Octoparse vs. Import.io comparison: which is best for web scraping?

Web scraping software, also known as data extraction tool, is the software to collect the data from the website. It’s usually not easy for us to pick up a web scraping tool as there’s so many web scraping tools available now (refer to Top 30 Free Web Scraping Software to learn more). That’s why I decided to put the web scraping tool Octoparse head to head with import.io to see how the two tools compare. Here is everything you need to know when deciding which web scraping tool better suits you.

Feature Comparison

Here is a general comparison between Octoparse and Import.io features:

Feature	Octoparse	Import.io
Environment	Desktop app for Windows (available fo MAC with virtual machine)	Web based application, support Chrome，Firefox，Safari
Selecting elements	Point-and-click, XPath	Point-and-click, XPath
Pagination	Clicking on pagination links or manually entering the XPath(websites without "Next page" links)	Entering a list of pages
Scraper logic	Variables, loops, conditionals	Selecting and extracting only
Drop downs, tabs,hovering, pop-ups	Yes	No
Infinitely scrolling pages	Yes	No
Entering into search boxes	Yes	No
Captcha	Yes with local machine	No
Signing in to accounts	Yes	Yes
Javascript	Yes	Yes
Transforming data	Regex, javascript expressions	Regular expression
Speed	Fast parallel execution	Fast parallel execution
Hosting	Hosted on cloud of Octoparse servers if subscribed to Octoparse cloud or on local machine with basic version	Hosted on cloud of Import.io servers
IP Rotation	Included in paid plans or manual IP proxy(free version)	Yes
Scheduling runs	With a premium Octoparse account	With a premium import.io plan
Data export	CSV, Excel, Txt, Databases	CSV, JSON, API, Google Sheets
Smart Mode	Yes	No
Cloud service	Yes	Yes
Up-to-date data	Yes (Incremental extraction)	Yes
Image and files extraction	No, only able to extract the image or file URLs	Yes
Coding	No	No
Support	Free professional support, tutorials, community support	Community support or professional support for paid users, customer success training

So what both web scrapers could do for you?

Both the interface is built according to point-and-click principle, which is easily for you to extract data without coding. Both of the scrapers could deal with Javascript and AJAX pages and are able to scrape behind a login. Like a bot, they could follow the links to go into the deeper web pages by clicking the items and extract the data on the other pages. Also, they are able to get data in CSV format and transform data by manually modifying Regular expression or XPath.

They all provide cloud services, which are able to offer API options, IP rotation and services to schedule extractors running in real time. With that, you are easy to get up-to-date data regularly without having to keep your computer on.

What Octoparse could for do you?

The biggest difference between Octoparse and its web scraping alternatives is that Octoparse can get data from interactive websites. It totally mimics human behaviour when browsing a website.

You can instruct Octoparse to scrape data from very complex and dynamic sites, because it can:

• Sign in to accounts to scrape behind a login
• Select choices from dropdown menus(single and multiple), tabs, pop-up windows
• Enter keywords and search with a search bar
• Go to a new page simply by clicking on the "next" button
• Get data from infinitely scrolling pages
• Able to input Captcha in local machine
• Visual workflow to understand the logics of the scraper (Variables, loopsand conditionals) and could be changed easily with point-and-click interface
• Smart mode to deal with the simple website just by entering the target URL
• Extract inter and outer HTML and attributes and customize the values for further extraction
• Advanced RegEx tool and XPath tool to modify the regular expression or XPath, which means you don’t need to know how regular expression and XPath are written(see the screenshots below)

And more! Except for the first one, these are all things that import.io cannot handle.

 

Octoparse RegEx Tool

 

Octoparse XPath tool

Here is a full list of Octoparse’s scraping features:

Automatic IP Rotation	API	Loops, variables and conditionals logics
Extract text, HTML and attributes	Scheduled Runs	Cloud servers to store data
Extract files and images URLs	Search through forms and inputs	Get data from drop-downs, tabs, pop-ups and hovers
Databases integration	Pagination and navigation	Scrape content from infinitely scrolling pages
RegEx and XPath Tool	Get data from tables and maps	Content that loads with AJAX and JavaScript

The downside of using Octoparse as an alternative to import.io is that you need to install the application on your own computer. And because the software is written in .Net, it only supports Windows system. A Mac visual machine is needed if you want to If you need to run Octoparse on Mac. You would also be annoyed if the Internet is unstable and the scraper stopped unexpectedly, you need to rerun the crawler from the scratch. The other one is that it may take longer to learn Octoparse for you are easily to make mistakes if you don’t understand the logics of the workflow. But luckily, there are plenty of tutorials and great support if you get stuck!

