Octoparse

│Octoparse Overview

Regardless of industry, information extraction has become a key tool in giving businesses an advantage over their competition. And leading the way in this sector is Octoparse’s cloud-based web data extraction solution. 

The platform allows users to scrape data and save it in a variety of formats like HTML, plain text, and Excel. With Octoparse, it’s possible to select any element on a web page to extract data from, and it can run multiple extraction tasks at once.

If you need a data extractor that automates most of the process but still offers advanced features, then Octoparse could be a superb option. But there’s a lot more to know about the program before making an investment.

This article will tell you everything you need to know and more about Octoparse.

Octoparse – Best web scraping tool

Scraping data is no simple task, but Octoparse makes extraction much easier. The program automates processes and offers multi-task functionality to help with larger projects. Plus, it’s highly cost efficient.

│Octoparse Pros and Cons

Before we look at all the features and perks that make Octoparse one of the best web scrapers on the market, we’ll summarize all the advantages and disadvantages for using the software. This can help you be aware of specific elements when investigating the product for your needs.

Octoparse Pros 

Has an intuitive and user-friendly interface

As we stated in the intro, Octoparse is a web scraping solution for both techie and non-technical users. And a key element of this is the fact that it has an interface that’s visually soothing and easy to use. 

There is an extensive selection of task templates

Another factor to consider for non-techie users, Octoparse comes with over 50 task templates. Each template is customizable, but they require no setup at all. The templates also work wonders for those on a busy schedule. And you can combine them with our next pro…

Schedule your data extraction tasks

Nothing helps users save more time than a scheduling feature. We’ll talk more about this later in the article, but it’s an easy addition in the ‘pros’ column.

Scrapes quickly and works on static and dynamic pages

Think about the best scraper in the world, but it takes a whole day to get your results. Not very useful, huh? Octoparse is one of the fastest scrapers on the market and can do multiple pages at once — whether the pages are static or dynamic.

Offers superb customer service

Octoparse isn’t in retail and doesn’t offer an operational necessity, so we won’t expect 24/7 customer service. For what the software does, it has quality, responsive customer service options via e-mail and ticket support. And it offers a comprehensive FAQ and video tutorial help library with regular updates. Enterprise customers also have access to help via Skype.

Octoparse Cons

Be aware of the customer service and tutorials structure

This isn’t so much a ‘con’ as it is ‘something to be aware of’. Octoparse’s customer support response structure is based on your pricing tier and isn’t live. Don’t expect instant responses to issues you have. As you wait for an answer, you’ll rely on the help center and tutorials provided by Octoparse. But you’ve probably already spent a lot of time here anyway.

Limitations on the ‘Free’ tier

Although they mention that their Free Plan is ‘perfect for simple projects,’ we can’t help but put this in the cons. It only offers 10k records and runs slower than other tiers. You’ll find yourself bumping up to a Basic plan — at the least — and quickly.

Needs even more tutorials

Scraping is a field that’s constantly changing and requires users to adapt to their target websites. While Octoparse does regularly update their tutorials for various websites, a comment often seen is the request for more tutorial pages. 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Has a solid U/I and U/X	Customer service response isn’t instant
Offers pre-built task templates	The platform is easy-to-use, but you’ll spend a lot of time in the tutorials section before you’re doing it on your own.
Possible to schedule your extractions	Lots of limitations on the ‘Free’ tier
Works fast and on any website	Could use some more tutorials
Top-tier customer service

Try Octoparse Now!

If you need to scrape data from web pages quickly and easily, then Octoparse is one of the top solutions available. The program makes data extraction a breeze and doesn’t require coding experience — though it helps! Start scraping data in just a few clicks with Octoparse!

│What is Octoparse?

If you want to automate your data extraction, Octoparse is the web-scraping program you need to make it happen. The interface is point-and-click and offers an intuitive experience that will have you extracting data from dynamic or static websites in a matter of clicks.

Octoparse is compatible with Windows or Mac. And upon extraction, you can export your data in a variety of formats including TXT, CSV, HTML, and Excel. And though it helps with more advanced features, you don’t need coding experience to use Octoparse’s data scraping platform. It’s probably the most popular aspect of the program. 

It’s possible to click on elements within individual pages or go ‘full-auto’ with your extraction. And the automation feature is outstanding. It mimics the way people browse pages to simplify the extraction process.

