🚀18 Google Scraper APIs just launched — SERP, Maps, Shopping, Scholar, Lens, Flights & more→
ScrapflyvsScrapeBadger· Updated April 2026

Looking for a Scrapfly Alternative?

Scrapfly looks attractive on the surface — its 98.8% Scrapeway success rate is the best in the industry. But ASP dynamic pricing silently multiplies your costs mid-request, monthly credits reset with no rollover, and automatic PAYG overflow can double your bill without warning. ScrapeBadger trades the absolute success-rate ceiling for predictable flat-credit pricing and bills you can plan around.

  • ASP auto-escalation silently upgrades 1-credit requests to 25-credit requests mid-flight
  • PAYG overage cap at 125% can add $437+ on top of your Pro subscription automatically
  • No annual billing option — no discount for committing to a year
  • Credits reset every month — 10–30% waste typical for variable workloads (no rollover)
Try ScrapeBadger FreeSee full comparison

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

What Scrapfly doesn't tell you upfront

Scrapfly markets itself as simple, predictable pricing — but its ASP dynamic escalation, monthly credit resets, automatic PAYG overflow billing, and no annual discount make it one of the hardest platforms to budget for. Teams that switch to ScrapeBadger consistently report that they're getting the same protected-site results at a fraction of the cost, with credits that never expire and a bill they can actually predict.

Why developers switch

Why Teams Switch from Scrapfly to ScrapeBadger

Scrapfly looks attractive on paper — until you see your first invoice after a heavy scraping month.

Credits

ScrapeBadger credits never expire. Scrapfly resets every month — unused credits are gone at billing date.

Predictability

ScrapeBadger charges a flat 23 credits per Stealth request. Scrapfly's ASP silently escalates from 1 to 25+ credits mid-request.

No overages

ScrapeBadger has zero overflow billing. Scrapfly auto-charges up to 125% extra on top of your subscription.

Entry price

$10 one-time on ScrapeBadger vs $30/month subscription on Scrapfly, with a steep $30→$100 jump between plans.

Anti-bot

ScrapeBadger names every system it bypasses: Cloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, Imperva, PerimeterX, Kasada. Included on all plans.

Annual savings

Scrapfly offers no annual discount. ScrapeBadger’s non-expiring credits give you the same benefit with no commitment.

ScrapeBadger vs Scrapfly — Full Breakdown

FeatureScrapeBadgerScrapfly
Starting price$10 one-time · no subscription$30 / mo Discovery · subscription with monthly reset
Credits expireNever expireReset monthly · no rollover on any plan
Cost per request — predictable?Yes — flat 23 credits Stealth mode (known before request sent)No — ASP can upgrade 1cr → 25cr+ mid-request
PAYG overflow bill riskNone — no overages possible (credits run out, requests stop)Up to 125% of quota auto-charged · $437+ overage possible on Pro
Annual billing availableYes — monthly or annual plans, up to ~17% off annualNo annual plans · month-to-month only · no discount
Anti-bot bypass — documented systemsCloudflare, DataDome, Akamai, Imperva, PerimeterX, Kasada (named & documented)ASP dynamic bypass · not individually documented by system
Failed request billingAlways freeFree if under 30% failure rate · "fairness policy" triggers above 30%
Plan jump from entry to mid-tierNot applicable — no tier locks$30 → $100 (3.3×) · no mid-range option
Residential proxy costIncluded in flat 23-credit Stealth mode+25 credits per request on top of base · 30× more than datacenter
Result cachingNo cache — always live dataOptional caching available · cached data may not reflect current state
Free trial1,000 credits, no card, no expiry1,000 credits, no card · "burns fast" per user reports
Overall success rate (Scrapeway)Named bypass for protected sites#1 industry — 98.8% (industry avg 59.5%)
Average $/1K scrapes (Scrapeway)~$0.18 Stealth on Growth pack — fixed$3.90 avg across benchmark targets · industry avg $3.20
SDK languagesPython, Node.js / TypeScriptPython, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Scrapy
Why developers switch

The 3 Biggest Problems with Scrapfly

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

1

ASP auto-escalation: you can't know the cost before the request completes

Scrapfly's ASP (Anti-Scraping Protection) system automatically upgrades your proxy pool mid-request when it detects anti-bot protection on the target site. A datacenter proxy request — priced at 1 credit — can silently become a 25-credit residential proxy request if ASP determines the site requires it. Add JavaScript rendering (+5 credits) and you're at 30 credits for what started as a 1-credit call. Scrapfly documents this behaviour and it's part of what makes their success rate exceptional. But the practical consequence is cost unpredictability: you cannot model monthly spend on protected-site workloads without running production traffic first. On a Discovery plan with 200,000 included credits, protected-site scrapes at ~30 credits each deliver only about 6,667 actual pages — a 30× gap from the headline number. Multiple Capterra reviews flag this directly: "Credit pricing is opaque — ASP mode costs 10-25x a basic request, so a scraping job that looks cheap can burn through credits fast."

