Anti-bot scraping alternatives in 2026

No tier to choose, one price

On a credit plan you pay for the settings a site needs. A ZenRows request with js_render and premium_proxy takes 25 credits, and so does a Scrape.do request with super and render. Scrapfly adds 5 credits for a browser to 25 for residential proxies. Zyte sets the tier itself.

SpecStream has no such setting. The Extract API tries a refused page again as a browser would ask, then in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture, and the page costs $0.0008 whichever step reads it. 10,000 protected pages that ZenRows bills at 250,000 credits cost $8.

A blocked page costs nothing

A site that still refuses, or answers with a bot check, comes back with the status blocked and is not charged. A bot check's page is never returned as text, so a challenge page never reaches your parser as content. A 404 and a page with no main text are not charged either.

Each page that is read says where from: read_from is live for the page now, site for the site's own feed or API, and archive for its newest public archive capture, with captured_at. Your code knows which rows came from the live page.

Test it on your hardest URLs

Put the URLs your current API fails on in hard.txt. This script reads them through the Extract API, 20 a call, and prints each status, where each page was read from, and the cost of the run.

import collections
import os

import requests

KEY = os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]
urls = [line.strip() for line in open("hard.txt") if line.strip()]
seen, cost = collections.Counter(), 0.0

for start in range(0, len(urls), 20):
    data = requests.post(
        "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
        json={"urls": urls[start:start + 20], "format": "text"},
        timeout=120,
    ).json()["data"]
    for page in data["results"]:
        seen[(page["status"], page.get("read_from"))] += 1
    cost += data.get("price_usd", 0)

for (status, read_from), count in seen.most_common():
    print(status, read_from, count)
print(f"${cost:.4f} for {len(urls)} URLs")

Only the pages counted ok are in the cost line. A blocked count tells you which sites refuse every step, at no charge.

Search and rows on the same key

The same key runs the Search API, the most accurate web search API in the world: 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks (benchmarks), at $5 per 1,000 searches or $1 on the fast tier. Deep Search turns a request in plain words into structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, with the source URL and read time on every value.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Its Extract API reads protected and plain pages at one price, $0.80 per 1,000, scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB and does not charge a blocked page. It answers six scraping APIs at their own paths. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

Zyte API

Zyte charges $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000 browser-rendered responses, by a tier it gives each website and reviews quarterly. In the benchmark on Proxyway's 2026 list it scored a 93.14% success rate at 2 requests a second. On SpecStream every page is $0.80 per 1,000 (Zyte alternatives).

ZenRows

A protected request takes 25 credits on every plan, so Build B1's 45,000 credits read 1,800 protected pages for $19. Proxyway measured 70.39%. SpecStream answers ZenRows' GET /v1/ at https://api.specstream.ai/zenrows/v1/, where js_render and premium_proxy are accepted and the price stays $0.0008 a page (ZenRows compatible).

Scrapfly

Discovery is $30 a month for 200,000 credits, $0.15 per 1,000 credits. Residential proxies take 25 credits, a browser 5 more, and failed scrapes are billed once 30% of a day's scrapes are blocked without the Unblocker. SpecStream answers /scrape at /scrapfly/scrape and never bills a blocked page (Scrapfly compatible).

Scrape.do

Hobby is $29 a month for 250,000 credits. Residential and mobile proxies with a browser take 25 credits, some domains get them turned on by default, and 400, 404 and 410 replies count as successful. SpecStream answers its API at /scrapedo, at one price whatever the domain (Scrape.do compatible).

ScrapingBee

Hobby is $19 a month for 75,000 credits, valid one month. Premium proxies take 10 or 25 credits and the stealth proxy 75, which puts a stealth page at $19.00 per 1,000 on Hobby. Proxyway measured 84.47%. SpecStream answers its HTML API at /scrapingbee/api/v1 (ScrapingBee compatible).

ScraperAPI

Hobby is $49 a month for 100,000 credits. Premium proxies with rendering take 25 credits and ultra premium with rendering 75, $36.75 per 1,000 pages on Hobby, and a 404 is charged. Proxyway measured 68.95%. SpecStream answers its endpoint at /scraperapi (ScraperAPI compatible).