Scraper Api Review: A Powerful Tool that Handles Proxies, Browsers, and CAPTCHAs

It is unlikely that you will find the software that runs Scraper API on top of the software that is used to run Scraper API. You will not have to download and install anything since the backbone of the service is hosted on their servers, so you will not have to download and install anything. A computer, an internet connection, and a programming environment for the programming language that you will be using to scrape the data will be all that you need.

This is the easiest way to use proxies that you have ever seen! In order to scrape a URL, you simply need to send ScraperAPI the URL you want to scrape and we will return the HTML response to you. This allows you to concentrate on the data rather than on the proxy servers. The API has built-in anti-bot detection features as well as bypassing mechanisms to ensure that you never have to worry about having your requests blocked by the API. It comes with unlimited bandwidth with speeds up to 100Mb/s and we prune slow proxies from our pool automatically, which is ideal for speedy web crawlers who require unlimited bandwidth. No matter how many pages you need to scrape per month, whether it is 100 pages or 100 million!

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What is ScraperAPI and How Does it Work?

Using Scraper API, users can build quick and easy web scrapers that handle proxies, browsers, and captchas. Through a single API call, users can retrieve HTML from any web page. There are over 2 Billion API requests handled by the tool every month for over 1000 businesses. With each request, the IP address is rotated to make sure that users dont have to worry about IP blocks or stuck captchas, and that is one of the best features that make this service so popular. It automatically retries failed requests in order to prevent users from being blocked as a result of failed requests. With this technology, users are able to automate the captcha process on websites in order to turn websites into actionable data. Furthermore, Scraper API allows users to customize request headers, request type, IP geolocation, and many other parameters. Additionally, there are several useful features such as geotargeting to 12 countries, rendering javascript in headless browsers, 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited bandwidth by only charging for successful requests, and much more.

Using ScraperAPI is a simple and robust solution that uses 3rd party proxy servers, machine learning, huge browser farms, and a large amount of statistical data to ensure you will never be blocked by anti-scraping technology in the future.

Features

We believe that the following are some of the best features of our tool:

  • The automation of IP rotation and the handling of CAPCHAs
  • It enables you to access geo-sensitive data by adding a simple parameter to the URL when configuring the target
  • JavaScript rendering, so you do not need to use headless browsers and you can access any data behind a script in the background
  • It has the potential to scale up to 100 million pages scraped per month if needed
  • Allows you to handle concurrent threads to make your web scraper even more efficient
  • Assures that the request is retried with different IP addresses and headers in order to find the best fit for achieving the status code 200

Even better, ScraperAPI is able to integrate seamlessly with any other API that you might use

In terms of features, Scraper API does not disappoint. As far as data scrapers are concerned, they cover all the basics and promise that they will be able to deliver as promised. According to their website, they offer the following features as part of their package:

Scraper API Review

There is one primary problem with scraping data from a website, and that is that it will often block your IP address, and you will not be able to continue scraping data until that IP address is unblocked. In this situation, the 40+ million IP addresses provided by Scraper API can be of great assistance to you. Using this API, you can be assured that you will not be blocked from scraping while using it.

There is also an issue of location that people have to deal with when scraping. There are some websites that are restricted to a particular country, so if you are scraping from a website that is restricted to the United States but you live in a country that is not the United States, you will not have access to the data you are trying to scrape. Scraper API comes out of the box with 12 locations, and it is possible to request an additional 0 on request. There are a lot more features included in that package than what some dedicated proxy providers offer.

Feature of Scraper API

There is no doubt that scraping services are there to make your life easier, and it is the whole point of using them. In this area, Scraper API claims that it has a lot of expertise. By automating the entire process, which include the proxy rotation, captchas, and javascript rendering, their service is able to automate the entire process. As a result, the service does all the work for you, saving you the trouble of having to set the rules.

Ease of use

As you probably already know, this is the part where some people think that the Scraper API is a downside, and to a certain extent, it is. You shouldn’t use this service if you’re a first-time user. Getting it to work requires above-average coding skills in order to make it work. The truth of the matter is that it isn’t rocket science, so even if you have to tinker and think a bit, most users will be able to figure out how to use it. If you are familiar with the syntax of the parameters, you will find that setting them up is relatively simple, regardless of which approach you take.

You will not be able to find the software on top of which Scraper API runs if you are looking for it. As the backbone of the service is hosted on their servers, there will be no need for you to download and install any software to use the service. To scrape the data you will only need a computer, an internet connection, and an environment where you will be able to use the programming language that you will be using to perform the scrape.

Customer Support

The Scraper API provides three types of help that you can get from them. The first and most basic kind of help that you can get from them is their documentation. A sample and description of each parameter as well as a description of each programming language are included. The results of each sample of code can be found under the code sample, so you can compare them and see if there are any errors in the work you have done.

Support is the second type of help that is available to you, and that depends on the pricing plan that you have purchased. It has already been mentioned that Hobby and Startup pricing plans receive regular support, while Business and Enterprise pricing plans receive priority support. If you bought one of the first two packages, you might have to wait a little while until you receive an answer, because the priority support will be handled before the regular support, so if you bought one of those first two packages, you might have to wait a little while.

