Best free Web Scrapers compared: Octoparse, ParseHub, Web Scraper, Apify and 2 more, with free-plan limits, platforms and prices from official pages checked October 24, 2026.
•3 min read•Automation & No-Code
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octoparse | Free (Free plan: 10 tasks, 1 device, 1 user, up to 50K rows exported per month and 10,000 rows per export); paid from $69 per month, Standard (annual billing by default saves about 16%) | Windows, Cloud | Non-coders collecting tables regularly | Docs only |
| ParseHub | Free (A free plan exists; check the pricing page for current project and page limits); paid from $189 per month (Standard) | Desktop app, Cloud | One-off projects on a modest page count | Docs only |
| Web Scraper | Free (The browser extension is described as free on its Chrome Web Store listing; Web Scraper Cloud has a 7-day trial and no free plan); paid from $50 per month, Project plan billed annually (5,000 URL credits, 2 concurrent scrapers) | Chrome extension, Cloud | Quick table extraction from a few pages | Docs only |
| Apify | Free (Free plan: $5 of platform usage per month, 5 concurrent runs, up to 16 GB RAM per Actor run; once used up, access is blocked until the next cycle); paid from $19 per month, Starter (billed monthly; $17 billed annually) | Web browser, Cloud | Running pre-built scrapers without servers | Docs only |
| Scrapy | Free (Free open-source software) | Python | Developers scraping large sites | Docs only |
| Crawlee | Free (Free open-source software) | Node.js | JavaScript sites and browser automation | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
The best free web scraper depends on whether you want to click or to code. Point-and-click tools such as Octoparse, ParseHub and the Web Scraper browser extension let you select elements on a page and export a table, with no programming. Their free plans are real but small: row exports, task counts and speed are capped, and the paid steps start at about $50 to $190 a month. Code libraries such as Scrapy and Crawlee have no usage cap at all, because you run them on your own machine, but you must write and maintain the scraper yourself, and sites that fight bots will take your time. Apify sits in between: it hosts scrapers, including ones other people built, and gives you $5 of platform usage each month. Before choosing, check three things. First, whether the site renders its data with JavaScript, which needs a browser-based tool. Second, how many pages you need each month, since that decides whether a free plan is enough. Third, whether the site's terms and robots rules allow scraping, which matters more than any feature. If you only need a one-off table from a few pages, a free extension is usually the quickest answer. If you will scrape every day, start with a library and a small server.
Visual scraper with a free plan of 10 tasks, 1 user and 1 device, exporting up to 50K rows a month. The first paid plan, Standard, is $69 a month, so heavy use gets expensive.
Price: Free (Free plan: 10 tasks, 1 device, 1 user, up to 50K rows exported per month and 10,000 rows per export); paid from $69 per month, Standard (annual billing by default saves about 16%) (Octoparse pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Windows, Cloud. Proprietary.
Best for: Non-coders collecting tables regularly.
Point-and-click desktop scraper with a free plan. Paid plans start around $189 a month. It runs on your desktop, so it suits small jobs without code; check the pricing page for free-plan limits.
Price: Free (A free plan exists; check the pricing page for current project and page limits); paid from $189 per month (Standard) (ParseHub pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Desktop app, Cloud. Proprietary.
Best for: One-off projects on a modest page count.
A free browser extension that builds sitemaps and runs locally in Chrome. The cloud service has no free plan, only a 7-day trial, and starts at $50 a month billed annually.
Price: Free (The browser extension is described as free on its Chrome Web Store listing; Web Scraper Cloud has a 7-day trial and no free plan); paid from $50 per month, Project plan billed annually (5,000 URL credits, 2 concurrent scrapers) (Web Scraper pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Chrome extension, Cloud. Proprietary.
Best for: Quick table extraction from a few pages.
Hosted scrapers and a store of ready-made Actors. The free plan includes $5 of platform usage a month and blocks access once it is spent; Starter is $19 monthly.
Price: Free (Free plan: $5 of platform usage per month, 5 concurrent runs, up to 16 GB RAM per Actor run; once used up, access is blocked until the next cycle); paid from $19 per month, Starter (billed monthly; $17 billed annually) (Apify pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Cloud. Proprietary (platform); Crawlee library is open source.
Best for: Running pre-built scrapers without servers.
Python framework with no usage limit and a BSD-3-Clause license. It is code only, with no visual interface, so it suits developers who want control over crawling and output.
Price: Free (Free open-source software) (Scrapy pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Python. BSD-3-Clause (open source).
Project activity: 65.1k GitHub stars · latest release 2.19.0 (Sep 10, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Developers scraping large sites.
Worth knowing: Fast high-level crawling and scraping framework for Python per the repository description. Code only; no point-and-click interface.
Apache-2.0 Node.js library that works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Cheerio and JSDOM. Use it when the target needs a real browser to render, and you prefer JavaScript or TypeScript.
Price: Free (Free open-source software) (Crawlee pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Node.js. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 26.3k GitHub stars · latest release v3.18.2 (Sep 29, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: JavaScript sites and browser automation.
Worth knowing: Scraping and browser-automation library for Node.js that works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Cheerio and JSDOM per the repository description.
Docs-only for Octoparse, ParseHub, Web Scraper, Apify, Scrapy, Crawlee: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you commit.
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Based on official pricing, license and product pages checked 2026-10-24: Octoparse, ParseHub, Web Scraper, Apify, Scrapy, Crawlee. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.