Software Alternatives & Startups

textbee.dev VS ScrapingBee

Compare textbee.dev VS ScrapingBee and see what are their differences

textbee.dev

Turn your Android device into a powerful SMS gateway for your applications

No screenshot yet
Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source Freemium $9.99 / Monthly (Pro ( 5 devices, 5,000 messages/mo, Priority Support))
ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee is a Web Scraping API that handles proxies and Headless browser for you, so you can focus on extracting the data you want, and nothing else.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Freelance / 10,000 searches / 100,000 credits)
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Which is more popular?

Based on our record, ScrapingBee should be more popular than textbee.dev. It has been mentioned 3 times since March 2021.

social mentions
1 vs 3
SMS Gateway popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
57 vs 240+

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

textbee.dev
ScrapingBee
Website textbee.dev scrapingbee.com
Pricing
Open source Freemium $9.99 / Monthly (Pro ( 5 devices, 5,000 messages/mo, Priority Support)) Official pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Freelance / 10,000 searches / 100,000 credits) Official pricing
Platforms β€”
REST API
Company 2024 2019
Listed in

About textbee.dev and ScrapingBee

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

textbee.dev
ScrapingBee

Send and receive SMS online from your applications using your Android device - no expensive third-party gateway fees. Perfect for notifications, authentication, and two-way text messaging.

Read more about textbee.dev

Web Scraping is hard, scraping at scale can be very challenging. You have to handle: Javascript rendering πŸ’» Chrome headless πŸ›  Captcha πŸ€– Proxy πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™€οΈ ScrapingBee is a simple API that does all the above for you, and much more.

Read more about ScrapingBee

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

textbee.dev 5 features
ScrapingBee 6 features
  • Open Source
    textbee.dev is an open-source SMS gateway platform, meaning users can inspect the code, contribute to its development, and self-host it without vendor lock-in. This transparency builds trust and allows for community-driven improvements.
  • Use Your Android Phone as SMS Gateway
    The platform allows users to turn their existing Android phone into an SMS gateway, eliminating the need for expensive dedicated SMS hardware or third-party SMS API services. This significantly lowers the barrier to entry for sending SMS messages programmatically.
  • Simple REST API
    textbee.dev provides a straightforward REST API for sending and managing SMS messages, making it easy for developers to integrate SMS functionality into their applications without dealing with complex protocols or configurations.
  • Self-Hosted Option
    Users can deploy textbee on their own infrastructure, giving them full control over their data and messaging pipeline. This is ideal for privacy-conscious users or organizations with strict data governance requirements.
  • Cost-Effective
    By leveraging an existing Android device and the user's own mobile plan for sending SMS, textbee.dev can be significantly cheaper than commercial SMS API providers, especially for small-to-medium volume messaging needs.
  • Easy to Use
    ScrapingBee provides a simple API that allows developers to scrape web pages without worrying about handling proxies or web browser rendering.
  • JavaScript Rendering
    With built-in JavaScript rendering, ScrapingBee can handle complex web pages that rely heavily on JavaScript for content display, making it suitable for scraping modern websites.
  • Proxy Management
    ScrapingBee automatically manages proxies, meaning developers don't have to deal with proxy rotation, blacklisting, or bans.
  • Rate Limiting Control
    The service offers control over rate limits, making it possible to scrape at a custom speed that suits your needs and prevents being blocked by target websites.
  • Custom Headers Support
    ScrapingBee allows the use of custom headers, enabling users to mimic different browsers or add specific headers required by the target site.
  • Geolocation
    It provides geolocation-based scraping, which is useful for accessing content that is region-restricted.

Possible disadvantages

  • Cost
    ScrapingBee is a paid service, and costs can add up depending on the volume and complexity of your scraping needs.
  • Rate Limits
    Even though it offers control over rate limits, there are still predefined limits depending on your plan, which might not suit very high-volume scraping needs.
  • Dependency on External Service
    Relying on an external service means that you are dependent on ScrapingBee's uptime and performance, which may affect your operations if the service faces downtime.
  • Data Privacy
    Using a third-party service for web scraping means sharing your scraping activities with ScrapingBee, which could raise data privacy concerns.
  • Limited Customization
    While ScrapingBee handles many aspects of web scraping for you, it may not offer the level of customization that a self-built scraping solution could provide.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

textbee.dev
ScrapingBee

Overall verdict

  • TextBee.dev is a solid, cost-effective solution for sending SMS through your own Android device, turning your phone into an SMS gateway via a simple API. It's especially appealing for developers and small businesses who want to avoid the recurring costs of traditional SMS providers like Twilio, and its open-source nature adds transparency and flexibility.

Why this product is good

  • Lets you use your own Android phone as an SMS gateway, avoiding per-message fees charged by commercial SMS APIs
  • Open-source, giving you transparency and the ability to self-host or customize the platform
  • Simple, developer-friendly REST API for sending and receiving SMS programmatically
  • Cost-effective for low-to-moderate volume messaging since it leverages your existing mobile plan
  • Good for use cases like OTP delivery, notifications, and alerts without complex telecom setup

Recommended for

  • Developers building apps that need affordable programmatic SMS sending
  • Small businesses and startups wanting to avoid expensive SMS gateway subscriptions
  • Projects requiring OTP, verification codes, or notification delivery
  • Hobbyists and self-hosters who prefer open-source, controllable tools
  • Users in regions where traditional SMS APIs are costly or poorly supported

Overall verdict

  • ScrapingBee is generally considered a good choice for web scraping, especially for users who want to streamline the process and avoid the complexities of managing their own infrastructure. It is well-regarded for its ease of use, reliability, and comprehensive feature set.

Why this product is good

  • ScrapingBee is a popular web scraping service because it provides a simple and efficient way to scrape websites without the need to manage proxy servers or deal with headless browser setup. It offers features like rendering JavaScript, handling CAPTCHAs, and supporting various customization options, making it suitable for different scraping needs.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to automate data extraction from websites
  • Businesses needing reliable web scraping solutions without investing in infrastructure
  • Users who require JavaScript rendering and CAPTCHA handling in their scraping tasks
  • Projects that require scalable and customizable web scraping options

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

textbee.dev 1 video + Add
ScrapingBee 0 videos + Add

textbee.dev intro

No ScrapingBee videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
textbee.dev
ScrapingBee
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

User comments

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

textbee.dev no reviews yet
ScrapingBee no reviews yet

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

textbee.dev 1 mention
ScrapingBee 3 mentions
  • We turned Android phones into an open-source SMS API. Here's how textbee works.
    Hi, we're the team behind textbee, an open-source SMS gateway. - Source: dev.to / 24 days ago
  • Self-hosted, simple web browser service – send URL, get screenshots
    If you’re worried about the security risks, edge cases, maintenance pain and scaling challenges of self hosting there are various solid hosted alternatives: - https://browserless.io - low level browser control - https://scrapingbee.com -... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Are there any APIs that maintain a database of subscriptions?
    If you really just need the data you can use something like https://scrapingbee.com to scrape the info from the various price pages to make sure your info is always up to date. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Our bootstrapped SaaS just turned 3 and reached $1.5m ARR: the lessons learned.
    Well done! And posting here was a great idea. Not sure I would have found scrapingbee.com otherwise. We will probably become a customer. Signed up for the trial account. Source: over 4 years ago

Alternatives to textbee.dev and ScrapingBee

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