Best Web Scrapers
In a hurry?
The best Zillow scraper in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is ScraperAPI!
Zillow Group is a USA-based real estate company that has come a long way in a short span of time. They are reinventing real estate to make it easier to move on to the next chapter of life.
Zillow, as the most-visited real estate website in the United States, provides customers with an on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting, and financing that is transparent and practically frictionless from beginning to end and without a middle man.
The platform’s booming popularity has captured the attention of real estate agents and buyers who are directly linked without any interference or translucency.
Zillow has a reliable data source for their audience, including real estate professionals and eager customers, and hence have proved themselves worthy of trust.
Since Zillow is such a vast website, it can be difficult to sift through all the information without adequate research. The concept of web scraping enters the scene at this point.
Zillow provides free APIs for scraping purposes. This is because certain APIs adhere to some undesirable restrictions.
Many websites are in a constant battle with scraping tools. Fortunately, Zillow is not a nuisance when it comes to scraping.
Even after having an anti-scraping tool in place, coders and scrapers can easily roam around scraping.
Best Zillow Scraper in 2023
There are quite a few reliable Zillow scrapers available on the market for non-programmers or coders who do not want to go through the hassle of constructing their own scraper.
The majority of these scrapers are general scrapers with Zillow support, rather than Zillow-specific scrapers.
- ScraperAPI – 🏆 Winner!
- Apify’s Zillow API Scraper
- Oxylabs
- Bright Data
- Octoparse
- WebHarvy
1. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is a visual web scraping tool powered by AI that can be used to extract data from almost any website without having to write any code.
It is both powerful and simple to use. It has two different scraping modes for experienced and inexperienced users (Smart Mode and Flowchart Mode).
ScraperAPI is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The output data can be saved in a variety of formats, including Excel, HTML, Txt, and CSV.
Furthermore, data can be exported to databases and websites.
Key Features
- Pricing starts at $49.99 per month and goes up from there.
- Trials are available for free. The starter plan is free, but it has some restrictions.
- TXT, CSV, Excel, JSON, MySQL, Google Sheets, and more data output formats are available.
- Platforms that are supported: Desktop
2. Apify’s Zillow API Scraper
Zillow Scraper by Apify is a tool that lets you search for homes in any location and get detailed information on each one. It’s based on Apify SDK and can be used both on the Apify platform and locally.
It works by using Zillow’s internal API and recursively splitting the map four times to get around the 500-results-per-search limit. You can set the maximum depth of the 4-way split zooms to limit the number of outputted results.
Key Features
- Monthly subscriptions begin at $49 per month.
- Trials are available for free. Every month, you’ll get a $5 credit for having a fully functional free account.
- JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML, and RSS are examples of data output formats.
- Cloud and desktop platforms are supported.
3. Oxylabs
Oxylabs’s Realtor Scraper is a scraper that focuses on developers.
This application makes use of it’s API to give you access to the available properties for sale or rent on Zillow.
You may use it to look for properties in any place and scrape information on each one that comes up.
It is designed to run on the Oxylabs, but it can also be used locally.
It’s designed for developers, and you can incorporate it into your code as mentioned before as well.
Key Features
- Pricing: Starts at $99 per month.
- Trials are available for free.
- JSON is the data output format.
4. Bright Data
Bright Data knows that you need to be able to extract as much data as you can from Zillow, which is why they have created a scraper that is specified for this.
They can help you extract all the necessary information around categories and products, including city, address, title, description, images, property features, tax value, and more.
You can use their data collector tool to retrieve all data that is publicly available on Zillow, and you can instantly scrape and export this data in a structured way, so that you can view it either through Microsoft Excel, or another form.
The best part about this data collector for Zillow is that they are completely compliant with industry best practices, so that you don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for using a web scraper like this.
This is just one of the many reasons why they are best in the business.
Key Features
- Easy to use
- Platform easily integrates with proxy networks
- Adapts to website changes
- Unlimited scalability
- Complete compliance with privacy regulations
5. Octoparse
Octoparse is a free Windows web scraping software that converts unstructured or semi-structured data from websites into structured data sets without the need for coding.
It’s a simple web scraping tool that collects information from the internet. Octoparse crawlers are determined by the extraction rules that have been set up.
The extraction rule would tell Octoparse which website to open and where the data you want to crawl is located. It allows for high-speed data collection with up to ten concurrent threads.
Key Features
- They support cloud and desktop platform
- Free Trials: A 14-day free trial with some restrictions is available.
- Pricing: $75 per month is the starting point.
- CSV, Excel, JSON, MySQL, SQLServer are examples of data output formats.
6. WebHarvy
WebHarvy is a sophisticated web scraper. WebHarvy can scrape data from websites automatically and save the scraped content in a variety of formats.
Scraping data from websites with WebHarvy is as simple as going to the pages that contain data and clicking on the data you want to grab.
WebHarvy will recognize data patterns in online pages in an intelligent way.
WebHarvy allows you to scrape data from a range of websites, including Real Estate, Ecommerce, Academic Research, Entertainment, and Technology, such as product catalogues or search results.
Key Features
- Pricing: A single-user licence costs $139.
- Trials are available for free. This item is not available.
- TXT, CSV, Excel, JSON, and XML are examples of data output formats. TSV, for example.
- Platforms that are supported include desktop and mobile.
What Is Zillow Scraping?
In the USA real estate realm, Zillow has its own widely spread clientele database. It isn’t by chance that Zillow became a trusted source for millions regarding renting, sale, and finance.
