Web scraping is the process of automatically extracting data from websites. In 2026, it’s more relevant than ever — businesses use scraped data for pricing intelligence, lead generation, market research, content aggregation, and competitive analysis.

If you’re new to web scraping, this guide covers everything you need to know to get started.

How Web Scraping Works

At its simplest, a web scraper:

  1. Sends a request to a website (like your browser does when you visit a page)
  2. Receives the HTML response
  3. Parses the HTML to find the specific data you want
  4. Extracts and structures that data into a usable format (JSON, CSV, etc.)

Modern websites make this more complex with JavaScript rendering, anti-bot measures, and dynamic content. That’s why tools and platforms exist to handle the hard parts for you.

Do You Need to Code?

Not anymore. While custom scrapers in Python (using libraries like BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, or Playwright) are still powerful, the no-code scraping ecosystem has matured significantly.

Platforms like Apify offer pre-built scrapers (called “Actors”) that you can run without writing a single line of code. For example, our Google Reviews Scraper lets you extract reviews by simply pasting a URL.

That said, understanding the basics helps you make better decisions about which tools to use and how to troubleshoot when things go wrong.

No-Code Platforms

  • Apify — The largest marketplace of pre-built scrapers. Run them via the web UI, API, or integrate with AI assistants via MCP.
  • Octoparse — Visual web scraper with point-and-click interface
  • Browse AI — Monitors websites for changes and extracts data on a schedule

Code-Based Libraries

  • Playwright — Microsoft’s browser automation library. Handles JavaScript-heavy sites well.
  • Puppeteer — Chrome-specific automation, popular for scraping SPAs
  • Scrapy — Python framework for large-scale scraping projects
  • BeautifulSoup — Simple Python library for parsing HTML

AI-Powered Scraping

The newest trend is using LLMs to understand page structure and extract data without writing explicit selectors. Tools built on MCP (Model Context Protocol) can combine scraping with AI processing in a single workflow.

Web scraping occupies a legal gray area that varies by jurisdiction. Some general principles:

  • Public data is generally fair game — Information that anyone can see without logging in is typically scrapable
  • Respect robots.txt — This file tells scrapers which parts of a site the owner prefers not to be scraped
  • Don’t overload servers — Rate-limit your requests to avoid causing harm
  • Check terms of service — Some sites explicitly prohibit scraping in their ToS
  • Be careful with personal data — GDPR and similar regulations apply to scraped personal information

When in doubt, use established platforms like Apify that handle rate limiting and ethical scraping practices for you.

Practical Example: Building a Review Monitoring System

Let’s walk through a real use case. Say you run a restaurant and want to monitor your Google reviews (and your competitors’) automatically.

Step 1: Extract the Reviews

Use the Google Reviews Scraper to pull reviews for your restaurant and 3-4 competitors. At $0.10 per batch, monitoring 5 businesses costs you $0.50 per run.

Step 2: Schedule Regular Runs

Apify lets you schedule scrapers to run automatically — daily, weekly, or whatever frequency makes sense. Set it and forget it.

Step 3: Analyze the Data

Export the data to a spreadsheet or feed it into an analysis tool. Look for trends: Are ratings improving or declining? What do people mention most?

Step 4: Turn Insights Into Content

Found great reviews? Use the Content to Social MCP Server to turn them into social media testimonials. Found negative trends? Address them before they escalate.

Getting Started Today

The easiest way to start web scraping is to pick a specific use case and find a pre-built tool for it. Browse the Apify Store to see what’s available — there are scrapers for Google Maps, social media, e-commerce sites, job boards, and more.

Once you’re comfortable with pre-built tools, you can explore custom scrapers for more specific needs. But for most business use cases, the tools already exist.