Best Web Scrapers
In a hurry?
The top Import.io alternative in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is Bright Data.
There are many areas in life where you must love having a variety. However, in some cases too many options can make things complicated for a person.
Same is the case with web scrapers. There are so many different types of web scrapers available in the market now that it has become very difficult to choose one.
Even when you think that you have made the right choice, it may turn out that the web scraper that you have chosen does not have all the features that you require.
You might use a web scraper and not like all the features or it might be too pricey for you. Something or the else could go wrong.
Something similar happened with Import.io. A lot of users chose it over other options but soon a lot of them discontinued their usage due to some or the other reason.
If you were a user of Import.io then you can take a breath of relief because we have compiled a list of great alternatives that you can opt for.
It is completely understandable if you want to switch to other options for any reason.
So you can continue with your data extraction from web pages with the help of any of the web scrapers mentioned in this article.
Some will give you a much better result at a lower price.
There are some web scrapers that are very easy to use and then there are other options that you will only grow to prefer once you use them.
However, before we proceed to the alternatives it is important to get an idea of Import.io and what it is all about. This will give you a clearer idea of why you need an alternative.
Features Of Import.io
Import.io is a web scraper that has been formulated to assist researchers, businesses and marketers in collecting data from websites at scale. It is one of the most famous web scraping tools available in the market.
The Import.io can be used to scrape data at scale which can enable businesses to retrieve data in bulk from billions of different web pages.
The scraper makes sure that the data which is collected is accurate and reliable. This makes sure that the integrity of the collected data remains intact.
There is one core feature of this scraping tool that is very important to understand. It comes under the category of visual web scrapers.
Users just have to point and click in order to select the data that they want from a website.
The Import.io provides support for URL generation, pagination and professional data retrieval features such as Regular Expression and XPATH.
You can collect a large volume of data from websites without getting detected and blocked.
Why Do You Need An Import.io Alternative?
Some of the best features of Import.io have been mentioned above. It has been discussed why people opted for this tool in the first place.
Why do some people feel like they cannot continue to use this tool? Why is there a need for alternatives? Here are some reasons:
Expensive And Lack Of Transparency In Pricing
When you open the websites for most web scrapers, you will see that their prices are mentioned clearly according to the various packages that they offer.
This is the level of transparency that is required from any product or service that you purchase online.
However, Import.io does not provide its price list openly and they just have an option that enables you to contact a sales person from their team.
At the end of the day their prices are quite higher as compared to those web scrapers that offer more or less the same features.
Below Average Customer Support
They have been known to change their usage terms without letting their customers know about it.
At the end of the year when users wanted to discontinue their subscription, the concerned customer support staff was not available so users had to automatically pay for another year.
If you have started out as a small level marketer then this service is not for you because it is the kind that works with mostly enterprises and they are only interested in earning high profits.
Difficult To Use
This web scraping tool is not easy to use. If you are a newbie then you should definitely look for easier to use Import.io alternatives in the market because this tool requires some time to get used to with a steep learning curve.
Best Import.io Alternatives 2023
There is no question regarding the amazing features of Import.io web scraper.
However, if the downsides turn you off or make you want to discontinue your subscription then you can switch to these other alternatives that are at the top of their game.
Here’s a quick look at the best top Import.io alternatives:
- Bright Data – 🏆 Winner!
- Phantombuster
- Apify
- ScraperAPI
- Octoparse
- ScrapingBee
- Diffbot
- Mozenda
- ScrapeStorm
- Helium Scraper
1. Bright Data
Bright Data recently started its Data Collector service which has quickly become the top scraper in the market.
It is the easiest to use web scraping tool that you can opt for, for retrieving data from web pages.
Data Collector has a group of web scrapers that are called data collectors.
These can be used to scrape data from well-known websites such as job listing websites, e-commerce stores, social media platforms, travel booking websites, etc.
The pricing for Data Collector is quite straightforward. You need to make a payment of $500 for every 151K web page loads.
It offers a free trial for the users to get an idea of the whole package.
The data that you retrieve from web pages through this tool will be in the Excel format. This makes it easier to use and interpret.
It supports web-based platforms only.
2. Phantombuster
This Import.io alternative is a cloud-based web scraper that can be used for data extraction and web automation. It is a good quality alternative to Import.io in terms of ease of use and versatility.
Phantombuster gives a limited free plan to its users for them to try out the features before making a purchase. You can get your output data in CSV and JSON formats.
The large number of websites that are supported by this web scraping tool is mind blowing.
This kind of adaptability is needed in a web scraper because websites are altering day by day.
The pricing for PhantomBuster begins at $30 for each month which will allow you to use the tool for 1 hour daily. It gives you 5 phantom slots for each day.
3. Apify
The pricing for Apify begins at $49 each month. You get 100 Actor Units for this amount.
The free trial for Apify includes 10 Actor Units which give you a fair idea of what the web scraper is like. It gives data output in the JSON format.
This Import.io alternative can be used without any form of coding. That is a great feature for those who do not have the knack for working with codes.
