing, per-user fees, and overage charges can shift the math. Use the plan-by-plan tables below to model your actual spend.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| residential ips | 400M+ across 195 countries | — |
| city level targeting | All proxy types | — |
| captcha solving | Web Unlocker product | — |
| ip rotation | All proxy products | — |
| javascript rendering | Scraping Browser + Web Scraper API | All plans (10 credits per request) |
| compliance team | Largest in category — handles takedowns, DMCA | — |
| residential ethical sourcing | Via SDK partnerships with consented users | — |
| free trial | $1-5 free credits for new accounts | — |
| monthly commits discount | 30-50% off vs pay-as-you-go at volume | — |
| 8 products | Proxies + Scraper API + Functions + Browser + SERP + Unlocker + Datasets + Insights | — |
| premium residential ips | — | All plans |
| premium mobile ips | — | All plans |
| advanced bypassing | — | All plans |
| parsing apis | — | All plans |
| country level geotargeting | — | Business+ |
| dedicated account manager | — | Enterprise |
| slack channel support | — | Enterprise |
| api credits metric | — | 1 credit = 1 simple request; JS rendering = 10; residential = 10; premium = 25 |
| free trial no cc | — | 7 days + 1000 credits |
Affiliate links — you pay the same price
Dive Deeper
Bright Data
About the web scraping tools category
Web scraping tools in 2026 split into three distinct camps by what they sell. 'Proxy networks + scraping infrastructure' (Bright Data $3.50-12/GB proxies): the enterprise 'build your own scraper but use our IPs' model. Used by Fortune 500 data teams that want programmatic control. 'Developer platforms with pre-built scrapers' (Apify $29-999/month, ScraperAPI $49-475/month): combine scraping infrastructure + API endpoints + marketplace of pre-built scrapers (Apify's 'Actors' store has 4,000+ community scrapers for specific sites). Use when you want 'just scrape Amazon product data' without coding the scraper yourself. 'No-code GUI scrapers' (Octoparse $0-$249/month, ParseHub $149-499/month): point-and-click scraper builders for non-developers. Less powerful but accessible to analysts and business users. Category is highly margin-flexible: Bright Data's residential proxies at $3.50/GB (with monthly commits) vs Apify's passthrough at $7-8/GB illustrate the 'infrastructure vs aggregator' gap. ScraperAPI at $49/month for 100k credits puts per-request cost at $0.00049 — cheapest managed scraping for simple use cases. Anti-detection has become table stakes: all 5 vendors include CAPTCHA solving, IP rotation, and JavaScript rendering at paid tiers.
How to choose between web scraping tools options
First: are you a developer or analyst? Developer with scraping code: ScraperAPI ($49-475/month) or Bright Data Web Scraper API ($0.001/record) — pass your target URLs, get back HTML/JSON. Apify ($29-999/month) if you want to build AND share scrapers through Actor marketplace. Analyst/non-developer: Octoparse ($0-$249/month) or ParseHub ($149-499/month) — GUI-driven scraper builders, no code required. Second: what's your volume? Under 100k requests/month: ScraperAPI Hobby at $49/month or Apify Starter at $29/month cover this range. 1M+ requests/month: ScraperAPI Startup $149 or Scaling $475, Apify Scale $199, or Bright Data custom with monthly commits. 10M+ requests/month: Bright Data enterprise commits or Apify Business $999/month with volume discounts. Third: do you scrape specific popular sites (Amazon, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn)? Apify Store's 4,000+ community Actors often already have exactly what you need — $0.50-5/1000 results for pre-built scrapers beats building from scratch. Fourth: anti-bot detection sophistication? Hard targets (heavily protected sites): Bright Data Web Unlocker or ScraperAPI Scaling with residential proxies. Easy targets (small e-commerce, aggregators, public data): Octoparse or ParseHub sufficient. Fifth: need scraped datasets rather than tools? Bright Data Datasets sells pre-collected data (public web crawls) — subscription or one-time, competitive with building your own for regularly-updated large datasets. Sixth: compliance matters (GDPR, LGPD)? Bright Data's compliance team (largest in category) handles takedown requests and DMCA — critical for enterprise users scraping at scale.
Building Your Business Stack?
Decision-makers comparing tools often need more than one category. Here are related comparisons:
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Bright Data cheaper than ScraperAPI?
- ScraperAPI is cheaper starting at $44/mo. Bright Data starts at $300/mo and ScraperAPI at $44/mo.
- Which is better, Bright Data or ScraperAPI?
- Bright Data scores 9.2/10 compared to ScraperAPI's 9/10 in our analysis. Bright Data ranks higher on features and value, but ScraperAPI may suit specific use cases — see the feature comparison above.
- Is Bright Data cheaper than ScraperAPI for a team of 5?
- For a team of 5, Bright Data costs $300/mo (flat rate) and ScraperAPI costs $44/mo (flat rate). ScraperAPI is the cheaper option at this team size.
- Are there other web scraping tools alternatives besides Bright Data and ScraperAPI?
- Yes. Our [Web Scraping Tools pricing comparison](/pricing/web-scraping/) page covers all major providers with daily-verified prices. You can also see the [cheapest web scraping tools](/pricing/web-scraping/cheapest/) for budget-focused options.