ScrapeBadger

ScrapeBadger's Stealth mode costs a flat 23 credits per request — JS rendering and anti-bot bypass bundled. The cost is the same whether the target uses Cloudflare, DataDome, or no protection at all. You know exactly what a batch of 10,000 requests will cost before you run it.

2

PAYG overage cap automatically charges up to 125% extra on top of your plan

When you exceed your monthly quota, Scrapfly activates pay-as-you-go billing automatically. The PAG is capped at 125% of your monthly included credits — but that cap represents real money. On the Pro plan (1,000,000 credits), the system can charge for up to 1,250,000 additional credits at $3.50 per 10,000 — a potential $437.50 in automatic overage charges on top of your $100 base. The combination of ASP auto-escalation (unpredictable per-request cost) and PAYG auto-billing (automatic overflow spending) means a month of heavy scraping on difficult targets can produce a significantly larger invoice than the plan price suggests. Scrapfly provides project-level budget controls and throttle limits — but these require configuration, and the default is auto-billing.

ScrapeBadger

ScrapeBadger has no overflow, no PAYG auto-billing, and no overages. When your credits run out, requests simply stop until you top up. Your bill is exactly what you purchased. If you want more capacity, you choose when to buy more — nothing happens automatically.

3

No annual billing — no discount for predictable long-term usage

Most scraping API providers offer annual billing at a 10–20% discount: you commit to a year upfront and pay less per month. Scrapfly does not offer annual plans. Every subscription is month-to-month at the same rate. Scrapeway's feature comparison explicitly confirms: "No annual plans are available." For teams with stable, predictable scraping workloads who are happy with a provider and ready to commit, annual billing is a meaningful cost reduction. On the Pro plan at $100/month, a 10% annual discount represents $120/year in savings — the equivalent of a free month. Scrapfly captures none of this value for long-term customers.

ScrapeBadger

ScrapeBadger credits never expire — buying a large credit pack has the same economic effect as annual billing, but with more flexibility. Buy $120 of credits and they last until you use them, with no commitment and no subscription required. The larger packs also carry lower per-credit rates.

How ASP billing works

The Hidden Cost of Dynamic Proxy Escalation

Scrapfly's ASP detects site protection level and upgrades the proxy pool automatically. The credit cost changes mid-request based on what the site requires.

Request lifecycle with ASP enabled — same code, wildly different costs depending on target
  1. 1
    You send a request with asp=TrueExpected: 1–6cr

    Your code is the same for every request. You can't predict which proxy tier ASP will select before the response is returned.

  2. 2
    ASP detects anti-bot protection on the target site

    If the site uses Cloudflare, DataDome, or similar, ASP automatically upgrades to residential proxies (+25 credits) and may add browser rendering (+5 credits) to achieve a successful response.

  3. 3
    Response returned — actual cost revealed in headerActual: 30cr

    Check X-Scrapfly-Api-Cost to see what was charged. On a protected JS-heavy site: 1 (datacenter base) + 25 (residential upgrade) + 5 (JS render) = 30 credits. A 30× difference from what datacenter pricing would suggest.

Why this matters for budget planning: If half your targets are protected and half aren't, you cannot predict your monthly credit consumption without running actual traffic. Independent analysts recommend: "Check the X-Scrapfly-Api-Cost header. Multiply that number by your monthly volume. That — not the plan price — is what you actually pay."

What You Actually Pay — Real Cost Comparison

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

ScrapflySubscription · no rollover · no annual plan
Discovery
$30 / mo
200K credits · low concurrency · no PAYG
Pro
$100 / mo
1M credits · PAYG overflow at $3.50/10K
Business
$250 / mo
3M credits · higher concurrency
PAYG overage (Pro)
Up to +$437 extra
Auto-charged at 125% cap above $100 base
Protected site reality on Discovery ($30/mo): Basic datacenter: 1cr → 200,000 requests. Residential + ASP + JS: ~30cr → 6,667 real requests. That’s a 30× gap from the headline number on protected targets.
ScrapeBadgerPay-as-you-go · credits never expire · no overages
Starter
$10 one-time
100K credits · 4,347 Stealth requests · never expires
Basic
$18 one-time
200K credits · $0.09/1K · never expires
Growth
$40 one-time
500K credits · 21,739 Stealth requests
Overage risk
Zero
Credits run out → requests stop. No auto-billing.
Stealth mode: flat 23 credits per request. Same cost whether target is Cloudflare-protected or not. $40 Growth → 21,739 Stealth scrapes — fixed, predictable.

