Firecrawl vs ScraperAPI
Firecrawl is an AI extraction API, while ScraperAPI is a Scraping API. Firecrawl fits best for: Developers building LLM/RAG apps or agents who want clean markdown or JSON from any URL with minimal setup. ScraperAPI fits best for: Developers who want a straightforward proxy+rendering API and structured endpoints for big e-commerce and search sites.
| Firecrawl | ScraperAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | AI extraction API | Scraping API |
| Starting price | $19/mo | $49/mo |
| Free tier | 1,000 credits/month, 2 concurrent requests, no credit card | 7-day trial with 5,000 credits; FAQ also mentions an ongoing free plan of 1,000 credits/month (5 concurrent) |
| Pricing model | credits | credits per successful request |
| AI extraction | ||
| Structured JSON | ||
| JS rendering | ||
| Proxies / anti-bot | ||
| API | ||
| No-code UI | ||
| Open source | ||
| MCP server | ||
| Best for | Developers building LLM/RAG apps or agents who want clean markdown or JSON from any URL with minimal setup. | Developers who want a straightforward proxy+rendering API and structured endpoints for big e-commerce and search sites. |
| Visit Firecrawl | Visit ScraperAPI |
Why choose Firecrawl
- Scrape, crawl, map and search endpoints
- Clean markdown output for LLMs
- LLM-based JSON extraction with a schema or prompt
- Agent endpoint (preview) and browser interact sessions
Watch out for
- JSON extraction costs 5x a plain scrape (1 + 4 credits)
- No pay-as-you-go on the free plan
- Self-hosted version lacks some cloud-only features
Why choose ScraperAPI
- Automatic proxy rotation and retries
- JS rendering and geotargeting
- Structured data endpoints (Amazon, Google, Walmart etc.)
- Async API and DataPipeline scheduler
Watch out for
- Higher entry price than ScrapingBee/Firecrawl
- Credit multipliers for rendering and premium proxies
- No LLM/schema-based extraction found on the pricing page
Our product
Only need structured JSON from pages?
BestAIScraper's extraction API takes a URL and a list of fields and returns typed JSON. Pay per use, no subscription.
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