You have developers who want to own the pipeline
Bright Data's products are building blocks for engineers. If you have people who will write the extraction and handle the output, a managed service puts a layer between them and the work.
Head to head
UK Data Services vs Bright Data
Bright Data sells proxy networks, scraping APIs and ready-made datasets that you or your developers use. We build and run the scrapers for you and send you checked data. If you have engineers and need volume across many countries, Bright Data is the better buy. If you want the data and have nobody to write code, we are. This page sets out both sides with real prices, including the jobs we would hand to Bright Data.
The short answer
They are not the same kind of product
Bright Data is infrastructure. It sells residential and other proxies by the gigabyte, a Web Unlocker that fetches pages through bot protection, a Web Scraper API, a Scraping Browser, and ready-made Datasets. Its tools return pages or records. Turning those into the fields, matching and checks your business needs is work for your team. Bright Data also mentions fully managed data services, but publishes no price for them.
UK Data Services only does the managed part. We scope the job, build the scraper, run it on a schedule, repair it when the site changes, check the output and send you a file or a feed. There is no console to log into and no usage meter. If you are weighing Bright Data against us, you are really choosing whether somebody on your side builds and runs scrapers at all.
Choose Bright Data
Bright Data is the better choice when
You need web-scale reach across many countries
Bright Data runs proxy infrastructure at a scale a small UK company does not, with residential proxy plans of up to 798 GB a month and custom pricing above 1 TB. For crawling across dozens of countries, start there.
A ready-made dataset already exists
Bright Data's Datasets start from $2.5 per 1,000 records, with a 100,000-record tier at $250 one-off. For widely collected sources, buying the dataset is cheaper than commissioning a build.
You want to start without talking to anyone
The Web Scraper API and Web Unlocker each have a free tier of 5,000 a month, and the scraper API needs no card. We quote after looking at your sources, which takes a day or two.
You want a published compliance programme
Bright Data publishes a Trust Center with ISO certificates, a SOC 3 report and a CSA STAR listing. We are ICO-registered and work under NDA as standard, but we hold no ISO or SOC certification. If your procurement team requires one, that is a real difference and we will say so.
Scraping is your core product
If the data is what you sell and you will collect it for years, you want the infrastructure in your own hands. Buy the platform and build the team.
Choose us
We are the better choice when
Nobody on your side is going to write code
An API is only cheap if you already employ someone to call it. We hand over a file, and the work of getting to that file is ours.
The job is a handful of UK sites, not a continent
A one-site starter extract is £150 at a fixed price, with the sample free and the price agreed before we begin. Maintained scrapers start at £60 a month per site for a monthly refresh, £120 weekly and £350 daily. Bright Data's monthly plans start at $499.
You want competitor prices matched to your own range
Our most requested job: your SKUs lined up against competitor products and prices in one file, not a stream of raw pages you still have to parse and match. See the competitor price snapshot.
You want a fixed figure rather than a meter
Usage pricing means volumes drift and extra records bill at a per-thousand rate. We quote the job, absorb that variance, and fix layout breakages on maintained scrapers at no extra charge.
You may have to defend the numbers later
Each scraper follows fixed rules written for its source, so the same page gives the same output every time. On managed programmes every row carries its source URL and capture date.
You want a UK supplier under UK law
We are a UK company (No. 08576932) registered with the ICO (ZC152935), invoicing in sterling, and we check each source's terms and robots rules before collecting.
Side by side
How we compare
Bright Data figures are taken from its own published pricing, contact, about and Trust Center pages, read on 9 November 2026, and are in US dollars as the pages state. Check brightdata.com/pricing before relying on them.
