Choosing the right web scraping tool can make or break your data operations. Two names that come up often in this space are Oxylabs and Scrapfly. Both platforms help businesses collect public web data, but they approach the problem in very different ways. Oxylabs is a proxy-first enterprise platform with a massive IP network. Scrapfly is a developer-first scraping API built for speed and simplicity. In this article, we’ll break down both platforms across pricing, performance, use cases, and more — so you can make the right call for your team.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs is a Lithuanian-based web intelligence company founded in 2015. It has grown into one of the largest proxy providers in the world, with a network of over 175 million residential IPs across 195+ countries. Beyond proxies, Oxylabs offers a full data pipeline — from IP rotation and browser automation to scraping APIs and ready-to-use datasets.
Oxylabs is built for enterprise. It has ISO 27001 certification, Lloyd’s insurance coverage, and a track record trusted by organizations like Stanford, Forbes, Trivago, and the Pulitzer Center. Its product suite covers every layer of the web data stack, making it a one-stop shop for large teams and data-heavy operations.
Scrapfly
Scrapfly is a developer-focused web scraping API platform that launched publicly in 2020, though the team built it for internal use starting in 2017. It is designed to make scraping fast, clean, and scalable without requiring deep knowledge of infrastructure.
Scrapfly handles anti-bot bypassing, JavaScript rendering, cloud browser support, and AI-powered data extraction — all through a single API endpoint. It is trusted by over 30,000 developers and is known for its clean documentation, intuitive dashboard, and fair pay-per-result pricing. Scrapfly is not a proxy provider in the traditional sense. It wraps the proxy layer into its scraping API, making it easier for teams that just want results without managing infrastructure.
Product and Pricing Comparison
Oxylabs: Oxylabs has a wide array of products designed for large-scale web scraping projects. Some of the core products include:
- Residential Proxies: Offering over 175 million residential IPs from top-tier ISPs, Oxylabs guarantees high success rates and minimal IP blocks.
- Mobile Proxies: With 20M+ mobile IPs available globally, Oxylabs provides reliable geo-targeting and high-speed data scraping.
- Datacenter Proxies: These proxies are best suited for high-volume scraping jobs, offering 5 IPs for free upon registration.
- Dedicated Proxies: Tailored solutions for uninterrupted access to data with high performance.
- Web Scraper API: All-in-one data collection platform that integrates seamlessly with other Oxylabs tools.
Pricing for Oxylabs varies by service, with residential proxies starting at around $4 per GB and mobile proxies at $5.40 per GB. The company offers flexible subscription models and custom plans for enterprise clients, along with a free trial for first-time users.
Scrapfly: Scrapfly offers simpler pricing, with a focus on ease of use and flexibility. The core product is the Scraping API, which allows users to scrape web data with minimal setup. The key features of Scrapfly include:
- AI-Powered Extraction: Automatically extract data with LLM models and templates.
- Cloud Browsers: Use real web browsers to scrape dynamic pages, overcoming challenges posed by JavaScript-heavy websites.
- Proxy Rotation: Rotate IPs for seamless, uninterrupted scraping.
- Customizable Extraction: Create your own extraction rules and tailor data retrieval to specific needs.
Scrapfly offers more affordable pricing compared to Oxylabs, with plans starting at $30 per month for the Discovery plan. Higher-tier plans include Pro and Enterprise, offering increased API credits, higher concurrent requests, and enhanced support.
General Comparison Table
| Feature | Oxylabs | Scrapfly |
| Type | Proxy network + Scraping API | Scraping API |
| IP Pool | 175M+ residential, 2M+ datacenter | Uses rotating proxies internally |
| Locations | 195+ countries | Global coverage via API |
| JavaScript Rendering | Yes (via Headless Browser) | Yes (cloud browsers) |
| AI-Powered Extraction | Yes (AI Studio) | Yes (LLM + auto-extract) |
| Anti-Bot Bypass | Yes (Web Unblocker) | Yes (built-in) |
| Free Trial | Yes (Datacenter: 5 free IPs) | Yes (1,000 credits free) |
| Pricing Model | Per GB / Per IP | Per API credit (pay for success) |
| Target Users | Enterprise teams | Developers and small-to-mid teams |
| ISO Certification | ISO 27001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001 | Not publicly listed |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5/5 (G2), 4.7/5 (Capterra) | 4.5/5 (Capterra) |
Performance and Reliability Comparison
Oxylabs Performance
Oxylabs was independently tested by Proxyway in 2024 and outperformed competitors across several key metrics. Its residential proxy network delivers an average success rate of 99.82% and an average response time of 0.41s. Datacenter proxies hit 0.25s response times and a 99.9% success rate.
Oxylabs uses the QUIC protocol for residential proxies, which reduces latency and improves reliability on poor connections. Its infrastructure uses ISO-certified data centers and maintains a 99.9% uptime SLA.
For its ISP proxies, Oxylabs sources IPs from premium ASNs, including Comcast, BT Group, Lumen, Deutsche Telekom, and Cox Communications. Because websites rarely block known ISP networks, these proxies achieve success rates of up to 99.9% on difficult targets.
Scrapfly Performance
Scrapfly advertises a 99.99% success rate and has processed over 5 billion successful requests per month. It transfers more than 1 petabyte of data monthly, which signals a large and active user base.
Scrapfly’s anti-bot system is deeply integrated into the API layer. It manages browser fingerprinting, TLS fingerprinting, header rotation, and CAPTCHA solving automatically. Developers do not need to configure these manually.
