Best ScrapingAnt Alternatives in 2026: 8 Tools Compared

String vs ScrapingAnt: 97.0% against 36.4%, and 48 of its 53 empty sites

String's Web Access API makes one HTTP call against any URL. Proxy rotation, anti-bot handling, captcha solving and JavaScript rendering happen behind the endpoint, and String picks the fetch path for each request.

Pricing. Usage-based, and the monthly fee is credited to your balance as usage. Growth costs $99 a month and bills $0.16 per 1,000 standard fetches, $0.90 per 1,000 premium fetches, $0.80 for a browser on a standard proxy and $3.25 for a browser on a premium proxy. Starter costs $19 and bills $0.25, $2.40, $1.20 and $4.80 for the same four paths. The first 20,000 standard fetches are free with no card, blocked requests are not billed, and unused credit rolls over.

Benchmark success. 97.0%, or 485 of 500, first of 16. String returned all five attempts on 93 sites, partial content on 5, and nothing on 2. ScrapingAnt's split is 22, 25 and 53.

Latency. String's latency score is 7.06 seconds, first of 16, against ScrapingAnt's 18.95, tenth. That score charges a stand-in time for every failed site, which favours the provider that fails less, so look at the shared set too. On the 21 sites where both returned every attempt, String's median was 1.24 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 3.92, and String was slower on one of the 21.

Strengths. Coverage. String returned all five attempts on 48 of ScrapingAnt's 53 empty sites and some content on 51. It passed 92.6% against DataDome, 100% against Cloudflare and 98.0% against Akamai, where ScrapingAnt reads 4.2%, 8.0% and 33.0%. ScrapingAnt beat String on one site, autotrader.com, five attempts to four.

Weaknesses. Temu and Idealista, which neither returned. A smaller recurring free allowance than ScrapingAnt's 10,000 credits a month, no standalone proxy product, no AI extractor, and no SOC 2 report yet.

MCP. String ships a hosted MCP server, listed in the official registry as ai.usestring/web-access, with fetch, search and sitemap tools.

Try it on your own list:

curl https://request.usestring.ai/v1/fetch \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STRING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.macys.com/", "format": "markdown"}'

Leave out format and the page comes back in a JSON envelope, the default.

Scrapfly vs ScrapingAnt: 86.2%, and the fewest empty sites after String

Pricing. Pro is $100 a month for 1,000,000 credits, with overflow at $3.50 per 10,000. Per its billing docs, a datacenter scrape is 1 credit, browser rendering adds 5, and the residential pool is 25, so a page costs $0.10, $0.60 or $2.50 per 1,000 on Pro. The same docs say the Unblocker "may dynamically upgrade the proxy pool," which can change the final cost. Failed scrapes are not billed, except for a listed set of 4xx codes that includes 404, and the protection switches off if 30% or more of your scrapes are blocked without the Unblocker. Credits do not roll over.

Benchmark success. 86.2%, or 431 of 500, second of 16 and 49.8 points above ScrapingAnt. It returned nothing on 5 sites against ScrapingAnt's 53.

Latency. 19.79 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 18.95. On the 18 sites both returned in full, Scrapfly's median was 5.36 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 3.66, and Scrapfly was slower on 13 of them. Scrapfly wins on coverage, not speed.

Strengths. It tied String at 92.6% against DataDome, the best result on that wall. It returned all five attempts on 37 of ScrapingAnt's empty sites, and ScrapingAnt returned all five on none of Scrapfly's five empty sites. Scrapfly runs an MCP server and SDKs in four languages.

Weaknesses. Its residential rate, $2.50 per 1,000, is level with ScrapingAnt's $2.45 benchmark request, and the Unblocker can push it higher. It passed 20% on the one Fastly site, where ScrapingAnt passed 100%.

ScraperAPI vs ScrapingAnt: 92% on Akamai, priced by the site

Pricing. No $100 tier. Hobby is $49 for 100,000 credits and Startup $149 for 1,000,000; Startup is the nearer of the two to $100. Per its credit docs, a standard page is 1 credit, Amazon 5, Google and Bing 25, and LinkedIn 30. A Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX or Akamai bypass adds 10, and ultra_premium=true, the benchmark setting, is 30. On Startup that is $0.15 per 1,000 standard pages and $4.47 per 1,000 ultra premium requests; on Hobby, $0.49 and $14.70. ScraperAPI charges for 200 and 404 responses. Credits reset at renewal.

Benchmark success. 84.0%, or 420 of 500, third of 16.

