The 10 Best Web Scraping Tools for 2024

Hello everyone! I’m excited to share my insights on the top 10 web scraping tools for 2024. As someone deeply involved in data collection and analysis, I’ve tried out many tools that make gathering information easy and efficient. This year, some fantastic improvements have made certain tools really stand out. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re an expert, these tools can really help speed up your data extraction work.

From powerful tools that work in the cloud to easy-to-use software you can run on your desktop, there’s something here for everyone. Keep reading as I go through each tool, explaining their features, how easy they are to use, and why they’re a must-have for anyone serious about web scraping.

In a hurry? Check out this quick summary (detailed review below):

1. Bright Data — Best overall for advanced scraping; features extensive proxy management and reliable APIs.
2. Octoparse — User-friendly no-code tool for automated data extraction from websites.
3. ScrapingBee — Developer-oriented API that handles proxies, browsers, and CAPTCHAs efficiently.
4. Scrapy — Open-source Python framework ideal for data crawling and scraping tasks.
5. ScraperAPI — Handles tough scrapes with advanced anti-bot technologies; great for developers.
6. Apify — Versatile platform offering ready-made scrapers and robust scraping capabilities.
7. Playwright — Microsoft-backed tool for browser automation and scraping dynamic content.
8. WebScraper.io — Chrome extension for easy point-and-click data extraction.
9. ParseHub — No-code desktop application that simplifies web scraping with a visual approach.
10. Import.io — Cloud-based service that turns web pages into structured data with ease.

What is a Web Scraping Tool?

A web scraping tool is essentially software or a service that automates the process of extracting data from websites. It simplifies web scraping, making it easier to gather information.

Nowadays, companies often guard their publicly available data by using anti-scraping technologies. They don’t want to share it, even though it’s publicly accessible freely. Some common defences include CAPTCHAs, fingerprinting, and rate limiting, which can halt your data collection efforts if you’re not prepared.

Web scraping tools are designed to navigate these obstacles effectively. They provide the necessary features to ensure smooth data collection from websites without interruption.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Web Scraping Tools

When choosing the best web scraping tool, it’s essential to consider several key factors:

Features: Look for the functionalities offered by the tool.

Cost: Determine the pricing of the basic premium plan.

Pros and cons: Understand the advantages and limitations of each tool.

Main goal: Identify the primary purpose of the tool.

Platforms: Check if the tool is compatible with your operating system.

Reviews: Consider user feedback on platforms like Capterra.

Integrations: See which technologies and programming languages the tool supports.

Evaluating these factors can help you find the most suitable web scraping tool for your needs.

10 Best Web Scraping Tools in 2024

I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 web scraping tools. These tools are considered the best for extracting data from the internet. They made it to the list because of their robust features, ease of use, and reliability. Each tool offers unique functionalities that cater to different scraping needs. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, these tools are worth exploring for your data extraction tasks.

1. Bright Data

Bright Data leads the web data collection field with a vast proxy network worldwide. Its millions of residential proxies enable efficient IP rotation for web scraping. The Web Scraper APIs provide customizable endpoints for data extraction from popular domains. They ensure scalability and reliability, tackling common scraping obstacles like anti-bot mechanisms. With features like IP rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and JavaScript rendering, it’s a comprehensive solution.

The APIs export data to user-friendly formats, making it preferred for organizations seeking efficient data-driven initiatives. In essence, the Scraper API combines the best features of other tools, making it ideal for overcoming scraping challenges, cutting costs, and saving time.

Features:

• Auto parsing
• Residential proxies
• Data validation
• Bulk Request Handling
• Scalable infrastructure
• Data discovery
• Custom headers
• Automatic IP rotation
• Webhook delivery
• CAPTCHA solver
• Javascript rendering
• User Agent rotation
• Ready-to-use API endpoints

Advantages:

• Unlimited scale
• 99.99% uptime
• 100% compliant and ethical
• 24/7 support

Disadvantages:

• Not free
• Can get expensive for large-scale projects

Price: Starting from $0.001, pricing is based on the type of domain and number of records. There’s a free trial available.

