ScrapingBee and ScrapeIt both end with web data but sell different things. ScrapingBee is a web scraping API: your developers send a URL and get back the page or the fields they asked for, while ScrapingBee handles browsers, proxies and anti-bot defences, on published plans from 49 US dollars a month. ScrapeIt is a managed service where an engineering team builds the scraper for your target list, runs it and delivers the dataset, with nothing for you to run.
Choose ScrapingBee if
- Your developers will write and own the scraping code
- You need pages on demand, inside your own product
- Your targets change from week to week
Choose ScrapeIt if
- Nobody on your side will build or repair a scraper
- You want a checked dataset, not API responses
- You want a price for the dataset, not a credit budget
What each company actually is
ScrapingBee
Run by VostokInc, a French company registered in Paris, and now part of Oxylabs' group. The API launched in 2019. The core product is an HTML API: one call fetches a page, can render it in headless Chrome, rotates proxies and returns HTML, Markdown, a screenshot, or JSON built from your CSS, XPath or AI extraction rules. Dedicated scraper APIs return structured data for sources such as Amazon, Walmart and Google search. ScrapingBee says non-developers can use it through no-code tools such as n8n and Make. Plans start with Freelance at 49 US dollars a month for 250,000 API credits, with 1,000 free credits to start.
ScrapeIt
Scrapeit Sp. z o.o., registered in Bialystok, Poland and trading since 2021. No console and no ready-made catalogue: every scraper is built to a brief. An engineer scopes your target list and fields, builds the scraper, runs it and repairs it when a target changes, and the output is checked manually before delivery. Plans run from EUR 199 for a one-time extract of up to 100,000 rows to EUR 549 per month for three deliveries a day.
Side by side
When ScrapingBee is the better choice
- Your developers want to keep the scraper in their own code. ScrapingBee takes proxies, browsers and blocking off their hands and leaves the logic with them. ScrapeIt does not sell that layer.
- You need pages on demand. An API call answers while your application waits, which suits a product feature or an AI agent. ScrapeIt delivers finished datasets, not live responses.
- Your targets change from week to week. Pointing the API at a new site takes minutes. A managed project typically needs one to ten days for its first delivery.
- A dedicated API already covers your source. Structured JSON arrives without writing a parser. Commissioning a custom build for the same data is slower.
- You want to test before paying. 1,000 free credits with no credit card, then a monthly plan you can cancel at any time.
When ScrapeIt is the better choice
- Nobody on your team will build or run a scraper. ScrapingBee's FAQ says it does not create custom scraping scripts: in code or a no-code tool, the workflow is yours. ScrapeIt builds and runs the scraper for you.
- You want a checked dataset, not API responses. With an API, choosing URLs, scheduling runs, storing rows and validating them stay in your pipeline. ScrapeIt does that and checks the data manually before delivery.
- Someone has to repair it when a target changes. ScrapingBee notes that selector-based extraction may need updates when a page's structure changes and that AI extraction tolerates this better. With ScrapeIt the repair is ours.
- You want a price for the dataset, not a credit budget. A ScrapingBee request costs 1 to 75 credits depending on rendering and proxy type, so credit use follows how hard your targets are to fetch.
The honest summary
If you have engineers and the job is fetching pages inside your own product, ScrapingBee is very likely the faster and cheaper route. It starts in minutes, its prices are public and it takes the proxy and browser work off your team.
The case for a managed service begins where the API ends. Someone still has to schedule runs, check rows and, outside the dedicated APIs, write the extraction and update it when a target changes. If that person is on your team, buy the API. If not, ScrapeIt does that work and hands over the dataset.
A practical way to choose
- Name who writes and maintains the extraction. If there is a name, spend ScrapingBee's 1,000 free credits on your real targets first.
- Decide what you need: live API responses in an application, or a finished dataset. The first is an API. The second is a managed service or a pipeline you build on that API.
- Estimate the credits: pages per month times the credit cost of the rendering and proxy type your targets need. Add the engineering hours, then compare with a ScrapeIt plan.
Keep reading
Is ScrapeIt a ScrapingBee alternative?
Yes, for teams that do not want to build or run a scraper themselves. ScrapingBee is a web scraping API: you send the requests from your own code or a no-code tool and build the extraction and the pipeline around them. ScrapeIt builds the scraper, runs it, repairs it and delivers the dataset.
When is ScrapingBee the better choice?
When you have developers who want to keep the scraping logic in their own code, when you need pages on demand in real time, or when your targets change constantly. It starts with 1,000 free credits and published plans from 49 US dollars a month. A managed service is slower to start and is the wrong shape for that kind of work.
Which is cheaper, ScrapingBee or ScrapeIt?
For a team with an engineer to write and maintain the extraction, ScrapingBee is usually cheaper: its plans are published at 49, 99, 249 and 599 US dollars a month, each with a monthly credit allowance. The comparison changes when nobody on your side has time to build and maintain the extraction. ScrapeIt publishes EUR 199 for a one-time extract of up to 100,000 rows and subscriptions from EUR 169 to EUR 549 per month, with the scraper built, run and repaired by its own engineers.
Does ScrapingBee build custom scrapers?
ScrapingBee's FAQ says it does not create custom scraping scripts, although its team will write code snippets for its data extraction and JavaScript scenario features. It offers dedicated scraper APIs that return structured data for a set of popular sources, and says non-developers can use it through no-code tools such as n8n and Make. ScrapeIt has no ready-made catalogue and builds every scraper to a brief.
