Software Development

Top 10 Open-Source Web Scrapers

Top 10 Open-Source Web Scrapers

The internet is today’s largest source of information. Google can be used to find any topic and you will get the relevant results in seconds. However, you cannot be certain that all information on websites will remain there forever. While all of them have amazing features, It is better to pick the best web scrapers and focus your efforts there, rather than trying to use multiple scrapers simultaneously.

It can also be tiresome to go to multiple pages in order to find information about a topic. Web scraping is the solution.

What is Web Scraping?

Web scraping refers to the extraction of useful information from websites. You can then export the data in a format that is useful to you. You can’t copy content from websites and paste it into a document on your PC. This would result in a loss of important data. You would also need to take a lot of time to copy everything on a website.

How does web scraping work? There are software and tools that can help you scrape data from the internet. This software can be downloaded for free or paid. It is crucial to ensure that the software is easy to use before you pay for it. There are many tools that you can use to web scrape, but not all of them will work for you.

Best Open-Source Web Scrapers for 2022

You can compare the top open-source web scrapers in 2022 to help you decide which one to try.

1. Scrapy

Scrapy is the most used web scraping tool in 2022. There are many reasons Scrapy is so popular. It was written using Python, one of the most widely used programming languages in the world. Python is also the most used programming language by web scrapers developers. scrapinghub is responsible for maintaining the framework. This is a respected name in web scraping.

Scrapy allows you to create high-performing web crawlers or scrapers. Scrapy is lightning fast. You can quickly create your scraper and start crawling the web to extract data right away. Scrapy’s other advantage is its ability to efficiently manage large web scraping projects.

You can also store data in any format you prefer, such as JSON or CSV. Web scraper developers prefer Scrapy over other web-scraper frameworks because it includes both a parsing tool as well as an HTTP library.

Advantages

  • Users will find detailed documentation
  • There are endless resources
  • A vibrant community of developers who are always available to help

2. Heritrix

Heritrix is the ideal tool for anyone looking to save the information available on the World Wide Web. It was created by the Internet Archive for web archiving. It’s a JavaScript-based, open-source web scraper that allows you to monitor crawls. Many web scrapers don’t respect robot.txt exclusion directives and disrupt the normal functioning of websites.

The Heritrix tool, on the other hand, does not overload websites by following the robot.txt exclusion directives. Heritrix offers a web-based user interface that you can access via a browser.

Advantages

  • Extensibility high
  • Web-based UI available from a browser to allow operator control
  • Respect robot.txt exclusion instructions

Also read: Top 10 JavaScript Frameworks for Developers

3. Pyspider

Pyspider, another Python-based web scraping tool, can be used to create web crawlers and powerful scrapers. Pyspider offers several features that allow users to control the scraping process, including a task monitor, result viewer and project manager. Pyspider is able to crawl JavaScript pages, which makes it stand out from Scrapy. It supports data storage in many databases, including MySQL. Pyspider is easy to use. This means that even those who are not familiar with web scraping can turn to it for assistance.

Advantages

  • Web-based user interface with powerful features
  • Distributed architecture
  • JavaScript pages can be crawled

4. Web-Harvest

Web-Harvest, a Java-based web extractor tool, is available. Java developers can use the Web-Harvest library for powerful web scrapers to extract data from web pages. It can be used to parse content from a downloaded HTML file. Web-Harvest uses a variety of technologies and techniques to filter the content on both HTML- and XML-based websites. Developers have the option to enhance this tool’s extraction capabilities by adding custom Java libraries.

Advantages

  • Supports file handling, looping, and variable manipulation
  • Real scripting languages supported
  • Both HTML- and XML-based websites can be used

5.  Apify SDK

Apify SDK was developed for Node.js and is one of the most widely used JavaScript-based web scrapers. Apify SDK is a tool that allows you to large-scale web scraping on any website. It’s a powerful automation tool that allows you to automate various actions on the Internet. Apify SDK, despite its many useful features, is very easy to use. It can be integrated into your code and run on the Apify platform.

