In today's data-driven world, information is key. Whether you are a researcher, analyst, or app developer, you need access to accurate and up-to-date data. This is where API web scraping tools come in. .
These powerful tools allow you to easily collect data from various sources, automate tasks, and build applications.
In this blog post, we'll explore what API web scraping tools are, how they can benefit you, and compare some of the best tools on the market.
By the end of this post, you'll have a better understanding of how these tools can make your life easier and help you achieve your data-related goals.
What is an API Web Scraping?
An API Web Scraping tool is software that allows you to extract data from various web pages using an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs are a set of protocols and tools that enable communication between different software applications.
With API Web Scraping tools, you can easily access and collect data from websites that provide APIs, such as social media platforms, news websites, e-commerce sites, and more.
These tools automate the process of data extraction and provide you with structured data that you can use for various purposes like research, analysis, and building applications.
Web Scraping vs API
Web scraping and APIs are two different ways to extract data from websites. Web scraping involves extracting data from websites by parsing the HTML and other website data, while APIs allow direct access to data through a structured request-response model.
Web scraping requires coding skills to parse the website data, while APIs often provide pre-structured data that can be easily consumed with minimal coding.
However, web scraping can be more flexible and can be used to extract any information from a website, while APIs provide access to a specific set of data defined by the API provider.
In summary, web scraping can be more flexible but requires more coding skills, while APIs are easier to use but provide access to a limited set of pre-structured data.
Look into Web Scraping and APIs: What's the Difference? video to learn more about the difference!
So, if they are two different things how do we have web scraping API tools?
While web scraping and APIs are two different methods of accessing data, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many APIs provide a way to access data through web scraping.
- For example, some APIs may allow you to request data in a format such as JSON or XML. Once you receive this data, you can use web scraping techniques to extract the information you need from the HTML content.
🌐 Furthermore, some API web scraping tools provide an interface that allows you to access APIs and scrape data from websites in a single platform. This can be useful for streamlining your data collection process and automating tasks.
While web scraping and APIs are different, they can complement each other and be used together to collect data efficiently.
Best Web Scraping API Tools
1) ScrapingAPI.ai
Scrapingapi.ai is a web scraping API tool that mimics an actual browser, allowing you to handle thousands of headless instances using the latest Chrome version.
ScrapingAPI.ai uses a headless browser that simulates human-like behavior, making it harder for websites to detect that they are being scraped.
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This helps to ensure that your scraping activities remain undetected, which is important for both legal and ethical reasons.
"Love this product. Highly recommend it as a great scraping service.
The documentation is exceptional. It's easy to get up and running with ScrapingAPI.ais I also love the reliability of the service. It can retrieve data from almost any site and the API has very high availability.
Nothing. I used to be bummed about the limit on concurrent requests for the lowest pricing tier (1) but now it has increased to a level that works great at my scale (5)."
Pros & Cons of ScrapingAPI.ai:
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Easy to use, excellent customer support
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Pricey, limited integration, limited customization
Pricing;
- for basic plan, it is $99 per month,
- for pro plan, it is $249 per month,
- for custom plans start $1.249 per month.
Features of ScrapingAPI.ai:
- Scalability... ScrapingAPI's infrastructure is designed to handle large-scale web scraping projects, making it a good option for scraping websites with a high volume of data.
- IP rotation! ScrapingAPI rotates IP addresses automatically, making it difficult for websites to detect and block your scraping activities.
- JavaScript rendering. ScrapingAPI uses headless browsers to render JavaScript, which is essential for scraping modern websites that use JavaScript frameworks.
2) Scraper API
Scraper API is a web scraping API service that allows developers to easily extract data from websites. It provides a simple and reliable way to scrape websites without having to set up and manage complex infrastructure.
Scraper API is designed to be easy to use and scalable, making it a good option for scraping websites with large amounts of data.
🔍 It uses headless browsers to render JavaScript, which is essential for scraping modern websites that use JavaScript frameworks.
Scraper API also rotates IP addresses automatically to avoid getting detected and blocked by websites.
