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The best Apify alternative in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is Phantombuster!
Are you looking for the best Apify alternative in 2023?
Data extraction has become important for many businesses as it helps them set new strategies after gaining proper insights into the competitors.
The data extraction can be challenging if done manually, which is why data scraping tools are used.
Usually, Apify is used, which is a popular web scraping tool and has an open-source design to make it a beginner-friendly solution.
It has various ready-made automation and extraction tools available to meet different data scraping needs.
However, if you cannot use it, there are various Apify alternatives that you can try out.
Best Apify Alternatives 2023
Here’s a quick look at the best Apify alternatives:
- Phantombuster – 🏆 Winner!
- Bright Data
- ScrapingBee
- Octoparse
- ParseHub
- Content Grabber
- Import.io
- Web Data Miner
- Portia
- Dexi.io
1. Phantombuster
Phantombuster is another promising choice for people who want to replace the Apify scraper service. It can handle web scraping as well as web automation.
The web scrapers of this software are known as Phantoms, and you can easily download the browser extension to complete the web scraping functions.
The browser extensions can be downloaded on Firefox as well as Chrome.
This is a cloud-based Apify alternative, and there are separate Phantoms for every website it supports.
Currently, it can work with twenty popular websites, which include some social media platforms, eCommerce websites, discussion forums, and yellow pages.
This web scraping tool can be used by beginners as it doesn’t require any coding.
The scraped data is delivered in the form of JSON and CSV files, which makes them quite easy to interpret.
There is a free trial available, but there are paid monthly plans as well.
2. Bright Data
Bright Data is one of the best web scraping tools available in the market and can be used to extract data from various popular sites.
If you cannot write codes or do programming, this is a perfect Apify alternative for you.
This is because Bright Data is extremely easy to use and is available as a web-based app. There are specialized collectors available for different websites.
Some collectors in Bright Data support different social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In addition, it works with various eCommerce platforms, such as eBay, AliExpress, Walmart, and Amazon.
The best thing about Bright Data is that it works with various hotel booking and travel websites, including Booking.com and Tripadvisor.
Since it’s a web-based platform, you won’t have to download the app, and it can be streamed directly through the internet browser.
It delivers information in the form of Excel sheets.
Bright Data is basically a paid app, but there are free trials available to check if the features meet your web scraping needs.
3. ScrapingBee
It is another Apify alternative that you can try with strong features and is a promising choice for developers who need in-depth data.
For the most part, Apify only works for NodeJS developers, but ScrapingBee can be used with other languages as well.
ScrapingBee has been designed as a web API, which means you can send the API request, and you will receive the scraped data.
It has a special SDK, which works as a library to gain structured data from different websites. It provides the scraped data in the form of the JSON format.
There is a free trial available with which you can send one-thousand API calls, but there is a monthly plan available that allows over one lac API credits.
4. Octoparse
Octoparse is one of the most advanced web data extraction tools with a visual design.
It is extremely easy to use, which means professionals and beginner users can use it the same.
It can be used for extracting bulk information from different websites without conducting any coding and programming.
The web scraping is automated, and the data output will be organized and structured.
Octoparse can help save the extracted data in different formats. Having said that, it’s a promising choice for academic research, eCommerce companies, and marketing.
When it comes down to data extraction, it can extract images, IP addresses, email addresses, web data, pricing, and phone numbers.
On top of everything, there is an IP rotation feature, which means the IP address will be constantly changed, promising better security.
There is an anonymous extraction available, which means your identity won’t be revealed.
The cloud platform of Octoparse harbors the proxy servers, so you don’t need to connect with proxies manually.
However, you can still add the desired proxy servers manually and configure them.
It can work on different dynamic websites, including the ones with JavaScript and AJAX foundations.
This means that Octoparse can be used for extracting data from complicated websites, including Twitter and Facebook.
There is an auto-detect feature, which makes it suitable to extract webpages with listings, tables, category pages, load more buttons, and search result pages.
The best thing about Octoparse is that it extracts data within one minute.
