Best YouTube Scrapers

10 Best YouTube Scraper 2024: How to Scrape Channels & Videos

Published on: January 5, 2023
Last Updated: January 5, 2023

10 Best YouTube Scraper 2024: How to Scrape Channels & Videos

Published on: January 5, 2023
Last Updated: January 5, 2023

Best Web Scrapers

#1 Top Rated
Phantombuster
NEW ERA OF DATA
the #1 web scraper

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#2 Top Rated
Oxylabs
API for web scraping

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#1 Top Rated
Phantombuster
NEW ERA OF DATA
the #1 web scraper

save 16%!
UNLOCK FREE TRIAL
#3 Top Rated
Bright Data
scrape data at scale

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In a hurry?
The best YouTube scraper in 2024, as found in our independent testing, is Phantombuster.


This article will provide information on a few of the most reliable YouTube scrapers on the market.

YouTube has been in operation since 2005, and its platform has received billions of uploads over time.

In today’s world, data is becoming more valuable, and the methods of collecting such information are equally sought after.

Considering that YouTube is essentially a search engine itself, especially now that Google owns it, you can see how collecting data from the platform could be helpful.

First and foremost, how exactly do you go about scraping data from YouTube?

The publicly available data that each video upload provides can be helpful for several causes.

For marketers, collecting data over a specific period of time allows them to be better understand that particular market, its viewers, and how various content performs.

Although you can find comments, tags, and video descriptions on each video, collecting this information manually can take forever.

Using a YouTube scraper tool can make this task a breeze and finish in a fraction of the time.

You can find many web scrapers geared towards YouTube online, and these tools will automate the data scraping process.

As you continue reading, we’ll get into more details on what YouTube scraping is and the different YouTube scrapers available.

There are multiple ways to collect data from YouTube; some have a straightforward approach, while others require some coding on your end.

No matter which YouTube scraper you choose, each will be able to provide the data you’re looking for. 

Best YouTube Scraper Tools 2024

  1. Phantombuster – 🏆 Winner!
  2. Oxylabs
  3. Bright Data
  4. ScraperAPI
  5. Apify
  6. ScrapingBee
  7. Octoparse
  8. Data Miner
  9. ScrapeStorm
  10. Helium Scraper

1. Phantombuster

Phantombuster YouTube Channel Video Extractor

Recommended Guide: Phantombuster Review

  • Pricing: Plans start at $30 per month with a limited free account option available.
  • Data Output: CSV and JSON formats.
  • Supported Platform: Web-based

👉 Get started FREE

This web scraping service has one of the best UI’s and provides a clear and understandable approach to their website.

Here you can scrape data on specific Youtube channels and videos.

You can also use Phantombuster to extract videos from YouTube.

Their base subscription plan comes with five phantom slots for web scraping tools, and each web scraper can only operate for one hour each day.

Phantombuster also provides higher subscription tiers that offer more web scraping tools and daily operation time.

Lastly, they also have a free account option that allows one data scraping tool to operate ten minutes per day, allowing you to try before you buy.

2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs Web Scraper API

Recommended Guide: Oxylabs Review

  • Pricing: Plans start at $99 per month.
  • Data Output: Excel and JSON
  • Supported Platform: Cloud

👉 Get FREE Account

This company provides software that can handle many data scraping tasks.

Although Oxylabs isn’t built specifically for YouTube, this software can scrape publicly available data with no issue at all.

Considering they have one of the steeper starting prices for a subscription, you may consider utilizing the free trial to its fullest potential as it only has a few limitations.

Although the paid subscriptions offer more features, this would be a great way to see if their services are the right fit for your data scraping needs.

3. YouTube Data Collector from Bright Data

Bright Data Web Scraper IDE

Recommended Guide: Bright Data Review

  • Pricing: Plans start at $300 per month with 100k page loads.
  • Data Output: Excel
  • Supported Platform: Web-based

Being a seasoned veteran in data collection, Bright Data’s web scraping service is built for those with zero coding knowledge.