Primary Objective: Create a customizable endpoint capable of extracting structured data from web pages or delivering the original HTML content, even if the page is safeguarded by anti-bot measures.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Highly rated with 4.8/5 on Capterra

Integrations:

• Compatible with any programming language for web development (e.g., JavaScript, Python, Java, Rust, Go, C#, etc.)
• Compatible with any scraping library
• Works with any HTTP client

2. Octoparse

Octoparse is a top choice in the no-code web scraping tools category. Its software easily extracts unstructured data from any website and organizes it into structured datasets. Users can define data extraction tasks through a simple point-and-click interface, even without technical skills.

Features:

• Automatic looping capabilities
• Templates for scraping data from popular sites
• AI-powered web scraping assistant
• Cloud automation for scheduling scrapers 24/7
• Solves scraping challenges such as IP rotation and CAPTCHA
• Supports various simulations like infinite scrolling, pagination, dropdown, and hover

Advantages:

• No coding required
• Offers numerous integrations
• Provides both a free plan and a free trial for advanced features
• Supports OpenAPI
• Helps overcome scraping challenges
• Documentation and help center available in multiple languages: Spanish, Chinese, French, and Italian

Disadvantages:

• Does not support Linux
• Some features may be difficult to understand

Price: The entry-level premium plan starts at $75 per month, and free options and trials are available.

Primary Objective: Provide a desktop application that enables non-technical users to perform web scraping, with additional integrations available for developers.

Supported Platforms: Windows and macOS

Reviews: Rated 4.5/5 on Capterra

Integrations:

• HubSpot
• Zapier
• Airtable
• Google Drive
• Google Sheets
• Cloudmersive API
• Dropbox
• Slack
• Salesforce
• Custom proxy providers

3. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee offers a premium web scraping API designed to simplify online data extraction. It takes care of proxies and headless browser setup, allowing you to concentrate on extracting data. This API is designed for developers who want to integrate scraping endpoints into their scripts. It relies on a vast pool of proxies to bypass rate-limiting restrictions and lower the risk of being blocked.

Features:

• Customizable headers and cookies
• Geographic targeting
• Intercepts XHR/AJAX requests
• Data export in HTML, JSON, XML, and more
• Allows scheduling of scraping API calls
• Supports interactive websites requiring JavaScript execution
• Automatic anti-bot bypass, including CAPTCHA solving

Advantages

• Includes many features
• Effective on most websites
• Offers an easy-to-configure scraping endpoint
• Charges apply only for successful requests
• Provides extensive documentation and blog posts

Disadvantages

• Not the fastest scraping API
• Limited concurrency
• Requires technical knowledge

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month for the entry plan, with a limited free trial available.

Primary Objective: Provide a comprehensive endpoint for developers to extract data from any website.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 4.9/5 on Capterra

Integrations: Compatible with any HTTP client and any web scraping library.

4. Scrapy

Scrapy is a Python-based open-source framework that comes with a complete API for web scraping and crawling. With Scrapy, you can create automated tasks to crawl websites and extract structured data from their pages. It’s a handy tool for developers who need to collect information from various online sources.

Whether you’re scraping articles, product listings, or job postings, Scrapy helps streamline the process. It’s known for its efficiency and flexibility, making it suitable for a wide range of scraping projects. Plus, being open-source means it’s free to use and can be customized to fit your specific needs. If you’re looking to automate web scraping tasks in Python, Scrapy is worth checking out.

Features:

• Supports JSON parsing
• Comes with a built-in HTTP client
• Offers automatic crawling logic
• Includes an integrated HTML parser
• Supports CSS selectors and XPath expressions

Advantages:

• Fast crawling and scraping capabilities
• Ideal for large-scale data retrieval
• Memory-efficient
• Highly customizable and extensible through middleware
• Provides a smooth web scraping experience

Disadvantages:

• Has a steep learning curve
• Lacks built-in browser automation features
• Requires Splash integration for scraping interacting sites

Pricing: Free

Primary Objective: Provide a high-level web crawling and scraping API for Python.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Not available

Integrations: Python and Splash.

5. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI helps you scrape HTML code from any webpage, including those protected by anti-scraping measures. Its advanced anti-bot detection and bypassing system prevent your requests from being blocked, allowing you to connect to most sites without interruption. This scraping API ensures unlimited bandwidth for fast web crawling.

Features:

• Capable of rendering JavaScript
• Supports premium proxies
• Automatically parses JSON data
• Features smart proxy rotation and custom headers
• Offers automatic retries and support for custom sessions
• Bypasses CAPTCHA and anti-bot detection measures

Advantages

• Trusted by over 10,000 clients
• Professional support is available
• Provides unlimited bandwidth and a 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Offers free webinars, case studies, and resources for beginners
• Extensive documentation available in multiple programming languages

Disadvantages

• Requires technical knowledge to use effectively
• Worldwide geotargeting only available with the Business plan

Price: Starts at $49 per month for the entry-level premium plan, with a limited free trial available.

Primary Objective: To provide a comprehensive scraping endpoint for developers to extract data from any webpage.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 4.6/5 on Capterra

Integrations:

• Compatible with any HTTP client
• Works with any web scraping library

6. Apify

Apify serves as a platform for deploying scraping tasks, featuring thousands of pre-built web scrapers. It facilitates the transformation of any website into an API, enabling dependable data extraction regardless of scale. Additionally, Apify is the team behind Crawlee, a widely used Node.js library for web scraping. Its user-friendly interface and extensive library of ready-made scrapers make it accessible for users with varying levels of expertise.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, Apify simplifies the process of scraping data from the web. With its robust capabilities and support for both pre-built and custom scripts, Apify empowers users to efficiently collect and manage data from any website.

Features:

• Smart IP address rotation
• Automatic creation of human-like browser fingerprints
• Customizable cookies and headers
• Integrated anti-bot bypass toolkit
• Supports integration with Python and JavaScript, including Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, and Scrapy

Advantages:

• Provides free web scraping courses, academies, and tutorials
• Offers extensive documentation and an integrated proxy pool
• Features over 1,500 ready-made web scraper templates
• Trusted by numerous well-known partners

Disadvantages:

• Concurrency is limited
• Customer support may not be the best

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month for the entry-level premium plan, with a free trial available.

Primary Objective: Provide an online platform for developers to build, deploy, and manage scraping tasks.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 4.8/5 on Capterra

Integrations: Compatible with any web scraping library, Google Drive, Asana, GitHub, Slack, Gmail, and Zapier.

7. Playwright

Playwright is a leading headless browser library backed by Microsoft and has garnered over 60,000 stars on GitHub. It offers a robust API tailored for end-to-end testing and web scraping.

With Playwright, users can effortlessly manage browsers and replicate user actions on web pages. Its strength lies in its ability to extract data from dynamic content websites that rely on JavaScript for rendering or data fetching. Playwright’s standout feature is its uniform support across various programming languages, browsers, and operating systems.

Features:

• Auto-waiting API
• Built-in reporters
• Integrated debugging tools
• Support for both headed and headless browsing
• Native support for parallel test execution across multiple browser instances
• APIs for clicking, typing, form filling, and more
• Simulates web browser interactions like navigation, form filling, and data extraction

Advantages:

• Most comprehensive browser automation tool available
• Developed and maintained by Microsoft
• Cross-platform, cross-browser, and cross-language support
• Modern, fast, and efficient
• Abundance of features including automatic waits, visual debugging, retries, and configurable reporters
• Intuitive and consistent API

Disadvantages:

• Setup can be challenging
• Takes time to master all features

Price: Free

Primary Objective: Automate browser operations by programmatically simulating user interactions.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Not available

Integrations:

• Java
• Python
• .NET
• JavaScript and TypeScript
• Chrome, Edge, Chromium-based browsers, Firefox, Safari, WebKit-based browsers

8. WebScraper.io

WebScraper.io is a Chrome browser extension that lets users extract data with simple point-and-click actions. Whether manually or automatically, users can extract data directly in the browser or in the cloud. While it may lack some features found in other top web scraping tools, it’s ideal for basic needs and speedy data extraction tasks. Users can perform these tasks conveniently without installing additional software.

