Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Simple Scraper VS YOURLS

Compare Simple Scraper VS YOURLS and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Simple Scraper logo Simple Scraper

Extract data from any website in seconds โ€” download instantly, scrape in the cloud, or create an API.

YOURLS logo YOURLS

YOURLS is a website that contains all the tools you need to create and launch your very own URL shortener. URL shorteners like bitly or TinyURL are fine for public use, but they offer limited options in terms of URL customization.
  • Simple Scraper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-29

Simple scraper is the easiest way to scrape the web โ€” turn any website into an API in seconds and use ready-made scraping recipes to scrape popular sites with ease.

  • YOURLS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-18

Simple Scraper

$ Details
freemium $30.0 / Monthly (6,000 credits)
Release Date
2019 November

YOURLS

Website
yourls.org
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Release Date
-

Simple Scraper features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    SimpleScraper offers a user-friendly interface that allows even those without technical knowledge to easily extract data from websites.
  • Speed
    The tool allows for fast data extraction, reducing the time needed to gather information manually.
  • Automation
    Users can set up automated scraping tasks to run at regular intervals, which is useful for keeping data up-to-date without manual intervention.
  • API Access
    SimpleScraper provides API access, allowing developers to integrate scraping functionality into their own applications seamlessly.
  • Browser Extension
    The tool offers a browser extension, making it convenient to set up scraping tasks directly from the browser.

Possible disadvantages of Simple Scraper

  • Cost
    Advanced features and higher usage limits come with a subscription fee, which may not be feasible for all users.
  • Website Restrictions
    Some websites employ measures to prevent scraping, which may limit the effectiveness of SimpleScraper on such sites.
  • Data Quality
    Automated scraping can sometimes result in incomplete or inaccurate data, requiring manual verification.
  • Learning Curve
    Though designed to be user-friendly, there can still be a learning curve for those completely new to web scraping.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple or complex scraping tasks can be resource-intensive and may affect the performance of your system.

YOURLS features and specs

  • Self-Hosted
    YOURLS allows you to host the URL shortening service on your own server, giving you full control over your data and avoiding reliance on third-party services.
  • Customization
    Since YOURLS is an open-source platform, you can customize it according to your needs, adding personalized branding and functionalities.
  • Analytics
    It offers detailed analytics for each shortened URL, including click counts, referrers, and geographical data, helping you understand your audience better.
  • Plugin Support
    YOURLS supports plugins, allowing you to extend its functionality with additional features like spam filtering, link previews, and more.
  • Free and Open-Source
    The platform is free to use and open-source, meaning there are no licensing costs and you benefit from a community of developers constantly improving the software.

Possible disadvantages of YOURLS

  • Technical Expertise Required
    Setting up and maintaining a YOURLS instance requires technical expertise, including knowledge of web servers and databases, which may not be suitable for non-technical users.
  • Hosting Costs
    Since YOURLS is self-hosted, you will incur costs for web hosting, domain registration, and potentially higher server resources if your service becomes popular.
  • Maintenance
    You are responsible for all maintenance tasks, such as updating software and ensuring security, which can be time-consuming.
  • Scalability Issues
    Depending on your hosting solution, you may face challenges in scaling the service to handle high volumes of traffic efficiently.
  • Limited Built-In Features
    While YOURLS is highly customizable through plugins, the out-of-the-box features are relatively basic when compared to some commercial URL shortening services.

Analysis of Simple Scraper

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Simple Scraper is a reliable and effective web scraping tool that balances ease of use with powerful features. It is well-suited for both beginners and experienced users seeking a quick and straightforward solution for extracting data from the web.

Why this product is good

  • Simple Scraper is considered a good tool primarily due to its combination of user-friendly design and robust functionality. It allows users without extensive technical skills to easily scrape data from websites with its visual point-and-click interface. Additionally, it offers features like scheduling, API access, and integration options that cater to more advanced use cases. The platform's flexibility and efficiency make it a suitable choice for many data scraping projects.

Recommended for

  • Individuals or businesses looking for a no-code solution to web scraping.
  • Marketers and researchers needing to extract and analyze web data.
  • Developers who want an API-accessible scraping solution.
  • Users who require scheduling capabilities to automate the data collection process.

Analysis of YOURLS

Overall verdict

  • YOURLS is a great choice for individuals or organizations looking for a customizable and secure URL shortening solution. It is particularly suitable for those who want to avoid relying on third-party services.

Why this product is good

  • YOURLS (Your URL Shortener) is a self-hosted URL shortening service that provides full control over your short URLs. It allows users to customize and manage their links, track their analytics, and ensure privacy and security since it's hosted on your own server. Its open-source nature ensures transparency and the ability to modify the functionality as needed.

Recommended for

  • Businesses that need branded and secure short URLs.
  • Developers looking for an open-source URL shortener they can customize.
  • Organizations prioritizing data privacy and control.
  • Bloggers or marketers who want to track detailed analytics of their links.

