Top 10 Data Collector of 2023

Are you still looking for a data collector to gather real-time web data? The data collector jobs is no longer needed! Why? Data collection does not have to be difficult nowsdays, you will discover 10 data extracting tools you can use to collect data from web pages in Real-Time.

Top Data Collectors

Web scraping is an automated process of collecting publicly available data on web pages. It is a faster and more powerful way of extracting data from web pages as opposed to doing so manually, which might prove inefficient, error-prone, repetitive, and time-wasting.

The Internet has already proven itself to be a major source of user-generated content, and collecting data available has become one of the hottest tasks on the Internet today. However, data collection, even though done on a wide scale, is not as easy as you might be made to believe.

Web servers do not appreciate automated access and content theft and, as such, have systems in place to discourage automated access and content scraping – or theft as some would want to call it. However, there are some data collectors that have been developed to evade anti-bot systems of websites and scrape any data you want to scrape.

Interestingly, some of these tools do not require a coding skill before you can use them, as they offer a visual interface for selecting data of interest. In this article, we would be recommending some of the best data collection tools in the market that you can use for data collection.


What is Real-Time Data Collector for Extracting Data?

Data Collectors

The term data collection would mean different things to different people depending on context. In this article,

A Real-Time Data collector is an automated web scraper with data parsing functions for Real-Time Extracting Data, Web scrapers are computer bots that have been developed to extract data from web pages in a repetitive and automated way. These collecting bots send web requests for pages, parse out required content, and save it or provide it in the format you want.

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Brightdata's Online Collection Tool is a Prime Example

While simple web scrapers can be said to be easy to develop, complex ones that will deal with websites that have effective anti-bot systems is not easy.

For that reason, you will be better off using an already-made data collector that meets the requirements of the web scraper required to collect the data you have an interest in.

One thing you need to know is that unlike in the past, there are now a variety of options available for you to choose from depending on your coding skill or lack of it.


Why Use Already-made Data Collectors?

Already-made Data Collectors

Learning a coding skill or hiring a coder to develop a web scraper for you is now easy than ever before. But that does not mean you should go ahead to learn to code or hire a developer to develop a data collection tool for you. There are still reasons you will want to use already made bots, and some of these are discussed below.


  • No Coding Skill

If you do not know how to code, then there’s no need to panic or force yourself to learn how to if you do not need the skill aside from scraping. There are already-made web scrapers you can use that have been designed for non-coders.

The recommendations in this article are divided into two categories – coders and non-coders. If you do not have a coding skill, then move straight to the non-coders section.


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  • Scraping Difficult to Scrape Websites

Even as a coder, some websites can be difficult to scrape if you are not an experienced scraper. Some of the difficulties included anti-bot and anti-scraping systems.

Some websites are difficult to scrape because they rely heavily on JavaScript. Either way, if you are not experienced, and you are dealing with a site that using rotating proxies still gets you blocked, then it is time to use an already-made web scraper.

collect data from website


  • Make Scraping Easy

This reason is also for coders. Sometimes, even with the right technical skills, you might just not want to reinvent the wheel so that you can have time for more unique tasks.

In this case, using an already-made scraper is the best option, and it might interest you to know that even Fortune 500 companies make use of these with their huge number of developers.


Best Real-Time Data Collection Tools in the Market


There are a good number of data extractors in the market that you can use depending on whether you’re a coder or not. We would be providing recommendations in the two categories.


Best Data Collectors for Coders

The below are some of the best data extractors you can use to scrape data from web pages on the Internet.


Bright Data Collector

Bright Data - Luminati

  • Proxy Pool Size: Over 72 million
  • Supports Geotargeting: Yes
  • Cost: Starts at $500 for 151K page load
  • Free Trials: Available

Bright Data for Data Collector

Being a data collector is one of the reasons the Luminati Network rebranded into Bright Data. This company is currently seen as a market leader in the proxy market, and with its data collection tools such as the Data Collector, it is proven to be a force to reckon with in the data collection market.

