Archonum vs. Zyte: Real Device Infrastructure or Smart Proxy Ecosystem?
| Feature | Archonum | Zyte |
|---|---|---|
| Device Model | Real dedicated smartphones (factory-reset) | Cloud-based proxy routing (no real devices) |
| Fingerprint Quality | Native — hardware-backed device fingerprints, not emulated | Proxied — rotating IPs and headers, no native device fingerprint |
| IP Type | Mobile carrier IPs (dedicated) | Datacenter and residential (shared pool) |
| AI Agent Support | Yes | No |
| Scrapy Integration | Via REST API (not a native Scrapy middleware) | Native — Scrapy Cloud, scrapy-zyte-api middleware, Scrapy plugins |
| Data Extraction | Raw HTML and rendered content — bring your own parser | Zyte API automatic extraction with pre-built schemas for common site types |
| Geographic Coverage | 175+ countries, 250,000+ devices | Global proxy network with country-level geotargeting |
| Pricing Model | Self-serve from $24.99/mo — concurrency tier plus usage (bandwidth, browser runtime) | Self-serve, usage-based — published tiers at zyte.com/pricing |
| Open Source Ecosystem | API-first, framework-agnostic | Scrapy, Splash, Frontera, scrapy-poet, and more |
| Pricing | Self-serve plans from $24.99/mo (Developer, 25 concurrent requests) to $299.99/mo (Scale, 250 concurrent). The plan price buys the concurrency tier; bandwidth ($5.00 down to $4.00/GB) and browser runtime ($0.12 down to $0.09/hr) are billed on usage. 15% off when paid annually, free trial, mobile browsers at no surcharge. Enterprise covers volume commitments, custom SLA, dedicated device pools and SSO (archonum.com, checked August 2026). | Self-serve usage-based tiers published on zyte.com/pricing, plus a free tier and enterprise plans. Smart Proxy Manager is closed to new signups; Zyte's own docs direct new users to Zyte API (docs.zyte.com, checked August 2026). |
Archonum
Intelligence infrastructure for AI agents built on real dedicated smartphones. Each request originates from a physical, factory-reset device with a native browser fingerprint, providing full session persistence and hardware-backed stealth for web access.
Pros
- Real device fingerprints that defeat advanced anti-bot detection
- One network hop — the browser runs on the phone that owns the exit IP
- Drop-in for existing Playwright and Puppeteer scripts, no SDK rewrite
- Full session persistence for multi-step browsing workflows
- Purpose-built for AI agent web access
- Dedicated devices with no cross-user IP contamination
Cons
- No native Scrapy middleware — requires custom integration for Scrapy-based pipelines
- No built-in data extraction or parsing layer
- Capacity in any one country is bounded by the devices physically deployed there
- No datacenter or shared-proxy tier for cheap, unprotected targets
- No open-source tooling around the platform
Zyte
A full-stack web scraping platform built around the Scrapy open-source ecosystem. Offers Smart Proxy Manager (formerly Crawlera) for proxy rotation, Zyte API for automatic data extraction, and Scrapy Cloud for deploying and managing spiders at scale.
