#1 Zyte Alternative
Scrape, crawl, map, and search the web with JavaScript rendering and anti-bot proxies in every 1-credit page. Zyte prices each site by a 1-to-5 difficulty tier and bills browser pages at 7.5x to 12.6x its HTTP rate, so a rendered page costs $0.75 to $12.00 per 1,000 on its $100 plan. Context.dev Pro is $0.79 on any site.
1,000 rendered pages on a protected retailer
Context.dev Pro vs Zyte’s $100 commitment, October 2026 list prices
Zyte sets each site’s tier from 1 to 5, separately for HTTP and browser requests; at $100 a browser page runs $0.75 to $12.00 per 1,000. Simple sites cost less on Zyte: $0.10 per 1,000 over HTTP on tier 1.
Powering agents and products with the world's data.
Why switch
Zyte and Context.dev both render and unblock protected pages, and Zyte ranked first for unblocking in Proxyway’s 2025 benchmark. The difference is how the bill is set: Zyte prices each site by a tier it assigns and charges more for a browser, while Context.dev charges 1 credit per page on every site and adds crawl, batches, monitors, and search.
- Key difference
One price per page, whatever tier Zyte gives the site
Zyte puts every website in one of five difficulty tiers, set separately for HTTP and browser requests, and prices each response by it. At its $100 commitment, a browser-rendered page costs $0.75 per 1,000 on tier 1 and $12.00 on tier 5, 16 times as much; Best Buy and Home Depot are tier 4 at $6.00, Costco and Chewy tier 5. Context.dev Pro is $99 for 125,000 credits, $0.79 per 1,000 pages on any site.
- Rendering
Rendering and screenshots without a browser surcharge
On Zyte, a browser-rendered response costs 7.5 to 12.6 times an HTTP response in the same tier, screenshots add $1.34 per 1,000 at pay-as-you-go rates, and browser actions are billed by CPU and network use. Every Context.dev scrape renders JavaScript through managed proxies and can return Markdown, HTML, and a screenshot for the same 1 credit. Browser actions cost 2 credits on paid plans.
- Predictable
Know the price before you add a site
A new domain on Zyte starts on a temporary blended rate until Zyte has enough traffic data, tiers are reviewed every quarter with two weeks of notice, and one site can sit in two tiers (adidas.com is tier 1 over HTTP and tier 5 in a browser). Proxyway’s 2025 report, which ranked Zyte first for unblocking, said it “makes it challenging to understand your expenses upfront.” Context.dev has no per-site pricing: 1,000 pages cost 1,000 credits on any domain, including one you add today.
- Crawl
Crawl, map, batch, and monitor without hosting spiders
Zyte API fetches one URL per request, so multi-page crawls run as Scrapy spiders you write and host, for example on Scrapy Cloud at $9 per unit a month. Context.dev crawls up to 500 pages in one call, maps a site’s URLs for 1 credit, and runs batches of up to 100,000 URLs with every Scrape output and failed pages refunded. Monitors re-check pages from 1 credit per run and call your webhook, and the same endpoint parses PDFs, DOCX, XLSX, and about 40 other formats.
- Search
Search that reads the result pages, not only the links
Zyte’s Search API returns ranks, titles, URLs, and snippets, from $0.63 per 1,000 searches at its $100 commitment, and reading a result page is another extract request at that site’s tier. Context.dev Web Search reads the 10 result pages and returns the passages that answer your query for 2 credits, or every page as Markdown for 11. Answers returns a sourced answer in your JSON shape for 10 credits.
- Developer
Five official SDKs and a free plan that refills monthly
Zyte’s official client is Python, through python-zyte-api and scrapy-zyte-api; from TypeScript, Go, Ruby, or PHP you call the REST API yourself. Context.dev ships SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP, plus a CLI, an MCP server, and a public OpenAPI document. Its free plan refills 1,000 credits every month, where Zyte’s $5 trial credit is lost after the first billing month.
