Geoffrey Moore couldn’t be more right when he said, “Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway.”
However, even with the importance of data in a digital world established, the debate remains about whether to use a web scraping tool or a service.
This blog is a guide to help you navigate the confusion of web scraping service vs. tool by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of each and finally figuring out which will benefit whom.
Web Scraping tool vs. Service: know the differences between the two here.
Web Scraping Tools
Before addressing the confusion between web scraping tools and services, let us first get our basics right.
What is a scraping tool?
A web scraping tool like ScrapeHero Cloud is a software program designed to automatically scrape data from websites.
How does a web scraping tool work?
- Target Selection: You provide the tool with the website URL or URLs from which you want to extract data.
- Data Identification: You tell the tool what specific data points you’re interested in, such as product prices and article titles.
- Data Extraction: The tool navigates the website and retrieves the data you want.
- Data Export: Finally, the tool allows you to export the extracted data into a structured format like a spreadsheet (CSV) or database (SQL) for further analysis.
Keep in mind that web scraping tools come in various forms, with some requiring programming knowledge and others offering user-friendly interfaces.
ScrapeHero Cloud is an online marketplace you can check out. It has many easy-to-use web scrapers and APIs designed to extract data from websites like Amazon, Walmart, Airbnb, etc.
Skip the hassle of installing software, programming and maintaining the code. Download this data using ScrapeHero cloud within seconds.If you don't like or want to code, ScrapeHero Cloud is just right for you!
Web Scraping Tools on ScrapeHero Cloud
Following are the major features and advantages of using the web scraping tools on ScrapeHero Cloud:
- Easy-to-use and pre-built scrapers that require no coding knowledge.
- Zero maintenance with website structure changes, blocking, etc taken care of.
- Provision to extract data periodically by scheduling scrapers hourly, daily, or weekly.
- Affordable solution with just $3.75 for scraping 1000 pages.
- Trial available to scrape upto 25 pages for free.
Try the easy-to-use and free-to-try web scraping tools on ScrapeHero Cloud.
Web Scraping Service
A web scraping service like ScrapeHero is an expert to whom you can outsource your web scraping requirements. They take care of all the processes involved in web scraping a website, from handling website changes to figuring out antibot methods to delivering consistent and quality-checked data.
The following processes will be taken care of by the web scraping service provider when you outsource your data requirements.
- Captcha handling
- Website changes
- Quality checking
- Data cleaning and formatting
- Scaling
- Software
- Infrastructure
- Data delivery
ScrapeHero is a web scraping service with over a decade of industry experience.
ScrapeHero Web Scraping Service
ScrapeHero is a fully managed enterprise-grade web scraping service with 11,600+ customers.
When you choose ScrapeHero as your data-scraping partner, you will have the following benefits:
- Since we are a full-service data provider, you won’t need software, hardware, proxies, scraping tools, or skills.
- Your privacy will never be compromised. We respect your privacy and do not reveal any details regarding your identity.
- The data you receive will be error-free and of high quality. We have automated quality checks that utilize AI and ML.
- Scaling according to your requirements will not be an issue because of our capable crawling infrastructure.
- Be it JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or something else, we can deliver the data to your convenience.
- We have a competitive replacement program that will easily accommodate you if you have been using the services of another web scraping provider but want to quit.
- We can offer a customized plan that fits your business well.
Web Scraping Tool vs. Service, a Comparison
Now that we know what a web scraping service and a web scraping tool are let’s compare their differences.
| Web Scraping Tool |
Web Scraping Service |
|
| Scalability | Limited scalability | Scalable to handle any data volume |
| Technical Expertise | Might require, in some cases | No technical expertise required |
| Ability to Scrape Complex Websites | Might not be the right fit | Complexity will not be an issue |
| Customization | Customization options are limited | Can be customized according to requirements |
| Legality | Users might need to take care of the legal aspects | Will be handled by the service provider |
| Cost Effectiveness | An affordable option for small-scale scraping | Affordable in case of large-scale scraping |
Which is the Best: Web Scraping Services vs. Tools
A comparison of web scraping service vs. tools takes us to the simplest of answers. The best between the two really depends on you; your needs, your expertise and the resources and time you can spend on data extraction.
If you know the technicalities and legalities of web scraping, and the data you need is not huge, a web scraping tool might work for you.
Data scraper tools on ScrapeHero Cloud are easy to use and, hence, a reliable option for even non-technical users.
But, a web scraping service like ScrapeHero will be the best way to go if your data requirements are large and require customization.
Your job will end with the initial consultation with ScrapeHero to let us know your specific needs. Your custom plan will include everything from handling antibot measures to monitoring for website changes to scraping without interruption to finally delivering quality data.
Partner with ScrapeHero web scraping services if you are in search of a reliable service provider who can do everything for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best tool for web scraping depends on your technical expertise and needs.
If you are looking for user-friendly tools, cloud-based platforms like ScrapeHero have many easy-to-use scrapers. They are available to scrape platforms such as Amazon, Airbnb, Walmart etc.
