how much do you know aboutweb scraping? Don't worry even if you are new to this concept. Last but not least, we present a list offree web scraping toolsfor your reference.
Index
- What is Web Scraping and how is it used?
- How to choose a web scraping tool
- 10 FREE web scraping tools in 3 types
What is Web Scraping and how is it used?
Web scraping is a way of collecting data from web pages with a scraping bot, so the whole process is done in an automated way. The technique allows people to quickly get large-scale data from the Web. Meanwhile, instruments likeregular phrase(regular phrase) enable data cleansing during the scraping process, which means that people can get clean, well-structured data in one stop.
How does web scraping work?
- First, a web scraping bot simulates the act of human browsing the website. With the destination URL entered, it sends a request to the server and retrieves the information in the HTML file.
- Then, with the HTML source code in hand, the bot can reach the node where the target data resides and parse the data as commanded in the extract code.
- Finally, (depending on how the scraping bot is configured), the scraped dataset will be cleaned up, placed in a frame, and ready to be downloaded or transferred to your database.
How to choose a web scraping tool
There are ways to gain access to web data. Even if you narrowed it down to a web scraping tool, tools that showed up in search results with all the confusing features can still make it hard to make a decision.
There are a few dimensions you can consider before choosing a web scraping tool:
- Device: If you are a Mac or Linux user, check if the tool is compatible with your system.
- cloud storage service: Cloud service is important if you want to access your data on devices at any time.
- Integration: how would you use the data later? Integration options allow for better automation of the entire data handling process.
- Training: If you don't excel at programming, look for guides and support to help you in your data collection process.
- Prices: Yes, the cost of a tool should always be considered and it varies a lot between different vendors.
10 FREE web scraping tools in 3 types
Now you might want to know which web scraping tools to choose. In this part, we have listed 10 free web scrapers based on different platforms. Some of them are desktop, so you need to download and install them, but they always have more powerful features than those based on web extensions or cloud services. The lists below are the best free or low-cost web scraping tools and would meet most scraping needs with a fair amount of data requirements.
4 Desktop-Based Web Scraping Tools
1.Octoparse- Auto detection supported
Octoparse is not only a robust web scraping tool, but also provides web scraping services for entrepreneurs and companies. In general, the free version can meet your basic scraping needs, or you can upgrade to advanced plans. Here are some key resources you can learn from.
- Device: It can be installed both on Windows and macOS, simply download and install it from the Octoparse download page.
- Data: Supports almost all types of websites for scraping, including social media, e-commerce, marketing, real estate listing, etc.
- Function:
- handle static and dynamic websites withAJAX, JavaScript, cookies, etc.
- extract data from a complex website that requires login and pagination.
- treat information that does not appear on websites by analyzing the source code.
- Use cases: As a result, you can get automatic inventory tracking, price control, and lead generation at your fingertips.
Octoparse offers different options for users with different levels of coding skills.
- Task template modeallows non-coding users to convert web pages into structured data instantly. On average, it only takes about 6.5 seconds to get data to the bottom of a page and allows you to download the data to Excel. verifywhich models are the most popular.
- advanced modeit has more flexibility. This allows users to configure and edit the workflow with more options. Advanced mode is used to collect more complex websites with a large amount of data.
- the newauto detectionfeature allows you to create a tracker with one click. If you're not happy with the automatically generated data fields, you can always customize the extract task to allow it to scrape the data for you.
- Ocloud servicesIt allows for large data mining in a short time as multiple cloud servers are running simultaneously for one task. furthermore, thecloud storage serviceIt will allow you to store and retrieve the data at any time.
2.decay
Scraping Bot is a great tool for web developers who need to extract data from a URL, it works particularly well on product pages where it collects everything you need to know (image, product title, product price, product description, stock, etc.). shipping costs, etc.). It's a great tool for anyone who needs to collect business data or simply aggregate product data and keep it accurate.
ScrapingBot also offers several specialized APIs in various fields such as real estate, Google search results or data collection on social networks (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok).