👉 Get FREE Account

Their system is web-based, so you won’t have to download any software.

Along with many other types of data, Bright Data can easily collect the information you need off YouTube.

At present, you can collect data from YouTube channels by providing their URL.

In addition, you can also scrape video description data, comments, and more.

Although it is a paid web scraping tool, Bright Data is one of the most reliable out there.

4. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI

Recommended Guide: ScraperAPI Review

ScraperAPI knows what it’s doing when it comes to being a YouTube data scraper.

They say that they can help you with features that have been designed to make your life easier when using a web scraper for YouTube, but they can also cover you with a proxy.

This way, you don’t have to expose your location while scraping important information from YouTube.

We love that you are going to be able to access more than 40 million IPs worldwide, and we also love that you are going to be able to maintain your connection, because their features come with a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

Did we mention that you also get to make the most of unlimited bandwidth?

5. YouTube Scraper by Apify

Apify YouTube Scraper
  • Pricing: Plans start at $49 per month.
  • Data Output: Excel, HTML, JSON, CSV, RSS, and XML
  • Supported Platform: Desktop and Cloud

With this YouTube data scraper from Apify, you can collect information such as likes, comments, video titles, URLs, video descriptions, and more.

You’ll need to provide a video URL, channel URL, or keyword, and Apify will handle the rest. No coding is required for this YouTube scraper, and it offers various customizations like how many results you’d like to generate and how old the data is.

This service provides fully automated web scraping with an integrated proxy service that allows you to scrape data far beyond what the YouTube API allows.

6. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee works hard for you as a YouTube scraper, so that you are going to hardly have to do any of the work on your end.

They say that you can check them out free of charge, and they also say that you can do all of your YouTube scraping in a manner that is safe, because they are going to make sure that you are covered on the proxy end of things as well.

They say that they are compatible with the latest version of Chrome, and they also say that their connections and results are fast, no matter what.

They take each client through their feature list before they buy, so there is no pressure to commit if you don’t like what you see. We think you will, though.

7. Octoparse

Octoparse Scraper
  • Pricing: Plans start at $75 per month with the ability to apply for a free trial.
  • Data Output: Excel, CSV
  • Supported Platform: Desktop or Cloud

Known to handle many types of security checks effectively, Octoparse is one of the best web scrapers out there.

You can utilize this service to scrape specific data from YouTube while delivering it in an organized fashion.

This site has simplified the process of data scraping by providing different templates for some of the most popular sites, which removes the need to know any code on your end.

Octoparse may not be free, but they do have a free account option available that comes with limitations, as well as free trials for paid subscriptions.

8. Data Miner

Data Miner
  • Pricing: Plans start at $19 for scraping 500 pages per month.
  • Data Output: Excel and CSV
  • Supported Platform: Edge and Google Chrome browser extension.

This web scraping tool is built as an extension to integrate with your Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome browser seamlessly.

With support for over 15,000 websites, Data Miner is perfect for scraping YouTube data. Additionally, this extension is known for bypassing YouTube’s bot-detection system with ease, ensuring no hiccups with functionality.

Data Miner also has a free plan available but will become locked indefinitely if you surpass the accounts restrictions.

The only way you can unlock the account is by purchasing a paid subscription. Furthermore, Data Miner provides over 50,000 queries making your data collection simple as can be.

The service also provides options for custom web scraping, auto-scraping, in addition to auto-filling forms.

9. ScrapeStorm

ScrapeStorm
  • Pricing: Plans start at $49.99 per month for 10,000 rows of data per day.
  • Data Output: Excel, Google Sheets, CSV, JSON, and more.
  • Supported Platform: Desktop

While being revered for providing functionality across the most popular operating systems in addition to being able to scrape nearly any website, ScrapeStorm is a prevalent choice for YouTube scraping.