| Bright Data (self-serve) | Bright Data (managed data) | UK Data Services | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Proxies, a page-fetching API, a scraping API and a scraping browser you use from your own code | Ready-made Datasets, and fully managed data services on request | A data file or feed we build and deliver |
| Who writes the code | Your developers | Bright Data supplies the data | We do |
| Entry price | Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API both $1.5 per 1,000 pay as you go, or $499 a month on the Scale plan with about 384,000 included and $1.3 per 1,000 beyond. Scraping Browser $8 per GB | Datasets from $2.5 per 1,000 records; a 100,000-record tier is $250 one-off. Managed service price not published | £150 one-off for a one-site starter extract. Maintained from £60 a month per site (monthly), £120 (weekly), £350 (daily) |
| Larger work | Enterprise plans quoted individually. Residential proxy tiers at $499, $999 and $1,999 a month | Each dataset plan has a minimum monthly commitment, not published | Multi-source programmes quoted individually, typically £750 to £2,500+ a month |
| Try before you buy | Free tier of 5,000 requests or records a month on the scraper tools | Not published | Free sample of your agreed fields, with a fixed quote alongside it |
| When a site changes | You adapt your code | Handled by Bright Data for its datasets | We fix it, included on maintained scrapers |
| SKU matching to your range | You build it | Not published | Included in price-monitoring work |
| Customer checks | Residential and mobile IP use requires a compliance (KYC) process; Web Unlocker does not | Not published | We check each source's terms and robots rules before collecting |
| Security standard | Publishes a Trust Center with ISO certificates, a SOC 3 report and a CSA STAR listing | Same | ICO registered (ZC152935), NDA as standard, no ISO or SOC certification |
| Who you contract with | Offices published in New York, San Francisco, Netanya (Israel) and Limassol (Cyprus), prices in dollars | Same | UK Data Services, a UK company (No. 08576932), invoicing in sterling |
Worked example
Where the money actually lands
Take a common job: daily prices and stock from six UK retailer sites, around 4,000 product pages each, matched to a 3,000-SKU range. That is roughly 720,000 page fetches a month.
On Bright Data's Web Unlocker Scale plan, $499 a month includes about 383,000 requests and extra requests cost $1.3 per 1,000. That makes roughly 337,000 more at about $438, so the fetching alone comes to around $937 a month. That is for pages returned, not data. Someone still has to write the six extractors, keep them working when the sites change, and match the results to your SKUs. If your team already exists and has spare capacity, this is a sensible number. If you would be hiring for it, it is not the real cost.
From us, the same job is six maintained daily scrapers plus matching, quoted as one monthly figure in the £750 to £2,500 range depending on how hard the sites defend themselves. Breakages are ours to fix. The output is one file with your SKUs against their prices.
Reverse the job and the answer reverses. A widely collected dataset you can buy off the shelf is cheaper from Bright Data, and a crawl across many countries is its work, not ours. Use our cost calculator for a figure on your own job.
Small businesses
If you are a UK small business or online shop
Most UK small businesses we speak to want a spreadsheet of what competitors charge, or a list of leads from a handful of sites, on a schedule. Bright Data's cheapest committed plans start at $499 a month and assume you can write code against them. If that is not you, a fixed-price starter extract at £150 gets you the data first, and you can decide on a maintained scraper after seeing it.
The facts
What we are
A small UK data extraction company, trading since 2013, with more than 500 projects delivered. On a long-running e-commerce price-monitoring job covering about 12,000 SKUs across 9 retailer sites, measured accuracy is 99.8%. We work under NDA as standard and never name clients in our marketing. For a public example of our work, see the complete dataset of every UK CMA case. For the wider version of this question, see when to choose UK Data Services, or the equivalent comparison with Apify.
Questions
Common questions
Is UK Data Services cheaper than Bright Data?
For a small number of UK sites, usually yes, because our entry prices are £150 one-off or £60 a month per site and you need no developer. At high volume the per-request rates favour Bright Data, with extra requests at $1.3 per 1,000. The honest answer depends on page count and on whether you employ someone to run the scrapers.
Which is better for a UK small business?
Us, in most cases, and not because we are better engineers. A small business rarely has a developer free to build and maintain scrapers, and an API bills for pages whether or not anyone turns them into usable data. If you do have in-house developers, compare Bright Data's rates against the cost of our maintained plans directly.
Do you use Bright Data behind the scenes?
No. We run our own extraction and our own infrastructure, which is why we can quote a fixed monthly figure rather than passing a usage meter through to you.
We already use Bright Data. Can you take over an existing feed?
Yes. Send the fields and sources you receive today and we will reproduce them as a free sample so you can compare output before changing anything. We do not need access to your Bright Data account.
What does Bright Data do that you do not?
Proxy infrastructure at global scale, ready-made datasets, self-serve APIs with a free tier, and a published Trust Center with ISO and SOC reports. For web-scale crawling across many countries, Bright Data is the right supplier and we will tell you so.
Are the Bright Data prices on this page current?
They were read from Bright Data's published pricing, contact, about and Trust Center pages on 9 November 2026 and are shown in US dollars as published. Vendors change prices; check brightdata.com before relying on any figure here.
See your data before you decide
Send us the websites and the fields you need. We will reply with a free sample and a fixed quote, or tell you plainly that Bright Data is the better fit for the job.