Scraper API review on Capterra:
"I have been using ScraperAPI for last 2 years ro so. They were not flawless in the beginning, but they were always willing to work based on the clients feedback and tweak their infrastructure to fix the issue. The thing I liked the most: 1. Auto Proxy Rotation 2. Auto CAPTCHA Handling 3. JS Rendering 4. Geo Location Targeting Moreover, then don't charge extra for scpraing the data from the premium site like Amazon, Google etc. where the competitors do so."
Pros & Cons of Scraper API:
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Affordable prices, easy to use, good customer experience, multiple integrations
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Rare inconveniences, unfavorable payment packages (credit surplus)
Pricing;
- for the hobby package you will pay 49 dollars,
- for startup 149 dollars,
- for business 299 dollars,
- for a professional package 999 dollars,
- and if you want to customize your package you need to contact the sales team!
Features of Scraper API:
- Headless browser support: Scraper API uses headless browsers to render JavaScript and execute the client-side scripts on websites.
- Automatic IP rotation: Scraper API rotates IP addresses automatically to prevent websites from detecting and blocking scraping activities.
- Proxy support: Scraper API supports proxies, so developers can choose to use their proxy service or opt for Scraper API's built-in proxy service.
- Multiple locations: Scraper API offers multiple data center locations around the world, allowing developers to choose the location closest to their target website for faster response times.
- HTTPS encryption: Scraper API uses HTTPS encryption to ensure secure data transfer between the client and the API.
- Error handling: Scraper API has excellent error handling and reporting features, making it easy for developers to troubleshoot any issues they encounter.
3) Apify
Apify is a web scraping API and automation platform that allows developers to easily create web scrapers, automate workflows, and deploy scalable computing infrastructure in the cloud.
As you can tell from the explanation above, it's a cloud-based platform for running and scheduling scrapers, and a marketplace of pre-built scrapers.
Apify also offers automation features for tasks such as web testing, data extraction, and robotic process automation (RPA).
🔍 It provides a visual workflow editor and a library of pre-built automation components to help developers create and deploy automation workflows quickly.
"What do you best like about Apify?
I used it to scrap booking and google map , it was user-friendly and the result was perfect for what I was looking for.
I have to say it is very user-friendly compared to what I used before.
What do you dislike about Apify?
I do not dislike it, but I was looking for something to scrap, but can't find it on apify (google URLs + scrap telephone number) , and I did not find it; maybe there is a way to do it ?"
Pros & Cons of Apify:
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Good customer support, not expensive compared to other tools, no-code, open source
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Hard to learn, limited flexibility
Pricing;
- has a free plan,
- starter package starts at 49 dollars,
- scale package is 499 dollars,
- and business package is 999 dollars.
Features of Apify:
- Apify provides a wide range of features and tools to help developers overcome common web scraping challenges, including handling JavaScript-rendered pages, managing proxies, and avoiding detection and blocking by websites.
- Pre-built Scrapers! Apify offers a marketplace of pre-built scrapers, making it easy for developers to get started with web scraping projects quickly.
4) Scraping Ant
Scraping Ant is a web scraping API service that provides a range of tools and features to make web scraping easy and efficient.
It uses a headless browser approach to render dynamic content and execute
JavaScript on websites, allowing users to scrape data from JavaScript-heavy websites that are difficult to scrape using traditional methods.
🔍 Unfortunately there is not one review of Scraping Ant, yet. Maybe you will be the first one to post!
Pros and Cons of Scraping Ant:
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Customazible options, cloud-based platform, cost-effective, can be used from different locations
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Does not provide live support, hard to learn
Pricing;
- Enthusiast package 19 dollars,
- Startup 49 dollars per month,
- and for Business package you will pay 249 dollars.
Features of Scraping Ant:
- Headless Browser Support: ScrapingAnt uses headless browsers to render dynamic content and execute JavaScript on websites.
- Automatic IP Rotation: ScrapingAnt rotates IP addresses automatically to prevent websites from detecting and blocking scraping activities.
- Proxy Support: ScrapingAnt supports proxies, so users can choose to use their own proxy service or opt for ScrapingAnt's built-in proxy service.
- HTTPS Encryption: ScrapingAnt uses HTTPS encryption to ensure secure data transfer between the client and the API.
- Pre-built Scrapers: ScrapingAnt provides pre-built scrapers for popular websites, making it easy for users to get started with web scraping projects quickly.
