{"id":1954,"date":"2022-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kocerroxy-homepage.staging.ideatocode.tech\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:39:01","slug":"free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Libraries to Build Your Own Web Scraper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Probability states that you\u2019re familiar with the importance of <strong>harvesting data from the internet<\/strong> for myriad reasons. However, <strong>full-service web scraping solutions<\/strong> can get quite pricey. Running a <strong>prebuilt tool<\/strong> can be more economical, but their budget versions are severely limited. To save the most money possible, you should consider using free libraries to build your own web scraper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are a lot of options out there for <strong>multiple programming languages<\/strong>. Some are more <strong>beginner-friendly<\/strong> than others, particularly <strong>Python-based<\/strong> ones. Let\u2019s go over some of the popular ones while covering what language they\u2019re for and a little information about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The table below gives you the quick version. After that, we\u2019ll cover the best practices that matter no matter which library you use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Web_Scraping_Libraries_Comparison\"><\/span>Web Scraping Libraries Comparison<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_76 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Web_Scraping_Libraries_Comparison\" >Web Scraping Libraries Comparison<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Best_Practices_When_Web_Scraping\" >Best Practices When Web Scraping<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Why_Do_I_Need_A_Proxy_When_Web_Scraping\" >Why Do I Need A Proxy When Web Scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Free_Libraries_to_Build_Your_Own_Scraper\" >Free Libraries to Build Your Own Scraper<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Scrapy\" >Scrapy<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#When_Should_You_Use_Scrapy\" >When Should You Use Scrapy?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#BeautifulSoup\" >BeautifulSoup<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Selenium\" >Selenium<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Cheerio\" >Cheerio<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Puppeteer\" >Puppeteer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Playwright\" >Playwright<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Crawlee\" >Crawlee<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Nokogiri_and_Kimurai_Ruby_Options\" >Nokogiri and Kimurai: Ruby Options<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Goutte_Legacy_PHP_Option\" >Goutte: Legacy PHP Option<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#FAQs_About_Building_Your_Own_Web_Scraper\" >FAQs About Building Your Own Web Scraper<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-17\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q1_Is_Playwright_good_for_web_scraping\" >Q1. Is Playwright good for web scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-18\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q2_Is_Crawlee_good_for_web_scraping\" >Q2. Is Crawlee good for web scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-19\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q3_When_should_you_use_Scrapy_for_web_scraping\" >Q3. When should you use Scrapy for web scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-20\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q4_Is_Selenium_good_for_web_scraping\" >Q4. Is Selenium good for web scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-21\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q5_Is_Goutte_still_good_for_PHP_web_scraping\" >Q5. Is Goutte still good for PHP web scraping?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-22\" href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/free-libraries-to-build-your-own-web-scraper\/#Q6_Is_Nokogiri_better_than_Kimurai_for_Ruby_web_scraping\" >Q6. Is Nokogiri better than Kimurai for Ruby web scraping?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before choosing a library, it helps to separate simple HTML parsers from full crawling frameworks and browser automation tools. Some libraries are better for beginner projects, while others are better for JavaScript-heavy pages, large crawls, or scraper setups that need proxy rotation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Library<\/th><th>Language<\/th><th>Best for<\/th><th>Handles JavaScript?<\/th><th>Built-in crawling?<\/th><th>Proxy support<\/th><th>Learning curve<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Scrapy<\/td><td>Python<\/td><td>Large-scale crawling and structured data extraction<\/td><td>No, not by default<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes, with configuration or middleware<\/td><td>Medium to high<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>BeautifulSoup<\/td><td>Python<\/td><td>Simple HTML parsing<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Not directly, usually paired with requests<\/td><td>Low<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Selenium<\/td><td>Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby<\/td><td>Browser automation and dynamic websites<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Yes, through browser\/network configuration<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cheerio<\/td><td>JavaScript \/ Node.js<\/td><td>Fast server-side HTML parsing<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Not directly, usually paired with Axios or another HTTP client<\/td><td>Low<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Puppeteer<\/td><td>JavaScript \/ Node.js<\/td><td>Headless Chrome scraping and automation<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Yes, through browser launch settings<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Playwright<\/td><td>Python, JavaScript, Java, .NET<\/td><td>Modern browser automation across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Yes, through browser\/context settings<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Crawlee<\/td><td>JavaScript \/ TypeScript, Python<\/td><td>Crawling with browser automation, retries, and proxy-aware scraping<\/td><td>Yes, depending on crawler type<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Kimurai \/ Kimura<\/td><td>Ruby<\/td><td>Ruby-based scraping workflows<\/td><td>Yes, depending on setup<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes, with