You can run an extraction locally or through the cloud. But with the cloud version, you’ll get a much faster extraction. 

Overall Rating	4.5/5.0
Functionality	Octoparse is globally renowned for its ease-of-use and fast data extraction. This is an automated, no-code solution that works for nearly any industry with little training.
Templates	Octoparse has over 50 task templates to help you extract data.
Features for Businesses	Loaded options for industry-specific data services.
Performance	From the Standard Plan and above you gain access to cloud extraction which offers some of the most comprehensive and speedy data scraping available.
Latest Offerings	Octoparse may have seasonal offers on their pricing page. Otherwise, you can apply for a discount.

│ How does Octoparse Work?

Octoparse’s primary function is as a web scraping tool. And when compared to other tools on the market, it has a smooth experience. The clean, user-friendly UI allows you to get the ball rolling on your extraction quickly.

Getting started is as simple as creating a series of tasks — you can use a template — and letting the program do its thing. If you need to bring up your dashboard, apply filters, view recent tasks or contact support, you can access everything from a series of tabs on the left-side of your screen.

If you want to extract data in bulk, the visual workflow designer will help you design a plan for the fastest possible extraction. How the program does this is proprietary to Octoparse. We’re just mentioning how the process would work for you as a user.

The automated process works so users with no coding experience can extract the data they want.

│ Octoparse Features

Whether you need data for business, marketing, or research purposes, it’s possible to extract it using Octoparse. The core of the platform’s features shine in that anyone can learn to use them with no coding knowledge. And it all works in an easy-to-use point-and-click interface.

Beyond the UI, there are tons of scraping features that enhance the experience along with the amount and quality of the data you get. It’s easy-to-use task system provides a quick start, but there are several features that can serve your specific data extraction needs.

Octoparse offers data collection services in a wide range of industries — news, small business, auto. But it’s possible to set up extractions in a variety of ways and customize things for yourself. You’ll need to test the full range of features to see which setup best suits your needs.

A final feature to mention are the task templates available on the platform. You can set up auto-scraping with ease for many popular sites including: Yelp, Amazon, Twitter, eBay, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Play, Walmart, Target, Airbnb, YouTube, Indeed, Glassdoor, and more.

Extracts from both static and dynamic sites

With Octoparse, it doesn’t matter if a site is complex or simple. The platform can handle your scraping needs. It breezes through AJAX and JavaScript sites and can sift through logins to capture anything from text to link, images, or even code.

Cloud Extraction

Fast extraction requires high-end hardware that you probably don’t have. A key feature of Octoparse is its cloud platform that speeds up your extractions up to 20x over other scrapers. This allows you to have extractions going 24/7 and gives you the ability to access your data anywhere, anytime.

Anonymous scraping / Rotating IPs

Many companies use IP blockers to prevent ongoing data extraction. But with Octoparse’s Cloud Services, you approach the site from hundreds of servers, all with unique IP addresses. Because of the rotating IPs, tracing and blocking your extraction becomes an impossible task.

Ad blocker

The ad blocker helps you to sift quickly through websites and remove pop-ups, banners, and other ads that slow things down. This reduces the number of necessary processes exponentially and cuts your extraction time down.

Auto detect

Auto-detect is a newer feature on the platform and helps you to work through websites that feature lots of tables, listings, or infinite scrolling. Using this feature will cut your extraction time to less than a minute. 

Extraction scheduling

If your extraction needs require a constant stream of data, the Octoparse has a scheduling feature that can solve all your needs. You can set it to run at any moment all the way down to 1-minute intervals for real-time scraping.

Why We Need to Use Octoparse

Gives those with no coding expertise the opportunity to scrape website data.	Has functionality and pricing tiers for businesses of all sizes, small to enterprise.
Extracting data has multiple applications within a variety of industries.	Offers over 50 templates for many of the post popular sites for scraping.
The developers automated this process and put it in an easy-to-use interface	If you want to scrape anonymously, the cloud extraction feature is the way to go

Octoparse can work for your small business!

Small businesses need data to compete with larger fish in the marketplace. Octoparse allows you to access important pricing, product, and personnel information you need to scale. And you don’t need to be a computer engineer to make it happen.

│Who Should Use Octoparse?

Anyone can use Octoparse whether or not you have coding experience. It’s an automated platform full of task templates that can extract the data you need. 

