AlterLab vs Bright Data in 2026

One price for every page

AlterLab's price runs from $0.0002 to $0.02 a page, a hundredfold spread set by the tier each page needed, and AlterLab puts typical content at about $0.001 a page. Bright Data's credit is worth about $0.0015 a request. SpecStream charges $0.0008 for every page it reads, so 10,000 pages cost $8 before the first call, and a page with no text costs nothing.

The same call, a different address

A Bright Data Web Unlocker call and an AlterLab scrape both send one URL and get one page back. The Extract API takes up to 20 URLs a call and returns each page's main text as Markdown or plain text.

# Bright Data Web Unlocker: before
curl https://api.brightdata.com/request \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRIGHTDATA_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"zone": "YOUR_ZONE", "url": "https://example.com", "format": "raw"}'

# AlterLab: before
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: $ALTERLAB_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}'

# SpecStream Extract API: after, up to 20 pages a call
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://example.com"], "format": "markdown"}'

Each item of data.results carries the url, a status, the page's main text without its menus, footers and ads, its title, and the published date when the page states one. Only a page with status ok is charged.

Scores published on the official sets

The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The Search API on the same key scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

Zero retention on any key

Set zero_retention when you create a key. A call made with that key keeps no request text and no answer after the reply.

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}'

Search, pages and rows on the same key

A scrape API reads the pages you already know. On SpecStream the same key searches the live web from $1 per 1,000 searches, reads up to 20 pages a call with the Extract API, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match for a request as rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Saved requests rerun hourly to yearly, each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, and new rows arrive in Slack, a sheet, a CRM or a signed webhook.

ZenRows

A page API sold by monthly plan. The $19 plan holds 45,000 credits, a JavaScript page takes 5 and a protected page 25, and unused plan credits expire at every renewal. SpecStream answers ZenRows' call at https://api.specstream.ai/zenrows/v1/ at $0.80 per 1,000 pages.

Apify

A store of Actors billed by plan and usage. Starter costs $19 a month plus pay as you go, platform usage is $0.2 per compute unit, and its Unblocker costs $1.5 per 1,000 requests. SpecStream returns the records an Actor collects from a request in plain words, at 5¢ to $1 a row. See Apify alternatives.

Firecrawl

Scrape, crawl and search endpoints billed in credits: 1 credit a page and 2 credits per 10 search results, with Hobby at $19 a month for 5,000 credits. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's v2 calls at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl, with search at $1 per 1,000 and pages at $0.80 per 1,000.

ScrapingBee

A page API whose Hobby plan costs $19 a month for 75,000 credits, with 1,000 free credits to start. SpecStream answers ScrapingBee's call at https://api.specstream.ai/scrapingbee/api/v1/ at one price per page.