5 Best Web Scraping Services Compared: Features, Pricing, and What They Excel At

You’ve probably tried scraping data yourself. Maybe you wrote some Python scripts, or tested a free tool that worked great for a few hundred pages. 

Then reality hit: your scraper broke when the website changed its layout. You got IP banned. The data came back messy and inconsistent.

Or worse, you realized you needed data from 50 different websites, not just one, and suddenly your weekend project turned into a full-time nightmare.

Here’s what nobody tells you upfront: scraping at scale is a completely different game. What works for a project or two falls apart when you need reliable data every single day to run your business. 

You need someone else to handle the technical headaches while you focus on actually using the data.

In this article, we cut through the hype to provide a clear-eyed comparison of the five leading web scraping services. We go beyond feature lists to scrutinize the real-world performance, pricing models, and common pitfalls of each provider. You can expect a detailed breakdown of:

• ScrapeHero: The fully-managed web scraping service for businesses that want to outsource the entire data pipeline.
• Apify: The developer-first platform ideal for building and scaling custom scraping tools.
• Zyte: The compliance-focused choice for regulated industries and technical teams.
• Oxylabs & Bright Data: The infrastructure giants with massive proxy networks for high-volume, real-time data extraction.

Want to jump right into the comparison?

How to Choose the Best Web Scraping Provider?

Choosing a web scraping partner isn’t about finding the one with the most features. It’s about finding the one that solves your specific scaling problems without creating new ones. Before you get lost in sales demos and pricing sheets, use these five critical questions as your filter.

1. Managed Service or Developer Platform?
2. Can You Trust the Data Quality?
3. Will the Pricing Model Break Your Budget?
4. What Happens When Things Go Wrong?
5. Do They Navigate the Legal Gray Areas?

1. Managed Service or Developer Platform?
This is the most fundamental choice. Do you want a team to hand you clean data, or do you want the tools to build and manage the scrapers yourself?

• Go Managed: If your team lacks technical skills, or you simply don’t want the headache of maintenance, broken parsers, and infrastructure management. You pay for data, not for your developers’ time.
• Go Platform: If you have a strong technical team that wants granular control, enjoys building custom solutions, and prefers to “own” the scraping code.

2. Can You Trust the Data Quality?
Anyone can scrape data. Delivering clean, accurate, and reliable data is what you’re actually paying for. Don’t just take “99% accuracy” claim at face value.

• Ask: What are the specific data validation steps? Is there a dedicated quality team, or is it fully automated?
• Probe: How do they handle website changes that break the scraper, and what is their average time-to-fix?
• Look for: A proven track record with companies of your size and in your industry.

3. Will the Pricing Model Break Your Budget?

The sticker price is often a tiny fraction of the final cost. You need to understand how costs scale.

• Beware of: Unpredictable, usage-based pricing that can lead to bill shock.
• Look for: Transparent, tiered plans or custom quotes that align with your expected volume. Always ask for a detailed cost projection for your specific use case.
• Understand the Factors: To demystify how providers calculate their prices, it’s useful to understand the key variables that influence the final cost of a web scraping service.
• Remember: The cheapest option often becomes the most expensive when you factor in the time your team spends managing poor-quality data or a complex platform.

4. What Happens When Things Go Wrong?
Your scraper will break. You will get blocked. The question is, how does your provider handle it?

• Critical: Is support handled by real, technical experts who can solve your problem, or by a bot that creates ticket number #45782?
• Key Metrics: What are their stated response times? Is 24/7 support available for your plan? A one-hour response from a knowledgeable human is worth far more than an instant reply from a chatbot.

5. Do They Navigate the Legal Gray Areas?

Web scraping operates in a complex legal environment. A reputable provider shouldn’t put your company at risk.

Before you choose a partner, understand the ground rules. Our guide, Is Web Scraping Legal?, details the key laws, precedents, and ethical frameworks you need to know.

• Look for: A clear commitment to compliance, such as respecting robots.txt, having an in-house legal team, or certifications like ISO 27001.
• Ask: What is their policy on data privacy and ethical scraping? A provider that is transparent about its methods is a safer long-term partner.

