ZenRows
An anti-bot-first scraping API that gets past Cloudflare and DataDome with a single request.
About
ZenRows is a web scraping API built around bypassing anti-bot systems. One REST call to its Universal Scraper API handles rotating residential proxies across 190+ countries, headless-browser JavaScript rendering, and automatic handling of CAPTCHAs and bot challenges from systems like Cloudflare and DataDome, returning the page HTML or auto-parsed JSON. For teams that want their own browser automation, a separate Scraping Browser product exposes a CDP-compatible cloud browser over WebSocket that works with Puppeteer, Playwright, and any CDP tool, with region and session controls.
Plans start at $69 per month for the Developer tier with 250,000 basic results and 20 concurrent requests, scaling to $299 per month and custom enterprise tiers; a 14-day trial with 1,000 basic results is available. Reviewers note that JavaScript rendering and premium proxies can be enabled automatically on some domains with no way to disable them, which makes per-request costs unpredictable. One third-party benchmark from 2026 reported a 58% success rate across 12 tested domains, so results vary by target; ZenRows publishes no independent benchmark of its own.
What it can do
- Universal Scraper API with automatic anti-bot bypass
- Rotating residential proxies in 190+ countries
- Headless-browser JavaScript rendering
- CAPTCHA and challenge handling
- CDP-compatible Scraping Browser for Puppeteer and Playwright
- JSON auto-parsing of page data
- Request analytics dashboard
Setup
Sign up for an API key, then send the target URL to the Universal Scraper API; or connect Puppeteer/Playwright to the Scraping Browser WebSocket URL.
Prerequisites
A ZenRows API key; Python or Node.js familiarity for SDK use.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: zenrows.com documents the Universal Scraper API, the CDP Scraping Browser, and pricing; third-party 2026 reviews corroborate the anti-bot positioning and the $69 entry price. Strengths: strong Cloudflare bypass reputation, true CDP browser product for existing Playwright/Puppeteer code. Docked for: (1) automatic JS rendering and premium proxies on some domains make costs unpredictable; (2) one independent benchmark reported a 58% cross-domain success rate, modest for the price; (3) no published independent benchmark from the provider. License: proprietary.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 7.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 2.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · Anti-bot-first API with Cloudflare/DataDome bypass handling
- · Residential proxies in 190+ countries; Universal Scraper API
- · CDP-compatible Scraping Browser for Puppeteer/Playwright
- · JS rendering and premium proxies can auto-enable on some domains, hurting cost predictability
- · One independent 2026 benchmark reported 58% cross-domain success rate
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.