5) Octoparse
Octoparse is a web scraping api software that enables users to extract data from websites without any coding skills.
Octoparse supports various web data extraction techniques such as pagination, AJAX handling, and more.
It can extract various types of data including text, images, links, and more. It also allows users to schedule and automate the scraping process for repetitive tasks.
"It's great for scraping large amounts of data from websites and exporting to spreadsheets...no coding needed. While no coding is needed, there's a bit of a learning curve. Some of the commands aren't very intuitive."
Pros and Cons of Octoparse:
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User-friendly interface, offers customazible scraping, cloud-based, integration with popular tools
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Learning curve, limited free plan, hard use with complex websites
Pricing;
- Yes! Octoparse offers free plans,
- and also yes, they have monthly packages, starting from 89 dollars,
- ending in 249 dollars.
They only have 3 packages (not including free plan); standard, professional and enterprise. For the last one you have to speak with the sales team.
Features of Octoparse:
- Automatic IP Rotation: Octoparse rotates IP addresses automatically to prevent websites from detecting and blocking scraping activities.
- Schedule and Automate Scraping Tasks: Octoparse allows users to schedule and automate the scraping process for repetitive tasks.
- Proxy Support: Octoparse supports proxy servers, allowing users to scrape data anonymously and prevent IP blocking.
- Automatic Data Recognition: Octoparse automatically recognizes and extracts data from websites with a similar structure, making it easy to scrape multiple pages with the same data format.
6) ParseHub
ParseHub is a web scraping tool that allows users to extract data from websites without any coding knowledge.
It provides a visual interface that allows users to point and click on the data they want to extract and then automatically scrape the relevant information.
"ParseHub makes the dirty work, all the things that you used to do manually to collect the information on a website, now is automatic with this solution, the best for bulk information collection.
I think ParseHub needs to be a little bit more intuivite, a little bit more more user friendly, some times the steps are redundant and you need to do everything all over again."
Pros and Cons of ParseHub:
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Easy to use, offers customazible data extraction, cloud-based, integrates with popular tools
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Slow compared to other tools, some minor bugs, limited free plan
Pricing;
Yes you heard it right, it is free to use! However if you want to use more and like to app you need to upgrade it...Well, sometimes things are too good to be true right?
- For standard 189 dollars,
- For business 599 dollars,
- and for enterprise you know the drill, you have to talk with the sales team!
Features of ParseHub:
- Regular Expression (RegEx) Support: ParseHub offers support for Regular Expression (RegEx), which is useful for extracting data from websites with complex structures.
- Schedule and Automate Scraping Tasks: ParseHub allows users to schedule and automate the scraping process for repetitive tasks.
- Live Data Preview: ParseHub provides a live data preview feature that allows users to preview the extracted data before exporting it.
- Automatic Pagination Handling: ParseHub automatically handles pagination and allows users to extract data from multiple pages of a website.
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For those of you who are newcommers, pagination is the process of dividing a large amount of content or data into smaller, more manageable chunks, known as pages.
7) Scrape.do
Dream tool for data extraction should have speed, low-cost, and reliable interface right? Well, Scrape.do has it all!
ScrapeDo is a api web scrapper tool that allows users to extract data from websites using its API, which can be integrated into their own applications or scripts.
Review on Scrape.do posted on Capterra:
Overall: BEST customer service and product in the industry. you can not go wrong with ScrapeDo
Pros: We have not found a single thing that we dont like about it yet. and the customer support is like having a member of our inhouse team there at scrapedo!! I cant say enough good things about it.
Cons: we have not found any issues that we dislike yet. and each time we have a question, we have white glove service within minutes.
Pros and Cons of Scrape.do:
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Supports multiple data formats, pricing, can handle large volumes of data, live chat options, customizable
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Technical knowledge (not easy to use), difference of support for paid and free accounts, no GUI interface
Pricing;
- Hobby package requires 29 dollars per month,
- Pro package - 99 dollars,
- and business - 249 dollars.
- For a custom package you need to speak with sales team, as always.
Features of ScrapeDo:
- Scalable web scraping: Scrape.do can handle large volumes of data and requests, making it suitable for scraping data at scale.
- Automatic IP rotation: Scrape.do offers automatic IP rotation to help avoid IP blocking and anti-scraping measures.
