Firecrawl vs ScraperAPI

The same comparison from the API:

curl -X POST https://scrapeselect.com/api/v1/compare \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"products":["firecrawl/api","scraperapi/scraping-api"],"workload":{"successful_pages_per_month":500000,"javascript_ratio":0.2,"anti_bot_level":"medium","target_country":"US","country_required":true,"peak_concurrency":40,"monthly_billing_only":true,"expected_success_rate":null,"average_page_size_kb":null,"average_browser_seconds":null}}'

{
  "products": [
    {
      "estimate": {
        "provider": "firecrawl",
        "provider_name": "Firecrawl",
        "product": "api",
        "product_name": "Firecrawl API",
        "category": "scraping_api",
        "billing_model": "credit",
        "architecture": "managed_api",
        "feasible": true,
        "low": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "expected": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "high": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "rejected_plans": {
          "free": "concurrency 2 < 40",
          "hobby": "concurrency 5 < 40",
          "standard": "concurrency 25 < 40",
          "enterprise": "price not public"
        },
        "sources": [
          {
            "key": "billing",
            "url": "https://docs.firecrawl.dev/billing",
            "title": "Firecrawl billing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Credits are the unit of usage in Firecrawl.",
              "Scrape 1 credit / page Convert a single URL into clean markdown, HTML, or structured data.",
              "Search 2 credits / 10 results",
              "Map 1 credit / call",
              "Interact 2–7 credits / browser minute",
              "JSON format (LLM extraction) +4 credits / page",
              "Firecrawl returned a document: 1 credit per page",
              "Firecrawl returned no document: 0 credits.",
              "Unused plan credits do not roll over by default: your monthly allotment resets each month.",
              "Annual Scale plans roll unused plan credits over 1 month, and annual Enterprise plans roll them over 2 months.",
              "Credits you buy stay on your account until you use them.",
              "You buy credits in increments of 5 USD.",
              "Hobby 5,000 5 Standard 100,000 25 Growth 500,000 50 Scale 1,000,000 100",
              "Hobby 1,000 Standard 2,000 Growth 2,500 Scale 5,000",
              "Enhanced proxy (proxy: \"enhanced\" or auto escalation) +0"
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          },
          {
            "key": "pricing",
            "url": "https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing",
            "title": "Firecrawl pricing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Hobby: $19/month billed monthly ($16/month billed annually), 5,000 credits/month",
              "Standard: $99/month billed monthly ($83/month billed annually), 100,000 credits/month",
              "Growth: $399/month billed monthly ($333/month billed annually), 500,000 credits/month",
              "Scale: $749/month billed monthly ($599/month billed annually), 1,000,000 credits/month",
              "Free tier 1,000 credits every month, refreshed monthly, no credit card required.",
              "Enterprise: custom pricing, credits and concurrency.",
              "A scrape that returns no result is not charged. A page that responds with an error status such as 403 or 404 is still returned to you and costs 1 credit.",
              "2 concurrent requests",
              "5 concurrent requests",
              "25 concurrent requests",
              "50 concurrent requests",
              "100 concurrent requests",
              "1,000 extra credits per $5",
              "2,000 extra credits per $5",
              "2,500 extra credits per $5",
              "5,000 extra credits per $5",
              "Effective September 4, 2026"
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          }
        ]
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "key": "javascript-rendering",
          "label": "JavaScript rendering",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "country-targeting",
          "label": "Country targeting",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Uses the scope location object: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country plus preferred languages; US by default.",
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "premium-proxy",
          "label": "Premium proxy",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Enhanced proxy costs the same 1 credit.",
          "source": "billing"
        },
        {
          "key": "screenshot",
          "label": "Screenshot",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "cookie-persistence",
          "label": "Cookie persistence",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Persistent browser profiles save cookies, localStorage and sessions across scrapes.",
          "source": "interact-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "json-output",
          "label": "Json output",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "+4 credits per page.",
          "source": "billing"
        }
      ],
      "limits": [
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "free",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "hobby",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "standard",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 100000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "growth",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 200000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "scale",
          "notes": "200,000+; the page groups Scale and Enterprise in one row.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 200000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "enterprise",
