Crawlee vs ScrapingBee

A side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool.

Crawlee scores higher overall (76/100)

But the best choice depends on your specific needs. Compare below.

Pricing
Completely free and open source (MIT license). Self-hosted on your own infrastructure. Optional paid hosting available through Apify platform.
Free plan
Yes
Best for
developers who want full control over their crawling infrastructure, teams building custom scraping pipelines that need maximum flexibility, open-source enthusiasts who prefer self-hosted solutions, engineers integrating web crawling into existing Node.js applications
Platforms
api
API
No
Languages
en
Pricing
Freelance at $49/month (1,000 API credits). Startup at $99/month (5,000 credits). Business at $249/month (20,000 credits). Enterprise at $599/month (100,000 credits).
Free plan
No
Best for
developers who need a simple API for scraping without managing proxies, teams scraping JavaScript-heavy sites that require headless browser rendering, projects that need to bypass CAPTCHAs and anti-bot protections reliably, small to mid-size scraping jobs where ease of setup matters most
Platforms
api
API
Yes
Languages
en

Choose Crawlee if:

  • You are developers who want full control over their crawling infrastructure
  • You are teams building custom scraping pipelines that need maximum flexibility
  • You are open-source enthusiasts who prefer self-hosted solutions
  • You want to start free
Read Crawlee review →

Choose ScrapingBee if:

  • You are developers who need a simple API for scraping without managing proxies
  • You are teams scraping JavaScript-heavy sites that require headless browser rendering
  • You are projects that need to bypass CAPTCHAs and anti-bot protections reliably
Read ScrapingBee review →

FAQ

What is the difference between Crawlee and ScrapingBee?
Crawlee is an open-source node.js web crawling and scraping framework built by the team behind apify. provides a batteries-included toolkit for building reliable crawlers with automatic retries, proxy rotation, and headless browser support, all running on your own infrastructure. ScrapingBee is a web scraping api that handles headless chrome rendering, proxy rotation, and captcha solving behind a single rest endpoint. designed to simplify the infrastructure side of scraping so developers can focus on data extraction logic.
Which is cheaper, Crawlee or ScrapingBee?
Crawlee: Completely free and open source (MIT license). Self-hosted on your own infrastructure. Optional paid hosting available through Apify platform.. ScrapingBee: Freelance at $49/month (1,000 API credits). Startup at $99/month (5,000 credits). Business at $249/month (20,000 credits). Enterprise at $599/month (100,000 credits).. Crawlee has a free plan.
Who is Crawlee best for?
Crawlee is best for developers who want full control over their crawling infrastructure, teams building custom scraping pipelines that need maximum flexibility, open-source enthusiasts who prefer self-hosted solutions, engineers integrating web crawling into existing Node.js applications.
Who is ScrapingBee best for?
ScrapingBee is best for developers who need a simple API for scraping without managing proxies, teams scraping JavaScript-heavy sites that require headless browser rendering, projects that need to bypass CAPTCHAs and anti-bot protections reliably, small to mid-size scraping jobs where ease of setup matters most.