Today’s market is very competitive. To grow your business, you need to outsmart your competitors. One way of doing it is utilizing innovative technologies, like web scraping. What is web scraping? When you need to extract important data from your competitor’s site, like item price and review, this is where web scraping comes to play. It allows you to collect key information effortlessly. You can analyze the data to position your business on the market strategically. As a result, you can gain a competitive advantage. There are plenty of web scraping tools available online. But which is the best one? Can it really make your life easier? In this article, you will find all the details.
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What Is Web Scraping?
Web scraping is the process of extracting data from a website. You can store the data in a structured format for later use. For example, you can download the datasets in CSV format. Later, you can manipulate the data for further analysis. The method has been widely used for market research, price monitoring, news monitoring, and lead generation.
Read: Is Web Scraping Legal? What You Need To Know
What Are The Different Types Of Web Scrapers?
There are four types of web scrapers. They are:
1. Pre-built
Pre-built web scrapers have all the features required for scraping the sites. Therefore, you don’t have to spend time and money to build your own tool.
2. Browser Extensions
Browser extensions are great for scraping small portions of data. To conveniently scrape web pages, you can add them to your favorite surfing tools, like Safari or Chrome. They are very easy to use. Simply choose the way you want to scrape the web page, and the data will be downloaded in CSV format.
However, there are some limitations. Their functionalities are limited in your browser. Therefore, you cannot implement any advanced features that work outside the online surfing tool. For example, you cannot perform IP rotations with browser extensions. Also, you cannot scrape more than one page simultaneously.
3. Installable Software
As the name suggests, you must install this web scraper on your PC. All you have to do is perform the appropriate configuration. Once done, you are ready to scrape the website and extract the information.
You can download the data in CSV or any other format. Unlike browser extensions, you can scrape multiple web pages simultaneously. It is suitable for extracting small to medium chunks of data.
4. Cloud-Based Web Scraper
Cloud-based web scraper is considered to be the most robust solution. It doesn’t require you to download the tool on your PC. Simply configure your plan and requirement. Once you do this, you can extract the data through the API.
Cloud-based web scraper is suitable for extracting large amounts of data, and it runs in multiple computing environments. As a result, there is no upper cap on the amount of data that you want to extract.
Read: Everything You Need To Know About Automated Web Scraping In Python
How Can I Easily Perform Web Scraping?
You can easily scrape web pages by using a web scraper API. It supports all data-friendly languages, including Python and PHP. Also, it can automatically load and read the entire website. The web scrapper API has access to surface-level data. Also, it can read a website’s HTML code, CSS stylesheet, and Javascript elements.
You can set the web scraper API to collect a specific type of data from multiple websites. Also, you can instruct it to read and duplicate all data that isn’t encrypted by a Robot.txt file.
Read: The Future Of Web Scraping Tools
What Is The Best Python API For Web Scraping In 2022?
The best Python web scraper API of 2022 is Zenscrape. It is powerful and lightning fast. You can use it to quickly scrape multiple websites. Also, Zenscrape is very easy to use. Besides, it supports all the popular programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, PHP, Java, and C#.
Why Zenscrape Is The Best Python API For Web Scraping in 2022?
- Delivers lightning-fast response time
- Provides generous QPS limitations, offers 1000 API requests per month for free
- Utilizes a huge proxy pool with millions of IPs
- Supports automatic proxy location
- Provides comprehensive documentation
Can Zenscrape Help Me To Perform Web Scraping Effortlessly?
Zenscrape helps you quickly scrape web pages by writing just a few lines of code. You just need to pass the API key and the website URL. Then simply specify the elements you want to scrape, and the API will do the rest. Therefore, you don’t have to do anything from scratch. Everything is built into the API. As a result, you will not face any hassle. Let’s take a look at a practical example.
How Can I Scrape Web Pages In Python?
1. First, you have to import requests.
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import requests |
2. Then you have to create a new variable, called headers. Here, you need to include your API key.
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headers = { "apikey": "YOUR-APIKEY"} |
3. Next, you have to create another variable, called params. Here, you need to include different parameters, including website URL, country, premium, and render.
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params = ( ("url","https://httpbin.org/ip"), ("premium","true"), ("country","de"), ("render","true"), ); |
4. Then you have to store the response of the API in a variable, called response.
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response = requests.get('https://app.zenscrape.com/api/v1/get', headers=headers, params=params); |
5. Finally, you can print the API response with this line:
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print(response.text) |
Overall, the code will look like this:
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import requests headers = { "apikey": "YOUR-APIKEY"} params = ( ("url","https://httpbin.org/ip"), ("premium","true"), ("country","de"), ("render","true"), ); response = requests.get('https://app.zenscrape.com/api/v1/get', headers=headers, params=params); print(response.text) |
That’s how you use Zenscrape to perform web scraping in Python. As you can see, it takes just a few lines of code. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes. As a result, you can quickly scrape websites and collect important data.
Should You Use Zenscrape For Web Scraping?
Zenscrape is a powerful web scraping API. It offers a lightning-fast response time. Also, Zenscrape is very easy to use, and it doesn’t require you to get involved in a lot of coding, and you can get the job done with just a few lines. Besides, Zenscrape supports all the popular programming languages, including Python, PHP, and JavaScript.
On top of that, it offers user-friendly documentation, and it can make your life a lot easier. So, you should definitely consider using Zenscrape for web scraping.