          "notes": "200,000+; the page groups Scale and Enterprise in one row.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 10,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "free",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 2/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 100,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "hobby",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 20/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 500,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "standard",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 100/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 5000,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "growth",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 1000/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 10000,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "scale",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 2000/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "One credit per scraped page. JSON extraction adds 4 credits/page; PDF parsing adds 1 per PDF page; Zero Data Retention adds 1; question, query, highlights, audio and video formats add 4 each; PII redaction adds 4; the prompt-injection check adds 4 (or 5 when the scrape fails after the check).",
        "Enhanced proxy is free (+0 credits); basic and enhanced requests both cost 1 credit.",
        "Search costs 2 credits per 10 results (rounded up) plus scrape costs for results that are scraped. Map costs 1 credit per call. Interact costs 2-7 credits per browser minute with a one-minute minimum. Agent has 5 free runs per day, then dynamic pricing.",
        "A scrape that returns no document costs 0 credits. A 403 or 404 returned as a document costs 1 credit. Threat protection adds 2 credits per scanned URL.",
        "Plan credits reset monthly and do not roll over, except annual Scale (1 month) and annual Enterprise (2 months). Purchased credits stay until used and expire if the subscription is cancelled.",
        "Pay-as-you-go needs a paid plan. Credits are bought in $5 increments and a user-set monthly cap applies; the temporary overage buffer is headroom, not kept credits.",
        "X/Twitter URLs use the Grok API and cost 30 credits for a typical request (34 with JSON). LinkedIn URLs are served by third-party providers at their credit cost.",
        "Location sets an appropriate proxy if one is available and emulates the country's language and timezone; it is not a guarantee that every country has an exit IP."
      ],
      "url": "/products/firecrawl/api"
    },
    {
      "estimate": {
        "provider": "scraperapi",
        "provider_name": "ScraperAPI",
        "product": "scraping-api",
        "product_name": "ScraperAPI",
        "category": "scraping_api",
        "billing_model": "credit",
        "architecture": "managed_api",
        "feasible": true,
        "low": {
          "plan_key": "scaling",
          "plan_name": "Scaling",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 475,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.95
        },
        "expected": {
          "plan_key": "scaling",
          "plan_name": "Scaling",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 475,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.95
        },
        "high": {
          "plan_key": "professional",
          "plan_name": "Professional",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 975,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 1.95
        },
        "rejected_plans": {
          "hobby": "concurrency 20 < 40",
          "enterprise": "price not public",
          "startup": "needs 3,430,000 more credit than the plan allows",
          "business": "needs 1,430,000 more credit than the plan allows"
        },
        "sources": [
          {
            "key": "credits",
            "url": "https://docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs",
            "title": "Credits and request costs",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "premium=true - 10 … render=true - 10 … scrensshot=true - 10 … ultra_premium=true - 30* … premium=true + render=true - 25 … ultra_premium=true + render=true - 75*",
              "E-Commerce Amazon, Walmart, eBay 5 · SERP Google, Bing - (applies to all subdomains) 25 · Social Media LinkedIn 30",
              "Cloudflare Bypass 10 … Datadome Bypass 10 … PerimeterX/Human Bypass 10",
              "We only charge for successful requests (200 and 404 status codes) and for requests that have been cancelled from your side before giving us enough time to finish them (70 seconds)."
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          },
          {
            "key": "premium",
            "url": "https://docs.scraperapi.com/control-and-optimization/premium-residential-mobile-proxy-pools",
            "title": "Premium residential and mobile proxy pools",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "both javascript rendering and our premium proxy pools will be charged at 25 times the normal rate",
              "These two parameters are mutually exclusive"
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          },
          {
            "key": "pricing",
            "url": "https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/",
            "title": "ScraperAPI pricing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Monthly / Yearly 10% off",
              "Hobby … $49 /month $44.10 /month billed annually … 100,000 API Credits 20 Concurrent Threads Geotargeting: US & EU only",
              "A standard page costs 1 credit. Amazon costs 5, Google and Bing (including their subdomains) cost 25, and LinkedIn costs 30. Sites behind bot protection like Cloudflare, Datadome, or PerimeterX add 10 credits per request when we bypass them.",
              "Pay-As-You-Go is available on our Scaling, Professional, Advanced, and Enterprise plans.",
              "you'll get a 429 response … There's no extra charge for going over",
              "Start collecting data with our 7-day trial and 5,000 API credits. No credit card required."