Your choice ultimately comes down to a simple question: Are you buying a tool for your team to use, or is it time to hire an outsourced data department?

The 5 Best Web Scraping Services

Read along for a detailed analysis of the following web scraping services:

1. ScrapeHero
2. Apify
3. Zyte
4. Oxylabs
5. Bright Data

1. ScrapeHero Web Scraping Service

ScrapeHero is a US-based, fully managed enterprise-grade web scraping service provider with over a decade of experience in the industry. 

Serving more than 3,000 customers globally, including Fortune 50 companies, ScrapeHero specializes in transforming websites into clean, structured, and reliable data. This focused expertise is a key reason among the many for why ScrapeHero is considered the best web scraping service for businesses scaling their data operations.

The company distinguishes itself by handling the entire data extraction process end-to-end, from web scraper setup and automated scraping to data cleaning, quality assurance, and timely delivery. This way clients never have to worry about technical infrastructure, maintenance, or the complexities of large-scale web data collection.

Key Features of ScrapeHero

• Full-Service Data Provider

• • Complete data acquisition, processing, and delivery pipeline
  • No need for software, hardware, scraping tools, or technical skills
  • Team handles everything: setup, running scrapers, data cleaning, quality checks, and delivery

• Enterprise-Scale Infrastructure

• • Capacity to crawl thousands of pages per second
  • Extract data from millions of web pages daily
  • Globally distributed infrastructure for increased reliability, faster extraction, and reduced IP blocking risk

• Advanced Technology

• • Handles complex websites including JavaScript/AJAX-heavy sites
  • Built-in automated checks to detect website changes and anomalies
  • CAPTCHA handling and anti-bot technology circumvention
  • AI and ML-powered data quality checks

• Data Quality Assurance

• • Dedicated quality team (unique in the industry)
  • Multi-step validation, duplicate removal, and error handling
  • Meticulous data cleaning and verification processes
  • 99%+ accuracy for structured and unstructured data

• Flexible Delivery Options

• • Data delivered in preferred formats (CSV, JSON, SQL, etc.)
  • Regular scheduled imports or on-demand API access
  • Integration solutions
  • Custom API development for websites without APIs

• Customer-Centric Approach

• • No long-term contracts required
  • 98% customer retention rate
  • Response time under 1 hour during working hours
  • Real human experts handle support (no bots)
  • Dedicated account managers for larger projects

• Legal and Ethical Compliance

• • Strict adherence to data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA) and website Terms of Service
  • Expert review of target websites for scraping legality and robots.txt compliance
  • Implementation of ethical scraping practices to avoid server overload
  • Use of rotating proxies and rate-limiting to respect website resources

Why Choose ScrapeHero as Your Web Scraping Service

• Proven Track Record- Over a decade of experience serving Fortune 50 companies and businesses across every industry. The 98% customer retention rate demonstrates consistent satisfaction and value delivery.
• Quality Over Cost- ScrapeHero is a provider that delivers superior quality and customer experience. The dedicated quality team ensures data accuracy that justifies the investment through reduced total cost of owners
• Transparency and Privacy

• • Transparent pricing with no hidden fees
  • Strong commitment to customer privacy (doesn’t reveal logos or names)
  • Clear about data sources and collection methods
  • Maintains legal compliance to ensure ethical data gathering
• Real Human Experts– Unlike many competitors that rely on chatbots or automated support systems, ScrapeHero provides direct access to real technology and business experts. 

When you call or email, you’re speaking with knowledgeable professionals who understand both the technical challenges and business implications of your data needs. Response times average under 1 hour during working hours.

• Deep Customization Capabilities- ScrapeHero excels at tailoring solutions to specific business requirements. Whether you need custom scraping for complex website structures, unique data formats, special validation rules, or integration with existing enterprise systems, our team works closely with you to build exactly what you need. 

We offer custom API development, bespoke data pipelines, and flexible delivery mechanisms that adapt to your workflow rather than forcing you into a one-size-fits-all solution.