- Characteristics:
- headless chrome
- Response time
- Simultaneous requests
- Allows large mass scraping needs
- Precio:Free to try with 100 credits each month. Then the first package at €39, €99, €299 and then €699 per month. You can test it live by pasting a URL and getting the results right away to see if it works.
3.ParseHub
Parsehub is a web scraper that collects data from websites using AJAX, JavaScript, cookie, etc. technologies. Parsehub leverages machine learning technology that can read, analyze, and transform web documents into relevant data.
- Device: Parsehub desktop application is compatible with systems like Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, or you can use the browser extension to get instant scraping.
- Prices: It's not completely free, but you can still set up to five scraping tasks for free. The paid subscription plan allows you to set up at least 20 private projects.
- Tutorial: There are many tutorials on Parsehub and you can learn more on the home page.
4.Import.io
Import.io is a SaaS web data integration software. It provides a visual environment for end users to design and customize data collection workflows. It covers the entire web extraction lifecycle, from data extraction to analysis on one platform. And it can also be easily integrated into other systems.
- Function: Large-scale data extraction, capture of photos and PDF files in a workable format.
- Integration: integration with data analysis tools.
- Prices: the price of the service is only presented after consultation on a case-by-case basis.
Top 4 Web Scraping Plugins and Extensions
1.Data Scraper (Chrome)
Data Scraper can extract data from tables and list type data from a single web page. Your free plan should satisfy the simplest scraping with a small amount of data. The paid plan has more features like APIs and many anonymous IP proxies. You can get a large volume of data in real time faster. You can scrape up to 500 pages per month, you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
2.Webscraper.io
The web scraper has a chrome extension and a cloud extension. For the Chrome extension version, you can create a sitemap (blueprint) of how a site should be navigated and what data should be discarded. The cloud extension can collect large amounts of data and run multiple capture tasks simultaneously. You can export the data in CSV or store the data in Couch DB.
3.Scraper (chrome)
Scraper is another easy-to-use screen scraper that can easily extract data from an online table and upload the result to Google Docs. Just select some text in a table or list, right-click on the selected text and choose "Scratch Similar" from the browser menu. Then it will get the data and extract other content by adding new columns using XPath or JQuery. This tool is intended for intermediate to advanced users who can typeXPathName.
4.Scam Center (Firefox)
The Outwit hub is a Firefox extension and can be easily downloaded from the Firefox add-on store. Once installed and activated, you can extract content from websites instantly.
- Function: Has great "Quick Scrape" features that quickly extract data from a list of URLs you provide. Extracting data from websites using the Outwit hub requires no programming knowledge.
- Training: The scraping process is quite easy to learn. Users can refer to its guides to start web scraping using the tool.
Outwit Hub also offers bespoke scraping services.
2 web-based scraping applications
1.Dexi.io (aka cloud scraping)
Dexi.io is intended for advanced users who have proficient programming skills. It has three types of robots for you to create a scraping task: Extractor, Crawler, and Pipes. It provides several tools that allow you to extract the data with greater precision. With its modern feature, you will be able to get closer to the details on any website. Without programming knowledge, you may need to get used to it before creating a web scraping bot. See the home page for more information on the knowledge base.
Freeware provides anonymous web proxy servers for web scraping. The extracted data will be hosted on Dexi.io's servers for two weeks before being archived, or you can directly export the extracted data to JSON or CSV files. It offers paid services to meet your real-time data acquisition needs.
2.webhose.io
Webhose.io allows you to get real-time data by copying online sources from all over the world in various clean formats. You can even collect information on the dark web. This web scraper allows you to scrape data in multiple languages using various filters and export copied data in XML, JSON and RSS formats. Freeware offers a free subscription plan for you to make 1000solicitudes httpper month and paid subscription plans to make more HTTP requests per month to meet your web scraping needs.
Now, you can get exact ideas on how to choose the right free web scraping tools. Select the one that best suits your needs based on supported platforms, extracted data types, free and higher plans, etc.
Related Resources
Top 10 open source web scrapers
The best web scraper for Mac
9 Web Scraping challenges you should know
Web Scraping 101: 10 Myths Everyone Should Know