<!-- twin of https://specstream.ai/alternatives/spider -->
# Spider alternatives in 2026: crawls at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, no plan

Compared on Nov 10, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/alternatives/spider

Spider (spider.cloud) bills each request by bandwidth and CPU: $1 per GB of content plus $0.0001 per minute of CPU, or Unlimited from $40 a month. It prints no price per page, so a crawl's cost shows after it runs.

SpecStream is the live web data engine. Every page costs $0.0008, it answers Spider's scrape and search calls at its own address, and the same key crawls sites, maps them and returns [whole datasets as rows](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider).

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-spider&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=spider&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fsearch%3Froute%3Dspider) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 12,500 pages.

## SpecStream and Spider side by side

| | SpecStream | Spider |
|---|---|---|
| What you change | One line. `https://api.specstream.ai/spider` in place of `https://api.spider.cloud`, and a SpecStream key as the Bearer token. `POST /scrape` and `POST /search` keep their bodies and their reply | `POST https://api.spider.cloud/scrape`, `/crawl` and `/search` with `Authorization: Bearer sk-...` |
| Price of a page | $0.0008, which is $0.80 per 1,000 pages, the same for every page, known before the call | No price per page. Two line items per request: $1 per GB of content before it is transformed, and $0.0001 per minute of CPU |
| Plan | No plan. Calls spend from a balance inside the limit you set on the key, and credit you buy never expires | Pay as you go with top-ups from $5, or Unlimited from 2 concurrent requests at $40 a month up to 1,538 at $19,994 a month |
| Failed and empty pages | A page with no text is not charged and its `costs` is null. A busy call gets `429` with `Retry-After` and is not charged | Failed requests cost $0 |
| Crawls and site maps | `POST /v1/crawl` runs a crawl as a job you start and then read, and `POST /v1/map` returns a site's links for one page read. Firecrawl's map and crawl calls answer at `/firecrawl` on the same key. Each crawled page with text is $0.0008 | `POST /crawl` recursively crawls a site and collects every page, billed by bandwidth and CPU |
| Search | The Search API answers a question from the live web at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, with up to 100 results a call. 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks | `POST /search` searches the web and crawls the results |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card. That is 12,500 pages, or 2,000 searches | Pay as you go top-ups from $5 |
| Data already held | Public databases read every morning at [specstream.ai/data](https://specstream.ai/data?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider): every company that filed a Form D since 2023 with its filing history, nearly 2 million US nonprofits, every US bank failure since 1934, federal rules, open federal contracts and grants, and local businesses. Signals such as funding rounds, new executives and layoffs at [specstream.ai/signals](https://specstream.ai/signals?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider) | Pages read one request at a time |
| Every match as structured rows | Deep Search: a request in plain words returns every match on the live web as rows that meet each condition you wrote, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts, and nothing runs until you approve it | Page content in the `return_format` you ask for. Turning pages into records is code you write |
| Reruns and change labels | Hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢ | Each request reads the pages again at the bandwidth and CPU they use |
| Where the data goes | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks. Agents use the MCP server, the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A | The API response, the `spider_client` Python SDK and loaders for LangChain, LlamaIndex and CrewAI |

## Why Spider users move to SpecStream

### Your Spider calls keep their bodies

SpecStream answers Spider's `POST /scrape` and `POST /search` at its own address, in Spider's JSON: a list with one object a page, holding `url`, `content`, `status`, `error`, `costs`, `links` and `metadata`. Spider's own SDK writes its host into every call, so the switch is the address in your HTTP call:

```
import requests

reply = requests.post(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/spider/scrape",  # was https://api.spider.cloud/scrape
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
    json={"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping", "return_format": "markdown"},
    timeout=60,
)
for page in reply.json():
    print(page["url"], page["status"], page["costs"], page["content"][:200])
```

### A price per page you know before the crawl

Spider bills a request by the gigabytes of content it pulls and the CPU minutes it uses, so the cost of a crawl depends on how heavy each site is. On SpecStream every page that gives text costs $0.0008: a crawl of 10,000 pages costs $8, on any site. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture, at the same price.

### Crawls, maps and search on one key

`POST /v1/map` returns a site's links for one page read, and `POST /v1/crawl` reads the site as a job you start and then read, each page with text at $0.0008. Firecrawl's v2 crawl and map calls answer at `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl` on the same key. The [Search API](https://specstream.ai/search-api?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider) returns up to 100 results a call at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10, and Spider's `/search` body answers at `/spider/search`.