configuration<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Goutte<\/td><td>PHP<\/td><td>Simple legacy PHP crawling<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Basic crawling<\/td><td>Limited, usually through HTTP client configuration<\/td><td>Low<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Web Scraping Libraries Comparison Table<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once you know which type of library fits your project, the next step is configuring your scraper responsibly so it can collect data reliably without overwhelming the target site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-best-practices-when-web-scraping\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Best_Practices_When_Web_Scraping\"><\/span><strong>Best Practices When Web Scraping<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regardless of which language and library you choose to use, there are a few universal rules to follow when setting up your scraper for optimal results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Most important of all<\/strong>: use a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/rotating-residential-proxies\/\">rotating residential proxy<\/a><\/strong>! Ideally, you should go with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/residential-proxies\/\">residential IPs<\/a><\/strong>, but a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/datacenter-proxies\">datacenter proxy<\/a><\/strong> may be sufficient for your needs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid using high-risk or suspicious IP geolocations<\/strong> for your target data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Set unique user agents<\/strong> for your requests, or use headless browsers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Set a believable native referral source<\/strong>. Just how often do you directly type in the exact sub-domain in your browser to go to an exact part of a website, instead of navigating through the site to get there?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Set rate limits<\/strong> on your requests, ideally respecting the target site\u2019s robots.txt settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Run your threads asynchronously<\/strong>. A constant stream of requests with the same time gap in between them while running parallel with each other is effortlessly detectable bot activity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid using obvious red flag search operators<\/strong>. Making things too precise is not organic traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Also read: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/rotating-residential-proxies\/\">Top 5 Best Rotating Residential Proxies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"why-do-i-need-a-proxy-when-web-scraping\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Do_I_Need_A_Proxy_When_Web_Scraping\"><\/span><strong>Why Do I Need A Proxy When Web Scraping?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019re surely familiar with the sheer quantity of <strong>anti-bot measures<\/strong> in place across the internet. We\u2019ve all dealt with more than our fair share of annoying <strong>CAPTCHAs<\/strong>. A pool of rotating IPs takes care of the majority of the effort in masking the fact that all of your requests are coming from a program instead of a human user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>CAPTCHAs are one of the most common anti-bot measures on the internet, designed to differentiate between human users and automated bots by challenging users with tasks that are easy for humans but difficult for machines.<\/em><\/p>\n<cite>Source: von Ahn, L., Blum, M., &amp; Langford, J. (2004). <em>Telling humans and computers apart automatically.<\/em> Communications of the ACM, 47(2), 56-60.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As <strong>datacenter proxies<\/strong> are readily detectable and are commonly attributed to botting, residential IPs are the way to go. Residential proxies are much more convincing when you\u2019re trying to resemble organic traffic. This is, of course, what you should be aiming for to get the most reliable <strong>web scraping results<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is where a framework like Crawlee becomes useful. Crawlee does not replace your proxy provider, but it can help connect your scraper with proxy rotation, browser-based crawling, retries, and request handling. That makes it a strong option when your project needs both a scraping framework and a reliable proxy setup instead of a simple one-page parser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, to get to the subject at hand: free libraries to build your own scraper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Also read: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/datacenter-proxies-use-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Datacenter Proxies Use Cases<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"free-libraries-for-scraping-and-parsing\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Free_Libraries_to_Build_Your_Own_Scraper\"><\/span><strong>Free Libraries to Build Your Own Scraper<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since we all have different preferences and requirements, it\u2019s pretty hard to pin down exactly what makes a particular library ideal for your use case. What I can do to help, though, is give you a list of options with some information about them so you can make an informed decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without further ado, and in no particular order, let\u2019s begin going through the free libraries to build your own web scraper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"scrapy\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scrapy\"><\/span>Scrapy<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> Python<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scrapy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Scrapy<\/a> is a high-level Python framework for web crawling and web scraping. It is built for projects where you need to crawl multiple pages, follow links, extract structured data, and manage the scraping workflow beyond a single request-and-parse script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scrapy is a strong choice when you are building a larger web data collection project, such as monitoring ecommerce product pages, collecting SEO data, tracking public listings, or crawling large groups of URLs on a schedule. Instead of only parsing one page, Scrapy helps you define spiders, follow links, extract fields with selectors, process scraped items, and export the results into usable formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Scrapy\u2019s biggest advantages is its project structure. You can use spiders to define what pages to crawl, selectors to extract data from HTML or XML, item pipelines to clean, validate, deduplicate, or store scraped data, and feed exports to output results in formats such as JSON, JSON Lines, CSV, or XML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scrapy is also useful when performance and control matter. It supports asynchronous crawling, broad crawls, request scheduling, downloader middleware, custom settings, and throttling options. For example, Scrapy\u2019s AutoThrottle extension can automatically adjust crawl speed based on the load of both your scraper and the website you are crawling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, Scrapy is not always the best option for beginners or very small scraping jobs. If you only need to pull a title, table, or product price from one static HTML page, BeautifulSoup may be simpler. If the website depends heavily on JavaScript rendering or browser interactions, Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, or Crawlee may be a better fit, unless you are combining Scrapy with a headless browser setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"scrapy\">Choose Scrapy when your project needs structure, scale, exports, pipelines, crawl rules, throttling, and repeatable data collection. Choose a lighter parser when you only need a quick one-page scrape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_Should_You_Use_Scrapy\"><\/span>When Should You Use Scrapy?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Use case<\/th><th>Why Scrapy fits<\/th><th>When to choose another tool<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Large multi-page crawls<\/td><td>Scrapy can follow links, schedule requests, and manage crawl rules.<\/td><td>Use BeautifulSoup or Cheerio for one-page static scraping.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Structured data extraction<\/td><td>Selectors, items, and pipelines help organize extracted fields.<\/td><td>Use a browser automation tool if the data only appears after JavaScript rendering.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Clean exports<\/td><td>Scrapy can export scraped data into formats like JSON, JSON Lines, CSV, and XML.<\/td><td>Use a simpler parser if you only need a quick local script.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Data cleaning and validation<\/td><td>Item pipelines can clean, validate, deduplicate, and store scraped data.<\/td><td>Use a lightweight library if no post-processing is needed.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Polite, controlled crawling<\/td><td>AutoThrottle and crawl settings help control request speed and concurrency.<\/td><td>Use Playwright, Puppeteer, or Selenium if browser interaction is the main requirement.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Broad crawls<\/td><td>Scrapy is suited for fast broad crawls because of its asynchronous architecture.<\/td><td>Use a more focused scraper if you are collecting from only a few fixed URLs.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">When to use Scrapy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"beautifulsoup\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"BeautifulSoup\"><\/span><strong>BeautifulSoup<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Language: <strong>Python<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Scrapy isn\u2019t beginner-friendly, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crummy.com\/software\/BeautifulSoup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BeautifulSoup<\/a><\/strong> most definitely is. When you don\u2019t need the precision and power of Scrapy, BeautifulSoup will provide you with an easy means of <strong>parsing HTML<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similar to Scrapy, BeautifulSoup is <strong>thoroughly tested<\/strong> and<strong> well-documented<\/strong> after years of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Selenium\"><\/span>Selenium<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and other supported bindings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.selenium.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Selenium<\/a> is a browser automation tool, not a lightweight scraping library. It was built primarily for automating web applications for testing, but it can also be useful in scraping workflows where the page needs to behave like it would in a real browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Use Selenium when browser behavior matters: clicking buttons, filling forms, moving through multi-step flows, handling login screens, waiting for JavaScript-rendered elements, or testing how a page behaves after user interaction. In these cases, Selenium can drive a real browser through WebDriver and interact with the page more like a user would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, Selenium should not be the default choice for every scraper. If you only need to parse static HTML, a lighter tool like BeautifulSoup or Cheerio is usually simpler and faster. If your main challenge is modern JavaScript rendering, Playwright or Puppeteer may be a better fit for many newer scraping projects because they were built around modern browser automation workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Selenium is a good fit for complex browser interactions, QA-style automation, login flows, and scraping projects where realistic browser behavior is more important than raw speed. For large structured crawls, Scrapy is usually a better starting point. For modern JavaScript-heavy pages, compare Selenium with Playwright or Puppeteer before choosing your stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"cheerio\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Cheerio\"><\/span><strong>Cheerio<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Language: <strong>JavaScript (NodeJS)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cheerio.js.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cheerio<\/a><\/strong> has a similar API to jQuery. If you\u2019re already familiar with jQuery and are looking to parse HTML, you\u2019re all set.