In this era of data, most key activities in business like lead generation, research, marketing, analytics, market predictions, etc are data-driven. And today almost all of the data is available on the internet across multiple websites.
When Business users get to make key business decisions or analyze data in various fields like data science, marketing, Economics, Statistics, etc they would then need to look for multiple web pages which may range anywhere between 10-100x pages. This manual task would involve a lot of copy-pasting that would consume resources and time adding to undeniable human errors that may occur.
Contents
What is Web scraping?
Web scraping is a process that involves extracting and importing data from websites to the local machine using bots.
Web scraping tools are the resort for those who are looking for a tool that would give required web data consolidated in local Storage or database instead of doing it manually and save time. It comes as a package of 2 tools, one is a web crawler that identifies in which website your data points exist to build an index, and the scraper itself which is for data extraction.
Why Web scraping tools?
Web scraping tools which invariably come along with web crawlers can directly access the World Wide Web using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or a web browser.
Web Scraping is a very popular choice for Market research, finding leads, comparing between products across multiple sites in e-commerce, content analysis between web pages, price comparison, big data, stock market analysis, etc
Here is a curated best web scraping tools for you to select and make your life so much easier:
Best Web Scrapping Tools
1) XTRACT.IO
Xtract.io is a tool that enables you to transform web data, PDFs or social media posts into a readable format that is human-friendly and enables you to make business decisions quickly and effectively. With the company’s belief that every business has to rely on data rather than gut feeling to arrive at any key business decisions or analysis, their data experts strive to provide the agility and flexibility as per the user’s business needs.
Key Features:
- Pre-configured workflows
- Scrape business-specific information like financial data, user reviews, news updates with tailored data processing solutions
- Provide Granular insights to your market or customers with location-specific data
2) Scraping Bee
ScrapingBee is the easy-to-use web scraping API that handles headless browsers and has effective proxy management. It focuses on extracting only the data that you would need and doesn’t deal with parallel headless browsers which otherwise would take major junk of your device’s RAM. It is super fun to use for a technical user and might not be a very good option for a non-developer.
Key Features:
- With its rotating proxies, it hides bots and lowers the chance of getting blocked
- Provides growth hacking for lead generation
- Great Java script rendering
- Renders web page as if a real browser is using
3) Bright Data
Another web scraping tool is Bright Data which has wide data collection tools and a variety of proxy services that enable easier web crawling and scraping of data. This is widely popular in web data extraction for the collection of stock market data and in the field of e-commerce.
Key Features:
- The user has full control of intelligent data collectors
- Allows integrating the proxy IPs via API
- Has a Proxy browser extension to target specific geolocation data
Looking to know the best bright data alternatives? Check our top Alternatives to Bright Data here.
4) FMiner
Another easy-to-use web scraping tool that is popular amongst startups and developers. Its user-friendly dashboards make the web data extraction process very intuitive and faster. Overall FMiner is a suitable tool when your project is fairly complex.
Key Features:
- Has easy to use- visual editor
- Can crawl Web2.0 dynamic websites as well
5) ZenRows
ZenRows is a powerful web scraping API that provides an all-in-one solution. Its anti-bot bypass toolkit helps overcome detection mechanisms by handling rotating proxies, headless browsers, CAPTCHAs, JavaScript rendering, etc. ZenRows has been tested and trusted by developers and companies across the globe.
Key Features:
- Premium rotating proxies.
- Runs concurrent requests.
- Comprehensive documentation is available.
- JavaScript rendering to mimic human interaction.
- With the auto-parse feature, users can seamlessly get a JSON file with all the data they want.
- Free 1,000 API credits.
6) Dexi.io
Under its belt, Dexi.io has the credit of providing services for Hedge Funds, Retailers, Banks, etc which deal with dynamic data that is huge. This web Scraper tool allows you to extract data from any required website supporting a full browser environment and transform an unlimited amount of data as per your need. This tool is feature-rich and also is easy to use.
