Web Scraping Tools and Libraries: 6 Python Web Scraping Libraries to Look for Your Project!

Summary: Data is the king to ace the online world. There are millions of sites with gazillions of databases. It is just not possible for one to scrape data on a manual basis. Python web scraping libraries come to your rescue in this scenario. It is very easy to automate certain web scrape tasks with the help of apt tools and libraries. But how will you choose one for your web scrape project? Which Python web scrape library is good for you? Let’s find out through the blog! 6 best web scraping tools and libraries to look for to build a great web scraping software.

Introduction:

Will you be able to go through a pile of files in an hour? No! Right?! What if you had a scanner that could scan every file and give you the results? That would be a much better option, right?! 

Web scrapers do the same for specific content present on a web page. They navigate through a web page at a much faster pace. They extract data from product details to prices to contacts, etc. Such data is then organized in a database, which helps to analyze and use it effectively. 

But is it legal and ethical? One needs to look into the data privacy of every site. Web scraping helps to get a lot of data in a very less time. Thus, it is a popular practice that is done by many experts on a global level.  

Web scrape is generally used by journalist, data explorer, researcher, etc. And by businesses who want to upgrade their customer base. Data drives every firm efficiently, you just need to get it in the right ways possible.

Let’s Look into Something More!

5 years down the line, the web scrape practice has been greatly acknowledged. With the growth of other tech advances, there has been an upscale trend in web scraping services.

Source: Google Trends

This is how we know it is trusted and used well worldwide. The question now arises: Which web scraping tool should one use?

Here is the answer.

Python web scraping tools and libraries are the best. Our team at WebMob Technologies never talks without facts. Here is another graph that shows a similar increase in Python tech. The experts use it all over the world from the past 5 years.

Source: Google Trends

Before we head to the list of web scrape libraries by Python, let’s just have a gist of why Python is not considered. Why is any other tech not considered? Here is the answer. 

Why is Python Apt Choice for Web Scraping?

Easy to understand

The Python code is easy to read. And the syntax is also very simple to learn. An expert can easily know Python as it is a very familiar tech.

Saves time

It becomes very easy to web scrape with Python. The tech saves you time and enables to write simple and short pieces of code. It thus makes complex tasks in time.

Vast library

Python has a vast library ecosystem. It consists of great tools and services. Consequently, it is suitable for web scraping and additional manipulation of the web data that is retrieved.

Great community support

The tech has a great community support. With time, the experts do update the stack as per the trends. And make Python relevant to the world in whichever form is necessary. 

Now, how will you find out the best Python library? Which one is flexible and scalable compared to others? Here is a list of the top Python web scraping libraries that are great to extract data in your time.

6 Python Web Scraping Tools and Libraries to Choose for Your Project

#1 Beautiful Soup

Python is known to parse HTML and XML documents into a tree structure. It is an easy way to identify and extract data. Beautiful Soup used to support Python 2, but with its new version 4.12.3, it is all set to go for Python 3. In the new version, the library is all set with Python idioms to iterate, search, and modify the parse tree. The library scans the whole parsed page. It also helps identify all repetitions of data and automates the detection of encodings. 

Features:-

• The library is great with HTML sites. It helps disclose encoding in real time.
• It is built on Python parses like lxml and html5lib. The library enables to try on varied parsing techniques. 

Pros:-

• It helps maintain the code. An expert can understand and adapt to the code very easily. One can avail the task to extract output from the gathered data at ease. 
• Beautiful Soup has a great community support that helps a fresher as well as an expert.
• It has the best documentation that helps an expert to know about the library in depth.
• It parses and analyzes HTML sites the best.
• Integrates well with other Python libraries.
• Ideal for small to medium scale projects. 

Cons:-

• Proxies are not well with the library. So to get your hands on vast data without getting IP blacklisted is hard.
• Beautiful Soup is not independent. It requires other dependencies to work well online.

#2 Scrapy

Yet another best web scraping tools and libraries. It is a well known web crawler and screen scraper. Scrapy is quick and efficient in extracting data from web pages. One can use to monitor, automate test, and mine the data. It is more than just a web scrape library, as it is also used to alter the crawl speed and give experts their desired access. It allows asynchronous requests with built-in selectors. Also, Scrapy goes great with Splash web browser.

