"What screen scraping tools do you guys actually recommend for big projects?"
Hey everyone! I'm trying to pull a ton of data from a bunch of sites, and I need something that won’t crap out after 10 minutes.
I’ve tried a few free screen scraping tools, but they’re either slow or break on dynamic sites. Any favorites for large-scale stuff?
Bonus points if it’s not crazy expensive lol.
Also, how reliable are these tools now? I remember a few years ago, half of them would fail if a site changed its layout slightly.
Thanks in advance!
For big projects, I’d totally recommend Scrapy. It’s a Python framework, so it’s super flexible and can handle large-scale scraping.
The learning curve’s a bit steep if you’re not into coding, but once you get it, it’s a beast. Plus, it plays nice with dynamic sites using Splash or Playwright.
And yeah, it’s free. No crazy costs here. Just gotta put in the time to set it up right.
Reliability? Way better than those sketchy GUI tools that break if a site sneezes.
Man, I feel you on the free tools being trash. For heavy-duty stuff, check out Apify.
It’s not dirt cheap, but it’s worth it if you’re scraping tons of data. Handles JS-heavy sites like a champ, and you can scale it up easily.
Also, their proxies are solid—way fewer bans than with random free screen scraping tools.
Downside? Pricing can sneak up on you if you’re not careful.
If you’re okay with coding, Puppeteer + Node.js is my go-to. Super reliable for dynamic content, and you can tweak it however you want.
Free? Yep. But you gotta write the scripts yourself.
Big plus: it’s maintained by Google, so updates are frequent. Less chance of breaking when sites change.
Just don’t forget to throttle your requests unless you wanna get IP-banned lol.
Honestly, for no-code options, ParseHub’s been decent for me. Not perfect, but way better than most visual screen scraping tools.
Handles AJAX and JS okay, and you can export to CSV or JSON. Pricing’s reasonable if you’re not scraping 24/7.
Reliability? Eh, it’s mid. Sometimes misses stuff, but for quick jobs, it’s fine.
Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! Scrapy and Puppeteer sound promising, but I’m kinda nervous about the coding part.
Has anyone used Apify or Octoparse for super large projects? Like, millions of pages?
Also, how do you guys handle CAPTCHAs? Do these tools have built-in solutions, or do you need extra stuff?
Appreciate the help!
Yo, Bright Data’s scraper is pricey but insane for big projects. Their proxies are top-tier, and the tool barely ever breaks.
If you’re dealing with anti-bot stuff, this is the one. Expensive AF though, so only go for it if you’re serious.
Also, their support is actually helpful—unlike some other screen scraping tools I’ve wasted time on.
For a balance of cost and power, try Octoparse. It’s got a cloud option for scaling, and the GUI is pretty intuitive.
Not as flexible as coding your own, but it’s way faster than messing with free tools that die after 10 pages.
Reliability’s decent—better than most, but still not perfect. Good for semi-automated stuff.
