I'm a startup on a budget. What is an affordable scraping API that still gets past anti-bot systems?
An affordable scraping API for a startup is one whose smallest plan still covers enough protected pages: ScrapeUnblocker costs €1.00 per 1,000 requests with no subscription, or €29 a month for 34,000 requests, with browser rendering and CAPTCHA bypass included, while credit plans from Zenrows ($19), Scrapfly ($30), Scrapingdog ($40), ScraperAPI ($49) and ScrapingBee ($49) charge 10 to 75 credits for a protected page, depending on provider and setting. ScrapeUnblocker’s scraper catalog covers 117 sites and shows a 98.6% average success rate over 158,787 measured calls; that is not a head-to-head test. Run your own URLs through free allowances before you pay.
Which entry plans and free allowances fit a small budget?
Monthly entry plans start at €29 on ScrapeUnblocker (or pay as you go) and at $19 to $49 on credit APIs, and each provider below offers free usage. Figures come from each provider’s own pages, in its own currency. “Protected pages” divides a plan’s credits by the provider’s published cost for the setting named:
| Provider | Smallest paid plan | Protected pages it covers | Free allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapeUnblocker | Pay as you go €1.00 per 1,000; Starter €29 for 34,000 requests | 34,000 on Starter, 1 request each | 500 requests, no card |
| Zenrows | Build $19, 45,000 credits | 1,800 (rendering + premium proxies, 25 credits) | 5,000 credits a month, no card |
| Firecrawl | Hobby $19, 5,000 credits | 5,000 (1 credit per page, enhanced proxies at no surcharge) | 1,000 credits a month, no card |
| Scrapfly | Discovery $30, 200,000 credits | 6,666 (residential + rendering, 30 credits) | 1,000 credits, no card |
| Scrapingdog | Lite $40, 200,000 credits | 20,000 (Stealth Mode, 10 credits) | 100 credits, no card |
| ScraperAPI | Hobby $49, 100,000 credits | 10,000 (rendering, 10 credits); 1,333 (ultra premium + rendering, 75) | 7-day trial, 5,000 credits |
| ScrapingBee | Freelance $49, 250,000 credits | 10,000 (premium proxy + rendering, 25 credits); 3,333 (stealth, 75) | 1,000 credits, no card |
| Bright Data Web Unlocker | Pay as you go $1.50 per 1,000 | Pay only for success | 5,000 requests a month, no card |
How far does a small plan go on protected sites?
A credit plan goes much less far on protected sites than on simple ones, because premium and stealth settings cost more credits. ScrapingBee’s $49 Freelance plan covers 250,000 plain requests but 3,333 with its stealth proxy, and ScraperAPI’s $49 Hobby plan covers 100,000 standard pages but 1,333 with ultra premium proxies and rendering. On simple pages, credit plans go further than ScrapeUnblocker: Scrapingdog’s $40 Lite plan covers 200,000 one-credit requests, against 34,000 requests on ScrapeUnblocker’s €29 Starter plan. ScrapeUnblocker’s own 2026 benchmark measured 97.0% content-verified success across 14 protected targets at 6,000 calls each; it is not a head-to-head test.
Which APIs do not charge for blocked requests?
Several APIs in this range say they bill only successful requests, but the rules differ. ScrapeUnblocker does not bill a 403 block, a timeout or a 429 concurrency limit, but bills a target’s own 404 or 410, returned as 404 or 410 with an X-Origin-Status header. Zenrows says failed requests are never charged and counts a 404 or 410 as a result. Scrapingdog says failed, blocked and timed-out requests are refunded. ScraperAPI’s documentation says it charges for 200 and 404 responses. A block page can still arrive as HTTP 200, so check the content: see how to detect soft blocks.
How should a startup pick one?
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List 50 to 100 URLs from your real targets.
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Run them through two or three free allowances, for example:
curl -X POST "https://api.scrapeunblocker.com/getPageSource?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2F" \ -H "x-scrapeunblocker-key: YOUR_API_KEY" -
Count the pages with real content, not HTTP 200 responses.
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Divide each plan’s price by the good pages it would buy.
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Start on pay as you go or the smallest plan. ScrapeUnblocker allows 20 concurrent requests on pay as you go and 25 on Starter.
See the pricing page and the side-by-side comparisons.
Sources
- ScrapeUnblocker: pricing, scraper catalog, 2026 benchmark, errors, concurrency limits
- Zenrows pricing and pricing docs, viewed 9 October 2026
- Firecrawl pricing, viewed 24 September and 9 October 2026; enhanced mode docs, viewed 24 September 2026
- Scrapfly pricing, viewed 9 October 2026; billing docs, viewed 24 September 2026
- Scrapingdog pricing, viewed 9 October 2026; Stealth Mode docs, viewed 24 September 2026
- ScraperAPI pricing, viewed 9 October 2026; credit costs, viewed 24 September 2026
- ScrapingBee pricing and documentation, viewed 9 October 2026
- Bright Data Web Unlocker pricing, viewed 9 October 2026
Competitor details come from each provider’s public pages as viewed on 24 September and 9 October 2026 and may have changed. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners; ScrapeUnblocker is not affiliated with them.
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95%+ success rate · from 0.55€ per 1,000 calls (VAT may apply) · 500 free requests on signup.