With this tool, you can collect any data that is publicly available on the Internet. It has a list of collectors and allows you to create yours if they have not built one for your target site. With this tool, you can avoid thinking of the ever-changing nature of page layouts, blocking issues, and scalability issues.

Read more, Bright Data (Formerly Luminati) Review

Apify’s Web Scraper

Apify Logo

  • Proxy Pool Size: Undisclosed
  • Supports Geotargeting: Yes
  • Cost: Starts at $49 for $49 platform credits
  • Free Trials: Available for new users

Apify Homepage

The Apify platform is all about automating your online tasks. With this platform, you can automate all manual tasks you carry out on your browser that is repetitive using their actors, which are nothing but automation bots. This platform is meant for Node.JS developers and has proven to be one of the top data collectors in the market.

All you need is to integrate their actor library into your code, and you are good to go. They have got actors such as a general web scraper, Google SERP scraper, Google Map Scraper, Amazon Scraper, and social media scrapers such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, among others. While Apify offers free shared proxies, I will advise you to add your own proxies for effective operations.


ScrapingBee

Scrapingbee Logo

  • Proxy Pool Size: Not disclosed
  • Supports Geotargeting: Depends on the plan chosen
  • Cost: Starts at $99 for 1,000,000 API credits
  • Free Trials: 1,000 API calls

ScrapingBee overview

ScrapingBee is a scraping API that would help you evade blocks as you collect data from the Internet. This tool will help you handle headless browsers, rotate proxies, and bypass or solve Captchas. It works as an API, and all that is required is for you to send an API request to its server with the URL of the page you want to scrape as a parameter, and the page HTML would be delivered to you as a response.

Interestingly, you only get to pay for successful requests. One thing you will also come to like about this service is that it has a data extraction tool that you can use to parse data from general web pages. It also has scrapers for specific websites, including Google Search.


ScraperAPI

Scraperapi Logo

  • Proxy Pool Size: Over40 million
  • Supports Geotargeting: Depend on the plan chosen
  • Cost: Starts at $29 for 250,000 API calls
  • Free Trials: 5,000 API calls

Scraperapi Homepage Overview

The ScraperAPI is a proxy API designed for web scrapers and can be regarded as one of the top data collectors in the market. Just like ScrapingBee, all you need to get the content of any page is to send a simple API. The ScraperAPI handles proxies, Captchas, and headless browsers for you. This tool renders JavaScript using a headless browser.

It has a proxy pool with over 40 million IP addresses from 50+ locations – making it support scraping geo-targeted content. The ScraperAPI is one of the cheapest data collector tools you can trust and give you an impressive free trial as a new user. With this tool, you only get to pay for successful requests. The tool has support for popular programming languages.


Proxycrawl

Proxycrawl

  • Proxy Pool Size: Over1 million
  • Supports Geotargeting: Depend on the plan chosen
  • Cost: Starts at $29 for 50,000 credits
  • Free Trials: 1,000 API calls

Proxycrawl web scrapers Homepage

Proxycrawl prides itself on being a complete suite for web scraping and crawling, and they provide a good number of tools for such. In this article, the tool we are most concerned about is their Scraper API for collecting structured data from web pages. This makes scraping data from web pages easy.

The service has a scraper API for Google Search, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and many more. One thing you will come to like about this is just it is also done for you as you can stop thinking of fixing scrapers – it is also available as an API tool. It is built on the proxycrawl infrastructure and can be said to be pocket-friendly.



Best Data Collector for Non-coders

In the past, web scrapers are mostly custom developed, and as such, coding skills is highly required. However, this is in the past. Currently, there are some web scrapers you can use even without coding skills. We would be discussing some of them below.


Octoparse

Octoparse Logo

  • Pricing: Starts at $75 per month
  • Free Trials: 14 days of free trial with limitations
  • Data Output Format: CSV, Excel, JSON, MySQL, SQLServer
  • Supported OS: Windows

Octoparse Best Scrapers

The Octoparse tool is one of the top data collectors in the market that requires no coding skill to use. The software provides you a point and clicks interface for selecting data of interest. With Octoparse, you can convert any website of your choice into structured data. One thing you will come to like about this data collector is that it is easy to use.

