6 Best Octoparse Alternatives in 2026 (No Install Needed)

The best Octoparse alternatives in 2026 are Scrape.ly, Web Scraper, ParseHub, Apify, Firecrawl and Bright Data. Scrape.ly comes first because it gives you what most people use Octoparse for, ready-made scrapers that run in the cloud on a schedule, without a desktop app or a subscription: pick one of 568 Store scrapers, fill in a form, and pay per result from a free $5 monthly credit.

The other five fit narrower jobs, and we say which. Every price and limit below was checked on 23 October 2026 on the vendor's own pricing page or docs. For a feature-by-feature view, see the full Scrape.ly vs Octoparse comparison.

Why teams look for Octoparse alternatives

Octoparse is a no-code scraper: you build tasks by pointing and clicking in its desktop app, use auto-detect, or start from its template gallery. It works, and it's popular. The reasons people look elsewhere come from how it's packaged, and they're all on Octoparse's own pricing page and docs:

• The cloud starts at $83 a month. The free plan runs tasks only on your own computer, with no scheduling. Cloud extraction starts with Standard at $83 billed monthly, or $69 a month if you pay $829 for the year.
• Free can't export template data. Free users can run templates marked "All" and look at the results, but per Octoparse's template docs they "cannot export the collected data". Paid templates need Standard or higher.
• Limited parallel capacity. Standard includes up to 3 concurrent cloud processes; Professional at $299 a month ($249 billed yearly) goes to 20. When all nodes are busy, extra work waits in a queue.
• Add-ons on top of the plan. Residential proxies cost $3 per GB, CAPTCHA solving $1 to $1.50 per 1,000 (failed attempts included), and premium templates $0.001 to $3 per 1,000 rows, all from a separate add-on balance.
• Templates come from one team. The official gallery is built and maintained by Octoparse; its docs say opening it to outside developers is planned but not yet part of the workflow.

The full plan breakdown with worked bills is in our Octoparse pricing guide.

What to look for in an Octoparse alternative

1. Ready-made scrapers for the sites you need. If a maintained scraper exists for Google Maps, Amazon or LinkedIn Jobs, you shouldn't have to build and fix your own task.
2. Cloud runs from day one. Scheduling and cloud execution shouldn't be locked behind an $83 plan.
3. Pay for results, not seats or task slots. A per-result price lets you predict the bill from the number of rows you need.
4. Nothing to install. A browser tab should be enough to run, schedule and export.
5. Automation and agents. An API, client libraries, integrations and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT.
6. A free tier you can actually test with. Real cloud runs, real exports, no card.

Octoparse alternatives compared

1. Scrape.ly: ready-made scrapers, no install, pay per result

Scrape.ly replaces the "build a task" step with a Store. Each of its 568 Actors is a maintained scraper for a site or job, published by one of six studios, with its per-result price on its page. You open one in the browser, fill in a form (or load one of 1,852 presets, such as "Restaurants in Konstanz, 10 places"), and click Start. It runs in the cloud. You don't download anything or keep a computer on.

What that looks like next to Octoparse:

• Cloud runs on the free plan. Free gives you $5 of usage every month without a credit card, 2 concurrent runs and 5 schedules. That's enough for about 1,300 Google Maps places.
• Per-result prices you can read before you start. The Google Maps Scraper charges $3.60 per 1,000 places, the Amazon Product Scraper $0.70 per 1,000 results, the LinkedIn Jobs Scraper $1.50 per 1,000 jobs. Proxy traffic is billed in the same run, from the same balance.
• A cheaper first paid plan with more capacity. Starter costs $19 a month and the whole $19 comes back as usage credit. It raises concurrency to 32 runs and data retention to 31 days. Scale ($199) goes to 128 concurrent runs.
• Schedules and deliveries. Save an input, put it on a cron schedule, and send each run's results to Google Sheets, Slack, Discord, email, S3 or a webhook (integrations). Exports come as CSV, Excel, JSON, XML and more.
• A spending cap on every run. Set a maximum charge and the run stops when it reaches it, with fees, compute and proxy traffic all counted.
• API, clients and MCP. The same Actors run from the REST API, the Python and JavaScript clients, or an AI agent over Scrape.ly's hosted MCP server.
• An open Store. Developers publish their own Actors and keep 80% of what users pay.

A real run: on 22 October 2026 the Google Maps Scraper returned 10 restaurants in Konstanz in 5.7 seconds and was charged $0.0369 in total, place fees and platform usage included (full run and log).

