How to scrape a website: 9 tools and methods compared

Exa’s guide compares nine web-scraping approaches across no-code tools, Python libraries, browser automation, and extraction APIs, emphasizing that the best choice depends on the data needed, scale of collection, technical expertise, and intended use. No-code services such as ParseHub, Apify, and Octoparse offer visual workflows, templates, and exports for users who need structured data without programming, while Python tools such as requests and Beautiful Soup provide control for static sites but require maintenance when layouts change. For JavaScript-heavy pages, Playwright and Selenium automate real browsers but consume more resources, whereas extraction APIs such as Exa Contents and Firecrawl handle rendering, retries, proxies, and clean-text output for application workflows. The guide also outlines a basic Python scraping process, explains how APIs can return content or targeted highlights, and recommends responsible practices including respecting robots.txt, throttling requests, avoiding private or paywalled material, caching collected pages, and considering legal and terms-of-service restrictions.

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