Pricing

Scraper API has a very flexible pricing plan that fits almost any budget, and they have a number of them to choose from. In general, people are interested in knowing whether the package is free, or if there is a trial period available. It is true that there is. In terms of the free plan, it is pretty limited, but it will be enough to get you started and see if they can provide you with the service that you need.

Scraper API Pricing

After you have seen what we have to offer, it is time for you to pay for it. There are four paid plans available for Scraper API: Hobby, Startup, Business, and Enterprise. You can choose from a variety of pricing plans that are based on monthly subscriptions.

The two first plans, Hobby and Startup, are the two cheapest, but they do come with a lot of limitations. There will only be email support for both products, access to standard proxy servers, and no javascript rendering will be available. The US/EU geotargeting is provided to Startup, while Hobby does not get any geotargeting.

There are also Business and Enterprise levels which are higher up on the ladder. Each offer worldwide geotargeting, javascript render, and priority email support, as well as worldwide geotargeting. As seen in the diagram below, there is a difference between these two types of systems based on their concurrent requests and API calls. As the Enterprise package is completely unlimited, there is no price attached to it – so you would have to get in touch with the sales department to get a price quote for it since it is an unlimited package.

It is also important to mention that Scraper API comes with a seven day money back guarantee without any questions asked. For these companies, the free plan would come in very handy since they will not be able to test the service to the fullest extent with the free plan.

Best Alternatives

Scrapy

A web crawling framework written in Python, known as Scrapy, is a free and open-source tool for crawling websites. In addition to being designed to scrape web pages, it can also be used as a general-purpose crawler of the web, allowing you to extract data using APIs and scraping websites. This application was developed and is being maintained by Zyte, formerly Scrapinghub, one of the leading web scraping companies…

Portia

Using Portia, you will be able to scrape websites without the need for any programming experience or even any previous knowledge of how to scrape websites. You need only annotate pages you’re interested in, and Portia will create a spider that will extract data from similar pages based on the annotations you make.

Parsehub

Using ParseHub, you can simply scrape the web using an easy-to-use web scraping tool. The data can be extracted from anywhere at any time. The ParseHub platform works with single-page apps, multi-page apps and pretty much any other modern web technology that you can think of. Besides Javascript, ParseHub is able to handle AJAX, cookies, sessions, and redirects.

UiPath

This is a free, fully-featured, and extensible tool that can automate any web or desktop application that you can imagine. For individuals, small professional teams, as well as for education and training purposes, the UiPath Studio Community is free to download.

Import.io

With import.io, you can take advantage of the power of the machine-readable web in the palm of your hand. With its tools, you can quickly create an API or crawl an entire website without having to know any coding, in a fraction of the time it takes with traditional methods.

SCRAPER API FAQS

Who are the main user groups of Scraper API?

There are a lot of developers looking for a way to scrape websites without having to deal with proxies, headless browsers, CAPTCHAs, and so on. This type of tool is commonly used by developers in order to build services such as price comparison sites, travel sites, databases, and directories.

Does Scraper API offer multi-user capability (e.g. teams)?

There is no team functionality available in the application.

Does Scraper API integrate with any other apps?

It is not possible for it to integrate with any other app since it is an API.

What are some applications Scraper API is commonly used in tandem with?

It is generally considered that Scraper API is used to design robust web scrapers and web crawlers, which are then used for lead generation, business intelligence, price comparison, or database creation. During the course of gathering data and competitive intelligence, users use Scraper API to avoid being banned from popular sites.

Does Scraper API offer an API?

It is true that Scraper API is committed to being a developer focused API first experience. As part of the API, it exposes a single endpoint that users can use to send both POST and GET requests, as well as route requests through a series of proxy servers in order to achieve this.

Does Scraper API offer guides, tutorials and or customer support?

There is no doubt that we provide excellent customer support as well as excellent documentation that includes code examples in Bash, Python, NodeJS, Ruby, and PHP. As well as our friendly, fast chat support, we also offer email support for the more complex issues that may arise.

What platforms does Scraper API support?

The API is RESTful and can be accessed via HTTP in any programming language that is capable of running RESTful APIs. There are examples of Python, NodeJS, Ruby, and PHP in our documentation.

What is Scraper API generally used for?

In general, Scraper API is used in the design of robust web scrapers and web crawlers for a number of purposes, including lead generation, business intelligence, price comparison, and database creation. Using Scraper API, developers are able to easily create scalable scrapers for scraping webpages without the hassle of managing complex infrastructure on their own.

Conclusion

It’s time for the big question: would we recommend Scraper API to our readers? In order for you to be able to use Scraper API, you will need to set up some things on your computer, or your company’s computer, in order to be able to do it; therefore, we would not recommend it for beginners looking to scrape some data from the web. With regards to the price, this isn’t the cheapest solution out there, but at the end of the day, their pricing structure is well laid out in such a way that almost everyone will be able to take advantage of it. There is a support staff available to assist you if you get stuck or run into an obstacle during your journey. It is important to keep in mind that the speed at which you will receive a response will be determined by the package you have purchased.

There is no doubt that this is a good scraper that we can recommend, but before you run off and buy it, we recommend that you go through their documentation page and see if you are able to use it and if you know how to do so.