All three of these tools turn a webpage into structured data without writing scraper code, and all three start with a free plan. The real difference shows up once you're past free: Octoparse meters tasks and exported rows on a flat plan, Browse AI meters credits where one credit buys 10 rows and a "premium" site costs two to ten times that, and Bright Data charges per 1,000 records or page loads with no subscription floor at all.
All three tools give you a free plan and a workable-looking entry price once you outgrow it. What changes the real cost is the unit sitting behind that price.
Octoparse runs flat task-count subscription tiers: Free, then Standard, then Professional, each capped by a fixed number of tasks and concurrent runs, with proxy and CAPTCHA solving billed separately on top of any paid plan. Browse AI runs a single credit meter across every plan: one credit buys 10 rows of data, one screenshot, or 10 pieces of captured text, and a “premium” site, Browse AI’s term for a harder target, costs two to ten times that for the same unit. Bright Data skips subscription tiers for its core no-code products entirely and bills per 1,000 delivered records (Web Scraper API) or per 1,000 page loads (Scraper Studio), two different units even though the dollar figures line up.
| Tool | Free tier | Cheapest paid entry | Billing unit | The catch |
|---|
| Octoparse | 50,000 rows/mo, local desktop only, 10 tasks | $69/mo billed annually (Standard, 100 tasks) | Task-count subscription tiers, plus metered proxy and CAPTCHA add-ons | 14-day trial requires a card and auto-converts; refund window excludes that charge; CAPTCHA and proxy use bill separately, even failed attempts |
| Browse AI | 50 credits/mo (about 500 rows) | $19/mo billed annually (Personal, 12,000 credits/yr) | Credits: 1 credit = 10 rows, 1 screenshot, or 10 text items on a standard site | ”Premium” sites cost 2-10x the credits, and Browse AI doesn’t say which sites qualify |
| Bright Data | 5,000 records or page loads/mo | $1.50 per 1,000 records or page loads, pay-as-you-go | Per 1,000 delivered records (Web Scraper API) or per 1,000 page loads (Scraper Studio) | Records that fail from bad input still get billed; the proxy network itself has no free tier |
Free plans compared
On raw volume, Octoparse wins outright: 50,000 exported rows a month (up to 10,000 per single export), 10 tasks, and 2 local concurrent runs, running entirely on its desktop app with no cloud component and no credit card required. Browse AI’s Free plan gives 50 credits a month, about 500 rows at the standard 10-rows-per-credit rate, but adds unlimited robots, hosted cloud monitoring, 2 website targets and 3 users, also with no card required. Bright Data’s free tier sits between the two on volume, 5,000 records a month on the Web Scraper API or 5,000 page loads a month on Scraper Studio, no card required either, built more as a way to test the product on a real job than as an ongoing free workflow.
The practical difference is what the free plan can actually run day to day. Octoparse’s cap is high but local only: a scheduled task likely needs the desktop app and its host machine to stay on, since Free has no cloud execution and nothing in Octoparse’s documentation confirms unattended runs on this tier. Browse AI’s cap is low but cloud-hosted: a robot keeps running on a schedule without a machine staying on, it just burns through credits fast. A monitor that checks one page every hour and captures up to 10 rows uses 24 credits a day, so the 50 free credits last about two days. Bright Data’s free tier is cloud-hosted from the start but sized for a one-time test or a small recurring job rather than a tool you build a whole free workflow around.
When the target site fights back
A site that blocks bots changes the math for all three tools, in different ways.
Octoparse handles JavaScript, logins and CAPTCHAs, but none of that is free or unlimited on any plan: residential proxy and IP rotation cost $3 per GB, and CAPTCHA solving costs $1.50 per 1,000 for Cloudflare CAPTCHAs or $1.00 per 1,000 for everything else, on top of whatever plan you’re on. A failed solve attempt bills the same as a successful one, and Octoparse’s own help center warns users to reduce CAPTCHA triggers in task settings to avoid unexpected charges, a clear sign that cost on a CAPTCHA-heavy target is hard to predict in advance.