Beginner and advanced users can easily figure out the platform and start the process. For advanced usage, Octoparse offers a variety of support functions and tutorials to get users up to speed. It’s a platform for anyone on your team.

But that answers ‘Who can use Octoparse?’ Let’s look at who should use it.

Businesses

Pricing is the key competitive point for most businesses. If your competitors are beating your product prices by even 10 cents, it could take away business. With Octoparse, you can scrape pricing data directly from your competitors in real-time to stay on top of data like this and more.

Digital Marketers

Digital marketers need data to know if their strategies will work beforehand and will net a positive ROI for their campaign. Data scraping helps improve their overall data pool to help create effective, targeted campaigns that use the right SEO strategy. 

Sales Professionals

In a sales funnel, it’s all about converting the leads. But they need the leads to start the process. With Octoparse, you can scrape popular sites like LinkedIn with no code needed. This helps to generate high-quality leads for targeted sales and marketing campaigns.

Researchers

In the academic world, research takes a lot of time. With Octoparse, you can scrape from research paper publishing sites and find the data you’re looking for without the hours and hours of reading.

Usage
Works for both the sales and marketing departments of businesses of any size and has tons of research functionality for the academic world.
It doesn’t matter about your level of technical know-how to use the platform. It’s a no-code solution that anyone can use to scrape data.
Advanced users can take advantage of the automation, anonymity, and speed features on the platform.

Use Octoparse for your research!

Octoparse does more than make businesses more money. Researchers can use the platform to scrape data required for research papers, case studies, and white papers. Using the platform’s Higher Education data service category anyone can access the information they need without coding as a roadblock.

│ Octoparse Cost and Time

Time-wise, Octoparse’s key feature is speed. It uses a cloud extraction system that both gives you anonymity and speeds up the process. This is only available for paid tiers, but when you start the process, you’ll see it’s worth the price.

For what Octoparse does, the cost is lower than many competitors. Plus, they offer a variety of pricing tiers built to scale and for multiple team compositions. 

│ Octoparse Usage

We feel we’ve said this multiple times already, but once more won’t hurt. Along with the automation, the key feature for Octoparse is its easy-to-use point-and-click platform. 

Everything has quick-access via a tab system. And users can just click through automated template wizards to set things up for fast data extraction. It’s the perfect no-code data scraping solution for non-technical users.

Advanced users can also implement their own custom scraping focus and make use of scheduling and real-time scraping features. And they can accomplish this without the clutter you might expect on a platform like this. 

If your users have issues or require help, Octoparse has a comprehensive tutorials library and help center. Plus, they offer 1-to-1 training and onboarding for educational institutions and enterprises.

Overall, using Octoparse is a visually stimulating and convenient experience. 

│Octoparse Pricing

Octoparse has four pricing tiers that can fit the needs of anyone from students to large enterprises. Each tier adds more features and crawlers and gives users higher priority for customer support. 

They offer a free plan that maxes at 10 crawlers running only on local machines. Under this plan, you can search an unlimited number of pages and computers, but you only have access to 10,000 records. 

It’s a great option for students or to test the platform. But most likely, you’ll eventually upgrade to one of the three paid tiers below:

Standard Plan – For small teams

Octoparse’s Standard Plan works well for small businesses. At $75/month annually or $89/monthly, you get a lot for what you pay. This tier gives you access to cloud extractions — up to 6 at once — with an unlimited number of records. The speed increases over the free tier as you can also search using six servers, and you’ll have access to scheduled extractions.

Professional Plan – For middle-sized businesses

The plan jumps up to $209/month annually or $249/monthly and gives you access to everything under the Standard Plan with key additions. This tier increases the number of crawlers from 100 to 250 and bumps you up to 20 concurrent cloud extractions on up to 20 servers. Those added servers increase your extraction speeds exponentially. Plus, you get priority email support.

Enterprise – For businesses with high capacity requirements

You must contact Octoparse for pricing on enterprise solutions. It includes all the features from the Professional Plan and adds chat support, enterprise automation and integration, multi-role access, tailored onboarding, and scalable concurrent processors.

Crawler Services

Octoparse will build crawlers based on the specific requirements of your business or project starting at $189. These crawlers work within Octoparse, and you can access the data anytime you need.

