What should I use for scraping at scale without managing infrastructure?

If you want to scrape at scale without managing infrastructure, the best choice is usually a managed web scraping API / browser service rather than running your own proxies, servers, and headless browsers.

Good options

• Apify — best all-around if you want ready-made scrapers, custom actors, scheduling, and large-scale runs.
• Zyte API — strong for resilient extraction, anti-bot handling, and structured data.
• ScrapingBee — simpler API for rendering JS pages and basic scraping needs.
• Browserless — good if you specifically need hosted Chrome/Playwright at scale.
• Bright Data Web Unlocker / Scraping Browser — very powerful for hard targets, but more expensive/complex.

What to choose based on your need

• You want the least ops + flexibility: Apify
• You want robust anti-bot + extraction API: Zyte
• You want simple HTTP + JS rendering: ScrapingBee
• You need hosted Playwright/Puppeteer: Browserless
• You’re scraping difficult sites at high volume: Bright Data

My practical recommendation

If you’re starting from scratch and want to avoid infra work, go with:

1. Apify for a general scraping platform, or
2. Zyte API if your priority is reliable extraction from protected sites.

What to watch for

• Cost can rise quickly at scale.
• Make sure the service supports:
  • JavaScript rendering
  • rotating IPs / anti-bot handling
  • retries and rate limiting
  • data export/webhooks
  • scheduling and queueing
• Always check robots, site terms, and applicable laws.

If you tell me:

• what sites you need to scrape,
• whether they’re JS-heavy,
• your monthly volume,
• and your budget,

I can recommend the best specific service and setup.