Top Web Scraping Companies



Get Your Business Much Needed Data! Learn more about ‘What is web scraping‘ and how it can help your business. Whether your business is looking to scrape data for sales/marketing efforts, research, or competitive analysis. We believe data mining and extraction is a vital tool which is often under-utilised by most businesses today. ScrapeHero Cloud is a browser based web scraping platform. ScrapeHero has used its years of experience in web crawling to create affordable and easy to use pre-built crawlers and APIs to scrape data from websites such as Amazon, Google, Walmart, and more. Apr 06, 2020 What is web scraping? In a simple word, Web scraping is the act of exporting the unstructured data from different websites and storing it in the structured one in the spreadsheet or database. These web scraping can be done in either manual way or automatic way.

10.00-10.30 Application: scraping web data in table format 10.30-11.00 Challenge 1: scraping tables from Wikipedia 11.00-11.30 Break 11.15-12.00 Application: scraping web data in unstructured format using rvest and RSelenium 12.15-13.00 Challenge 2: scraping a newspaper website.

Web scraping is the solution for collecting the enormous amount of data over the web. Most businesses today need data and they need this data to be regularly collected or updated. But it’s impossible to manually collect data because the web is huge and more information is added on a daily basis. That’s where data scraping can help your business. Data scraping, web crawling or data extraction all refer to the collection of industry or topic related data on the web for many sectors including e-commerce, market research, human resources, finance, and real estate.

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Machine learning has been transforming many industries for the last several decades. Think about self-driving cars or intelligent smartphones. Combined together, machine learning and data scraping are going to create a revolutionary innovation for the world of data. Data scraping has got quite popular during recent years with the increasing number of information. So if you want to extract data from a website, you need to either work with data scraping service or use a scraping tool. In the future, machine learning might make the data extraction process even easier and faster. However, today you will have to choose between the two options mentioned above. In this post, we’ll reveal the best data scraping companies of 2019 and describe their advantages.

Top 5 Web Scraping Companies

DataHen offers full advanced web crawling, scraping and data extraction services to different industries and has great features which help gain a competitive advantage. At DataHen, we offer superior service and make sure that you can lean back and relax, while your data is being scraped by our team of professional scrappers. Here are the main features and advantages of DataHen:

  • A Customized Approach – traditional data scraping techniques are limited in their capabilities and it can be hard to get customized data that corresponds to your needs. We solve such issues as we deal with difficult cases like authentication or additional coding issues, and even fill out forms.
  • No Software – software scraping solutions can be not only quite pricey but also very complicated to understand and use. At DataHen, we provide you with the service, not software. This means that you just let us know what data you need and we deliver it to you.
  • Captcha Problem Solved – CAPTCHA is a computer program that distinguishes humans from machines via challenge-response testing. Unlike most of the web scraping companies, we scrape and crawl websites that have CAPTCHA restriction.

  • Affordable Pricing – since our services are automated, the costs are thereby lower than usual. The budget won’t be a constraint if you need data because we charge for data extraction only.

  • Fast-Acting – our team is very responsive and makes sure to deliver a superior level service to the clients. If you have a question or concern regarding the work that is in progress, you will most surely get a fast response from the team.

DataHen extracts data for you and most importantly, it delivers the data in the format that suits your needs the most. So you get your raw data in the format you need, such as CSV format, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, a PDF file or a JPEG. We can present your data in these formats or any other format that is preferred by you. The format in which you will get the data is very important for the further analysis of the information, so it’s important to get the data in a specific organized form. At DataHen, we scrape texts, images or any other files of your choice and needs. Also, we scrape different industries, including retail,pharmaceutical, automotive,finance, mortgage and many other industry-specific websites. We have scraped over a billion pages last year.

Scraper is a chrome extension that can extract data from websites and put into spreadsheets. It’s very simple to use when it comes to web page data extraction. However, although scraper is a simple data scraping tool, it is limited in terms of how much and what websites it can scrape. It will help you facilitate the online research process when you need to get data quickly and in a nicely formatted spreadsheet. Scraper is intended as an easy-to-use tool for users of different levels who feel comfortable with working with XPath.