What one request really costs
What 1,000 requests cost on Context.dev Pro and Zyte’s $100 commitment, by request type and site tier. Zyte’s price changes with the tier it assigns each site; Context.dev’s does not.
| Request | Context.dev | Zyte | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain HTML on a tier 1 siteAn HTTP request with no browser, on the easiest sites | $0.79 | $0.10 (HTTP, tier 1) | 8x less |
| Rendered page on a tier 1 siteNike, Ulta, and eBay in Zyte’s price lookup | $0.79 | $0.75 (browser, tier 1) | 5% less |
| Rendered page on a tier 2 siteAmazon.com and Target | $0.79 | $1.50 (browser, tier 2) | 1.9x more |
| Rendered page on a tier 4 siteBest Buy, Home Depot, and Macy’s | $0.79 | $6.00 (browser, tier 4) | 7.6x more |
| Rendered page on a tier 5 siteCostco, Chewy, and CVS | $0.79 | $12.00 (browser, tier 5) | 15x more |
| JSON extraction against your schemaA typed object back from a rendered page | $3.96 (5 credits) | Browser rate + tokens | Extra fee |
| Ten search results, links onlyTitles, URLs, and snippets, no page content | $0.79 (1 credit) | $0.63 | 1.3x less |
Derived from Context.dev Pro ($99 for 125,000 credits) at monthly billing and Zyte’s $100 monthly commitment, which takes 25% off pay-as-you-go rates. Zyte rates are from zyte.com/pricing and zyte.com/serp-scraping, and site tiers from Zyte’s public price lookup, on October 18, 2026.
Full comparison
| Feature | Context.dev | Zyte |
|---|---|---|
| Scraping & Crawling | ||
| Scrape to Markdown or HTML | Yes | Yes |
| JavaScript rendering | Always included | Browser tier price |
| Residential proxies and anti-bot handling | Always included | Priced by site tier |
| Screenshots | Yes | +$1.34/1K PAYG |
| JSON extraction against your schema | 5 credits | LLM, billed per token |
| Prebuilt page parsers | Maps, app stores, G2 | Product, article, job |
| Crawl a site | 1 credit/page | Via Scrapy spiders |
| Map site URLs | Yes | No |
| Async batch scraping | Up to 100,000 URLs | No |
| Change monitoring with webhooks | Yes | No |
| Parse PDFs and office documents | Yes | No |
| Country geotargeting | Yes | 249, fee outside 20 |
| Signed-in scraping with saved logins | Browser profiles | Sessions up to 4 h |
| Interaction & Search | ||
| Browser actions before capture | Up to 5, 2 credits | Billed by CPU/network |
| Remote browser for Playwright or Puppeteer | No | CDP, billed per 15 s |
| Web search with page content | Yes | No |
| Research answers with sources | 10 credits | No |
| Google SERP API | No | $0.63/1K at $100 |
| Pricing & Billing | ||
| Price depends on the target site | Same on every site | 5 tiers, set by Zyte |
| Browser price vs HTTP price | Always renders | 7.5x to 12.6x |
| Price known before you add a site | Yes | Blended rate first |
| Failed requests free | Yes | Yes |
| Throughput on the $99 to $100 plan | 100 concurrent | 3,000 requests/min |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits/mo | $5 credit, 1st month |
| Deployment | ||
| Managed scraping API | Yes | Yes |
| Proxy mode endpoint | No | Yes |
| Hosted Scrapy spiders | No | $9/unit/month |
| Managed data feeds | No | From $500/month |
| Open-source crawling framework | No | Scrapy (BSD-3) |
| Zero data retention | On request | Not documented |
| Developer Experience | ||
| Public OpenAPI spec | Yes | Yes |
| TypeScript SDK | Yes | No |
| Python SDK | Yes | Yes |
| Go, PHP, and Ruby SDKs | Yes | No |
| CLI | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Also Included: Brand & Company Data | ||
| Brand profile by domain, name, email, or ticker | Yes | No |
| Logo CDN for direct embedding (Logo Link) | Yes | No |
Cost per 1,000 pages
Public list prices on both sites, broken down to the cost of 1,000 pages at each tier. Zyte prices every response by request type and by the tier it assigns the site, so both its tier 4 browser rate and its cheapest HTTP rate are shown.