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

How to Switch from Scrapfly in 10 Minutes

Migrating from Scrapfly to 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, 1,000 free credits
  3. Step 3:Replace the client — see below
  4. Step 4:Response returns rendered HTML — your parser is unchanged
Scrapfly (before)Remove this
from scrapfly import ScrapflyClient, ScrapeConfig

client = ScrapflyClient(key="YOUR_KEY")

result = client.scrape(ScrapeConfig(
    url="https://example.com",
    asp=True,         # ⚠ may auto-upgrade cost
    render_js=True,
    country="us",
))

html = result.scrape_result["content"]
# actual cost: check result headers
# X-Scrapfly-Api-Cost: ???
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 always included
    country="us",
    format="html",
)

html = result.content
# cost: always 23 credits flat
# no surprise upgrades

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

On raw success rate, yes. Scrapeway's independent benchmarks rank Scrapfly #1 overall with a 98.8% success rate versus an industry average of 59.5%. If reliability on difficult protected sites is your absolute priority and budget predictability is secondary, Scrapfly is genuinely the strongest choice. ScrapeBadger is a better fit for teams who need named anti-bot bypass at predictable costs with PAYG credits never expire — you trade the absolute success-rate ceiling for a bill you can plan around.

Scrapfly's ASP (Anti-Scraping Protection) system automatically upgrades your proxy pool mid-request when it detects anti-bot protection on the target site. A datacenter request priced at 1 credit can silently become a 25-credit residential request if ASP determines the site requires it. Add JS rendering (+5 credits) and you're at 30 credits for what started as a 1-credit call. Scrapfly documents this and recommends checking the X-Scrapfly-Api-Cost response header after every request — but you cannot predict the cost before the response is returned, which makes monthly budgeting on protected-site workloads difficult.

No. According to Scrapeway's feature comparison, Scrapfly does not offer annual billing plans. Every subscription is month-to-month at the listed monthly rate with no annual discount. This is unusual compared to most competitors (e.g. ScraperAPI) that offer 10–20% off for annual commitment. ScrapeBadger has no subscription at all — large non-expiring credit packs replicate the economics of annual billing with more flexibility.

Scrapfly activates pay-as-you-go (PAG) billing automatically when you exceed your monthly quota. PAG is capped at 125% of your monthly included credits at $3.50 per 10,000 extra credits. On the Pro plan with 1,000,000 included credits, this means up to 1,250,000 extra credits — a potential $437.50 in automatic overage charges on top of the $100 base subscription. Scrapfly provides project-level spending limits and throttle settings that can prevent this, but they require deliberate configuration. ScrapeBadger has no overflow billing at all — when credits run out, requests stop until you top up.

For predictable workloads, yes. ScrapeBadger's Stealth mode costs 23 credits flat per request — full anti-bot bypass and JS rendering bundled. At $0.08/1K credits on the Growth pack, that's roughly $0.18 per 1,000 Stealth pages. Scrapfly's effective cost depends heavily on whether ASP triggers — Scrapeway pegs Scrapfly's average at $3.90 per 1,000 scrapes across their benchmark targets, above the $3.20 industry average. ScrapeBadger's Starter pack is also $10 for 100,000 PAYG credits never expire, versus Scrapfly's $30/month Discovery for 200,000 credits that reset monthly.

Choose Scrapfly if raw success rate is your top priority and you're targeting heavily protected sites where nothing else works. Scrapfly's 98.8% Scrapeway benchmark success rate is the best in the industry. Its ASP system dynamically adapts to site-level protections in ways that fixed-pricing APIs cannot. The higher and less predictable cost is the trade-off for that reliability ceiling. If your budget matters more than the last 1-2% of success rate, ScrapeBadger's flat 23-credit Stealth mode at $0.18 per 1,000 protected-site scrapes is a much better economic fit.

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.

Compare

vs ScraperAPI

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.

Compare

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.

Compare