If you’re hearing about “web scraping” for the first time, don’t worry. This article will break down everything you need to know about this powerful data-gathering technique. I’ll walk you through:
- What web scraping is and how it works
- How to pick the best web scraping tool for your needs
- The the 11 best free web scraping tools you can use right now—whether you want a desktop app, browser extension, or cloud software
By the end, you’ll be able to decide what tool fits your project, whether you’re a total beginner or someone looking for a more effective scraper.
What Is Web Scraping and How It Is Used
Simply put, web scraping is the automated process of extracting data from websites.
Instead of copying and pasting info manually, you use software “bots” or scrapers to grab whatever data you want, at scale.
Imagine needing product prices, email contacts, or social media stats from hundreds or thousands of pages.
Powerful tools like Regular Expressions (Regex) (Regular Expression) even let you clean and structure the data as you scrape.
That means you don’t just get a messy pile of text — you get clean, organized info ready to use.
If you want to understand what is web scraping in greater detail, you can click below to learn about web scraping basics:
Further Reading: What is Web Scraping and How Does it Work
How does web scraping work
- Firstly, a web scraping bot simulates the act of human browsing the website. With the target URL entered, it sends a request to the server and gets information back in the HTML file.
- Next, with the HTML source code at hand, the bot is able to reach the node where the target data lies and parse the data as it is commanded in the scraping code.
- Lastly, (based on how the scraping bot is configured) the cluster of scraped data will be cleaned, put into a structure, and ready for download or transference to your database.
In short, web scraping automates data collection exactly as a human would, just way faster and more reliably.
How to choose a web scraper
There are ways to get access to web data.
Even though you have narrowed it down to a web scraping tool, tools that popped up in the search results with all confusing features still can make a decision hard to reach.
There are a few dimensions you may take into consideration before choosing a web scraping tool:
- What device do you use? Many scrapers are Windows-only. Mac and Linux users might have fewer choices.
- Do you want to scrape from multiple devices? Cloud-based tools let you schedule tasks and access data anywhere.
- Will you face anti-scraping defenses? Web scraping faced a list of challenges and anti-scraping technologies. But IP rotation, proxy support, and API access can help you stay unblocked..
- How will you use the data later? Tools like Octoparse can integrate smoothly with Excel, Google Sheets, or databases for easy automation.
- Are you comfortable with coding? If not, focus on no-code web scraper with AI or visual workflows.
- What’s your budget? The cost of a web scraper shall always be taken into consideration, and it varies a lot among different vendors.
11 FREE Web Scraping Tools in 2025
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Now you may want to know what web scraping tools to choose from.
In this part, we list 11 free web scrapers based on different platforms.
Some of them are desktop-based, so you need to download and install them, but they always have more powerful functions than those based on web extensions or cloud services.
The lists below are the best web scraping tools free or at a low cost and would satisfy most scraping needs with a reasonable amount of data requirement.
4 Web Scraping Tools for Windows/Mac
1. Octoparse – the best free web scraper
Octoparse is an easy-to-use web scraping tool that is designed for almost all website scraping needs.
It has an AI-based auto-detecting mode so that you can handle your scraping needs without any coding skills.
Also, Octoparse provides advanced functions to customize your web crawler.
It’s free to use for all basic scraping needs, and several advanced features ask for pricing if you have large scraping needs.
Turn website data into structured Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, and your database directly.
Scrape data easily with auto-detecting functions, no coding skills are required.
Preset scraping templates for hot websites to get data in clicks.
Never get blocked with IP proxies and advanced API.
Cloud service to schedule data scraping at any time you want.
Online Data Scraping Templates
Octoparse provides preset templates for non-coding users to turn web pages into structured data instantly.
On average, it only takes about 6.5 seconds to pull down the data behind one page and allows you to download the data to Excel.
Check out what websites are most popular and their easy scraping templates.
What’s more, you can use these templates online without downloading the software, just visit Octoparse Scraping Templates or click the link below to have a try.
https://www.octoparse.com/template/contact-details-scraper
If you have certain coding knowledge, you can find more advanced functions in Octoparse, which includes a cloud service for scheduled scraping, set AJAX, pagination, or cookies to handle complex website for massive data.
2. ScrapingBot
Scraping Bot is a great tool for web developers who need to scrape data from a URL.
It works particularly well on product pages where it collects all you need to know (image, product title, product price, product description, stock, delivery costs, etc.).
It is a great tool for those who need to collect commerce data or simply aggregate product data and keep it accurate.
ScrapingBot also offers several APIs specializing in various fields such as real estate, Google search results, or data collection on social networks.
It is free to test out with 100 credits every month. Then the first package at 39€, 99€, 299€ then 699€ per month.
You can test live by pasting a URL and getting the results straight away to see if it works.
In general, Scraping Bot is
- Developer-focused, great for scraping product data accurately.
- Offers specialized APIs for real estate, social media, and more.
- Free monthly trial credits, then flexible paid packages.
3. ParseHub
Parsehub is a web scraper that collects data from websites using AJAX technologies, JavaScript, cookies, etc.
It supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux system.
Parsehub leverages machine learning technology which is able to read, analyze and transform web documents into relevant data.
It is not fully free, but you still can set up to five scraping tasks for free. The paid subscription plan allows you to set up at least 20 private projects.
4. Import.io
Import.io is a SaaS web data integration software.
It provides a visual environment for end-users to design and customize the workflows for harvesting data.
It covers the entire web extraction lifecycle from data extraction to analysis within one platform. And you can easily integrate into other systems as well.
