Crawlbase is an all-in-one data scraping solution designed to meet a wide range of web data needs. It is a platform suited for running massive projects for your company, as well as for small-scale or targeted tools. At its core, Crawlbase is made up of four distinct products (Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy, and Storage), each built to solve different web scraping challenges.
While ScraperAPI offers a more rigid setup based on different parameters we studied. Here’s a quick look at how the two platforms stack up:
ScraperAPI vs. Crawlbase Platform
| Feature | ScraperAPI | ScraperAPI (Crawlbase Perspective) | Crawlbase Product(s) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success-Based Pricing | Only charges for successful requests. | ✅ Crawlbase also charges only for successful requests. Failed or blocked requests are free. | Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy | Crawlbase’s pricing is success-based just like ScraperAPI. |
| Requests Per Month | Subscription-based (e.g. 5M for $475) | ✅ Pay-as-you-go with NO hard limits. Scales to billions of requests per month. | Crawling API, Crawler | Crawlbase supports higher volumes through scalable infrastructure, not fixed quotas. Crawler is built for large-scale, async batch processing. |
| Automated Configuration | Fully automatic (no setup). | ✅ JavaScript rendering, geolocation, and retries are automated when using the right token, settings, or product. | Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy | Crawlbase offers configuration flexibility. Retry logic is automatic in Crawler. JavaScript rendering is opt-in for cost control. |
| Proxy Rotation & CAPTCHA Solving | Included at no extra cost. | ✅ Included for free. No need to purchase separate proxies or CAPTCHA solutions. | Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy | Crawlbase includes intelligent proxy rotation and CAPTCHA bypassing. No separate proxy service is required. |
| Data Output Formats | JSON, CSV, HTML, Markdown | ✅ JSON, HTML output supported. Data Scraper auto-generates structured JSON. | Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy | Crawlbase focuses on structured JSON and raw HTML. For supported domains, it can return structured JSON without manual parsing. |
| Structured eCommerce & SERP Data | Pre-built SDEs for Amazon, Walmart, Google, etc. | ✅ Structured data for Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google SERPs, and more. | Crawling API, Crawler, Smart Proxy | Crawlbase supports many of the same platforms and automatically returns structured JSON when possible. No custom scripts needed. |
| Scalability | High-volume support with fixed plan. | ✅ No artificial caps. Billions of requests/month supported. Auto-retries and batching included. | Crawler | Crawlbase is purpose-built for scale via the Crawler. |
| Cloud Storage | Not available | ✅ 10,000 documents free, scalable cloud storage available. | Crawlbase Storage | Crawlbase includes optional integrated storage to save and export crawled data. |
| Flexible Integration Options | Only API-based access | ✅ Offers API + rotating proxy (Smart Proxy) with port-based setup. | Smart Proxy | Crawlbase lets you use it as an API or plug it directly into your existing stack with proxy credentials. |
| Pricing Transparency | Flat-rate pricing per request | ✅ Full transparency with a pricing calculator, success-only billing, and token-based logic. | All Products | Crawlbase pricing is fully transparent. You know exactly what you’ll be charged. No surprises. |
Transparent Pricing Breakdown
Now, let’s take a closer look at Crawlbase’s actual pricing model and compare it to ScraperAPI’s. To maintain clarity and accuracy, we’ll utilize the Crawling API for comparison and focus on a single domain. In this case, Google.
