Proxies For Web Scraping – Know Your Best Options
In today’s world, when cybercriminals, competitors, and government agencies keep an eye on everything you’re doing, it’s not wise and recommended to leave traces in the online world. Gladly, there is a way to make it happen. A proxy server is no less than a blessing when online privacy is at stake. It’s suggested for everyone, even if you’re involved in web scraping. Read the post to know what role proxies play in web scraping and why you should use one.
Related articles you will find useful:
- Residential Proxy Guide 2023 – Everything That You Must Know
- Your One-Stop Guide to Web Proxy [With Steps to Use it]
- Reverse Proxy Guide To Refer in 2023
Proxies For Web Scraping – Why You Need Them
Web scraping is the process of extracting freely available internet data. It is handy for market research, academic research, and other business-specific research. But not every website permits using its website data. They use web scraper blocking technology to protect their data. The core of this web scraper blocking technology is finding the IP address.
With the help of an IP address, anyone can identify an internet user. Websites that don’t want their data to share will block the IP address and make the website inaccessible.
It is a huge hindrance to face when you’re scraping the internet at large. You will be disconnected repeatedly. Even if a website allows web scraping, it can limit the requests per source/device/user. You won’t be able to scrape the data after reaching a certain limit.
The next issue you might face while performing data scraping at large is that you won’t be able to scrape the data of certain locations. Some data is geo-restricted and won’t be easily available.
As a remedy, the proxy server divides your request among several proxies, making it appear as if it is coming from several different users instead of 1 particular user. As a result, the target sites will not alarm their limits.
If you don’t want these things to bother you, try using proxies for web scraping. The best proxies for web scraping can effortlessly hide the IP address and fail the IP blocking technology. When you connect with a proxy server, your actual IP address is replaced by a faux or proxy IP address. So, websites won’t be able to recognize your actual identity and block you.
If you’re using a proxy with multiple servers, you will have access to various IP addresses that will help you bypass the request limit. You can switch your IP addresses and prevent sending bulk scraping requests from a single IP address.
Proxies for web scraping are useful to provide you with instant access to global data. You can connect to a proxy server situated at a different location and easily bypass the geo-restrictions.
For instance, if you’re in the UK (VPN for the UK) and an Australian website isn’t available in your region (VPN for Australia), try using the best proxy for web scraping. You can connect with the Australia-based proxy server, get a local IP address, and easily access the geo-restricted website.
All in all, proxies for web scraping are here to make web scraping unrestricted, secure, and limitless.
The IP address-related articles may truly help:
- How to Hide My IP Address: All Ways Explained [2023]
- How to Get a Fake IP Mask Your Online Presence in 4 Easy Steps
- How To Change My IP and Why it’s a Must – The Secrets Are Out
Paid v/s Free Proxies For Web Scraping – Which One To Pick
Proxies are offered as open-source and paid services. From the above text, it’s clear that using a proxy is the easiest way to make your web scraping smoother than ever. But the real question here is whether to pick a free or a paid proxy for web scraping.
Even though free proxies for web scraping may sound tempting, we still suggest not going with them. With free proxies for web scraping, you can end up with data logging, poor speed, limited IP addresses, too many ads, and many other troubles.
On the contrary to this, you will have a great experience with paid proxies for web scraping. At peanuts’ cost, paid proxies will grant you great peace of mind. They will offer numerous IP addresses, great data privacy, amazing speed, and added features. They even have customer care support to fix any issues and troubles you’re experiencing during their usage.
With all these benefits, paid proxies for web scraping are not easy to overlook.
|
Free Proxies |
Paid Proxies |
|
Tempting because no cost involved. |
Expensive for non-frequent activities or users. |
|
You may face data logging. |
There are no-log proxies that won’t analyze or record the data. Great data protection too. |
|
Poor browsing speed and bad user experience. |
High-speed and additional premium features ensure an excellent user experience. |
|
Limited IP addresses. |
Multiple IP addresses are available for use. Private IPs are offered. |
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Too many advertisements. |
No ads to frustrate users. |
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No support |
Users can take customer support’s help. |
|
Consider SPYS, FreeProxy.cz, or Open Proxy if you want to use public IPs. You can also take the trial of the enlisted paid proxies to figure out the suitable choice for you. |
You may try Smartproxy, Bright Data, Smart DNS Proxy, and HideMyAss-like proxies. |
What Types Of Proxies Are Good For Web Scraping?
Proxies are of various kinds, and if you’re planning to use a proxy for web scraping, it’s imperative to find out which kind of proxy is best for web scraping. Well, we suggest dedicated and residential proxies for web scraping.
Dedicated proxies are used only by you, which is not the case with shared proxies. Shared proxies are with you today and with someone else tomorrow. There is a high chance that the IP address that you get with the shared proxy service is already blocked because of the ill activities of its previous user. Dedicated proxies are there only for you. So, nothing of this sort will happen.
Residential proxies are attached to a real device. Web scrapers often have to deal with a CAPTCHA to give scraping a human touch.
With residential proxies, you can make scraping bots humanized as they will have a valid and real-time IP address. With them, you don’t have to submit CAPTCHA again and again. This will make scraping swift.
Other types of proxies:
- ISP Proxies 101 [Updated for 2023 Readers]
- YouTube Proxy Guide To Refer in 2023
- SOCKS5 Proxy – What, Why, And How
How To Set Up Proxies on AWS For Web Scraping?
Setting up proxies on AWS for web scraping is easy as it supports proxy usage.
You can easily configure the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environments. You have two ways to make it happen. You can DNS domain name. If you don’t have a DNS domain name, you can use the IP address.
In both cases, you must enter the colon, followed by a port name, to complete the command. The setup isn’t complete if you don’t authenticate the proxy. The default proxy authentication technique is HTTP Basic authentication.
You need to mention the username and password in the proxy URL. That’s it.
Why Must You Try Using Web Debugging Proxy For Web Scraping?
Web debugging proxy is a tool that is helpful in the easy HTTP request and traffic logging and intercepting. Everything from requests to HTTP headers will be logged with a web debugging proxy. They are quite useful in app testing and are preferred when performing extensive HTTP data scraping.
Final Say
Web scraping is necessary if you want to hold quality and dominant data. But, the process is not risk-free and easy. Geo-restrictions, request limits, and instant blocking are some of the key impediments. A proxy brings great relief by fixing all these issues in one shot. Try it today and improve your web scraping.
Related articles:
- Learn Everything About Proxy Settings
- Reverse Proxy Guide To Refer in 2023
- A Detailed Guide On Torrent Proxy
FAQs
You don’t have to do anything extra to use a proxy scraper. The only thing that you need to do is use the best proxies for web scraping and install it. Once it’s successfully installed, the scraper will start enjoying hidden IP addresses, easy geo-bypassing, and getting rid of limitations.
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