Top 5 Web Scraping Plugins and Extensions
5. Chat4Data (Chrome)
Chat4Data is an AI-powered Chrome extension that serves as your ultimate data collection assistant.
With intuitive natural language commands or simple quick-click actions, you can effortlessly extract and organize web page data from any website.
Think of it as ChatGPT for web scraping!
The extension makes information gathering faster and smarter without requiring complex setup or coding skills.
6. Data Scraper (Chrome)
Data Scraper can scrape data from tables and listing-type data from a single web page.
Its free plan should satisfy most simple scraping with a light amount of data.
The paid plan has more features such as API and many anonymous IP proxies.
You can fetch a large volume of data in real-time faster.
If you need to scrape up to 500 pages per month, you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
7. Webscraper.io
Web Scraper has a Chrome extension and a cloud extension.
For the Chrome extension version, you can create a sitemap (plan) on how a website should be navigated and what data should be scrapped.
The cloud extension is can scrape a large volume of data and run multiple scraping tasks concurrently.
You can export the data in CSV, or store the data in Couch DB.
8. Scraper (Chrome)
The scraper is another easy-to-use screen web scraper that can easily extract data from an online table, and upload the result to Google Docs.
Just select some text in a table or a list, right-click on the selected text, and choose “Scrape Similar” from the browser menu.
Then you will get the data and extract other content by adding new columns using XPath or JQuery.
This tool is intended for intermediate to advanced users who know how to write XPath.
9. Outwit hub (Firefox)
Outwit hub is a Firefox extension, and it can be easily downloaded from the Firefox add-ons store.
Once installed and activated, you can scrape the content from websites instantly.
It has outstanding “Fast Scrape” features, which quickly scrapes data from a list of URLs that you feed in.
Extracting data from sites using Outwit hub doesn’t demand programming skills.
The scraping process is fairly easy to pick up. You can refer to their guides to get started with web scraping using the tool.
2 Web-based Scraping Applications
10. Dexi.io
Dexi.io (also known as Cloud scrape) is intended for advanced users who have proficient programming skills.
It has three types of robots for you to create a scraping task – Extractor, Crawler, and Pipes. It provides various tools that allow you to extract the data more precisely.
With its modern feature, you will be able to address the details on any website.
However, without programming skills, you may need to take a while to get used to it before creating a web-scraping robot.
But you always check out their homepage to learn more about the knowledge base.
Plus, the freeware provides anonymous web proxy servers for web scraping.
Extracted data will be hosted on Dexi.io’s servers for two weeks before being archived, or you can directly export the extracted data to JSON or CSV files.
It offers paid services to meet your needs for getting real-time data.
11. Webz.io
Webhose.io enables you to get real-time data by scraping online sources from all over the world into various, clean formats.
You even can scrape information on the dark web.
This web scraper allows you to scrape data in many languages using multiple filters and export scraped data in XML, JSON, and RSS formats.
The freeware offers a free subscription plan for you to make 1000 HTTP requests per month and paid subscription plans to make more HTTP requests per month to suit your web scraping needs.
Final Words
With so many free scraping tools available, you can start collecting web data quickly—no matter how tech-savvy you are.
For beginners or non-coders, Octoparse will always be the easiest and most powerful choice, given its AI auto-detection, cloud support, and strong anti-blocking features.
If you’re more technical or need specialized data, tools like ScrapingBot deliver flexible options.
Whatever your choice, the right tool will save you countless hours and open up rich insights hidden in the web’s data.
Common Questions About Web Scraping
1. What is web scraping useful for?
It helps automate data collection for market research, e-commerce, lead generation, academic projects, and more.
2. How many websites can I scrape with free tools?
Most free scrapers give you a monthly page limit, but the numbers vary quite a bit.
You’ll need to check each tool’s current free plan limits since they change regularly. One e-commerce site might have thousands of product pages, so you could hit limits fast if you’re scraping something like Amazon product data.
Pick your battles and focus on the data that actually matters for your project. Start with the free plan, see how much data you actually need, then upgrade if necessary.
3. Do free web scrapers work on e-commerce sites?
Yes, but with caveats. E-commerce sites use anti-bot measures, dynamic pricing, and JavaScript-heavy pages that can trip up basic scrapers.
You need tools that can handle JavaScript rendering and have some protection against getting blocked. Most web scraping browser extensions often struggle with complex e-commerce sites, while more robust desktop applications tend to work better.
Fair warning: scraping pricing data at scale will probably require upgrading to paid plans eventually. Free tools are great for testing and small batches, but they’re not built for serious competitive intelligence.
4. What’s the difference between free and paid web scrapers?
Speed, scale, and staying unblocked.
Most Free Web Scrapers have limits such as:
- Slower scraping speeds
- Limited concurrent tasks
- Basic anti-blocking features
- Smaller page allowances
- Standard support
Paid plans usually offer:
- Faster cloud scraping
- Better anti-blocking technology
- Higher or unlimited page limits
- Advanced scheduling options
- Priority support and APIs
For most people starting out, free plans work fine. Upgrade when you’re consistently hitting limits or need to scrape thousands of pages monthly.
5. Can AI scrape websites?
Sort of, but not the way you’re thinking. AI doesn’t magically browse websites and grab data like a human would.
What AI actually does in scraping tools is pattern recognition. It can look at a webpage and automatically identify where product titles, prices, and descriptions are located. This makes setup much easier since you don’t have to manually select every data field.
But the actual scraping (sending requests, handling JavaScript, avoiding blocks) still requires traditional web technology. AI just makes the initial configuration more user-friendly.