Scraping Google using ScraperAPI vs Crawlbase
| Feature | ScraperAPI – Business Plan ($299) | Crawlbase – Crawling API | What You Should Know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Subscription – 3,000,000 credits/month | Pay-as-you-go | Crawlbase charges based on domain complexity. ScraperAPI consumes more credits for “heavily protected URLs.” |
| Google Request Cost | 25 credits per request | ~$0.00146 per normal request | You will only see this inside ScraperAPI’s credits docs. Google is one of the most expensive endpoints. |
| # of Google Requests | 120,000 | 120,000 | Same number of requests, but Crawlbase can be significantly cheaper. |
| Actual Cost for 120K Google Requests | $299 | $174 normal requests or $348 all JS requests | Crawlbase can save you over 40% for the domain. |
| JavaScript Rendering | Included | Available via JS token | Crawlbase gives you control. Only pay extra when you actually need rendering. |
| CAPTCHA Handling | Included | Included | Both have built-in CAPTCHA handling. |
| Proxy Rotation | Included | Included | Crawlbase handles IP rotation automatically, just like ScraperAPI. |
| Geotargeting | 150+ countries | Available | Both offer accurate country-level targeting. |
| Structured Output (Google) | Structured Output (Google) | Available | Crawlbase supports structured SERP results including ads, related searches, and organic results. |
| Transparency | ❌ Questionable upfront | ✅ Full pricing calculator | Crawlbase shows real per-request pricing upfront, not inside a documentation you need to browse and compute manually. |
| Scalability | Credit-bound | Fully scalable | Crawlbase scales to millions of requests automatically, while ScraperAPI requires you to contact their sales team for higher volumes. |
While ScraperAPI advertises a high number of credits in its $299 Business Plan, the hidden cost of premium domains, such as Google, significantly reduces the actual request volume. In contrast, Crawlbase offers transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing, where you only pay for what you use.
For the exact 120,000 Google requests, Crawlbase can save you over 40%, and you get complete control over features like JavaScript rendering and structured data output. Additionally, Crawlbase scales automatically without requiring interaction with sales or commitment to monthly limits.
Crawlbase Products Explained
As mentioned earlier, Crawlbase isn’t just one product. We offer a comprehensive suite of tools tailored to meet various data extraction needs. Each product is purpose-built, highly scalable, and transparently priced, providing users with complete control and eliminating hidden costs or limitations.
Here’s a full breakdown of what Crawlbase offers:
Crawling API
The Crawling API is our flagship product, built specifically for web crawling and data scraping. This powerful API features automatic proxy management with millions of IPs worldwide, CAPTCHA bypass, automated data extraction, customizable geolocation, and more. It’s trusted by companies, independent developers, market researchers, e-commerce platforms, and anyone who needs reliable, large-scale data extraction.
Key Features
- JavaScript Rendering – The Crawling API provides two token types: a normal token and a JavaScript token. The JavaScript token enables JavaScript rendering during crawling, giving users control over how the API operates and its associated costs. Since JavaScript rendering requires more resources, requests using a JavaScript token incur higher costs than standard requests.
- CAPTCHA Bypass – CAPTCHA avoidance or bypass is built into our API at no extra cost.
- Customizable Geolocation – Easily specify the target country by adding the relevant parameter, with no additional charges.
- Intelligent Proxy Management – Our API automatically selects and rotates the best proxies for each request, ensuring a consistent success rate of up to 99.9% on most websites. No extra cost or additional configuration required.
- Data Scraper – Gain structured output in JSON format for supported websites, ready to use in your projects, at no additional charge.
Pricing Model
Our “pay-as-you-go” or more accurately “pay-per-success” pricing model ensures you only pay for what you use. No wasted credits, and payment is required only for successful requests. Failed requests are not charged.
We also take website complexity into account and provide a publicly available pricing calculator for full transparency. Not all websites are equally easy to crawl; more complex sites may require greater resources. Some services claim to have a straightforward credit-based system, but in reality, specific websites or advanced features may cost you more. We’re upfront about these differences so you always know what to expect.
The Crawler
The Crawler is built for massive scale. This is ideal for users who need to process large volumes of URLs efficiently and reliably. It offers all the features of our Crawling API; however, unlike the synchronous Crawling API, the Crawler is fully asynchronous. It is a better choice for batch processing, high-volume data operations, and long-term crawl projects.
Key Features
- Asynchronous by Design – Unlike the Crawling API, which returns a response in real-time, the Crawler lets you submit jobs and collect results later. This design supports higher throughput and improves performance for large-scale operations.
- Auto-Retry on Failures – The Crawler automatically retries failed requests, eliminating the need to handle retries on your end. This improves success rates to almost 100% even for complex websites, and reduces complexity in your code.
