Trying to harvest data manually can be time and energy-consuming. This is true for all forms of web data extraction, be it web scraping, web crawling, or HTML scraping. From obtaining data in a usable form to rendering JavaScript, correctly parsing a source to getting the correct page source, there is always so much a growth hacker should do.
Thankfully, so many automated tools have been built to help make web data extraction processes less stressful for users. There are numerous different tools designed to match the different needs of users. We have compiled a list of 10 of the best web scraping tools. From free scraping tools to paid ones, you should find the one that suits your needs below.
Before we talk about them, however, let us look at the meaning of web scraping, how it’s done, and how it can be of help to businesses and growth hackers.
What is web scraping?
Any automated process that involves extracting large data from websites is known as web scraping. Also referred to as web data extraction or web harvesting, web scraping is done using tools and software that enable users download data into a structured XML, Excel, or CSV format; saving time that would have otherwise been spent manually copy-pasting data.
How does web scraping work?
For web scraping to work, a program, software, or website called ‘A Scraper’ must be used. This scraper will be used to send a GET request to the website where data will be extracted from.
Thanks to this request, the scraper then receives an HTML document for analyzing, before making a search for the necessary data, and converting it to the required format. Web scraping can be done using two different techniques; the first one is through a web crawler or bot, and the other is through a web browser or HTTP.
Important uses of web scraping
Web scraping plays a major role in the marketing, finance, and e-commerce industries. Web scraping and web crawling processes are now so important in today’s world because businesses and growth hackers need to always gather data from the internet.
Growth hackers use web scraping to gather the contact information of leads in no time, as well as find out what customers are saying about their services, products, brands, and those of their competitors.
Businesses and firms also use web scraping to gather information about competitors’ price changes, campaigns or promotions, so they can react quickly and adjust their prices or operations if need be.
The Top 10 Best Data Scraping Tools
1. 80 Legs
This is a Web Crawler as a Service (WCaaS) tool. With 80 Legs, users can perform cloud crawls without stressing their machines. Developers have their tasks made easier with this tool, thanks to easy-to-use APIs. Large enterprises would absolutely love this tool as it can crawl up to 10,000,000 URLs per month.
80 Legs also comes with a unique feature called the ‘Datafiniti’. It is a feature that allows users to enjoy a database of properly structured web data for unique data types like properties, businesses, and products.
How it works: All you need to do is enter the URLs or websites you want to crawl on the 80 Legs application, run the web crawl, and download your results.
Pricing: Users can actually enjoy unlimited crawls per month for free, running one crawl at a time. To run up to five crawls at a time, users would have to pay around $299 per month though. There are also $29 and $99 per month packages available.
Website Link: https://80legs.com/
2. Selenium
If your budget is tight and you want a free web scraping tool, Selenium is what you need. Plus, this tool is available in numerous languages like Python, JavaScript, Java, and PHP, as well as different operating systems, so you won’t be lacking for options.
With Selenium, you do not only have to scrape the web. You can also use the tool for web automation and web testing.
How it works: On the Selenium, a space is provided for you to enter the websites and URLs you would like to scrape from. Thanks to a Firefox or Chrome extension, your data will be extracted and saved for you.
Pricing: The Selenium tool is absolutely free. Occasional donations can be made on their website, but it is voluntary. Unlike the other tools on this list, Selenium could be slow, but hey, it does the job, and is free.
Website Link: https://www.selenium.dev/
3. Common Crawl
This tool is unlike any on this list. Common Crawl has already made provisions for a collection of data extracted from several websites. So, if a user finds the data of a website or URL he or she has been wanting to extract, all the user needs to do is download and enjoy.
To access and analyze the dataset on this website, a user can use Python and Apache Spark on their laptop or computers. Common Crawl is run by a non-profit organization, so web scraping is free.
How it works
Common Crawl has a huge collection of data running in petabytes. The website started gathering this data since 2008, with text extractions, extracted metadata, and raw web page data making up this collection. Growth hackers should find what they need here. When you do, simply download and enjoy it.
Pricing: Another free tool on the list, users are encouraged to donate the Common Crawl cause if they enjoy using the tool.
Website Link: http://commoncrawl.org/
4. Fminer
One of the easiest tools to use on this list, this software can be used for web scraping, web crawling, web harvesting, and data extraction. FMiner is great for developers and startups thanks to the fact it is available for both Mac systems and Windows.
FMiner helps users execute form inputs when they scrape the web and is great with Web 2.0 AJAX heavy sites. Its multi-browser crawling capability is also an extractive feature for big companies especially.
How it works
Like we’ve said, FMiner is a really easy tool to use. There are instructions and videos on the site for first-timers. FMiner also builds customized scraping tools for users for an affordable rate of $99 per project.
Pricing: FMiners is not free. Its basic package costs around $168, with packages costing up to $1596 depending on the features you want. However, if there’s one tool on this list worth the price, it is FMiner.
