ScrapingBee Review
ScrapingBee is the most pleasant scraping API to build against, with genuinely excellent docs, browser scenarios and AI extraction. European basing is a bonus.
Review last updated 2026-08-20 · How we rate providers
Scorecard
Pros
- Best documentation and developer experience in the category
- Headless Chrome rendering with JavaScript scenarios and screenshots
- AI-assisted extraction that returns structured data from a prompt
- French company under GDPR, useful for European compliance
Cons
- Smaller scale than ScraperAPI or Zyte
- Premium proxy requests consume many credits
- No SOCKS support or raw proxy access
- Support is business hours only
Privacy, jurisdiction & audits
Who the company answers to legally, what it keeps, and whether anyone independent has checked.
| Legal jurisdiction | France in the 9 EyesFrench company operating under GDPR, which some buyers prefer for compliance reasons. |
|---|---|
| Logging policy | Not a privacy service; operational logs by design |
| Independent audits | None published |
| Anonymous payment | Card / PayPal only |
| How IPs are sourced | Aggregated upstream proxy supply, with residential available on premium requests. |
ScrapingBee plans & pricing
Advertised rates as of August 20, 2026. VPN promo rates normally require the prepaid term shown and renew at the higher rate; proxy pricing falls with volume. Confirm on ScrapingBee's own site before buying.
| Plan | Price | Min spend | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free trialScraping APIs | Freeone-off trial | Free | 1,000 free API credits, no card required |
| FreelanceScraping APIs | $0.49/1k requestsmonthly | $49 | 100,000 credits |
| StartupScraping APIs | $0.40/1k requestsmonthly | $99 |
Features
Our ScrapingBee review
ScrapingBee is a small French company that competes on craft. The documentation reads like it was written by someone who has actually scraped things, the API is coherent, and the error messages tell you what went wrong rather than returning a generic failure.
Its headless Chrome support goes further than most: you can define JavaScript scenarios, click and wait for elements, capture screenshots, and extract data with CSS or XPath rules passed as parameters, which keeps a lot of logic out of your own codebase.
AI-assisted extraction lets you describe the fields you want in plain language and get structured JSON back, which is genuinely useful for one-off jobs where writing selectors is not worth the time.
It is smaller than the leaders, with less proxy scale behind it, and premium residential requests consume many credits, so heavily defended targets get expensive.
Being French and GDPR-native matters for some European buyers whose legal teams are wary of US data processors.
The right choice for developers who value ergonomics and are working with JavaScript-heavy targets rather than adversarial anti-bot systems.
Notable facts
- French company operating under GDPR
- Supports JavaScript scenarios, clicks and screenshots
- AI extraction returns structured data from a natural-language description
At a glance
| Founded | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Service types | Scraping APIs |
| Country coverage | 30 |
| Proxy protocols | HTTP(S) |
| Rotation | Automatic per request |
| Starting price | Free |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Support | email, chat, knowledge-base |
Frequently asked questions
ScrapingBee or ScraperAPI?
ScrapingBee has better documentation and browser control; ScraperAPI has more scale and stronger structured endpoints for large e-commerce targets. Both have free credits to compare with.
Does ScrapingBee render JavaScript?
Yes, with headless Chrome, including scripted interactions, waits and screenshots.
Is it GDPR friendly?
It is a French company subject to GDPR, which some European legal teams prefer over a US processor.
Bottom line
ScrapingBee is the most pleasant scraping API to build against, with genuinely excellent docs, browser scenarios and AI extraction. European basing is a bonus.
Check current ScrapingBee pricing →
