HEAD TO HEAD
ZenRows vs ScrapingBee
The same credit multipliers up to 25, different prices per credit, and two quite different MCP servers. How the two compare for protected-site scraping and for AI agents, fact by fact.
Quick verdict
For scraping protected sites, ScrapingBee has the better evidence and the cheaper credits: 84.47% against ZenRows' 70.39% in Proxyway's October 2025 benchmark (ZenRows fell to 31.76% at 10 requests per second), and the same 1/5/10/25 multipliers at a lower price per credit on every comparable plan. ZenRows has two clear edges: a recurring free tier (5,000 credits a month against a one-time 1,000) and a 25-credit ceiling that makes its hardest requests cheaper than ScrapingBee's 75-credit stealth tier.
For AI agents it depends on the job. ScrapingBee has Google search built in; ZenRows has no search tool but the more flexible MCP setup (OAuth, a local package, 30+ browser tools, docs for eight clients).
Performance figures come from named third-party benchmarks, with dates. How we pick.
Price and billing
Prices are as of October 2026 from the ZenRows pricing page and the ScrapingBee pricing page, at each plan's entry point with monthly billing (ZenRows annual: $16, $58 and $166 for Build, Launch and Growth). Per-1,000 rows compare the two 250,000-credit plans. The Edge column says which product the fact favours and why; "Depends" means it turns on your workload.
| Fact | ZenRows | ScrapingBee | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free allowance | 5,000 credits every month, no card | 1,000 trial credits, once, no card | ZenRows Recurring, and five times larger. |
| Entry paid plan ($19/mo) | Build: 45,000 credits, 20 concurrent | Hobby: 75,000 credits, 25 concurrent | ScrapingBee 30,000 more credits for the same price. |
| Plain request, per 1,000 | $0.28 | $0.20 | ScrapingBee Launch $69 vs Freelance $49, both 250,000 credits. |
| JS rendering, per 1,000 | $1.38 | $0.98 | ScrapingBee Both 5 credits; cheaper credits. |
| Premium proxy + JS, per 1,000 | $6.90 | $4.90 | ScrapingBee Both 25 credits; cheaper credits. |
| Hardest configuration, per 1,000 | $6.90 | $14.70 | ZenRows ZenRows tops out at 25 credits; ScrapingBee's stealth tier is 75. No test in our notes shows whether 25 ZenRows credits unblock what stealth does. |
| Failed requests | Never charged; 404 and 410 count as successes | Cost 0 credits | Tie Both bill only successes. |
| Auto mode (mode=auto) | Escalates; bills only the configuration that succeeded | Escalates; bills only the configuration that worked | Tie Same model. |
| Unused credits | Don't roll over (top-ups roll over one period) | Expire | Tie Neither carries plan credits forward. |
| Default rendering | Off; opt in with js_render=true | On; opt out with render_js=false | Depends ScrapingBee's default costs 5× on plain pages if you forget to turn it off. |
| Concurrency for the money | 50 on Launch ($69) | 50 on Freelance ($49) | ScrapingBee Same concurrency for $20 a month less. |
Every plan, per 1,000 pages
Plan price ÷ credits × the credits each request type costs, assuming you use the whole allowance.
| Plan | Per month | Credits | Concurrent | Plain | JS | Premium + JS | Hardest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZenRows Free | $0 | 5,000 | 5 | free | free | free | free |
| ScrapingBee Hobby | $19 | 75,000 | 25 | $0.25 | $1.27 | $6.33 | $19.00 |
| ZenRows Build | $19 | 45,000 | 20 | $0.42 | $2.11 | $10.56 | $10.56 |
| ScrapingBee Freelance | $49 | 250,000 | 50 | $0.20 | $0.98 | $4.90 | $14.70 |
| ZenRows Launch | $69 | 250,000 | 50 | $0.28 | $1.38 | $6.90 | $6.90 |
| ScrapingBee Startup | $99 | 1,000,000 | 100 | $0.10 | $0.50 | $2.48 | $7.43 |
| ZenRows Growth | $199 | 1,200,000 | 100 | $0.17 | $0.83 | $4.15 | $4.15 |
| ScrapingBee Business | $249 | 3,000,000 | 200 | $0.08 | $0.42 | $2.08 | $6.23 |
Hardest: ZenRows JS + premium proxies (25 credits, its top configuration); ScrapingBee stealth proxy + JS (75 credits).
At $19 a month, 1,000 credits cost $0.25 on ScrapingBee and $0.42 on ZenRows, and because the multipliers match, every request type up to premium + JS is cheaper by the same ratio. Other meters: ScrapingBee charges 10 or 15 credits per Google search, 10 for Fast Search and 5 extra for AI extraction; ZenRows charges 25,000 credits per GB of residential bandwidth, and Browser Sessions cost 5 credits a minute plus bandwidth.
