Best Web Scraping APIs [2024 Benchmark]

Are you starting your web scraping project and looking for the best web scraping API out there? We've gathered the best ones based on personal experience to relieve you of the stress of searching and compared their most vital features.

After reading, you'll be all set to pick the best candidate for your project.

Before going into detail, here's a brief comparison of the top web scraping APIs:

What Is a Web Scraping API?

A web scraping API is a solution for automating complex content extraction tasks. While the features vary across different scraping API providers, they typically include anti-bot and CAPTCHA auto-bypass, proxy auto-rotation, IP geo-targeting, JavaScript rendering, request header management, and more.

Web scraping APIs offer wide-range programming language compatibility since all it takes to implement them is an API call. This attribute makes them more convenient than software development kits (SDKs), which constrain you to a specific programming language. They're also cheaper and more reliable than dedicated headless browsers, which require a lot of patching for anti-bot bypass and are expensive to maintain at scale.

The fact that some scraping APIs include extra functionalities, such as residential proxies, makes them more cost-effective and scalable. Rather than sparing a separate budget for proxies, you get double functionalities (scraping API + premium proxies) inside the same subscription plan.

Let's examine the top scraping APIs on the market to help you decide which is best for your project.

Top 7 Web Scraping APIs

Below, we've compared seven top players in the web scraping API market. We've highlighted their pros, cons, top features, and pricing models. Read on!

1. ZenRows

ZenRows is a full-fledged web scraping API with auto-rotating premium proxies, guaranteed anti-bot and CAPTCHA auto-bypass, and an impressive success rate of 98.7%. With top-notch JavaScript instructions, you can use it as a headless browser to interact with web pages and scrape dynamic websites.

While many other tools have separate pricing for residential proxies and scraping API, ZenRows provides both services under one pricing plan charges for successful requests. Additionally, you get a 14-day free trial without a credit card. ZenRows also has an excellent 24/7 customer support and knowledge base, allowing you to solve your queries instantly.

👍 Pros

• Bypass of all anti-bot measures.
• Impressive average success rate of 98.7%.
• Only charges you for successful requests.
• Dedicated residential proxies with IP auto-rotator.
• Vast residential IP pool.
• Flexible geo-targeting.
• Support for XPath and CSS selectors.
• Headless browsing to render dynamic content and interact with web pages.
• Easy integration with scraping frameworks and workflow tools.
• Screenshot functionality.
• Unified pricing system.
• 24//7 customer support.
• 14-day free trial without a credit card.

👎 Cons

• Only offers residential proxies (however, this is the only useful proxy type for successful web scraping).
• Fewer parsing solutions compared to some of the other tools on the market.

Pricing

Starts at $69/month (a 14-day free trial without a credit card is available

2. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee offers code and no-code scraping options, making it beginner-friendly and a solid choice for quick prototyping. It offers anti-bot bypass features at a 98% success rate and is suitable for extracting specific content, such as emails and metadata.

ScrapingBee also features JavaScript instructions for interacting with web pages. While the API handles request headers by default, you can also forward specific custom headers if your target website requires them. However, ScrapingBee doesn't offer a separate dedicated residential proxy service and adding proxy auto-rotation to your API request is often expensive.

👍 Pros

• No-code scraping option.
• Focused scraping to extract emails and metadata information.
• It supports all screenshot types.
• The API offers geo-targeting.
• API features auto-rotating premium proxies.
• JavaScript instructions to scrape dynamic content and interact with web pages.
• Extra custom headers.
• Only pay for successful requests.
• Easy integration with automated workflow tools.
• A 14-day free trial without a credit card.

👎 Cons

• No dedicated residential proxy service is unavailable.
• Boosting your API request with proxy auto-rotation is expensive.
• Limited parsing options.
• A smaller IP pool.
• No 24/7 customer support.

Pricing

Start at $49/month (a 14-day free trial is available). ScrapingBee offers free request retries.

3. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a good choice if you need access to a scraper API and several proxy services to avoid IP bans and geo-restrictions. In addition to dedicated SERP and e-commerce scraper APIs, Oxylabs offers different proxy types, such as residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies.

Its scraper API bypasses anti-bots with a 98.5% success rate. However, Oxylabs's proxies and scraper APIs are separate services that come at separate costs, which can accumulate quickly at scale. Another shortcoming is that the screenshot API is limited to screenshotting only the full page. Despite being expensive at scale, Oxylabs also charges for failed requests. 

👍 Pros

• Dedicated SERP and e-commerce APIs are available. 
• Different proxy options are available.
• Excellent 24/7 customer support.
• Browser instructions for scraping dynamic content.
• Large IP pool.
• It supports proxy auto-rotation.
• Support for XPath and CSS selectors.
• A built-in scraping job scheduler is available.
• Free trial without a credit card.

👎 Cons

• Proxy and web scraping API services are under separate pricing.
• Adding proxies is expensive at scale.
• Limited screenshot support.
• No free request retries.

Pricing

It starts at $49/month (a 7-day free trial is available). It doesn't offer free retries.

4. Zyte

Zyte is the go-to scraping API for a pay-as-you-go solution. Although it features other monthly plans, the pay-as-you-go option gives you a one-time leverage without a substantial financial commitment. Like most alternatives, Zyte's scraping API supports JavaScript instructions for rendering dynamic websites. 

Zyte has a separate proxy manager service, but you can add proxy auto-rotation and geo-targeting to your API request. You can also use its AI spider service to spin a no-code scraper or integrate Zyte with Scrapy. However, each service has an individual price tag. Although there's a 14-day free trial, it requires adding your credit card details. Additionally, you can't use Zyte to screenshot specific elements.