Latency. 12.97 seconds, third of 16. On the 18 sites both returned in full, ScraperAPI's median was 3.98 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 3.66, and ScraperAPI was slower on 5 of the 18.

Strengths. 92.0% against Akamai, second only to String, and 87.8% on the 54 big-three sites. It returned all five attempts on 36 of ScrapingAnt's empty sites. ScraperAPI ships an official MCP server.

Weaknesses. The price of a page depends on the site and the parameters, so a budget needs the dashboard's cost estimator. Its ultra premium request costs nearly twice ScrapingAnt's benchmark request on Startup. ScrapingAnt returned x.com on every attempt, and ScraperAPI returned none. The ScraperAPI alternatives page covers it from the other side.

Firecrawl vs ScrapingAnt: crawl-to-content, and the second-best latency score

Pricing. Standard is $99 a month billed monthly for 100,000 credits, or $0.99 per 1,000 pages, easy or protected. The pricing page defaults to the annual view at $83. Per its billing docs, a scrape that returns no document is free, while a page that comes back "with an error status such as 403 Forbidden or 404 Not Found" costs a credit. JSON output adds 4 credits a page. Plan credits do not roll over below Scale.

Benchmark success. 80.2%, or 401 of 500, fourth of 16.

Latency. 9.11 seconds, second of 16. On the 18 sites both returned in full, Firecrawl's median was 5.61 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 3.66, and Firecrawl was slower on 12.

Strengths. 93.3% against Cloudflare and PerimeterX and 84.4% on the big three. It returned all five attempts on 39 of ScrapingAnt's empty sites. It crawls whole domains, has an open-source core and an MCP server.

Weaknesses. It returned nothing on 17 sites. ScrapingAnt returned all five attempts on four of them: Pinterest, TikTok, arXiv and AutoTrader. A blocked page that comes back as a document is billed. The Firecrawl alternatives page covers its other gaps.

Bright Data vs ScrapingAnt: pay-as-you-go unblocking, and 100% on PerimeterX

Pricing. No plan near $100. Web Unlocker pay as you go is $1.50 per 1,000 requests, and Scale is $499 a month for 383,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,000. Bright Data bills successes only, with two caveats in its feature docs: premium domains bill at a higher rate that appears in the zone's estimated cost, and a zone with custom headers, cookies or expect elements is "billed for 100% of the requests (both successful and failed)." The free tier is 5,000 requests a month.

Benchmark success. 74.6%, or 373 of 500, sixth of 16.

Latency. 15.62 seconds, fourth of 16. On the 16 sites both returned in full, Bright Data's median was 2.37 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 5.12, and Bright Data was faster on 15.

Strengths. 100% against PerimeterX and 86.7% against AWS WAF. It returned all five attempts on 28 of ScrapingAnt's empty sites, and at $1.50 per 1,000 it costs less than ScrapingAnt's $2.45 benchmark request. Bright Data runs an MCP server.

Weaknesses. 47.4% against DataDome. The premium-domain rate is unpublished, so Bright Data is never the cheapest option on this page. ScrapingAnt returned all five attempts on three sites where Bright Data returned nothing: Ticketmaster, Bing and Canada Goose. The Bright Data alternatives page covers it in detail.

Context.dev vs ScrapingAnt: one flat credit per protected page

Pricing. Pro is $90 a month for 100,000 credits, or $0.90 per 1,000 pages, with overage at $2.00 per 1,000 credits. Developer is $20 for 10,000. A standard scrape is 1 credit, browser actions make it 2, and the pricing page says "JS rendering, anti-bot bypass, and proxies are included in the base scrape price." Most failed requests are not billed, but a 404 is "billed at the request's base price." The free tier is 1,000 credits a month.

Benchmark success. 72.0%, or 360 of 500, eighth of 16.

Latency. 16.32 seconds, sixth of 16. On the 20 sites both returned in full, Context.dev's median was 3.99 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 4.06, and Context.dev was slower on 10 of the 20.

Strengths. Price on protected pages. $0.90 per 1,000 is about a third of ScrapingAnt's $2.45 residential request, with no credit table to learn. It passed 96.0% against Cloudflare, second only to String, and ships an official MCP server.

Weaknesses. 43.2% against DataDome, and it returned nothing on 22 sites. Its free allowance is a tenth of ScrapingAnt's. ScrapingAnt returned all five attempts on arxiv.org, where Context.dev returned none.

