Apify is the default pick for most readers, with a Starter plan at $19 per month, a free plan that includes $5 of usage, and a large library of ready-made actors, while Octoparse is the better pick for people who want a visual desktop builder with no code. The cheapest entry point is $19 per month, at Apify, Browse AI on annual billing, and ScrapingBee, but the billing unit is different at each one, so compare credits, requests, and pages before you compare the monthly fee. Apify has an unusual billing detail that changes the maths: the monthly fee comes back as the same dollar amount of included usage, so the Starter fee of $19 buys $19 of usage, and unused included usage expires at the end of the billing cycle.
Some tools give you a visual builder or a ready-made scraper, while others give you an API that fetches a page and returns the result. The list below keeps those two groups separate, so you can match the tool to the way your team works, the volume you need, and the budget you can defend.
On this page
Best automation tools for data scraping: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Octoparse | No-code visual scraping on desktop and cloud | $69 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 2 | Apify | Ready-made scrapers and custom actors | $19 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | Browse AI | Monitoring a small set of websites | $19 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | ParseHub | Visual scraping of complex pages | $189 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | ScraperAPI | Simple API access to hard pages | $49 per month | Free trial (7 days) | Visit |
| 6 | ScrapingBee | API scraping with headless rendering | $19 per month | Free trial (1,000 credits) | Visit |
| 7 | Diffbot | AI extraction and structured data | $299 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 8 | Bright Data | Large-scale API scraping by request | $1.50 per 1,000 requests | Yes | Visit |
The 8 best best automation tools for data scrapings, in detail
Octoparse
Best for: No-code visual scraping on desktop and cloud
Octoparse is a desktop and cloud scraper for people who want to build an extraction by clicking on a page, rather than writing code. The Free plan costs nothing and covers 10 tasks on one device, with local runs only and an export cap of 10,000 rows per export and 50,000 rows per month. Standard costs $69 per month when billed annually, or $83 per month when billed monthly, and covers 100 tasks, 3 devices, up to 3 concurrent cloud runs, IP rotation, scheduling, and a data export API.
- Professional costs $249 per month when billed annually and covers 250 tasks and up to 20 concurrent cloud runs, plus cloud monitoring.
- Choose Octoparse for visual building, and move to Professional only when 3 concurrent cloud runs slow your work.
Pros
- Visual point-and-click builder with 500 plus preset templates
- cloud runs, scheduling, and IP rotation on Standard
Cons
- Free plan is local only with 10 tasks and a 50,000 row monthly export cap
- Professional is $249 per month (billed annually) for 20 cloud runs
Apify
Best for: Ready-made scrapers and custom actors
Apify is a platform for running scrapers called Actors, and it suits readers who want a ready-made scraper for a common site, or a custom Actor for a site that needs code. The Free plan costs nothing and includes $5 of platform usage per month, with 5 concurrent runs and 16 GB of RAM. Starter costs $19 per month and includes $19 of included usage, 32 concurrent runs, and 64 GB of RAM, with compute at $0.20 per compute unit.
- Scale costs $199 per month and includes $199 of included usage, 128 concurrent runs, and 256 GB of RAM, with compute at $0.16 per compute unit.
- Annual billing takes 10 percent off the monthly fee, so Starter is $17 per month on annual billing.
- Choose Apify for ready-made Actors plus custom builds.
Pros
- Free plan includes $5 of platform usage
- Starter includes $19 of usage, 32 concurrent runs, and 64 GB of RAM
Cons
- Unused included usage expires at the end of the billing cycle
- compute is charged at $0.20 per compute unit on Free and Starter
Browse AI
Best for: Monitoring a small set of websites
Browse AI is built around robots that you train by recording actions on a website, and it suits monitoring work such as price changes, new listings, and content changes. The Free plan is free forever and includes 50 credits a month, 2 websites, 3 users, and unlimited robots. Personal costs $19 per month when billed annually, or $48 per month when billed monthly.
- The annual option gives 12,000 credits per year, while the monthly option gives 2,000 credits per month, so read the credit total, not only the monthl
- Professional costs $69 per month when billed annually and covers 10 websites, 10 users, and 60,000 credits per year.
- Choose Browse AI to watch a small set of pages on a schedule.