Browse AI puts residential proxies on every plan, Free included, says its robots solve reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha, and can log into password-protected pages through cookie sharing or stored credentials. The cost shows up as the “premium site” multiplier instead of a separate line item: a harder target costs two to ten times the normal credits for the same unit of data, and Browse AI doesn’t publish which domains trigger it. A third-party developer review found that Cloudflare- and DataDome-protected sites can still block its visual monitor regardless of plan, so the most heavily defended targets are a weak fit no matter how many credits you have.
Bright Data is built for exactly that case. Its Web Scraper API ships 1,000+ pre-built scrapers for named, commonly-blocked targets, run straight from the control panel, and Scraper Studio writes a custom scraper from a plain-English description and updates it the same way when the target changes its layout. The tradeoff is cost and complexity: records that fail because of bad input still get billed, the proxy network itself has no free tier, and residential or mobile traffic runs $8 per GB pay-as-you-go before any committed-plan discount. For a site that routinely blocks Octoparse or Browse AI, that’s the price of a scraper that keeps working.
How we picked
Every price, limit and review score in this guide came from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked directly on 2026-10-20, cross-referenced against G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and, for Browse AI, the Chrome Web Store. G2 blocked direct access for every tool here on every attempt; where that happened, we used an independent search pass and labeled the figure as approximate rather than page-confirmed.
The ranking is editorial, not a function of which tool pays us a commission. ToolsGavel may earn a commission if you sign up through a link on this page; that never changes the order the tools appear in.
Frequently asked questions
What's the cheapest way to scrape a website without writing code?
Octoparse's Free plan is the cheapest real starting point: $0 forever, 10 tasks, a local desktop app, and up to 50,000 exported rows a month, no credit card required. If that cap runs out, Browse AI's Personal plan billed annually costs $19/mo for 12,000 credits a year, about 120,000 rows at the standard rate. Bright Data has no subscription floor at all for its no-code products: the Web Scraper API and Scraper Studio are both free up to 5,000 records or page loads a month, then $1.50 per 1,000 after that, so a small job can stay free indefinitely or cost a few dollars without ever touching a monthly plan.
Which no-code scraper has the best free plan?
On raw volume, Octoparse wins by a wide margin: 50,000 rows a month against Browse AI's roughly 500 (50 credits at 10 rows each) and Bright Data's 5,000 records or page loads. But Octoparse's allowance only runs locally through the desktop app, with no cloud scheduling and a 10,000-row cap on any single export. Browse AI's free tier is thin on volume but includes unlimited robots, hosted monitoring and residential proxies from day one. Bright Data's free tier sits in the middle and reads more like a way to test a real job before paying than an ongoing free workflow. None of the three ask for a credit card to start.
Can no-code scrapers handle sites behind logins or CAPTCHAs?
It depends on the tool and how defended the site is. Octoparse's marketing says it handles logins and CAPTCHAs, but CAPTCHA-solving is never free: it bills per 1,000 solves on top of any paid plan, and a failed attempt costs the same as a successful one. Browse AI can log into password-protected pages through cookie sharing or stored credentials and says its robots solve reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha, but a third-party developer review found that Cloudflare- and DataDome-protected sites can still block its visual monitor regardless of plan. Bright Data is built specifically for sites that fight back, with a much larger proxy network and pre-built scrapers for commonly-blocked targets, at a higher price than the other two.
Is web scraping legal?
Scraping data a site makes publicly available is treated differently than scraping data behind a login wall, and most scraping tools put the responsibility for compliance on whoever runs the scrape, not on the tool itself. A site's robots.txt file and terms of service set the baseline for what it allows, and rules like GDPR add extra weight if anything you collect counts as personal data. This isn't legal advice: the right approach depends on the target site and what you plan to do with the data, so check with a lawyer for anything beyond casual personal use.
