We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It never changes a score or a ranking. How we make money
It's a split decision.
YepAPI is a single usage-billed API for SEO, SERP, scraping, social and e-commerce data, and 285 AI models. Crawlbase is a managed scraping platform with crawling APIs, asynchronous jobs, proxies, cloud storage, and managed scrapers. Choose YepAPI when one API key and a consistent JSON response format simplify access to several data types or AI models. Choose Crawlbase when your workload centers on crawling web pages, handling rendering and blocks, or queueing larger crawls for callback delivery.
01Side by side
| YepAPI | Crawlbase | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per call; no subscriptions or monthly minimums | Pay as you go or monthly credit plans |
| Free tier | $5 signup credit; no card required | 1,000 initial credits; up to 5,000 after setup |
| API and SDKs | Shared API key; SDKs not listed | Scraping APIs; SDKs for seven languages |
| Docs | API docs and llms.txt for agents | Documentation, API reference, cookbook, and tutorials |
| Integrations | Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, MCP, agent skills | n8n, Zapier, Scrapy, Web MCP |
| Deployment model | Usage-billed API service | Managed crawling and proxy infrastructure |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Limits and scaling | No rate limits; failed calls are not charged | Async crawler; credit plans and graduated overages |
YepAPI Choose YepAPI if
- Choose YepAPI if you need SEO, scraping, social, and AI endpoints together.
- Choose YepAPI if per-call pricing and no monthly minimums suit your workload.
- Choose YepAPI if a shared key and JSON response format simplify integration.
Crawlbase Choose Crawlbase if
- Choose Crawlbase if you need browser rendering and anti-bot handling.
- Choose Crawlbase if you queue large crawls and need callback delivery.
- Choose Crawlbase if you need rotating proxies or crawl-result storage.
02Pricing at real usage
YepAPI charges by call or other metered usage, with no subscription or monthly minimum. Its pricing lists Google SERP calls from $0.01, web scraping at $0.01 per call, and a $5 signup credit; failed calls are not charged. The cost grows with the endpoints and models you call, and the vendor lists endpoint prices before use.
Crawlbase offers pay as you go with no monthly fee and 1,000 initial credits, rising to 5,000 after setup. Successful requests are billed monthly in arrears at graduated rates from $3 to $0.02 per 1,000 requests. Paid plans start at Starter: $99 monthly for 200,000 credits, or $90.75 per month billed yearly. Scale 500K is $199 monthly; overages use pay-as-you-go rates. Rendering, screenshots, and Cloud Storage consume extra credits.
03API, SDKs and integration
YepAPI exposes SEO, SERP, scraping, social, commerce, and AI model endpoints through one API key. Its homepage shows POST requests and JSON responses, with examples for keyword overview, Google SERP, scraping, and media generation. The docs include an llms.txt prompt for coding agents; the homepage also lists Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, an MCP server, and agent skills. It does not list language SDKs.
Crawlbase provides crawling and asynchronous crawler APIs, a proxy product, cloud storage, managed scrapers, and a Web MCP Server. Its homepage lists SDKs for Node, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, and Go, alongside API documentation, a playground, a scraping cookbook, and tutorials. Listed integrations include n8n, Zapier, Scrapy, and Web MCP. That gives teams a broader named SDK set; YepAPI's advantage is a shared key across data and model endpoints.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Neither vendor publishes an open-source license or a self-hosted distribution on the cited product pages. Both are presented as hosted services, so teams choosing either should plan around a vendor-operated API rather than deploying the service in their own environment.
YepAPI returns JSON and uses a shared key across its endpoints, but that does not establish a bulk export or migration path. Crawlbase offers Cloud Storage, where crawl results remain available to fetch without recrawling the source. That can reduce repeat requests, but it is not a documented general-purpose export guarantee. In either case, application code depends on vendor-specific endpoints and response schemas. Keep normalized records in your own database and isolate API calls behind an adapter if you want to limit rewrite work later.
Questions people ask
Which is better for web scraping?
Crawlbase is the more focused choice for scraping workloads. Its products include browser rendering, anti-bot handling, asynchronous crawls with callbacks, residential proxies, Cloud Storage, and managed scrapers. YepAPI also offers scraping, but combines it with SEO, social, commerce, and AI endpoints.
Can YepAPI and Crawlbase be used by AI agents?
Yes. YepAPI lists an MCP server, agent skills, and guidance for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex. Crawlbase offers a Web MCP Server for agents to request and read current web pages. Compare their MCP documentation against the tools and permissions your agent runtime supports.
Which service has more language SDKs?
Crawlbase lists SDKs for Node, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, and Go. YepAPI documents its API and shows agent integrations, but does not list language SDKs on its homepage. Teams using YepAPI can still build against its API endpoints.
Does YepAPI have rate limits?
YepAPI advertises no rate limits and says failed calls are not charged. Crawlbase lists credit-based plans and asynchronous crawling, but its homepage does not give a specific request-rate limit. Ask Crawlbase about concurrency, queue throughput, and endpoint caps before sizing a production workload.