Pros
- Free plan includes 50 credits a month, 2 websites, and unlimited robots
- Personal covers 5 websites and 3 users
Cons
- Annual Personal gives 12,000 credits per year, which is 1,000 credits a month, less than the 2,000 credits a month on monthly billing
- data retention is 90 days on non-Premium plans
ParseHub
Best for: Visual scraping of complex pages
ParseHub is a desktop visual scraper for people who need to extract data from complex pages without writing code. The Free plan costs nothing and covers 5 public projects, 200 pages per run, a 40 minute run limit, and 14 day data retention, with no scheduling and no API access. Standard costs $189 per month and covers 20 private projects, 10,000 pages per run, IP rotation, scheduling, and export to Dropbox and Amazon S3, with 14 day retention.
- Professional costs $599 per month and covers 120 private projects, unlimited pages per run, priority support, and 30 day retention.
- ParseHub fits a buyer who can justify that jump for private projects and scheduled runs.
Pros
- Visual builder handles forms, logins, dropdowns, and infinite scroll
- Standard adds scheduling, IP rotation, and API access
Cons
- No plan between the free plan and Standard at $189 per month
- free projects are public and limited to 200 pages per run
ScraperAPI
Best for: Simple API access to hard pages
ScraperAPI is a managed API for developers who want to send a URL and receive the page, without running their own proxies or browsers. The Hobby plan costs $49 per month, or $44.10 per month when billed annually, and includes 100,000 API credits and 20 concurrent threads. A standard page costs 1 credit, an e-commerce page costs 5 credits, a Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, and a LinkedIn request costs 30 credits, so the same allowance buys very different volumes on different sites.
- Startup costs $149 per month and includes 1,000,000 credits and 50 concurrent threads, while Business costs $299 per month and includes 3,000,000 cred
- Choose ScraperAPI when you have code and want the vendor to handle proxies and retries.
Pros
- One API call returns a page with proxy rotation and retries
- each response carries a credit cost header so you can see what a request cost
Cons
- Hobby and Startup are limited to US and EU geotargeting
- a rendered page costs 10 credits, so rendering can use a credit allowance fast
ScrapingBee
Best for: API scraping with headless rendering
ScrapingBee is an API for developers who need headless browser rendering and proxy handling without running that infrastructure. The Hobby plan costs $19 per month and includes 75,000 credits and 25 concurrent requests, while Freelance costs $49 per month and includes 250,000 credits and 50 concurrent requests. Startup costs $99 per month and includes 1,000,000 credits and 100 concurrent requests, and it adds JavaScript rendering, premium proxies, geotargeting, screenshots, and extraction features.
- A plain request costs 1 credit, a rendered request costs 5 credits, a premium proxy request with rendering costs 25 credits, and a stealth proxy reque
- Choose ScrapingBee for rendering by default at a low entry price.
Pros
- Hobby includes 75,000 credits and 25 concurrent requests for $19 per month
- only successful requests are charged, defined as a 200, 404, or 410 status
Cons
- JavaScript rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits per request, so a rendered page costs more than a plain page
- credits do not roll over month to month
Diffbot
Best for: AI extraction and structured data
Diffbot turns a web page into structured data with AI, rather than returning raw HTML for you to parse, and it also offers a Knowledge Graph for entity data. The Free plan costs nothing and includes 10,000 credits a month, all four APIs, 1 thread, and a limit of 5 requests a minute, with no card required. Startup costs $299 per month and includes 250,000 credits a month, overage at $0.001 per credit, and 25 threads.
- Plus costs $899 per month and includes 1,000,000 credits a month, overage at $0.0009 per credit, access to Crawl with 25 active jobs, 3 user seats, an
- A Knowledge Graph entity export costs 25 credits, so budget that feature separately.
Pros
- Free plan includes 10,000 credits a month with no card required
- one extracted page costs 1 credit, and all four APIs are included on every plan
Cons
- Startup is $299 per month for 250,000 credits, with no lower subscription plan
- a Knowledge Graph entity export costs 25 credits, so that feature uses credits fast
Bright Data
Best for: Large-scale API scraping by request
Bright Data is a large web data platform with separate APIs for search results, page access, and structured extraction, and it suits teams that need volume and control over spend limits. The free tier includes 5,000 requests a month, renewed on the first of the month with no rollover, and no card is required to start. Pay as you go costs $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests on the SERP API, so 100,000 successful requests cost $150 at that rate, before any Scale discount.
- The Scale plan costs $499 per month and includes 380,000 SERP requests, with additional requests at $1.30 per 1,000, while the second Scale plan inclu
- Confirm the price sheet for the exact API you will use.