Although it may not offer the advanced capabilities of other tools, it’s a great choice for quick and straightforward data scraping. Additionally, it provides the flexibility to execute data extraction tasks either locally or in the cloud, catering to different user preferences and requirements.

Features:

• Export to CSV, XLSX, JSON
• Scraping task scheduler
• Proxy integration
• Point-and-click parsing in the browser
• Supports both local and cloud-based scraping task execution

Advantages:

• Visual HTML element selection
• User-friendly interface
• Suitable for basic needs

Disadvantages:

• Very limited concurrency
• Basic email support
• Only works on Chrome
• Limited data retention on the cloud
• Not suitable for advanced needs

Pricing: Starts at $50 per month for the entry-level premium plan, with a free plan and trial available.

Primary Objective: Provide a Chrome extension for defining web scraping tasks and running them in the cloud.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 4.1/5 on the Chrome Web Store

Integrations: Compatible with Chrome, Dropbox, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Amazon S3.

9. ParseHub

ParseHub is a desktop application for web scraping that doesn’t require coding. With its point-and-click interface, users can easily retrieve data from websites. The process involves three simple steps:

1. Visit pages using the built-in browser.
2. Select elements to extract using the mouse.
3. Specify the data to extract.

The scraped data can then be exported to human-readable formats like CSV or JSON.

Features:

• Scheduled runs
• Automatic IP rotation
• Support for interactive websites
• Supports conditionals and expressions
• Supports XPath, RegEx, and CSS selectors
• Automatic data extraction from tables
• Extraction from node text and HTML attributes
• Offers REST API and web hooks

Advantages:

• Cross-platform compatibility
• Intuitive user interface
• No coding required for defining web scraping tasks
• Seamless integration with cloud services

Disadvantages:

• CPU-intensive
• Not suitable for large-scale operations

Pricing: Starts at $189 per month for the basic premium plan, with a free plan available.

Primary Objective: Provide a no-code desktop application for non-technical users to perform web scraping.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 4.5/5 on Capterra

Integrations: Integrates with the ParseHub cloud platform for data storage, HTTP clients via the ParseHub REST API, Dropbox, and Amazon S3 storage.

10. Import.io

Import.io is a cloud-based platform that makes it easy to turn semi-structured information from web pages into structured data. This structured data can serve various purposes, such as informing business decisions or integrating with other platforms using their REST API.

Users can visually create web scraping tasks directly on the Import.io website without needing to download a desktop application. It simplifies the process of extracting data from web pages, offering a user-friendly interface for defining scraping activities.

Features:

• Task scheduling
• Premium proxy integration
• Country-specific extractors
• Automatic CAPTCHA solving
• Email notifications
• Automatic pagination handling

Advantages:

• Intuitive user interface
• Effective for scraping large websites
• Powerful data manipulation capabilities
• No need for desktop applications or additional installs

Disadvantages:

• Documentation can be messy
• Higher cost compared to average

Pricing: Starts at $399 per month for the entry premium plan with limited features, with a free trial available.

Primary Objective: Provide a cloud-based platform for defining data scraping tasks via a point-and-click interface.

Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Reviews: Rated 3.6/5 on Capterra

Integrations: Compatible with most scraping libraries, offers data elaboration capabilities, allows programmatic data export via API, and supports data export in various formats.

A Comprehensive Overview of Top Web Scraping Tools

If you’re seeking a quick overview of top-notch web scraping tools, take a look at this summary table:

Final Words

Wow, this was a long one, thanks for reading! These tools offer a diverse range of features and capabilities for web scraping in 2024. I find each of them valuable for different reasons.

Bright Data comes on top in terms of the whole “web scraping puzzle” but tools like Octoparse might be the perfect solution for small projects and if you are not a programmer. The best tool depends on your needs, project size, and programming experience.

Got anything to add? Let me know in the comments!