It supports popular Node.js plugins such as puppeteer, playwright, and Cheerio. Apify SDK also allows you to start multiple URLs simultaneously. You can run scraping tasks at the maximum system capacity.

Advantages

  • High-performing, large-scale scraper
  • The Apify cloud has a pool of proxy servers that help to avoid detection
  • RequestQueue and Autoscaled Pool to ensure tasks are run at maximum capacity

6. MechanicalSoup

MechanicalSoup, a Python-based tool that mimics human interaction with web pages in a browser, is called python-based. MechanicalSoup makes it easy to automate online tasks. It handles everything, from sending and storing cookies to submitting forms and following uplinks.

This tool is great for web scraping because it allows you to automate tasks. It can also be used to mimic human behavior online. This feature of MechanicalSoup allows you to solve captchas quickly and get to the intended website. MechanicalSoup does not support JavaScript-based actions. You will need to use another tool if you want to extract data from JavaScript-rich sites.

Advantages

  • Perfectly imitate human behavior
  • Simple websites can be scraped at lightning speed
  • For new users, it is easy to understand the documents

7. Node-crawler

Node.js is a lightweight Node.js Library that provides many useful web scraping features. Developers can use it to create simple, efficient web crawlers and scrapers. Node-crawler supports rapid selection of DOM, so you don’t need to write repetitive expressions. You can also increase the efficiency of crawler design to get the desired results.

You have two options when using Node-crawler: you can use Cheerio to parse or you can replace it with a DOM Parser of your choosing. Node-crawler supports hard programming, making it a great choice for developers with experience.

Advantages

  • Simple and efficient
  • Rapid selection of DOM
  • You can configure the pool size and retries

8. Apache Nutch

Apache Nutch is an open-source scraper written entirely in Java. It’s an open-source scraper, which allows developers to create plugs for data retrieval or media-type parsing. It is highly modular, making it ideal for custom-designed implementations. Nutch actually offers extensible interfaces that greatly improve the user experience.

Apache Nutch is updated frequently, which is a big plus for web developers who want to work with the web scraper. You can integrate the tool into your project. It is one of few web scrapers that follows txt rules. Apache Nut is an excellent web scraper because of all these features.

Advantages

  • Regular updates remove errors from the scraper and give developers more tools to work with
  • A vibrant community that will help you with all your questions
  • Highly scalable

Also read: Top 10 PHP Frameworks for Developers

9. Jaunt

Jaunt, a Java-based project, can be used to automate web pages. You can also use it to develop web scraping tools by programmers. Jaunt’s best feature is its ultra-light and fast browser. It not only offers web scraping functionality but also gives you control over every HTTP request. Jaunt is a modern project that can efficiently scrape JavaScript-rich pages. You can also use it for JSON querying.

Advantages

  • Ultra-light, headless browser
  • Perform JSON data extraction
  • Both HTTPS and HTTPS support

10. Crawler4j

Crawler4j, an open-source Java library, is very easy to use. It is easy to set up thanks to its APIs, and then you can use it to extract data from web pages. You can quickly set up a multithreaded web-scraper with Crawler4j in minutes. Crawler4j is an Open-Source Library. You can modify it for your personal use, as well as make contributions to the public. You can contribute to the code base if you feel it needs some modification.

Advantages

  • Multithreaded web scraper is easy to set up
  • Data scraped from URLs and downloaded pages
  • This guide will help you use the library in an easy-to-understand manner

Last Thoughts

A web scraper is a great tool for extracting information from web pages. You must pick the right web scraper to make scraping enjoyable. Multiple developers have tested and tried all the above open-source web scrapers. If you are looking for web scrapers to help you scrape data from the internet, check out the ones we have listed and choose the one that best suits your needs.

Written by
Delbert David

Delbert David is the editor in chief of The Tech Trend. He accepts all the challenges in the content reading and editing. Delbert is deeply interested in the moral ramifications of new technologies and believes in leveraging content marketing.

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