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Scrapfly Alternative
Scrapfly's Discovery plan advertises 200,000 credits for $30/month. But residential proxies and JavaScript rendering cost 30 credits per request - turning that 200,000 into just 6,667 pages. On harder sites the cost climbs to 50-75+ credits per request, and the cheapest plan has no overflow - your scraping just stops. Browser7 includes everything at a flat $0.01 per page, with no credit system and no subscription required.
How Scrapfly's credit system works
Scrapfly's pricing looks straightforward until you check how many credits each request actually costs. The base rate of 1 credit per request only applies to datacenter proxies with no rendering - the configuration that fails on most modern websites.
| Configuration | Credits per request | Real pages from 200K credits |
|---|---|---|
| Datacenter proxy only | 1 | 200,000 |
| Datacenter + JS rendering | 6 | 33,333 |
| Residential proxy only | 25 | 8,000 |
| Residential + JS rendering | 30 | 6,667 |
| ASP on harder sites (typical) | 50-75+ | 2,667-4,000 |
For reliable scraping of protected websites, you typically need residential proxies and JavaScript rendering. At 30 credits per request, the Discovery plan's 200,000 credits give you just 6,667 pages - not 200,000. That's a 30x gap between the headline number and what you actually get.
On harder sites where Scrapfly's Anti-Scraping Protection (ASP) kicks in, a single request can cost 50-75+ credits. At 75 credits per request, the Discovery plan covers just 2,667 pages for $30.
Dynamic proxy escalation
Scrapfly's ASP system can automatically upgrade your requests from datacenter to residential proxies mid-request if it determines the target site requires it. A request you expected to cost 6 credits (datacenter + JS rendering) can become 30+ credits without warning. Users have reported "datacenter blocking on first call, forcing residential tier at 25x cost."
The cost of scraping any given target also varies dramatically. Independent benchmarks from Scrapeway show per-target costs ranging from $0.17 per thousand for Walmart to $7.66 per thousand for StockX - a 45x difference depending on what you are scraping. You will not know which rate applies until after the request completes.
With Browser7, every page costs $0.01 regardless of the target site, its protections, or what proxies are needed. There is no dynamic escalation and no per-target pricing.
The $30 to $100 plan jump
Scrapfly's Discovery plan ($30/month) includes 200,000 credits and has no pay-as-you-go overflow. When your credits run out, your scraping stops. If you need more than 6,667 pages with residential proxies and JS rendering, there is no way to add more credits on Discovery - you must upgrade to the Pro plan at $100/month.
That is a 233% price increase with no option in between. Here is what that looks like at different page counts:
| Pages needed (residential + JS) | Browser7 | Scrapfly Discovery | Scrapfly Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 pages | $50 | $30* | $100* |
| 6,667 pages (Discovery max) | $66.67 | $30* | $100* |
| 7,000 pages | $70 | Can't do it | $100* |
| 8,000 pages | $80 | Can't do it | $100* |
| 10,000 pages | $100 | Can't do it | $100* |
* Monthly subscription. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle. Discovery has no overflow. Pro allows pay-as-you-go overage at $3.50 per 10,000 credits.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 pages per month, Browser7 is $20-30 cheaper than Scrapfly Pro - and without a subscription. If your targets need more than 30 credits per request (which harder sites do), the Discovery plan runs out even sooner and the gap widens further.
Browser7 vs Scrapfly
A direct comparison of what you get and what you pay.
| Feature | Browser7 | Scrapfly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat per-page | Credit-based |
| Cost per page | $0.01 always | Depends on target, features, and plan (30-75+ credits) |
| Cost predictability | Known before you start | Varies 45x between targets |
| JavaScript rendering | +5 credits | |
| Residential proxies | +25 credits | |
| CAPTCHA solving | ||
| Geo-targeting | ||
| Dynamic proxy escalation | No | Yes - can force residential mid-request |
| Per-target pricing | Same price for every site | $0.17 to $7.66 per 1,000 (45x range) |
| Cheapest plan overflow | N/A - pay for what you use | None - service stops |
| Pay-as-you-go option | Pro plan and above only ($3.50/10K) | |
| Unused credits | Never expire | Expire monthly, no rollover |
| Proxy type by default | Residential | Datacenter |
| Concurrency (cheapest plan) | Unlimited | 5 concurrent |
| Annual discounts | N/A - no subscription | None available |
| Free trial | 100 renders, no card required | 1,000 credits (~33 residential+JS pages) |
Things to watch out for with Scrapfly
200,000 credits is not 200,000 pages
The Discovery plan's 200,000 credit headline assumes every request costs 1 credit - which only works for datacenter proxies with no JS rendering. With residential proxies and JS rendering (30 credits), you get 6,667 pages. With ASP on harder sites (50-75 credits), you get 2,667-4,000 pages. The headline number and the real number are up to 75x apart.
