Vera or ScraperAPI? The plain answer.
ScraperAPI is built around its own proxy network and anti-bot handling, for sites that resist scrapers. Vera is a smaller API for public pages: Markdown and named fields back, search and collections on one credit balance, and nothing charged when a request fails. Here is what each does, what each costs, and where ScraperAPI is the better choice.
Competitor details checked 19 October 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm them on ScraperAPI's own pages before you decide. See the sources.
At a glance
Choose ScraperAPI when
- The sites you need block ordinary requests, and you need residential or mobile IPs to reach them.
- You need to choose the country a request comes from.
- You want the lowest price per static page at high volume.
- You want SDKs, an async API, structured-data endpoints or scheduled bulk jobs.
Choose Vera when
- The pages are public and do not fight scrapers, and you want Markdown or named fields back.
- You want failed or blocked requests to cost nothing.
- You want a low way in, and unused credits that roll over.
- You want search (up to 100 results), single pages and collections on one credit balance.
Side by side
On Vera, a scrape costs 1 credit for a static page and 5 credits for a rendered page. A search costs 3 credits per search and returns up to 100 results. A collection takes up to 1,000 URLs, or a same-site crawl, at 1 credit for each page that completes. Failed or blocked requests cost nothing. A credit costs between $0.00029 and $0.00054, depending on the plan.
| What | Vera | ScraperAPI | ScraperAPI source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proxy network | None. Vera has no residential or rotating proxies; requests leave from Vera's own servers. | Rotating proxy pools and premium proxies are listed as core features on every plan. | ScraperAPI pricing |
| Residential and mobile IPs | None. Residential routing returns 503 and nothing is charged. | premium=true uses a private pool of residential and mobile IPs: 10 credits a request, 25 with rendering. | ScraperAPI premium residential and mobile proxy pools |
| Country targeting | None. Vera cannot route a request through a chosen country. | country_code adds no credits. The Hobby and Startup plans list the US and EU only; Business and above list country-level targeting. | ScraperAPI pricingScraperAPI supported parameters |
| CAPTCHAs and bot protection | None. Vera does not solve CAPTCHAs or bypass bot protection; a blocked page fails and costs nothing. | CAPTCHA and anti-bot handling is a listed core feature. ultra_premium=true, for the hardest targets, costs 30 credits (75 with rendering) on paid plans. | ScraperAPI pricingScraperAPI premium residential and mobile proxy pools |
| JavaScript rendering | render: true costs 5 credits a page, in an isolated browser with a 30-second limit. It is offered where the deployment has that browser turned on. | render=true costs 10 credits a request, 25 with premium=true. | ScraperAPI credits and request costs |
| Markdown output | markdown: true returns the page's main content as Markdown, next to its text, links and metadata. | output_format=markdown, or text, on standard requests. | ScraperAPI supported parameters |
| Structured fields | extract takes up to 10 named fields, each a single CSS selector, in the same 1 credit static request. | autoparse returns JSON for selected sites. A separate set of structured data endpoints returns JSON, CSV, Markdown or text. | ScraperAPI supported parametersScraperAPI documentation |
| Screenshots | Rendered requests only (screenshot: true, a PNG up to 4 MiB), at the rendered price of 5 credits. | screenshot=true costs 10 credits. | ScraperAPI credits and request costs |
| Search | 3 credits per search, with up to 100 results: titles, links and snippets, not page content. | A request to Google or Bing costs 25 credits. | ScraperAPI credits and request costs |
| Batches and crawls | Collections: up to 1,000 URLs, or a same-site crawl, at 1 credit for each page that completes. Static fetches only. | An async API, a Crawler that follows URLs across a domain, and DataPipeline for bulk and scheduled jobs. | ScraperAPI documentation |
| Failed requests | Failed or blocked requests cost nothing. So does a response below a quality floor you set (min_quality_score). | Only successful requests are charged, which it defines as 200 and 404 responses. | ScraperAPI credits and request costs |
| SDKs | None. Vera is a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, and HTTP recipes for n8n and Make. | SDKs for Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby and Java. | ScraperAPI SDKs |
| Unused credits | Unused credits roll over while the account stays open. | The balance resets when the subscription renews. | ScraperAPI pricing |
What it costs
| Plan | Per month | Credits | Concurrent | Per 1,000 static pages | Per 1,000 rendered pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vera Forager | $19 | 35,000 | 12 | $0.543 | $2.71 |
| Vera Builder | $59 | 150,000 | 30 | $0.393 | $1.97 |
| Vera Scale | $149 | 500,000 | 60 | $0.298 | $1.49 |
| Vera Studio | $399 | 1,400,000 | 100 | $0.285 | $1.43 |
| ScraperAPI Hobby | $49 ($44.10 billed annually) | 100,000 | 20 | $0.490 | $4.90 |
| ScraperAPI Startup | $149 ($134.10 billed annually) | 1,000,000 | 50 | $0.149 | $1.49 |
| ScraperAPI Business | $299 ($269.10 billed annually) | 3,000,000 | 100 | $0.100 | $0.997 |
| ScraperAPI Scaling | $475 ($427.50 billed annually) | 5,000,000 | 200 | $0.095 | $0.950 |
Vera starts at $19 a month for 35,000 credits. ScraperAPI's cheapest paid plan is $49 a month for 100,000 credits.
