Irmu
Comparison

Irmu vs ScrapingDog

Similar entry pricing — the split is dedicated site scrapers versus general-purpose access.

ScrapingDog and Irmu start at the same place: $40 a month for 200,000 credits, every API unlocked on every plan, no per-feature upsell. That symmetry makes the rest of the comparison unusually clean, because you are comparing what the credits buy rather than how the plans are packaged.

ScrapingDog leans on dedicated scrapers — Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, YouTube and more — that return parsed JSON without you writing selectors, plus LLM-ready markdown output. If your workload is one of those named targets, that is a genuine shortcut.

Irmu leans the other way: a general access layer that assumes your targets are arbitrary. A browser endpoint you can script, an HTTP proxy port, screenshots, and AI extraction that works on any page rather than a pre-modelled one. Where ScrapingDog gives you a finished parser, Irmu gives you a reliable way to reach anything and a model to read it.

Pricing

What each one costs

Public list pricing, checked on 29 August 2026. Vendors change plans often — verify on their pricing page before you commit.

Irmu

$40 / month — 200,000 credits

Credits, one ledger for every API. Plain fetch is 1 credit, JavaScript rendering 5, premium residential 10, premium plus rendering 25, an AI extraction query 5, and geotargeting by country, region or city is free. A response from the target — including 404, 500 or an anti-bot block — is a successful request and is billed. Requests Irmu cannot serve for its own internal reasons, or to domains outside coverage such as .gov, are not billed.

ScrapingDog

$40 / month (Lite) — 200,000 request credits

Request credits, with the cost per call rising for JavaScript rendering and harder domains. ScrapingDog states plainly that failed requests are never charged, though its full per-endpoint multiplier table is not published on the pricing page.

  • Entry plans match at $40 for 200,000 credits, so compare on credit consumption per page for your own targets.
  • Both offer a permanent free plan without a card: ScrapingDog 200 credits, Irmu 200 credits a month with one concurrent request.
  • ScrapingDog does not charge for failed requests. Irmu bills any response the target returns, including 404, 500 and anti-bot blocks, and absorbs only its own internal failures and uncovered domains such as .gov.
Feature table

Side by side

CapabilityIrmuScrapingDog
Entry paid plan$40 for 200,000 credits$40 for 200,000 credits
Published credit tableYes — 1 / 5 / 10 / 25, synced daily to this siteCosts vary by endpoint and domain, not fully itemised publicly
Dedicated site scrapersIntegrations for major targets, plus AI extraction on anythingGoogle, Amazon, LinkedIn, YouTube and more
Scriptable remote browserBrowser endpoint with clicks, waits and scrollsNot published
HTTP proxy portNot available yet — use GET /crawlProxy access available
Markdown outputYes, on any fetchYes, LLM-ready output
GeotargetingCountry, region and city at no extra costCountry-level targeting
Failed-request policyIrmu-side failures and uncovered domains unbilledFailed requests never charged
Honest guidance

Which one fits your job

Choose ScrapingDog when

  • Your volume is concentrated on the specific sites ScrapingDog has already modelled.
  • You would rather consume a maintained JSON schema than write and maintain selectors.
  • A no-charge-on-failure policy is a hard requirement from your finance side.
  • You do not need to script a browser across multiple steps.

Choose Irmu when

  • Your target list is long, changing, and mostly not on anyone's pre-built scraper list.
  • You need multi-step browser sessions or screenshots as part of the same quota.
  • You want the credit table published and versioned rather than inferred from docs.
  • Region and city geotargeting matter for the data you are collecting.

What ScrapingDog does well

  • Dedicated parsers for Google, Amazon and LinkedIn
  • Same $40 entry price with all APIs unlocked
  • No charge for failed requests
  • LLM-ready markdown output

If your targets are on ScrapingDog's list of dedicated scrapers, it will get you to structured data faster. If they are not, Irmu's general access layer and browser control will save you more work over the life of the project.

Migration

The same request, both ways

Both are query-parameter APIs, so a switch is usually the base URL and the rendering flag.

ScrapingDog

scrapingdog.py
import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape",
    params={
        "api_key": SCRAPINGDOG_KEY,
        "url": "https://example.com/product/42",
        "dynamic": "true",
        "premium": "true",
    },
    timeout=90,
)
html = r.text

Irmu

irmu.py
import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://app.irmu.com/api/crawl",
    params={
        "url": "https://example.com/product/42",
        "js": "true",
        "premium": "true",
        "country": "us",
    },
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {IRMU_KEY}"},
    timeout=90,
)
r.raise_for_status()
html = r.text
Read the docs See Irmu pricing
FAQ

Switching questions

More

Other comparisons

Irmu vs Firecrawl

Agent-ready markdown and crawling versus a full fetch, browser, screenshot and proxy stack.

Irmu vs ScrapingBee

A closely matched credit model — the difference is browser control and the proxy port.

Irmu vs ScraperAPI

Structured e-commerce endpoints and no-code pipelines versus a general access layer.

Irmu vs ZenRows

Two similar credit-based platforms — the difference is agent tooling versus browser and proxy depth.

Irmu vs Bright Data

The largest proxy network in the market versus a simpler, credit-priced access layer.

Irmu vs Apify

A marketplace of pre-built Actors versus a direct API you call from your own code.

Irmu vs Oxylabs

Per-target enterprise pricing and strict pay-for-success versus a single credit ledger.

Try Irmu alongside ScrapingDog

200 free credits every month, no card required — benchmark on your own targets.

Start freeRead the docs