Pros
- Free tier includes 5,000 requests a month with no card required
- only successful requests are billed on the scraping APIs
Cons
- The next step after pay as you go is a Scale plan at $499 per month, with no smaller monthly subscription plan for these APIs
- each product has its own price sheet, so costs vary by product
How we chose
We chose tools that are still sold as a current product, that publish a price or a usage rate on an official pricing page, and that fit one of the two jobs in this topic: visual or ready-made scraping, or API scraping. We did not test any tool hands-on. Prices and plan limits in this article come from official vendor pricing pages and docs opened on 2026-11-12, and the Sources section lists the pricing page for every item.
Pick by volume and budget
| Monthly volume | Best fit in this list | Why the numbers point there |
|---|---|---|
| Under 500 rows a month, monitoring only | Browse AI Free, 50 credits a month | 50 credits cover about 500 rows at 10 rows per credit |
| Under 10,000 pages a month, simple extraction | Diffbot Free, 10,000 credits a month | One page costs 1 credit, so the free allowance covers the whole volume |
| Under 100,000 standard pages a month, API only | ScraperAPI Hobby, $49 per month | 100,000 credits at 1 credit per standard page |
| 100,000 to 250,000 requests a month, API only | ScrapingBee Freelance, $49 per month | 250,000 credits, but a rendered page costs 5 credits |
| Small recurring jobs, no code | Octoparse Standard, $69 per month (billed annually) | 100 tasks and 3 concurrent cloud runs, with scheduling and IP rotation |
| Ready-made scrapers plus custom code | Apify Starter, $19 per month | $19 of included usage, 32 concurrent runs, and a large Actor library |
Frequently asked questions
How much do automation tools for data scraping cost?
Most tools in this list start at $19, $49, or $69 per month, with Apify Starter at $19 per month, ScrapingBee Hobby at $19 per month, ScraperAPI Hobby at $49 per month, and Octoparse Standard at $69 per month when billed annually. Bright Data is different, at $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests on pay as you go. Diffbot at $299 per month and ParseHub at $189 per month are the highest entry points here.
Which is best for a beginner with no code?
Octoparse is the best pick for a beginner who wants a visual builder, because the Free plan covers 10 tasks and Standard at $69 per month when billed annually adds cloud runs, scheduling, and IP rotation. Browse AI is the best pick to monitor a few pages, because the Free plan covers 50 credits a month and 2 websites. ParseHub is also visual, but its first plan is $189 per month.
Which is best for developers who want an API?
Apify is the best pick for developers who want ready-made Actors plus custom code, with Starter at $19 per month and $19 of included usage. ScraperAPI is the best pick for a simple one-call API, with Hobby at $49 per month. ScrapingBee is the best pick for rendering by default at a low entry price, with Hobby at $19 per month for 75,000 credits. Check the credit cost for your target sites first.
Do these tools have a free plan?
Yes, most of them do, but the free allowance is small and the limits are strict. Octoparse Free covers 10 tasks, Apify Free includes $5 of usage, Browse AI Free includes 50 credits a month, ParseHub Free covers 200 pages per run, Diffbot Free includes 10,000 credits a month, and Bright Data Free includes 5,000 requests a month. ScraperAPI and ScrapingBee offer a free trial instead.
What is the unique billing detail to watch on Apify?
Apify is unusual because the monthly fee comes back as the same dollar amount of included usage, so the Starter fee of $19 buys $19 of usage, Scale at $199 buys $199 of usage, and Business at $999 buys $999 of usage. Unused included usage expires at the end of the billing cycle. Overage is billed to the next invoice, so a busy month can cost more than the plan fee.
Can I use these tools for a large monthly volume?
Yes, but the plan for a large volume is often much more expensive than the entry plan. Apify Scale is $199 per month, Octoparse Professional is $249 per month when billed annually, ScraperAPI Business is $299 per month, Diffbot Plus is $899 per month, and Bright Data Scale is $499 per month. Count your pages by type first, because a rendered page or a Knowledge Graph export can cost 5 or 100 credits each.
Sources
- https://www.octoparse.com/
- https://www.octoparse.com/pricing
- https://apify.com/
- https://apify.com/pricing
- https://www.browse.ai/
- https://www.browse.ai/pricing
- https://www.parsehub.com/
- https://www.parsehub.com/pricing
- https://www.scraperapi.com/
- https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing
- https://www.scrapingbee.com/
- https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/
- https://www.diffbot.com/
- https://www.diffbot.com/pricing
- https://brightdata.com/
- https://brightdata.com/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.