Octoparse is another web scraping company that makes data mining process easy for all. You don’t need any special knowledge of coding to scrape pages with Octoparse. On their website, you can find a step-by-step guide that will teach you how to use Octoparse scraper. You will also find information on the modes to scrape, different ways to get data, and how to extract and download data on your device. Octoparse offers automated scraping with the following features:

  • Cloud Service – the Cloud Service offers unlimited storage for the data you scrape. You can scrape and access data on Octoparse cloud platform for 24/7.
  • Scheduled Scraping – since the process of scraping is automated, Octoparse offers you a solution to schedule crawling for a specific time. Tasks can be scheduled to scrape at any specific time, such as weekly, daily or even hourly.

  • IP Rotation – automatic IP rotation helps prevent IP blocking. Anonymous scraping minimizes the chances of getting traced and blocked.

  • Downloads – you can download scraped data in different formats, such as CSV, Microsoft Excel, API or you can choose to save it to the cloud databases.

Datahut is a cloud-based web scraping platform that aims to make the data scraping process easy. You don’t need servers, coding or expensive software. Datahut wants to help businesses grow by dealing with the chaos of data on the web by offering a simple way to extract data from websites. The work process goes in the following steps:

  • The company, first of all, gets to know the client to understand the needs and wants, in order to conduct a feasibility analysis and design a solution that works best for the client.
  • Based on the complexity of the source website and extraction volume, you decide on the pricing and the company sends you a payable invoice.
  • The company then creates an account for you in the customer support portal for further communication with data mining engineers and customer support managers.
  • After the approval of the sample data for you, a full data crawl is conducted and sent to the quality assurance tool to make sure that there are no faulty data.
  • The data is then delivered to you in your preferred source like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Box, FTP upload or via a custom API.
  • Customers get free maintenance of the data scrapers as part of the subscription. So if the client needs data on a recurring basis, they can schedule it on the platform and data will be gathered and shared automatically.

PromptCloud is doing web data extraction using cloud computing technologies that focus on helping enterprises acquire large scale structured data from all over the web.

Currently, the main industries that they scrape include travel, finance, health-care, marketing, analytics and more. The main features of PromtCloud include:

  • Customer Data Extraction – data extraction solution that delivers web data exactly the way a customer wants and needs, and at the desired frequency via the most preferred delivery channel.
  • Hosted Indexing – aims at indexing crawled data to focus only on the relevant datasets by using a logical combination in queries.
  • Live Crawls – crawling that’s done in real-time to deliver fresh data via search API.
  • DataStock – allows you to download clean and ready-to-use pre-crawled data sets available for a wide range of industries.
  • JobsPikr – a job data extraction that uses machine learning techniques to intelligently crawl job data from the web.

Data Scraping Services vs Tools

We’ve looked through the best data scraping companies of 2019, but how to choose the one that suits your needs the best? Well, firstly, you need to choose between a web scraping tool and a web scraping service. They have their advantages and disadvantages, so we’ll consider both.

Web Scraping Tools

Web scraping tools should be your top choice if you need data to support a small scale project. Also, they are great especially if you are on a tight budget. However, they are less scalable and viable. So if you need to conduct comprehensive monitoring of a larger amount of information for your enterprise, then the power of tools can be quite limited. Yet, there are many different scraping tools out there with functionality and pricing varying vastly. Most of them offer free trial periods. You can try the free demo to check if the tool fits your needs before subscribing to the paid version.

The main problem with this method is that the extracted data might not be ready to be used for your business needs immediately. Most of the scraping tools operate on objective-focused algorithms by crawling raw data from a given website without refining the information for immediate usage. So be ready to spend extra time to manage the lists of scraped data and arrange the massive amount of information.

Web Scraping Services

Web scraping service providers, also known as DaaS (data as a service) companies provide you with clean, accurate and structured data once you purchase the service.