Although it’s primarily used on desktops, you can also access its services via cloud-based solutions. Their web scraping tool is AI-based and can identify its target data points without any interference on your part.

If this method isn’t accurate enough, ScrapeStorm allows you to take a more manual approach to data collection in refining your search.

10. Helium Scraper

Helium Scraper
  • Pricing: Plans start at $99.99 per user license with three months of their major upgrades included.
  • Data Output: Excel, CSV, JSON, SQLite, XML
  • Supported Platform: Desktop

Perfect for scraping video ranking information, comments, and additional video data such as descriptions and tags, Helium Scraper will exceed expectations.

As it’s built for scraping at a small or large scale, this web scraping tool is software that will require a download and installation before use.

Helium Scraper is built with YouTube proxy rotation, the ability to process data fast, and provides the data in several formats.

The sweetest part is that it only requires a one-time purchase, and no monthly payments are necessary for continued use.

How to Scrape YouTube Channels & Videos

Whether you’re looking to download videos, collect comments, ranking data, or even advertisements, a reliable YouTune scraper can get it done.

You may be wondering, is all of this legal?

It’s important to know that web scraping is legal, and collecting this public data can be exercised freely.

Although YouTube would prefer that you make use of their API to collect this data, most people rely on web scrapers instead.

Even though this may be legal, the use of automated systems on their platform is not permitted so, auto-scraping data is frowned upon on YouTube.

Utilizing a web scraping tool that’s built for YouTube’s bot-detection system and the distinct algorithm is essential.

Thankfully there are plenty of options to fit your data scraping needs safely and efficiently. You could also code your own scraping tool, but this would require quite a bit of know-how.

Coding Your Own Data Scraper

If you have some coding knowledge, you may be more inclined to code your own YouTube video scraper.

Keep in mind, a scraping tool built for 20 pages of data and one that’s meant for thousands of pages doesn’t come with the same build requirements.

The primary issue is dealing with IP blocks and captchas.

If you plan on using Python, this will allow you to develop your scraping tool effortlessly as it comes with plenty of frameworks and libraries for you to use.

It’s crucial to remember that YouTube requires JavaScript to function, and switching this on or off will affect the available data you can scrape.

In addition, you’ll always need a provision built in to handle captchas and IP blocks.

Proxies can assist with avoidance of IP tracking and being able to solve captchas repetitively.

FAQs

What Is a YouTube Scraper?

A YouTube scraper is a piece of software that can help you extract relevant data from YouTube, so that you can get the information that you need to track down your target audience accurately, or even keep on top of what your competition is doing.

Why Would I Need to Use a YouTube Scraper?

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to use a YouTube scraper, some of which we have talked about in this article already.

A YouTube scraper is helpful for those that need to glean information that is important about their target market, and it’s a great way to be able to organise this data in a way that is easy to understand.

Is Scraping Information from YouTube Illegal?

As long as you are scraping YouTube for reasons that are above board, then it isn’t illegal.

However, it is against YouTube’s terms and conditions if it’s not publicly available data, so a lot of the time a YouTube scraper is going to suggest that you use their scraper in conjunction with a proxy, so that you can ensure that your IP address doesn’t get leaked and banned.

To Conclude

From an outside perspective, scraping data from YouTube can seem like a complicated task.

Luckily, these services require no particular expertise, and there are various options available to suit different use cases and budgets.

Furthermore, each YouTube channel scraper provides education along the way, and you’ll become a pro at YouTube scraping in no time.

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Written by Jason Wise

Hello! I’m the editor at EarthWeb, with a particular interest in business and technology topics, including social media, privacy, and cryptocurrency. As an experienced editor and researcher, I have a passion for exploring the latest trends and innovations in these fields and sharing my insights with our readers. I also enjoy testing and reviewing products, and you’ll often find my reviews and recommendations on EarthWeb. With a focus on providing informative and engaging content, I am committed to ensuring that EarthWeb remains a leading source of news and analysis in the tech industry.
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