Everything That You Need to Know About Web Scraping Extensions

Web scraping is legal and the need of the hour if one needs to harvest the power of data in full swing. But the task isn’t easy or quick. A lot of effort goes into gathering the vast amount of data the internet offers. What if you have an extension that will collect the public data automatically?

Well, this is possible. In this post, we will discuss the best web scraping extensions and why you should use them.

Learn more about web scraping and all its aspects with the following articles:

• Excel Web Scraping Solutions To Try Out Today
• Proxies For Web Scraping – Know Your Best Options
• A Crisp Guide On Web Scraping Tools [List Included]

Web Scraping Extension – What and Why

In our previous posts, we have extensively covered the meaning of web scraping. Here, we will only remind you that if you want to rule over the digital world, you need to use web scraping, as this technique helps you access public internet data in bulk.

With the help of an automated web scraper, you can scrape tons of websites in the blink of an eye. So, you must not ignore its power. In fact, you should start doing web scraping today.

But, the task could be too daunting to handle. As if this wasn’t enough, one has to face other web scraping hurdles, such as mandatory logins before scraping a website and a complicated authentication process.

If some websites ask for a login to the browser as well, you’ll have a tough time scraping its data. Many dynamic websites have extensive authentication measures in place that will stop a website from scraping its data. That is where a web scraping extension comes into play.

It’s basically pre-built cloud-based software that can be installed on browsers as an extension and automatically collects the data of every website you visit.

The web scraping extensions don’t require reinstallation and will allow you to download the data in the format of your choice. It remains active and continues scraping the web as long as you want.

Using a web scraper extension is preferred because:

• It allows one to collect data automatically
• It will scrape every website that you visit
• There is not too much installation and setup work required to make this software work
• You can even fully customize the web scraping process
• Data download is possible in CSV and Excel file format and whenever you want
• You have exclusive features like dynamic website scraping, proxy, and parsing capabilities to help you enjoy unrestricted web scraping.

With all these benefits, a web scraper is a viable means to make things smooth, quick, and accurate during web scraping.

Who Needs Web Scraping Extension

Now that the meaning and significance of web scraping extensions are clear, it’s time to find out who needs them. Well, it is a must-have tool if:

• You’re a digital marketing agency and need bulk data for promotions and campaigns
• You’re a researcher and academician and need a considerable amount of data for research purposes without getting involved in the heavy installation and setup
• You’re an organization trying to find out the exact customer requirements to make service delivery highly optimized

Basically, it’s a valuable tool for everyone who needs an easy way out of scraping public data without being involved in heavy installation and setup.

Best Web Scraping Extensions for Different Browsers

Excited to try a web scraping extension and need the right choice to make? Refer to the list below.

Web scraping extensions for Chrome

Do you lack time badly? Have a look at this table to learn about all extensions at once:

Chrome is indeed the most preferred browser. Over 2.56 billion people use Chrome as their default browser, meaning you’ll have tons of data available to scrape.

With the help of a paid or free web scraping extension for Chrome, you will have an instant hold over freely available internet data. So, you must try out one today. Here are some of the best options available.

Webscraper.io

A web scraping extension with an intuitive interface, Webscraper.io is super-fast and highly accurate. It works well on dynamic websites as well. No installation and setup hassles are there to face.

The extension is preferred by many because of its endless capabilities. The scraper permits you to create an entire sitemap to discover how a website can be traversed and which data is worth extracting. If it’s too much data extraction, a sitemap simplifies the entire job. It supports CSV data extraction.

Once you know about its features, you will find out that it’s built for the modern era. With its point-and-click interface, there is no need to see the coding, as you can extract the data by pointing and clicking. It supports quick data extraction from dynamic websites as well. Don’t want to keep a watch over time to extract data? Try its scheduler feature, which will start automatic data extraction as per your preferences. It also has an in-built proxy to help you have rotational IP addresses, making scraper blocking impossible. All in all, this is indeed one of the best and most advanced web scraping Chrome extensions available.

Downloads Till Date: 400,000+ users

Ratings: 4.0

Customer Support: Community & Email Support

Tutorial: Video tutorial and documentation

• Fully automated web scraping
• Free trial for local use
• Data download is possible in CSV, XLSX, and JSON format

Grepsr

Try it if you want to scrape dynamic or any other kind of website and convert the data in API. With its point-and-click interface, you can turn any internet data into an API. No coding knowledge is required to use this tool.

Downloads Till Date: 10,000+ users
Ratings: 3.6
Tutorial: Single documentation
Customer Support: Email & Chat Support

• Web scraping scheduling
• Direct data export in Dropbox, Google Drive, and FTP

Data Scraper

Don’t want to spend money while enjoying accurate and extensive web scraping on Chrome? Try Data Scraper. This simple yet powerful web scraping Chrome extension will make your data rich in no time.

The best part of this extension is that it brings data to your disposal in a highly sorted and formatted manner.

Both the paid and free versions exist. If your web scraping requirements are not too extensive, the free version will do, as it lets you scrape 500 pages per month. Upgrades to paid versions can be done at any time.

Downloads Till Date: 200,000+

Ratings: 4.0

Customer Support and Tutorial: Yes

• Institutive interface
• Enough web scraping is offered with a free version
• Beginner-friendly

Scraper 

Not many of us are aware of the Scraper web scraping Chrome extension, as it doesn’t have a website of its own. Because of this, some even find it a fake tool. However, once you start using it, you will be able to see how valid this extension is. It’s an open-source tool that can easily extract data from websites and convert it into spreadsheets.

The only downside of this tool is that it’s not easy to use. You can make the most out of it only when you know how to work with XPath. So, it’s only for professional scrapers.

