# Decodo vs. Scrape.do: Which API Is Better?
> Source: https://scrape.do/compare/decodo-vs-scrapedo/
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) vs. Scrape.do on the same 18 domains: success rate, response time and cost per 1K pages. See where each scraping API wins.
**$0.50 on the Price Card. $1.00 by Default.**
Decodo sells great proxies with a scraping API on top. In our October 2026 test on the same 18 domains, Scrape.do was about 4x faster, delivered nearly every page where Decodo missed one in five, and blocked requests cost nothing.
## Scrape.do vs Decodo
| Feature | Scrape.do | Decodo |
| ------- | --------- | ------ |
| Speed (Average Response Time) | About 4x Faster (~4s) | ~18s |
| Pages Delivered (Same 18 Domains) | Nearly All | About 4 in 5 |
| Cost per Successful Page | About a Quarter Less | Baseline |
| Default Proxy Pool | Set Per Domain (Cost in Every Response) | Premium (2x the Card Rate) |
| Blocked Responses (401/403/429) Billed | No | Yes, If Not Empty |
| Starting Price | $29/mo (250K Credits) | $19/mo |
| Free Tier | 1000 Credits (Refreshes Monthly) | About 2K Standard Requests |
| Standalone Residential Proxies (Per GB) | No (Proxy Mode Bills Per Request) | Yes, From $2/GB |
| Amazon Product Pages | Every Page, About 8x Cheaper | Every Page |
| Zillow Pages | Every Page, About 15x Faster | Every Page |
## Over Decodo
01. **4x Faster on Average, Same 18 Domains** — Scrape.do was about 4x faster than Decodo on average in our October 2026 test, almost 3x at the median, and faster on 16 of 18 domains. The gap is widest where Decodo needed JavaScript rendering and Scrape.do passed without it. Zillow came back about 15x faster, Booking about 5x and Trustpilot about 3x.
02. **No Premium Default on Your Bill** — Decodo's price card starts at $0.50 per 1K requests, but its proxy_pool parameter defaults to premium, which bills $1.00, or $1.50 with JavaScript. On 100,000 pages spread over our 20 benchmark domains, untuned Decodo uses its entire $99 plan. Tune proxy_pool per domain and it lands at about two thirds, where Scrape.do lands with its per-domain configuration applied for you. Blocked requests (401, 403, 429) cost nothing on Scrape.do.
03. **20 of 20 Where Decodo Struggled** — Decodo missed every Capterra page, three in four on Bing and more than two in three on eBay, mostly with its own 613 "unable to scrape" code after more than half a minute per request, and almost every Indeed page, where it returned a billed 401 challenge page. Scrape.do got every page on all four. Decodo won Best Buy, where Scrape.do got about half, until we added geoCode=us, which got every page.
## FAQ
### Is Decodo better than Scrape.do?
Decodo has the stronger residential proxy network and a broader AI toolset, and it cleared Best Buy without extra parameters. As a scraping API, Scrape.do came out ahead on the same 18 domains in October 2026: nearly every page against four in five, about 4x faster, and about a quarter cheaper per successful page. Decodo costs less per page on LinkedIn, G2, Google and TripAdvisor.
### Is Decodo the same as Smartproxy?
Yes. Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo on April 22, 2025, keeping the same company, network and accounts. smartproxy.com now redirects to decodo.com.
### Why does Decodo's Web Scraping API cost more than $0.50 per 1K?
The $0.50 rate is the standard proxy pool without JavaScript on the Free and $19 plans. Decodo's proxy_pool parameter defaults to premium, which bills $1.00 per 1K on the same plan, every Target Template uses the premium pool, and JavaScript rendering adds 50%. Non-empty 4xx responses, including 401, 403 and 429 blocks, are billed too. Scrape.do applies each domain's configuration for you, reports the cost of every call in a response header, and doesn't charge for blocked (401, 403, 429) or failed (5xx) requests.
### Should I use Decodo proxies or a scraping API?
Proxies, if you run your own scraper on light, server-rendered pages: raw HTML through Decodo's $3.50/GB proxies costs less per page than its API. A scraping API, if your targets need JavaScript or fight bots: a full browser load is about 30x the HTML, so the same proxies cost about 30x more per page, before retries. See what one page costs each way.
### Does Scrape.do have a free tier?
Yes. Scrape.do gives 1,000 free credits every month with no credit card and every feature enabled, including residential and mobile proxies and JavaScript rendering. Decodo's free Web Scraping API plan covers about 2,000 standard-pool requests, and taking it removes refund eligibility for later Web Scraping API purchases.
### What if my team is already using Decodo?
If you call Decodo's Web Scraping API, switching is a change of endpoint and parameters: send the URL to Scrape.do and drop proxy_pool, because the per-domain configuration is applied for you. If you use Decodo's proxies inside your own scraper, Scrape.do's Proxy Mode takes the same token as a proxy URL, billed per request instead of per GB.
### I'm looking for an alternative to Decodo...
Find a detailed comparison of top Decodo alternatives on our blog, for both proxies and scraping APIs.