Web crawling services use advanced scraping techniques to eliminate the risk of missing out the data from complex-coded web pages such as websites coded with Ajax, JavaScript or other complex programming languages. They also provide full coverage of Internet sources, while using a tool, you’ll need to pay for a tool upgrade to access new sources or features. DaaS companies should be your best choice for large-scale operations, such as financial analysis, brand and media monitoring, lead generation and more.

The Advantages of Outsourcing Data Scraping

Businesses are always in a hunt for big chunks of raw data. Getting valuable data via web scraping is a long and time-consuming process. The long and tiring data crawling and hunt for information ends once a company outsources data scraping to a service. Working with a reputable and professional data mining company is the solution for your data needs. Such companies will provide you with accurate and clean data from all over the web. They are not limited in terms of the number of web pages they scrape all over the internet and are able to extract information from websites with Captcha restrictions.

If you need to extract a large amount of data for a big project, web scraping services offer significant advantages over web scraping tools in terms of cost-efficiency, scalability, and a relatively short time-frame. Tools are less expensive, but they are limited in terms of what and how much they can scrape. While some advanced tools provide custom extraction and parsing, these features usually imply a higher pricing model. And this affects the overall cost-effectiveness of scraping tools. So if you’re undertaking a large project, you should consider working with a web scraping service for the overall effectiveness of the data you’ll get in the end.

Having your data provided by a professional service saves you precious time so that you can focus on your daily tasks and business growth. Outsourcing will enable your company to focus on the core business operations, thus improve the overall productivity. It helps businesses in managing data effectively, thereby helping achieve and generate more profits. So make a wise decision for your business’s future growth and choose a professional web scraping service, which will handle all the data work for you!

Sometimes you need to extract data from different websites as quickly as possible. So how would you do this without going to each website manually? Is there any services available online which simply get you the data you want in the structured form.

The answer is yes there are tons of python web scraping services providers in the market. This article sheds light on some of the well-known web scraping providers which are actually masters in data export services.

What is web scraping?

In a simple word, Web scraping is the act of exporting the unstructured data from different websites and storing it in the structured one in the spreadsheet or database. These web scraping can be done in either manual way or automatic way.

However manual processes like write python code for extracting data from different websites can be hectic and lengthy for the developers. We will talk about the automatic method accessing websites data API or data extraction tools used to export a large amount of the data.

Manual method for the web scraping follows several steps as,

  • Visual Inspection: Find out what to extract
  • HTTP request to the web page
  • Parse the HTTP response
  • Utilize the relevant data

Web Scraping Tutorial

Now find out how easy to extract web data using the cloud-based web scraping providers. The steps are,

  • Enter the website url, you’d like to extract data from
  • Click on the target data to extract
  • Run the extraction and get data

Why web scraping using the cloud platform?

Web scraping cloud platforms are making web data extraction easy and accessible for everyone. One can execute multiple concurrent extractions 24/7 with faster scraping speed. One can schedule scraping frequency to extract data at any time at any frequency. These platforms actually minimize the chances of being blocked or traced by providing service as anonymous IP rotation. Anyone who knows how to browse can extract data from dynamic websites and no need for programming knowledge.

Cloud-based web scraping providers

1.) Webscraper.io

Webscraper.io is an online platform that makes web data extraction easy and accessible to everyone. One can download webscraper.io chrome extension to deploy scrapers built and tested. It also allows users to easily trace their sitemaps and shows where data should be traveled and extracted. One of the major advantages of using webscraper.io is Data can be directly written in CouchDB and CSV files can be downloaded.

Data export

  • CSV or CouchDB

Pricing

  • Browser Extension for local use only is completely Free which includes dynamic website scraping, Javascript execution, CSV support, and community support.
  • Other charges based on the number of the pages scraped and each page will deduct one cloud credit from your balance which will be called cloud credits.
  • 5000 cloud credits – $50/Month
  • 20000 cloud credits – $100/Month
  • 50000 cloud credits – $200/Month
  • Unlimited cloud credits – $300/Month

Pros

  • One can learn easily from the tutorial videos and learn easily.
  • Javascript Heavy websites supported
  • Browser extension is open source, so no worries about if vendors shutdown their services.

