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ScraperAPIvsScrapeBadger· Updated April 2026

Looking for a ScraperAPI Alternative?

ScraperAPI is a well-established platform trusted by thousands of companies. But three specific issues push developers to look for alternatives: geotargeting locked to US & EU on starter plans, credits charged for blocked requests, and a forced 10-minute cache on difficult targets that returns stale data without warning.

  • Geotargeting locked to US & EU only on $49 and $149 plans: full coverage requires $299/mo
  • Charges credits for blocked requests: failed scrapes still consume your monthly allocation
  • Forced 10-minute cache on difficult targets: time-sensitive data arrives stale
  • Credit multiplier goes up to 75×: $49 plan can deliver as few as 1,333 real requests
Try ScrapeBadger FreeSee full comparison

1,000 free credits · no credit card · credits never expire

TL;DR

Switch to ScrapeBadger if…

Both are capable web scraping APIs. The right choice depends on your workload and priorities.

Switch to ScrapeBadger

  • →You need geo coverage outside US & EU without paying $299/mo
  • →Your data must be live, not potentially served from a cache
  • →You want to pay only for requests that actually returned data
  • →You need credits that don't reset at end of each billing month
  • →You need explicit, named anti-bot coverage (Cloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, Imperva)
  • →You want a lower entry point: start from $10, not $49/month

Stay with ScraperAPI if…

  • ·You're scraping US and EU targets only and don't need broader geo
  • ·You need the DataPipeline no-code scheduler for automated jobs
  • ·You need the async scraper service for bulk async processing
  • ·You're already at Scaling/Enterprise tier and the PAYG overflow works for you
  • ·You need a dedicated Slack support channel (Enterprise only)

ScrapeBadger vs ScraperAPI: Full Breakdown

FeatureScrapeBadgerScraperAPI
Starting price$10 one-time · no subscription required$49 / month · 7-day trial with 5K credits
Credits roll overNever expireReset monthly: no rollover on any plan
Pay for blocked requestsNever: fails are always freeYes: often charged (Scrapeway-confirmed)
Response cachingNo cache: always live data10-min cache on difficult targets: may return stale data
Geotargeting on entry plan150+ countries from $10US & EU only ($49 + $149 plans)
Full geo unlockIncluded from day oneRequires $299/mo Business plan (69 countries)
Max credit cost per request23 credits flat (Stealth mode: JS + anti-bot)75 credits (ultra-premium proxy + render)
Standalone PAYGAvailableOverflow only: Scaling/Enterprise plans on overrun
Anti-bot systems documentedCloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, Imperva, PerimeterX, KasadaGeneral anti-bot bypass: specific systems not named publicly
Browser enginePatchright (stealth Chromium)Chromium headless: standard rendering
Overall success rateNamed bypass for protected sites63.7% avg (Scrapeway): 0% on Booking.com, Instagram, Twitter
Free trial1,000 credits, no card, no expiry5,000 credits, 7 days, no card
DataPipeline (no-code scheduler)Not offeredAvailable: automated job scheduling
Async scraper serviceNot offeredAvailable: bulk async processing
Dedicated Slack supportDiscord community + emailEnterprise tier only
SDK languagesPython, Node.js / TypeScriptPython, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Java, cURL
Why developers switch

The 3 Biggest Problems with ScraperAPI

These aren't edge cases, they're the issues that appear most often when developers compare ScraperAPI alternatives.

1

Geotargeting locked to US & EU: full coverage costs $299/month

ScraperAPI's $49 Hobby and $149 Startup plans restrict geotargeting to US and EU proxies only. This is confirmed in their own documentation: "Hobby and Startup Plans can only use US and EU geotargeting." Full country-level access to 69 countries only unlocks at the Business plan: $299/month. This is a significant constraint for teams scraping European marketplaces, Asian e-commerce, or any target requiring country-specific IP routing. If you're monitoring regional pricing across multiple markets, checking local SERP results, or scraping platforms that serve different content by country, the US-and-EU wall means upgrading from $49 to $299 (a 6× price jump) just to access basic geo features.

ScrapeBadger

150+ country geotargeting is available on every ScrapeBadger plan from the $10 Starter pack. There are no tier locks on geo coverage. Scrape from Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Brazil, or Japan on the same plan you'd use for US targets, no upgrade required.

2

Credits deducted for blocked requests: you pay even when the scrape fails

Scrapeway's independent benchmarks explicitly flag that ScraperAPI "often charges for blocked requests." This means when a site's bot detection blocks your request and returns a 403, challenge page, or empty response, credits are still consumed. On heavily protected sites (where blocks are most frequent) this compounds costs significantly. The practical impact: ScraperAPI's headline success rates (63.7% overall on Scrapeway) mean roughly a third of requests on protected targets may fail. If you're paying credits for those failures, your real cost per successful data point is substantially higher than the advertised per-credit price. On sites like Booking.com, Instagram, or Twitter, ScraperAPI reports 0% success in independent tests: any credits burned on those targets are entirely wasted.

