NEW ScrapingAnt MCP for Claude Code, Cursor & Windsurf — try it free →
Start free

A ScrapingBee alternative with twice the credits at $49

ScrapingBee Freelance includes 250,000 credits for $49/month. ScrapingAnt Startup includes 500,000 for the same price, and paid plans have no plan concurrency cap.

Start free — 10,000 credits Compare the plans

10,000 free credits every month · no card · one concurrent request on Free

SCRAPINGBEE · FREELANCE $49 / month CREDITS 250K 50 concurrent vs SCRAPINGANT · STARTUP $49 / month CREDITS 500K no plan cap Plain HTTP costs 1 credit on both
Plans at the same price

The gap is widest at $49

Here are both price lists side by side, with monthly billing. ScrapingBee raises concurrency with each plan, from 25 on Hobby to 200 on Business. Paid ScrapingAnt plans have no plan concurrency cap at any tier, so you pick the worker count your targets tolerate.

Published monthly plans, credits and concurrency
Monthly priceScrapingBeeScrapingAnt
$19Hobby75,000 credits · 25 concurrentEnthusiast100,000 credits · no plan cap
$49Freelance250,000 credits · 50 concurrentStartup500,000 credits · no plan cap
$99Startup1,000,000 credits · 100 concurrentNo plan at this price
$249Business3,000,000 credits · 200 concurrentBusiness3,000,000 credits · no plan cap

At $249 both Business plans include 3,000,000 credits. What differs there is concurrency and the cost of each request mode.

Mode by mode

What $49 buys in each request mode

ScrapingBee Freelance and ScrapingAnt Startup both cost $49/month: 250,000 versus 500,000 credits. Each mode spends credits at its own rate, so the counts below assume the whole allowance goes to one mode.

Credit cost per request and monthly request ceiling at $49
Request modeScrapingBee credits per requestScrapingAnt credits per requestScrapingBee requestsScrapingAnt requests
HTTP, classic / datacenter11250,000500,000
Rendered HTML, classic / datacenter51050,00050,000
HTTP, premium / residential102525,00020,000
Rendered HTML, premium / residential2512510,0004,000

Plain HTTP batches

At $49, ScrapingAnt Startup covers up to 500,000 plain HTTP requests and ScrapingBee Freelance covers 250,000. At $19 the split is 100,000 versus 75,000. Rendered requests on datacenter proxies tie at 50,000 at $49.

Where ScrapingBee comes out ahead

Premium and residential traffic. At $49, ScrapingBee covers 25,000 versus 20,000 requests over HTTP and 10,000 versus 4,000 rendered.

Each ceiling is the monthly allowance divided by the credit cost, rounded down. Not in the table: ScrapingAnt Google requests on datacenter proxies cost 10 credits; browser page-source mode costs 2 credits on datacenter and 50 on residential; ScrapingBee stealth costs 75 credits and has no direct ScrapingAnt equivalent. Monthly billing without annual discounts; ScrapingBee prices exclude VAT.

Checked : ScrapingBee plans, ScrapingBee credit rules, ScrapingBee geolocation, ScrapingAnt plans, ScrapingAnt credit rules, ScrapingAnt proxy countries and ScrapingAnt concurrency policy. Check again before you buy.

24 ScrapingAnt datacenter + residential, no surcharge 40+ ScrapingBee classic 1 or 5 credits per request 200+ ScrapingBee premium 10 or 25 credits per request
Country targeting

Neither API charges extra to pick a country

ScrapingAnt’s 24 documented proxy_country countries work on datacenter and residential proxies at the normal credit cost, with no geotargeting surcharge. ScrapingBee doesn’t add a surcharge either: 40+ countries on classic proxies at 1 or 5 credits, and 200+ on premium proxies at 10 or 25.

If you need a country outside ScrapingAnt’s list, ScrapingBee covers more.

See the country list →
Migrating from ScrapingBee

Move one request, check it, then move the queue

ScrapingBee authenticates with a Bearer header. ScrapingAnt takes x-api-key as a query parameter. Export the key variable first; each command spends credits on one request.

# Plain HTTP; encode the full target URL once.
curl --get --max-time 75 'https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $SCRAPINGBEE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://example.com/?page=2&sort=new' \
  --data-urlencode 'render_js=false' \
  --data-urlencode 'premium_proxy=false'
# Same request: plain HTTP over datacenter proxies.
curl --get --max-time 45 'https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general' \
  --data-urlencode "x-api-key=$SCRAPINGANT_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://example.com/?page=2&sort=new' \
  --data-urlencode 'browser=false' \
  --data-urlencode 'proxy_type=datacenter' \
  --data-urlencode 'timeout=30'

  1. Make the HTTP mode explicit

    Change the host and authentication. Both APIs render by default, so use render_js=false / browser=false for plain HTTP.

