What language do you use for web scraping? | Web Scraping Tool | ScrapeStorm

As data analysis and AI technology progresses, “data collection” is attracting attention, and along with it, “scraping”, which is a data collection method, is also attracting attention. I often see questions such as “What is the best language for web scraping?” and “Is there an easy-to-use tool for web scraping?”

This time, I will introduce recommended programming languages and easy-to-use tools for web scraping.

What is web scraping?

Web scraping is the term for various methods used to gather information from across the internet. Typically, this is done with software that simulates human web surfing to collect certain information from various websites. The more you extract the data, the deeper the data analysis.

3 Recommended Languages for Web Scraping

1. Python

Python is one of the most popular programming languages today, and the simplicity of syntax and readability were really taken into consideration when it was first designed. Good programming habits can help you write clearer, more readable code. Python-based packages are even more prosperous, with Python being the fastest growing language according to the latest statistics on tiobe programming language rankings. About 44% of software engineers use this programming language, second only to JavaScript.

Using Python, it is relatively easy to write your own program to collect information. The library is substantial and basically anything can be done. Another important thing is that there is a lot of information and books about Python on the Internet, which is very popular.

2. Ruby

Ruby was originally an object-oriented scripting programming language, but over time it gradually evolved into an interpreted high-level general-purpose programming language. It is very useful for improving developer productivity. In Silicon Valley, Ruby is very popular and known as the web programming language of the cloud computing era.

Python is suitable for data analysis, and Ruby is suitable for developing web services and SNS. Compared to Python, the advantage is that it can be implemented with only a lightweight library. Also, the Nokogiri library is pretty cool and much easier to use than its Python equivalent.

3. JavaScript

JavaScript is a high-level dynamic programming language. The very popular front-end framework Vue.js was created with jsJavaScript. I would say that JavaScript is a must if you want to engage in front-end development.

Recently, the number of websites that use a lot of JavaScript such as SPA is increasing, so in that case, it is easiest to scrape while operating headless chrome with puppeteer. Node.js (JavaScript) is likely to become the most suitable language for scraping in the near future.

2 recommended web scraping tools for non-engineers

1. ScrapeStorm

ScrapeStorm is a powerful, no-programming, easy-to-use artificial intelligence web scraping tool. It provides two scraping modes for different base users, 1-click meets 99% web scraping. ScrapeStorm allows you to retrieve large amounts of web data quickly and accurately. It perfectly solves various problems faced by manual data extraction, reduces the cost of information acquisition, and improves work efficiency.

2. ParseHub

ParseHub is a free web scraping tool. This advanced web scraper allows you to extract data with just a click on the data you want. It allows you to download the collected data in any format for analysis.

With the method using a scraping tool, even those who are not confident in their IT skills or have no programming experience can easily perform scraping.