- Batch Processing – Easily queue up thousands (or even millions) of URLs in a single job. Perfect for projects that involve crawling entire websites or large datasets.
- JavaScript Rendering – The Crawler also supports JavaScript rendering via token configuration. You can choose between normal or JavaScript-enabled tokens, depending on your target content and budget.
- Scalable Infrastructure – Built to handle billions of requests per month, the Crawler is trusted by enterprises and high-volume customers around the world.
Pricing Model
The Crawler uses the same transparent pricing model as the Crawling API: pay only for successful requests, with no hidden fees. You can control your cost by selecting the correct token (standard or JavaScript) and by monitoring your usage via our dashboard, and pricing calculator.
Smart Proxy
Smart Proxy is a separate product from the Crawling API or Crawler. This is Crawlbase’s advanced rotating proxy solution designed for developers and businesses that need direct proxy integration into their applications. Smart Proxy works through a standard proxy interface (host:port). This is ideal for custom setups, browsers, headless tools, scrapers, and third-party crawlers.
Key Features
- Standard Proxy Format – Easily integrate Smart Proxy into your system using the familiar host:port format. No need to make API calls to api.crawlbase.com. Instead, route your requests directly through the following:
- HTTPS:
https://smartproxy.crawlbase.comon port8013 - HTTP:
http://smartproxy.crawlbase.comon port8012
- HTTPS:
- Advanced Proxy Rotation – Each request is automatically routed through our managed pool of millions of residential and datacenter IPs, intelligently rotated to ensure high success rates and precise geo-targeting.
- JavaScript Rendering Support – Choose between standard or JavaScript-enabled crawling. JavaScript requests consume more resources but allow access to dynamic content.
- High Compatibility – Works seamlessly with any HTTP-based client, headless browser, or scraping framework.
Pricing Model
Smart Proxy follows a clear subscription-based, credit-driven model:
- 1 credit per request using standard request
- 2 credits per request using JavaScript rendering
Unlike our Crawling API or Crawler, the cost does not depend on the complexity of the website. You get full access to Crawlbase’s rotating proxy infrastructure while maintaining complete control over your scraping logic. No need to change your code to adapt to API responses.
Crawlbase Storage API
Crawlbase Storage API is our built-in cloud storage solution that allows you to automatically save, search, and export the data you’ve crawled using the Crawling API or the Crawler. Designed for convenience and scalability, this feature ensures your crawled content is preserved and readily accessible without the need to set up your storage infrastructure.
Key Features
- Seamless Data Saving – Easily store the entire response from any successful Crawling API or Crawler request. One document = one complete crawled response.
- Easy Activation – Crawlbase Storage is available at no additional cost on all accounts. There’s no complex setup required. Just include the appropriate storage parameters in your Crawling API or Crawler requests to start saving data.
- Free Tier Included – Every user gets 10,000 documents of storage completely free.
- Scalable Capacity – Need more? Easily upgrade to a subscription-based plan to expand your storage capacity as your project grows.
- Search and Export – Use our Storage API to query, filter, and export saved documents for further use. Ideal for building datasets, backups, or integration with your internal tools.
Pricing Model
Crawlbase Storage starts free with 10,000 documents included for every account. A “document” refers to one complete data payload from a successful crawl.
If your storage needs exceed the free tier, additional capacity can be unlocked through a subscription-based upgrade. You only pay for expanded storage; all access and usage within the limit remains free.
Structured Data Extraction: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Crawlbase’s built-in data scrapers automatically detect supported domains and return clean JSON without any additional parsing or scripting required on your end. For other sites, you can choose between using our generic extractor or retrieving the full HTML if you prefer custom parsing.
So, we’ll compare the scraping capabilities of Crawlbase against ScraperAPI. Let’s see how they stack up.
Web Scraping API Comparison
ScraperAPI provides a list of structured data endpoints in their dashboard. To give you the complete picture, we compare them with the wide range of data scrapers offered by Crawlbase.
