The best Thunderbit alternatives in 2026 are Scrape.ly, Browse AI, Octoparse, Web Scraper and Apify. Scrape.ly comes first because it turns "describe the data" into a cloud run of a maintained scraper: you ask its AI chat or pick one of 560+ ready-made Actors, it runs on Scrape.ly's servers on a schedule if you like, and you pay a fixed price per result, often a dollar or two per 1,000 rows instead of a credit per row.
Thunderbit made AI scraping feel easy: open a page, let the AI suggest columns, click scrape. That works well for a page or two. The questions start when you need thousands of rows, the same sites every week, or data in a pipeline instead of a sheet. This guide compares the alternatives on exactly that. Every competitor price below was checked on 27 October 2026 on the vendor's own pricing page.
Why people look for Thunderbit alternatives
Thunderbit is an AI web scraper delivered as a Chrome extension, with a Web Scraper API for developers. Its pricing page bills in credits, and these are the parts that send people looking:
- A credit per row. "1 row of data = 1 credit", and with subpage scraping enabled "1 row of data = 2 credits". A data enrichment query costs 30 credits.
- Small monthly allowances. Starter costs $15 a month ($108 billed yearly) for 500 credits a month. The Pro tiers cost $38 a month for 3,000 credits, $75 for 6,000, $125 for 10,000 and $249 for 20,000.
- A narrow free plan. Thunderbit's FAQ says "the Free plan allows you to scrape up to 5 pages with a maximum of 30 credits per page", and that it "does not include features like pre-built scrapers, subpage scraping, bulk scraping, pagination, data enrichment, and advanced data retention".
- Hard stops. "If you exceed your monthly credits, you will need to upgrade to a higher-tier plan or wait until your credits reset", and Thunderbit "does not offer refunds for unused time or credits".
Put as a price per row: Starter works out to $30 per 1,000 rows ($15 ÷ 500), and the largest Pro tier to about $12.45 per 1,000 ($249 ÷ 20,000), before subpages double it.
What to look for in Thunderbit alternatives
- Cloud runs. The scraper should run on a server, on a schedule, without your laptop or browser open.
- Maintained scrapers for common sites. For Google Maps, Amazon or LinkedIn Jobs, someone should already have built and be maintaining the scraper.
- A price per 1,000 rows you can read up front. At thousands of rows a month, this is the line that decides the bill.
- A free plan that does real runs. Enough to test the whole workflow, including a schedule.
- Exports where you work. Excel, CSV and Google Sheets at minimum, plus webhooks for anything automated.
- A path to code and AI agents. The same scraper should work from an API or from Claude when the project grows.
Thunderbit alternatives compared
| Tool | How you get data | Where it runs | Free plan | First paid plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scrape.ly | Ask the AI chat or pick one of 560+ ready-made Actors | Scrape.ly's cloud | $5 of credit every month, no card | Starter, $19 every 4 weeks, all of it usable credit |
| Browse AI | Record a robot or start from a prebuilt one | Browse AI's cloud | 50 credits a month, up to 500 rows | Personal, $48 a month ($19 billed yearly) |
| Octoparse | Point-and-click desktop app and templates | Your computer on Free; cloud from Standard | 10 tasks | Standard, $83 a month ($69 billed yearly) |
| Web Scraper | Point-and-click Chrome extension, plus Web Scraper Cloud | Your browser; the cloud on paid plans | Extension free for local use; 7-day Cloud trial | Project, $50 a month for 5,000 URL credits |
| Apify | Ready-made Actors from the Apify Store | Apify's cloud | $5 of usage a month | Starter, $19 a month |
The sources for every cell are the pricing pages linked in each section below.
1. Scrape.ly: describe the data, get a maintained scraper in the cloud
Scrape.ly replaces "train an AI on this page" with a Store of ready-made scrapers, called Actors, and an AI chat that picks and runs them for you. You describe what you need, for example "the 20 best-rated coffee shops in Austin with their websites", and the chat searches the Store, fills in the input, runs the Actor and shows the results as a table. Or you open an Actor yourself, load a preset and click Start.
What that gives you over an AI extension:
- Maintained scrapers for the sites people scrape most. Google Maps, Amazon, LinkedIn, Indeed, Instagram, TikTok, Zillow and hundreds more each have an Actor maintained by its publisher. When a site changes its layout, the publisher fixes the Actor; you don't re-train anything.
- A fixed price per result. The Google Maps Scraper costs $1.78 per 1,000 places with compute and proxies included. That's 10,000 places for $17.80, against 10,000 credits on Thunderbit's $125 Pro tier.
- Any other site, too. The Web Scraper Actor crawls any site with a short page function, the Contact Details Scraper pulls emails, phones and social links from websites, and the Website Content Crawler turns whole sites into clean text or Markdown for AI tools. If no Actor fits, the AI chat can send the Scrape.ly team a request for one.
- Cloud runs and schedules on the free plan. The Free plan gives you $5 of usage every month without a card, 2 concurrent runs and 5 schedules. An automation runs a saved input daily or weekly, in your time zone (automations).
- Exports where you work. Download any run as Excel, CSV or JSON, or send each run's results to Google Sheets, Slack, email or a webhook (integrations).
- A cap on every run. Set a maximum cost and the run stops before it goes over, so a broken input can't eat your month.
- Room to grow. Every Actor runs from the REST API, the Python and JavaScript clients, and AI assistants like Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT through Scrape.ly's hosted MCP server.