Cons

  • Large-scale scrapers are not suggested, especially when you need to scrape thousands of pages, as it’s based on chrome extension.
  • IP Rotation and external proxies not supported.
  • Forms and inputs can not be filled.

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2.) Scrapy Cloud

Scrapy Cloud is a cloud based service, where you can easily build and deploy scrapers using the scrapy framework. Your spiders can run on the cloud and scale on demand, from thousands to billions of pages. Your spiders can run, monitor and control your crawler using an easy to use web interface.

Data export

  • Scrapy Cloud APIs
  • ItemPipelines can be used to write to any database or location.
  • File Formats – JSON,CSV,XML

Pricing

  • Scrapy Cloud provides a flexible pricing approach which only pays for as much capacity as you need.
  • Provides two packages as Starter and Professional.
  • Starter Package is Free for everyone, which is ideal for small projects.
  • Starter Package has some limitations as one can use 1 hour crawl time, 1 concurrent crawl, 7 day data retention.
  • Professional package is best for companies and developers which have unlimited access for crawl runtime and concurrent crawls, 120 days of data retention, personalized support.
  • Professional package will cost $9 per Unit per Month.

Pros

  • The most popular cloud based web scraping framework- One can deploy a Scraper built using Scrapy using cloud service.
  • Unlimited pages per crawl
  • On demand scaling
  • It provides easy integration for Crawlera, Splash, Spidermoon, etc.
  • QA tools for built in spider monitoring, logging and data.
  • Highly customizable as it is Scrapy
  • For large scale scraping it is useful.
  • All sorts of logs are available with a decent user interface.
  • Lots of useful add ons available.

Cons

  • Coding is required for scrapers
  • No Point and click utility

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3.) Octoparse

Octoparse offers a cloud based platform for all users who want to perform web scraping using the octoparse desktop application. Non coders also can scrape data and turn their web pages into structured spreadsheets using this platform.

Data export

  • Databases: MYSQL, SQL Server, ORACLE
  • File Formats: HTML, XLS, CSV and JSON
  • Octoparse API

Pricing

  • Octopars provides a flexible pricing approach with plan range from Free, Standard Plan, Professional Plan, Enterprise Plan, Data services plan and standard plan.
  • Free plan offers unlimited pages per crawl, 10000 records per export, 2 concurrent local runs, 10 crawlers and many more.
  • $75/Month when billed annually, and $89 when billed monthly, Most popular plan is a standard plan for small teams, which offers 100 crawlers, Scheduled Extractions, Average speed extractions, Auto API rotation API access, Email support and many more.
  • $209/Month when billed annually, and $249 when billed monthly, Professional plan for middle sized businesses. This plan provides 250 crawlers, 20 concurrent cloud extractions, Task Templates, Advanced API, Free task review, 1 on 1 training, and many more.

Pros

  • No Programming is required
  • For heavy websites, it supports Javascript.
  • If you don’t need much scalability, it supports 10 scapers in your local PC.
  • Supports Point and click tool
  • Automatic IP rotation in every task

Cons

  • Vendor Lock in is actually disadvantageous so users can’t export scapers to any other platform.
  • As per Octoparse, API functionality is limited.
  • Octoparse is not supported in MAC/Linux, only windows based app.

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4.) Parsehub

Parsehub is a free and powerful web scraping tool. It lets users build web scrapers to crawl multiple websites with the support of AJAX, cookies, Javascript, sessions using desktop applications and deploy them to their cloud service.

