Most people after a ZenRows alternative want data they can use, not HTML to parse. CrustAPI is one data API for the data you actually want: the whole Google menu, plus LinkedIn profiles and local business leads. You get clean JSON from the API, or the same rows as CSV, and pay one credit per successful call.
The same rows show as CSV, so they drop straight into Sheets or a CRM with no parsing:
Swap type=web for maps, news, shopping, images, videos, scholar, patents, places, reviews, or autocomplete. Same key, same shape. There is no page to render and no HTML to clean up.
Each result arrives structured and complete, so you build a feed or a dataset with no second call and no HTML selectors. The same record shows as CSV, ready for Sheets or a database:
Or the same record as JSON:
With ZenRows you fetch the page and write the selectors. Here the structure is already done.
Both pull public web data. The difference is what comes back, and how you pay for it. ZenRows is a general web-scraping API built to get past anti-bot systems; CrustAPI is one clean data API for the data you actually want, from the whole Google menu to LinkedIn profiles and local business leads, returned as records instead of raw pages.
| ZenRows | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Per request on a credit plan; the credit cost of a request rises with JavaScript rendering, premium proxies, and anti-bot bypass | One flat credit per successful call (Maps bills one credit per business returned); empty and failed queries cost nothing |
| What you get back | The HTML of the URL you send, with optional extraction rules | Clean JSON in a stable schema, or the same rows as CSV, no parsing |
| Free tier | A free trial, no card | 3,000 credits every month, no card |
| Credit expiry | Tied to a monthly plan | Never expire |
| Data in the response | The page you fetch, returned to you to keep | Clean records in the response, no storage limits, keep and export |
| Coverage | Any URL you point it at, built to bypass anti-bot systems | Google Search, Maps, News, Shopping, Images, Videos, Scholar, Patents, Places, Reviews, Autocomplete, Webpage |
Prepaid packs, and credits never expire: 25k for $49 · 100k for $149 · 500k for $549 · 2.5M for $1,999 · up to 250M, all self-serve, ex-tax. Every search is one flat credit per successful call, and a call that returns nothing costs nothing. Maps is the one exception: it bills one credit per business returned, since each place is a full record. There is no per-request premium for rendering, proxies, or anti-bot bypass, so the price on the page is the price you pay.
One key and one schema across the whole Google menu. Each surface returns clean records you can keep, with no page to render and no selectors to write.
ZenRows and CrustAPI solve different problems. If your target is off our menu, ZenRows is the right tool, and here is where it clearly wins.
Any website, not a fixed menu. ZenRows is a general web-scraping API. You point it at any URL and it hands back the page. CrustAPI covers a fixed set of data products, not any URL you hand it, so for an arbitrary site ZenRows is what you want.
Anti-bot bypass on hard targets. ZenRows is built to get past the anti-bot walls that block a plain request. If your target is a tough site that fights scrapers, that is the job ZenRows is designed for.
Proxies, a browser, and your own rules. ZenRows pairs its scraper with a residential proxy network and a scraping browser, and it lets you run your own extraction rules on the raw page. CrustAPI decides the schema for you, which is the point here, but it is not what you want when you need the raw page or your own proxy pool.
This compares public product behavior, not a ranking. If anything here is stale or unfair, email support@crustapi.com and I will fix it.
Related: Google Search API · Google Maps scraper API · Web scraper API · ScrapingBee alternative · Docs
3,000 free credits covers real work. Run one search and look at the clean JSON that comes back.
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