The 9 Best Web Scraping Tools in 2026, Compared

The best web scraping tools in 2026 are Scrape.ly, Apify, Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, Bright Data, Octoparse, Web Scraper, Scrapy and Crawl4AI. Scrape.ly is our pick because it puts everything in one place: a ready-made scraper for almost any popular site, cloud runs at a published price per result, the same scraper from code or an AI agent, and residential proxies from $4 per GB, starting with $5 of free usage every month.

The other eight are good at narrower jobs, and we say exactly which. They span five kinds of tool: scraper platforms, scraping APIs, no-code builders, open-source libraries and AI crawlers. Every price and limit below was checked on 23 October 2026 on the vendor's own pricing page, docs or repository.

How we picked the best web scraping tools

"Best" depends on the job, so we judged each tool on what decides whether you get usable data quickly and at a predictable cost:

1. Ready-made scrapers. Can you get Google Maps, Amazon or LinkedIn Jobs data without writing selectors and fixing them every time the site changes?
2. Pay for results. Is the price tied to what you get back (a place, a product, a page), so you can work out the bill before you start?
3. A real free tier. Can you run real jobs and export the data without a card or a trial clock?
4. Code and API access. Is there a REST API and client libraries, and can you build your own scraper on the same platform when nothing ready-made fits?
5. AI agent access. Can Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT call it over MCP?
6. Spending control. Can you cap what a run or a key may spend?

Best web scraping tools compared

Sources for every cell are the vendor pages linked in each section below.

1. Scrape.ly: the best web scraping tool overall

Scrape.ly is a web-data platform built around a Store of ready-made scrapers, called Actors. Each one is maintained for a site or a job, published by one of six studios, and priced per result on its page. You run it from a form in your browser, from the API, or from an AI agent, and it runs in the cloud with proxies and anti-blocking handled.

Why it's our number one:

• 568 ready-made scrapers. Google Maps, Amazon, LinkedIn Jobs, Instagram, TikTok, Zillow, Walmart and hundreds more, with 1,852 presets you can run in one click. Browse them in the Store.
• Pay per result. Every Store Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. The Google Maps Scraper charges $3.60 per 1,000 places, the Website Content Crawler $0.50 per 1,000 pages, the Amazon Product Scraper $0.70 per 1,000 results.
• Free every month, no card. The free plan includes $5 of usage each month, which covered about 1,300 Google Maps places at our run's rate. Paid plans cost $19, $199 and $999, and each plan's price comes back as usage credit.
• A cap on every run. Set maxTotalChargeUsd and the run stops at that amount, with fees, compute, proxy and browser time all counted. Agents get scoped API keys with daily charge limits.
• Built for agents. A hosted MCP server at https://api.scrape.ly/mcp (OAuth or token) works with Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT, Windsurf, Cline and Zed. The server is open source.
• Build your own when you need to. JavaScript and Python SDKs on Crawlee, a CLI, templates for Playwright, Scrapy and more, and Apify compatibility: most Apify Actors run unchanged, and apify-client code works after an import, base URL and token change.
• Infrastructure included. Residential proxies from $4 per GB on Free down to $2 on Business, datacenter from $1 per GB, and the Scrapely browser (hosted Chromium with anti-bot fingerprints and Cloudflare Turnstile solving) at $0.45 per browser hour.

Real costs from our own runs on 22 October 2026: the Google Maps Scraper returned 10 restaurants in 5.7 seconds for $0.0369 all-in, and the Website Content Crawler turned 10 docs pages into Markdown in 7.2 seconds for $0.0058.

One API call runs a scraper and returns the data:

curl -X POST "https://api.scrape.ly/v2/actors/cornerledger~google-maps-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCRAPELY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchStringsArray": ["restaurant"], "locationQuery": "Konstanz", "maxCrawledPlacesPerSearch": 10}'

And one line gives Claude Code the whole Store:

claude mcp add --transport http scrapely https://api.scrape.ly/mcp

Best for: getting structured data from popular sites quickly and at a known price, whether you click, code or delegate to an agent.

2. Apify

Apify created the Actor model and runs the Apify Store, where most scrapers charge per event. The free plan includes $5 of usage a month without a card. Starter costs $19 a month, Scale $199 and Business $999, each including its price as prepaid usage; anything above that goes on your next invoice. Residential proxies cost $8 per GB on Free and Starter and $7 on Business. Apify has an MCP server too.

Best for: running a specific Actor that only exists in the Apify Store. Because Scrape.ly uses the same Actor model, you can move most Actors over unchanged and pay $2 to $4 per GB for residential proxies instead; see Apify alternatives.

3. Firecrawl

Firecrawl is an API that turns web pages into Markdown or JSON for LLM apps, with endpoints for scrape, crawl, map, search and browser interaction. A page costs 1 credit, and JSON extraction 4 more. The free plan has 1,000 credits a month; Hobby costs $19 for 5,000 credits, Standard $99 for 100,000 and Growth $399 for 500,000. It has a hosted MCP server.

Best for: turning a known list of URLs into Markdown with one API call. For the same job, Scrape.ly's Website Content Crawler cost $0.58 per 1,000 pages on our run; we compare both in Firecrawl alternatives.

4. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee is a scraping API: you send a URL, it renders the page in a headless browser with rotating proxies and returns the HTML. Requests cost 1 to 75 credits; JavaScript rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits, and premium and stealth proxies cost more, per its documentation. Plans start at $19 a month for 75,000 credits, then $49 for 250,000 and $99 for 1,000,000. New accounts get 1,000 free credits without a card. It also offers dedicated APIs for sites such as Amazon, Walmart and Google.