Apify is a web automation software that provides Actors which are essentially bots for online tasks.
Web scraping is the top use of Apify and it has Actors which can help you scrape most common websites.
Another great feature is that even if Apify does have a dedicated web scraper for a particular website, it has an SDK which can be used to produce web scrapers for unsupported websites.
You can even get this new scraper published and make it available for use for others in the need of the same thing. You can also get paid for this feature.
4. ScraperAPI
This Import.io alternative gives 5000 API credits for free. You get 7 days to try out these credits to get an idea of web scraping with ScraperAPI.
It works in a very simple format. You just need to send the URL of the page that you need to scrape to ScraperAPI and you will get an HTML response in return.
ScraperAPI makes sure that none of your requests get blocked.
It has a great anti-detection system and can bypass any kind of anti-bot mechanism set in place by a website. It is built to scrape pages on scale.
This is a major feature of import.io that many scrapers are unable to replicate. But with ScraperAPI you can easily scrape 100 million web pages each month.
5. ScrapingBee
The pricing for this Import.io alternative begins at $49 for each month for 100,000 API credits. The data output is only in the JSON format and it works for only Web API platforms.
This tool has been formulated for coders. If you are someone who is good at coding then ScrapingBee is the tool for you.
You just need to worry about parsing data from the web page. ScrapingBee will handle the headless browsers and proxies for you.
As a support for many users it has an extraction library that is popular programming languages. You can put it to use for easier parsing of the data.
You will be only charged for the requests that are successful. There will be no cost for the user for an unsuccessful request.
6. Octoparse
The pricing for this Import.io alternative web scraper begins at $75 per month. You can opt for a free trial that lasts for 14 days but it has some limitations in terms of features.
The extracted data can be viewed in various formats such as MySQL, JSON, SQLServer, Excel and CSV. It supports desktop and cloud-based platforms.
This Import.io alternative is best for small-scale businesses or researchers. It is cheaper than import.io and has a transparent pricing policy.
It has a point and click user-interface. If you do not have a skill-set or patience for coding then this web scraper is for you.
Its versatility makes it quite suitable for extracting data from many different types of websites.
7. Diffbot
One of the best things about Diffbot is the 2 weeks free trial version. It gives data output in many formats and can support cloud-based platforms only.
With Diffbot you do not have to wait to start web scraping in order to get data.
It already has a collection of data that has been extracted beforehand and is stored in the Knowledge Graph.
At present this Import.io alternative has information of around 13 million products with more than 20 data fields.
This data has images for the products too which can be extracted on demand.
There are around 1.6 billion news articles, press releases and blog posts in the Knowledge Graph.
8. Mozenda
This Import.io alternative scraper works on a unique pricing system of custom quotation. It provides its users with a 30-days free trial version that has certain limitations in terms of features.
The output data is available in CSV and JSON formats. It supports cloud-based platforms only.
It is similar to Import.io in the sense that Mozenda also caters to big businesses. It can help you in extracting data from millions of web pages in a structured format.
Mozenda can work at any scale and can help you in scraping data from any website of your choice. It has a point and click user-interface like import.io.
9. ScrapeStorm
This web scraper can provide you with output data in many different formats such as CSV, TXT, JSON, MySQL, Google Sheets, Excel, etc.
It can only support cloud and desktop platforms. The trial version is free but it has limited features. You need to make a payment of $49.99 per month for the full version.
ScrapeStorm has been developed by an ex-Google crawler. This makes it a great alternative for import.io in terms of the quality of the tool.
The web scraper is Al-powered so it identifies the data that is of interest on a web page by itself. This reduces manual operation.
For the most part it can easily go undetected and do its job. But in order to make it truly invincible, you need to use Smartproxy or BrightData proxies
10. Helium Scraper
The pricing for this web scraper begins at $99. It is a single time purchase. Helium Scraper provides a 10 days free trial version to its users.
The data that is extracted through this tool is available in many formats such as SQLite, JSON, Excel, CSV, etc. It only supports desktop platforms.
A lot of web scrapers in the market require recurring monthly payments to keep the subscriptions active or you get a limited number of requests for a fixed amount of money.
With Helium Scraper you only need to pay once and you can use it forever.
It has a point and click user-interface that makes it easy to scrape data. This feature also makes it a great alternative for import.io.
It provides fast extraction and can store large amounts of data through SQLite.
Some other remarkable features include list detection, similar element detection, task manipulation, database generation and task scheduling.
Conclusion
The list of the top Import.io alternatives above can tell you very clearly that if you are dissatisfied with import.io for any reason, you can find many great alternatives that are equally good or even better.
Many alternatives are either cheaper in price or give much better performance than Import.io.
Most of the web scrapers in this list meet all the top requirements of a good quality Import.io alternative.
Only minor features vary which can be easily judged by using the free trials to get a good picture beforehand.
It is important to note that just like import.io left something to be desired. In the same way none of these web scrapers provide every single feature that you need.
If you have a bigger operation then you will most likely need a combination of a couple of different web scrapers to meet all your requirements.
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Written by Jason Wise
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