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s fast, flexible, and a favored library for <strong>web scraping with JavaScript<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"puppeteer\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Puppeteer\"><\/span><strong>Puppeteer<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Language: <strong>JavaScript (NodeJS)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/puppeteer\/puppeteer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Puppeteer<\/a><\/strong> is <strong>Google\u2019s headless Chrome API<\/strong> that grants precise control to NodeJS devs. The Google Chrome team is creating and maintaining it in an open-source format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like Selenium, it is a go-to for data that is gated behind JavaScript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just keep in mind that it can be an absolute <strong>resource hog for the host machine. <\/strong>When you don\u2019t need a full-on browser, you should probably consider a different tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Playwright\"><\/span>Playwright<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, .NET, and Java<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/playwright.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Playwright<\/a> is a modern browser automation library that can control Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a single API. That makes it especially useful for scraping JavaScript-heavy websites where the data does not appear in the initial HTML response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For web scraping projects, Playwright is often a strong choice when you need the page to behave like it would in a real browser. It can load dynamic content, interact with buttons and forms, wait for page elements, handle browser contexts, and run in headless or headed mode depending on your setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compared with simpler parsing libraries like BeautifulSoup or Cheerio, Playwright is heavier because it runs a real browser engine. However, that extra weight can be worth it when the target site depends on JavaScript rendering, lazy loading, user interactions, or browser-like behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Playwright is a good fit for modern scraping workflows that need reliable browser automation across multiple browser engines. For simple static HTML pages, though, a lighter library such as BeautifulSoup, Cheerio, or Scrapy may be more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Crawlee\"><\/span>Crawlee<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crawlee.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crawlee<\/a> is a modern web scraping and crawling library built for projects that need more than basic HTML parsing. It helps developers manage crawling, browser automation, proxies, retries, and blocking-related challenges from one framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That makes Crawlee especially useful when you are building a scraper that needs to move across multiple pages, follow links, handle failed requests, use rotating proxies, or work with JavaScript-heavy websites. Instead of stitching together separate tools for crawling, browser automation, and proxy handling, Crawlee gives you a more complete scraping framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crawlee can be used with different crawler types depending on the target website. For simpler pages, it can work with lightweight HTML parsing. For dynamic websites, it can support browser-based scraping workflows with tools such as Playwright or Puppeteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crawlee is especially relevant because proxy management is often part of the scraping setup from the beginning. If your scraper needs reliable IP rotation, session handling, and better control over request behavior, Crawlee gives you a practical way to connect your scraping logic with your proxy infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crawlee is a good fit for scalable scraping projects, data collection pipelines, ecommerce monitoring, SEO data collection, and other workflows where crawling, retries, and proxies matter. For very simple one-page scraping tasks, however, a lighter library like BeautifulSoup or Cheerio may be easier to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Nokogiri_and_Kimurai_Ruby_Options\"><\/span>Nokogiri and Kimurai: Ruby Options<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> Ruby<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Ruby-based web scraping, <a href=\"https:\/\/nokogiri.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nokogiri<\/a> is the more recognizable starting point. It is a Ruby library for working with HTML and XML documents, making it useful when you need to parse static pages, extract structured elements, clean messy markup, or query documents with CSS selectors and XPath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nokogiri is a good fit for Ruby developers who want a lightweight parsing tool rather than a full crawling framework. It works well when the target content is already available in the HTML response and you do not need browser automation, JavaScript rendering, or complex multi-page crawling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vifreefly\/kimuraframework\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kimurai<\/a> is a Ruby web scraping framework built on top of familiar Ruby tools such as Capybara and Nokogiri. It can be useful for Ruby projects that need a more complete scraping framework, including browser-based scraping and crawler-style workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Kimurai should be presented carefully. Older descriptions mention PhantomJS support, but PhantomJS development has been suspended, so new scraping projects should avoid PhantomJS-based setups. If you use Kimurai today, focus on modern browser options such as headless Chrome or Firefox instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Choose Nokogiri when you need fast Ruby-based HTML or XML parsing. Consider Kimurai when you specifically want a Ruby scraping framework with crawler-style structure and browser automation support. For newer JavaScript-heavy scraping projects, compare Kimurai with Playwright, Puppeteer, Crawlee, or Selenium before choosing your stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Goutte_Legacy_PHP_Option\"><\/span>Goutte: Legacy PHP Option<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Language:<\/strong> PHP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/FriendsOfPHP\/Goutte\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Goutte<\/a> used to be a popular PHP library for screen scraping and basic web crawling. It provided a simple API for making requests, clicking links, submitting forms, and extracting data from HTML or XML responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Goutte should now be treated as a legacy option rather than a recommended library for new PHP scraping projects. The official GitHub repository was archived on April 1, 2023, and