FAQ
What counts as an API credit?
Section titled “What counts as an API credit?”One successful request that returns a 2xx status and non-empty body equals one credit. JavaScript rendering, screenshots, extraction rules, and retries are included at no extra charge.
Are failed requests charged?
Section titled “Are failed requests charged?”No. Network errors, timeouts, 4xx and 5xx from the target, and our own retries do not consume credits. You are billed only when you receive usable data.
Can it scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?
Section titled “Can it scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?”Yes. All plans include headless Chrome via render_js=1. SPAs, infinite scroll, and dynamically loaded content are handled natively. See Rendering JavaScript.
Is there a free trial?
Section titled “Is there a free trial?”3-day money-back guarantee on first purchase. Contact support within 3 days of the charge for a full refund.
How scalable is this?
Section titled “How scalable is this?”Enterprise supports 500 concurrent requests and 10M credits/month by default. For higher volumes (20M+ credits/month, custom concurrency), contact sales.
Can I run my own extraction logic?
Section titled “Can I run my own extraction logic?”Yes, three options:
- Pass extraction rules inline and receive parsed JSON.
- Receive raw HTML and parse on your end.
- Contact sales for custom managed scraping pipelines (Enterprise tier).
What’s the difference between Starter and Growth?
Section titled “What’s the difference between Starter and Growth?”Starter uses datacenter proxies (US/EU only). Growth unlocks the full residential + mobile pool with global geolocation, which dramatically improves success rates on protected sites. Most production scrapers run on Growth or above.
Do you solve CAPTCHAs?
Section titled “Do you solve CAPTCHAs?”Yes. reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and most commercial anti-bot checks are handled in-flight during render_js=1 calls. No separate third-party CAPTCHA-solver account required.
Can you handle anti-bot systems like Cloudflare or Akamai?
Section titled “Can you handle anti-bot systems like Cloudflare or Akamai?”Most of them, most of the time. Stealth mode is on by default. If a target is consistently blocking you, contact support with a sample URL and we can tune the fingerprint for it.
Do you provide SDKs?
Section titled “Do you provide SDKs?”Official SDKs for Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, and Go are available from GitHub. Documentation on each SDK repo mirrors this reference.
Still have questions?
Section titled “Still have questions?”Live chat from the panel or email hi@shifter.io.