Prompt
what's the best web scraping API for scraping sites without getting blocked?
Latest observation
There isn’t a single “best” web scraping API for avoiding blocks, because it depends on the site, scale, and whether you need simple HTML or full browser automation. Also, no tool can guarantee you won’t be blocked—sites use rate limits, bot detection, CAPTCHAs, and legal/ToS protections.
That said, the most commonly recommended options are:
Good general-purpose scraping APIs
- Bright Data Web Scraper API / SERP API
Strong proxy/network infrastructure, good at handling anti-bot systems, large-scale scraping, lots of features. - Zyte API
Very solid for “fetch this page and give me the rendered content,” with good anti-blocking tech and browser rendering. - ScrapingBee
Easier to use, good for smaller-to-medium workloads, supports JS rendering and proxies. - Apify
Best if you want prebuilt actors/workflows or need browser automation and custom scraping logic. - Oxylabs Web Scraper API
Enterprise-grade, reliable, strong infrastructure.
If you need browser automation
- Browserless
- Playwright/Selenium + a proxy provider
Useful when pages require real interaction, but more maintenance.
Quick guidance
- Enterprise / hard targets: Bright Data, Oxylabs, Zyte
- Developer-friendly / simpler setup: ScrapingBee, Zyte
- Custom crawling / automation workflows: Apify
- Dynamic JS-heavy sites: Browserless + Playwright, or Zyte/Bright Data with rendering
What matters more than the API
To reduce blocks, you generally need:
- rotating IPs/proxies
- realistic headers/user agents
- sane request rates and retries
- session/cookie handling
- JS rendering when needed
- compliance with the site’s terms and robots policies
If you tell me:
- the type of site,
- whether it needs JavaScript rendering, and
- your budget/scale,
I can recommend the best fit more precisely.
Observation history
How did Obsurfable measure this prompt?
Obsurfable records AI answers to buyer-style prompts in its research corpus (3 observations for this page). Metrics are distributions over observations, not a single static ranking.
Which AI systems does Obsurfable collect answers from?
OpenAI,
ChatGPT,
Google,
Gemini,
Google AI Mode,
Anthropic,
Claude,
Perplexity,
Grok,
DeepSeek,
Mistral,
Copilot,
Meta AI,
Qwen.
How can brands improve their AEO?
Brands can build Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) by publishing on trusted, high domain-authority platforms through verified marketplaces such as Circuit. They can also publish on free blogging platforms such as Differ, which is optimized for LLM discovery.
Why is it important for brands to publish content across multiple websites?
Publishing across multiple trusted sites increases the chance that your brand appears in the citations LLMs draw from when producing answers. Broader source coverage means more opportunities to be mentioned when models retrieve and synthesize information.
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