### A balance with no concurrency plan

Spider's Unlimited plan is priced by concurrent requests, from $40 a month for 2. On SpecStream $40 reads 50,000 pages, there is no plan to renew, and credit you buy never expires. A busy call gets `429` with `Retry-After` and charges nothing. Set `spend_cap_cents` on a key and that key never spends past it.

### Scored on the official benchmarks

Every page goes through the SpecStream Extract API, which returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents (PDF, Word, Excel) a call. The Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 978 correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The scores and the method are at [specstream.ai/benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider).

### Whole datasets as rows, kept up to date

When your AI product needs the records in place of the pages, the same key returns them. [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider) takes a request in plain words, such as "the pricing page of every European project management software company, with each plan's name and monthly price", and returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is approved before it starts. Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly: a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row 1¢. Rows go to Sheets, a CRM, Slack, a signed webhook or your agent through the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`.

### Zero retention on any key

Set `zero_retention` when you create a key, or later. A call made with that key keeps no request text and no answer after the reply, and `spend_cap_cents` is the most the key can spend.

```
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'
```

## Other Spider alternatives

### SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. The Extract API reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000 and scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB, the Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, and Deep Search returns every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. One key, one balance that never expires.

### Firecrawl

Scrape, search, map and crawl billed in credits: Hobby is $19 a month for 5,000. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's v2 calls at `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl`, and $19 reads 23,750 pages.

### Tavily

Search, extract and map billed in credits, at $0.008 a credit on pay as you go. SpecStream answers Tavily's calls at `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily`, at $0.005 a search of up to 10 results.

### ScrapingBee

A scraping API on monthly plans: Hobby is $19 a month for 75,000 API credits, and a call costs 1 to 75 credits. SpecStream answers ScrapingBee's call at `https://api.specstream.ai/scrapingbee/api/v1` at $0.0008 a page.

## How to switch from Spider

1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 12,500 pages.

2. Change the address and the key. The body and the reply stay as they are:

```
# Before
curl -X POST https://api.spider.cloud/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPIDER_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping", "return_format": "markdown"}'

# After
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/spider/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping", "return_format": "markdown"}'
```

3. Search the same way, in JavaScript with `fetch`:

```
const reply = await fetch("https://api.specstream.ai/spider/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SPECSTREAM_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ search: "web scraping api pricing", search_limit: 10 }),
});
const { content } = await reply.json();
for (const result of content) console.log(result.url, result.title);
```

4. Move crawls to `POST https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl/v2/crawl` or `POST /v1/crawl` on the same key, and read `429` with `Retry-After` as a call to send again later; it is not charged. Every parameter the route reads and every field it returns is in the [Spider migration guide](https://specstream.ai/migrate/spider?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider).

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does Spider cost?

Spider's pay as you go starts at $1 per GB of content plus $0.0001 per minute of CPU, with top-ups from $5, and Unlimited starts at $40 a month for 2 concurrent requests. It prints no price per page. SpecStream costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages, with no plan.

### What is the best Spider alternative?

SpecStream, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages with no plan. It answers Spider's own `/scrape` and `/search`, crawls and maps sites on the same key, scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB for extraction and 97.9 F-score on SimpleQA Verified for search, as shown on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=spider) page, and returns whole datasets as rows.

### How much does it cost to crawl 10,000 pages?

$8 on SpecStream: each crawled page with text is $0.0008, and a page with no text is not charged. On Spider the same crawl is billed by the gigabytes it pulls and the CPU minutes it uses.

### How do I switch from Spider to SpecStream?

Change one address: `https://api.spider.cloud` becomes `https://api.specstream.ai/spider`, and a SpecStream key goes in the Bearer token. `url`, `return_format`, `return_page_links`, `metadata`, `search`, `search_limit`, `num`, `page` and `tbs` keep their meaning.

### Is there a free Spider alternative?

SpecStream gives every new account $10 of credit, no card, which reads 12,500 pages or runs 2,000 searches. Spider's pay as you go starts with a $5 top-up.

### Does SpecStream have an API?

Yes, three. The Extract API is `POST /v1/extract` at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, the Search API is `GET /v1/web-search` at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, and Deep Search returns structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 each. The MCP server is at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`.

## Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page.

- [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream data](https://specstream.ai/data), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream signals](https://specstream.ai/signals), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Spider pricing](https://spider.cloud/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Spider API reference](https://spider.cloud/docs/api), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily pricing](https://tavily.com/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [ScrapingBee pricing](https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/), read Nov 10, 2026
- [ScrapingBee documentation](https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/), read Nov 10, 2026