Import.io alternative: Web Scraper vs Import.io
Import.io sells web data extraction billed on successful queries. Web Scraper Cloud is a self-service plan priced by concurrent scraping capacity, with the sitemap built visually in a free browser extension.
Reviewed October 2026 Every claim below links to a current vendor page.
You want to build and run the extraction yourself, on a plan fee that does not grow with page volume.
You want change reports that show items added, changed, or removed between runs, shared with colleagues who don't have an account.
Web Scraper vs Import.io: features and pricing
Compare how Web Scraper and Import.io handle setup, Cloud automation, integrations, proxies, and scaling. Web Scraper Scale is compared with Import.io Advanced, the highest self-service plan each vendor prices publicly.
| CAPABILITY | Web Scraper Scale, $200 per month | Import.io Advanced, $899 per month |
|---|---|---|
| Setup and creation | ||
| Where scrapers are built | Visual sitemap builder in a browser extension Free extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, with no code or desktop application required. | Extractors in the web app Extractors are configured in the browser-based app, with nothing to download. |
| AI-assisted setup | AI Sitemap Wizard Maps repeated listing data, detects pagination and infinite scrolling, and follows item links to collect fields from detail pages. | AI schema detection Paste a URL and the site structure is detected, then mapped into a schema you adjust. |
| Manual selector control | Advanced Sitemap Builder Point and click, AI selector generation for listing and detail pages, and 10+ selector types for data, navigation, and clicks. | Column training and Interaction mode Point at the value for each column; Interaction mode records navigation, search, and sort steps. |
| Logins and site setup | Website State Setup Signs in or sets location, language, or currency before scraping, only when that state is missing, with passwords encrypted in Cloud. | Recorded logins and actions Records sign-in, clicks, typed text, and dropdown choices; credentials are encrypted. |
| Ready-made starting points | Sitemap Marketplace Ready-made sitemaps maintained by Web Scraper, available at no additional cost. | None published Every extractor starts from a URL you supply. |
| Cloud automation | ||
| Cloud execution | Web Scraper Cloud Runs sitemaps created in the Web Scraper extension remotely after sync or import. | Runs on Import.io infrastructure Extraction is fully hosted. |
| Scheduling | Daily, interval, and custom CRON Intervals as short as 1 minute, with a selectable time zone and driver, proxy, and priority set per schedule. | Scheduled extraction Recurring runs are part of the platform. |
| Rendering and execution modes | Full JS and Fast drivers Full JS loads pages in a full browser environment; Fast skips page JavaScript to scrape faster. | Browser-based extraction Every page runs in a real browser; no lighter mode is offered. |
| Retry behavior | Automatic retries of empty or failed pages Retries use a different proxy IP and browser fingerprint, and do not consume URL credits. CAPTCHAs and bot check pages are solved automatically. | Automatic requeue on failure The crawl service retries a failed URL from a different IP and rate limits itself against the target. |
| Concurrency model | Concurrent scrapers Starts at 2 concurrent scrapers and scales with no set ceiling; add capacity at any time. A single job can expand to up to 5 concurrent scrapers. | Unlimited concurrent jobs Extractors run concurrently with no job limit, and each run's URLs are fetched in parallel with the request rate adjusted automatically. |
| Data and integrations | ||
| Data cleaning | Parser, with no code Regex, replace, HTML stripping, virtual columns, and timestamp conversion, previewed on sample records and applied in Cloud. | Regex and Transforms Regex find-and-replace per column, and Transforms that apply functions and formulas to an extractor's output. |
| Data quality checks | Thresholds on every job Minimum records, maximum failed or empty pages, and minimum filled fields, with suggested values from a previous run. | Run counts and fill rates Each run reports successful, failed, and empty counts, and each column its fill rate; no user-set thresholds. |
| API | Cloud API with an OpenAPI description Manage sitemaps, jobs, and schedules, and download results, with code examples for every programming language. | Full platform API Create, manage, and run extractors, and read crawl runs and reports. |
| Webhooks | Job status webhooks Sent when a job finishes, stops, or fails, with job and sitemap IDs and an optional custom ID, and retried if your endpoint does not respond. | Webhooks on successful runs A POST fires only when a run succeeds, with the extractor ID, URL count, and links to the output files. |
| Data export formats | CSV, XLSX, JSON Each scraping job's data can be downloaded in all three formats. | CSV, Excel, and JSON Downloaded from each completed crawl run. |
| Export integrations | Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Google Cloud, Azure The complete dataset is sent after each job finishes. | S3, SFTP, Google Sheets, email Google Sheets works through an IMPORTDATA formula, and emails carry the run results. |
| Notifications | Email and in-app alerts Alerts when a job fails or misses its data quality thresholds, with email and in-app channels set per alert type. | Run and change report emails Emails with the results when a run finishes, and change reports of what changed between runs; no failure alerts are documented. |
| Image and file handling | Image export Downloads images during the scraping job using the Image selector and delivers the files to Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure Blob Storage. | Image and file download Files are downloaded during a crawl, and screen capture is optional at one query per URL. |
| Scale and pricing | ||
| Plan compared | Scale, $200 per month $2,000 per year billed annually, $167 per month. | Advanced, $899 per month The top self-service tier. |
