Question 1

Is it cheaper to build my own web scraper or use an API?

Accepted Answer

For most use cases, a web scraping API costs less when you account for total engineering time. Building a scraper with proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, and website compatibility maintenance takes 40-200 hours of engineering time. At $100/hour, that is $4,000-$20,000 in one-time cost — plus ongoing maintenance. AlterLab starts at $0.0002/request with 5,000 free requests at signup. A scraping project requiring 100,000 requests/month costs $20/month on AlterLab versus ongoing engineer time to maintain a DIY solution.

Question 2

What do you need to build a web scraper from scratch?

Accepted Answer

A production-ready DIY scraper requires: an HTTP client (requests, axios), a proxy pool (sourced from a provider), IP rotation logic, browser automation (Playwright or Puppeteer) for JavaScript-heavy sites, residential proxy handling for sites that block datacenter IPs, CAPTCHA-handling integration, retry logic with exponential backoff, monitoring and alerting, and ongoing maintenance as websites update their protection layers. Each component adds engineering complexity and failure surface.

Question 3

When should I build my own scraper instead of using an API?

Accepted Answer

Building your own scraper makes sense when: you have very high volume (10M+ requests/month) where a custom proxy pool is cheaper at scale, you need highly specialized extraction logic tied to a single target website, or you have existing in-house infrastructure and engineering capacity. For most teams scraping under 10M requests/month across multiple websites, a managed API is more cost-effective.

Question 4

How much time does it take to maintain a DIY scraper?

Accepted Answer

Maintenance is the hidden cost of DIY scraping. Websites update their HTML structure, add new bot detection layers, and change their JavaScript frameworks. A production scraper targeting multiple websites typically requires 5-20 hours per month of maintenance to keep success rates stable. This ongoing cost is not present with a managed API — AlterLab's infrastructure team handles compatibility updates automatically.

Question 5

Does AlterLab handle websites that change frequently?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AlterLab uses a 5-tier escalation system that adapts automatically to website changes. If a website adds a new JavaScript challenge, AlterLab's infrastructure is updated to handle it — your code does not change. Maintenance of the compatibility layer is managed at the API level, not the application level.

Category	AlterLab API	DIY Scraper
Initial Setup	Under 30 minutes — sign up, get API key, make first request	40-200 hours — HTTP client, proxy pool, JS rendering, retry logic
Proxy Management	Automatic — datacenter and residential proxies included	Manual — source proxies, rotate IPs, handle bans and blocks
JavaScript Rendering	Automatic — Tier 3+ escalates to full browser rendering	Requires Playwright or Puppeteer — memory-intensive, complex deployment
Website Compatibility	Managed — compatibility updated automatically by AlterLab	Your responsibility — websites change, breaking your scraper
Ongoing Maintenance	Zero — API handles compatibility maintenance	5-20 hours/month per scraper to keep success rates stable
Cost at 100K req/month	$20/month ($0.0002/request on Tier 1)	Engineering time + proxy provider cost + infrastructure
Scale	Unlimited — auto-scales with no infrastructure changes	Requires additional proxy capacity and browser instances

Web Scraping API vs Building Your Own

API vs DIY: Side-by-Side Comparison

What Does a DIY Scraper Actually Require?

HTTP Client + Retry Logic

Proxy Pool Setup

JavaScript Rendering

Website Compatibility

Challenge Resolution

Ongoing Maintenance

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