# Alternatives to Bright Data

> Source: https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data/alternatives/ (re-verified)
> Updated: 29 October 2026

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | Better than Bright Data at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Bright Data](https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data.md) | Data and AI teams that need blocked public web pages returned reliably at scale | Free, then $1.50 per 1000 requests | — | 28 October 2026 |
| [Exa](https://theagentsindex.com/exa.md) | Developers grounding AI agents and assistants in live web, company and people data | Free, then $4 per 1000 requests | — | 26 October 2026 |
| [Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify.md) | Developers and data teams that need maintained web scrapers instead of building their own | Free, then $19 a month | Single sign-on, Getting out | 26 October 2026 |
| [Oxylabs](https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs.md) | AI teams grounding agents on live web data and firms scraping search at scale | From $30 a month | — | 28 October 2026 |

The ones people open most here come first, then the closest matches.

## Shortlist

### 1. ProofFetch

Paid web extraction API returning cited paragraphs, SHA-256 receipts and prompt-injection indicators.

**Where it improves on Bright Data:**

**Trade-offs against Bright Data:**
- [Self-hosted: no — Both the REST API and the MCP transport point only at the vendor's own hosted endpoint; no self-hosted, on-premise or bring-your-own-infrastructure option is offered on any tier.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json)
- [Pooled budget: partial — A card-pack key carries one shared balance of 500 extractions that anything holding the key can spend, and the vendor documents no per-user or per-agent sub-allocation of that balance.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/policies/terms)
- [Single sign-on: no — There are no user accounts at all: the paid path authenticates with a bearer key shown once in the paying browser, so SAML or OIDC sign-in has nothing to attach to.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/)

[View ProofFetch](https://theagentsindex.com/prooffetch)

### 2. Exa

Web search, contents and agentic research APIs built for AI agents, billed per request.

**Where it improves on Bright Data:**

**Trade-offs against Bright Data:**
- [Admin controls: partial — Admins control spend and throughput rather than behaviour: a key can be given a lower rate limit and a budget that returns 402 when reached, invites carry roles, but no policy engine over what the agent may retrieve is documented.](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing.md)

[View Exa](https://theagentsindex.com/exa)

### 3. Apify

Marketplace and cloud platform of ready-to-run web scraping and automation tools, callable over API or MCP.

**Where it improves on Bright Data:**
- [Single sign-on: yes — The shared responsibility model lists SSO among the identity controls Apify provides alongside 2FA, scoped tokens and organization roles; the pages read do not name the SAML or OIDC protocol or any plan gate.](https://docs.apify.com/security/shared-responsibility.md)
- [Getting out: yes — Datasets export to JSON, CSV, Excel and XML and everything is readable over the API, but prepaid usage credit is forfeited: unused credit does not roll over and expires at the end of each billing cycle.](https://apify.com/pricing.md)

**Trade-offs against Bright Data:**
- None found.

[View Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify)

### 4. Oxylabs

Live web search, page scraping and a cloud browser on one 177M-IP proxy network, with MCP servers for agents.

**Where it improves on Bright Data:**

**Trade-offs against Bright Data:**
- [Tracing and evals: partial — A Dashboard API returns request counts and traffic grouped by day, target and instance, and Agent Browser sessions can be watched live or recorded, but the usage endpoints cover only some products and the key is issued by support.](https://developers.oxylabs.io/dashboard/dashboard-api)
- [Admin controls: partial — The only documented control is a two-role split where members cannot touch subscriptions or invites, plus spending alerts; no per-member quota, target allowlist or granular permission set is described.](https://developers.oxylabs.io/dashboard/team-and-account-settings)

[View Oxylabs](https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs)