ScraperAPI vs Zyte vs Bright Data Web Scraper: Which API in 2026?

scraperapi is the cheapest of the three for normal sites. zyte’s auto extraction is the only one that ships structured product/article data without writing parsers. bright data’s web unlocker has the highest success rate on the most protected sites. this is the 2026 comparison with prices pulled from each dashboard on may 1, plus actual success rates on 50 popular targets.

the matrix

prices vary by plan and overage. these are entry-tier figures.

scraperapi: the cheapest workhorse

scraperapi is the simplest of the three. one endpoint, one api key, you pass a target url, you get back html. it handles proxy rotation, retries, and basic captcha solving. as of may 2026, the entry plan is $49/month for 100k requests, working out to $0.49 per 1k.

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.scraperapi.com/",
    params={
        "api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
        "url": "https://example.com/page",
        "render": "true",  # +5 credits for javascript
        "country_code": "us",
        "premium": "true",  # residential, +25 credits
    },
)
print(resp.text)

each toggle (render, premium, ultra_premium) burns more credits per request. a basic html fetch is 1 credit. a javascript-rendered residential request is 30+ credits. budgets disappear fast on protected sites.

scraperapi works well for ecommerce price tracking, basic news scraping, and any site without serious anti-bot. it struggles on datadome and perimeterx.

if you’re not sure which scraping api fits your stack, our web scraping apis 2026 roundup covers the field.

zyte api: the structured-data api

zyte (formerly scrapinghub, the company behind scrapy) takes a different approach. their api can return raw html like everyone else, but the killer feature is auto extraction: pass a product url, get back json with title, price, brand, images, description, sku, all parsed.

import requests
from base64 import b64encode

api_key = "YOUR_ZYTE_KEY"
auth = b64encode(f"{api_key}:".encode()).decode()

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Basic {auth}"},
    json={
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHX1W1XY",
        "product": True,
    },
)
print(resp.json()["product"])

response includes structured fields like:

{
  "name": "Echo Dot (5th Gen)",
  "price": "49.99",
  "currency": "USD",
  "brand": "Amazon",
  "images": [...],
  "description": "...",
  "sku": "B0CHX1W1XY"
}

this skips a huge engineering tax. if you scrape 50 ecommerce sites, you’d need to write 50 parsers, each broken every few months when sites update. zyte’s auto extraction handles all of them.

cost is more variable than scraperapi. simple html fetches are ~$0.40/1k. javascript rendering on protected sites with auto extraction can hit $2-3/1k. bigger budgets, but you save the parser-writing cost.

zyte’s residential success rates on protected sites are excellent. their network is purpose-built for scraping (unlike bright data which sells the same ips to every use case).

bright data web unlocker: the heavy artillery

bright data’s web unlocker is the premium “always works” option. they handle every anti-bot mechanism, retry on failures, fingerprint browsers correctly, and guarantee a successful response or you don’t pay.

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/dca/trigger",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"},
    json={
        "url": "https://www.example-protected-site.com/",
        "render": True,
        "country": "us",
    },
)
print(resp.text)

pricing is per successful request, $1.05-3 per 1k depending on volume tier. expensive but the success rate on the worst sites (perimeterx, kasada, datadome on alert) is unbeaten. if the site is critical and you need the data daily, bright data’s unlocker is the lowest-stress option.

we cover bright data’s full pricing in our proxy providers ultimate guide.

success rate on 50 popular sites

we ran 1000 requests per site through each api in april 2026. success = 200 status with valid html or auto-extracted data. results aggregated by site difficulty:

scraperapi loses on the hard tier. zyte holds well across the board. bright data is best on extreme.

cost per successful request flips the table:

scraperapi’s effective cost balloons on hard sites because the failed requests still consume premium credits. zyte stays cheap because their success rate is high enough that retries are rare. bright data is flat at $1.05/1k regardless of difficulty.

bottom line: scraperapi wins for easy sites, zyte wins for medium-hard sites, bright data wins for extreme sites.

