Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Scrapy VS import.io

Compare Scrapy VS import.io and see what are their differences

Scrapy logo Scrapy

Scrapy | A Fast and Powerful Scraping and Web Crawling Framework

import.io logo import.io

Import. io helps its users find the internet data they need, organize and store it, and transform it into a format that provides them with the context they need.
  • Scrapy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-11
  • import.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-12

Scrapy features and specs

  • Efficiency
    Scrapy is designed to be efficient and robust, capable of handling multiple tasks simultaneously and scraping large websites in a fast and reliable manner.
  • Built-in Tooling
    Scrapy comes with built-in tools for handling common tasks such as following links, extracting data using XPath and CSS, and exporting data in a variety of formats.
  • Customization
    Scrapy offers extensive customization options, allowing users to build complex spiders and modify their behavior through middleware and pipelines.
  • Python Integration
    Being a Python framework, Scrapy integrates seamlessly with the Python ecosystem, enabling the use of libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and others to process and analyze scraped data.
  • Community Support
    Scrapy has a large and active community, providing extensive documentation, tutorials, and third-party extensions to enhance functionality.
  • Asynchronous Processing
    Scrapy’s asynchronous processing model enhances performance by allowing multiple concurrent requests, reducing the time required for crawling sites.

Possible disadvantages of Scrapy

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, Scrapy's comprehensive feature set and the need for understanding concepts like XPath and CSS selectors can be challenging.
  • Resource Intensive
    Scrapy can be resource-intensive, potentially consuming significant memory and CPU, which can be problematic for scraping very large websites or running multiple spiders simultaneously.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging Scrapy projects can be complex due to its asynchronous nature and the multiple layers of middleware and pipelines that need to be understood.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For simple or small-scale scraping tasks, the overhead of setting up and configuring a Scrapy project might be excessive, with simpler alternatives being more suitable.
  • Limited JavaScript Support
    Scrapy's out-of-the-box support for JavaScript-heavy websites is limited, requiring additional tools like Splash or Selenium, which can complicate the setup.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing Scrapy's dependencies and compatibility with other Python packages can sometimes be challenging, leading to potential conflicts and maintenance overhead.

import.io features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Import.io offers a user-friendly interface that allows users to easily extract data without needing to write code, making it accessible for non-technical users.
  • Data Integration
    The platform provides robust integration options with various analytics and data storage tools, enabling seamless data workflows.
  • Scalability
    Import.io can handle large volumes of data efficiently, making it suitable for both small and large-scale data extraction projects.
  • Speed
    The tool is designed to extract data quickly, minimizing the time required to obtain and process large datasets.
  • Data Transformation
    Offers features for data transformation and cleaning, allowing users to manipulate the data to fit their needs before export.

Possible disadvantages of import.io

  • Cost
    Import.io can be expensive, especially for businesses or users requiring extensive data extraction and processing capabilities.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic features are easy to use, mastering the more advanced functionalities can require a significant amount of time and effort.
  • Limited Customization
    There are constraints on customization, which could be limiting for users with complex or highly specific data extraction needs.
  • Occasional Stability Issues
    Users have reported occasional performance and stability issues, which can cause interruptions during data extraction processes.
  • Dependency on Web Structure
    The tool is highly dependent on the structure of the target websites. Any changes in the website's layout can disrupt data extraction processes and require reconfiguration.

Scrapy videos

Python Scrapy Tutorial - 22 - Web Scraping Amazon

More videos:

  • Demo - Scrapy - Overview and Demo (web crawling and scraping)
  • Review - GFuel LemoNADE Taste Test & Review! | Scrapy

import.io videos

mobile review extraction using import.io

More videos:

  • Review - Import.io Infinite Scroll Website Data Extraction

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Scrapy and import.io)
Web Scraping
49 49%
51% 51
Data Extraction
44 44%
56% 56
Data
45 45%
55% 55
Web Crawling
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Scrapy and import.io

Scrapy Reviews

Top 15 Best TinyTask Alternatives in 2022
The software is simply deployable via the cloud, or you can host the spiders on your server using Scrapy. Only the rules need to be written; Scrapy will take care of the rest to separate the facts. With Scrapy’s portability and ability to run on Windows, Linux, Mac, and BSD platforms, new features can be added without affecting the program’s core.

import.io Reviews

We have no reviews of import.io yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Scrapy seems to be a lot more popular than import.io. While we know about 97 links to Scrapy, we've tracked only 2 mentions of import.io. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Scrapy mentions (97)

  • Current problems and mistakes of web scraping in Python and tricks to solve them!
    One might ask, what about Scrapy? I'll be honest: I don't really keep up with their updates. But I haven't heard about Zyte doing anything to bypass TLS fingerprinting. So out of the box Scrapy will also be blocked, but nothing is stopping you from using curl_cffi in your Scrapy Spider. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Automate Spider Creation in Scrapy with Jinja2 and JSON
    Install scrapy (Offical website) either using pip or conda (Follow for detailed instructions):. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Analyzing Svenskalag Data using DBT and DuckDB
    Using Scrapy I fetched the data needed (activities and attendance). Scrapy handled authentication using a form request in a very simple way:. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Scrapy Vs. Crawlee
    Scrapy is an open-source Python-based web scraping framework that extracts data from websites. With Scrapy, you create spiders, which are autonomous scripts to download and process web content. The limitation of Scrapy is that it does not work very well with JavaScript rendered websites, as it was designed for static HTML pages. We will do a comparison later in the article about this. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • What is SERP? Meaning, Use Cases and Approaches
    While there is no specific library for SERP, there are some web scraping libraries that can do the Google Search Page Ranking. One of them which is quite famous is Scrapy - It is a fast high-level web crawling and web scraping framework, used to crawl websites and extract structured data from their pages. It offers rich developer community support and has been used by more than 50+ projects. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

import.io mentions (2)

  • Woke up in hella good mood - I guess weekend - how are y’all
    Sort of, import.io is a portion. This could also automate tasks on your local computer as well. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Offering help for Free: If anyone's trying to get a custom internal tool built, I can Help
    This should be possible. But I think you can do this faster with import.io and google sheets. DM me, we'll figure it out. Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Scrapy and import.io, you can also consider the following products

Apify - Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.

Octoparse - Octoparse provides easy web scraping for anyone. Our advanced web crawler, allows users to turn web pages into structured spreadsheets within clicks.

ParseHub - ParseHub is a free web scraping tool. With our advanced web scraper, extracting data is as easy as clicking the data you need.

Scraper API - Scale Data Collection with a Simple API.

Content Grabber - Content Grabber is an automated web scraping tool.

Zyte - We're Zyte (formerly Scrapinghub), the central point of entry for all your web data needs.