Oxylabs vs ScrapingAnt: a bandwidth bill, and 24 empty sites

Pricing. The benchmark used Oxylabs Web Unblocker, now sold on a shared subscription. Basic is $100 a month, and Web Unblocker traffic bills at $6 per GB up to 16 GB. Per its billing docs, both request and response traffic count, every 2xx and 4xx response is successful and billable even when it "doesn't contain expected information," and a failure caused on your side is billed. Only Oxylabs' own 5xx errors are free. Self-service purchases are non-refundable. The cost per page depends on page size, so there is no fixed rate per 1,000.

Benchmark success. 69.0%, or 345 of 500, ninth of 16.

Latency. 15.86 seconds, fifth of 16. On the 17 sites both returned in full, Oxylabs' median was 3.80 seconds against ScrapingAnt's 4.13, and Oxylabs was slower on 9.

Strengths. 86.7% against PerimeterX and Kasada, 82.2% on in-house protection, and all five attempts on 25 of ScrapingAnt's empty sites. One subscription covers its proxies and APIs. Oxylabs publishes an MCP server.

Weaknesses. It returned nothing on 24 sites. ScrapingAnt returned all five attempts on four of them: Ticketmaster, Kayak, AT&T and Roblox. Bandwidth billing makes a budget hard to set in advance. The Oxylabs alternatives page compares it from the other side.

The anti-bot cut

Success rates by protection vendor, from the September 16 run. Site counts are in the column headers.

ScrapingAnt's row splits in two. On in-house protection and the one Fastly site it is within reach of the field. On DataDome, Akamai and Cloudflare it sits far below every alternative here. Kasada and Fastly cover four sites between them, so read those columns as anecdotes.

Can ScrapingAnt get past DataDome, Akamai and Cloudflare?

Rarely, on the request we tested. DataDome, Akamai and Cloudflare protect 54 of the 100 sites in the suite, more than half. On those 54 sites ScrapingAnt passed 43 of 270 requests, 15.9%. That is the lowest of the 16 providers. The next lowest, Browserbase, passed 23.0%. Every alternative on this page passed at least 63.7%, and String passed 261 of 270.

On the other 46 sites ScrapingAnt passed 139 of 230 requests, 60.4%. That is ahead of Decodo, Scrapingdog and ZenRows on the same sites. The 44.5-point gap between the two groups is the widest of any provider in the run; Browserbase is next at 40.1.

Two limits apply. The figure measures one request type, residential proxies without the browser, and ScrapingAnt's 125-credit browser request may move it. And the protection vendor on each site comes from the benchmark's own classification, which the harness publishes per target.

What it means for a buyer: count the big three on your target list before you compare prices. If your sites sit behind in-house protection or none, ScrapingAnt's request returned a page about six times in ten. If they sit behind DataDome, Akamai or Cloudflare, about five requests in six came back empty, and a free failure still costs a retry and a missing row.

Why pricing is hard to compare across these providers

Seven reasons, all visible on this page.

1. The unit is not the same. ScrapingAnt, Scrapfly, ScraperAPI, Firecrawl and Context.dev sell credits. String and Bright Data price per 1,000 requests. Oxylabs Web Unblocker bills by the gigabyte.
2. A credit is not a page. One Firecrawl or Context.dev credit is one page. One ScrapingAnt credit is a datacenter request without the browser, and the same page with a residential proxy and the browser is 125. A ScraperAPI page runs from 1 credit to 30 or more, depending on the site.
3. Failure billing differs. ScrapingAnt and Bright Data bill only successes. String bills the site's real answer, including a 404, and not a blocked request. Scrapfly, ScraperAPI and Context.dev bill a 404. Firecrawl bills a 403 or 404 that returns a document. Oxylabs bills any 2xx or 4xx response.
4. The rate depends on the target, and sometimes the vendor decides. Scrapfly's Unblocker can upgrade the proxy pool. ScraperAPI adds credits per site and per bot manager. Bright Data's premium domains carry a dashboard-only rate.
5. Annual prices pose as monthly. Firecrawl's page shows $83 by default against $99 billed monthly. Check the toggle before you compare.
6. Bandwidth has no per-page price. Oxylabs at $6 per GB costs more on a heavy product page than on a light article.
7. Rollover is worth money and it is rarely on the pricing card. String's credit rolls over. ScrapingAnt's, Scrapfly's, ScraperAPI's and Firecrawl's below Scale do not.