| What the plan fee buys | Unlimited URL credits The fee buys concurrent scraping capacity, and page volume does not change it. | 500,000 successful queries A query is one page that loads and returns data; failed and empty pages are not billed. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies | From $0.03 Fast driver on the included datacenter proxies; two scrapers at $200 per month cover about 4.3M URLs. | $1.80 Every page is executed in a real browser, so plain pages cost the same as rendered ones. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies | From $0.05 Full JS driver on the included datacenter proxies; two scrapers at $200 per month cover about 2.2M URLs. | $1.80 One successful query per URL, with rendering, proxies, and retries included. |
| Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies | From $0.681 Full JS driver plus residential traffic, sold separately at $2.50 per GB. | $1.80 Residential proxies are included on this plan, with no per-GB bill. |
| Unused capacity | No credit ceiling Unlimited URL credits leave no balance to forfeit at the end of a cycle. | Allowance resets each billing period Unused queries do not carry over, and queries beyond the allowance are billed at $2.50 per 1,000. |
| Included datacenter proxies | US, GB, and DE datacenter proxies Included at no additional cost. | Datacenter proxies included Datacenter and regional proxies are part of the plan. |
| Residential proxies | Available at $2.50 per GB In 47 locations, billed on bandwidth used. | Included in the plan Premium and residential proxies for protected sites, with no per-GB bill. |
| Third-party fees | Marketplace sitemaps at no extra cost They run on your own plan, with no separate per-result charge. | None published No marketplace or per-result add-ons. |
| Cloud data retention | 60 days Scraped data stays available to download from Cloud for that period. | Not confirmed in public docs No retention period is published. |
1 Proxy traffic is sold separately, so the price is calculated based on a 250 KB page size.
Reasons to choose Web Scraper
Build it where the page is
Sitemaps are built in the free extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, with the AI Sitemap Wizard or point and click, then synced to Cloud to run on a schedule.
Web Scraper extensionOne plan, one line item
Scraping, scheduling, datacenter proxies, the Parser, data quality checks, and delivery sit inside the Cloud plan, with no separate proxy or per-result bill to reconcile.
Web Scraper pricingVolume stops moving the invoice
The fee buys concurrent scraping capacity with unlimited URL credits, so a bigger crawl does not raise it, and retries of empty or failed pages cost nothing.
Web Scraper pricingWeb Scraper Scale vs Import.io Advanced
Each side is shown at its highest self-service plan with published pricing.
Web Scraper Cloud · Scale
$200 per month
Or $2,000 per year billed annually, $167 per month
- Capacity
- Unlimited URL credits
- Concurrency
- Starts at 2 concurrent scrapers, scales with no set ceiling; a single job can use up to 5
- Proxies
- US, GB, and DE datacenter proxies included; residential in 47 locations at $2.50 per GB
- Plan limitation
- Capacity grows by adding concurrent scrapers, at a lower price per scraper as you add more; residential proxy traffic is billed on usage
- Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies
- From $0.03
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies
- From $0.05
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies
- From $0.681
Import.io · Advanced
$899 per month
Or $699 per month on a twelve-month term.
- Capacity
- 500,000 successful queries per month
- Concurrency
- Unlimited concurrent jobs, with dynamic rate limiting
- Proxies
- Datacenter, regional, and residential proxies included, with no per-GB bill
- Plan limitation
- Queries above the allowance cost $2.50 per 1,000, so the bill grows with page volume
- Cost per 1,000 URLs no JS, DC proxies
- $1.80
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, DC proxies
- $1.80
- Cost per 1,000 URLs JS, Residential proxies
- $1.80
The two prices do not buy the same unit
Import.io bills successful queries, one per page that loads and returns data, so the bill follows page volume. Web Scraper charges for concurrent scraping capacity, with unlimited URL credits.
- The Import.io figure assumes one successful query per URL and the full monthly allowance used.
- Managed data services are excluded from both sides.
- 1 Proxy traffic is sold separately, so the price is calculated based on a 250 KB page size.
Import.io suits teams that track what changed between runs, and it bills only for pages that return data.
Switching from Import.io
Can an Import.io extractor be imported?
Scrapers move over as Web Scraper sitemaps built in the free browser extension, where the AI Sitemap Wizard maps listing pages for you. Many common targets also have a ready-made Marketplace sitemap that you can import into Web Scraper Cloud.
How does the bill change?
A query allowance with per-query overage is replaced by a capacity plan. The fee buys concurrent scrapers with unlimited URL credits.
Do we run it ourselves?
Yes. Your team builds and owns its sitemaps, starting from the AI Sitemap Wizard or a Marketplace sitemap that Web Scraper maintains, and support helps troubleshoot.
How does data reach our systems?
Results are retrieved through the API or delivered to Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure after each job. Webhook notifications report job status and identifiers.
See it applied to your use case
Compare Web Scraper with other tools
Most teams shortlist two or three tools. These pages cover the same capabilities and plan tiers.
Try it on the website you want to scrape
Use the 7-day free trial, with no credit card required, to run Web Scraper Cloud on the website you need data from.
This comparison reflects publicly available information and our understanding of the products as of October 2026. Features, pricing, and other details may change over time, so we recommend verifying current information directly with each provider before making a decision. All product names, trademarks, logos, and brands belong to their respective owners and are referenced solely for identification and comparison purposes. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is implied.