Features:-

• Scrapy has great built in support. It helps extract data from XML/HTML files. It enhances CSS selectors, XPath expressions, and helper methods.
• To connect with a Python terminal Scrapy uses Telnet console. It helps to monitor and debug the crawler at ease. 
• It presents a built in support in various file types like JSON, CSV, and XML.

Pros:-

• It has a great encoding support.
• It is extensive and robust, and it is great to customize an app.
• Scrapy has an interactive shell terminal that helps test out CSS and XPath expressions. Thus, it helps to create or debug your spiders.

Cons:-

• Scrapy does not work great with JS based sites.
• Every operating system has to be installed in a different way for Scrapy.

#3 Selenium

Selenium is the best web scraping tool for JS sites. To create functional test cases, you must first use the Selenium web driver. It easily tests any web page on Firefox, Chrome, IE, and others. The most popular method to blend Selenium with Python is via APIs. Some use cases of the library are automatic login, handling alarms, etc. 

Features:-

• Selenium gives access to a fully functional JS code interpreter. It runs in the back end and gives the expert full control of the page doc. with part of a browser.
• Skip image render with chrome_options by Selenium and save a lot of time.

Pros:-

• An expert works on multiple tasks with a Web Driver. It helps extract data from the browsers and automates tests, cookie retrieval, etc.
• Selenium Web Driver supports many browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, HtmlUnit, etc.

Cons:-

• Traffic tracking system can easily identify you as a web driver while you browse through pages.
• You load an entire web browser in a Web Driver to scrape through a particular page.

#4 Requests

The Python web scraper library creates multiple HTTP requests at a time. The basic step in any web scrape is to submit HTTP requests to the sites. And extract data present on a specific web page. The very first stage of the web scrape is taken care by Requests. However, to create a functional web crawler you must get help from other web scrape library like Beautiful Soup.

Features:-

• It supports the RESTful API. 
• Secure URLs with SSL certificate. In the library, it has a default SSL verify that helps with the errors.

Pros:-

• It is easy to learn Requests library. And get access to an API. 
• It reduces the need for query strings in one’s URL manually.
• Requests support all the authentic modules and handle cookies with great stability.

Cons:-

• No data should be send via GET method as every single data is seen in the URL query string. 
• It is not good with dynamic sites.

#5 Mechanical Soup

One of the top web scraping tools and libraries is built on Requests and Beautiful Soup library. It does have a similar API to the above two advances. The web scraper automatically sends cookies, follow links, submit forms, etc. 

Features:-

• With the help of StatefulBrowser the library is able to extend the browser. It also has other great functionality that interacts well with HTML data elements. 
• The Form class helps the library to build forms or create HTML forms to submit.

Pros:-

• It is an apt advances to check boxes or log into a site. The library is a simple crawler script that can manage such simple tasks.
• It supports CSS & XPath selectors and gives apt speed & efficacy to parse simple web pages.

Cons:-

• JS is not compatible with Mechanical Soup.
• If the site does not have any HTML page than the library is not capable to interact as a crawler. 

#6 HttpClient (part of Apache HttpComponents)

HttpClient is a powerful library for making HTTP requests. It allows you to fetch data from web servers efficiently.

Features:

• Making HTTP requests (GET, POST, etc.).
• Handling response objects.
• Supports various authentication methods.

Pros:

• Mature and widely used.
• Supports various protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc.).

Cons:

• Requires additional parsing for HTML content.

Choose Apt Web Scraping Library for Your Business!

There are different keys for different doors.

Explore! The best web scraping tools and libraries are out there. You just need to figure out which ones for your project. Beautiful Soup is good for small projects, Selenium is for dynamic sites, and Scrapy is for large projects. These are all time favourite libraries of the experts across the globe. 

If you want to know more about Python web scrape library or other advanced web scraping services, then do consult us. Our experts have apt ways to scrape specific content from a web page for you. Also, look into some of our work portfolio and know our skillset in a much better way. Get a free quote from us!

FAQs

Which web scraping library is best?

Selenium is the best library used across the globe for web scrape. It helps to interact with dynamic sites and presents an expert with a steady, fast, and robust web crawler.

Is web scraping legal?

If you function as per a site’s privacy policy, then web scrape is a legal practice. In this tech world, now right data is every one’s urge. So, ethical practices for web scrape are the best way to get data online.

Is Python apt choice for web scraping?

Because of its dynamic typing system and easy memory management, Python is a strong choice for web scraping. Among its most distinctive qualities are its abundance of frameworks and libraries and ease of learning.