I have tested quite a bit of web scraping over the years, but AI scrapers do both the job and organize the data well for an LLM. These are my personal favorites when it comes to letting AI handle the heavy lifting of gathering data from the web.
Table of content
Firecrawl prepares the web for LLM
Firecrawl is almost a little magical. You choose any domain or URL, it fetches everything and transforms it into clean and tidy markdown. It also handles all the annoying parts behind the scenes, like proxies and anti-bot systems. If you want a service that just works and is ready for AI projects right away, then this is an obvious choice. Definitely one of my personal favorites. Try running it against N8N in various automations 😉
ScrapeGraphAI scrapes smart
This is more of a toolbox than a single scraper. You get SmartScraper, SearchScraper and Markdownify, and it’s just as nerdy as it sounds. But it works. I use it when I need to build datasets a bit faster or when I want to connect things with LangChain. It might not be for everyone, but for those of us who like a bit of control, it’s awesome.
Crawl4AI is efficient open source for the nerds
In short: free, powerful and completely without API keys. Crawl4AI is perfect for anyone who wants to tinker a bit on their own and build their own solutions. It provides data in markdown, supports parallel crawling and is also very resource efficient.
Octoparse is drag and drop for regular mortals
Here user-friendliness is the focus for those who don’t care about what an API is. You open Octoparse, click around and select parts of a webpage, and suddenly you have a working scraper without writing a single line of code. It is perfect for simpler projects where you just want to quickly extract data. The AI that identifies fields also saves a lot of time, and the ready-made templates are like cheating but in a good way.
Browse AI does the job without code
This is probably the most business-friendly tool on the list. You can create robots in just a few minutes and there are already over 200 ready to choose from. The integration with Google Sheets and Zapier makes it perfect for anyone who just wants to automate their workflow without thinking too much.
ScrapingBee bypasses the blocks
I like this one because it feels like a little data ninja. It handles sites that try to hide behind JavaScript, it switches proxies so you don’t get blocked and you can even give it instructions in plain English. I like to use it when I need a bit more advanced control but still want to keep it smooth.
Apify scales up for real
Apify is for those who mean business. Here you can build your own Actors, schedule projects, store results, and work in teams. I like that there is an entire library of ready-made templates, but also that it is flexible enough for larger projects. If web scraping for you is about more than just quick data collection, then Apify is almost like a whole work platform. A platform I have been using for about 9 years.
img2dataset brutal image scraper
Img2dataset is a tool for collecting huge image datasets with extreme speed. Give it a list of image URLs or a source with text and links, and it downloads, checks, and formats the images for your AI projects. A must-have scraper in my toolbox!
Just a warning, this is a brutal scraper that can heavily load servers if run carelessly. Use with respect, throttle the speed, store locally, and follow both the law and common sense. When you need a lot of image data fast, it is hard to beat.
https://github.com/rom1504/img2dataset
FAQ on ethics and morals in web scraping
Är webbscraping lagligt?
Nja, det beror på. Att hämta data som redan är offentligt tillgänglig är ofta okej, men vissa sajter har villkor (ToS) som förbjuder det. Och bryter du mot dem kan det bli problem, allt från sura mejl till advokater med riktiga fina slipsar.
Kan man scrapa vad som helst om man bara har tekniken?
Tekniskt sett ja. Moraliskt sett nej. Att hämta priser eller produktspecifikationer är en grej. Att suga åt sig personuppgifter, e postadresser eller innehåll bakom betalväggar är no no no.
Hur gör man för att scrapa schysst?
En tumregel: fråga dig själv om du hade blivit förbannad om någon skrapade din egen sajt på samma sätt. Om svaret är ja, då är du ute på hal is. Respektera robots.txt, belasta inte servrar i onödan och håll dig till data som faktiskt är menad att vara publik.