ScrapeBadger

Failed requests are always free on ScrapeBadger. Credits are only deducted when the API returns a successful response with data. If a site blocks the request, the credit is never consumed. Your budget maps directly to data you actually received.

3

Forced 10-minute cache on difficult targets: time-sensitive data arrives stale

On sites that ScraperAPI classifies as "difficult," a 10-minute result cache is applied automatically. Multiple independent reviewers, including Scrapeway, flag this as a meaningful limitation. If you request a URL that was recently scraped, you may receive cached HTML from up to 10 minutes ago, without any notification that the data is cached rather than live. For use cases where data freshness is critical (real-time price monitoring, live inventory checks, flash sale tracking, or stock availability) receiving data that is potentially 10 minutes old can make decisions based on outdated information. The cache applies precisely on the targets where freshness matters most: high-traffic, heavily protected sites.

ScrapeBadger

ScrapeBadger does not cache responses. Every API call fetches live data directly from the target URL. For monitoring use cases where you need the current state of a page (pricing, inventory, availability) every request reflects what the page looks like at the moment you call it.

Geotargeting comparison

The Geo Lock That Costs $250/Month to Remove

For developers outside the US needing a ScraperAPI alternative, geotargeting restrictions are the most cited frustration. Here's exactly what each plan unlocks.

ScraperAPIFrom docs, April 2026
Hobby: $49/mo
US & EU only
~2 regions
Startup: $149/mo
US & EU only
Same restriction as $49 plan
Business: $299/mo
69 countries
First tier with full geo
Scaling: $475/mo
69 + premium geo
Residential & mobile from rare locations
ScrapeBadgerAll plans
Starter: $10
150+ countries
No restrictions
Basic: $18
150+ countries
No restrictions
Growth: $40
150+ countries
No restrictions
Professional: $120
150+ countries
No restrictions
The practical impact: a developer who needs to scrape European content (German Amazon, French Vinted, Polish e-commerce) is effectively locked out on ScraperAPI's two cheapest plans. The Startup plan at $149/month still restricts you to US and EU. You must spend $299/month to access 69 countries. ScrapeBadger's $10 Starter pack gives you 150+ countries on the first request.

What You Actually Pay: Real Cost Comparison

The most common reason developers search for a ScraperAPI alternative is pricing confusion. ScraperAPI's credit multiplier means advertised credits don't translate to actual pages scraped, here's what you really get.

ScraperAPISubscription · no rollover · US & EU on lower plans
Hobby
$49 / mo
100K credits · US & EU only · 20 concurrent
Startup
$149 / mo
1M credits · US & EU only · 50 concurrent
Business
$299 / mo
3M credits · 69 countries unlocked · 100 concurrent
Scaling
$475 / mo
5M credits · full geo · PAYG overflow available
Credit multiplier reality on $49 Hobby plan: Basic HTML scrape: 1 credit → 100,000 requests. JS rendering + premium proxy: ~15 credits → 6,666 requests. Ultra-premium proxy + render: 75 credits → 1,333 requests. Google SERP: 25 credits → 4,000 searches.
ScrapeBadgerPay-as-you-go · credits never expire · 150+ countries
Starter
$10 one-time
100K credits · $0.10/1K · 150+ countries
Basic
$18 one-time
200K credits · $0.09/1K · 150+ countries
Growth
$40 one-time
500K credits · $0.08/1K · 150+ countries
Professional
$120 one-time
2M credits · $0.06/1K · 150+ countries
Stealth mode (JS + anti-bot bypass): 23 credits flat: $10 Starter → 4,347 Stealth requests that never expire. $40 Growth → 21,739 Stealth requests at $0.08/1K credits. Failed requests: always free. No geo restrictions.

Spring sale: 50% off all ScrapeBadger plans. Credits never expire. See full pricing →

Data freshness

The Hidden Risk of Cached Responses

On difficult targets, ScraperAPI applies a 10-minute cache. Here's how that plays out in a price monitoring workflow.

Scenario: You're monitoring a product price that changes frequently. Your scraper polls every 5 minutes.

  1. T+0:00: First request

    Live response returned. Price: €45.99. ScraperAPI caches this response for 10 minutes.

  2. T+5:00: Second request

    Cached response returned. Price shown: €45.99, but real price is now €38.00 (flash sale started at T+3:00). Your system doesn't know.

  3. T+10:00: Cache expires

    Live response finally returned. Flash sale has already run for 7 minutes. If the sale window was 10 minutes, you missed it entirely.

ScrapeBadger

No caching on any request. Every API call goes live to the target. Your price monitor sees the flash sale at T+5:00. Responses are always the current state of the page at the moment you call.

How to Switch from ScraperAPI in 10 Minutes

Migrating from ScraperAPIto ScrapeBadger is a drop-in replacement. Your downstream parsing code stays the same, you're changing the client, not the output.