Downloads Till Date: 100,000

Ratings: 4.0

Customer Support and Tutorial: Not disclosed

• Supports CSV, Excel, and TXT for data output
• A preset feature is offered
• Lightweight

Hunter.io

If the prime goal of your web scraping strategy is to get email addresses in abundance, then you must try Hunter.io, as the Chrome extension is skilled in specialized email extraction. Whether you need the email of a specific professional or a particular domain, this extension will surely make it happen. But you need to spend money to avail of its services. It’s not a free extension. However, a limited free trial is offered for sure.

Downloads Till Date: 500,000+

Ratings: 5

Customer Support and Tutorial: Yes

• Email verifier tool to check the authenticity of emails
• Trusted by over 2 million professionals
• Deliverable results

Have a look at this table to gather a crisp overview of the best Chrome extensions.

Web extensions for Firefox

After Chrome, the preferred choice is Firefox (VPN for Firefox). It has over 150 million users worldwide and is loved by its users because of its less space consumption ability. Also, it supports open and free web usage.

If you want to scrape Firefox data, try the options below.

Web Scraper

It is a free web scraping extension for Mozilla Firefox that allows you to construct a site map to decide which kind of data you should collect and scrape it in CSV format. The highly advanced modular selector engine makes it adaptable enough to scrape any specific site.

The extension keeps updating its version so users only get the best aid. You can extract data from a single URL for only 120 minutes. Recently. The extension added element preview features that display spotted element count.

Downloads Till Date: 8,000+ users
Ratings: 4.1
Customer Support: Email & Chat Support
Tutorial: Single documentation and video tutorials,

• Can scrape various data types
• Easy import and export of sitemap
• Extract data from dynamic pages

Spider Pro

It’s a paid but powerful Firefox web scraper tool to try out today if you need to scrape websites in an entirely organized manner. It lets you save scraped data in CSV and JSON format.

Downloads Till Date: 83 users
Ratings: 1.0
Customer Support and Tutorial: Not Disclosed

• One-time payment for unlimited web scraping
• No heavy installation and setup to get involved in

Scraper.AI By Roadwork.io

Scraper.AI is a SaaS-based Firefox web scraping extension by Roadwork.io. It will help you extract or mine data from any website or webpage. All you need to do is select and click the data. There is a helpful API offered as well. As it’s recently launched, not many reviews and ratings are offered. But it’s worth a try.

Downloads Till Date: 291
Ratings: 3.0
Customer Support and Tutorial: Not Disclosed

• Automatic dataset creation
• Stocks and Crypto Monitoring
• Sales lead generation

get-set-fetch

get-set, Fetch is available on GitHub for free. It works on Chrome (VPN for Chrome) and Edge as well. It’s an open-source web scraper that anyone can use without being a pro coder. Even though it’s not very old, it impresses us with its great features and capabilities. For instance, it proffers multiple data extraction scenarios to fulfill all your requirements.

Downloads Till Date: 80 users

Ratings: 5.0

Customer Support and Tutorial: Detailed series of tutorials and email support

• Capable of exporting binary data
• Minimal configuration
• Various kinds of scraping capabilities

See this table for a quick overview of the best Firefox web scraping extensions.

Web extensions for Safari/Edge/Opera

Note: Microsoft Edge allows you to install extensions from other browser stores, such as Chrome.

Safari (VPN for Safari), Edge, and Opera (VPN for Opera) are a few other viable browser options. They have limited reach but are still in the competition. Safari is also for iOS (VPN for iPhone) and macOS users (VPN for Mac), while Edge is a Microsoft-created browser with great features. Opera is outdated now but still preferred by someone who loves speed and needs a browser with a smaller footprint. We present you with some tremendous web-scraping extensions for all of these.

Data Miner

Data Miner is a proper HTML web page data scraper that Edge users can install today. The extension can add extra data mentioned in lists and tables of all sorts and upload them in Excel or Google Sheets. Multiple file formats like XLS, CSV, XLSX, or TSV files are supported. Even though it’s a paid subscription-based scraper, you can enjoy data scraping of 500 pages. The paid version proffers highly advanced scraping features.

It comes with an SEO tool that makes data scraping more optimized. While you have it by your side, there is no need to outsource your sourcing, converting, and crawling.

• Automatically fill out registration forms
• Automated crawling of paginated websites
• Good for email Extraction
• Image scraping is possible

GrabzIt’s Web Scraping Assistant

As mentioned above, Opera is not that much preferred nowadays. So, we weren’t able to find a dedicated web scraping extension for this browser. But we have something to suggest that will help you build a workable web scraper for Opera. You can use Grabzlt Web Scraping Assistance to build a highly customized web scraper if you know the nitty-gritty of creating a web scraper. You can efficiently rewrite the URL and scrape the data of your choice.

• Highly intuitive interface
• Quick response

Octoparse

Octoparse is an excellent Safari web scraping extension that works well on macOS. Along with macOS, it even works with Windows (VPN for Windows). It’s an open-source tool with powerful features. It is a cloud platform and doesn’t require heavy installation or configuration.

Just click, and it will start scraping the web on a large scale. For extensive requirements, there is a paid version is offered.

• Fast extraction speed
• Robust compatibility
• 14-day premium trial
• Data can be exported in CSV, MySQL databases, and many more formats.

Conclusion

Web scraping is the need of the hour, and one must invest in it even if it’s tedious and time-consuming. To bring ease to the process, the ideal way is to use an automated web scraping extension for the browser. Without asking for too much setup and installation, this tool lets you scrape the data of your choice as you browse the internet.

We discussed many reliable paid and free web scraping extensions for different browsers. Try them out today and share your experience.

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