javascript rendering compared

all three support js rendering. behavior differs:

scraperapi spins up a headless chrome instance per request. you control rendering with render=true. wait for selector with wait_for_selector. roughly 5-10 second response time on rendered requests.

zyte uses their internal headless browser pool. js execution is included on most plans. response times in the 3-7 second range, faster than scraperapi.

bright data’s web unlocker uses a managed scraping browser. fastest of the three at 2-5 seconds. you can also use their standalone scraping browser product if you want devtools-protocol level control.

if you scrape javascript-heavy sites at high volume, bright data’s scraping browser is in a class of its own. zyte is a strong second. scraperapi is the budget option.

auto extraction quality

we tested zyte’s auto extraction on 100 product pages across amazon, ebay, walmart, target, best buy, shopify stores, woocommerce stores, and direct-to-consumer brand sites.

field accuracy:

for non-product pages (articles, job listings, real estate), extraction quality is similar. saves real engineering hours vs writing custom parsers.

bright data has structured datasets (pre-scraped data sold per row) but doesn’t offer per-request auto extraction. scraperapi has a structured data product (their structured data api) but it’s limited to a few major sites.

who should pick what

(1) you scrape 100k-1M requests/month from sites that aren’t deeply protected. scraperapi. cheapest, simplest.

(2) you scrape ecommerce, articles, or job listings and want parsed json instead of writing parsers. zyte. the auto extraction pays for itself.

(3) you scrape protected sites where failures are unacceptable. bright data web unlocker. flat-rate pricing, near-perfect success.

(4) you need pre-scraped datasets (zillow listings, linkedin profiles, amazon reviews). bright data datasets, not the unlocker.

(5) you’re an enterprise with engineers who can integrate scrapy and scrapy-zyte-api. zyte. their library integration is the cleanest of the three.

developer experience

scraperapi: simplest. one endpoint, query params, html out. great docs. limited monitoring dashboard.

zyte: cleanest python ecosystem. scrapy-zyte-api integrates as a downloader middleware. dashboard shows success rates, retries, and cost per project. excellent documentation.

bright data: most complex. multiple products (web unlocker, scraping browser, datasets, serp api) with overlapping features. dashboard is feature-rich but takes time to learn. documentation is thorough but scattered.

frequently asked questions

is scraperapi still worth it in 2026?

yes for non-protected sites and simple scraping. it’s the cheapest tool that does the basics. for protected sites, your money goes further with zyte or bright data.

what’s the difference between zyte’s residential and datacenter tiers?

residential routes through real residential ips, $0.40-3/1k depending on site difficulty. datacenter is faster and cheaper ($0.10-0.20/1k) but only works on non-protected sites. zyte automatically picks based on the target.

can i use bright data’s web unlocker for real-time scraping?

yes, but it’s not optimized for sub-second latency. response times are 2-5 seconds. for true real-time, use bright data’s scraping browser with persistent connections.

does any of them solve captchas?

scraperapi solves recaptcha v2 and v3 on most sites. zyte solves captchas as part of their managed scraping. bright data’s web unlocker handles all common captchas. for rare cases (custom captchas, complex hcaptcha), all three may need a separate solver.

which is best for serp scraping (google search results)?

bright data has a dedicated serp api at $1.50-3/1k. zyte includes serp via their api at similar pricing. scraperapi has a structured google scraper. bright data wins on accuracy, zyte on simplicity.

can i mix and match?

yes. many production stacks use scraperapi for easy sites, zyte for medium sites with auto extraction, and bright data for the few protected sites that justify the cost. you abstract the choice behind a single client and route per target domain.

final thoughts

there’s no single winner here. scraperapi is the cheapest for simple needs. zyte is the most engineering-friendly with the best auto extraction. bright data is the highest success rate on the hardest sites at premium prices. pick based on your target site distribution and your engineering budget for parser maintenance.

if you’re starting from zero and don’t know your distribution yet, sign up for free trials on all three (scraperapi 5k, zyte $5 credit, bright data 7-day) and run the same 100 urls through each. the data answers the question in an hour.