Pricing Structure of ScrapeHero

ScrapeHero’s pricing structure is tiered, starting with an On-Demand plan at $550 per website refresh and scaling to monthly Subscription plans.

Subscription Plans:

• Business Plan: Starting from $199/month
• Enterprise Basic Plan: $1,500/month minimum 
• Enterprise Premium Plan: $8,000/month minimum
• Final pricing is dependent on the scope of your scraping requirements.

You can view a detailed breakdown of plans and features on our official web scraping pricing page.

Real-World Use Cases

E-commerce Review Monitoring for Toy Manufacturer 

• Challenge: Previous vendor delivered poor data quality with inflexible contracts. Needed to monitor 100,000+ products across multiple e-commerce platforms.
• Solution: Automated scraping of 220,000+ web pages weekly
• Results: 500,000+ reviews extracted weekly with 15+ data points per review, captured within 24-48 hours of posting

Financial Justice & Court Data Monitoring for Law Firm

• Challenge: Manually tracking predatory lending cases was time-consuming. Perpetrators used name changes to avoid detection.
• Solution: Daily automated scraping of court filings with keyword tracking
• Results: 10,000+ pages scraped daily with 35+ data points per filing. 90%+ time reduction versus manual collection.

Review Tracking for Volunteer Clinicians for Medical Nonprofit Organization

• Challenge: Organization providing medical assessments for detained immigrants needed to monitor volunteer doctor reviews across multiple platforms to defend against unfair lawsuits.
• Solution: Daily automated scraping of Yellow Pages, Yelp, and Google reviews
• Results: 30,000 pages processed daily, streamlined legal defense evidence gathering

2. Apify

Apify offers expert professional services to build, customize, and scale web scraping and automation solutions for enterprises, complementing their self-service platform. Apify stands out as a developer-first solution with over 4,500 pre-built actors in its marketplace.

Key Features

• Custom Actor (scraper) development and optimization.
• End-to-end data pipeline design and implementation.
• Integration with existing enterprise systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Expert consulting for complex data extraction challenges.

What It Excels At

• Solving unique, complex scraping problems that require custom-coded solutions.
• Helping enterprises without in-house expertise to leverage the Apify platform.

Pricing

Team and enterprise plans are available, with pricing based on compute units and platform usage. Custom enterprise agreements are available for large-scale implementations.

Common Challenges of Apify

Apify’s main challenges are its cost, which can escalate quickly with multiple actors and proxy usage, and a significant learning curve that is steep for non-technical users. The platform’s complex setup and navigation can be frustrating, requiring considerable time and technical skill to master and debug effectively.

3. Zyte

Zyte (formerly Scrapinghub) is a web scraping platform, known for creating the open-source Scrapy framework. The platform offers AI-powered extraction tools, automatic proxy management, and fully managed Data Services.

Key Features

• AI-powered data extraction with automatic CAPTCHA and ban handling
• Intelligent proxy rotation (automatically switches between datacenter and residential IPs)
• ISO 27001 certified with in-house legal team
• Scrapy Cloud for developers and custom SLAs for high-risk industries

What It Excels At

Zyte’s compliance-first approach with ISO 27001 certification makes it ideal for regulated industries like finance, media, and government where data privacy laws are critical. 

The in-house legal team and years of handling complex anti-bot systems provide confidence for legally sensitive projects. Best for technical teams that need API control with built-in compliance safeguards.

Pricing Structure

• Two main plans: Standard (from $450/month) and Custom (from $1000/month).
• Pricing is custom-quoted based on project requirements. The “from” prices indicate the entry point.

Common Challenges of Zyte

Users report significant pricing unpredictability with bills sometimes much higher than expected due to lack of transparent upfront cost estimates, making budgeting difficult as costs escalate quickly at scale. 

Performance issues include slow data delivery with significant response time delays and variable success rates depending on website complexity. 

Additionally, Zyte has a steep learning curve requiring coding knowledge, with documentation gaps and an outdated interface making it challenging for beginners and non-technical users.

4. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a web scraping and proxy service provider with over 102 million residential IPs across 195+ countries. Oxylabs positions itself as a developer-friendly platform.