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          }
        ]
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "key": "javascript-rendering",
          "label": "JavaScript rendering",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "credits"
        },
        {
          "key": "premium-proxy",
          "label": "Premium proxy",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "premium"
        },
        {
          "key": "country-targeting",
          "label": "Country targeting",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Hobby and Startup are limited to US & EU.",
          "source": "pricing"
        },
        {
          "key": "city-targeting",
          "label": "City targeting",
          "value": false,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "geo-faq"
        },
        {
          "key": "sticky-session",
          "label": "Sticky session",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "sessions"
        },
        {
          "key": "screenshot",
          "label": "Screenshot",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "credits"
        },
        {
          "key": "async-request",
          "label": "Async request",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "pricing"
        }
      ],
      "limits": [
        {
          "key": "session-duration",
          "value": 900,
          "unit": "seconds",
          "plan": null,
          "notes": "Expires 15 minutes after last use.",
          "source": "sessions"
        },
        {
          "key": "request-timeout",
          "value": 60,
          "unit": "seconds",
          "plan": null,
          "notes": "Retries internally for up to 60 s before returning 500.",
          "source": "general-faq"
        },
        {
          "key": "geotargeting-countries",
          "value": "US",
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "hobby",
          "notes": "US, or Europe as a region; no individual countries.",
          "source": "standard-geo"
        },
        {
          "key": "geotargeting-countries",
          "value": "US",
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "startup",
          "notes": "US, or Europe as a region; no individual countries.",
          "source": "standard-geo"
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Credit costs are an absolute lookup table, not stacked multipliers (premium + render = 25, not 10 x 10).",
        "How domain costs combine with render/premium parameters is not documented; the provider points to its urlcost endpoint. Only the documented case (a standard page without render/premium) is encoded; other combinations fall back to the generic rows and are flagged as unverified.",
        "PAYG credits exist on Scaling and above but the per-credit rate is not published, so no overage is modelled; lower plans must upgrade.",
        "Professional and Advanced currently show limited-time bonus credits (+250K / +500K), not included here.",
        "Requests cancelled by the client before 70 seconds are billed."
      ],
      "url": "/products/scraperapi/scraping-api"
    }
  ],
  "assumptions": [
    {
      "key": "success_rate",
      "label": "Success rate",
      "value": "97% / 93% / 88%",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": "Low / expected / high scenario for medium anti-bot targets. Only changes cost where failed attempts are billed."
    },
    {
      "key": "protected_share",
      "label": "Pages needing premium proxies",
      "value": "20% / 30% / 45%",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Share of pages behind anti-bot protection for medium targets."
    },
    {
      "key": "difficulty_tier",
      "label": "Website difficulty tier",
      "value": "2 / 3 / 4",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Only used by providers that price by site tier (e.g. Zyte); their own estimator gives the real tier."
    },
    {
      "key": "page_size_kb",
      "label": "Average page size",
      "value": "300 KB",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": "Drives cost for traffic-billed products and proxy traffic."
    },
    {
      "key": "browser_traffic_multiplier",
      "label": "Browser page traffic",
      "value": "4x the HTML size",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Rendered pages also load scripts, styles and images."
    },
    {
      "key": "browser_seconds",
      "label": "Browser time per rendered page",
      "value": "10 s",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": null
    },
    {
      "key": "compute_units",
      "label": "Compute per 1,000 pages",
      "value": "0.8 CU (HTTP), 6 CU (browser)",
      "origin": "public_observation",
      "note": "From Apify's Website Content Crawler README (0.8 CU HTTP, 2-20 CU browser)."
    },
    {
      "key": "geotargeting",
      "label": "Country targeting",
      "value": "US (required)",
      "origin": "user",
      "note": "Some providers only allow country targeting with premium proxies."
    }
  ],
  "engine_version": "0.1.0",
  "meta": {
    "data_checked_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
    "freshness": "fresh",
    "schema_version": "1.0"
  }
}