Best Tools for Web Scraping on Mac—Experts’ Choices

Web scraping with specialized tools is an easy way to access vast amounts of desired data without spending weeks in front of your computer. 💻

The success of your web scraping activities largely depends on your choice of tools—you need to ensure the selected scraper suits your requirements. If you’re a Mac user, you also need to double-check whether a particular scraper works on your operating system.

To save you the trouble of researching the tools yourself, we’ve analyzed dozens of web scrapers for Mac, consulted industry professionals and influencers, and visited major review platforms to shortlist reliable tools. 🔍

As a result, we’ve come up with a list of the best platforms for web scraping on Mac, and we’ll introduce you to their functionalities and prices in this guide.

How To Choose the Right Tool for Web Scraping on Mac

We’ve put together a list of the best web scrapers that work on your Mac computer, but we’re in no way saying that every single solution will suit your unique needs. Here are a few factors to keep in mind when choosing your web scraper for Mac:

• Ease of use—Unless you have coding skills, you want a tool that doesn’t require months of training 👌
• Price—The right tool should come with various pricing plans so that you can opt for the one that won’t strain your budget. Ideally, there should also be a free plan, allowing you to try out the feature before committing 💲
• Additional options—Some web scrapers are more than just that and allow you to handle multiple processes without using other apps. If you want to minimize context switching, look for a scraper packed with additional functionalities ⚙️
• Integrations—The selected tool should seamlessly fit into your existing workflows without requiring you to adjust your tech stack 🔗

Tools for Web Scraping on Mac—6 Top-Rated Options

After our thorough analysis and careful consideration, we shortlisted the six best tools for web scraping on Mac:

1. Clay
2. Instant Data Scraper
3. Octoparse
4. Web Scraper
5. ParseHub
6. Oxylabs

1. Clay

Clay is a sales automation platform with advanced options for data scraping, enrichment, and campaign personalization.

It has an easy-to-use Chrome extension that allows you to collect data from virtually any website. So, Mac users only need to install Chrome to be able to enjoy Clay’s fantastic functionalities. 🧑‍💻

Using Clay’s Chrome extension is straightforward:

1. Install the extension
2. Go to the website you want to scrape
3. Run the extension and pull your data into a Clay table where you can work on it further

The extension isn’t the only scraping feature Clay has to offer. Claygent, an AI web scraper, lives inside the platform, and you can leverage it to automate the scraping process. Ask Claygent to visit any website, extract and summarize the desired info, and report back to you. It’s a massive time- and money-saver since you don’t need as many SDRs on board. 💸

Another scraping feature Clay offers is web scraping templates. They streamline some scraping tasks like:

• Scraping Indeed job listings to get the number of business locations
• Finding the number of open roles and employees based on a company URL
• Finding local businesses and their contact info from Google Maps

The templates are excellent, but some users mention a flaw—there aren’t enough of them.

In terms of pricing, Clay has a free forever plan, so you can get a feel for the platform and its options. If you like it, opt for one of the four paid plans:

1. Starter—$149/month
2. Explorer—$349/month
3. Pro—$800/month
4. Enterprise—Custom

All plans offer unlimited users, so you can grow your team and be 100% confident Clay can support you along the way. 🥰

2. Instant Data Scraper

Instant Data Scraper is another Chrome extension on our list. If you have Chrome, you can use the extension on any operating system, including Mac. 👌

The extension’s underlying mechanism is heuristic AI analysis—it doesn’t require coding or specific website scripts to scrape data. Instead, Instant Data Scraper relies on AI to analyze a website’s HTML structure and get you the info you need. Thanks to this technology, the extension is perfectly capable of scraping both lesser-known and popular websites.

Some advanced features users get with Instant Data Scraper are pagination and infinite scrolling support and customizing minimum and maximum delay time to prevent server overload.

As far as potential uses go, the list is quite long. You can:

• Generate leads
• Extract prices
• Scrape reviews
• Get emails and phone numbers from directories

Once you’re done scraping, the extension gives a preview of the data—you can edit or delete columns to ensure your table contains only the info you need at the moment.