Data Services

If you’re not sure about how all this scraping stuff works and don’t want to learn to use the platform. The Octoparse data team will assess your needs and provide effective crawling and data processing services. Prices start at $399.

│ Octoparse Tools for Business

Octoparse, in and of itself, is a business tool. There aren’t specific business tools within the program because everything already works to help you build your business.  

However, there are specific data focuses built-into the platform that are highly beneficial to businesses. And Octoparse also offers managed data services in the following business areas:

E-Commerce and Retail

Octoparse can provide high-volume extraction from a variety of sources including Alibaba, Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, and more. The platform can scrape elements like product names and images, ASIN, seller names, product and shipping costs, reviews, and more. You can pay for crawlers designed by Octoparse or set the parameters of searches yourself. It’s a complete solution for retailers and online merchants.

Social Media

The platform also has tools that allow you to scrape the top social media sites. You’ll be able to extract data fields like comments, likes, shares, posts, tweets, comments, hashtags, influencers, image URLs, and more. The Octoparse team will also handle this if you’re willing to invest the funds.

Lead Generation

This service uses both social platforms and directories including Yelp, Google Maps, Realtor.com, Indeed, and more to focus your search. With Octoparse’s lead generation services, you’ll be able to eliminate the cost of large email lists, and create targeted contact databases yourself. Again, if you need help, the team at Octoparse can get you started.

News and content creation

Within the platform, it’s possible to focus your extractions on informative sources like whitepapers, company newsletters, press releases, news articles, academic journals, blogs, and more. From there, you can zero in on authors, image URLs, titles, descriptions, RSS feeds and more and use that information for your project. This is another paid service that’s available if you want help from Octoparse.

Points to Note
The Octoparse platform is a powerful tool for businesses
The tools work for businesses of any size.
It’s possible to extract information from nearly any source available
The Octoparse team can tailor solutions for your needs

│ Octoparse Use Cases

Multiple industries can benefit from using Octoparse. It’s just a matter of focusing on the data points that can give your business or marketing campaign the competitive edge. Here are some noteworthy use cases from Octoparse.

Blind Rivet Supply

This company is a hardware retailer that has 30,000 products on its site. Naturally, managing the inventory for that many products and keeping up with pricing is a monumental task. But with Octoparse, they can scrap the data from all of their suppliers and automatically update their listings.

Marketing Synergy Pty Ltd

The team at Marketing Synergy focuses on liquor and food products. But they were having issues collecting data from a multitude of websites that limited their ability to add new products. With Octoparse, they were able to set up accurate data extractions with frequent updates to monitor and compare prices.

Chilean Amazon eCommerce merchant

Small businesses anywhere in the world can benefit from Octoparse as shown in this case study. The merchant uses Octoparse to scrap the data on over 200k Amazon products to give his online store a competitive edge over bigger players in the market. 

│ Octoparse Support

As Octoparse expands, the customer support system is becoming more comprehensive. But this aspect of the web scraping platform is a negative talking point for many reviewers as they only offer live chat for their enterprise customers. 

You can only get help through email support if you’re on the Professional or Standard Plans. And you can access their comprehensive support center online that includes tutorials, videos, and an online community to answer questions. This is the only support for Free Plan users.

Most of the information you need lies within these online sources, but some users may need more. And some users and companies may not want to take the time to search through mounds of support documents and tutorials. Plus, many reviewers mentioned they required more tutorials to clarify things.

From here, you can pay for Octoparse to set everything up for you, but it creates a paywall for many users. 

If you need support, Octoparse will get back to you. It may take hours or up to a day or two based on the workload of their support team. That being said, the support you receive is typically on point and answers the question.

│ Conclusion

If you need a data extraction solution for your business or project, then Octoparse is a simple choice. The developers created an automated no-code scraping solution that anyone on any team can learn and use.

The interface is simple, point-and-click, and easy-to-use. And the platform comes with a range of pre-built task templates and tutorials to help you access the data you want.

Businesses from any industry and educators from any field can use the program to enhance their campaigns, papers, and projects. If you need to find and source data from anywhere on the web in a readable format, then Octoparse is a viable solution.

Try Octoparse now!

Octoparse’s cloud extraction services work anonymously and quickly to get the data you need. You can scrape data for marketing campaigns, sales teams, research papers, and more all with no coding experience necessary. Download and let Octoparse do the scraping for you.