Firecrawl vs Zyte API: API comparison

The short answer

Firecrawl exposes requested document formats, while Zyte exposes HTTP, browser and extraction response fields. The adapter must handle different schemas and, for Zyte HTTP bodies, Base64 decoding. Test content acceptance before comparing credits.

Choose by the task you need to complete
Provider	A good reason to choose it	Important caveat
Firecrawl	An agent or retrieval pipeline that wants main-content documents without building a separate HTML-to-Markdown stage.	Basic page credits do not establish the cost of every extraction mode, browser action or other product. A crawl job and a single-page scrape have different completion semantics.
Zyte API	A collector that needs to choose between raw HTTP retrieval, rendered content and structured extraction while retaining request-level controls.	httpResponseBody is Base64-encoded. Browser and extraction options change work performed and pricing; they are not equivalent to a plain HTTP request.

Side-by-side differences

Firecrawl vs Zyte API: documented interfaces, not benchmark scores
Requirement	Firecrawl	Zyte API
Primary workflow	Single-page scrape plus separate crawl/batch APIs	HTTP/browser retrieval and extraction in one request schema
Returned content	Markdown, HTML and optional structured formats	Base64 HTTP body, browser HTML or structured fields
Rendering/control	Scrape settings and actions; dedicated browser products also exist	Explicit HTTP/browser options and browser actions
Job model	Synchronous scrape; asynchronous crawl/batch	Synchronous extract requests
Integration boundary	Document-oriented formats	Decode and validate the selected output field
Cost driver	Credits and selected extraction features	Request tier, HTTP/browser mode and extraction

Pricing: make the units comparable

Billing model and plan checks
Provider	Billing model	What to check
Firecrawl	Credit plans with feature-specific consumption	The pricing page distinguishes scraped pages and search credits. Compare the exact scrape options and billing interval; do not use an annually billed monthly equivalent as a monthly commitment.
Zyte API	Usage pricing by request tier and selected capabilities	Keep HTTP, browser and automatic extraction costs separate. Use the target workload and current pricing rules rather than one headline cost per thousand requests.

For 1,000 accepted pages, record attempted URLs, render mode, retries and schema failures. A low HTML-request price can require separate parsing; an extraction credit can include work that another vendor bills separately. Do not rank cost until the output passes the same acceptance check.

For a buying decision, calculate total spend divided by accepted outputs at your expected volume. Keep free evaluation access, paid production access, annual commitments and overages separate. We have not measured a cost or speed winner for this pair.

What changes in the integration?

Provider endpoints and input mapping
	Firecrawl	Zyte API
Method and URL	`POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape`	`POST https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract`
Authentication	Authorization: Bearer token	HTTP Basic auth with API key as username and an empty password
Inputs	JSON url, formats and optional scrape settings	JSON url plus httpResponseBody, browserHtml or extraction fields
Output	success and data containing requested document formats and metadata.	Requested response fields; httpResponseBody requires Base64 decoding.

Firecrawl: migration check

Preserve final URL and extraction metadata. Revalidate Markdown structure and missing fields; an HTML fetch adapter is not automatically a drop-in document parser.

Zyte API: migration check

Decode httpResponseBody before parsing. Do not label a missing browserHtml field as an empty page when the request asked only for an HTTP body.

How to test them fairly

Build an authorized test set spanning static HTML, JavaScript-rendered pages, tables and long articles. Save expected fields and the permitted access conditions.
Use the same URLs, country, device settings and freshness window. Keep cache hits separate from fresh fetches.
Mark challenge pages, empty main content and invalid structured fields as failures even if the HTTP status is 200.
Measure time to a usable document or completed dataset, not only time to job creation. Include polling, retries and client-side parsing.
Report total billed credits, browser time, proxy charges and actor fees per accepted document. Respect site terms, privacy, robots guidance and access controls; do not test bypassing protected accounts.

Record the plan, request settings, time window and acceptance rules with every run. That makes a later result interpretable when a vendor changes a model, source set or pricing tier.

Prefer a common request format?

All Them APIs · Web scraping APIsPOST /api/v1/web-scraping/extract

Review the request contract and tell us the coverage you need. Access requires enablement; this endpoint does not execute or bill requests yet.

View endpoint and request access

Sources and review dates

Documentation reviewed October 28, 2026. These are integration and plan comparisons, not measured speed or accuracy rankings. Availability, licensing and prices should be confirmed for the chosen plan.

Corrections: email faizank@docsalot.dev with an official source.