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 hosted, usage-billed API for SEO, scraping, social and e-commerce data, plus 285 AI models. Diffbot provides APIs for page extraction, crawling, natural-language processing and Knowledge Graph queries, with monthly credit plans and a self-hostable web search index. Choose YepAPI when one key and per-call billing suit a mixed data-and-model workload. Choose Diffbot when structured web data, predictable monthly credits or control over search hosting matter more. Compare YepAPI’s endpoint costs with Diffbot’s credit usage before estimating production spend.
01Side by side
| YepAPI | Diffbot | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per call; no subscription or monthly minimum. | Monthly credit plans; overage billed per credit. |
| Free tier | $5 signup credit; no card required. | 10,000 credits monthly; no credit card. |
| Self-hosting | Hosted API; self-hosting is not described. | Self-hostable web search index; 4TB offline index. |
| API design | One API key; consistent JSON across endpoints and models. | APIs for extraction, crawling, NLP and Knowledge Graph. |
| Docs and agent tooling | Docs, llms.txt, MCP server and agent skills. | Homepage demo exposes inspectable API calls. |
| Integrations | Homepage names Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. | Homepage names no third-party integrations. |
| Deployment model | Hosted API for data and AI model calls. | API access or self-hosted web search. |
| Limits and scaling | No rate limits listed; endpoint costs vary. | Plan-specific request rates, credits, crawls and seats. |
YepAPI Choose YepAPI if
- Choose YepAPI if you want one key across SEO, scraping and AI.
- Choose YepAPI if per-call pricing fits variable workloads.
- Choose YepAPI if your agents use Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.
Diffbot Choose Diffbot if
- Choose Diffbot if you need structured extraction or Knowledge Graph queries.
- Choose Diffbot if you want a self-hostable web search index.
- Choose Diffbot if monthly credits, crawl counts and seats fit your workload.
02Pricing at real usage
YepAPI lists a $5 signup credit, no card requirement, and no subscription or monthly minimum. After that, calls are billed by endpoint or other metered unit: Google SERP starts at $0.01 per call, while keyword overview starts at $0.03. The pricing information lists no rate limits and says failed calls are not charged. Estimate spend from the endpoints and models your application actually calls.
Diffbot’s Free plan includes 10,000 credits per month and 5 requests per minute. Startup costs $299 per month for 250,000 credits and 5 requests per second; overage is $0.001 per credit. Plus is $899 per month for 1 million credits, 25 active crawls and 3 seats, with $0.0009-per-credit overage. Enterprise pricing is custom. Compare expected credit consumption and request rates with YepAPI’s per-call costs before committing.
03API, SDKs and integration
YepAPI presents a hosted API with POST endpoint examples, a shared API key and JSON responses. Its homepage shows endpoints for SEO keywords, Google SERP, scraping and media generation. It also points developers to docs and an llms.txt file for AI agents. The homepage names Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, and mentions an MCP server and agent skills. It does not name language-specific SDKs or a CLI, so check the docs for client libraries and supported languages before choosing an integration path.
Diffbot’s APIs cover single-page extraction, site crawling, natural-language processing and Knowledge Graph queries. Its homepage demonstrates inspectable API calls through an agent workflow, but names no third-party integrations or language-specific SDKs. It also presents web search as available through API access or self-hosting. The materials describe API capabilities, not a command-line workflow. For either service, verify authentication, response schemas, pagination and retry behavior in the relevant endpoint docs before wiring calls into production.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
The vendor pages do not identify an open-source license for either product. Diffbot explicitly offers a self-hostable web search index: the homepage describes a 4TB package for local, offline use, alongside API access. YepAPI is presented as a hosted API, and its homepage does not describe a self-hosted deployment. That makes Diffbot the clearer choice when operating search infrastructure on your own hardware is a requirement.
Neither vendor page describes a data export or migration path. YepAPI’s shared key and consistent JSON response format may simplify switching among its own endpoints, but they do not establish portability to another provider. Diffbot’s structured extraction and Knowledge Graph APIs define a different data model; plan for mapping fields and rebuilding queries if you move. Ask each vendor about export formats, retention, and migration support before storing important application data.
Questions people ask
Is YepAPI cheaper than Diffbot?
It depends on call volume and endpoint mix. YepAPI bills per call, with Google SERP listed from $0.01 and no monthly minimum. Diffbot has a free tier, then Startup at $299 per month and Plus at $899 per month, with credit overage rates. Estimate both against your expected production workload.
Can I self-host YepAPI or Diffbot?
Diffbot describes a self-hostable 4TB web search index for local and offline use, as well as API access. YepAPI is presented as a hosted API, and its homepage does not describe self-hosting. If running the service in your own environment is a requirement, Diffbot is the documented option.
What do the free plans include?
YepAPI offers a $5 signup credit, says no card is required, and charges for usage after that credit. Diffbot’s Free plan includes 10,000 credits per month, all four APIs and 5 requests per minute, with no credit card required. The two credits are not directly comparable units.
Do YepAPI and Diffbot provide SDKs?
The vendor pages do not name language-specific SDKs for either service. YepAPI shows POST requests and JSON responses, plus docs, llms.txt, an MCP server and agent skills. Diffbot shows API capabilities and inspectable calls in its homepage demo. Check each vendor’s endpoint documentation for current client libraries.