Have you ever wondered just how much information exists on the Internet? The short answer is a lot more than you probably guessed. In 2020 the total estimated amount of data on the web was 64 zettabytes (1 zettabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes) and it is projected to hit the 120 zettabyte mark this year.
Even though there are many advantages of having such a large amount of information available to us, it does pose a problem to certain businesses like digital marketers, web search engines, and online business operators which rely on sifting through large amounts of data.
I have personally found that scraping contact info for marketing purposes strains technological capabilities without the proper tools.
This is where web scraping tools come in, innovative software that allows these platforms to quickly and efficiently sift through large amounts of information and stay up-to-date with real-time changes on the Internet.
What Are the Best Web Scraping Tools?
When choosing a web scraping tool, several factors should be considered carefully. Firstly, ensure that the tool can handle the specific websites and data sources you need to scrape, as some tools may have limitations or restrictions. For example, some tools work better on social media platforms while others are good at scrolling through databases.
Also, check if the tool offers ease of use and a user-friendly interface, as it can affect the efficiency and productivity of your scraping tasks. Many popular web scraping tools used today are designed using innovative user interfaces that allow you to use them effectively with little or no knowledge of coding.
Consider the scalability and performance of the tool to ensure it can handle large-scale data extraction to avoid overwhelming the software. Additionally, check for data extraction accuracy, automated scheduling, proxy support, customer support, and compliance with legal and ethical guidelines to avoid any potential issues as certain web scraping practices are considered illegal and can land you in serious trouble.
With all these in mind, let’s take a look at 7 of the best web scraping tools of 2024.
1. Oxylabs
Overview
Oxylabs is a leading web scraping platform that provides comprehensive solutions for data extraction and web crawling needs. The platform focuses strongly on the core values of reliability, scalability, and accuracy and offers a range of tools and services to facilitate efficient data gathering for a range of businesses.
Their platform combines advanced technology with a vast proxy network, enabling users to overcome IP blocking, geo-restrictions, and other obstacles encountered during web scraping. Oxylabs offers features like data parsing, real-time data extraction, and smart crawling algorithms to ensure high-quality, up-to-date, and user-relevant information.
Highlights
- Oxylabs offers a vast and diverse proxy network that allows users to access websites without being blocked or detected, ensuring reliable and uninterrupted web scraping.
- The platform provides advanced tools and techniques for extracting structured data from websites, enabling users to gather specific information efficiently and accurately, and by extension boost productivity.
- Oxylabs offers real-time data extraction capabilities, allowing users to stay up-to-date with the latest information and changes on websites for timely insights and decision-making.
- The service utilizes intelligent crawling algorithms to optimize the scraping process, ensuring efficient and targeted data collection while minimizing bandwidth and resource usage.
- The platform offers customizable scraping solutions tailored to individual business needs, ensuring flexibility and scalability for projects of any size or complexity.
- Oxylabs is committed to adhering to legal and ethical standards. They provide support and guidance on compliance issues, helping users navigate potential challenges related to web scraping regulations.
- Oxylabs offers developer-friendly APIs and extensive documentation, making integration and implementation seamless for even non-technical users.
- The platform is known for its responsive and knowledgeable customer support team, providing assistance and resolving queries promptly.
Pricing
The Oxylabs web scraper API has two main pricing plans with multiple sub-plans.
- Regular Plans:
- Free Trial: One-week free trial with up to 5,000 search results.
- Micro Plan: $49/mo with up to 17,500 search results.
- Starter Plan: $99/mo with up to 38,000 search results.
- Advanced Plan: $249/mo with up to 104,000 search results.
- Enterprise Plans:
- Venture Plan: $499/mo with up to 227,000 search results.
- Starter Plan: $999/mo with up to 526,000 search results.
- Advanced Plan: $2000/mo with up to 1,250,000 search results.
- Custom Plan: Starts from $10,000/mo and offers up to 10 million search results.
All plans are available at 10% off if billed annually.
Bottom Line
Oxylabs is a leading web scraping platform that combines advanced technology with a vast proxy network to provide reliable and uninterrupted web scraping services. Take advantage of their 1-week free trial and test out all their amazing features.
2. Phantom Buster
Overview
Phantom Buster is a flexible web scraping platform that provides a range of useful tools and automation capabilities for extracting data from a variety of online sources. With an intuitive interface and a diverse set of pre-built scraping agents, it allows users to easily scrape data from websites, social media platforms, and other online platforms.
Phantom Buster supports various scraping techniques, including API calls, web automation, and browser automation. It also offers features such as proxy support, captcha solving, and scheduling to handle complex scraping tasks efficiently. The platform provides options for data manipulation, integration with third-party tools, and advanced filtering and sorting.