What $100 a month buys

At or near the $100 anchor, per 1,000 pages, on each vendor's own terms:

• ScrapingAnt: no plan near $100. Startup, $49: $0.098 datacenter, $0.98 with the browser, $2.45 residential, $12.25 residential with the browser. Business, $249: $0.083, $0.83, $2.08 and $10.38. Failures free, no rollover.
• String Growth, $99: $0.16 standard fetch, $0.90 premium fetch, $0.80 browser, $3.25 browser on premium. Blocks free, credit rolls over.
• Scrapfly Pro, $100: $0.10 datacenter, $0.60 with rendering, $2.50 residential, before any Unblocker upgrade. No rollover.
• ScraperAPI: no $100 tier. Startup, $149: $0.15 standard, $4.47 ultra premium. Hobby, $49: $0.49 and $14.70.
• Firecrawl Standard, $99: $0.99 flat, with 403 and 404 documents billed.
• Bright Data: no plan near $100. Pay as you go at $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests, premium domains extra.
• Context.dev Pro, $90: $0.90 flat, protection included, 404 billed.
• Oxylabs Basic, $100: Web Unblocker at $6 per GB, up to 16 GB.

Read both directions. On a plain datacenter request ScrapingAnt is cheaper than String, $0.098 against $0.16, and its $19 plan is the cheapest paid start here. On the residential request the benchmark measured, String's premium fetch is cheaper, $0.90 against $2.45, and both bill only successes. With a browser on a residential proxy, String's $3.25 is a quarter of ScrapingAnt's $12.25. The larger gap is coverage: 97.0% of the suite against 36.4%.

Which ScrapingAnt alternative should you pick?

• Your list is protected and the pages have to come back. String. 97.0% against 36.4%, and it returned 48 of the 53 sites ScrapingAnt could not.
• You want several APIs on one key. Scrapfly, second in the run at 86.2%, with the fewest empty sites after String, if latency is not the constraint.
• Your list is heavy on Akamai. ScraperAPI at 92.0% on Akamai, if you can price each site before you send it.
• You crawl whole sites. Firecrawl, with the second-best latency score in the run, if your list is not social media.
• You want pay-as-you-go with no credit maths. Bright Data at $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests, if DataDome is not on your list.
• You want protection included in a flat price. Context.dev at $0.90 per 1,000 on its $90 plan.
• You already buy Oxylabs proxies. Oxylabs Web Unblocker on the same subscription, if bandwidth billing fits your budget.
• Stay on ScrapingAnt if your targets sit behind in-house protection or none, if entry price decides, or if you need its standalone proxies or AI extractor. Its 10,000 free monthly credits are the largest recurring free tier in the run.

Switching from ScrapingAnt to String

What carries over. A GET to /v2/general becomes a POST to https://request.usestring.ai/v1/fetch with the key in an Authorization header instead of the query string. Keep the URL list and the code that reads HTML. Calls to /v2/markdown become "format": "markdown", because String returns a JSON envelope by default. proxy_country maps to countryCode, and js_snippet and wait_for_selector map to String's browser actions. browser and proxy_type have no String equivalent, because String picks the path per request and bills the path it used.

What you rebuild. ScrapingAnt's AI extractor, which String's jsonSchema extraction replaces for the fields you name. Proxy Mode and the standalone residential and datacenter proxies, which String does not sell; keep ScrapingAnt for raw proxy bandwidth if you use it.

Integrations to reconnect. ScrapingAnt publishes JavaScript and Python clients, a hosted MCP server, and integrations for n8n, Make and GitHub Actions. String ships no language SDKs, so an SDK call becomes one HTTP POST. Its hosted MCP server runs at mcp.usestring.ai, n8n calls String through the HTTP Request node, and Zapier, LangChain and the Vercel AI SDK have setup guides in String's docs.

Test on your own failing URLs first. Take the URLs that come back empty on ScrapingAnt today, and the ones where you pay 125 credits a page, and run them through String. In the September run ScrapingAnt returned nothing on 53 of the 100 sites, and String returned 48 of those on every attempt. Compare pages returned and cost per usable page, then move only the targets that improve. Leave custom headers off for the test: String does not bill a blocked request unless that request sent custom headers. The first 20,000 String standard fetches are free with no card. The String vs ScrapingAnt page compares the two products in more depth.

FAQ

What is the best ScrapingAnt alternative for Cloudflare-protected sites?

String. On the 15 Cloudflare sites in the September 16, 2026 run, String passed 100% of requests, Context.dev 96.0%, Firecrawl 93.3% and Scrapfly 90.7%. ScrapingAnt passed 8.0% on its residential request without the browser. The run did not test its 125-credit browser request on residential proxies.