  2. Keep your acceptance checks

    Check the target status and required fields before parsing. Track Ant-credits-cost for each accepted result, retries included.

  3. Start with a canary

    Move a small read-only batch with a worker limit and a fixed retry budget. Keep the ScrapingBee adapter for rollback.

Python and JavaScript migration guide →

Before you switch

Check what the rest of your workflow needs

Synchronous HTML fetching is the easy part to move. Browser rendering, country selection and custom in-page JavaScript are available too, with their own settings and costs.

CSS waits map to wait_for_selector. XPath waits and JSON scenarios need rewriting. Premium/residential is a proxy class, so don’t expect the same pool or the same results on every site.

Also comparing ZenRows? The ZenRows comparison covers concurrency caps and country pricing.

Keep these on ScrapingBee until you redesign them

  • Five-minute IP sessions with session_id
  • Screenshots, or your own proxy via own_proxy
  • Automatic mode selection with mode=auto / max_cost
  • Dedicated search and product APIs, and existing extraction schemas
Review the eligibility checklist →
Pricing

Industry leading pricing that scales with your business.

Compare plans side by side. Every tier includes 10,000 free credits to start.
👈Swipe to compare all 5 plans👉
Plans
Enthusiast
100K credits / mo
$19/mo
★ Most Popular
Startup
500K credits / mo
$49/mo
Business
3M credits / mo
$249/mo
Business Pro
8M credits / mo
$599/mo
Custom
10M+ credits / mo
$699+/mo
Monthly API credits 100,000 500,000 3,000,000 8,000,000 10M+
Support channel Email Priority email Priority email Priority email Priority + dedicated
Integration help Docs only Custom code snippets Debug sessions Priority debug sessions Full enterprise onboarding
Expert assistance — included included included included
Custom proxy pools — — included included included
Custom anti-bot avoidances — — included included included
Dedicated account manager — — included included included
Start Free Start Free → Start Free Start Free Talk to Sales
⚡
Hit your limit mid-month?
Restart your plan instantly — no waiting for the next billing cycle. Credits refresh the moment you pay, so scraping never has to stop.
✓10,000 free credits every month
✓No credit card required
✓Pay only for successful scrapes — failed requests cost 0
FAQ

ScrapingBee migration questions

Request-level details are in the migration guide.

Is ScrapingAnt cheaper than ScrapingBee?

It depends on the plan and the request mode. At $49, ScrapingAnt covers up to 500,000 plain HTTP requests versus 250,000, and rendered datacenter requests tie at 50,000. ScrapingBee covers more premium/residential requests: 25,000 versus 20,000 over HTTP and 10,000 versus 4,000 rendered. At $19, plain HTTP is 100,000 versus 75,000, but ScrapingBee covers more rendered datacenter requests: 15,000 versus 10,000. At $249, both Business plans include 3,000,000 credits, so plain HTTP allowances are equal and ScrapingBee covers twice as many rendered requests.

Does choosing a country cost extra?

Not on either service. ScrapingAnt’s 24 documented proxy_country countries work on datacenter and residential proxies at the normal credit cost for each proxy type. ScrapingBee geotargets 40+ countries on classic proxies at its normal 1 or 5 credits, and 200+ countries on premium proxies at 10 or 25 credits.

Can I keep my ScrapingBee parameters?

Keep the target URL, then change the endpoint and key and map render_js to browser. Map country_code to proxy_country after checking the country is available. A CSS wait_for becomes wait_for_selector; XPath waits need rewriting. A JSON js_scenario has to be rewritten as Base64-encoded JavaScript. Stealth mode, sessions and extraction schemas have no automatic mapping.

What happens to sessions and response data?

ScrapingBee session_id keeps the same IP for five minutes, and cookies alone don’t reproduce that in the ScrapingAnt HTML API. Use /v2/general for HTML. For the target’s status, headers and cookies, use /v2/extended and update your response adapter, since its JSON envelope differs from ScrapingBee extraction output.

How do the free plans compare?

ScrapingAnt’s free plan renews 10,000 API credits every month, with one concurrent request and domain restrictions. ScrapingBee gives 1,000 free API credits once, when you sign up. Neither asks for a card.

Move your plain HTTP traffic first

Check your parser on an eligible page with the free plan, then switch the part of your queue that runs without a browser.

Start free — 10,000 credits Read the migration guide

No card needed. The free plan has domain restrictions and one concurrent request.