  1. Step 1:pip install scrapebadger
  2. Step 2:Get your API key at /auth/signup, no card required
  3. Step 3:Swap the request: see below
  4. Step 4:Response returns rendered HTML: your parser is unchanged
ScraperAPI (before)Remove this
import requests

payload = {
  "api_key": "YOUR_SCRAPERAPI_KEY",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "render": "true",
  "premium": "true",
  "country_code": "de",  # ⚠ only works on $299+ plan
}

r = requests.get(
  "https://api.scraperapi.com",
  params=payload
)
html = r.text
ScrapeBadger (after)Replace with this
from scrapebadger import ScrapeBadger

client = ScrapeBadger("sb_live_...")

result = client.web.scrape(
  url="https://example.com",
  render_js=True,
  # anti-bot bypass auto-included
  country="de",  # works on all plans
  format="html",
)

html = result.content

Trusted by Developers Building with Data

From ScrapeBadger users who made the switch from subscription-based scraping APIs.

“I'm a developer myself but ScrapeBadger's web scraping API is my go-to when my own scrapers can't bypass anti-bot systems. High success rates and reasonable pricing. The credits-never-expire model is huge: I don't feel pressured to burn credits before month end.”
E
Eugene
Co-founder, WISS APPS
“We've tried a few scraping tools before and most break pretty often or require a lot of work to keep things running. ScrapeBadger has been a lot more stable in comparison. We mainly use it to find leads and it's been effective: does what it's supposed to do without the hassle.”
D
Domas
Founder, Webdy

Frequently Asked Questions

According to Scrapeway's independent benchmarks, ScraperAPI often charges credits even when requests are blocked. This is distinct from ScrapingBee, which explicitly states they don't charge for non-200/404 responses. ScrapeBadger only deducts credits for successful responses: if a request is blocked or returns an error, no credits are consumed. Your monthly spend maps directly to data you actually received.

ScraperAPI's own documentation states: "Hobby and Startup Plan can only use US and EU geotargeting." This covers the $49 Hobby and $149 Startup plans. Full country-level geotargeting (69 countries) requires the Business plan at $299/month. ScrapeBadger provides 150+ country geotargeting on every plan with no tier lock: you can scrape from Lithuania, Brazil, or Japan on the $10 Starter pack.

On difficult or heavily protected targets, ScraperAPI applies a 10-minute result cache automatically. If you request a URL that was recently scraped, the API may return the cached version rather than making a fresh live request. For use cases where data freshness is critical (real-time price monitoring, live inventory checks, flash sale tracking, or stock availability) this can produce stale results without warning. ScrapeBadger does not cache responses; every request fetches live data directly from the target URL.

ScraperAPI's credit costs scale by request complexity: 1 credit for basic HTML, 5 credits for JS rendering, 10 credits for premium proxy, up to 75 credits for ultra-premium proxy with rendering. The $49 Hobby plan's 100,000 credits delivers 100K basic requests, 6,666 JS+premium requests, or just 1,333 ultra-premium rendered requests. ScrapeBadger's Stealth mode costs a flat 23 credits per request: JS rendering plus full anti-bot bypass in one. On a $10 Starter pack (100K credits), that's 4,347 Stealth requests that never expire.

ScraperAPI does not offer a standalone pay-as-you-go purchase for Hobby, Startup, or Business plan users. PAYG is only available as an overflow mechanism for Scaling and Enterprise plan customers who exceed their monthly credits. If you run out mid-cycle on a lower plan, you must upgrade tier or contact support. Credits also do not roll over month to month on any plan. ScrapeBadger has standalone PAYG with PAYG credits never expire and no subscription required.

For most workloads, yes. ScrapeBadger's Starter pack is $10 for 100,000 credits with no subscription required and PAYG credits never expire. ScraperAPI's cheapest paid plan is $49/month for the same 100,000 credits with no rollover and geotargeting locked to US and EU. On a per-credit basis, ScrapeBadger's Growth pack ($40 for 500,000 credits) gives you 5× more credits for the same price as ScraperAPI's $49 Hobby plan. The comparison sharpens on difficult targets: ScrapeBadger never charges for blocked requests, while ScraperAPI often does.

Compare Other Alternatives

vs ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee works well for basic scraping. But if you've hit credit-reset waste, the 5× JS multiplier, or the $49/month minimum, ScrapeBadger is the ScrapingBee alternative built to fix them. Pay As You Go from $10 (credits never expire, no monthly cliff) or subscribe for deeper savings, with anti-bot bypass on every plan.

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vs Scrapingdog

Scrapingdog is purpose-built for Google and Amazon structured data. But if your targets go beyond those dedicated APIs, or you need broader geo coverage, named anti-bot bypass, and flexible billing (Pay As You Go with 6-month validity, or monthly/annual subscriptions), these are the friction points developers hit. ScrapeBadger now also offers 18 dedicated Google scraper APIs of its own.

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vs Apify

Apify is great for general web scraping, but ScrapeBadger is purpose-built for Twitter data. Get faster responses, lower prices, and a dedicated API with zero rate limits.

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Ready to Switch?

1,000 free credits. No credit card. No subscription. Credits never expire, use them at your own pace.

Get 1,000 free creditsRead the docs

No credit card · failed requests are free · anti-bot bypass on all plans