Zenrows vs ScraperAPI Benchmark

This repository contains the scripts and raw results from an original benchmark comparing Zenrows and ScraperAPI across 8 target URLs at two concurrency levels, conducted in June 2026.

Companion code for the Zenrows article Best ScraperAPI Alternative for Anti-Bot Bypass.

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Test Targets

Target	Type
Amazon product page	Protected
Glassdoor company page	Protected
Idealista property listing	Protected
LinkedIn company profile	Protected
Google SERP results page	Protected
Footlocker category page	Protected
Hacker News front page	Unprotected
Python documentation index	Unprotected

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Methodology

• 200 requests per target per platform
• Two concurrency levels: 2 req/s (low load) and 10 req/s (high load)
• Zenrows configured with mode=auto on all requests
• ScraperAPI using default routing
• Recorded per request: HTTP status code, response time (ms), and page title detection

What this test does not cover

• Bulk asynchronous job workflows
• No-code scheduling via ScraperAPI DataPipeline
• Session persistence across multi-step logged-in workflows

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Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• API keys for Zenrows and ScraperAPI

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ZenRows/zenrows-vs-scraperapi-benchmark.git
cd zenrows-vs-scraperapi-benchmark

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure API keys

Create a .env file in the project root:

ZENROWS_API_KEY=your_zenrows_key
SCRAPERAPI_KEY=your_scraperapi_key

4. Run the benchmark

python scripts/benchmark.py

The script performs a preflight check on both API keys before starting and resumes automatically from where it left off if interrupted.

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Results

Results are saved to the results/ folder as CSV files:

results/
├── zenrows/
│   ├── low_concurrency.csv
│   └── high_concurrency.csv
└── scraperapi/
    ├── low_concurrency.csv
    └── high_concurrency.csv

Each CSV contains the following columns:

Column	Description
target_url	The scraped URL
platform	zenrows or scraperapi
status_code	HTTP status code returned
response_time_ms	End-to-end response time in milliseconds
has_title	Whether a <title> tag was detected in the response
error_type	API error code if the request failed
error_msg	Error detail message if the request failed
timestamp	UTC timestamp of the request

License

MIT