ASP can escalate your proxy costs without warning
Scrapfly's Anti-Scraping Protection system can automatically upgrade requests from datacenter to residential proxies if it determines the target requires it. A request you expected to cost 6 credits becomes 30+ credits. You cannot prevent this, and the cost is only visible after the request completes.
Discovery plan stops when credits run out
The cheapest paid plan ($30/month) has no pay-as-you-go overflow. When your 200,000 credits are gone, your scraping stops mid-job. The only option is to upgrade to the Pro plan at $100/month - a 233% price increase. On Browser7, you can always top up any amount and keep going.
Credits expire every month
Unused credits on Scrapfly do not roll over to the next billing period. If you pay $100/month for the Pro plan and only use half your credits, the rest are lost. There are no annual discounts available to reduce the monthly cost, and there is no way to pause your subscription.
Pay-as-you-go overage can spike to 125%
On the Pro plan and above, pay-as-you-go kicks in when your credits run out. The default cap is 125% of your monthly quota. On the $100 Pro plan, that means up to $125 in extra overage charges beyond your base subscription - turning a $100 month into $225 if you are not watching your usage carefully.
5 concurrent requests on the cheapest plans
Both the free and Discovery plans are limited to 5 concurrent requests. Scraping 6,667 pages at 5 concurrent requests with an average response time of 6-7 seconds means each full crawl takes roughly 2.5 hours. The Pro plan increases this to 20 concurrent, but costs $100/month.
Users report price increases after integration
Multiple users have reported Scrapfly raising prices after they had already built integrations around the service. Once your scraping pipeline depends on a specific API, switching becomes expensive - and the provider knows that.
How Browser7 is different
$0.01 per page, every target, every feature
Browser7 does not have credit multipliers. Walmart and LinkedIn cost the same. Residential proxies and JavaScript rendering are included, not add-ons. There is no ASP escalation because anti-bot bypass is always included in the price. The cost of scraping a page is $0.01 - before you make the request, not after.
No plan jumps, no minimums
Browser7 uses a prepaid balance model. Need 7,000 pages? Top up $70. Need 20,000 pages? Top up $200. There is no $30-to-$100 plan jump, no monthly subscription, and no minimum commitment. You pay for exactly the number of pages you need.
Your balance never expires
Top up when you need to, use it whenever you want. If you scrape 5,000 pages this month and nothing next month, you pay $50 once and $0 the next month. There are no expiring credits, no wasted allowances, and no auto-renewals.
Residential proxies on every request
Browser7 only uses residential IPs - never datacenter. You do not start with datacenter and get escalated to residential at 25x the cost. Residential is the default and the only option, included in the $0.01 per page price.
No concurrency limits on any plan
Browser7 does not cap concurrent requests based on how much you pay. You get the same performance whether you top up $10 or $1,000.
Real-world cost: 8,000 pages per month for a year
Let's say you scrape 8,000 pages per month from a mix of targets - some straightforward, some with heavier anti-bot protection. At an average of 40 credits per request on Scrapfly, here is what it costs over a year:
| Browser7 | Scrapfly Discovery | Scrapfly Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly pages | 8,000 | Max 5,000 at 40 credits | 8,000 of 25,000 |
| Monthly cost | $80 | Not enough | $100 |
| Credits wasted monthly | N/A | - | 680,000 (68%) |
| Annual cost | $960 | - | $1,200 |
| Annual savings with Browser7 | - | - | $240 saved |
| Subscription commitment | None | Monthly | Monthly |
At an average of 40 credits per request, 8,000 pages needs 320,000 credits - well beyond the Discovery plan's 200,000 limit. You are forced to the Pro plan at $100/month, where 68% of your credits expire unused every month. Over a year, that is $240 more than Browser7 - plus you are locked into a monthly subscription that charges $100 even in months you scrape less.