The platform’s real-time crawling capabilities and AI-driven unblocking make it a top choice for high-concurrency use cases.

Key Features

• 102M+ Residential IPs: Access to residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies across 195+ countries
• OxyCopilot AI Assistant: Auto-generates scraping code and parsing instructions, eliminating manual coding
• JavaScript rendering and automatic CAPTCHA solving.
• Granular targeting options (country, city, mobile carriers).

What It Excels At

Oxylabs excels in high-concurrency scenarios with fast response times and high success rates, making it ideal for retail, travel, and finance industries requiring real-time data. The AI-powered tools like OxyCopilot simplify development for technical teams. Feature-based pricing provides transparency and cost control. 

Pricing

Usage-based, tiered pricing. Requires direct contact with sales for custom quotes. Generally positioned as a premium, enterprise-grade service.

Common Challenges of Oxylabs

Oxylabs is often criticized for its high and inflexible pricing, which becomes prohibitive for larger projects. Users report challenges with a complex setup process and a steep learning curve that can require significant technical support. Other notable drawbacks include proxy reliability issues, restrictive features and data access, and billing frustrations tied to quota limits.

5. Bright Data

Bright Data (formerly Luminati) is a major player in the web scraping industry, known for its massive infrastructure and global reach. Their proxy pool of 72 million+ IP addresses spans 195 countries, providing extensive geographic coverage. Bright Data’s ready-made datasets offer pre-collected data for businesses that prefer instant access over building custom scrapers.

Key Features

• 72 million+ residential IPs across 195 countries for large-scale data collection
• 120+ pre-built Web Scraper APIs for popular domains with automatic CAPTCHA handling
• Ready-made datasets: 5B+ records across 120+ domains, regularly refreshed
• Browser API with Puppeteer/Playwright support for JavaScript-heavy sites

What It Excels At

Bright Data’s infrastructure-first approach makes it suitable for businesses requiring high-volume, always-on data pipelines. The massive proxy network ensures reliable access to any website globally without manual proxy management. Pre-built scrapers and datasets reduce development time for common use cases. 

Pricing

Volume-based pricing with enterprise tiers available. Offers both pay-as-you-go and commitment-based pricing models.

Common Challenges of Bright Data

Pricing is a major concern as costs can escalate quickly with high-volume projects, making Bright Data prohibitively expensive for startups and small businesses with limited budgets. 

Users report frustration with poor, outdated, and incomplete documentation that hinders understanding of features, updates, and proper implementation. 

Stop Managing Scrapers, Start Using Data

You started this article all too familiar with the “full-time nightmare” of web scraping at scale. You’ve seen how the simple scripts that once worked for a hobby project crumble under the weight of IP bans, layout changes, and the sheer complexity of managing data across dozens of sites.

The five services we’ve examined each offer a powerful exit from that nightmare, but they serve different masters. Your final choice isn’t about finding the “best” service in a vacuum—it’s about finding the best fit for your team’s skills and your company’s priorities.

Let’s simplify the decision one last time:

• Choose ScrapeHero if you want to close the book on technical headaches entirely. They are the hands-off, fully-managed solution that turns websites into a clean, reliable data feed, letting you focus 100% on analysis and strategy.
• Choose Apify if you have a strong development team that craves control and wants to build, customize, and own their scraping infrastructure using a powerful platform.
• Choose Zyte if your top priorities are legal compliance and navigating regulated industries, and you need a robust platform trusted by technical teams.
• Choose Oxylabs or Bright Data if your primary need is massive, global proxy infrastructure and raw power for high-volume, real-time data extraction, and you have the technical resources to manage it.

Remember the fundamental trade-off: Are you buying a tool for your engineers, or are you hiring an outsourced data department?

Ultimately, the goal isn’t to become an expert in web scraping—it’s to become an expert in using data to grow your business. By partnering with a fully-managed service like ScrapeHero, you free your team to focus on what they do best. 

Stop managing infrastructure and start using data. Reach out to ScrapeHero for a custom solution and let us handle the hard part.

Frequently Asked Questions