- JavaScript rendering: Scrape.do can render JavaScript-heavy websites, allowing for more comprehensive data extraction.
8)Beautiful Soup
Beautiful Soup is a Python library used for web scraping purposes to pull the data out of HTML and XML files.
🌍 It creates a parse tree from page source code that can be used to extract data in a hierarchical and more readable manner.
Beautiful Soup provides a few simple methods and Pythonic idioms for navigating, searching, and modifying a parse tree. It sits between a parser and a user and is used for extracting required information from HTML and XML files.
Beautiful Soup supports almost all Python parsers, including lxml, html5lib, and html.parser.
Check out freeCodeCamp.org's video on"Web Scraping with Python" to learn how to use one without spending a dime!
Pros and Cons of Beautiful Soup:
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Easy to use and learn (great support around internet), easy to exctract data, actively developed
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Doesn't have built-in functionality for fetching web pages or Java rendering, slow compared to others
Pricing;
- Yes, you guessed it. Free.
Features of Beautiful Soup:
- Parsing HTML and XML: Beautiful Soup provides an easy-to-use interface for parsing HTML and XML documents.
- Navigating the parse tree: Beautiful Soup allows you to navigate the parse tree using CSS selectors, which makes it easy to find and extract the data you need.
- Data extraction: Beautiful Soup makes it easy to extract data from HTML and XML documents. You can extract text, attributes, and tags from HTML elements.
- Compatibility: Beautiful Soup works with a variety of Python parsers, including lxml, html5lib, and html.parser.
- Robustness: Beautiful Soup is designed to be robust and forgiving, so it can handle poorly formatted or invalid HTML and XML documents.
- Extensibility: Beautiful Soup is highly extensible and can be customized to meet your specific needs.
🔍 Beautiful Soup is not a web scraping API tool, so it may not be appropriate to include it in a blog post specifically focused on web scraping APIs. However, Beautiful Soup can be used as part of a web scraping system that includes API tools. For our tech savy readers, this maybe "the" tool they need.
9) Xtract.io
Xtract.io is a web scraping tool that allows users to extract data from web pages using a simple point-and-click interface.
It uses machine learning algorithms to automatically detect patterns and extract data from HTML and PDF documents.
Xtract.IO also provides an API for developers to integrate web scraping functionality into their own applications.
The tool is designed to be easy to use and requires no programming knowledge.
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Trusted by Nissan, University of Massachusetts, Accenture and many more, unfortunately Xtract.io does not have any customer reviews up on the internet. Maybe you will be the first one to comment.
Pros and Cons of Xtract.io:
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Cloud-based, easy to use, support for different formats, can handle large data
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Limited customization and funcionability, not cost effective
Pricing;
Xtract.io's pricing plans vary based on the number of concurrent requests and the number of records per request.
- The plans start at $99 per month for 5 concurrent requests and 50,000 records per request,
- and go up to $799 per month for 50 concurrent requests and 500,000 records per request. There is also a custom plan available for larger enterprises.
- Additionally, Xtract.IO offers a free trial plan with 500 records and 5 concurrent requests per month.
Features of Xtract.io:
- Automatic detection of patterns: Xtract.IO uses machine learning algorithms to automatically detect patterns in the data, making it easier to extract the data you need.
- Scalable: Xtract.IO can handle large-scale data extraction tasks, making it ideal for businesses and organizations that need to extract data from multiple web
10) ScrapeStack
ScrapeStack is a API web scraping service that provides a simple and easy-to-use solution for developers to extract data from websites.
It offers features such as automatic retries, proxy rotation, and JavaScript rendering to ensure that data is collected accurately and efficiently.
ScrapeStack also provides support for various programming languages such as Python, Ruby, and PHP.
Pros and Cons of ScrapeStack:
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User-friendly API, easy integration, free plan available, can handle large data
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Lack of customer support, occasional issues, limited features compared to other tools
Pricing;
Free options are available but if you want to go for more,
- Basic package requires 19.99 dollars per month,
- Professional package is 79.99 dollars,
- Business is 199.99 dollars and lastly,
- For enterprise package you should contact them to find out more!
Features of ScrapeStack:
- Proxy support: ScrapeStack provides users with access to a pool of over 20 million rotating residential and datacenter proxies to ensure reliable and efficient scraping.