What 1,000 and 10,000 rows cost
| Rows in a month | Thunderbit (1 credit per row) | Scrape.ly, Google Maps Scraper |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | Pro Tier 1, $38 (Starter's 500 credits aren't enough) | $1.78, inside the free $5 credit |
| 10,000 | Pro Tier 3, $125 | $17.80, inside Starter's $19 |
With subpage scraping on, Thunderbit's 10,000 rows take 20,000 credits, which is the $249 tier. The Scrape.ly side stays at a fixed price per place.
Best for: anyone who wants data from common sites in a sheet or an API, on a schedule, at a fixed price per 1,000 rows, without keeping a browser open or babysitting a credit balance.
2. Browse AI
Browse AI lets you train a "robot" by recording what you do on a page, or start from a prebuilt robot, then run it in the cloud on a schedule or use it to monitor a page for changes. It bills in credits: 100 credits get you 1,000 rows from list pages.
The Free plan includes 50 credits a month, "up to 50 pages and/or 500 rows of data per month", and 2 domains. Personal costs $48 a month billed monthly ($19 a month billed annually) for 2,000 credits a month and 5 domains; Professional costs $87 a month billed monthly for 5,000 credits and 10 domains.
Best for: monitoring a handful of specific pages for changes. The per-domain limits matter once you need data from many sites, and Scrape.ly's Actors don't count domains.
3. Octoparse
Octoparse is the classic point-and-click scraper: you build tasks in its desktop app, use auto-detect, or start from a template. The Free plan includes 10 tasks that run on your own computer. Cloud runs, scheduling and 500+ preset templates start with Standard at $83 a month ($69 billed yearly), with up to 3 concurrent cloud processes; Professional costs $299 a month ($249 billed yearly) for up to 20.
Best for: people who like building scrapers visually and run them often enough to justify a subscription. Our Octoparse alternatives guide and the Scrape.ly vs Octoparse comparison go deeper.
4. Web Scraper
Web Scraper is a point-and-click Chrome extension that's free for local use: you click through a page to define a "sitemap" of pages and fields, and it scrapes in your own browser. Web Scraper Cloud runs those sitemaps on its servers with a scheduler, an API and exports to Google Sheets, Dropbox and S3.
Cloud plans bill in URL credits: Project costs $50 a month for 5,000 URL credits and 2 concurrent scrapers, Professional $100 for 20,000, and Scale starts at $200. Each has a 7-day free trial without a card.
Best for: building simple scrapers by hand in your own browser for free. For cloud runs on a free plan, or ready-made scrapers instead of sitemaps, see the Scrape.ly vs Web Scraper comparison.
5. Apify
Apify runs a Store of ready-made Actors, much like Scrape.ly, plus a platform for building your own. The Free plan includes $5 to spend each month; Starter costs $19 a month, Scale $199 and Business $999. On paid plans, usage above the prepaid amount goes on the next invoice, and unused credit doesn't roll over.
Best for: running an Actor that only exists in the Apify Store. Scrape.ly runs most Apify Actors unchanged and caps each run at the maximum cost you set; our Apify alternatives guide has the details.
How to move a Thunderbit workflow to Scrape.ly
- Sign up free. No card needed.
- Describe the data in the AI chat. For example: "Every Monday, get the 50 newest Amazon listings for 'standing desk' with price and rating, and add them to my Google Sheet." The chat picks the Actor, fills in the input and runs it, and it can prepare the automation for you to confirm.
- Or pick the Actor yourself. Search the Store for the site, load a preset, set a maximum cost and click Start. Most small runs finish in seconds.
- Export or connect. Download the run as Excel or CSV, or add Send results to Google Sheets to an automation. The guides to scraping a website to Excel and to Google Sheets walk through both.
- Hand it to your code or your AI agent. Every Actor has an API endpoint, and the hosted MCP server at
https://mcp.scrape.lylets Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT run it for you. Our guide to AI web scraping covers the AI side in more depth.
What to watch out for with any AI or no-code scraper
- Layout changes. An AI that reads a page can still pick the wrong column when the page changes. Maintained Actors return the same fields run after run, and their publishers fix them when sites change.
- Blocking. Busy sites block repeated requests from one address. Store Actors use Scrape.ly's proxies and browser, and on most of them that's included in the price per result.
- Pages behind a login. No-code scrapers are for public pages. Scrape.ly's Store Actors collect publicly available data that any visitor can see.
- Personal data. Names, emails and phone numbers of people are personal data under GDPR and similar laws, even on public pages. Collect only what you need; our guide is web scraping legal? covers the basics.
FAQ
What is the best Thunderbit alternative?
Scrape.ly. You describe the data to its AI chat or pick one of 560+ ready-made Actors, it runs in the cloud on a schedule, and you pay per result, for example $1.78 per 1,000 Google Maps places, from a free $5 monthly credit.
Is there a free alternative to Thunderbit?
Yes. Scrape.ly's Free plan gives you $5 of usage every month with cloud runs and 5 schedules, no card. Web Scraper's Chrome extension is free for local use, and Browse AI's free plan has 50 credits a month.
How much does Thunderbit cost?
On 27 October 2026, Starter cost $15 a month for 500 credits, and the Pro tiers $38, $75, $125 and $249 a month for 3,000 to 20,000 credits. One row costs one credit, or two with subpage scraping.
Is there an AI web scraper that runs in the cloud?
Scrape.ly's AI chat finds the right scraper, runs it on Scrape.ly's servers and can put it on a schedule, so nothing depends on your browser. AI assistants can do the same through its MCP server.
What's the best no-code alternative to a Chrome scraping extension?
A Store of ready-made scrapers that run in the cloud. On Scrape.ly you fill in a form or ask the AI chat and export to Excel or Google Sheets. Our list of the best no-code web scrapers and the best web scraping tools compare more options.
