```yaml
product: AlterLab
title: "Scraping API — Web Scraping Glossary | AlterLab"
comparison_context: "AlterLab is an alternative to Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and Bright Data."
source_url: https://alterlab.io/glossary/scraping-api
```

general

# Scraping API

A managed web scraping service that abstracts proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, and automatic website compatibility into a single HTTP endpoint.

A scraping API is a managed service that handles the infrastructure complexity of web scraping on behalf of developers. Instead of maintaining proxy pools, headless browser clusters, fingerprint update pipelines, and retry logic, developers send HTTP requests to the scraping API with a target URL and receive back the extracted content — HTML, markdown, or structured JSON.

The value proposition is operational abstraction: the scraping API provider handles proxy sourcing and rotation, browser version maintenance and fingerprint updating, challenge resolution, geographic targeting, rate limit management, and retry on failure. Developers pay per successful request rather than managing any of this infrastructure themselves.

AlterLab is a scraping API with a 5-tier intelligent strategy selection. Tier 1 sends plain HTTP requests with browser-compatible headers; Tier 2 adds Chromium TLS fingerprint; Tier 3 uses browser-compatible Playwright rendering; Tier 4 adds full headless browser with challenge detection; Tier 5 adds automated challenge resolution. The tier is selected automatically based on the site's response to lower tiers, minimising cost.

### What is Scraping API?

A managed web scraping service that abstracts proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, and automatic website compatibility into a single HTTP endpoint.

### How does AlterLab handle Scraping API?

AlterLab is a scraping API with a 5-tier intelligent strategy selection. Tier 1 sends plain HTTP requests with browser-compatible headers; Tier 2 adds Chromium TLS fingerprint; Tier 3 uses browser-compatible Playwright rendering; Tier 4 adds full headless browser with challenge detection; Tier 5 adds automated challenge resolution. The tier is selected automatically based on the site's response to lower tiers, minimising cost.

## Examples

```
# Using AlterLab's scraping API
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "sk_live_..."},
    json={"url": "https://example.com"}
)
html = response.json()["html"]
```

## Related Terms

[Web ScrapingAutomated extraction of data from websites using software tools that parse HTML and collect structured information at scale.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/web-scraping)[REST APIA web service that exposes data and actions through standard HTTP methods and resource-oriented URLs, returning structured JSON responses.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rest-api)[Rotating ProxyA proxy configuration that automatically assigns a different IP address for each request or at a set interval to prevent IP-based rate limiting.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rotating-proxy)[JavaScript RenderingThe process of executing a page's JavaScript in a browser engine before extracting content, required for React, Vue, and Angular SPAs.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/javascript-rendering)[Anti-Bot ProtectionSystems deployed by websites to detect and block automated traffic using TLS fingerprinting, CAPTCHA challenges, and behavioural analysis.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-bot-protection)

## Extract Scraping API data from any website

AlterLab returns clean, structured data from any public URL — no scraper infrastructure needed. Start free, no credit card required.

[View API docs](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/rest)

[Back to Glossary](https://alterlab.io/glossary)