Highlights
- Phantom Buster offers a variety of ready-to-use automation tools, known as “Busters,” for different tasks. These tools are pre-built modules or scripts designed to automate specific tasks on various online platforms.
- It provides a user-friendly interface and a visual editor, allowing users to easily create and customize scraping workflows without coding knowledge.
- It provides features like automatic pagination handling, proxy rotation, and CAPTCHA solving to overcome common scraping challenges and ensure smooth and uninterrupted data extraction.
- Phantom Buster offers powerful data manipulation capabilities, enabling users to clean, filter, and transform the extracted data for further analysis and processing.
- It provides detailed logs and reports, allowing users to monitor the progress and success of their scraping tasks and improve overall business efficiency, cut down on costs, and boost productivity.
- Phantom Buster emphasizes data privacy and compliance, ensuring that the scraping activities adhere to legal and ethical standards.
- The platform offers responsive customer support, tutorials, and documentation to assist users in utilizing the full potential of their web scraping services.
Pricing
Phantom Buster offers a three-tier pricing plan with a 14-day free trial.
- Free Trial: a 14-day free trial with up to 2 hours of execution time and 1,000 AI credits.
- Starter Plan: $69/mo ($56/mo if billed annually) with up to 20 hours execution times and 10k AI credits/mo.
- Pro Plan: $128/mo ($159/mo if billed annually) with up to 80 hours execution times and 30k AI credits/mo.
- Team Plan: $352/mo ($439/mo if billed annually) with up to 300 hours execution times and 90k AI credits/mo.
Enter the platform to read more about their AI credit system and execution time.
Bottom Line
Phantom Buster is a powerful web scraping platform that provides pre-built automation tools, a user-friendly interface, and advanced features like pagination handling, proxy rotation, and CAPTCHA solving.
It offers data manipulation capabilities, and scheduling options, and emphasizes data privacy and compliance. With responsive customer support and comprehensive resources, Phantom Buster is a web scraper tool you should try out so make use of their free trial now.
3. ParseHub
Overview
ParseHub is a web scraping platform that allows users to extract data from websites without the need for coding knowledge. It offers a user-friendly interface and a point-and-click editor, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced users.
ParseHub uses advanced machine learning techniques to automatically identify and extract data from web pages, saving time and effort. It supports complex scraping tasks and provides options for scheduling and automatic data delivery, ensuring real-time and up-to-date information.
Highlights
- ParseHub offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features to extract data from websites without any coding knowledge, making it available to a wide range of users. It allows users to easily navigate and interact with websites, mimicking human actions, such as clicking buttons, scrolling, and filling out forms.
- The platform supports data extraction from various types of websites, including dynamic and JavaScript-heavy sites.
- ParseHub can extract structured data from web pages, including text, images, links, and more, providing flexibility in data collection.
- Users can schedule and automate scraping tasks, allowing for regular and up-to-date data extraction.
- The platform provides robust debugging tools, allowing users to test and refine their scraping projects.
- ParseHub offers various export formats and integrations, such as CSV, Excel, JSON, and API integration, facilitating seamless integration with other applications and systems.
- Additionally, it provides comprehensive customer support to assist users throughout the scraping process.
Pricing
The ParseHub platform offers a four-tier pricing plan.
- Free Plan: This offers 14 days of data retention plus 200 pages per run.
- Standard Plan: Billed at $189/mo ($159/mo if billed quarterly), this plan offers 14 days of data retention plus 10k pages per run.
- Professional Plan: Billed at $599/mo ($505/mo if billed quarterly), this plan offers 30 days of data retention plus unlimited pages per run.
- ParseHub Plus Plan: Offers a premium service with priority support and several unique features tailored to suit your business. Contact the company for your unique billing options.
Bottom Line
ParseHub is a user-friendly web scraping platform that empowers users to extract data from websites without coding knowledge. It offers a point-and-click interface, supports complex scraping tasks, and uses advanced machine-learning techniques. With options for scheduling, various data export formats, and comprehensive customer support, ParseHub is a versatile solution that you should not miss out on.
4. Nanonet
Overview
Nanonets is a web scraping platform designed to simplify data extraction from websites and APIs. With a focus on simplicity and ease of use, Nanonets offers a user-friendly interface and powerful scraping capabilities. Nanonets also provide seamless integration options, allowing users to export data in various formats and connect with other tools and systems.
Similar to other web scraping tools on this list, Nanonets offers an innovative visual editor that allows users to create scraping workflows without any coding knowledge. Nanonets also supports both static and dynamic websites, handling JavaScript-rendered content effortlessly. It offers features like proxy management, data validation, and automatic retry mechanisms to ensure reliable and accurate data extraction.