It’s important to note that you get all these features at zero cost—Instant Data Scraper is completely free! 💲

However, this comes with strings attached because the extension has some drawbacks. The most notable one is that it doesn’t work with some professional networking sites, which could be a deal-breaker for users who want to scrape business platforms to get business and people data and collect leads.

💡 Bonus read: Want to learn more about Instant Data Scraper? Check out our in-depth review!

3. Octoparse

Octoparse is a cloud-based web scraper that works seamlessly on Mac. This no-code solution is packed with options to streamline every scraping task and turn info from thousands of pages into structured data. ✔️

With Octoparse, users build their own scrapers without writing a single line of code—the platform features a workflow designer that makes the process easy. The AI web assistant is there every step of the way to guide you through building your web scraper and maximizing the platform’s features.

You also get the scheduling option, which allows you to automate scraping and obtain fresh data at specific intervals. This is particularly useful for data-dependent industries like e-commerce, real estate, or sales.

Every scraping task is completed with zero interruptions thanks to Octoparse’s arsenal of features for overcoming common challenges, such as IP rotation, proxies, CAPTCHA solving, and infinite scrolling. Even so, some users mention that Octoparse wasn’t able to bypass Cloudflare technology, which prevented them from getting the desired data.

If you like Octoparse despite this, you can try its features at no cost with its free plan, but keep in mind you can only execute up to ten tasks. You can also opt for one of three paid plans (we listed monthly prices):

1. Standard plan—$89/month
2. Professional plan—$249/month
3. Enterprise plan—Custom

4. Web Scraper

Web Scraper is a service that offers two scraping solutions:

1. Browser extension
2. Cloud scraper

The browser extension is ideal for beginners or those who only need to occasionally scrape smaller amounts of data. It has a point-and-click interface—you simply click on the desired data and Web Scraper will take care of the rest. The extension can handle dynamic websites, offers JavaScript execution, and lets you export your data in CSV or XLSX formats, giving you more flexibility.

The cloud-based solution is more advanced. For example, it lets you schedule your scraping tasks on an hourly, weekly, or monthly basis, saving you time and automating work. It also offers IP rotation to prevent bans and blocks and ensure uninterrupted scraping at all times.

The cloud-based version also has more export features—besides CSV and XLSX, you can export your data in the JSON format or send it to Google Sheets, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.

Web Scraper’s browser extension is completely free. If you want the cloud-based solution, you get four pricing options (all listed prices are for per-month payments):

1. Project—$50/month
2. Professional—$100/month
3. Business—$200/month
4. Scale—From $300/month

While Web Scraper is a no-code solution, some users mention it has a learning curve—getting used to the platform’s interface and features can take time.

5. ParseHub

ParseHub is another Mac-friendly scraping solution on our list—all you need to do is download the app for Mac devices, set it up, and you’re good to go.

The platform’s main appeal is its versatility. You can use ParseHub to download data from popular websites that work seamlessly, as well as those that are lesser-known, laggy, or complex. The platform can search through forms, open dropdown lists, click on maps, and log in to websites to get you the desired info with zero issues and interruptions.

The best part is that you can do all of this without writing a single line of code—you simply click on the elements you want to scrape. This is possible thanks to ParseHub’s machine learning relationship engine that screens the page to pick up on the element hierarchy and make scraping easy for everyone. 😍

If you like ParseHub but don’t want to commit yet, take advantage of its free plan. Although it has limited features, it can help you understand the platform’s ins and outs. If you decide to subscribe, you can choose between three plans (prices are for per-month subscriptions):

1. Standard—$189/month
2. Professional—$599/month
3. ParseHub Plus—Custom

As for drawbacks, many users point out the platform’s pricing and lack of intuitiveness—some steps feel redundant and overly complicated.

💡 Pro tip: Want an intuitive scraper? Try out Clay, a user-friendly sales automation platform with fantastic web data scraping options!

6. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a scraping service offering over 100 million residential and two million datacenter IP proxies, allowing you to effortlessly scrape info from any website (as long as it’s legal). It stands out due to versatility—carefully designed features are suitable for various use cases and industries, from real estate and automotive to travel and entertainment. 👌

The platform’s web scraping API solution relies on machine learning-driven proxy management—it automatically selects and rotates proxies from 195 countries to ensure consistent and efficient scraping and global coverage. Users can gain more control over the scraping process by setting custom headers and cookies. 😍

The web scraper API has an AI-powered web data collection infrastructure users can benefit from in more than one way:

• There’s no scraper or browser development or maintenance
• Anti-scraping systems are easy to bypass
• Allocating resources toward data analysis is simplified

Oxylabs has two pricing structures—Regular and Enterprise. Regular has three plans:

1. Micro—$49/month
2. Starter—$99/month
3. Advanced—$249/month

There’s no free plan, but there’s a free seven-day trial allowing you to try out the platform’s options. Unfortunately, the trial is limited to a single user.

The Enterprise structure offers four pricing options:

1. Venture—$499/month
2. Business—$999/month
3. Corporate—$2,000/month
4. Custom—Starts from $10,000/month

Although it offers multiple pricing options, Oxylabs is expensive—at least according to some users. They point out that the price is much higher compared to other proxies on the market. Some users also mention a higher failure rate.

The Verdict—Which Web Scraper for Mac Takes the Cake?

Every Mac web scraper we’ve reviewed brings something valuable to the table, but the question is, which one should you choose? There’s no universal answer since everyone’s needs and expectations are unique.

To make the best choice, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

➡️ How big is my team?

➡️ What is my budget?

➡️ What will I use the scraper for?

➡️ What extra functionalities do I need?

➡️ What apps and platforms am I currently using?

If you’re looking for a multifunctional tool that can handle much more than scraping and help you streamline multiple processes, our vote goes to Clay. 🏆 The platform offers feature versatility, ease of use, scalability, and consistency without straining your budget.

Move Beyond Scraping With Clay

We’ve mentioned Clay’s excellent scraping options—Claygent, templates, and the Chrome extension that works seamlessly on your Mac, but this is only a small portion of the platform’s uses. With it, you can organize and enrich your data, write personalized messages, and leverage dozens of integrations to get even more use from it.

The platform integrates with over 50 databases, apps, and platforms. Through your Clay account, you can leverage the functionalities of platforms like Apollo.io, Hunter, and Clearbit to find and enrich data and organize your work. This doesn’t require creating more accounts or overpaying for tools you’ll use only occasionally—you get access to all of Clay’s integrations with your account. ☑️

Clay relies on waterfall enrichment to deliver the desired data. It searches databases one by one to find and fetch the data you need, thus maximizing coverage and minimizing costs—you only pay for the data you get. Here’s how it works, in three steps:

1. You select the data you’re interested in (like work emails or phone numbers)
2. You choose the providers you want Clay to search
3. Clay follows your orders and delivers the desired info

A common scraping issue is inconsistent data—you can often end up with a table filled with people’s nicknames, all kinds of emojis, or unconventional job titles. With Clay’s data formatting options, you can ensure consistency across the board and normalize names, job titles, locations, domains, phone numbers, and more. 🥳

If you’re sales-oriented, you’ll appreciate Clay’s AI message drafter. Use the data you gathered to create hyper-personalized messages that will resonate with your prospects. 💌

Hundreds of users are impressed by Clay’s features—check out this user’s testimonial:

Create Your Clay Account

The best time to set up your account with Clay is today. ✨ You can do it in a few simple steps:

1. Head to the signup page 
2. Enter the necessary information
3. Explore the platform’s handy scraping, enrichment, and automation options

If you want to discover more about the platform, we recommend exploring Clay University, where you can see detailed feature walkthroughs. You can also join the Slack community and sign up for the newsletter—it will help you stay in the loop about the latest updates and learn more about Clay’s uses. 🖥️

💡 Bonus read: Want to know more about web scrapers? Read our detailed guides on extracting data from various websites and platforms and the best tools to do it with:

• Best tools to scrape websites
• Web scraping social media
• Open-source web scraping tools