Comparing Python Web Scrapers

A simple feature comparison of Web Scraping ( and scraping adjacent ) tools available in Python

Lets look at some of the more well know libraries and tools.

• BeautifulSoup: A Python library primarily used for web scraping HTML and XML files. Does not have built-in request handling or JavaScript rendering capabilities.
• Scrapy: A Python framework for large-scale web scraping. Includes various built-in functionalities, such as request handling and data extraction.
• Selenium: Initially for web application testing, Selenium is also used for web scraping, particularly for JavaScript-rendered content. Controls the web browser to scrape dynamic content.
• Puppeteer: A Node.js library that provides a high-level API for headless browsing. Good for scraping JavaScript-heavy websites.
• MechanicalSoup: A Python library that combines BeautifulSoup and a requests-like API to handle and submit forms, follow links, and more.
• PhantomJS: A headless WebKit scriptable with a JavaScript API. It has fast and native support for various web standards but is now considered somewhat outdated in favor of solutions like Puppeteer.

Feature Comparison Chart:

Feature	BeautifulSoup	Scrapy	Selenium	Puppeteer	MechanicalSoup	PhantomJS
HTML Parsing	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
XML Parsing	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
CSS Selector Support	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
XPath Selector Support	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌
JavaScript Rendering	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅
Built-in Request Handling	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Crawl Multiple Pages	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Async Support	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Built-in User-Agent Rotation	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Export Data Formats (JSON, XML, CSV)	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌

• ✅ = Feature is present
• ❌ = Feature is not present

Remember, the absence of a feature in the chart usually means it’s not a built-in feature of the library or framework, but it could often be implemented manually or with additional libraries.