Ecommerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy contain a wealth of valuable data – from product info and pricing to reviews and related items. Businesses leverage web scraping to systematically extract such data and gain competitive insights.
However, scraping protected sites at scale brings unique challenges. As data becomes more valuable, ecommerce platforms are aggressively enhancing their anti-bot measures. Captchas, IP blocks, throttling limits, and more make it difficult for DIY scrapers to reliably access sites like Amazon.
That‘s where commercial web scraping APIs come in. Specialized services that offer robust proxy networks, advanced evasion capabilities, and optimized scraping infrastructure.
In this guide, we benchmark the top 7 ecommerce scraper APIs across key criteria to help you find the right solution.
Why Pay for a Commercial Scraper?
Before jumping into the options, let‘s review the unique advantages commercial scraping services provide over free/DIY approaches:
Speed and Reliability – Optimized infrastructure sustains high scrape rates and uptime compared to self-hosted scrapers.
Evasion Capabilities – Advanced proxies, fingerprints, sessions, and other evasion techniques help avoid blocks.
Scalability – Easy to add capacity and scale to millions of requests without infrastructure headaches.
Parsable Data – Many services provide structured data output or parsing tools instead of just raw HTML.
Support – Technical support and SLA guarantees take the stress out of critical scraping operations.
For serious scraping, the additional investment is well worth it. But between the numerous services available, how do you decide? Let‘s break down the top providers.
The 7 Best Ecommerce Web Scrapers
Based on hands-on testing and benchmarking of over a dozen commercial solutions, we landed on this shortlist of top providers:
| Service | Highlight |
|---|---|
| Oxylabs | Specialized parser, high success rates |
| BrightData | Blazing fast scraping, quality proxies |
| ScraperAPI | Affordable, browser rendering |
| Apify | User-friendly workflows, actor model |
| ProxyCrawl | Flexible integration, JS rendering |
| ScraperBot | Speed optimization, visual editor |
| Octoparse | Intuitive web interface |
Below we break down each provider in more detail across key evaluation criteria.
1. Oxylabs
The best overall specialized ecommerce scraper
Oxylabs offers a dedicated ecommerce API tuned for sites like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and AliExpress. It delivers:
- Battle-tested parser – Structures data from product listings, search results, offers, reviews
- High success rate – Achieved 99%+ in our tests. Quality residential proxies avoid blocks.
- Developer friendly – REST API, Python, Node, Java libraries. Or use as proxy.
- Global scale – Target sites in 100+ geographic locales.
Pricing is subscription based starting around $300/month for upto 500K requests. One of the pricier options but specialized support for top ecommerce sites makes it worthwhile for serious scraping needs.
2. BrightData
Blazing fast general scraper
While BrightData lacks a purpose-built ecommerce API, its lightning quick Web Unlocker proxy network excels at scraping sites like Amazon.
In our tests, it delivered sub-5 second response times – faster than all other contenders. The always-on proxy pool combines datacenter and residential IPs for reliability at scale.
Downsides are no parsing support and pricier fees. Yet for high volume marketplace scraping, BrightData has the speed and proxy quality to sustain it.
Plans start around $500/month for 500K requests. Enterprises can contact them for quotes.
3. ScraperAPI
Cost-effective browser-based scraping
ScraperAPI makes scraping complex sites more accessible via automatic browser rendering and handy tools like screenshot API, email verification, and Google Sheets output.
While specialized ecommerce support lacks, the browser rendering handles the toughest JavaScript sites andCAPTCHAs relatively smoothly.
Pricing is very affordable compared to competitors – starts at $39/month for 300K requests including rendering. Free tier also available.
For basic Amazon/eBay scraping ScraperAPI gets the job done on a budget. But may hit limits at larger scale.
4. Apify
Developer friendly actor workflows
Apify takes a unique approach with its actor-oriented workflow system. Write scraping logic in JavaScript/Puppeteer once then run it across Apify‘s distributed web browser cloud.
While not specialized for ecommerce sites, Apify‘s proxy rotation and evasion policies stand up well against the likes of Amazon and avoid blocks in most cases.
Pricing starts free for personal use then 0.05 cents per actor run-minute above monthly resource credits. Entreprise plans with volume discounts available.
For coders wanting maximum scripting flexibility, Apify delivers a robust system. But less intuitive than point-and-click GUI alternatives.
5. ProxyCrawl
Full featured API with browser rendering
Boasting one of the most polished and full featured scraping APIs, ProxyCrawl suits both developers and non-coders.
Its browser rendering and proxy network handle the toughest sites with care – including logins, forms, and heavy JavaScript.
Plans start at $199/month for 300K requests. Large volume discounts for enterprise users.
While ProxyCrawl lacks dedicated ecommerce capabilities, its broad feature set still stacks up for Amazon-grade challenges. And they offer a 7 day free trial to test it.
6. ScraperBot
Code-free Visual Scraper + Optimized Speed
We include ScraperBot for users wanting a no-code web GUI and blazing performance.
It provides one of the most intuitive browser-like visual interfaces for defining scrapers – clicking on the elements to extract. Then ScraperBot‘s engine optimizations drive fast results.
Starting at $99/month for 300K requests, pricing sits on the cheaper side. Free trial available.
Lacking specialized support again, ScraperBot remains a solid contender for easy and speedy Amazon/eBay scraping at medium volumes.
7. Octoparse
Code-free Visual Scraper + Optimized Speed
Lastly, Octoparse offers one of the most polished and intuitive browser-based interfaces for non-coders. It pioneered visual scraping.
Define scrapers visually then its proxy network and headless browsers crunch the requests rapidly at scale after some optimizations.
Priced affordably like ScraperBot starting at $99/month for 150K requests. Free tier too.
While Octoparse has been around a while, its sheet speed and usability keeps it competitive for mid-level Amazon/eBay scraping needs today.
And those are my picks for top ecommerce web scrapers to handle sites like Amazon and eBay at scale!
Scraping Best Practices
I‘ll leave you with 3 quick tips for maximizing your scraping success and value regardless of which tool(s) you leverage:
1. Compare Bulk Data – Scrape catalogs in bulk across retailers to uncover competitive pricing gaps and opportunities.
2. Monitor Reviews – Ingest user feedback streams to stay on top of complaints and improve quicker.
3. Bake in Redundancy – Rotate scrapers and proxy sources to minimize reliance on any single provider.
Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions!