Simple Scraper videos

Super Simple Scraper Review

More videos:

  • Review - Super Simple Scraper RevieW
  • Review - Scraping with Simple Scraper in under 30 seconds

YOURLS videos

How to make a URL Shorter with YOURLS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Simple Scraper and YOURLS)
Web Scraping
100 100%
0% 0
URL Shortener
0 0%
100% 100
Data Extraction
100 100%
0% 0
Link Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Simple Scraper and YOURLS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

Simple Scraper Reviews

We have no reviews of Simple Scraper yet.
Be the first one to post

YOURLS Reviews

11 Best URL Shorteners For 2025 (Comparison)
YOURLS is a free and lightweight URL shortener you can install on your site via PHP scripts and/or plugins. You can use it to create simple, custom-branded short links. You can even set things up in such a way that allows outside parties to use your link shortener.
11 Best Bitly Alternatives & Similar URL Shorteners
Yourls is a lightweight software to install regardless of the many features you have to enhance your campaign. It will be worth your efforts to try this platform in the first place.
Top 8 Alternatives of Bit.Ly in 2023
YOURLS URL shortenerEmail Verification Tools, Features and Comparison of top five ServicesEmail Verification Tools can be game-changing for your business operation. But not knowing how to purchase them will be a blunder. Learn how to select one for your business.StartupTalkyAnsh MehreyConclusionFAQsIs there a free alternative to Bit.ly?Does Google have a URL shortener?How do...
The 8 Best Alternatives to Google URL Shortener
Yourls, which is an acronym for "your own URL shortener," is exactly thatโ€”a service your run on your own server. Similar to Polr, Yourls is free and open-source. With Yourls, you can choose whether your links will be public or private. It includes bookmarklets, which let you turn a long URL into a short one from your web browser in just one click. By default, the tool...
Source: zapier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Simple Scraper might be a bit more popular than YOURLS. We know about 22 links to it since March 2021 and only 21 links to YOURLS. 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.

Simple Scraper mentions (22)

  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)
    Data extraction: https://simplescraper.io A project that I launched on HN that became a business. Simplescraper rode the no-code wave of a few years back ('instant structured data without parsing html'). Now working on increasing the surface area for AI agents: MCP support, screenshots API, and (experimentally) x402^ ^ https://simplescraper.io/blog/x402-payment-protocol/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Scraperr โ€“ A Self Hosted Webscraper
    1. Clicking the box programmatically โ€“ possible but inconsistent 2. Outsourcing the task to one of the many CAPTCHA-solving services (2Captcha etc) โ€“ better 3. Using a pool of reliable IP addresses so you don't encounter checkboxes or turnstiles โ€“ best I run a web scraping startup (https://simplescraper.io) and this is usually the approach. It has become more difficult, and I think a lot of the AI crawlers are... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2024)
    Making my data extraction Saas (https://simplescraper.io) more LLM friendly. Markdown extraction, improved Google search, workflows - search for this terms, visit the first N links, summarize etc. Big demand for (or rather, expectation of) this lately. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • The Architecture Behind a One-Person Tech Startup
    Things are much easier for one-person startups these daysโ€”it's a gift. I remember building a todo app as my first SaaS project, and choosing something called Stormpath for authentication. It subsequently shut down, forcing me to do a last-minute migration from a hostel in Japan using Nitrous Cloud IDE (which also shut down). Just pain upon pain.[1] Now, you can just pick a full-stack cloud service and run with it.... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Simplescraper โ€” Trigger your webhook after each operation. The free plan includes 100 cloud scrape credits. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

YOURLS mentions (21)

  • Raindrop.io: cross-platform, collaborative bookmark manager
    This is what I use and like: https://yourls.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Building a url shortner, similar to bitly, can I make it profitable?
    Similar to...? https://yoslash.com/ Personally I just use https://yourls.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • self-hosted url shorter with device targeting
    YOURLS has a "detect-mobile-device" plugin. Is that what you were looking for? Source: over 3 years ago
  • Tool/solution to "masquerade" or encode/decode part of the url to avoid showing subpaths details (f.e: myDomain.tld/myFolder/MyFile should became myDomain.tld/casualStringGeneratedAndMappedByTheTool) ?
    You will need to implement the YOURLS URL Shortener (https://yourls.org) and then implement the following YOURLS Plug-in - https://github.com/peterberbec/yourls-keyword_charset_length (Keywords, Charset & Length). Source: over 3 years ago
  • How create Short Links from my main domain name?
    Personally I would use something like this, although it does require a database. https://yourls.org/. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Simple Scraper and YOURLS, you can also consider the following products

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

Bitly - Get the most out of your social and online marketing efforts. Own, understand and activate your best audience through the power of the link with Bitly Enterprise.

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

Polr - An open source URL shortener. A great non-profit and free alternative to bit.ly, TinyURL, or goo.gl.

Scraper API - Scale Data Collection with a Simple API.

TinyURL - Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to...