Can ScrapingAnt get past DataDome, Akamai and Cloudflare?

Rarely, on the request we tested. On the 54 benchmark sites behind those three bot managers, ScrapingAnt passed 43 of 270 requests, 15.9%, the lowest of 16 providers. On the other 46 sites it passed 60.4%. The run used residential proxies without ScrapingAnt's headless browser.

Is there a free ScrapingAnt alternative?

Every tool here has a free tier, and none matches ScrapingAnt's 10,000 credits a month. String's first 20,000 standard fetches are free with no card, as a one-time credit that never expires. Bright Data gives 5,000 requests a month, Firecrawl and Context.dev 1,000 credits a month, Scrapfly 1,000 credits on signup, ScraperAPI 1,000 credits plus a 7-day trial with 5,000, and Oxylabs a $5 welcome credit.

What is the cheapest ScrapingAnt alternative?

It depends on the page. On easy pages, String's $0.16 per 1,000 standard fetches and Scrapfly's $0.10 datacenter scrape are the lowest rates near $100, and ScrapingAnt's own $0.098 is lower still. On protected pages, String's $0.90 premium fetch and Context.dev's $0.90 flat page are the lowest, against ScrapingAnt's $2.45. The hidden costs sit in the billing rules: Firecrawl bills returned 403 and 404 pages, ScraperAPI, Scrapfly and Context.dev bill a 404, Oxylabs bills any 4xx, and Bright Data prices premium domains in the dashboard only.

Which ScrapingAnt alternatives have an MCP server?

All seven. String, Scrapfly, ScraperAPI, Firecrawl, Bright Data, Context.dev and Oxylabs publish MCP servers. ScrapingAnt's own hosted MCP server exposes HTML, Markdown and text tools and draws on the same credits as the API. String's server is listed in the official MCP registry as ai.usestring/web-access.

Is String cheaper than ScrapingAnt?

It depends on the request. On a datacenter request without a browser, ScrapingAnt's Startup plan costs $0.098 per 1,000 against String Growth's $0.16. On the residential request the benchmark used, String's premium fetch costs $0.90 per 1,000 against ScrapingAnt's $2.45. With a browser on a residential proxy, String costs $3.25 and ScrapingAnt $12.25. Neither bills a blocked request, so each figure is a cost per usable page.

When is ScrapingAnt still the better choice?

When your targets sit behind in-house protection or none, where it passed 68.9%, and when entry price decides. Its 10,000 free credits a month and $19 plan are the cheapest start on this page. It also sells standalone proxies by the gigabyte and an AI extractor, and it returned every attempt on Ticketmaster, Kayak, TikTok and Pinterest in the September run.

Can I verify these numbers myself?

Yes. The harness, the 100 targets, the pass criteria and every provider adapter are open on GitHub, and it runs with your own API keys. The ScrapingAnt adapter shows the exact request, so you can rerun it or switch on the browser. The September run file has every attempt, and the full results are published per provider and per target.

Sources

Pricing and billing checked October 27, 2026. Benchmark figures: September 16, 2026 run.

Benchmark data

1. Web Data Frontier Benchmark results
2. September 2026 benchmark post
3. Why the benchmark scores content returned
4. Benchmark harness repository
5. September 16, 2026 run file
6. ScrapingAnt adapter
7. Firecrawl adapter correction, pull request 6

ScrapingAnt

8. ScrapingAnt homepage and pricing
9. ScrapingAnt credit costs
10. ScrapingAnt request parameters
11. ScrapingAnt CAPTCHA and Cloudflare
12. ScrapingAnt MCP server

String

13. String pricing
14. String Web Access API
15. String MCP server
16. String structured extraction
17. String integrations

Scrapfly

18. Scrapfly pricing
19. Scrapfly billing
20. Scrapfly Unblocker
21. Scrapfly MCP server

ScraperAPI

22. ScraperAPI pricing
23. ScraperAPI credit costs
24. ScraperAPI MCP server

Firecrawl

25. Firecrawl pricing
26. Firecrawl billing
27. Firecrawl repository
28. Firecrawl MCP server

Bright Data

29. Bright Data Web Unlocker pricing
30. Bright Data Web Unlocker features
31. Bright Data MCP server

Context.dev

32. Context.dev pricing
33. Context.dev MCP server

Oxylabs

34. Oxylabs Web Unblocker pricing
35. Oxylabs Web Unblocker billing
36. Oxylabs MCP server