5. ParseHub
ParseHub is a well-known software that can be used for building web scrapers or designing web scraping frameworks without writing down the codes.
It is basically a visual tool that has a point-and-click interface, promising easier identification and analysis of data.
It isn’t designed for a specific website, which means it can be used with all websites, including interactive webpages.
It is loaded with some amazing features, such as IP rotation to make sure your IP addresses are constantly changed to prevent tracking and scheduled scraping for automated data scraping.
In addition, there is an API configuration, which means you have to send one request, and data scraping will be completed.
It is a paid scraper, but there is a free trial available.
6. Content Grabber
If you are still in search of an Apify alternative, Content Grabber makes one of the best choices with advanced features.
It is suitable for large-scale enterprises as well as small projects to meet unique data extraction requirements.
It can work with a variety of internet browsers and can export the agents.
The data scraping can be scheduled, which makes it quite easy to use while you complete other tasks.
There is a multi-threading feature available on Content Grabber, which helps increase the scraping performance.
It is integrated with the advanced debugging feature, so it can conduct the data scraping by overcoming the website’s security features.
There is a custom scripting feature available for controlling the agent behavior and transforming the content.
The users can customize the exported data. This is a leading data extraction tool and provides unparalleled support to users.
It can extract the documents, email addresses, IP addresses, online forms, web data, phone numbers, and pricing.
In addition, it is a reliable choice for lead distribution, and the dashboard is quite convenient to use.
7. Import.io
Import.io is a well-known web data integration software that is widely used for marketing, sales, and business applications.
It can be used for transforming the unstructured data extracted from multiple sources into an organized and structured format for convenient interpretation and analysis.
It is a highly reliable and accurate tool.
Given the advanced features, Import.io is a reliable tool for converting raw information into insightful data. It can structure the data after cleaning.
Having said that, it can be used for optimizing the data. Import.io can be integrated with analytics, business logic, and applications with the help of webhooks and APIs.
On top of everything, it can create intuitive reports for representing the data in a visual form.
There is an automatic extractor available with Import.io, so you don’t need to do anything.
Last but not least, there is reliable customer support available to help you with the queries.
8. Web Data Miner
Web Data Miner is designed by Knowlesys Software and is a promising choice for extracting semi-structured information and data from websites.
It can structure the data in the form of batches and can be saved to the local database for future use.
It has an open-source configuration, which helps extract reviews, pricing, product information, email address, IP address, documents, and images.
9. Portia
Portia is designed with automated data detection, which makes it a convenient choice for users who want to extract data without any manual functions.
It can extract structured data from websites.
This is an open-source scraping tool that helps scrape websites without any coding and programming knowledge.
With Portia, you can extract data from the websites by annotating the pages. As a result, the tool will develop a spider that extracts data from different pages at once.
Lastly, it creates a regular expression for narrowing down the data search.
10. Dexi.io
This is a browser-oriented web crawler and offers three different types of robots such as pipes, crawler, and extractor.
Pipes is integrated with a master robot feature with which a robot can be used for controlling multiple tasks at once.
In addition, it offers various third-party services, such as cloud storage and CAPTCHA solvers, to make sure data extraction is streamlined and stored.
11. Outwit Hub
If you are looking for a simple Apify alternative, this is a reliable web scraping tool and is quite easy to use.
The users can depend on Outwit Hub for extracting the web data without any programming and coding.
It is available as a desktop app as well as a Firefox extension. The tool has a simpler interface, which makes it a beginner-friendly choice.
There is a fast scrape feature that can help scrape the data quickly by adding the list of URLs.
On the other hand, there are no CAPTCHA bypassing and IP rotation features, which means you will have to be extremely careful while extracting the data.
12. Mozenda
Mozenda is a well-known cloud-based web extraction and scraping tool.
It is integrated with the agent builder and web console, which allows the users to run their own agents and organize the data.
It allows the users to export the extracted data to the cloud platforms and publish it.
Some of these cloud platforms include Microsoft Azure, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
With the agent builder, the users can create their own data projects, and the data extraction is properly harvested in the data centers.