Octoparse has the capabilities to deal with all websites and allows you to download scraped data in a variety of formats. One thing you will come to appreciate with this tool is that even though it is not a free tool, it allows you to use it for the first 14 days for free.


ParseHub

ParseHub Best Scrapers Logo

  • Pricing: Desktop version is free
  • Data Output Format: JSON, Excel
  • Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

ParseHub Best Scrapers

While Octoparse allows you to enjoy its service for 14 days as a new user, ParseHub has a free tier that you can use for life. ParseHub has been built for the modern web and, as such, has support for rendering and executing JavaScript, making it possible to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites. Interestingly, you can also use it to scrape data from the most outdated website.

ParseHub is incredibly powerful and flexible, providing you all of the things you need for web scraping. They have got a cloud-based service for paid users, have support for scheduled scraping, and integrate techniques to bypass anti-bot systems.


Helium Scraper

Helium Scraper Logo

  • Pricing: One-time purchase – starts at $99 with 3-month major updates
  • Free Trials: Fully functional 10 days trial
  • Data Output Format: CSV, Excel
  • Supported OS: Windows

Helium Scraper Overview

Helium Scraper is another easy-to-use web scraper you can use to extract data from any website of your choice. This data collector is available as downloadable Windows software and presents an easy-to-understand interface.

With this tool, you are assured of fast extraction of even complex data via a simple workflow. This tool comes with a good number of advanced features, including support for database and SQL generation, API calls, text manipulation, JavaScript rendering, similar element detection, and multiple data format support. You can use it for free for 10 days – full features available.


Agenty Scraping Agent

Agenty Scraping Logo

  • Pricing: Starts from $29 for 5000 pages
  • Free Trials: 14 days free trial – 100 pages credit
  • Data Output Format: Google spreadsheet, CSV, Excel

Agenty Scraping Overview

The Agenty service is a cloud-based platform for data scraping, change detection, text recognition and extraction, as well as sentimental analysis, and much more. Our focus is on their support for data scraping, as you can use it to collect data from web pages without writing or even knowing how to write a single line of code.

Agenty is available as a Chrome browser extension. Their scraping agent can be used for scraping data publicly available on the Internet or even data hidden behind any form of authentication, provided you have the authentication details. The tool is a paid tool, but you can use it for 14 days for free.


Mozenda

Mozenda Logo

  • Pricing: Dynamic depending on your project
  • Free Trials: Free trial available
  • Data Output Format: Google spreadsheet, CSV, Excel

Mozenda Overview

The Mozenda service is one of the top data collection services in the market. The list is not in any particular order else; Mozenda won’t be ranking last as its service can be seen as one of the best in the market. Mozenda is much more than a data collector. Aside from the fact that you can use it to collect data from web pages, it also has support for analyzing and visualizing the data.

The Mozenda web scraping service can handle the scraping of data at any scale and has got a good number of big businesses on their customer list. Mozenda is a paid tool, but first-time users can use it for 30 days free of charge.


FAQs About Data Collectors

At first, it might look like web scraping is illegal, but multiple rulings between big web services and web scrapers in US court have cleared the air – web scraping is legal.

However, it can still be illegal, depending on your use case. While web scraping is legal, websites do not like being scraped and put up a defense in the form of anti-bot systems. You will have to bypass the anti-bot systems to be able to scrape these websites.

  • Do I Need Proxies for the Data Collectors Described Above?

Proxies are a major requirement for web scraping, and without them, a web scraper would get blocked after a few attempts. All of the data collectors described above require them but who is to provide the proxies depends on the tool.

For the data collectors for coders such as Bright Data, ScrapingBee, and ScraperAPI, these tools handle proxies, and as such, you will not need to add proxies. However, for the likes of Helium Scraper, ParseHub, and Octoparse, you will need to configure proxies.

Conclusion

Looking at the above, you will agree with me that there is no longer an excuse for not scraping the data you have interest in since there is a scraping tool for you depending on your coding skill – or lack of it. Some of the tools are also free, which means that not having money for a web scraper is no longer an excuse.


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