Web scraping is retrieving data from pages by using tools and scripts. And for those developers who are getting blocked, data extraction is seamless with ZenRows.
Manually extracting data could get resource-intensive and time-consuming. Meanwhile, on the automated side, many websites have installed measures to prevent bot traffic. However, there are some tools to effectively bypass their anti-bot measures.
ZenRows is one such tool: An API that combines the functionalities of headless browsers, rotating proxies, CAPTCHA bypass techniques, anti-WAF techniques, and more. Through its easy interface, comprehensive documentation and customer support, ZenRows helps you get the job done.
Another ZenRows review highlight is its compatibility with all programming languages. You do not have to bother to spend extra time learning a language for a specific solution. In the subsequent parts of this article, you’ll read a ZenRows review and learn about all its capabilities.
Anti-bot Bypass Capabilities
In today’s digital world, anti-bot measures help protect online platforms from the activities of automated bots, but that unfairly includes scrapers by default. Bots are software programs or scripts that can perform tasks automatically. See how you can get around these measures with ZenRows.
Rotating Proxies
Proxy servers act as a middleman between the scraper and the destination website. The requests are sent to the proxy server, which then forwards them to the target website.
Using rotating proxies means that your requests will go via different IP addresses. It saves you from anti-bot measures like IP-based blocking because the websites cannot associate all your request with one IP address. Rotating proxies also enable you to bypass rate limiting, namely restrictions on the rate of requests that an IP address can make within a time frame.
ZenRows provides a proxy rotator that comes with datacenter and residential proxies with IPs from 190+ countries to avoid getting blocked.
WAF Bypass
Websites can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to restrict bot actions. It is a popular measure that acts as an intermediary between the website and the incoming request, inspecting and blocking the requests that display a bot behavior.
Facing a WAF during web scraping can hinder your workflow. ZenRows solves this with its WAF bypass tool, which you can integrate with any programming language. With this, you can continue your work without the fear of encountering a WAF.
CAPTCHA Bypass
Websites use CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to differentiate between humans and bots.
Using ZenRows gives you an anti-CAPTCHA advantage, preventing your scraper from encountering CAPTCHAs. Many who give a ZenRows review often mention how it has saved them plenty of time to scrape websites and eased their workflows.
Headless Browsers
A headless browser provides a programmatic way to interact with websites without a graphical user interface (GUI). Unlike traditional browsers, it lacks visual elements such as buttons and menu bars, focusing on functionality rather than aesthetics. It allows for automated web interactions and data gathering, replicating human-like behavior.
With its ability to mimic human users effectively, a headless browser exhibits behaviors such as waiting for web content to load and executing actions at a reasonable pace. It can handle tasks like form submissions, user authentication, and JavaScript-based interactions. Additionally, headless browsers excel at managing cookies and manipulating user agent information.
By leveraging a headless browser, you can avoid detection as a bot and evade being blocked by websites. This feature is one of the notable offerings provided by ZenRows, empowering you to carry out your tasks seamlessly without disruptions.
Comprehensive Documentation
ZenRows’ documentation is easy to follow and detailed, making it a great option for developers. It also contains FAQs that cover most questions users have.
Worth mentioning, ZenRows is well known for its web scraping blog, which many readers have found insightful.
Irrespective of the programming language you’re familiar with, ZenRows documentation provides the guidance to set up its API to suit the most popular languages, be it Python, Node.js, Java, PHP, Go, Ruby, or others.
Customer Support
ZenRows’ dedicated customer support system is available to walk you through whatever issues you encounter while using the tool, whether you are a newbie or not. You have access to a live chat where developers will answer all your questions.
Pricing
Instead of having to purchase individual components one by one, ZenRows offers them as an all-in-one solution for its web scraping API. A single API call grants you access to rotating proxies, headless browsers, CAPTCHA and WAF bypass, etc.
ZenRows’ pricing structure begins from $49/month, which gives you 250,000 API credits and up to 10 concurrent requests. Beyond that one, there are other plans depending on your work scale. Whether you are a developer or an enterprise, there is a plan that will suit your technical needs.
Conclusion
You read about the powerful capabilities to bypass anti-bot measures, all offered at a reasonable price. Using ZenRows is a cost-effective, seamless, and helpful way to improve your web scraping workflow and save time while working.