Pros
- Deep Scrapy integration — deploy spiders directly to Scrapy Cloud
- Automatic data extraction via Zyte API reduces parsing effort
- Strong open-source ecosystem with active community
- Self-serve access with published pricing tiers
- Smart Proxy Manager handles rotation and ban management automatically
- Pre-built extraction schemas for e-commerce, articles, and job listings
Cons
- No native device fingerprints — relies on proxy rotation and header manipulation
- Shared IP pool means ban risk from other users' activity
- The proxy hop adds a network round trip between your client and the target
- Not designed for AI agent workflows or stateful multi-step browsing
- Smart Proxy Manager is closed to new signups — new users are routed to Zyte API
- Ecosystem is Scrapy-centric — less convenient if you use other frameworks
Verdict
Zyte and Archonum serve different segments of the web data market with minimal overlap. Zyte is the natural home for teams already invested in Scrapy. If you run spider-based crawling pipelines, Scrapy Cloud and the Smart Proxy Manager slot directly into your workflow. The automatic extraction layer in Zyte API is also a genuine time-saver for structured data from common site types like product pages and articles — you get parsed fields instead of raw HTML. Archonum addresses the problems that Zyte's proxy-based model cannot solve cleanly. When targets use advanced device fingerprinting, when you need persistent sessions that survive across dozens of requests, or when AI agents need to browse autonomously, real-device infrastructure provides a level of authenticity that rotating proxies do not match. The browser and the exit IP are the same physical device, so there is nothing synthetic in the session for a detector to key on. The choice often comes down to your architecture. If your data pipeline is built around Scrapy spiders extracting structured data from moderately protected sites, Zyte's ecosystem gives you the most leverage. If your use case involves AI agents, authenticated sessions, or targets with aggressive bot detection, Archonum's real-device approach solves problems that proxy rotation increasingly cannot. Neither answer costs you a procurement cycle to test: Zyte publishes self-serve tiers, and Archonum's start at $24.99/mo with a free trial, so the cheapest way to settle the question is to run your hardest target through both.
FAQ
Yes, but not as seamlessly as Zyte. Archonum exposes a REST API that you can call from Scrapy via a custom downloader middleware. Zyte offers native Scrapy integration through scrapy-zyte-api and Scrapy Cloud, which means less custom code. If Scrapy is central to your stack, Zyte has the easier integration path. If you need real-device quality for specific targets, the Archonum middleware is straightforward to build.
No. Smart Proxy Manager rotates IPs and manages headers, but the browser fingerprint still comes from your client — typically a headless browser or Scrapy's request library. Sites that check for hardware-level device attributes (screen resolution backed by GPU, sensor APIs, battery status) can distinguish proxy traffic from real device traffic. Archonum's requests originate from actual smartphones, so these checks pass natively.
Archonum is self-serve, and you can sign up without speaking to anyone. Plans are billed monthly: Developer at $24.99/mo for 25 concurrent requests, Startup at $49.99/mo for 50, Business at $99.99/mo for 100, and Scale at $299.99/mo for 250. The plan price buys the concurrency tier. Browser runtime and bandwidth are billed separately on usage, from $0.12/hr and $5.00/GB on Developer down to $0.09/hr and $4.00/GB on Scale, with no per-session fees and mobile browsers included at no surcharge. Paying annually takes 15% off. A free trial is available, and Enterprise is a separate tier for volume commitments, custom SLA, dedicated device pools and SSO.
For common page types, yes. Zyte API includes automatic extraction that returns structured data (product name, price, availability) without writing custom parsers. Archonum delivers raw HTML and rendered content, so you need to build or bring your own extraction logic. If your primary need is structured product data from moderately protected sites, Zyte's extraction layer saves significant development time.
Archonum. AI agents need session persistence (staying logged in across multiple page navigations) and a stateful browsing context that survives for the length of a task. Archonum was built for this pattern — each agent gets a dedicated device with a persistent session. Zyte was designed around the spider model: crawl, extract, move on. It does not offer the stateful browsing that autonomous agents require.
Yes, and it is a practical approach for teams with mixed requirements. Use Zyte and Scrapy Cloud for high-volume structured extraction on sites where proxy-based access works well. Route your hardest targets — sites with aggressive fingerprinting or workflows requiring session persistence — through Archonum. Because both are self-serve, you can split the workload without negotiating a contract first, and you avoid paying for real-device access on easy targets.
See How Real Devices Handle Your Toughest Targets
Start a free trial and point the Playwright or Puppeteer script you already have at a real device. Plans start at $24.99/mo and include mobile browsers at no surcharge; Enterprise is there when you need volume commitments, dedicated device pools, or SSO.