Data is the new currency. Big corporations have known this for decades and collected user data ever since. Small businesses are catching up, although rather slowly. New options to acquire data are emerging, and most of them are based on web scraping.
The current market conditions will require you to make a decision. Should you build a custom web scraper or choose something already pre-built? We will consider the available options in this article.
What’s a Web Scraper?
Web scraping is the process of automatically collecting online data using automated bots. These software solutions, often fueled by artificial intelligence, can make the process of collecting data a matter of a couple of clicks. The process takes three steps – crawling, extracting, and converting.
A crawler bot first visits target websites and makes a list of all the available data. Usually, there’s a lot of information that’s irrelevant to you, so at this step already, you can choose what data should be looked for. Then, a list of URLs is compiled along with what might be extracted.
At this stage, you only have indexes of available data and some possible targets that can be crawled further. Good web scrapers will offer you further targets and will allow you to compile a long list of things to extract.
After you are satisfied with the depth of your URL list, you can start extracting. It involves the bot visiting each URL and loading the data according to your parameters. Here is the part that might need some customization.
Websites might block some data from extraction deliberately or mix it with UI elements unintentionally. Custom scrapers can be built specifically for some websites, while with pre-built scrapers, you’ll need to rely on the settings that are readily available.
Data extraction is the last step. It involves downloading the data and converting it to a needed format. Usually, it’s JSON, XML, HTML, or a simple CSV format sheet. The rest depends on what you need to do with it. Most small businesses use it for lead generation, competitor analysis, price monitoring, or similar business tasks.
It all might sound complicated, but a good web scraper takes only a couple of minutes to finalize everything. However, making data clean of what’s irrelevant might make you go back and forth a lot. That’s one of the main reasons why companies choose to build their web scrapers.
Making Your Own Web Scraper
Unlike big tech, small businesses ain’t gonna collect data from hundreds of websites. Usually, it’s only a few competitors or their social media that’s enough. If it ain’t a widely known website, pre-built scrapers might lack presets for them.
A custom web scraper could be made specifically to bypass the anti-bot measures of needed websites, deal with complications from their UI, and allow you to control the data flow better. The main drawback here is that, well, you need to build it yourself.
Extensive knowledge of Python is necessary to build a good web scraper. The process is made easier by scraping libraries and creating a good database. It isn’t that hard to pull off for a good Python programmer, but with no prior knowledge, the process is complicated.
In the long run, it is a cheaper and more efficient solution. There are plenty of specialists building such tools for companies, and once you have a tool, you don’t need to pay for a subscription. However, there are other expenses.
You’ll Still Need Proxies
Unless you’ll be storing all the data you collect for decades, storage space won’t be a problem. Most companies already have enough server space to supply their data storage needs. Proxy servers are a different story that many businesses don’t expect.
Proxy servers are intermediaries that can change the IP address of your scraper bot. This is needed because websites tend to ban competitor IPs from collecting data, and they impose geo-restrictions. Simply put, websites provide different data depending on what IP address you use when browsing.
Providers like IPRoyal or PrivateProxy offer proxy servers without upselling you any pre-built scrapers. You are likely to save money from such providers as you’ll simply get proxy credentials to use as you like.
Pre-built Web Scrapers
If programming your own web scraper is too difficult, you have two options. There are dedicated web scraping services and proxy providers who offer web scraping tools. Both options will require you to compromise somewhere.
Web scraping tools, like Octoparse and ParseHub, have fine-tuned their tools so much that you don’t need any coding experience to start. Sometimes, it’s enough to mark the elements you want to scrape visually, and the tool does everything else. All proxy providers are compatible with such tools.
Getting a scraper from your proxy provider is convenient because you purchase everything from one source. However, there’s usually a catch as you overpay for one or the other. Oxylabs is one of the first proxy providers to start offering web scrapers along with their proxies.
However, you won’t find their web scrapers often recommended in web scraping communities. Oxylabs alternatives, such as BrightData or SOAX, offer comparably good web scrapers, although you are also likely to overpay for proxies.
Proxies are the main expense when web scraping, but buying a web scraper tool from a provider isn’t always a good idea. Their tools won’t be compatible with proxies from other providers, so you will be stuck with the prices they ask you to pay.
My recommendation is to choose pre-built scrapers from Octoparse and ParseHub and proxies from providers that won’t try to upsell your scrapers.
Final Words
Each solution has its drawbacks, but if there’s enough need for data, you’ll find a way. A good strategy I see many companies take is to start with a simpler solution and then build it into something better. Most of the time, this is using a web scraping service and later hiring developers to create a customer web scraper.
