- Web scraping APIs compared
- Eleven web scraping APIs to try
- Where to start for your situation
- Check the rules before you scrape
- Scraping APIs versus building your own scraper
- Questions to ask before you pick a scraping API
- Signs it's time to switch to a scraping API
- My plain advice on choosing a web scraping API
- Frequently asked questions
The best web scraping APIs fetch web pages for you and handle the hard parts, such as rotating proxies, running a browser and getting past blocks. Some have free allowances for small projects, while others are built for large data teams or AI agents that need live web data. Eleven options follow in no particular order.
Writing a scraper is the easy bit. Keeping it running is where the time goes: sites change their layout, block your requests or load everything with JavaScript, and suddenly the data you rely on stops arriving. An API takes that maintenance off your plate.
The eleven web scraping APIs below are listed alphabetically and in no particular order, and every description comes from the provider's own website, read this week. If you're on the other side of this and want to protect your own site, my guide on how to stop AI bots scraping your content explains the options.
Web scraping APIs compared
I checked the free plan column on each tool's own website, as of Oct 2026. Yes means the site names a free plan, a free version, a free allowance or an open source version. Trial only means a time-limited trial. Not stated means the pages I read named neither, even where there's a button inviting you to start for free, so check the vendor's page before you sign up.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crawlbase | Web data API for developers and AI | Requests without managing proxies | Yes |
| Oxylabs | Proxy service and web search API | Large-scale collection with proxies | Not stated |
| Scrape.do | Web scraping API and toolkit | Getting past firewalls at scale | Trial only |
| ScrapeOwl | Simple web scraping API | Fetching full pages with one request | Yes |
| ScraperAPI | Web scraping API for data collection | Brand and policy monitoring | Not stated |
| Scrapfly | Scraping API, cloud browser and screenshots | Scraping, screenshots and browsers together | Yes |
| ScrapingAnt | Scraping API with proxies and AI extraction | Monthly free credits for small jobs | Yes |
| ScrapingBee | Web scraping API | Analytics pipelines that keep no data | Yes |
| Scrapingdog | Scalable web scraping API | Testing a scraper before committing | Trial only |
| ZenRows | Web data API for AI | Agents that need live web data | Yes |
| Zyte | Web data APIs and managed data delivery | Having the data delivered for you | Not stated |
Eleven web scraping APIs to try
Crawlbase
Best for: Developers who want web data through an API without maintaining browsers, proxies or anti-bot workarounds themselves.
Oxylabs
Best for: Data teams running large projects who want proxies plus search and scraping APIs from one long-standing provider.
Scrape.do
Best for: Developers who want a scraping API that handles blocks and firewalls, with free credits to test it before upgrading.
ScrapeOwl
Best for: Small projects that want a simple API which returns the full page in one request, with free credits on sign-up.
ScraperAPI
Best for: Ecommerce and brand teams collecting data at scale, including spotting brand misrepresentation and policy breaches online.
Scrapfly
Best for: Coders who want a scraping API, cloud browser and screenshot API under one key, with a free tier and no time limit.
ScrapingAnt
Best for: Side projects and small teams who want headless Chrome, proxies and AI extraction in one stack, with free monthly credits.
ScrapingBee
Best for: Analysts feeding data pipelines who want a scraping API with zero data retention and free credits to start.
Scrapingdog
Best for: Anyone who wants to try a scalable scraping API on a short free trial before committing to a plan.
ZenRows
Best for: Teams building AI agents who want reliable web data, an MCP server and a recurring free allowance rather than a short trial.
Zyte
Best for: Businesses that want either a scraping API or fully managed data delivery, from the team behind the open source Scrapy framework.
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Where to start for your situation
- A small project with free credits: ScrapingAnt, ScrapeOwl or Scrapfly.
- AI agents that need live web data: ZenRows.
- Large projects with proxies included: Oxylabs or Zyte.
- Getting past blocks and firewalls: Scrape.do or Crawlbase.
- Brand and policy monitoring: ScraperAPI.
- Pipelines that keep no data: ScrapingBee.
- A short free trial before committing: Scrapingdog.
Check the rules before you scrape
Google Search Central explains that a robots.txt file tells crawlers which URLs they can access on a site, and that it's mainly used to avoid overloading a site with requests. It's a good first place to look before you point any scraper at a website.
Robots.txt isn't the only rule that matters, though. A site's terms of use and data protection law also apply, especially if the pages contain personal information, so check all three before you collect anything.
Scraping APIs versus building your own scraper
Building your own scraper gives you full control and suits a handful of simple, stable pages. It gets harder when sites block requests or rely on JavaScript to load their content.
A scraping API handles proxies, browsers and retries for you, so you pay attention to the data rather than the plumbing. Most teams start with an API and only build their own for very specialised jobs.
Questions to ask before you pick a scraping API
- Does it render JavaScript-heavy pages?
- How does it handle blocks and CAPTCHAs?
- Can I choose the country requests come from?
- Does it return clean data or raw HTML?
- Are failed requests counted against my allowance?
- What data does the provider keep about my requests?
Signs it's time to switch to a scraping API
- Your scraper breaks every few weeks. Hand off the maintenance.
- Sites keep blocking your requests. Use managed proxies.
- Pages load content with JavaScript. Use browser rendering.
- Your team spends more time fixing than analysing. Outsource the plumbing.
Do you make a web scraping API or data tool? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on choosing a web scraping API
Test every shortlisted API on the exact pages you need, using the free credits most of them offer. Success rates vary a lot from site to site, and a provider that's brilliant on one site can struggle on the next.
Collect only the data you need, keep a note of where it came from and refresh it on a sensible schedule. If you're curious how often search engines and AI tools revisit pages, my explainer on how often AI crawlers recrawl a website covers it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a web scraping API?
A web scraping API fetches web pages for you and returns the content or data, handling proxies, browsers and blocks in the background.
Are web scraping APIs free?
Several offer free credits or free plans, and others offer trials. The free plan column above shows what each provider's site says.
Is web scraping legal?
It depends on what you collect, where and how you use it. Check the site's terms, its robots.txt and data protection law, and take advice if personal data is involved.
Does robots.txt give permission to scrape?
No. It tells crawlers which URLs they can access, but a site's terms and the law still apply.
Can a scraping API handle JavaScript websites?
Many can run a real browser to load JavaScript content. Check each provider's documentation for rendering support.
What's the difference between a scraping API and a proxy service?
A proxy service gives you IP addresses to send requests through. A scraping API also manages browsers, retries and parsing for you.
