Octoparse is a no-code, point-and-click desktop tool. WebScraping.AI is a developer API: send a URL, get HTML, text, or AI-extracted fields — no app to install, no visual tasks to build and maintain, priced per request from $29/mo.
2,000 free API credits · No credit card required
An honest, side-by-side comparison. Verify the numbers — this is a market where you should.
| WebScraping.AI | Octoparse | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | HTTP API (call from your code) | No-code desktop app + cloud tasks |
| Setup per site | One API request | Build & maintain a visual task |
| Pricing unit | Credits per request | Tasks + concurrent cloud runs |
| Entry price | $29/mo (250k credits) | $83/mo (Standard; ~$69 billed annually) |
| JS rendering & proxies | Built into each request | On paid plans (residential, CAPTCHA) |
| AI extraction | Yes (/ai/fields, /ai/question) |
Yes (auto-detect / AI) |
| Developer scrape-by-URL API | Yes — the core product | Task-management / export API only |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes | Yes |
Pricing and credit costs last checked July 2026. Sources: Octoparse pricing · WebScraping.AI pricing.
No tool is right for everyone. Octoparse is a capable product, and these are the areas where it genuinely shines — worth weighing before you switch.
The most common reasons teams evaluate a switch.
With Octoparse you build and maintain visual tasks in a desktop app. WebScraping.AI is one HTTP request from your code — nothing to install, nothing to rebuild when you scale.
Octoparse's API retrieves data from tasks you already built and caps exports at 1,000 rows per request. WebScraping.AI's API takes a URL and returns rendered HTML, text, or fields directly.
Task counts and concurrent cloud runs are capped per plan, and the jump to Professional is $299/mo ($249 billed annually). WebScraping.AI prices per request, with no task or run caps.
Users report trouble getting past Cloudflare on non-template sites. WebScraping.AI offers explicit residential and stealth proxies per request.
Every request type has a fixed, published credit cost — no surprises, and you only pay for successful requests.
Plans from $29/mo (250k credits) · $99/mo (1M) · $249/mo (3M). Failed requests are always free. See full pricing.
Octoparse is designed for analysts and non-developers who want a GUI: install the app, click to build a task, schedule it, and export the results. That's a great fit if you don't write code.
If you're embedding scraping into an application, a desktop task builder is the wrong shape. WebScraping.AI is a stateless HTTP API with 7 official SDKs — you call it from your code, and proxies, JS rendering, and AI extraction all happen in a single request.
Every Octoparse target is a task you build in the GUI and maintain as the site changes. WebScraping.AI has nothing to build: send a URL and get back rendered HTML, clean text, CSS-selected elements, or AI-extracted fields.
Pricing follows the model — you pay per request (1 / 5 / 10–25 / 50 credits, +5 for AI), not per task or per concurrent cloud run.
Point your requests at WebScraping.AI — here's the equivalent call in your language.
curl -G "https://api.webscraping.ai/ai/fields" \
--data-urlencode "api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "url=https://example-store.com/product/widget" \
--data-urlencode "fields[title]=The product title" \
--data-urlencode "fields[price]=The current price as a number" \
--data-urlencode "fields[in_stock]=Whether the product is in stock (true/false)"
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
# pip install webscraping_ai
# https://pypi.org/project/webscraping-ai/
from webscraping_ai import Client
client = Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
result = client.fields(
"https://example-store.com/product/widget",
fields={
"title": "The product title",
"price": "The current price as a number",
"in_stock": "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
},
)
print(result)
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// npm install webscraping-ai
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/webscraping-ai
import { WebScrapingAI } from 'webscraping-ai';
const client = new WebScrapingAI({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
const result = await client.fields({
url: 'https://example-store.com/product/widget',
fields: {
title: 'The product title',
price: 'The current price as a number',
in_stock: 'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
},
});
console.log(result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
<?php
// composer require webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
// https://packagist.org/packages/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use WebScrapingAI\Client;
$client = new Client('YOUR_API_KEY');
$result = $client->fields('https://example-store.com/product/widget', [
'title' => 'The product title',
'price' => 'The current price as a number',
'in_stock' => 'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
]);
print_r($result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
# gem install webscraping_ai
# https://rubygems.org/gems/webscraping_ai
require 'webscraping_ai'
client = WebScrapingAI::Client.new(api_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY')
result = client.fields(
'https://example-store.com/product/widget',
fields: {
title: 'The product title',
price: 'The current price as a number',
in_stock: 'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
}
)
puts result.inspect
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// go get github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
webscrapingai "github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4"
)
func main() {
client, _ := webscrapingai.NewClient(&webscrapingai.Config{APIKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"})
result, _ := client.Fields(context.Background(), &webscrapingai.FieldsOptions{
URL: "https://example-store.com/product/widget",
Fields: map[string]string{
"title": "The product title",
"price": "The current price as a number",
"in_stock": "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
},
})
fmt.Println(result.Result)
}
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// Maven: ai.webscraping:webscraping-ai:4.0.0
// https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/ai.webscraping/webscraping-ai
import ai.webscraping.Client;
import ai.webscraping.Config;
import ai.webscraping.option.FieldsOptions;
import ai.webscraping.result.FieldsResult;
Client client = new Client(Config.builder().apiKey("YOUR_API_KEY").build());
FieldsResult result = client.fields(FieldsOptions.builder()
.url("https://example-store.com/product/widget")
.addField("title", "The product title")
.addField("price", "The current price as a number")
.addField("in_stock", "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)")
.build());
System.out.println(result.getResult());
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// dotnet add package WebScrapingAI
// https://www.nuget.org/packages/WebScrapingAI
using WebScrapingAI;
var client = new WebScrapingAIClient(new WebScrapingAIClientOptions { ApiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY" });
var result = await client.FieldsAsync(new FieldsRequest {
Url = "https://example-store.com/product/widget",
Fields = new Dictionary<string, string> {
["title"] = "The product title",
["price"] = "The current price as a number",
["in_stock"] = "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
},
});
Console.WriteLine(result.Result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
Is WebScraping.AI a good Octoparse alternative?
It is if you're a developer. WebScraping.AI is a stateless HTTP API you call from code — no desktop app, no visual tasks to build and maintain, with proxies, JS rendering, and AI extraction in each request. Octoparse remains a strong choice for non-developers who want a point-and-click tool.
Does WebScraping.AI have a no-code interface like Octoparse?
No — WebScraping.AI is API-first, aimed at developers. If you want visual point-and-click scraping with templates and a dashboard, Octoparse is purpose-built for that; if you want to integrate scraping into your own code, WebScraping.AI is simpler.
How is WebScraping.AI's API different from Octoparse's API?
Octoparse's API manages tasks you've built in the GUI and exports their data (capped at 1,000 rows per request). WebScraping.AI's API takes any URL and returns rendered HTML, text, or AI-extracted fields directly — there's no task to build first.
How does pricing compare?
WebScraping.AI charges per request (from $29/mo for 250k credits), with no caps on tasks or concurrent runs. Octoparse prices by number of tasks and concurrent cloud runs, with Standard at $83/mo and Professional at $299/mo (about $69 and $249 billed annually).
Can WebScraping.AI handle JavaScript-heavy and protected sites?
Yes — full Chromium rendering plus datacenter, residential, and stealth proxies, all selectable per request. That's often more reliable on Cloudflare-protected sites than a template-based tool.
Get started with 2,000 free API credits. No credit card required.