If you're looking for a ScrapingBee alternative — either because of pricing, complexity, or you just want something simpler — here's an honest, no-BS comparison of ExtractAPI and ScrapingBee side by side.
| ExtractAPI | ScrapingBee | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $9/month | $49/month |
| Requests in starter | 5,000 | 5,000 credits |
| Browser rendering | ✅ Real Chromium | ✅ Headless Chrome |
| JavaScript support | ✅ Built-in | ✅ Built-in |
| JSON output | ✅ Structured by default | ✅ Extract rules available |
| API complexity | One endpoint | Multiple parameters |
| Batch extraction | ✅ Up to 10 URLs | ✅ Via API |
| Geolocation | US-based (single region) | ✅ Multiple regions |
| Screenshots | ❌ Not yet | ✅ Built-in |
| Proxy rotation | ❌ Direct connection | ✅ Premium proxy pool |
You're on a budget. At $9/month for 5,000 requests vs ScrapingBee's $49/month, ExtractAPI is literally 5x cheaper at the starter tier. If you're a solo developer, indie hacker, or small team, that price difference matters.
You want simplicity. ExtractAPI has one endpoint — POST /v1/extract. Give it a URL, get JSON back. No configuring render_js, premium_proxy, country_code, or the dozen other parameters ScrapingBee requires. If "URL in, JSON out" is your workflow, ExtractAPI is faster to integrate.
You need structured data out of the box. ExtractAPI automatically extracts title, meta tags, Open Graph, JSON-LD, headings, main content, and page stats — no extraction rules needed.
You need geolocation or proxy rotation. ScrapingBee has a premium proxy network with residential IPs across multiple countries. If you're scraping sites that aggressively block datacenter IPs, ScrapingBee's proxy pool is hard to beat.
You need screenshots. ScrapingBee can capture full-page screenshots. ExtractAPI focuses on text and structured data extraction — screenshots are on the roadmap but not available yet.
You're at enterprise scale. ScrapingBee has been around longer, has more enterprise features, and offers dedicated support and SLAs at higher tiers.
| Plan | ExtractAPI | ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|
| Starter / Hobby | $9/mo — 5,000 req | $49/mo — 5,000 credits |
| Mid-tier | $29/mo — 25,000 req | $99/mo — 14,000 credits |
| Growth / Business | $99/mo — 100,000 req | $249/mo — 50,000 credits |
| Cost per request (starter) | $0.0018 | $0.0098 (5.4x more) |
ExtractAPI is the right choice if you're a solo developer or small team that needs reliable, fast, affordable webpage-to-structured-data extraction. ScrapingBee is the right choice if you need enterprise-grade proxy rotation, geolocation targeting, and screenshots.
For 80% of scraping use cases — getting product data, articles, listings, and metadata from web pages — ExtractAPI does the job at a fraction of the price.