Highlights
- The platform offers a user-friendly interface and visual editor for easy scraping workflow creation, allowing even beginners to effectively navigate the tools with little practice.
- It also offers a proxy management feature to bypass IP restrictions and enhance scraping reliability. Automatic retry mechanisms for handling failed requests and ensuring high-quality data extraction.
- Nanonets offer data validation capabilities to ensure the accuracy and integrity of extracted data. This is especially important for businesses that make decisions based on real-time data.
- Nanonets offers great integration options, allowing data export in various formats and integration with other tools. It also supports scraping from static and dynamic websites, including JavaScript-rendered content.
- Provides comprehensive documentation and tutorials for users to maximize the platform’s potential. Their customer support options are top-notch and
Pricing
Let’s take a look at the Nanonets’ pricing plans.
- Starter Plan: This plan is a pay-as-you-go plan which offers the first 500 pages for free and then subsequently $0.3 per page.
- Pro Plan: Billed at $499/mo, this plan covers 5000 pages then subsequently $0.1 per page.
- Professional Plan: Billed at $599/mo ($505/mo if billed quarterly), this plan offers 30 days of data retention plus unlimited pages per run.
- Enterprise Plan: This is a custom plan that is built specifically to cater to the unique needs of your organization.
Bottom Line
Nanonets is a user-friendly web scraping platform that simplifies data extraction from websites and APIs. With its intuitive interface, support for dynamic content, and reliable features like proxy management and data validation, Nanonets is an ideal choice for users seeking a straightforward and efficient scraping solution. Try out any of their plans today to see if the tool is the right solution for your needs.
5. Scrape.do
Overview
Scrape.do is a robust web scraping platform designed to simplify the process of extracting data from websites. It offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features that cater to both beginners and experienced users, making it a popular web scraping tool across a variety of industries.
With its advanced scraping capabilities, Scrape.do can handle various complexities, including dynamic websites and JavaScript rendering. The platform provides powerful tools for data extraction, manipulation, and integration, enabling users to gather valuable insights and automate data-driven processes. With its focus on efficiency, reliability, and ease of use, Scrape.do is a valuable resource for businesses, researchers, and data enthusiasts.
Highlights
- Scrape.do offers a user-friendly interface that makes web scraping accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. Users can easily configure scraping tasks using the visual scraping editor, eliminating the need for complex coding.
- Scrape.do provide robust data extraction features, including the ability to extract text, images, links, and other structured data from web pages.
- It offers data manipulation capabilities, allowing users to clean, filter, and transform extracted data.
- The platform integrates with popular data storage and analysis tools, facilitating seamless data integration and further analysis.
- Scrape.do provides features for scheduling scraping tasks, enabling users to automate regular data extraction.
- The platform offers reliable proxy support to handle IP blocking and maintain anonymity during scraping operations.
- Scrape.do provide comprehensive documentation and customer support, ensuring users have the necessary resources to leverage the platform effectively.
Pricing
Scrape.do offers a five-tier pricing plan.
- Free Plan: Offers 1000 successful monthly API credits.
- Hobby Plan: Offers 250,000 successful API credits with unlimited bandwidth and email support at $29/mo.
- Pro Plan: Offers 1,250,000 successful API credits and additional features such as JavaScript rendering at $99/mo.
- Business Plan: Offers 3,500,000 successful API credits, worldwide geotargeting, and dedicated support at $259/mo.
- Custom Plan: This option is tailored to the unique needs of the enterprise, with priority support, a personalized plan, and individualized pricing.
Bottom Line
Scrape.do is a user-friendly web scraping platform that excels in simplicity, reliability, and robust scraping capabilities. With its intuitive interface, powerful extraction features, and seamless integration options, Scrape.do empowers users to extract valuable data from websites efficiently.
Whether you are a business, researcher, or data enthusiast, Scrape.do offers the tools and support needed to unlock the potential of web scraping and drive data-driven decision-making processes. So try out the free plan today to get a better understanding of the amazing features the platform has to offer.
6. BrightData
Overview
BrightData, formerly known as Luminati Networks, is a comprehensive web scraping platform that provides a wide range of data collection and proxy services. With a focus on ethical and transparent data extraction, BrightData enables businesses to gather valuable insights from the web.
Their platform offers advanced features like IP rotation, session management, and CAPTCHA handling to overcome common challenges in web scraping. BrightData’s extensive proxy network spans over 200 countries, ensuring global coverage and reliable data collection. With a user-friendly interface and powerful capabilities, BrightData serves as a trusted solution for organizations in need of efficient and compliant web scraping.
Highlights
- BrightData offers a vast proxy network with global coverage, allowing users to scrape data from any location around the world.