| Tier | Context.dev | Zyte |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free $0/mo 1,000 credits 1 concurrent request $0 per 1K pages, any page | Trial $0 $5 credit, first month 3,000 requests/min 620 tier 4 rendered pages, once 38,000 tier 1 HTTP pages, once |
| Entry | Developer $19/mo 7,500 credits 10 concurrent requests $2.11–$2.53 per 1K pages, any page | Pay as you go No minimum Billed per response, $100/mo cap 3,000 requests/min $8.04 per 1K tier 4 rendered pages $0.13 per 1K tier 1 HTTP pages |
| Mid | Pro $99/mo 125,000 credits 100 concurrent requests $0.66–$0.79 per 1K pages, any page | $100 commitment $100/mo $100 of usage, 25% off 3,000 requests/min $6.00 per 1K tier 4 rendered pages $0.10 per 1K tier 1 HTTP pages |
| Growth | Growth $299/mo 500,000 credits 250 concurrent requests $0.50–$0.60 per 1K pages, any page | $350 commitment $350/mo $350 of usage, 48% off 3,000 requests/min $4.18 per 1K tier 4 rendered pages $0.07 per 1K tier 1 HTTP pages |
| High volume | Scale $499/mo 1,000,000 credits 500 concurrent requests $0.42–$0.50 per 1K pages, any page | $500 commitment $500/mo $500 of usage, 52% off 3,000 requests/min $3.84 per 1K tier 4 rendered pages $0.06 per 1K tier 1 HTTP pages |
- Zyte prices assume a browser-rendered request on a tier 4 site, the tier Zyte’s price lookup gave Best Buy, Home Depot, and Macy’s on October 18, 2026, and 1 credit per page on Context.dev, where rendering, managed proxies, and anti-bot handling are always on. Context.dev ranges run from yearly to monthly billing; Zyte publishes monthly commitments only.
- At the $100 commitment, Zyte’s browser price per 1,000 pages is $0.75 on tier 1, $1.50 on tier 2, $3.00 on tier 3, $6.00 on tier 4, and $12.00 on tier 5. Costco, Chewy, and CVS are tier 5; Amazon.com and Target are tier 2. New sites start on a temporary blended rate, and tiers are reviewed quarterly (zyte.com/pricing).
- Screenshots add $1.34 per 1,000 at pay-as-you-go rates, LLM extraction against your schema is billed per token, and browser actions by CPU and network use. A Zyte commitment is a monthly minimum paid in advance, and unused commitment is not refunded (docs.zyte.com/zyte-api/pricing.html).
- The $350 commitment is listed in Zyte’s docs but not on its pricing page, so its prices are derived from the documented 48% discount. Pay as you go has no minimum and a $100 monthly cap, and the trial is $5 of credit for the first billing month.
Prices and plans checked on .
Which one fits
Both render and unblock protected pages. These are the cases where the choice is clear. For formats, pricing, and code, see the Context.dev web scraping API.
Choose Context.dev if
- You scrape JavaScript-heavy, protected sites (retail, travel, reviews) and want 1 credit per page on every site, not a price tier Zyte assigns per domain.
- You want crawl, site maps, batches of up to 100,000 URLs, and change monitoring as API calls, without writing and hosting Scrapy spiders.
- Your agents search the web and read the relevant passages from each result page in the same call.
- Your team works in TypeScript, Go, Ruby, or PHP and wants an official SDK.
Choose Zyte if
- Most of your targets are static pages you can fetch without a browser. A tier 1 HTTP request costs $0.10 per 1,000 at Zyte’s $100 commitment, and its Markdown output bills at that rate.
- Success on the hardest targets matters more than price. Zyte ranked first for unblocking across 15 protected sites in Proxyway’s 2025 Web Scraping API Report.
- You already run Scrapy. Zyte maintains it, and scrapy-zyte-api, its spider templates, and Scrapy Cloud at $9 per unit drop into an existing codebase.
- You need long scripted browser sessions. Zyte’s CDP browser runs your Playwright or Puppeteer code for up to an hour, after business verification.
A few things to know.
More details in the API documentation.
What is the best Zyte alternative?
Context.dev is a Zyte alternative for teams that scrape JavaScript-heavy, protected sites and want a fixed price per page. Every scrape costs 1 credit with rendering, managed proxies, and anti-bot handling included ($0.79 per 1,000 pages on Pro), and the same API crawls, maps sites, runs batches of up to 100,000 URLs, monitors pages, and searches the web with page content. If you mainly fetch static pages over plain HTTP, already run Scrapy, or rank success on the hardest sites above price, Zyte is the better fit.