They put quite an effort into their listing algorithms along with adding flexibility to their privacy policy.
The assortments provided by platform include Zillow Home Loans, Zillow Homes, and Zillow Closing Services. Besides all these affiliations, real estate remains the cause of Zillow’s fame.
As a web scraper, coder, and property agent, you can use data scrapers to collect authentic data on sales, renting, mortgages, and pricing around the USA.
In the end, your Zillow scraper bots put real estate listing data at your fingertips, saving you countless hours of combing through listings in states all across the United States.
Scraper output can be in JSON, Excel, CSV, XML, HTML table, or RSS feed format.
How Does Zillow Scraping Work?
Web scraping is the process of obtaining data from websites using computer tools. There is a common procedure that applies to all websites, regardless of which one.
Although each website has its own eccentricities that can make scraping simpler or annoy you when trying to scrape it, there are a few common ones.
Zillow provides developer APIs that are to be integrated into their systems, such as Home Evaluation API and Property Details API. These APIs come in handy when it comes to Zillow scraping.
In terms of the number of queries, each API is capped up to 1000 queries per day.
Following the drawback of APIs, when you need data in the quality of your study, the request limit of APIs ruin the data collection making them useless.
When you need to acquire data in quantity for study, not only the request limit but the APIs as a whole are useless. A free API is available, but it can’t be used for scraping; therefore web crawlers can’t get any data from it.
In actuality, web scraping Zillow on a large scale requires prior experience in order to be successful. These precautions have been put in place by Zillow in order to prevent scraping and any type of automation from taking place.
If a scraper plans to get into Zillow, they should be aware that the company uses commercially accepted anti-scraping tools to prevent data from being scraped from their website.
Captcha, honeypot traps, IP analysis, velocity checks, and other undisclosed in-house procedures are all used to secure their data from scraping.
These anti-scraping tools aren’t highly effective but can be a pain if not dealt with caution. Scrapers that are pretty experienced can get around them easily. However, newbies struggle against them.
How To Scrape Zillow With Python and Beautifulsoup
This is specifically for those people who can code and program their own scraper according to certain requirements.
Don’t panic if you don’t know how to code as you can always choose from some of the best Zillow scrapers mentioned in this article.
Otherwise, you can create your own custom scraper to extract data from the Zillow website if you have coding abilities.
This world is saturated with various programming languages that provide you with the ability to scrap websites.
Languages like Java and Python are widely used for scraping.
Among those two, Python is highly recommended due to its scraping libraries and extensions such as Beautifulsoup. Scraping Zillow data is easy with Python and Beautifulsoup.
So what is that?
Simply put, a few random python developers programmed a scraping library that makes it easier to write source code again and again.
They actually named it Beautifulsoup and that immediately got the attention of other coders.
In the context of Zillow web scraping with Python you need this BeautifulSoup library followed by ‘Requests’. This way you can send HTTP requests for the HTML of the page you’re interested in easily.
Beautifulsoup is used to parse and retrieve the necessary information. Once you have installed these functions, you can begin with data scraping.
It is essential to acquire popular browsers while you plan to scrape Zillow. There are a lot of factors that are to be considered while designing your own scraper. Having a well-suited browser is definitely one of those.
But if you aren’t a programmer as mentioned before, don’t hesitate to use general scraping tools. They allow you to scrape data with all essential details and queries resolved.
Why Do You Need Proxies for Scraping Zillow?
Many websites dislike scraping, and some websites despise it. Like many other scraping bots, Zillow scrapers are limited and blocked.
Setting up the scraper with proxies, on the other hand, can assist the scraper to avoid detection while collecting useful data from websites.
As a result, premium proxies for scraping Zillow will be required to hide scraper activity, regardless of the type of data you will be gathering from Zillow.com. You can also utilize proxies for the following reasons.
Scrape Large Volume Of Data
Most websites, including Zillow, have rate limits of 500 requests per hour to avoid scraping large amounts of data. It’s difficult to process more than 600 queries each hour.
Bots, such as the Zillow data scraper, can send thousands of requests every hour, resulting in a temporary IP block if they aren’t configured with rotating proxies.
Although setting the Zillow scraper to scrape at a modest rate will help you avoid detection and probable IP banning, employing premium rotating proxies is the easiest way to get around zillow.com’s and other anti-scraping websites’ 500 requests per hour rate limit.
Enjoy Unrestricted Access to Zillow
Using proxies is your best option if you live in a section of the world where access to Zillow is geographically restricted or if you wish to access location-specific services.
You can use proxies to allow Zillow to access data from specified geographic locations or to circumvent geo-restrictions.
For example, as an agent traveling outside of the United States, you can set up the scraper with US rotating proxies to have unrestricted access to Zillow’s services regardless of your location.
Scrape Data Securely And Anonymously
Scraping data with a Zillow web scraper configured with proxies hides your identifying information from Zillow and unauthorized third parties, such as your IP address and location.
As a result, you stay anonymous online while your data and browsing activity are safeguarded from hackers and third-party browser cookies.
Final Thoughts
To conclude this article, it should be emphasized that scraping Zillow is not ethical at all.
While you can find ways to legalize it, there can be technicalities standing in the way as well.
Consult an attorney to determine whether the requirements of your use case makes it illegal.
If it doesn’t, and really want to use it constructively, then you can choose any one of the best Zillow scrapers that is suitable for your business needs.
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Written by Jason Wise
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