Structured Data Coverage: Crawlbase vs ScraperAPI
| Domain | ScraperAPI Endpoints | Crawlbase Data Scrapers | Coverage Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Amazon Product, Amazon Search, Amazon Offer | ✅ amazon-product-details, amazon-serp, amazon-offer-listing, amazon-product-reviews, amazon-best-sellers, amazon-new-releases | Crawlbase: More depth |
| Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Maps Search | ✅ google-serp, google-product-offers | Even (slightly more on ScraperAPI) | |
| Google News / Jobs | Google News, Google Jobs | ❌ Not available | ScraperAPI only |
| ❌ Not available | ✅ facebook-group, facebook-page, facebook-profile, facebook-event, facebook-hashtag | Crawlbase only | |
| ❌ Not available | ✅ instagram-post, instagram-reel, instagram-profile, instagram-hashtag, instagram-reels-audio | Crawlbase only | |
| TikTok | ❌ Not available | ✅ tiktok-product | Crawlbase only |
| ❌ Not available | ✅ linkedin-profile, linkedin-company, linkedin-feed | Crawlbase only | |
| Quora | ❌ Not available | ✅ quora-serp, quora-question | Crawlbase only |
| Airbnb | ❌ Not available | ✅ airbnb-serp | Crawlbase only |
| Walmart | Walmart Product, Walmart Category, Walmart Search, Walmart Review | ✅ walmart-product-details, walmart-category, walmart-serp | Even (slightly more on ScraperAPI) |
| eBay | eBay Product, eBay Search | ✅ ebay-product, ebay-serp, ebay-seller-shop | Crawlbase: Seller shop added |
| Redfin | Properties for sale, rent, listings, agent details | ❌ Not available | ScraperAPI only |
| AliExpress | ❌ Not available | ✅ aliexpress-product, aliexpress-serp | Crawlbase only |
| Bing | ❌ Not available | ✅ bing-serp | Crawlbase only |
| Immobilienscout24 | ❌ Not available | ✅ immobilienscout24-property | Crawlbase only |
| BestBuy | ❌ Not available | ✅ bestbuy-serp, bestbuy-product-details | Crawlbase only |
| G2 | ❌ Not available | ✅ g2-product-reviews | Crawlbase only |
| Eventbrite | ❌ Not available | ✅ eventbrite-events-list, eventbrite-event-details | Crawlbase only |
| Generic Extractors | ❌ Not available | ✅ generic-extractor, email-extractor | Crawlbase only |
In short:
- ScraperAPI has a few endpoints that Crawlbase doesn’t yet cover (such as Redfin and Google Jobs/News).
- Crawlbase supports 20+ platforms, including social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn), real estate (Airbnb, Immobilienscout24), marketplaces, review platforms, and more.
- Crawlbase offers significantly wider structured scraping support, making it the best replacement for ScraperAPI, especially for your diverse data extraction needs.
Why Crawlbase is ScraperAPI’s Better Alternative
Crawlbase is a better ScraperAPI alternative as it’s a complete scraping platform with no hidden costs. Compared to what ScraperAPI offers, Crawlbase provides you with more control, flexibility, and value.
✅ You only pay for successful requests. No charges for blocks, timeouts, or empty responses.
✅ CAPTCHA solving, proxy rotation, and geolocation targeting are all built-in and free.
✅ You get structured data for sites like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, LinkedIn, and even Google SERPs.
✅ You can scale up to billions of requests with automatic retries and batch processing.
✅ Storage is included. Save and export your data easily without needing to build your backend.
✅ Transparent pricing with a public calculator, so you always know what you’re paying for.
All in all, Crawlbase gives you all the tools without limitations.
At Crawlbase, we stand by our commitment to transparency and honesty. Our features, pricing, and limitations are clearly documented before you commit. No hidden charges. No misleading claims. Just an honest, reliable scraping platform.
Try Crawlbase Today
If you’re looking for reliable, scalable, and transparent web scraping, Crawlbase is the right platform for you.
Start your free web scraping trial and see the difference for yourself.