its README states that the library is deprecated. As of version 4, Goutte became a simple proxy to Symfony BrowserKit\u2019s <code>HttpBrowser<\/code> class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For new PHP projects, use <a href=\"https:\/\/symfony.com\/doc\/current\/components\/browser_kit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Symfony BrowserKit<\/a> with <code>HttpBrowser<\/code> instead of starting with Goutte. BrowserKit can simulate browser-like behavior for HTTP requests, links, forms, cookies, and navigation, while <code>HttpBrowser<\/code> provides a simple HTTP-layer browser implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you already have an older scraper built with Goutte, you may not need to rewrite everything immediately. But for new development, the better path is to migrate from <code>Goutte\\Client<\/code> to <code>Symfony\\Component\\BrowserKit\\HttpBrowser<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Goutte is still worth knowing about if you maintain old PHP scraping code, but it should not be the default recommendation for modern web scraping projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Also read: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/web-scraping-with-proxies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Web Scraping With Proxies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"conclusion\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no perfect web scraping tool library out there. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, while also giving us freedom of choice over what programming language to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This list makes it easier to choose which one of the free libraries to <strong>build your own web scraper<\/strong> with. All that\u2019s left is to grab a <strong>trustworthy proxy<\/strong> so you can get started on web scraping and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kocerroxy.com\/blog\/data-parsing-with-proxies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data parsing<\/a><\/strong> right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/app.kocerroxy.com\/user-panel\/register\"><strong>Get Proxies for Web Scrapers<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQs_About_Building_Your_Own_Web_Scraper\"><\/span>FAQs About Building Your Own Web Scraper<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q1_Is_Playwright_good_for_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q1. Is Playwright good for web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, Playwright is good for web scraping when the website relies on JavaScript, browser rendering, lazy loading, or user interactions. It can control Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, which makes it useful for modern pages that simple HTML parsers cannot fully read. For static pages, lighter tools like BeautifulSoup, Cheerio, or Scrapy are usually more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q2_Is_Crawlee_good_for_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q2. Is Crawlee good for web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, Crawlee is good for web scraping projects that need crawling, browser automation, retries, and proxy support. It is especially useful for larger scraping workflows where you need to follow links, manage failed requests, handle dynamic pages, or connect your scraper to rotating proxies. For simple static HTML pages, a lighter tool like BeautifulSoup or Cheerio may be enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q3_When_should_you_use_Scrapy_for_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q3. When should you use Scrapy for web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You should use Scrapy when your web scraping project needs more than simple HTML parsing. It is a good fit for large crawls, structured data extraction, link following, item pipelines, data exports, scheduled scraping jobs, and projects that need controlled request handling. For simple static pages, BeautifulSoup or Cheerio may be easier. For JavaScript-heavy pages, Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, or Crawlee may be more suitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q4_Is_Selenium_good_for_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q4. Is Selenium good for web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Selenium can be good for web scraping when the target website requires real browser behavior, such as clicking buttons, filling forms, handling login flows, waiting for JavaScript-rendered content, or moving through multi-step interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Selenium is not usually the best default scraper for simple static pages or high-speed crawling. For static HTML, BeautifulSoup or Cheerio is usually lighter. For modern JavaScript-heavy pages, Playwright or Puppeteer may be better starting points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q5_Is_Goutte_still_good_for_PHP_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q5. Is Goutte still good for PHP web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Goutte is no longer a good default choice for new PHP web scraping projects because the official repository is archived and the library is deprecated. Existing projects that already use Goutte may still work, but new projects should usually use Symfony BrowserKit with <code>HttpBrowser<\/code> instead. For JavaScript-heavy websites, consider a browser automation tool or a scraping framework that supports rendering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Q6_Is_Nokogiri_better_than_Kimurai_for_Ruby_web_scraping\"><\/span>Q6. Is Nokogiri better than Kimurai for Ruby web scraping?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nokogiri and Kimurai solve different problems. Nokogiri is better when you need to parse HTML or XML in Ruby and the data is already available in the page source. Kimurai is better when you want a Ruby scraping framework with crawler-style structure or browser automation support. For new projects, avoid PhantomJS-based setups and compare Kimurai with modern browser automation tools such as Playwright, Puppeteer, Crawlee, or Selenium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to build your own web scraper? Compare the best free libraries by language, use case, JavaScript support, and crawling features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-scraping","tag-web-scraping"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Build Your Own Web Scraper With Free Libraries - KocerRoxy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to build your own web scraper? 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