Key Features:
- Allows scalability to include more scraping capacity
- Allows integration to endpoints like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Amazon S3, etc
- Provides processing feature to transform the data, manipulate and aggregate the data stream
- Has intuitive debugging to identify any bots that may have a failure during scraping
- Instantly removes duplicates before sending out the data to your local system
7) Outwit
This is a Firefox extension that can easily be downloaded from the Firefox add-ons store. This is quick and needs no coding-related knowledge to start web scraping. It lets you extracting of data from different webpages with few mouse clicks.
It also allows the user to customize to meet the distinct scraping needs. There is also a documentation section in Outwit Hub that would make data scraping easier when you have a specific need.
8) ParseHub
This is the web scraping tool you need when there is complex data extraction from websites that uses AJAX, Javascripts, redirects, cookies. It is well equipped with machine learning technology to analyze web data and ensure the user has end data as only required data. The free plan from ParseHub allows you to have up to 5 free crawl projects, you can use the free plan and upgrade later as per your future need.
Key Features:
- Can execute scheduled runs that can be daily, weekly, etc
- Extract content that loads with AJAX and Javascript
- It is highly scalable
- Allows to connect to API and download data
9) Octoparse
Octparse is another web scraping tool that is very much similar to ParseHub however pricing is lower for Octoparse. It is fairly easy to use and both coders and non-coders can leverage it. Most often Octparse is preferred for e-commerce sites data scrapping.
Key Features:
- Automatic IP rotation during extraction
- Can deal with various types of websites with login, drop down AJAX, etc
- Tool available for both Windows and Mac users
- Supports scheduled scrapping for regular data extraction
10) Diffbot
Diffbot is well suited for data scraping when you are dealing with unstructured web data. Developing DIY web scrapers can be quite painful for developers when there are 15 websites to scrape and the developer would have to take care of 15 different rules. Diffbot handles this complexity with their automatic extraction APIs available. Diffbot is a Knowledge-As-A-Service provider.
Key Features:
- Allows easy integration with google sheets, excel, tableau, etc
- AI understands the web data and processes into information before sending
11) Import.io
This is a beginner-friendly web scraping platform available for the extraction of data from web pages. It is preferred for large companies looking for low to no coding web scraping tools for data extraction.
Key Features:
- Intuitive UI
- Allows data transformation before it has to reach you
- Has the ability to extract only data that has got changed since your last extraction
- Provides visualization of data extracted
12) Webhose.io
This tool is an effective one for real-time data extraction while it also allows you to access historical feed worth ten+ years of data. It can allow you to access web datasets from 2008 to enhance the research and analysis for your business or industry.
Key Features:
- Access to historic feeds across the globe
- Advanced filters for granular analysis
- Provides free subscription plan with limited HTTP requests
- Supports multiple languages
13) Agenty
It is a cloud-based web scraping tool with built-in APIs. With few mouse clicks, you will be able to set up your web scraping agents without any coding knowledge. Offers batch URL crawling to extract data from unlimited web pages using a single agent. Offers highly anonymous proxies while scraping.
Key Features:
- Has flexible scheduling option
- Allows website crawling with login using your credentials in agent
- Notifies you via email when the job is completed
- Integrations to send data to Secure FTP, Dropbox, etc
14) Web Scraper Chrome extension
This is a popular chrome extension web extraction tool with an easy point-and-click UI. It is a free and easy-to-use tool. It has modular selectors that know how to traverse into target websites and extract the required web data. While it is simple to use it cannot handle complex web scraping scenarios.
15) Mozenda
This web scraping software is designed for various kinds of data extraction and enables the user to extract text, pdfs, and images from the web. This tool has been used for data extraction to derive key business decisions by 1/3rd of fortune 500 companies.
Key Features:
- Allows organizing and publishing of web data in your local BI tool
- Can scrape PDFs too
- Enables creation of web scraping agents in few minutes
16) Scraper API
This is a fully customizable web scraping tool. Scraper API rotates IP address with each request and automatically retries failed requests if any. Scraper API also handles CAPTCHAS that could have been a blocker. They even prune slow proxies from pools periodically making the developer’s life easier.
Key features:
- Millions of proxies available across ISPs
- Enables rendering Javascript
- Geolocated rotating proxies ensuring localized data
- Fast and reliable for developers to write speedy crawlers
Concluding thoughts
So there you have it, folks, the best of web scraper tools. Let us know in the comments section which one do you prefer and why?