On top of everything, it leverages the local resources of the users and helps protect the IP address to prevent the chances of tracking.
There is an action bar with Mozenda, which helps capture the iFrames and AJAX data. Mozenda supports image and document extraction.
In addition, it is integrated with a geolocation feature which helps prevent IP address banning, and there are error-handling features to fix the bugs.
However, it is a bit of an expensive tool.
13. 80legs
It is a powerful data and web crawling tool which can be easily configured according to customized requirements.
The app can be customised to scrape the data and crawl the websites.
However, it is not easy to use for beginners because customization takes time and technical expertise.
It supports the fetching of an extensive amount of data and downloads the extracted information.
14. ProxyCrawl
ProxyCrawl is one of the most well-known web scraping tools and Apify alternatives which is designed for developers and large-scale businesses for scraping websites without revealing your identity.
It can be used for scraping exponential amounts of data and can cut through a variety of platforms and websites.
With ProxyCrawl, you don’t need to worry about downloading different proxies.
It can automatically bypass the CAPTCHAs and prevents the user from getting blocked. It provides over one-thousand requests for free.
As far as compatibility is concerned, it can crawl and collate data from Amazon, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook within a few minutes.
It can extract the images, documents, web data, IP addresses, contact numbers, and email addresses.
It has a user-friendly interface that helps execute data extraction requests pretty easily. Also, it has a straightforward API validation, promising quick scraping.
Reasons To Choose Apify Alternatives
It is needless to say that Apify offers great features and promising performance to the users. However, it still isn’t able to cater to some users’ needs.
In addition, there are some downsides to using Apify, which is why you should opt for an Apify alternative.
1. Difficult To Use
If you are not a programmer, coder, or don’t have much technical information, you won’t be able to use Apify.
This is because Apify is the NodeJS platform for scraping and web automation. This means that the majority of guides are based on NodeJS codes.
So, if you don’t know JavaScript, you won’t be able to use JavaScript.
2. Expensive
Apify has a free plan available, but the offerings are pretty limited. On the other hand, paid plans are expensive for individuals.
This is because Apify has a pay-as-you-go model, which means the costs can add up pretty quickly.
Apify offers residential proxies as well as data center proxies to users, which is a great feature.
However, the data center proxies are not reliable because they can get you detected pretty easily and has a slow functionality.
Having said that, shared proxies don’t work well.
Importance Of Web Scraping Tools
Web scraping is defined as the process of extracting data from the webpages or entire websites with the help of software.
Once the data is scraped, the users can download the entire data or extract key aspects from the data files, such as article body or tags, to optimize the data analysis.
Manual web scraping can be quite challenging, which is why web scraping tools can be used.
1. Offers Automation
The web scraping tools allow the users to extract data automatically from different websites, which helps save time that would have been spent on manual data collection functions.
In addition, it means that the users can gather data in a larger volume as compared to what humans could do.
Web bots can be created to automate the web scraping functions.
This is because these tools are based on PHP, Go, Python, or JavaScript languages, which collect data from desired websites with one click.
2. Better Insights
The web scraping tools can help scrape data from the internet and websites, which allows the users to gain information about the competitors’ products and prices.
In addition, it can help understand the marketing activities of the competitors.
Also, once the data is scraped, downloaded, and organized, the users can analyze the data to make better business decisions.
3. Unique Datasets
The internet can provide an exponential amount of numerical, image, text, and video data.
Depending on your primary objective, you will be able to outline the relevant websites and launch the web scraping tools to extract unique datasets.
In addition, the users can customize the datasets.
4. No Dependency On API
With the help of web scraping data, the users won’t have to depend on the websites releasing API for accessing the data.
This means that you can access and collect every sort of data available on the website, irrespective of the format.
In addition, there won’t be any limitations regarding the queries, and you won’t have to sign up for any API keys either.
The Bottom Line
Apify is a reliable web scraping tool, but it requires coding and programming, which makes it challenging for beginners.
However, there are various Apify alternatives available that can perform the same functions without requiring any programming and coding.
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Written by Jason Wise
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