Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apify VS Screen Scraper

Compare Apify VS Screen Scraper and see what are their differences

Apify logo Apify

Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.

Screen Scraper logo Screen Scraper

Screen Scraper is a web data extraction tool that allows users to extract data from any website according to their requirement and save it online or download it.
  • Apify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30

Apify is a JavaScript & Node.js based data extraction tool for websites that crawls lists of URLs and automates workflows on the web. With Apify you can manage and automatically scale a pool of headless Chrome / Puppeteer instances, maintain queues of URLs to crawl, store crawling results locally or in the cloud, rotate proxies and much more.

  • Screen Scraper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-07-02

Apify features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Apify provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for users of all technical levels to create and manage web scraping tasks.
  • Scalability
    Apify is built to handle tasks of various sizes, from small-scale projects to enterprise-level operations, making it a scalable solution.
  • Integration and API Support
    It offers extensive API support, allowing for seamless integration with other tools and systems to enhance automated workflows.
  • Customizability
    Users can customize their scraping bots (actors) with different settings and scripts to fit specific needs and requirements.
  • Cloud-based
    Being a cloud-based platform, Apify allows users to run their scraping tasks without needing local resources, which is convenient and efficient.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Apify provides thorough documentation and tutorials, which help users get started quickly and solve issues efficiently.
  • Community and Support
    Apify has an active community and solid customer support to assist users with their needs and enhance their overall experience.

Possible disadvantages of Apify

  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, there may still be a learning curve for those new to web scraping and automation.
  • Cost
    Apify can be expensive compared to other web scraping tools, particularly for extensive use cases that require high volumes of data.
  • Dependency on External Factors
    Web scraping often depends on the stability of the target websites. Changes in website structures can break scripts, requiring ongoing maintenance.
  • Performance Limitations
    The performance of cloud-based scraping tasks can be affected by network latency and other external factors beyond user control.
  • Potential Legal Issues
    Web scraping can raise legal concerns, particularly when scraping data from websites that restrict such activities in their terms of service.
  • Resource Intensity
    Complex scraping tasks can be resource-intensive, potentially requiring higher-tier subscriptions and more computing resources, driving up costs.

Screen Scraper features and specs

  • Versatility
    Screen Scraper can extract data from websites that use a variety of technologies, making it a versatile tool for different scraping needs.
  • Customization
    The tool offers customizable scraping scripts, allowing users to tailor their data extraction processes to meet specific requirements.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Screen Scraper provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of setting up scraping tasks, even for those with limited technical knowledge.
  • Data Export Options
    The software supports multiple data export formats, such as CSV and XML, providing flexibility in how users manage and utilize scraped data.
  • Scheduling
    Screen Scraper allows users to schedule scraping tasks to run automatically at specified times, enhancing workflow automation.

Possible disadvantages of Screen Scraper

  • Cost
    The software is not free, and the cost might be prohibitive for individual users or small businesses with limited budgets.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there can be a learning curve for new users, particularly when dealing with advanced features and complex scraping scripts.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Screen Scraper relies on a stable internet connection for its operations, which could be a limitation in areas with unreliable connectivity.
  • Legal and Ethical Concerns
    Users must be aware of legal and ethical considerations surrounding web scraping, as inappropriate use could lead to violations of terms of service or legal consequences.
  • Performance Limitations
    For extremely large-scale projects, the software might face performance limitations compared to more robust, custom-built scraping tools and solutions.

Apify videos

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Screen Scraper videos

No Screen Scraper videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apify and Screen Scraper)
Web Scraping
90 90%
10% 10
Data Extraction
90 90%
10% 10
Data
88 88%
12% 12
Web Scraping API
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apify and Screen Scraper

Apify Reviews

Top 15 Best TinyTask Alternatives in 2022
This is another tinytask alternative. For you to link various web services and APIs, Apify has provided many web integration options. You can add data processing and customised computation processes in addition to letting the data flow between them. With the data that is freely accessible on the web, you may provide crucial insights, and easy lead creation allows you to...

Screen Scraper Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apify seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 26 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apify mentions (26)

  • How to scrape TikTok using Python
    For deployment, we'll use the Apify platform. It's a simple and effective environment for cloud deployment, allowing efficient interaction with your crawler. Call it via API, schedule tasks, integrate with various services, and much more. - Source: dev.to / about 18 hours ago
  • How to scrape Bluesky with Python
    We already have a fully functional implementation for local execution. Let us explore how to adapt it for running on the Apify Platform and transform in Apify Actor. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Web scraping with GPT-4o: powerful but expensive
    We've had the best success by first converting the HTML to a simpler format (i.e. markdown) before passing it to the LLM. There are a few ways to do this that we've tried, namely Extractus[0] and dom-to-semantic-markdown[1]. Internally we use Apify[2] and Firecrawl[3] for Magic Loops[4] that run in the cloud, both of which have options for simplifying pages built-in, but for our Chrome Extension we use... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Current problems and mistakes of web scraping in Python and tricks to solve them!
    Developed by Apify, it is a Python adaptation of their famous JS framework crawlee, first released on Jul 9, 2019. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Show HN: Crawlee for Python – a web scraping and browser automation library
    Hey all, This is Jan, the founder of [Apify](https://apify.com/)—a full-stack web scraping platform. After the success of [Crawlee for JavaScript](https://github.com/apify/crawlee/) today! The main features are: - A unified programming interface for both HTTP (HTTPX with BeautifulSoup) & headless browser crawling (Playwright). - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
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Screen Scraper mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Screen Scraper yet. Tracking of Screen Scraper recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apify and Screen Scraper, you can also consider the following products

import.io - Import. io helps its users find the internet data they need, organize and store it, and transform it into a format that provides them with the context they need.

Diggernaut - Web scraping is just became easy. Extract any website content and turn it into datasets. No programming skills required.

Scrapy - Scrapy | A Fast and Powerful Scraping and Web Crawling Framework

Agenty - Machine Intelligence, Web scraping tool

ParseHub - ParseHub is a free web scraping tool. With our advanced web scraper, extracting data is as easy as clicking the data you need.

Octoparse - Octoparse provides easy web scraping for anyone. Our advanced web crawler, allows users to turn web pages into structured spreadsheets within clicks.