We have compiled a list of the BEST web scraping tools to automatically extract data from web pages for specific data and business analysis.
1.- ParseHub
ParseHub is a clean and efficient free web scraping tool that allows you to scrape any web page in just seconds without having to write a single line of code.
Once the job is done, you just need to click on the data you want to export and you will have it exported in JSON or Excel format.
The tool is aimed at analysts, journalists, data scientists and basically all types of users.
Key features
- The extracted information is automatically saved on cloud servers
- It has IP rotation to avoid blockages when scraping a web
- The user interface is clean and easy to use and you can perform most actions with just a few clicks
- You can schedule data extraction at the time that best suits you
- You can download desktop versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux
- The tool allows you to extract information from tables, maps, lists, forms, etc.
- Easily integrates into other web apps
Pricing
The Everyone plan (free) gives you the following benefits:
- Scrape up to 200 pages of data in 40 min (200 pages per run)
- 5 public projects
- Data retention for 14 days
The first paid plan, Standard ($189/month), notably enhances on the free plan offering and gives you these benefits:
- Save images and other files in the cloud
- IP rotation
- Project scheduling
The Professional plan ($599/month) keeps the features of the Standard plan, but significantly enhances on speed and the number of pages and projects you can work on:
- Unlimited pages per run
- 120 private projects
- Priority support
- Data retention for 30 days
2.- OctoParse
- OctoParse is a web scraper that allows you to extract almost all types of data from websites thanks to its extensive features and capabilities.
It has two modes of operation: Wizard Mode for less experienced users and Advanced Mode for techy users.
The simple point-and-click interface guides you through the entire process so you can easily extract website content and save it in structured formats like EXCEL, TXT, HTML or databases in a short amount of time.
Key features
- Easy to use point and click interface
- You can scrape behind login forms, fill in forms, render javascript, scroll through the infinite scroll and many other tasks
- You can extract dynamic data in real time
- The tool offers the possibility to run scrapers in the cloud 24/7
- You can schedule your scraping tasks for the time you prefer
- Provides proxy servers with IP rotation
Pricing
OctoParse offers a number of plans that are very similar to the ParseHub plans, but a bit cheaper.
With the Free plan you get:
- Unlimited pages per crawl
- Unlimited computers
- 10,000 records per export
- 2 concurrent local runs
- 10 crawlers
- Community, limited support
The Standard plan ($75/month) enhances on all of the above features and includes several additional benefits:
- Unlimited concurrent local run
- 100 crawlers
- Scheduled extractions
- 6 concurrent cloud extractions
- Average speed extraction
- Auto IP rotation
- Task templates
- API access
- Email support
The Professional plan ($209/month) keeps the features of the Standard plan and enhances on the following:
- High-speed extraction
- Advanced API
- Email, High-priority support
- Free task review, 1 on 1 training
If you have a large company, with the Enterprise plan (custom pricing) you get
- A large-scale data extraction and high-capacity cloud solution
- 70 million+ pages per year with 40+ concurrent Cloud processes
- Get up to 4 hours of advanced training with experts in the field
3.- Webz.io
Webz.io (formerly Webhose.io) allows you to get real-time information from millions of web pages on the open, deep or dark web in a neat and understandable format.
With this web crawler you can track data and extract keywords in many different languages using multiple filters that cover a wide range of sources - very useful for digital marketing.
Then you can save the obtained data in XML and JSON formats.
Key features
- The tool has a simple and intuitive interface that allows you to perform many tasks quickly
- You can easily integrate it with external solutions for additional features
- Fast content indexing that allows you to access a massive repository of historical feeds for free
- You can monitor the deep and dark Web to uncover cyber threats
- Perform detailed analysis on different datasets.
Pricing
With the Free version of Webz.io you can scrape up to 1,000 URLs per month. You'll also get:
- Access to data feeds from news, forums, blogs and reviews
- Advanced features and filters
- Ongoing technical support
For paid plans, the company provides a custom pricing for their software. These plans include more more calls and advanced features like more control over extracted data, image analytics, geolocation and more.
These features are adapted to your specific needs.
For example, for the open Web, they incorporate real-time monitoring and several engagement metrics for social networks.
For the deep and dark Web, they provide these features, but might also provide threat recognition and access to TOR, ZeroNet, Telegram and other similar networks.
4.- ScrapingBee
ScrapingBee is an API you can use to scrape any webpage using multiple instances of the Chrome web browser and a smooth proxy management.
The API allows you to execute JavaScript for data extraction of the HTML raw data using these headless browsers, but it also allows you to render the pages using a real browser.