- The platform provides IP rotation and session management features, enabling users to mimic real-user behavior and avoid IP blocking.
- BrightData offers CAPTCHA handling mechanisms, bypassing CAPTCHA challenges and ensuring uninterrupted data extraction.
- Users can integrate BrightData’s solution into their existing systems through comprehensive APIs and SDKs, increasing the versatility of the software.
- The platform supports various types of web scraping, including data extraction from websites, search engines, and mobile apps.
- BrightData offers granular targeting options, allowing users to specify the exact geolocation, device, browser, and other parameters for their scraping tasks.
- The platform provides detailed data quality metrics, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the extracted information.
- BrightData offers a user-friendly dashboard with intuitive controls for managing and monitoring scraping tasks.
- Their customer support team provides prompt assistance and guidance to users throughout the scraping process.
- BrightData emphasizes ethical data collection practices and compliance with legal regulations.
Pricing
BrightData offers flexible pricing plans tailored to the specific needs of businesses.
- Pay As You Go Plan: No long-term commitment is required. Offers a scraping browser API at $20.00/GB. + $0.1/h.
- Growth Plan: Billed at $500/mo if billed monthly. Offers a scraping browser API at $17.00/GB. + $0.1/h.
- Business Plan: Billed at $1000/mo if billed monthly. Offers a scraping browser API at $15.00/GB. + $0.1/h.
- Enterprise Plan: This unique option is tailored to the needs of the business and offers unlimited scale plus custom pricing per GB, with priority support, and a premium SLA.
Annual billing offers a 10% discount on all plans.
Bottom Line
With their comprehensive solution and focus on compliance, BrightData empowers businesses to gather valuable insights from the web while ensuring reliability and transparency. Each plan offers a free plan so take advantage of this to fully explore their services.
7. Smartproxy
Overview
Smartproxy is a web scraping platform that provides a reliable and scalable solution for businesses in need of efficient data extraction. With a vast proxy network spanning multiple locations, Smartproxy enables users to overcome IP blocking and access geographically restricted content.
The platform offers high-speed connections, advanced features, and easy integration options, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced users. Smartproxy prioritizes data security and privacy, ensuring users can scrape the web anonymously and securely.
Highlights
- Smartproxy provides a vast proxy network with coverage in numerous locations worldwide, allowing users to access geographically restricted data and overcome IP blocking.
- Users can choose from various proxy types, including residential, data center, and mobile proxies, providing flexibility to meet different scraping needs.
- Smartproxy offers advanced features like session control, IP rotation, and custom header support, enhancing anonymity and preventing detection while scraping.
- The platform provides easy integration options, with support for popular web scraping frameworks, APIs, and proxy management tools, offering a greater degree of flexibility.
- Smartproxy prioritizes data security and privacy, implementing measures to protect user information and ensure anonymous scraping.
- Users have access to comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and customer support to assist them in setting up and optimizing their web scraping projects.
- The platform provides detailed usage statistics and analytics, helping users monitor and manage their proxy usage effectively.
Pricing
Here is how the Smartproxy plans are priced:
- Pay As You Go Plan: No long-term commitment is required. Offers services at $12.50/GB, with one user and whitelisted IP.
- Nano Plan: Billed at $22.00/GB, with one user and whitelisted IP.
- Micro Plan: Billed at $80.00/GB, with two users and whitelisted IPs.
- Starter Plan: Billed at $225.00/GB, with three users and whitelisted IPs.
- Regular Plan: Billed at $400.00/GB, with four users and whitelisted IP/
- Advanced Plan: Billed at $700.00/GB, with one user and whitelisted IPs.
They also offer custom plans for customers who require more individualized services.
Bottom Line
Smartproxy is a reliable and scalable web scraping platform that offers a vast proxy network, high-speed connections, and advanced features to facilitate efficient data extraction. With its user-friendly interface, strong emphasis on security and privacy, and flexible pricing plans, Smartproxy is a suitable choice for businesses seeking a robust solution for their web scraping needs.
What Are Web Scraping Tools?
Web scraping tools are software applications designed to extract data from websites and other online sources. They automate the process of collecting information by navigating web pages, scraping data elements, and organizing them into a structured format.
These tools are useful because they enable businesses to efficiently gather large amounts of data in real time. By automating the data extraction process, web scraping tools save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manual data collection.
They allow businesses to monitor competitors, track market trends, gather customer feedback, perform market research, and make data-driven decisions, ultimately gaining a competitive advantage in various industries.
Conclusion
In the world of digital marketing and online business operations, web scraping tools have become essential for efficiently gathering and analyzing large amounts of data from the web. From reliable data extraction to user-friendly interfaces and comprehensive customer support, these tools empower businesses to stay competitive and make data-driven decisions.
