ScraperAPI Alternative

The Pay-As-You-Go Alternative to ScraperAPI

No monthly subscriptions. No wasted credits. AlterLab charges per request with a dollar balance that never expires.

  • Pure pay-as-you-go — no monthly subscription required
  • 5 automatic anti-bot tiers vs manual configuration
  • Balance never expires — no use-it-or-lose-it pressure

Why Teams Switch from ScraperAPI

1

No subscription lock-in

AlterLab uses a dollar balance model. Top up any amount, pay per request, and your balance never expires. No monthly fees, no overages, no wasted credits at cycle end.

2

Automatic anti-bot escalation

AlterLab automatically escalates through 5 protection tiers — from simple proxies to full browser rendering with CAPTCHA solving. No manual tier selection needed.

3

Transparent per-request pricing

See exactly what each request costs based on its complexity tier. No guessing how many credits a request will consume.

Feature Comparison

FeatureAlterLabScraperAPI
Pay-as-you-go pricing
Balance never expires
Auto anti-bot escalation5 tiersManual selection
JavaScript rendering
CAPTCHA solving
Residential proxies
Geotargeting
Free tier5,000 requests5,000 requests
Structured data extraction
MCP server integration

Migration Takes Minutes

Estimated time: 5 minutes

ScraperAPI
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.scraperapi.com",
    params={
        "api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
        "url": "https://example.com",
        "render": "true"
    }
)
AlterLab
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY"},
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com",
        "render_js": True
    }
)

Frequently Asked Questions

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.

$1 free balance. No credit card. No SDK.Just a POST request.

terminal
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown"]}'

No credit card required · Up to 5,000 free scrapes · Balance never expire