Dollar Balance vs Credit Plan Subscriptions
Scrapfly uses subscription plans with scraping credits that are consumed at different rates depending on the rendering mode. AlterLab charges in dollars per request — no credit conversion, no monthly subscription, no expiry.
Why developers leave Scrapfly
Real pain points from developers who switched to AlterLab
Credit math adds cognitive overhead
Scrapfly credits are consumed at different rates depending on rendering mode. Estimating costs requires converting requests to credits and then credits to dollars, which makes budgeting harder than it needs to be.
Monthly resets waste unused credit
Subscription credits reset each month. If your scraping workload is uneven, you lose credits you've already paid for.
No structured output
Scrapfly returns raw HTML. Parsing structured data, markdown conversion, and JSON extraction require additional tools on top.
| Workload | AlterLab per 1k | Scrapfly per 1k |
|---|---|---|
| Basic HTML | $0.20 $0.0002 per request | $1.40+ $0.0014+ per request |
| JavaScript rendering | $4.00 $0.004 per request | $7.00+ $0.0070+ per request |
See How Much You Save
Drag the slider to calculate your exact savings vs Scrapfly
Every feature, side by side
See exactly how AlterLab compares to Scrapfly across all key features
| Feature | AlterLab Winner | Scrapfly |
|---|---|---|
Pricing model How usage is billed | Dollar balance per request | Credit plans — credits vary by mode |
Balance expiry Whether unused balance resets monthly | Never expires | Monthly credit reset |
Subscription required Must purchase a monthly plan | ||
Free tier No-cost evaluation access | Up to 5,000 free requests, no credit card | Free plan with limited credits |
Same features, 86% less
Get the same capabilities at a fraction of the cost. Start with up to 5,000 free requests — no credit card required.
See AlterLab in action
One endpoint. Any website. Results in under 2 seconds. No Scrapfly complexity.
// Response will appear here...
Try it yourself with up to 5,000 free requests
No credit card required. Get your API key in 30 seconds.
Switch from Scrapfly in Under 1 hour
Simple easy migration process. No downtime, no complex setup.
Migration Steps
Code Migration Example
import scrapfly
client = scrapfly.ScrapflyClient(key="YOUR_KEY")
result = client.scrape(scrapfly.ScrapeConfig(url="https://example.com"))import requests
resp = requests.post("https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape",
headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY"},
json={"url": "https://example.com"})Compatibility Notes
- •No SDK required — works with any HTTP client
- •Rendering tier selected automatically or specified via render parameter
- •Geo-targeting available via the geo parameter
Ready to make the switch?
Start with up to 5,000 free requests. No credit card required.
Built for production workloads
Real platform metrics — not marketing promises
Start free — no credit card, no commitment
Frequently Asked Questions
More Comparisons
See how AlterLab stacks up against other scraping APIs
10x cost multipliers
Expiring monthly balance
75x cost for hard sites
Complex enterprise tooling
19,000+ Actors to manage
Monthly subscription required
Confusing token types
Enterprise complexity
Enterprise minimums, no developer API
Bandwidth billing, unpredictable costs
Monthly subscription required
Monthly subscription required
Summarized snippets, not full page content
Search-only, no destination page extraction
Monthly subscription required
Flat $1 per 1,000 for every page
Fixed list of platform endpoints
1–125 credits per request
$40/month plan minimum
Want measured numbers? See our reproducible benchmark (methodology + raw data).
More Scraping API Resources
Part of the Web Scraping API Documentation cluster
Complete API reference with 5-tier auto-escalation — Curl to challenge resolution.
Pillar page10x cost multipliers vs pay-as-you-go pricing.
Complex enterprise tooling vs simple API integration.
Expiring monthly balance vs credits that never expire.
75x cost for hard sites vs auto-escalation pricing.
19,000+ Actors to manage vs a single unified API.
Monthly subscription required vs pay-per-request.
Confusing token types vs transparent per-request billing.
Real success rate and cost data across scraping APIs — no vendor data.
Stop overpaying.
Start scraping smarter.
Switch from Scrapfly in under Under 1 hour. No credit card required.
Pay-as-you-go pricing. Balance never expires.