Besides, Octoparse is not able to extract the images and files directly; you need to extract their URLs and download them with other applications. And the function of API is quite limited.

What import.io could do for you?

First of all, import.io is a cloud-based platform, which means you don’t need to run the scraper on your machine and the data could be kept in the cloud. Therefore, you can access your data from any computer connected to Internet. Also, you don’t need to concern about the scraping process maintenance and scalability.

Unlike Octoparse advanced mode, import.io tries to guess what you want from the page, and would build an extractor for you just a few seconds. Other features include:

• Connect one data source with another and thus producing new, valuable, real-time data sets
• Integrate with Google Sheet and Tableau
• Able to extract images and files
• API integration

Here is a full list of Import’s scraping features:

Automatic IP Rotation	Cloud servers to store data	Content that loads with AJAX and JavaScript
Extract files and images	Scheduled Runs	XPath and Regular Expressions Selectors
Pagination	Get data from tables and maps	API,Tableau and Goolge Sheet integration

The downside of using import.io is that it’s not as widely used as Octoparse to deal with websites. As is mentioned above, it couldn’t deal with websites with dropdown menus, pop-up windows and captcha. It’s also not able to scrape with infinite scrolling pages, which are quite common for most of web pages. There’s also no scraper logics like conditions for further extraction to specifically locate the web page or items.

And for pagination, it’s not easy as you need to enter a list of pages. As for transforming the data in regular expression and XPath, there are no built-in tools for you and you need to enter the expression yourself, which means you need to master XPath and regular expression if you want to explore more on import.io.

Cost Comparison

There’s no doubt that Octoparse has overwhelming advantages. It provides free version with powerful functions! To summarize, that is:

Brand	Octoparse			Import.io
	Basic	Standard	Professional	Essential	Professional	Enterprise
Monthly plan ($)	Free	89	189	299	-	-
Yearly plan ($)	Free	900	1896	-	1999	4999

Let’s see the screenshots below for more details. 

Octoparse Pricing

 

Import.io Pricing 

Octoparse's plans are limited by:

• the number of crawlers
• the number of crawlers you could concurrent run on your machine
• the speed at which you can collect data (different cloud servers)

There are unlimited pages for each crawlers and unlimited computer licence for each version, including the free one.

(Note: When you enter URLs in URL list, it would suggest LESS THAN 20,000 URLs. All the versions are limited by such number as Octoparse need to ensure that the CPU run the crawler at one time. But you could copy the crawler to extract the rest URLs.)

Import.io’s plans are limited by: 

• the number of queries per month or year
• the expiry date of the queries
• limited functions like image and file download, API, up-to-date reporting
• support

It’s sad to find out that import.io doesn’t provide free version anymore.

Most people build one two crawlers per website on Octoparse. One is to extract the separate web pages URLs and the other one is to use URL lists to bulk extract the data with the extracted URLs. It’s highly recommended when using the cloud service (see Splitting Tasks to Speed Up Cloud Extraction to learn more).  

On the other hand, Import.io counts an extractor as one query and it doesn’t provide URL lists to bulk extract the web pages. Therefore, either you need to spin over these separate web pages in one extractor (which usually means missing data) in import.io, or you need to upgrade your version for more queries.

For both Octoparse and Import.io, you have to subscribe to a premium plan for scheduling feature —— the ability to collect data from a website continuously on a schedule (real-time, daily, weekly, monthly).

If you don't want to learn how to use a tool and just want your data on demand, both Octoparse and Import.io provide data service extracting data for you. Just contact the sales of both companies and they will scrape data from the website you want —— delivering them in CSV/Excel or API format.

Conclusion

It is not difficult to start a project either with Octoparse or import.io. And they all deal well with both static and dynamic websites. XPath and regular expression are needed if you want to explore more, though they claim that no programming knowledge is needed. Also, both have their limits.

I will also make some examples to further show you how these two scrapers work. And if there’s something wrong with the information above, just contact me here.