Data export

  • Integrates with Google Sheets and Tableau
  • Parsehub API
  • File Formats – CSV, JSON

Pricing

  • The pricing for Parsehub is a little bit confusing as it is based on speed limit, number of pages crawled, and total number of scrapers you have.
  • It comes with a plan such as Free, Standard, Professional and Enterprise.
  • Free plan, you can get 200 pages of data in only 40 minutes.
  • Standard Plan, You can buy it $149 per month and it provides 200 pages of data in only 10 minutes.
  • Professional Plan, You can buy it $449 per month and it provides 200 pages of data in only 2 minutes.
  • Enterprise Plan, You need to contact Parsehub to get a quotation.

Pros

  • Supports Javascript for heavy websites
  • No Programming Skills are required
  • Desktop application works in Windows, Mac, and Linux
  • Includes Automatic IP Rotation

Cons

  • Vendor Lock in is actually disadvantageous so users can’t export scapers to any other platform.
  • User can not write directly to any database

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5.) Dexi.io

Dexi.io is a leading enterprise-level web scraping service provider. It lets you host, develop and schedule scrapers like other service providers. Users can access Dexi.io from its web-based application.

Top Web Scraping Companies In Ind

Data export

  • Add ons can be used to write to most databases
  • Many cloud services can be integrated
  • Dexi API
  • File Formats – CSV, JSON, XML

Pricing

  • Dexi provides a simple pricing structure. Users can pay for using a number of concurrent jobs and access to external integrations.
  • Standard Plan, $119/month for 1 concurrent Job.
  • Professional Plan $399/month for 3 concurrent jobs.
  • Corporate Plan, $699/month for 6 concurrent jobs.
  • Enterprise Plan, contact Dexi.io to get a quotation.

Pros

  • Provides many integrations including ETL, Visualization tools, storage etc.
  • Web based application and click utility

Cons

  • Vendor Lock in is actually disadvantageous so users can only run scrapers in their cloud platform.
  • High price for multiple integration support
  • Higher learning curve
  • Web based UI for setting up scrapers is very slow

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6.) Diffbot

Diffbot provides awesome services that help configuration of crawlers that can go in the website index and process using its automatic APIs from different web content. It also allows a custom Extractor option that is also available if users do not want to use automatic APIs.

Data export

  • Integrates with many cloud services through Zapier
  • Cannot write directly to databases
  • File Formats – CSV, JSON, Excel
  • Diffbot APIs

Pricing

  • Price is based on number of API calls, data retention, and speed of API calls.
  • Free Trial, It allows user up to 10000 monthly credits
  • Startup Plan, $299/month, It allows user up to 250000 monthly credits
  • Startup Plan, $899/month, It allows user up to 1000000 monthly credits
  • Custom Pricing, you need to contact Diffbot to get a quotation.

Top Web Scraping Companies 2019

Pros

  • Do not need much setup as it provides Automatic APIs
  • The custom API creation is also easy to set up and use
  • For First two plans, No IP rotation

Cons

  • Vendor Lock in is actually disadvantageous so users can only run scrapers in their cloud platform.
  • Expensive plans

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Top Web Scraping Companies In Bangalore

7.) Import.io

With Import.io, users can transform, clean and visualize the data. Users can also develop scraper using click interface and web-based points.

Data export

  • Integrates with many cloud services
  • File Formats – CSV, JSON, Google Sheets
  • Import.io APIs ( Premium Feature )

Pricing

  • Pricing is based on number of pages crawled, access to number of integrations and features.
  • Import.io free, limited to 1000 URL queries per month.
  • Import.io premium, you need to contact Import.io to get a quotation.

Pros

  • Allows automatic data extraction
  • Premium package supports transformations, extractions and visualizations.
  • Has a lot of integration and value added services

Cons

  • Vendor Lock in is actually disadvantageous so users can only run scrapers in their environment platform.
  • Premium feature is the most expensive of all providers.

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Summary

In this blog we learned about different web scraping services providers, services, pricing models, etc. So what is a web crawler? A web crawler or spider is a type of automated machine that’s operated by search engines to index the website’s data. This website’s data is typically organized in an index or a database.

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