These features diminish your risk of getting blocked while scraping your webs.
Key features
- JavaScript rendering using Chrome
- Extremely fast
- Automatic proxy rotation
- Support for Google search scraping
- Easy to integrate with other applications
- Includes extensive help documentation
Pricing
You can use the tool for free with: 1,000 API calls, 1 concurrent request and JavaScript rendering.
The Freelance plan ($49/month) keeps adds:
- 100,000 API credits
- Rotating & Premium Proxies
- Geotargeting
- Screenshots, Extraction Rules, Google Search API
The Startup plan ($99/month) keeps the above features, but adds:
- 1,000,000 API Credits
- 10 concurrent requests
- Priority email support
With the Business plan ($249/month) you get the above benefits, but additionally you get:
- 2,500,000 API credits
- 40 concurrent requests
- Dedicated account manager
- Team management
5.- Scrapy
Scrapy is an open-source library that provides features for Python developers and businesses to make the development of web crawlers easier and quicker.
This feature allows you to avoid clutter and save time with complex things like proxy middleware and request queries.
Scrapy is an open-source project written in Python that can also use for data extraction or as a general-purpose web crawler.
Key features
- Works smoothly on Windows, Linux, Mac, and BSD
- Allows you to expand your possibilities by integrating new tools through middleware modules
- It has an extensive documentation product of a very active community in the project
Pricing
Being an open-source project, Scrapy is a free tool entirely maintained by its community.
6.- Scraper API
This is another API proxy tool for web scraper developers that is very easy to integrate into your code.
The tool allows you to manage browsers, proxies and CAPTCHAs to extract raw HTML quickly and easily using simple API calls through GET requests.
Key features
- Fast JavaScript rendering
- You can easily adapt the headers and type of each request
- Geolocated rotating proxies to avoid the risk of getting blocked
Unlimited bandwidth
24/7 professional support
Pricing
You can use the API for free up to 5,000 free API calls for 7 days. In case you need to exceed that limit, you can choose one of their paid plans:
With the Hobby plan ($29/month) you get:
- 10 concurrent threads
- 250,000 API calls
- Email support
With the Startup plan ($99/month):
- 25 concurrent requests
- 1,000,000 API calls
- US geotargeting
The Business plan ($249/month) enhances on the Startup plan and gives you:
- 50 concurrent requests
- 3,000,000 API calls
- 50+ geotargeting
- JS rendering
- Residential proxies
- JSO auto parsing
7.- Mozenda
Mozenda is a platform that provides services for data collection and manipulation with availability both locally and in the cloud.
With Mozenda, you can prepare data for business strategy, growth, finance, research, marketing, sales and more.
Although it's a somewhat more expensive tool than the average, Mozenda has the experience of having scraped billions of web pages and has a good number of renowned companies as clients.
Key features
- Point and click interface that allows you to create projects easily and quickly
- Great technical support for all customers, either by phone or by email
- Highly scalable platform that allows you to integrate data with other platforms
- You can export your data in TSV, CSV, XML, XLSX or JSON formats
- You can publish your data directly in the BI tools and databases of your choice
Pricing
Actually, Mozenda doesn't provide pricing information for its plans on its official website.
If you wish to obtain information about prices, you will have to contact the sales team and explain the specific needs of your business. The support team will then provide you with information on the most appropriate type of plan that best suits you.
On the other hand, you can try Mozenda's software for free for 30 days to determine if the tool has what your business needs.
8.- Apify
Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that allows you to choose between a gallery of ready-to-use tools or a custom solution to meet your business's scraping needs.
In the Apify store you can find a wide range of pre-built solutions for data extraction from large websites such as Facebook or Instagram, just to name a few.
In this way, if you are a freelance developer, you can also build your own web scraping software using the API, publish it and earn passive income.
Key features
- Automatic rotation of datacenter and residential proxies in combination with other anti-blocking technologies
- Complete and easy integration with other web apps like Zapier, Make or Keboola
- You can download your structured datasets in various formats, including JSON, XML, CSV, HTML, and Excel
Pricing
Apify has its respective Free plan. You will get the following benefits:
- $5 platform credits
- 30-day trial of 20 shared proxies
- 4 GB max actor RAM
- 7 days data retention
- Community support
The Personal plan ($49/month) is geared towards small individual developer or student projects:
- $49 platform credits
- 30 shared datacenter proxies
- 32 GB max actor RAM
- 14 days data retention
- Email support
The Team plan ($499/month) is ideal for small businesses and development teams:
- $499 platform credits
- 100 shared datacenter proxies
- 128 GB max actor RAM
- 21 days data retention
- Chat support
9.- Import.io
Import.io is a self-serve web scraping platform especially focused on the business sector where users can create their datasets by simply importing data from a web page and then exporting it to CSV format.