Best for: developers who want to fetch individual JavaScript-heavy pages through one endpoint and parse the HTML themselves. More options in ScrapingBee alternatives.

5. Bright Data

Bright Data is a large proxy network with scraper APIs and datasets on top. Its Web Scraper API bills per delivered record: 5,000 records a month free without a card, then $1.50 per 1,000 pay as you go, or $499 a month for 384,000 records on the Scale plan. Its MCP server includes 5,000 free requests a month.

Best for: companies buying high-volume record feeds and proxy traffic from one big vendor. If you want a Store of scrapers plus per-GB proxies on a free monthly credit, read Bright Data alternatives.

6. Octoparse

Octoparse is a no-code scraper: you build tasks by pointing and clicking in its desktop app, or start from its template gallery. The free plan runs tasks on your own computer only, with 10 tasks and 50,000 exported rows a month, and per its template docs free users can't export data collected with templates. Cloud runs and scheduling start with Standard at $83 a month, or $69 a month billed yearly, with up to 3 concurrent cloud processes. Proxies ($3 per GB), CAPTCHA solving and premium templates are billed on top.

Best for: non-developers who want to design a scraper visually for a site no ready-made scraper covers. If a scraper for your site already exists, Scrape.ly runs it in the cloud with no subscription; see Octoparse alternatives.

7. Web Scraper

Web Scraper is a point-and-click Chrome extension that's free to use, plus Web Scraper Cloud, which runs your scrapers on its servers with proxies, a scheduler and an API. Cloud bills URL credits, one per page loaded: Project costs $50 a month ($40 billed yearly) for 5,000 URL credits, Professional $100 for 20,000, and Scale starts at $200. Each comes with a 7-day trial without a card.

Best for: scraping a few simple sites from your own browser at no cost.

8. Scrapy

Scrapy is the classic open-source Python framework for crawling and scraping, under a BSD license. You write spiders that follow links and yield items, and Scrapy handles scheduling requests, retries and export pipelines. It's free, but proxies, servers, monitoring and fixing broken selectors are yours.

Best for: Python developers who want full control over large custom crawls and are happy to run the infrastructure. Scrape.ly has a Scrapy template, so you can deploy a spider as an Actor and get the cloud, schedules and proxies without managing servers.

9. Crawl4AI

Crawl4AI is an open-source crawler (Apache 2.0) that turns websites into clean Markdown for RAG and AI agents. You can self-host it for free, or use its hosted cloud: 1,000 credits a month free, paid plans from $10 a month. It also offers MCP for agents.

Best for: developers who want a self-hosted, LLM-ready crawler in Python and are comfortable running it.

How to choose a web scraping tool

Start from what you need, not from the tool category:

• Data from a popular site (maps, marketplaces, job boards, social media): use a ready-made scraper. Search the Scrape.ly Store, load a preset, and you have data in minutes, at a price you can read before you start.
• Pages as Markdown for an LLM or RAG pipeline: Scrape.ly's Website Content Crawler at $0.50 per 1,000 pages, or Firecrawl and Crawl4AI if you only need that one job.
• No code at all: Scrape.ly's form-based Actors run in the browser with no install. Pick Octoparse or Web Scraper only if you need to design a scraper visually for a niche site.
• Full control in Python: Scrapy, deployed on Scrape.ly so you don't run servers.
• AI agents: connect your agent to an MCP server that can run real scrapers. Scrape.ly's gives it the whole Store; our guide to the best MCP servers for web scraping has the setup for each client.

Comparing specific vendors? We have deeper guides to PhantomBuster alternatives and Oxylabs alternatives, and head-to-head pages for each tool on Scrape.ly compare.

FAQ

What is the best web scraping tool?

Scrape.ly. It combines 568 ready-made scrapers with published per-result prices, cloud runs on a free $5 monthly credit, an API with Python and JavaScript clients, and an MCP server for AI agents. You can also build and deploy your own scrapers on the same platform.

What are the best free web scraping tools?

Scrape.ly's free plan gives you $5 of cloud usage every month without a card, enough for about 1,300 Google Maps places. Scrapy and Crawl4AI are free open-source libraries you host yourself. Web Scraper's Chrome extension is free for scraping in your own browser, and Firecrawl and ScrapingBee each include 1,000 free credits.

What is the best web scraper for beginners?

A ready-made scraper you fill in like a form. On Scrape.ly you open an Actor, load a preset, click Start and export a CSV, with nothing to install. Visual builders like Octoparse also avoid code, but you have to design and maintain each task yourself.

Which scraping tools work with AI agents?

Tools with an MCP server. Scrape.ly, Apify, Firecrawl, Bright Data, Octoparse and Crawl4AI all document one. Scrape.ly's hosted server at https://api.scrape.ly/mcp lets an agent search the Store, run any of its 568 scrapers and read the results, with a per-key daily spending limit.

Do I need proxies to use web scraping tools?

For most sites with anti-bot protection, yes. Scraper platforms and scraping APIs include them: on Scrape.ly, Store Actors use residential or datacenter proxies as needed and the traffic is billed in the same run, from $4 per GB residential on the free plan. With Scrapy or other open-source libraries, you buy and rotate proxies yourself.

What's the difference between a web scraping tool and a scraping API?

A scraping API like ScrapingBee fetches a page and hands back HTML or Markdown; you still write the extraction. A scraper platform like Scrape.ly runs complete scrapers that return structured fields (name, price, rating) and adds scheduling, storage, exports and integrations.