Independent tests
These figures come from Proxyway's Web Scraping API Report 2025 (tests October 2025, published 3 December 2025) and ScrapeOps' Cloudflare playbook (June 2026).
| Fact | ZenRows | ScrapingBee | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proxyway 2025: success on 15 protected sites at 2 req/s (tested Oct 2025) | 70.39% (fifth of ten) | 84.47% (fourth of ten) | ScrapingBee 14 points higher. |
| Proxyway 2025: success at 10 req/s | 31.76% (plan concurrency limits) | not in our notes | Depends No ScrapingBee figure at this rate in our notes. |
| Proxyway 2025: average response time | not in our notes | 25.46 s (slowest tested) | Depends No ZenRows figure in our notes. |
| Proxyway 2025: notable sites | 94–96% on Allegro, Zillow, Nordstrom | 5% on G2 | Depends Check the report for your own targets. |
| ScrapeOps Cloudflare playbook (Jun 2026): hosted browser | About 36% | not in our notes | Depends Scraping APIs as a group reached about 97% in the same test. |
| ScrapeOps: hosted-browser sessions leaking automation signals | 80% | not in our notes | Depends Measured on the hosted browser (Browser Sessions), not the Fetch API. |
With ZenRows, plan around the 10 req/s result: the concurrency you need is roughly request rate × response time, and Launch allows 50. Proxyway uses affiliate links and ScrapeOps runs a paid proxy aggregator, so treat both as third-party tests, not neutral audits.
MCP servers for AI agents
Both bill tool calls at normal API rates, but they are built for different agents.
| Fact | ZenRows | ScrapingBee | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted server | mcp.zenrows.com/mcp (streamable HTTP) | mcp.scrapingbee.com/mcp | Tie Both hosted. |
| Authentication | OAuth 2.1 or API key as a Bearer token | API key in the URL (?api_key=) | ZenRows The key stays out of URLs and logs. |
| Local option | @zenrows/mcp npm package | stdio clients connect through mcp-remote | ZenRows A packaged local server. |
| Web search | None | Google (eight result types) and Fast Search | ScrapingBee ZenRows needs a second provider for search. |
| Page reading and extraction | scrape (Markdown, text, HTML, screenshots, PDF), extract (JSON) | Page text and HTML, extraction, screenshots, files | Tie Both cover the basics. |
| Browser control, crawl, batch | 30+ browser tools; crawl and batch tools | Not in its tool list | ZenRows For agents that log in, click or crawl. |
| Documented clients | Claude, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Zed, JetBrains | Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT | Depends ZenRows documents more clients; only ScrapingBee documents ChatGPT. |
| Tool-call billing | Underlying product rates; extract currently free; account_usage free | Same credits as the API, no surcharge | ZenRows Extraction is free for now. |
| 1,000 fetches a month | Free (within 5,000 credits) | $19 Hobby plan | ZenRows Light agent use costs nothing. |
| 25,000 Google searches a month | Not available | $49 Freelance plan ($1.96 per 1,000) | ScrapingBee Search included. |
An agent that must find pages before reading them is better served by ScrapingBee, or by ZenRows plus a separate search provider. An agent that logs in, clicks through flows or crawls a known site gets more from ZenRows' browser and crawl tools. ScrapingBee's shared global concurrency limit can return HTTP 429, so build in retries. More options: our AI-agent search & fetch guide.
Which to choose
Choose ZenRows if…
- Your recurring job fits inside 5,000 free credits a month, or you are still prototyping.
- Your hardest targets work with JS + premium proxies, so the 25-credit ceiling caps your cost.
- Your agent needs a cloud browser, crawling or batch jobs, or OAuth instead of a key in a URL.
- You use Windsurf, VS Code, Zed or JetBrains and want first-party MCP docs.
Choose ScrapingBee if…
- Success on protected sites matters most: 84.47% vs 70.39% in Proxyway's 2025 benchmark.
- You run at sustained concurrency and want more requests in flight per dollar.
- Your agent needs Google search and page fetches from one provider.
- You spend $19 or more a month: its credits are cheaper on every comparable plan.
Ownership differs too: ScrapingBee belongs to Oxylabs' group (now under the Source.ai umbrella with Oxylabs, Decodo and Webshare); ZenRows is not part of that group.
Reviews and guides
- ZenRows review
- ScrapingBee review
- Our scraping API guide: picks by use case for protected sites.
- Our AI-agent search & fetch guide: including Firecrawl and PacketStream.
- ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee
- Web scraping cost calculator: plug in your own volumes.
Sources
Vendor pages checked October 2026. Prices change often; check the vendor's page before buying.
- ZenRows pricing
- ZenRows MCP docs
- ScrapingBee pricing
- ScrapingBee remote MCP docs
- ScrapingBee Google API docs
- ScrapingBee Fast Search docs
- Proxyway Web Scraping API Report 2025 (tests Oct 2025, published 3 Dec 2025; Proxyway uses affiliate links)
- ScrapeOps Cloudflare playbook, June 2026 (ScrapeOps runs a paid proxy aggregator)
- Proxyway news: Oxylabs, Decodo, Webshare and others form Source.ai