ScraperAPI Alternative

What is ScraperAPI?

ScraperAPI simplifies web scraping by handling the complex infrastructure behind data extraction. Instead of managing proxies, solving CAPTCHAs, and rotating user agents yourself, you make API calls and receive raw HTML or JSON responses.

The platform offers 40M+ IP addresses with automatic rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and JavaScript rendering. Their credit-based system charges different rates depending on target site complexity—simple sites cost 1 credit while protected e-commerce sites may cost 25+ credits per request.

ScraperAPI vs CorsProxy.io

ScraperAPI and CorsProxy.io solve different problems in the web development stack:

Server vs Browser: ScraperAPI is a server-side scraping tool. You call their API from your backend, and they return scraped content. CorsProxy.io lets your frontend JavaScript make cross-origin requests directly in the browser.

Use Case: ScraperAPI extracts data from websites for analysis. CorsProxy.io enables your web app to call third-party APIs without CORS errors.

// ScraperAPI (server-side only)
const response = await fetch(
  `http://api.scraperapi.com?api_key=KEY&url=${encodeURIComponent(targetUrl)}`
);
const html = await response.text();
// Returns raw HTML for parsing

// CorsProxy.io (works in browsers)
const response = await fetch(
  `https://corsproxy.io/?url=${encodeURIComponent(apiUrl)}`
);
const data = await response.json();
// Returns actual API response

Credit System Complexity

ScraperAPI’s pricing depends heavily on what you’re scraping:

This means your $49/month plan (100K credits) could yield anywhere from 100,000 to 2,000 requests depending on targets. CorsProxy.io’s request-based pricing is predictable—you always know exactly how many requests you get.

When Each Service Fits

Choose ScraperAPI if:

• You’re building server-side scrapers
• You need to extract data from complex websites
• You’re handling CAPTCHA-protected sites
• You need JavaScript rendering for SPAs

Choose CorsProxy.io if:

• You’re calling APIs from frontend code
• You need to bypass CORS restrictions
• You want predictable per-request pricing
• You’re building browser-based applications

The Fundamental Difference

ScraperAPI cannot solve browser CORS errors because it’s not designed to. When your React or Vue app tries to fetch an external API, the browser blocks it before ScraperAPI could ever be involved.

CorsProxy.io operates at the browser level—it accepts your cross-origin request, proxies it through CORS-enabled endpoints, and returns the response with proper headers that browsers accept.