Its cloud browser system supports thousands of configurable browser fingerprints and reliably handles JavaScript-heavy sites. For teams that need to scrape modern SPAs and dynamic content, Scrapfly’s rendering layer is well-optimized.
One area where Scrapfly stands out is its failure handling. Because Scrapfly charges only for successful requests, the platform has a financial incentive to retry until it succeeds. This aligns Scrapfly’s model with user goals.
Use Cases
When to Choose Oxylabs
Large-scale data collection: Oxylabs is built for high-volume scraping. With 175 million residential IPs and 2 million+ datacenter IPs, it can handle enterprise-scale jobs without rate issues.
AI and LLM training: Oxylabs offers multimodal data collection, real-time search data, and custom dataset creation for training AI models and RAG pipelines.
Ad verification: Rotating residential or mobile proxies let teams check how ads appear across regions, devices, and audience segments.
E-commerce intelligence: Continuous price monitoring and product data extraction across multiple marketplaces are core use cases for Oxylabs users.
Cybersecurity: ISP and residential proxies allow security teams to monitor for brand threats, test app behavior under realistic conditions, and identify vulnerabilities.
Compliance and journalism: Organizations like Bellingcat, Global Witness, and the ICIJ use Oxylabs for investigative research and data verification.
When to Choose Scrapfly
Quick API integration: Scrapfly’s single-endpoint design means developers can start scraping within minutes. There is no need to manage proxy lists, configure rotation, or set up browsers.
JavaScript-heavy websites: Scrapfly’s cloud browser layer handles SPAs, infinite scroll pages, and login-gated content effectively.
AI-powered data extraction: Scrapfly’s extraction API lets teams pull structured data from unstructured HTML using LLM prompts or auto-extract models. This removes the need to write custom parsers.
Moderate-scale projects: For teams scraping tens of millions of pages per month rather than billions, Scrapfly’s credit-based model is cost-efficient and predictable.
Multi-project management: Scrapfly’s dashboard supports multiple projects across separate environments, with webhook integration and throttle controls.
Customer Support and Community
Oxylabs offers 24/7 live chat support and dedicated account managers across all paid plans. It has an active Discord community, a YouTube channel with tutorials, and a developer hub with scraping courses.
Scrapfly offers Basic support on entry-level plans and Standard or Premium support on higher tiers. It publishes a blog, a web scraping academy with interactive courses, and a monthly newsletter.
For enterprise-level support with guaranteed response times, Oxylabs has a clear advantage. For self-serve learning and community resources, both platforms are competitive.
Final Verdict
Oxylabs and Scrapfly are both excellent platforms, but they serve different audiences.
Choose Oxylabs if you run large-scale data operations and need full control over proxy infrastructure. It is ideal for enterprises that require advanced targeting, high success rates, compliance certifications, and insurance coverage. If web data is a core part of your business and downtime is not an option, Oxylabs is built for that level of reliability and scale.
Choose Scrapfly if you are a developer or a small-to-mid-sized team that wants a simple setup. It works well if you prefer a single API, clean SDKs, built-in AI extraction, and pricing based on successful requests. It removes the need to manage complex infrastructure.
Both platforms offer free trials. You can even use both if needed. Oxylabs focuses on enterprise power. Scrapfly focuses on developer simplicity.
FAQ
Oxylabs is a comprehensive proxy and web intelligence platform offering 100M+ residential IPs, datacenter proxies, Web Unblocker, SERP API, and E-Commerce Scraper API for enterprise data operations. Scrapfly is a web scraping API platform focused on providing anti-scraping protection bypass, JavaScript rendering, screenshot capture, and data extraction through a unified API endpoint with flexible pricing.
Oxylabs residential proxy pricing starts at approximately $8/GB with volume discounts for enterprise clients. Scrapfly offers credit-based pricing starting at $15/month for 5,000 API calls with tiered plans scaling to custom enterprise solutions. Scrapfly is more accessible for small to mid-size projects, while Oxylabs provides better per-unit value at very high volumes.
Both platforms excel at anti-bot bypass. Oxylabs Web Unblocker uses machine learning algorithms to automatically adapt to anti-bot measures including CAPTCHAs, browser fingerprinting, and IP blocks. Scrapfly Anti-Scraping Protection (ASP) Shield provides similar capabilities with automatic detection and bypass of Cloudflare, DataDome, and PerimeterX protections through their API.
Oxylabs has a dedicated SERP API specifically built for search engine results page scraping, supporting Google, Bing, and other search engines with structured JSON output and real-time results. Scrapfly can scrape SERPs through its general scraping API but does not offer a specialized SERP product. For dedicated search data collection, Oxylabs is the stronger choice.
Yes, both platforms support JavaScript rendering for dynamic content. Oxylabs provides headless browser functionality through Web Unblocker with configurable wait times and interaction support. Scrapfly offers JavaScript rendering through its API with screenshot capabilities, custom wait conditions, and browser action scripting for complex single-page applications.
Scrapfly is often praised for its developer-friendly documentation, interactive API playground, and straightforward integration process with code examples in multiple languages. Oxylabs provides comprehensive documentation, SDK libraries, and dedicated technical account managers for enterprise clients. Both offer responsive technical support for troubleshooting.
Oxylabs offers a 7-day free trial for residential proxies and scraping products. Scrapfly provides a free tier with 1,000 monthly API credits to test their platform capabilities. Both free options allow you to benchmark scraping success rates and performance against your target websites before committing to a paid subscription plan.
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