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Firecrawl vs Bright Data · Firecrawl costs less for page text, and Bright Data costs less for records and search

Notes from GTM teamsWritten by people who run outboundWe use the tools we recommend.Updated Oct 26, 2026

The short answer

Pick Firecrawl if you turn open web pages, pages that don’t block bots, into clean text for an AI app. Firecrawl is a scraping API, a web service you send a page address to that sends back the page’s text, and 100,000 pages cost $99 a month billed monthly on Standard. Pick Bright Data if you need structured records, sets of named fields such as a product’s price and rating, or search results at volume. On Bright Data pay as you go, 1,000 records cost $1.50, and so do 1,000 searches. Pick Bright Data too if your sites block bots, since it has a published score on those sites and Firecrawl has none.

our pick

Our pick

Pick Firecrawl for clean text from open pages. 100,000 pages cost $99 a month billed monthly, or $83 a month billed yearly, on Standard. Pick Bright Data for structured records, for search results and for sites that block bots. 100,000 records cost $150 a month on pay as you go, and 10,000 search requests cost $15 a month.

What each tool does

Firecrawl

Search APIs

Firecrawl reads web pages for your code and can also run searches. Both share one balance of credits.

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Bright Data

Search APIs

Web scraping, search result and proxy tools, billed per successful record or request. A proxy is another computer’s internet address that your requests go through, so sites see that address instead of yours.

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How the two tools compare

	Firecrawl	Bright Data
What it is	A scraping API, a web service you send a page address to that sends back the page as clean text. One pool of credits covers scrape and search.	A set of web data tools. The Web Scraper API sends back structured records, sets of named fields, from ready-made scrapers for named sites. The SERP API sends back search engine results pages, the list of links a search engine shows. The Unlocker API fetches pages from sites that block bots.
What you pay for	Credits. A plain page is 1 credit. A search, one query that returns up to 10 results, is 2 credits. JSON output, named fields, adds 4 credits a page.	Records on the Web Scraper API and requests, one call each, on the SERP and Unlocker APIs. Bright Data says it charges only for successful deliveries.
Free start	1,000 credits on the Free plan.	5,000 records or requests a month on each API.
Entry paid plan	Hobby, $19 a month billed monthly or $16 a month billed yearly, for 5,000 credits.	Pay as you go, $1.50 per 1,000 records or requests, with no monthly fee.
Volume plan	Standard, $99 a month billed monthly or $83 a month billed yearly, for 100,000 credits. Growth, $399 a month billed monthly or $333 a month billed yearly, for 500,000 credits. Scale, $749 a month billed monthly or $599 a month billed yearly, for 1,000,000 credits.	Scale, $499 a month billed monthly, for 384,000 records, then $1.30 per 1,000.
100,000 plain text pages a month	$99 a month billed monthly on Standard.	$150 a month on pay as you go.
100,000 structured pages a month	500,000 credits, Growth at $399 a month billed monthly.	$150 a month on pay as you go.
10,000 searches a month	20,000 credits, Standard at $99 a month billed monthly.	10,000 SERP API requests, one per search, at $15 a month on pay as you go.
Sites that block bots	Not in Proxyway’s 2024 test of sites that block bots. Firecrawl bills an enhanced proxy, a stronger middle server for harder sites, at the same 1 credit a page.	97.90% of requests got through in Proxyway’s 2024 test of 11 APIs. Proxyway earns money from Bright Data sign-ups. The price includes residential proxy data, traffic sent through home internet addresses, and CAPTCHA solving, the “prove you are human” puzzles.
Yearly billing	Every paid plan has a yearly price, from $16 a month billed yearly on Hobby to $599 a month billed yearly on Scale.	No yearly option. Pay as you go and Scale are billed monthly.
Requests at the same time	2 on Free, 5 on Hobby, 25 on Standard, 50 on Growth and 100 on Scale.	Unlimited on pay as you go and Scale.

How to pick one if you only have 10 seconds

The math: 100,000 plain text pages cost $99 a month billed monthly on Firecrawl Standard and 100 × $1.50 = $150 a month on Bright Data pay as you go.
100,000 structured pages need 100,000 × 5 = 500,000 Firecrawl credits, the Growth plan at $399 a month billed monthly. Bright Data stays at $150 a month on pay as you go.
10,000 searches need 10,000 × 2 = 20,000 Firecrawl credits, which fit in the Standard plan at $99 a month billed monthly. Bright Data’s SERP API bills one request per search, so 10,000 searches cost 10 × $1.50 = $15 a month on pay as you go.
Above about 333,000 records a month, Bright Data Scale at $499 a month billed monthly costs less than pay as you go.
Proxyway, a site that reviews proxy services, ran the 2024 test and did not say who paid for it. It uses paid referral links and runs Bright Data coupon codes, so it earns money from Bright Data sign-ups.
A 429 is the error code a site sends when it gets more requests than it allows and refuses the rest. The quote below uses it.

Who should buy each one

Pick Firecrawl if

You turn open web pages into clean text for an AI app.
You want scrape and search on one monthly plan with a fixed price.
Your volume fits inside 100,000 plain pages a month, $99 billed monthly on Standard.

Pick Bright Data if

You need structured records, named fields such as a product’s price, at $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go.
You pull search results at volume, $1.50 per 1,000 requests on pay as you go.
Your sites block bots and you want the tool with a published score on those sites.

What users say

“Reaching production with Bright Data was extremely easy. Compared to other alternatives we could see value within days and we no longer had to deal with 429 hell.”

Common questions

Is Firecrawl cheaper than Bright Data?▾

For page text, yes. 100,000 plain pages cost $99 a month billed monthly on Firecrawl and $150 a month on Bright Data pay as you go. For structured records and search results, Bright Data costs less.

Which works better on sites that block bots?▾

Bright Data Web Unlocker got 97.90% of requests through in Proxyway’s 2024 test. Firecrawl was not tested. Proxyway earns money from Bright Data sign-ups.

Does Bright Data have a free plan?▾

Yes. Each of its three APIs includes 5,000 free records or requests a month.

Does Firecrawl return structured data?▾

Yes, as JSON. Firecrawl adds 4 credits a page for JSON output, so each structured page costs 5 credits.

When does Bright Data Scale cost less than pay as you go?▾

From about 333,000 records a month. Scale is $499 a month billed monthly and includes 384,000 records.

what to do next

What to do next

List your next 1,000 target pages and mark each one as page text, named fields, search results or a site that blocks bots. If page text for an AI app is the biggest pile, start on Firecrawl with the Free plan’s 1,000 credits. If named fields, search results or blocked sites make up the biggest pile, start on Bright Data with its 5,000 free records or requests a month. Try Firecrawl · Try Bright Data Next · Bright Data pricing prices every Bright Data plan · Bright Data alternatives ranks five other tools · Firecrawl pricing prices every Firecrawl plan. Prices are from Firecrawl pricing, in effect since September 4, 2026, Firecrawl billing docs, Bright Data Web Scraper API pricing, Bright Data SERP API pricing and Bright Data Unlocker API pricing. Test results are from the Proxyway scraping API report, September 17, 2024. The quote is from the Bright Data customer story on Kernel, August 10, 2026.