It is a no-code/low-code platform with a highly intuitive and easy-to-use interface that allows you to quickly scrape thousands of web pages without writing a single line of code, depending on your business needs.
Key features
- The interface is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly in the sector, offering various graphics and reports
- Make tracking easy by integrating web data into your own app or website with just a few clicks
- You can download a free app for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux to build data extractors, crawlers, download data and sync with your account
- You can also schedule all your tracking tasks on a weekly, daily or hourly basis
- You can store and access data in the cloud
Pricing
Import.io doesn't provide pricing information for their plans on their official website, so you will have to contact their sales team to get a custom plan based on your specific business needs.
10.- Scrapestack
Scrapestack is a real-time web scraping REST API focused on companies that is capable of handling millions of Proxy IPs, Browsers & CAPTCHAs with great ease and speed.
Although you can use the API for many purposes, it is a specialized tool ideal for extracting data in a structured way from large websites such as Amazon, Booking or TripAdvisor for further analysis and without worrying of being detected.
Key features
- It gives you access to more than 35 million datacenters and IP addresses distributed throughout the world
- You can make API calls from more than 100 locations around the world simultaneously
- Highly scalable platform
- Allows JavaScript rendering, concurrent SPI requests, and CAPTCHA solving
- It is compatible with several programming languages such as PHP, jQuery, Python, and Ruby.
Pricing
With the Free plan you'll have access to 100 requests and standard proxies at your disposal, but with limited support.
With the Basic plan ($19.99/month) you have access to:
- Up to 250.000 requests per month
- Standard proxies
- HTTPS encryption
- Concurrent requests
- JavaScript rendering
- 100+ geolocations
- Unlimited support
The Professional plan ($79.99/month) gives you access to 1,000,000 requests and Premium proxies keeping the same benefits from the Basic plan.
The Business plan ($199.99/month) keeps the benefits of the Professional plan, but increases the number of requests to 3,000,000 and technical support to Premium level.
Scrapestack also has an Enterprise plan with custom solutions and pricing.
Note that all plans have 20% if you choose to make your payments annually.
FAQ
Who uses web scraping technology?
Any company or individual that needs to collect large amounts of data from the Internet can make use of this technology on a regular basis.
Web scraping technology is very useful for:
- Market research
- Search for potential customers
- Product comparison
- Content analysis
- Populating product/service listings
- Search Engine Optimization
- Lead generation
- Price comparison
- Social media sentiment analysis
- Data collection for business intelligence
- Among others.
Why scalability is important in a web scraping tool?
Because it is very likely that the data scraping needs of your business will increase over time.
For example, in the case of an online store that needs to collect price information from the competition to offer more competitive prices on certain products.
As your online store grows and you add new products, you will need your scraping tool to increase its workload without losing performance and speed.
How does data scraping relate to Automation and API?
Many companies and organizations need to perform regular data extraction from the Web for different purposes.
However, many of these organizations still perform this process manually, which wastes time and leads to human errors.
Web scraping or data extraction tools and APIs significantly speed up this process by executing a series of repetitive tasks automatically, with greater efficiency, speed and without errors.
What is the most common data delivery format in web scraping tools?
Most web scraping tools provide the data they have collected from the web in a structured way using Excel spreadsheets, CSV, JSON, and XML formats.
Other output formats that are also used, but less frequently, are TSV, XLSX, text, and HTML.
What to consider when it comes to the quality of the data scraped?
Since most of the data on the Web is in a disorganized form, it is important to choose a tool that presents the data in a clean and structured way.
It is also important to consider the output format offered by each web scraping tool, as each one has its advantages and disadvantages.
All of these are factors that in one way or another impact your decision-making process based on the data collected.
How to get around websites with anti-scraping security?
The most common way that web scraping tools have to evade the security measures that many websites implement to prevent web scraping is the use of rotating proxies.
The use of rotating proxies makes it possible to simulate the connection of many different users to the same page or web service, which makes anti-bot systems "believe" that it isn't a single user making thousands of requests, which would be very suspicious.
What is a good customer support for a web scraping tool?
The most important factors to consider when determining if the customer support is really good is to observe its response time and the quality and effectiveness of the solutions provided.
Keep in mind that different technical problems can arise when running a web scraping tool and if your company is large enough and data extraction and analysis are critical factors, good customer support can make the difference to avoid wasting time and money.
