Zyte API prices each request by a per-site difficulty tier, so costs are hard to forecast. WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed credit cost per request type — plus AI extraction, an MCP server, and 7 official SDKs, from $29/mo.
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An honest, side-by-side comparison. Verify the numbers — this is a market where you should.
| WebScraping.AI | Zyte | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed, published credits per request | Per-request cost varies by 5 difficulty tiers |
| Cost predictability | Known before you run | Tier (and cost) often unknown until you scrape |
| Browser-render cost | 5 credits (flat) | $1.01–$16.08 / 1k, by tier (standard rates) |
| AI extraction | Yes (/ai/question, /ai/fields) |
Yes (automatic extraction) |
| First-party MCP server | Yes | No (build-your-own tutorial only) |
| Bills only successful requests | Yes | Yes |
| Open-source framework | — | Yes (Scrapy) |
Pricing and credit costs last checked July 2026. Sources: Zyte pricing · WebScraping.AI pricing.
No tool is right for everyone. Zyte 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.
Zyte classifies each site into difficulty tiers, and browser-rendered requests span $1.01–$16.08 per 1,000 depending on tier. WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed cost per request type, known before you run a job.
Reviewers report sudden cost increases when a target moves up a difficulty tier. WebScraping.AI's per-request cost is fixed and published, so it doesn't change under you.
Separate HTTP and browser rates, five tiers each, and commitment discounts make budgeting hard. WebScraping.AI has one table: 1 / 5 / 10–25 / 50 credits, +5 for AI.
Zyte publishes a build-your-own MCP tutorial rather than a hosted server. WebScraping.AI ships an MCP server and CLI so agents can scrape out of the box.
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.
Zyte API's cost per request depends on which of five anti-ban tiers a site falls into, plus whether you render in a browser — and you often don't know the tier until you've scraped the page. That flexibility is powerful, but it makes forecasting hard.
WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed table: 1 credit for a datacenter request, 5 with JS, 10–25 for residential, 50 for stealth, +5 for AI extraction. The cost is the same on any site, so you can estimate a month's bill from your request count.
Zyte's automatic extraction and the Scrapy ecosystem are genuine strengths — if you're building on Scrapy, Zyte is a natural home.
WebScraping.AI adds /ai/fields and /ai/question for structured data and plain-English answers on any page, a first-party MCP server (Zyte offers only a DIY tutorial), and 7 official SDKs across languages.
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 Zyte alternative?
Yes, if you want predictable published pricing and a simple API rather than Zyte's per-tier request costs. Zyte is the better fit if you're built on Scrapy or need its automatic typed extraction and managed data services.
How is WebScraping.AI's pricing different from Zyte's?
WebScraping.AI charges a fixed, published credit cost per request type, known before you run. Zyte prices each request by one of five per-site difficulty tiers, with browser-rendered requests ranging from about $1 to $16 per 1,000 — so the cost of a job often isn't clear until you've scraped it.
Does WebScraping.AI have automatic extraction like Zyte?
WebScraping.AI's /ai/fields extracts structured data from any page using a natural-language field description, and /ai/question answers questions about a page. Zyte's automatic extraction returns pre-defined typed schemas (product, article, job) without a description, which is a strong fit when your pages match those types.
Does WebScraping.AI have an MCP server?
Yes — WebScraping.AI ships a first-party MCP server and CLI. Zyte currently offers a tutorial for building your own MCP server rather than a hosted product.
Does WebScraping.AI charge for failed requests?
No — failed requests are free on WebScraping.AI. Zyte also bills only successful requests, so on that point the two are the same.
Get started with 2,000 free API credits. No credit card required.