On a static page, ScraperAPI's price per 1,000 pages runs from $0.490 on Hobby down to $0.095 on Scaling. Vera's runs from $0.543 to $0.285. From its Startup plan upward, ScraperAPI is cheaper per static page than every Vera plan.
A rendered page costs 5 credits on Vera and 10 credits on ScraperAPI. Per 1,000 rendered pages Vera runs from $2.71 to $1.43; ScraperAPI from $4.90 on Hobby down to $0.950 on Scaling. ScraperAPI's Hobby plan costs more per rendered page than any Vera plan. Its Business and Scaling plans cost less than any Vera plan.
These figures use the standard rates. On a site that needs premium proxies, ScraperAPI charges 10 credits a request (25 with rendering), or 30 (75) for ultra premium, so its price per page rises accordingly. For a site that blocks ordinary requests the question is not price: Vera has no proxy network and will not fetch the page.
Cost per 1,000 pages is the monthly price divided by the plan's credits, times the credits one page uses, times 1,000. Vera's prices are monthly. The per-1,000 columns use each service's monthly price, and the standard rate for one page; ScraperAPI's prices come from ScraperAPI pricing, checked 19 October 2026.
ScraperAPI's plans above Scaling (Professional, Advanced and Enterprise) are on its pricing page and not in this table.
Where ScraperAPI is stronger
- A proxy network. Rotating proxy pools and premium proxies are listed on every plan, and premium=true uses a private pool of residential and mobile IPs. Vera has none of this.
- Country targeting. country_code adds no credits. Hobby and Startup are limited to the US and EU; Business and above target countries.
- Anti-bot handling. CAPTCHA and anti-bot handling is a listed core feature, and ultra_premium=true exists for the hardest targets.
- A lower price per static page from its Startup plan upward: $0.149 per 1,000 pages on Startup and $0.095 on Scaling, against $0.285 at best on Vera.
- More concurrency at each tier. Its Hobby to Scaling plans list 20 to 200 concurrent threads; Vera's paid plans allow 12 to 100 concurrent requests.
- SDKs for Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby and Java, an async API, structured data endpoints, a Crawler, and scheduled bulk jobs with DataPipeline.
Where Vera is the better fit
- A lower way in: $19 a month for 35,000 credits, against $49 for 100,000.
- Rendering costs 5 credits where ScraperAPI's costs 10. Every Vera plan renders a page for less than ScraperAPI's Hobby plan does.
- Failed or blocked requests cost nothing. ScraperAPI charges for 200 and 404 responses.
- Search (up to 100 results for 3 credits) and collections draw on the same credit balance as single pages.
- Named fields by CSS selector come back in the same request, with no extra credits.
- Unused credits roll over while the account is open. ScraperAPI's balance resets when the subscription renews.
What Vera does not do
- Vera has no residential or rotating proxies. A request that asks for residential routing returns 503, and nothing is charged.
- Vera cannot route a request through a country you choose, solve CAPTCHAs, bypass bot protection, log in, or read pages behind a paywall.
- Vera checks robots.txt and each source's policy on every fetch. A page a site forbids is refused, at no charge.
- A normal request does not run JavaScript. A rendered request costs 5 credits, runs in an isolated browser with a 30-second limit, and is only offered where the deployment has that browser turned on; where it is not, the call returns 503 and nothing is charged.
- Collections fetch static HTML only, keep their results for 7 days, and are capped by plan: up to 1,000 pages on the largest plan, fewer on the others.
- Vera has no SDKs. It is a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, and HTTP recipes for n8n and Make.
What we left out
We only state what a competitor's own pages say. Anything we could not confirm there, or have not measured, is not in the comparison.
- We have not measured success rates, speed or proxy coverage on either service, so we make no claim about them.
- ScraperAPI's free trial. Its pricing page gives two different amounts, so we left it out.
- ScraperAPI's per-site credit rates other than Google and Bing. Its credits page lists higher rates for sites such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay and LinkedIn; our per-page figures use the standard rates.
- Pricing for its async API, Crawler and DataPipeline.
Sources
Every ScraperAPI fact on this page comes from the pages below, checked 19 October 2026. Vera's own prices and credit costs match its pricing page.
- ScraperAPI pricingPlan prices, credits and threads, geotargeting by plan, the core features on every plan, annual pricing and the credit reset.
- ScraperAPI credits and request costsCredits per request for rendering, premium, ultra premium and screenshots, the Google and Bing rate, and what counts as a charged request.
- ScraperAPI supported parametersoutput_format, country_code, autoparse and the other request parameters.
- ScraperAPI premium residential and mobile proxy poolsWhat premium and ultra premium are, what they cost, and which plans can use them.
- ScraperAPI documentationThe endpoints and products it lists: async, structured data, DataPipeline and the crawler.
- ScraperAPI SDKsThe languages it has SDKs for.
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