"Has anyone tried crawlee for web scraping? How does it stack up against stuff like Puppeteer or Scrapy?"
Hey folks!
I’ve been messing around with crawlee for a bit, and it’s pretty solid for Node.js scraping. But I’m curious—how does it *really* compare to the big boys like Puppeteer or Scrapy?
Like, is it faster? Easier to scale? Or does it just give up when you throw a ton of pages at it?
Also, the docs are decent, but I wanna hear real-world takes. Anyone run into weird quirks or gotchas?
(And yeah, I know Playwright’s a thing too—how’s crawlee for dynamic content vs that?)
Spill the tea, pls. 🍵
Man, I love crawlee for quick projects. Puppeteer feels like overkill sometimes, and Scrapy’s Python—not my jam.
Crawlee’s got this nice balance—easy to set up, decent for JS-heavy sites, and the error handling’s way less painful.
But yeah, if you’re doing heavy-duty scraping, it might choke. Playwright’s still king for *really* dynamic stuff.
Pro tip: Pair crawlee with Cheerio for static sites. Blazing fast.
Crawlee’s cool, but it’s not a total replacement. Puppeteer’s got more community support, so you’ll find fixes faster when things break.
That said, crawlee’s proxy management is *chef’s kiss*. Saved me so much time vs. rolling my own with Puppeteer.
For scaling? It’s fine, but Scrapy’s still the GOAT for big jobs.
Weird quirk: The autosaved sessions can get messy if you’re not careful. Clean ’em up regularly.
Used crawlee for a client project last month. It’s *good*, but not perfect.
Pros:
- Super easy to get running.
- Handles anti-bot stuff better than Puppeteer.
Cons:
- Memory usage spikes on big crawls.
- Playwright’s still better for super interactive sites.
If you’re already in Node.js land, it’s worth a shot. Otherwise, Scrapy’s probably safer.
Wow, didn’t expect so many takes!
The proxy stuff in crawlee sounds clutch—gonna test that this week.
Anyone tried it with Cloudflare-heavy sites? Playwright usually wins there, but if crawlee can handle it, I’m sold.
Also, good call on the storage system. Puppeteer’s file management is a mess.
Thanks y’all! 🚀
Crawlee’s my go-to for mid-sized scrapes. It’s like Puppeteer but with less boilerplate.
The big win? The storage system. No more juggling JSON files—it’s all built in.
But yeah, docs are a bit thin. Had to dig through GitHub issues a few times.
For dynamic content, it’s *okay*, but Playwright’s got more tricks.
Honestly, crawlee’s underrated. It’s not as fast as Scrapy, but for Node.js? It’s the best balance of power and ease.
The request queue is a game-changer—no more rate limit headaches.
Downside? Steeper learning curve than Puppeteer if you’re new to scraping.
Try it on a small project first. You might ditch Puppeteer for good.