Website Link: http://www.fminer.com/
5. Screaming Frog
ScreamingFrog is a web crawler for Ubuntu, Mac, and Windows Operating systems. With this software, growth hackers can crawl web URLs for onsite SEO and technical audit analysis, with an ability to analyze results in real-time. There is no more efficient web crawler on this list for small and very large websites.
SEO agencies and experts will absolutely love the ScreamingFrog, thanks to its ability to run on any local machine, its amazing features, and its affordability. The only problem with this software is that it can be slow during large scale scraping.
How it works:
To use ScreamingFrog, all you need to do is download the software from the website, open and click ‘configuration’, select ‘custom’, and then click ‘extraction’. Now, select CSS path, XPath, or Regex for scraping, input your Syntax, and then crawl the website. Scraped data can be viewed under the custom extraction tab.
Pricing: ScreamingFrog offers users free and paid versions. With the free version, users can crawl up to 500 URLs, however, features such as custom extraction, Google Analytics integration, unlimited crawl limit, and free technical support can only be enjoyed for a one-time cost of £149.00 Per Year.
Website Link: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/
6. Frontera
Another web crawling tool on this list, Frontera helps users and growth hackers customize crawlers of any size or functionality. It comes with components that enable the development of a fully-functional web crawler with Scrapy.
The Frontera web crawler tool was originally built for Scrapy but can be used with other crawling systems.
How it works
All you need to do is install Frontera from the link below, create your own crawling strategies, integrate the software with Scrapy or any other system, and start to extract data.
Pricing: This tool can be downloaded for free.
Website Link: https://frontera.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
7. Zenscrape
Zenscrape is an incredible free API that can be used to extract large amounts of data online. The software is fast, easy to use, and comes with features that help growth hackers scrape data from websites with stress or struggle.
Zenscrape’s API executes requests in modern headless Chrome browsers. This way, websites are rendered using JavaScript just in the same way real browsers complete the rendering, ensuring you retrieve what everyday users see.
How it works
To scrape data, all you need to do is insert the URL of the website on Zenscrape.com, click proceed and wait. There are tutorials on how to extract large data on the Zenscrape website.
Pricing: There are different packages to suit different growth hacker needs. The free package can scrape 1000 URLs in a month, while the paid packages which range from $8.99 per year to $199.99 per year allows users to do more.
Website Link: https://zenscrape.com/
8. PJ Scrape
This is a web scraping system written in Python with the help of JQuery and JavaScript. The PJScrape was developed to run with PhantomJS, so it enables growth hackers to scrape pages in a Javascript-enhanced context from the command line.
PJScrape doesn’t need a browser to run, as its functions are evaluated in a full browser context.
How it works
To run the PJScraper, open pjs.addScraper/ url or array of urls. Include its function, your returning text, an object, and then run via page.evaluate() function() { return $(‘h1’).first().text() } )
Pricing: PJScrape can be downloaded and installed for free.
Website Link: https://github.com/nrabinowitz/pjscrape
9. Scrape Hero Cloud
This web scraping browser comes with easy to use, affordable, and efficient APIs and pre-built crawlers that can be used to scrape data from websites like Walmart, Google, and Amazon.
With ScrapeHero Cloud, a growth hacker doesn’t require expert knowledge and never has to download any software or tool. Many of the world’s largest companies use ScrapeHero every day to transform billions of web pages into actionable data.
How it works
ScrapeHero Cloud works in three easy steps. First of all, users have to create an account on the ScrapeHero Cloud website, choose a crawler you want to run, and then run the crawler by providing inputs and clicking ‘Gather Data’.
Pricing: There is a free trial version of ScrapeHero Cloud that allows you to test run the scraper for its reliability and speed before selecting a package of your choice. Packages range from $50 to $5000 per month depending on the number of sites you are scraping, number of pages, and site complexity.
Website Link: https://www.scrapehero.com/
10. Parsers
Parsers.me is a versatile tool that growth hackers will love. It is designed to extract web resources like URLs, images, tables, single data, directories, and JavaScript. Deployed as a Chrome extension, parsers.me uses machine learning techniques to retrieve information, without specifying elaborate settings.
Growth hackers can also view scraping history, schedule the start of scraping, and generate charts with analyzed data using parsers.me
How it works
Parsers.me automatically scrape data for you after you have selected the necessary information you will like scraped from your target site.
Pricing: Parsers can be enjoyed for free, although users get restricted to only 1000 page scrape credits per month. To enjoy more features, users can opt for packages ranging from $19.99 to $199 per month.
Website Link: https://parsers.me/
Wrapping up
There you have it. Our list of 10 of the top web scraping tools every growth hacker or business would enjoy. Using any of these tools and software we’ve listed, you can convert any unorganized data gotten from the web into a more organized format that can be used by other applications.
Every tool or software listed here has been tested, and will surely improve business outcomes and help growth hackers make informed decisions.