How does Zyte pricing work, and is there a multiplier?
Zyte bills per successful response, and the price depends on the request type and on the tier, from 1 to 5, that Zyte assigns the target site. At the $100 monthly commitment, an HTTP response costs $0.10 to $0.95 per 1,000 and a browser-rendered response $0.75 to $12.00, so a tier 5 browser page costs 16 times a tier 1 page. Screenshots, browser actions, AI extraction, and LLM custom attributes are billed on top. Context.dev charges 1 credit per page on every site, with rendering and anti-bot handling always on.
How much does it cost to scrape 1,000 pages of a protected retailer on Zyte vs Context.dev?
On Zyte’s $100 commitment, 1,000 browser-rendered pages cost $6.00 on a tier 4 site such as Best Buy or Home Depot and $12.00 on a tier 5 site such as Costco, plus about $1.01 if you add screenshots. On Context.dev Pro the same 1,000 pages cost 1,000 credits, or $0.79. At 125,000 tier 4 pages a month, Zyte’s $100 rate comes to $750, above that plan’s $200 spending cap, so you need its $500 commitment; Context.dev Pro covers it for $99. Prices are from Zyte’s pricing page and public price lookup on October 18, 2026.
Can I know a website’s Zyte tier before I scrape it?
For domains Zyte already has data on, yes: its pricing page, cost estimator, and MCP server show the tier. A new domain starts on a temporary blended rate until Zyte gathers enough traffic, tiers are reviewed quarterly with two weeks of notice, and the HTTP and browser tiers of one site can differ (adidas.com is tier 1 over HTTP and tier 5 in a browser). On Context.dev the price does not depend on the site.
Do I pay for failed or blocked requests?
Neither API bills for bans, rate-limit responses, or its own server errors, and both bill a target page that returns a real response such as a 404. On Context.dev a scrape where every output fails costs nothing, and failed pages in a batch are refunded when the batch settles. On Zyte, responses where browser actions failed are billed, and CDP browser sessions are billed once they start, however they end.
How do I migrate from Zyte API to Context.dev?
Zyte API extract requests with browserHtml, markdown, or screenshot map to Context.dev’s Scrape endpoint with the matching formats, and geolocation maps to the country parameter. Zyte actions map to up to five browser actions (2 credits), custom attributes map to the json format with your JSON Schema (5 credits), and product extraction maps to the product output (1 extra credit). Multi-page Scrapy crawls can move to Crawl or Batches, and scheduled jobs to Monitors. Proxy mode, the CDP browser, and the SERP API have no Context.dev equivalent.
When is Zyte the better choice?
Zyte is the better fit when most targets are static pages you can fetch over HTTP (tier 1 costs $0.10 per 1,000 at the $100 commitment, and Markdown bills at that rate), when success on the hardest sites matters more than price (Proxyway’s 2025 benchmark ranked it first for unblocking across 15 protected sites), or when your team already runs Scrapy. It also offers long Playwright or Puppeteer sessions on a remote browser, a Google SERP API from $0.63 per 1,000 searches at the $100 commitment, and managed data feeds from $500 a month.
Does Context.dev return Markdown and structured data like Zyte’s AI extraction?
Yes. Scrape returns Markdown, rendered HTML, screenshots, and images for 1 credit, product data (name, price, availability) for 1 extra credit, and JSON against your own schema for 5 credits total. Prebuilt parsers cover Google Maps, app stores, G2 reviews, and Instagram. Zyte’s trained extraction covers products, articles, job postings, and forum threads, priced per data type on top of the request.
More comparisons
Other web scraping APIs that teams compare with Context.dev, or see every comparison.
- Context.dev vs DiffbotProxied pages cost 2 credits and paid plans start at $299 on Diffbot. Scraping and brand data from $19 here.
- Context.dev vs ApifyOne price per page instead of compute units plus residential proxy traffic per GB. No Actors to pick or maintain.
- Context.dev vs SpiderOne credit per page instead of per-GB bandwidth, where residential traffic costs $2 to $4 per GB on Spider.
Ready to switch from Zyte?
Send the URLs you scrape on Zyte to Context.dev and pay 1 credit per page on every site, starting on a free plan that includes 1,000 credits a month.