- JavaScript rendering: With ScrapeStack, users can scrape dynamic websites that use JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue.js.
- Real-time data: ScrapeStack provides real-time data with an average response time of 1.5 seconds.
- GDPR-compliant: ScrapeStack is fully GDPR-compliant and ensures that all user data is kept secure and private.
- Developer tools: ScrapeStack offers a range of developer tools, including an API playground, code snippets, and SDKs to make integration and development easier.
Comparison table for curious readers:
It's important to keep in mind that the information provided in this table can change over time.
Do you own search to get more reliable data!
How to Choose the Best Scraping API Tool?
Choosing the best scraping API tool depends on your specific needs and requirements.
Here are some factors to consider when selecting a scraping API tool:
- The first step is budget management. While you may come across a tool that seems perfect, it won't be of any use to you if it's outside your price range. Therefore, it's essential to look for a tool that fits within your budget so that you can get the most value for your money.
- Try the app! Look for ease of use. If the app does not provide "how-to" explanations or if it is generally hard to use, then you are in the wrong place. If you can not use it, do not pay for it!
- Make sure the tool provides accurate and reliable data. Check user reviews and ratings to see how well the tool performs. Look into videos, expert comments, and do not forget to ask around!
- Search for tools that allow you to customize your requests and output format to fit your specific needs. Identify why you need the tool to be able to customize your approach.
- Choose a tool that offers reliable customer support. Look for tools that provide live chat, email support, and documentation to help you troubleshoot issues.
- Ensure the tool provides secure data scraping and handling to protect your data privacy and prevent any potential security breaches.
- Check the API rate limits of the tool to ensure it can handle your expected volume of requests.
For those of you trying to turn the tables and make money of off web scraping we recommend you to watch "How to make money with Web Scraping" by Cobalt Intelligence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, web scraping APIs have become an important tool for businesses and developers to extract data from websites. They offer a convenient and cost-effective way to access and analyze data from the web. When it comes to choosing the best web scraping API tool, it's important to consider factors such as the ease of use, reliability, scalability, pricing, and customer support.
From the tools discussed in the blog post, ScrapingBee, Scraper API, Apify, Scraping Ant, ScrapeStack, ParseHub, ScrapeDo, and Xtract.IO all offer robust features and functionalities for web scraping.
Each tool has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it's important to carefully evaluate your specific needs and goals before choosing the best tool for your project.
Additionally, it's worth noting that web scraping and APIs are not mutually exclusive. They can often be used in conjunction with each other to enhance data extraction and analysis capabilities.
So, while there are differences between web scraping and APIs, they can also complement each other to create a more powerful and effective data gathering solution. Read more to find out more!
FAQ Web Scraping API Tools
What are web scraping API tools?
Web scraping API tools allow you to easily and efficiently extract data from websites by using APIs. These tools can help you automate the data extraction process, and provide you with the flexibility and scalability to handle large amounts of data.
How do web scraping API tools work?
Web scraping API tools work by using APIs to access data from websites. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are a set of protocols, routines, and tools used to build software applications. They allow different applications to communicate with each other, enabling web scraping tools to access the data from websites.
What are some advantages of using web scraping API tools?
Some advantages of using web scraping API tools include:
- Faster and more efficient data extraction
- Scalability to handle large amounts of data
- Automation of the data extraction process
- Accurate and reliable data extraction
- Integration with other tools and systems
- Reduced risk of being blocked or banned by websites
What are some popular web scraping API tools?
Some popular web scraping API tools include ScrapingBee, Scraper API, Apify, Beautiful Soup, Scraping Ant, Octoparse, ScrapeStack, ParseHub, and ScrapeDo, Xtract.IO.
Are web scraping API tools legal?
The legality of web scraping depends on the website's terms of use and the laws of the country in which you are scraping the data. Some websites explicitly prohibit web scraping, while others may allow it under certain conditions. It is important to check the website's terms of use and consult with legal experts to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
How do I choose the right web scraping API tool for my needs?
When choosing a web scraping API tool, consider factors such as the features and capabilities of the tool, the pricing model, the level of customer support, and the ease of use. It is also important to consider the specific needs and requirements of your project, such as the volume and complexity of the data to be scraped.
