Is Free Scraping Really Free? What Are the Hidden Costs? or How Reliable Is Free Scraping for Data Co

Wow, didn’t expect so many replies! You guys nailed it—free scraping is *not* free when you factor in time and headaches.

Tried ScraperAPI’s free tier like someone suggested, and it’s way smoother than my janky scripts. Still hitting some CAPTCHAs though—any tricks for that besides slowing down?

Also, who’s actually gotten a legal warning from scraping? Curious how common that is.