Data is oil, something you must have read a ton of times by now. But why is it considered the oil of modern times, and more importantly, how do we collect it?

As oil powers the world, data powers technology, and as we progress more in modern technology, data will become an irreplaceable commodity. Thus, companies have been heavily using different tools for collecting data, have you? If not, don’t worry; we have you covered! Together, let’s explore this world of data scraping and become an oil collector.

What is Data Scraping?

It is a method of collecting data from the internet. They parse the structure of web pages like HTML, images, PDF, videos, text, tables, and others, process them, and export data in different forms. This form of scraping is widely known as web scraping and is most commonly used.

One can also copy and paste data like images, pdf, and GIFs from their current screen, which is also considered data scraping. This particular method is screen scraping.

Data collection is not easy and comes with a lot of compliance issues. Countries have different data privacy laws, and one has to strictly follow them before collecting data from that region. Also, one can only scrape publicly available data, and collecting private data is considered a criminal offense.

Why is Data Collection Important?

The best way to understand this is to question why collecting oil is important, and the instant answer you get is “to run the world,” right? For the same reason, collecting data is important. It runs today’s systems and makes entities holding it powerful.

Large businesses or small ones, developers or non-developers, first-time or an experienced entrepreneur, everyone has been using data collectors (web scrappers) to collect information for:

• Competitive Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Marketing
• Research
• Lead Generation
• Trend Analysis

These are just some use cases where data collection can be a game changer. Try thinking of your use cases and share them in the comments below.

How to Collect Data?

As easy as it sounds, data scraping or data collection is not easy. Companies invest millions of dollars in developing robust data collector programs. One such company is Google. We all know that apart from its world-famous Page Rank algorithm, Google has highly sophisticated data scrappers.

They can handle technical challenges like IP rotation, CAPTCHA, website structures, website-specific scripts, and pagination. They also deal with a whole set of country-specific legal challenges from the data scraping process.

As it is not easy to develop and maintain web scrappers, individuals and businesses, small or medium and sometimes even large, depend on web scraping tools. These instant data scrapers simplify the entire process and cover all technical and non-technical difficulties. All you have to do is configure the scrappers and let the magic begin!

Criteria for Selecting a Data Scraping Tool

The choice of data scraping tool can be very biased based on several factors like the type of data you want to collect, the country where data is hosted, the format of data scraping, scalability, extent of automation required, legal compliances, and much more but some common factors which must always be taken into account are:

• Cost: Many free, open-source tools exist in the market, but these tools mostly have limitations in what they can do. Though paid tools today are very powerful, one must always be careful of the subscription they choose.
• IP Proxies: This is one of the very important factors to consider. Most websites block requests coming from the same IP Address. If your tool does not provide this feature, then maybe it’s not the tool you want unless you are targeting very small and limited data.
• Compatibility: Most tools are compatible with plugins. This is important as plugins can help ease out working with complexities like data formats,
• Usability: Whatever tool you select must be very easy to use with a friendly interface.
• Compliance: Always read the Terms and Conditions and the Compliance guidelines given by data scraping tools. This will help you understand how much the tool can help you scrap data from a particular region.
• The Volume of Data Collected: Most tools, paid or unpaid, will have some limit on the number of pages they can scrape in a given time. Do take this factor into account as it directly affects the performance of your system.

5 Instant Web Scraping Tools

OctoParse

Features:

• Handles both static and dynamic web pages
• Parse complex websites requiring authentication
• Parse source code
• Provides both Point-And-Click and automated data collection
• Supports scheduling of scraping
• Provides IP rotation

Pricing: Though the platform offers a free plan, it has standard and premium subscriptions as well.

Pros:

• Offers teamwork and sharing
• Highly scalable
• Large supportive community
• User-friendly interface

Cons:

• Costly advanced features
• No automated way to navigate data privacy laws
• Not suitable for data from mobile applications
• The steep learning curve for its advanced features.

ParseHub

Features:

• Supports data integration from multiple websites
• Provides IP rotation
• Parse complex websites requiring authentication
• Offers simple Point-And-Click interface to scrape websites
• Supports scheduling of scraping

Pricing: It offers various plans, from free versions to enterprise models.

Pros:

• Easy automation of the data collection process using APIs provided by the platform
• Easy-to-use interface
• Allows to customize scraping using conditionals like &, OR
• Can handle websites in multiple languages

Cons:

• Not able to deal with complex website blocks which require more than IP rotation
• Resource intensive for large complex websites
• Prone to bugs
• The free version has many limitations

Mozenda

Features:

• Provides IP rotation
• Email notifications facility
• Users create automated scraping bots called “Agents” which scrape complex websites efficiently
• Data export in various formats
• Supports scheduling of scraping

Pricing: Just like ParseHub, Mozenda offers multi-tier solutions, from free to enterprise tier.

Pros:

• Allows users to download files and images
• Provides both Cloud based on On-premise solutions
• Scalable for commercial-level data extraction
• Good API features

Cons:

• Lack of proper documentation
• Use of highly technical terms
• Expensive to use
• Complicated scraping pre-requisites

BrightData

Features:

• Supports multiple clouds for storage
• Uses unblocker infrastructure to bypass blockers for web scraping
• Supports scheduling of the scraping process
• Can bypass blockers like limits, CAPTCHA, and more
• Complies with major data protection laws like the EU data protection regulatory framework, GDPR, and more

Pricing: Offers 4 models, namely Pay As You Go, Growth, Business, and Enterprise.

Pros:

• Extensive features to overcome complex scraping blockers
• Precise geotargeting
• Can handle large volume
• Offers real-time data collection
• Follows compliance data privacy laws

Cons:

• Premium pricing
• Not for small projects. Mostly suitable for small to large businesses
• Strict usage restrictions

Apify

Features:

• Supports many open-source libraries like Scrapy, Selenium, and Playwright, making it extensively flexible
• Provides IP rotation
• Extensive logging and resource-usage monitoring for each scraping job
• Provides integration with different platforms like Zapier, Google Drive, Github
• Supports file formats like JSON, CSV, and XML files

Pricing: Offers 5 categories of subscription models. Starting from free model up to Enterprise level.

Pros:

• Provides a dashboard to monitor the entire scraping process
• Highly customisable for someone who knows coding
• Scraping scripts can be monetized
• Cloud-based hosting

Cons:

• It may prove challenging if you have no coding experience
• Limited Non-Technical User Support
• High learning curve

To sum it up, today, the quality and quantity of data has become a very important differentiator for a business or an individual while competing with their competitors, making Data Scraping a very important technology to have.

As it is difficult to code and maintain data scrapers because of technical and legal challenges, Instant Data Scraping tools offer an end-to-end solution. Tools discussed above are some of the top platforms available today in the data scraping market and offer a convenient solution to the above – each offering a range of features and applications.

Though BrightData may stand out as the overall best solution, ParseHub, on the other hand, is more suitable for non-technical users and Mozenda for very specific business needs. Other tools either mentioned above or available in the market may excel in some other features, the choice of the tool depends on requirements of specific business or individual and must be selected after due diligence.

Last Updated on March 3, 2024 by Ankita M Bose