👍 Pros

• A pay-as-you-go option.
• Support for JavaScript rendering.
• A no-code scraper.
• 14-day free trial.
• Support for proxy auto-rotation and geo-targeting.
• Support for XPath and CSS selectors.
• Easy integration with Scrapy.
• Good 24/7 customer support.

👎 Cons

• Limited screenshot support.
• It can be expensive at scale.
• The free trial requires a credit card.
• Limited concurrency support.

Pricing

It starts at $100/month (a 14-day free trial with credit card). Zyte offers a $2.7 pay-as-you-go option.

5. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI is a solid choice if you're looking for a quick way to schedule a scraping task and download extracted data to a specified storage location. The tool doesn't offer dedicated proxy services. However, its web scraping API includes proxy auto-rotation and CAPTCHA auto-bypass by default.

ScraperAPI lets you make requests via a mobile or desktop, boosting your scraper's authenticity. Although ScraperAPI manages headers by default, you can add custom headers to your request. It also supports JavaScript rendering to scrape dynamic content. One drawback you need to consider before choosing this service is its 94.1% success rate, which can sometimes disappoint during large-scale scraping. Plus, it doesn't support screenshots. 

👍 Pros

• Built-in data pipeline to schedule scraping jobs.
• Easy connection to a data storage location.
• API features proxy auto-rotation.
• Support for geo-targeting.
• Support for JavaScript rendering.
• Device selection option.
• Support for adding custom headers.
• Good 24/7 customer support.
• A 7-day free trial without a credit card.
• Support for XPath and CSS selectors.

👎 Cons

• It doesn't support screenshots.
• Not suitable for large-scale scraping.
• No dedicated proxy services.
• Expensive.

Pricing

It starts at $49/month (7-day free trial without a credit card). ScraperAPI only charges for successful requests.

6. SerpApi

SerpApi is a top solution for scraping search engines like Google, Bing, Yelp, and Yahoo. It offers proxy auto-rotation and a flexible geo-targeting feature, giving you access to content only available in a specific region. SerpApi has CAPTCHA-solving technology to avoid blocks at a 99.8% success rate.

If you want to try it out, you get up to 100 free monthly searches without a credit card. One shortcoming of SerpApi is that it limits you to 1000 requests per hour. However, it's understandable, considering that continuously sending many requests can overload the target server. Another limitation is its lack of a screenshot option.

👍 Pros

• Great for scraping search engine result pages.
• Proxy auto-rotation is available.
• Support for geo-targeting.
• Impressive success rate of 99.8%.
• Excellent 24/7 customer support.
• 100 free searches per month without a credit card.

👎 Cons

• It can be expensive at scale.
• No screenshot support.
• 1000 per hour request limit.

Pricing

It starts at $75/month (offers 100 free monthly searches). SerpApi only charges for successful requests.

7. Smartproxy

Smartproxy has dedicated web, e-commerce, SERP, and social media scraping APIs. It also provides residential, datacenter, and ISP proxies as separate services. Smartproxy is an excellent choice if you want your scraper to mimic several device and browser types. 

The API features anti-bot auto-bypass with a 99.5% success rate and supports JavaScript rendering. While it offers dedicated proxy services, its scraping API includes proxy rotation and allows you to target specific locations during scraping. One limitation of Smartproxy is that it's more complex than other services and unsuitable for beginners.

👍 Pros

• Several device and browser options.
• Dedicated residential proxies.
• Large proxy pool.
• Scraper API supports proxy auto-rotation.
• Support for geo-targeting.
• Impressive success rate.
• 7-day free trial without a credit card.
• Good 24/7 customer support.
• Flexible parsing options.

👎 Cons

• Expensive at scale.
• Not beginner-friendly.
• No full support for screenshots.

Pricing

Smartproxy prices start with $50 a month for a web scraping API. The tool charges separately for different proxy types.

Conclusion

You've just read a detailed comparison of the best scraping API services. Before you make the decision, remember to decide your project's top priorities and carefully review the tool's features based on your requirements.

If you're ready to try out a web scraping API, why not start with ZenRows? ZenRows provides a complete solution to bypass any anti-bot measure and scrape any website at scale without getting blocked.

Try ZenRows for free today without a credit card!

Frequent Questions

What Are the Benefits of Scraping With a Web Scraping API?

Some of the benefits of scraping with a web scraping API (as opposed to free, open-source solutions) are:

• Full anti-bot measure bypass.
• Enhanced scraper performance.
• Ease of use and maintenance;
• Cost-effectiveness.
• Full browser automation features. 
• Support for all programming languages.
• Full legal compliance.

What Are the Features of a Good Web Scraping API?

Watch out for the following features to choose the best web scraper API for your project:

• Customizability: A good scraping API should support customization, especially when selecting specific elements on a web page or when you want to scrape from a particular geolocation.
• Proxy management and IP rotation: Manual proxy management is often complex at scale. Your chosen scraping API should handle proxies automatically, including auto-rotating IP addresses. 
• JavaScript rendering support: Most websites you'll scrape render content dynamically with JavaScript. So, choose a scraping API that supports JavaScript instructions to interact with web pages and scrape dynamic content. 
• Free request retries: A good web scraping API should only charge you for successful requests.
• Concurrency: Concurrency allows you to scrape multiple pages simultaneously. A good web scraper API should include this feature in its plans.