Octoparse — Free Automated Web Scraping Tool for Windows

I am currently using Octoparse to obtain twitter data for my EngD research. I use the functionality to automatically open and log into my twitter account and perform a specific search on twitter to get the data that I require. I created a task using advanced mode to initially open the twitter page and then login using my credentials. The task will then search for a specific set of lexicons that I have defined and will then show the results of the search. The task will then scroll down the twitter search results for predefined number of times in order to get as many tweets as possible and then the task will iterate through tweets to extract the username of the person tweeting and also the actually tweets and the timestamp. I then used the extracted data for further sentiment analysis using a separate tool. I find that it is very intuitive to use Octoparse. There are also many resources available on its website, and a video specifically showing how to extract tweets which is very useful. Also, there appear to be an increasing number of users which means that I expect more discussions and tips to be posted online moving forward. I also find that for a resource hungry processes, it is very useful to have the ability to run those processes on cloud so that it will finish quicker. I have only scratched the surface in terms of the functionality available on Octoparse and look forward to experiment with them and potentially use this tool as the strategic platform for data extraction for my research. I find other tools out there to be have very limited capabilities and are not as intuitive to use as Octoparse. Addtionally, I also look forward to introduce Octoparse as the strategic platform for social media data extraction to my department at the university. As it stands, I also feel that Octoparse has the right price point which is not too prohibitive for user in a small organisation as myself.

Great Extraction Tool no DOUBT! Very low cost and HIGH extraction speed! No coding knowledge is not needed! Anyone knows how to browse the web can use it! High performance cost ratio! Strongly recommended!

ProsOctoparse helps me to extract some heath care information online, which is quite helpful to my research. At first I was usually suck in some websites, like pagination, scrolling-down, but the tutorials help me a lot to figure out the problem and I finally succeeded in getting the data I want. Besides, I do appreciate Octoparse support team. They did help me a lot.

I have tested quite a few for my PhD Project where i needed to deep scrap heterogeneous web sites. I can say that Octoparse, unlike many others, actually has a very easy learning curve, get's many things done with the free version, can do deep scrapping and most of all, offers a large set of API's to be able to use the data at enterprise level.

Actually I am a web developer and I had a project where client also needed the data to be filled up from sites like alibaba, justdial, olx etc. I have come to octoparse searching for those data extractors so that I can get the data as I wanted and then upload it to my database. Well believe me, it didnt go well in the first attempt. it was when i gone thru all the sample cases and the videos that I have understood how to properly use the software. For olx.com , justdial it was fine but had a lot of problem with alibaba.com . I had to get the phone number which requires a login and it took one complete day to get succeed at the end, and that too with local extraction, but still it suffices me. So in this way I was able to collect fair amount of data from here and could use it on my client's site. The Xpath tool helped me a lot in justdial site and the cookie tool in specific, for alibaba. I think speed is also good but could even be better. Hope my case study would guide new octoparse.com software users a direction of use / faith in the software.

A product that brought me lots of convenience. I don't have to flip over pages and pages to look for data. Octoparse is a great web scraper.

I am an Amazon dealer and I'm using this product to help me supervise competitors' moves and monitor my products' reviews, it conducts data to me in the time as I presetted, very helpful and very convenient, brought me much help on business, and release many of my worries and stress. Love it!

As a re-seller with more than 20,000 products listed it would be impossible to hand log the data. Octoparse assists in the migration of data to familiar platforms for manipulation and analysis.

Octoparse is the best choice of web scrapers for three reasons: (1) attractive price points that accommodate all levels of activity, (2) cloud and local scraping options for whatever your project demands, and (3) ease of use that doesn't require code specific knowledge.

I was within a few tutorials able to learn how to use it and implement it. Large amounts of useful data were provided within hours of setting up my account.

Pros:

(1) attractive price points

(2) cloud and local scraping options

(3) ease of use that doesn't require code specific knowledge.

Cons:

Drop down list are still a little buggy

As a re-seller with more than 20,000 products listed it would be impossible to hand log the data. Octoparse assists in the migration of data to familiar platforms for manipulation and analysis. Octoparse is the best choice of web scrapers for three reasons: (1) attractive price points that accommodate all levels of activity, (2) cloud and local scraping options for whatever your project demands, and (3) ease of use that doesn't require code specific knowledge. I was within a few tutorials able to learn how to use it and implement it. Large amounts of useful data were provided within hours of setting up my account.

As a CEO of a fast growing company I don't have the time to write a crawler myself (and not the best skills at hand either :) ). So a visual point and click approach sounded pretty good to me. Sometimes I just want to bulk extract data or "set it and forget it". Octoparse is my new buddy in this endeavour, e.g. when I want to monitor product prices in my industry or content on a given website. Most of this basic tasks are easy to setup with octoparse and you get the data within minutes. The scraping process is visualized step by step, which makes error solving easier. And it gives you some flexibility because you don't need to ask an engineer everytime you have a simple scrape to do.

Pros:

It has a simple and easy to use graphical interface. Many of the basic extraction tasks are set-up in less than 10 minutes.

Cons:

Pagination and looping is tricky on most pages. The auto loop detection only works on simpler webpages. Based on .net, so no os x version ;(

I had no idea how crawlers are working, but a friend of mine told me to give Octoparse.com a try. After a few minutes my first crwaler was working and I had some data to play with.

I'm currently using Octoparse to be prepared for the work environment, since I'm a Computer Science Student.

Defenetly a tool to recommend!

Pros:

Easy to use. Graphical support when builder a crawler.

Cons:

Learning Videos on Youtube could be better. Looping is a bit complicated

Very good tool for data crawling, relatively simple use. Maybe for less experienced users there should be good prepare few tutorials how to work with data extraction based on REGEX or how to create REGEX conditions.

Instead of this it is very good SW which I had look for long time and which makes my job much more easier. So I can remmend this for all after my few months testing of this tool.

Pros:

Very goog user friendly frontend, even relative simple also for unexperienced users with data corwling

Cons:

Crowler have problems with dynamic changes of the paginations, so this could be improved, but still there are possibilities how to solve it.

It is amazing that such a great tool is available for free.