Scraping Browser: The Ultimate Tool for Web Scraping (Powered by Bright Data)

The Scraping Browser is one f the new tools developed and launched into the market by Bright Data. This tool has been developed to make web scraping easier by providing you access to a proxy infrastructure and a highly effective unblocking system that never fails.

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Our Expert Review of Brightdata's  Scraping Browser

Scraping Browser was just introduced by Bright Data. From the name of this tool, you will think it is a regular browser you can use for your scraping need. In reality, it is not even a standalone web browser —- it is a web browser you integrate into Puppeteer and Playwright.

But why use it instead of just using any other headless browser for your scraping need? Well, the browser it provides you is not just a web browser for rendering web pages and rendering/executing javascript. It is a scraping browser with powerful unblocking technology that utilizes Bright Data’s proxy infrastructure. You can see it as a combination of an automation browser, web unblocker, and proxy.

This is one of its kind as there is no other competitor of this tool in the market. If you are looking to kiss web blockage which scraping the web with hassle on your scraping project then Scraping Browser is the tool for you. The tool has been developed to be easy to use and porting from another tool to integrate it is easier as it is compatible with Puppeteer and Playwright.

Scraping Browser Free Trial

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World #1 Scraping Browser Solution (3-in-One Browser)

As in the case of every other line of products provided by Bright Data, Scraping Browser does have the problem it is meant to solve. But what are those problems that it is meant to solve?

Generally, the power of a Scraping Browser lies in the fact that it can help you evade blocks and reduces the resources you will have to deal with when web scraping. Let’s take a look at some of the best use cases of Scraping Browser.

• Web Scraping

From the name of this tool, you can tell it is a web scraping tool. But how good is it at web scraping and what are the features that make it great for that? You can pass an argument into Puppeteer and Playwright to use this browser.

It is compatible with Puppeteer and Playwright out of the box. With this, you do not need to set up additional proxies as it is already based on a proxy network and a web unblocker all provided by Bright Data. It does support localized web scraping thanks to its geo-targeting option.

• Browser Automation

While this browser has been developed for web scraping, it is also a perfect tool for automating other non-scraping tasks on web browsers. You can use it to automate tasks such as scrolling, clicking on a button, typing in an input field, loading a full page, navigating a page, and many others.

These together with its unblocking capabilities makes it the perfect browser for automating your tasks. You can use the Puppeteer and Playwright API together with the Scraping Browser to ensure this.

Learn more,

• Playwright Vs. Puppeteer Vs. Selenium: What are the differences?
• Puppeteer Proxies 101: How to Use Proxies in Puppeteer

• Unblocking Infrastructure

The distinguishing feature of Scraping Browser is its unblocking capabilities. Interestingly, automation browser block is very common as websites do not support automated access.

And as anti-spam systems of websites are becoming effective and sophisticated, basic unblocking techniques do not work. Some teams have in-house unblocking technologies. If you do not have one and do not want to invest in that because of the requirements then Scraping Browser is a good fit.

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How Scraping Browser Works

The Scraping Browser by Bright Data has a working model that looks simple above the hood. However, it is some level of complexity down the hood. The basic idea is it helps you take care of the blocks when web scraping. But how does it work?

Scraping Browser basically acts as a proxy for you. It is integrated into Puppeteer and Playwright to serve as the browser. But when you send a web request, the request goes to the tool, and from there, the tool takes care of all forms of blocks.

From the beginning of the article, it was mentioned that Scraping Browser is an automation browser that makes use of the web unblocked and proxy infrastructure of Bright Data. These two are the major real power of Scraping Browser. By helping take care of proxies, captchas, and headers, all you will focus on is the actions to take in other to get to the required data — not dealing with blocks.

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Pricing & Features

Scraping Browser will help you save time and even money but at what cost? This browser is a premium tool and one of its kind. This means that you will have to pay for it. However, if you look at the homepage of Bright Data, you won’t get this information. You will need to check your dashboard to see the pricing as it is not a major service offered by Bright Data. The pricing is quite simple and follows the Pay-As-You-Go model.

It is charged based on traffic (bandwidth) and session. The estimated cost for the bandits is $20 per GB. For the session, you will be charged $0.10 per hour. This price is highly worth it considering you will not have to deal with proxies and unblocking on your part. It also saves you the headache of having an in-house unblocking infrastructure. It is important you know that the term used here is estimated cost. This is because there are variables that will change the cost and make it a little more pricey. But generally, the pricing is affordable and cheap as far as scraping difficult scraping targets.

Features of Scraping Browser

• Scraping Browser is built on top two important infrastructures — a web unblocker and a proxy network.
• Support for localized data scraping as Bright Data proxy network has IPs in all regions of the world.
• Effective against web blockers and anti-spam systems because of its dynamic and effective web unblocker.
• Pricing is affordable and cheap and based on bandwidth and session usage. It follows the Pay-As-You-Go model.
• Compatible with both Puppeteer and Playwright out of the box. Also easy to port from other tools to Scraping Browser if used using Puppeteer or Playwright.
• Quite scalable and can handle as many browser sessions as you want based on your demands.
• A reliable solution that is super-fast, effective, and provides you with an excellent uptime perfect for critical applications.

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How to Use Scraping Browser

Using the Scraping Browser is quite easy and does not require you to install any tool aside from the Puppeteer or Playwright which you should already have. Follow the steps highlighted below to set up and use the Scraping Browser.

• Head over to the Bright Data website and create an account.  You are expected to verify your account and add a payment method.
• Once that is done, you are given a free $5 credit to use. You can use this as free gift to test the Scraping Browser. Don’t worry, you won’t be charged from the payment method added without your consent.
• On the nav section at the left-hand-side, click on the proxy & scraping infrastructure icon.

• Click on the “Add Proxy” button and choose “Scraping Browser” from the drop-down that appears.

• In the input field provided, give the proxy a name. Make sure it is short and think it through since it can’t be changed after. However, you can still create a new proxy if you like. Remember, from the beginning of the article, I described Scraping Browser as a proxy and from here, you can see it as such.
• Click on the add proxy button. You’ll be taken to a page where you can copy the API parameters such as the host, username, and password. You will need them to configure Puppeteer.
• Install the Puppeteer Core. The version that does not get a browser installed along. The command to do this for nodeJS is “npm i puppeteer-core”
• Below is a yellow world code that demonstrates how to use the Scraping Browser tool for web scraping via the Puppeteer API.

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');

const browser = await puppeteer.connect ({ browserURL :

'http://username:[email protected]:9222/ ', });

const page = await browser.newPage (); await page.goto('https://example.com/');

• You should swap the proxy host, username, and password with your own access parameters copied.

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Our Verdict

The Scraping Browser tool acts as a proxy to help you avoid blocks while scraping. As at the time of writing this article, Scraping Browser is less than 3 days old. So, there is little detail about it online. We did try using the tool and it worked.

However, there is a need to try it out over a period of time and across as many sites as possible and also use the review of other users. But for what it is built for, it worked. It is fast and takes over the headaches of blocks for you. The pricing is also affordable and highly worth it.

Try Scraping Browser Now

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