AI has completely changed the scraping landscape. Not long ago, we were all writing parsers. We were integrating proxies manually. In 2025, it’s more common to create a pipeline and farm the real work out to an AI agent. We suggest you learn more about the top agent frameworks.
In this guide we’ll answer the following questions.
- What is Firecrawl?
- Why is it unique?
- What alternatives are there?
Introduction to AI-Powered Scraping
The web scraping landscape has completely changed due to AI. Not long ago, the basic web scraping workflow looked like the image below.
Since AI has taken over, this workflow has changed drastically. Now, we feed a prompt into an agent without actually building much of anything.
What is Firecrawl?
Firecrawl was one of the first services to implement this new model and it’s a great product. The user experience is excellent: Write prompt -> Push button -> Get data. Firecrawl was one of the first movers, but they’re no longer alone.
Key Features
- Markdown-based output for easy AI ingestion
- Full API + SDKs for integration
- Chrome-based crawling
- Supports MCP for agent workflows
- Supported Programming Languages: All
- Pricing: $16/month–$333/month
However, Firecrawl isn’t the only AI scraping tool out there. There are a myriad of AI scraping tools and not all tools fill the same need.
Top Alternatives to Firecrawl
1. Bright Data
Bright Data isn’t just a scraping tool — it’s a full infrastructure layer for your AI agents. The MCP Server now allows you to connect any LLM straight into Bright Data’s services and extract data. The MCP server gives your AI agent access to all the best tools Bright Data has to offer.
Key Features
- Unlocker API: Rotate through healthy proxies and solve CAPTCHAs. Gain access to any website.
- Agent Browser: Plug your agent into a real web browser. It can render JavaScript, click, scroll — everything normal humans do.
- Datasets: Get continuously updated datasets so your AI agent is always up to speed.
- Web Scraper API: Scrape over 120 of the world’s most popular domains instantly — with minimal code. Just enter your site and retrieve the extracted data.
- Archive API: Search and filter through a massive archive of internet history including images, audio and video files.
- Annotation: Annotate your data for easy AI training. Labeling can be done using AI assistance or granular control with human labeling.
- Supported Programming Languages: All
- Pricing: Ranges but free trials are available. Once you’re on a plan, you’re charged for actual usage.
- G2 Rating: 4.6
2. Skrape.ai
With Skrape.ai, you input a URL and their service outputs markdown or JSON content. All data gets extracted and delivered in real time — no caching. Dynamic content is rendered and both the crawler and parser are handled via smart processes. They offer both API access and SDKs.
Key Features
- Smart Crawling: Automatically crawl sites, even without a site map.
- JavaScript Support: Render dynamic content to extract data even when the page is changing.
- Markdown Output: Convert your target site into clean markdown.
- No Caching: Data is never cached. Scrape fresh data each time you run your scraper.
- Browser Actions: Click, scroll and fill inputs just like a regular human would.
- Smart Extraction: Specify your schema and get custom data back in JSON format.
- Supported Programming Languages: All, Python and JavaScript SDKs available
- Pricing: $15-250/month
- G2 Rating: N/A
3. ScrapeGraphAI
ScrapeGraphAI is very similar to both Skrape.ai and Firecrawl. Enter a prompt and get your data. This makes for a really clean user experience on small scales. However, you’re locked into their LLM stack. At scale, ScrapeGraphAI gets very expensive — almost double the price of Firecrawl.
Key Features
- Markdownify: Convert any site to markdown.
- Smart Scraper: Scrape structured content from any url.
- Search Scraper: Perform intelligent search queries using AI.
- Spidy Agent: Generate custom code for using the services listed above.
- Supported Programming Languages: All via API, Python and JavaScript SDKs available
- Pricing: $0-$500/month
- G2 Rating: N/A
4. Oxylabs
Oxylabs falls more into the realm of Bright Data albeit without the vast set of features. Alongside their proxies, they do offer managed proxies through Web Unblocker and automated scraping through API. Your AI agent can use these features through their MCP server.
Key Features
- Web Unblocker: Get through anti-bots, solve CAPTCHAs and get your data.
- Web Scraper API: Convert any site into JSON data.
- MCP Server: Plug the tools above into your AI agent.
- Supported Programming Languages: All, Python and Go SDKs available
- Pricing: Ranges but free trials are available. Once you’re on a plan, you’re charged for actual usage.
- G2 Rating: 4.5
5. Browse AI
Browse AI is a relative newcomer to the game. Browse AI offers all the best features of other AI scraping tools. They boast a G2 rating of 4.8 — near perfection. We expect Browse AI to keep up top players in the industry — especially for teams looking for strong no-code support.
Key Features
- Extract Data
- Monitor Sites for changes
- Turn any site into an API
- Turn sites into spreadsheets
- Integrated with 7,000 apps
- Supported Programming Languages: All
- Pricing: $0-$500/month
- G2 Rating: 4.8
6. Zyte
Zyte is a more traditional scraping tool. Its primary offering is the Zyte API. However, they recently released an AI scraping product of their own with access to their products and services. They offer low cost scraping solutions with more manual configuration than the other tools listed above — they don’t advertise an MCP server on their site.
Key Features
- Zyte API
- AI Scraping
- Supported Programming Languages: All
- Pricing: starting at $0.001/request
- G2 Rating: 4.4
7. Crawl4AI
Crawl4AI isn’t like the other tools on this list. Crawl4AI is not a direct alternative to Firecrawl in quite the same way. This open source tool allows you to hook into many different LLMs or even define schema of your own using a small, built-in extractor model. As the open source world of AI scrapers continues to evolve, Crawl4AI gives developers a highly configurable, free option for AI-powered data extraction.
Key Features
- Easy Install
- Open Source
- Permissive License
- Cloud and Local Models
- Supported Programming Languages: Python
- Pricing: Free
- G2 Rating: N/A
Tool Comparison
| AI Scraping Tool | Features | Open-Source | Premium Features | Programming Languages | API Integrations | Pricing | G2 Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | Tons | ✔️ | ✔️ | Any via API | ✔️ | Starting at $0.0015/record | 4.6 |
| Skrape.ai | Many | ❌ | ✔️ | Python, JavaScript, API | ✔️ | $15/mo–$250/mo | — |
| ScrapeGraphAI | Regular | ✔️ | ✔️ | Python, JavaScript, API | ✔️ | $20/mo–$500/mo | — |
| Crawl4AI | Many | ✔️ | ❌ | Python | ❌ | Free | — |
| Oxylabs | Many | ❌ | ✔️ | Any via API, Python, Go | ✔️ | Usage-based | 4.5 |
| Browse AI | Many | ✔️ | ✔️ | Any via API | ✔️ | $19/mo–$249/mo | 4.8 |
| Zyte | Regular | ✔️ | ✔️ | Any | ✔️ | Starting at $0.001/request | 4.4 |
Conclusion
Firecrawl is an excellent tool and it’s led the charge in the AI scraping revolution. However, it’s not the only framework out there and it’s not necessarily the best either. Bright Data offers a vast suite of tools and articles to build and scale your AI projects.
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