Best for: anyone who uses Octoparse templates or simple tasks for common sites and wants them in the cloud without a subscription. See the Scrape.ly vs Octoparse comparison for every feature side by side.

2. Web Scraper

Web Scraper is a point-and-click browser extension plus a cloud service: you define a "sitemap" of pages and fields in Chrome, and it scrapes from your own browser. The Chrome extension is free. Web Scraper Cloud runs those sitemaps on its servers with proxies, a scheduler, an API and exports to Google Sheets, Dropbox and S3.

Cloud plans bill by URL credits, one per page loaded: Project costs $50 a month ($40 billed yearly) for 5,000 URL credits and 2 concurrent scrapers, Professional $100 ($80) for 20,000, and Scale starts at $200 ($167). Each plan has a 7-day trial without a card. Its FAQ says it doesn't scrape social media platforms, LinkedIn included.

Best for: building simple point-and-click scrapers in your own browser for free. If you'd rather start from a finished scraper than build one, Scrape.ly's Store covers the common sites.

3. ParseHub

ParseHub is the closest match to Octoparse's model: a downloadable point-and-click app where you build projects visually. The free plan needs no card and allows 200 pages per run, 5 public projects and 14 days of data retention.

Standard costs $189 a month for 10,000 pages per run, 20 private projects, IP rotation and scheduling. Professional costs $599 a month for unlimited pages per run and 120 private projects. Quarterly billing saves 15%.

Best for: people who want Octoparse's visual, desktop way of working and run a small number of projects. Its paid plans are monthly subscriptions sized by pages per run and project count, starting above Octoparse Standard.

4. Apify

Apify is an Actor platform with the Apify Store, where most scrapers charge per event. The free plan includes $5 of usage a month without a card; Starter costs $19, Scale $199 and Business $999. Usage above your plan's prepaid amount goes on the next invoice. Residential proxy traffic costs $8 per GB on Free and Starter, down to $7 on Business.

Best for: running an Actor that only exists in the Apify Store. Scrape.ly runs on the same Actor model, so most Apify Actors work on Scrape.ly unchanged, with residential proxies at $4 per GB on Free down to $2 on Business; our Apify alternatives guide has the details.

5. Firecrawl

Firecrawl is an API, not a point-and-click tool: you send URLs and get back Markdown or JSON for LLM apps. It bills credits, 1 per page for scrape and crawl and 4 more for JSON extraction. The free plan has 1,000 credits a month; Hobby costs $19 a month for 5,000, Standard $99 for 100,000.

Best for: developers feeding web pages to an LLM. It works through general endpoints (scrape, crawl, map, search) rather than site-specific scrapers you fill in a form for, so it suits a different user than Octoparse does.

6. Bright Data

Bright Data sells pre-built scraper APIs for sites like Google Maps, YouTube and TikTok, billed per delivered record. The free tier gives 5,000 records a month without a card. Pay as you go costs $1.50 per 1,000 records with monthly spend limits, and the Scale plan $499 a month for 384,000 records, then $1.30 per 1,000.

Best for: buying high-volume record feeds from one large vendor through an API. If you want scrapers you run yourself, on a schedule, from a free monthly credit, Scrape.ly fits better.

How to switch from Octoparse to Scrape.ly

Octoparse tasks don't import anywhere, so the move is to find the equivalent scraper and recreate the schedule. For most template users that takes minutes.

1. Find the scraper. Search the Store for the site you scrape. Each Actor page shows its input, output fields, price per result and presets.

2. Run it from the form. Sign up free (no card), open the Actor, load a preset or fill in the form, set a maximum cost for the run, and click Start. When it finishes, open the dataset and export it as CSV or Excel.

3. Schedule it. Save the input, create an automation with On a schedule as its trigger and a cron expression (0 9 * * 1 is every Monday at 09:00), and add a delivery to Google Sheets, Slack or email.

4. Call it from code when you're ready. Create a token under Settings → API & Integrations. This call runs the Google Maps Scraper and returns the places as JSON:

curl -X POST "https://api.scrape.ly/v2/actors/cornerledger~google-maps-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCRAPELY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchStringsArray": ["restaurant"], "locationQuery": "Konstanz", "maxCrawledPlacesPerSearch": 10}'

The same run in Python (pip install scrapely-client-python):

import os
from scrapely_client import ScrapelyClient

client = ScrapelyClient(os.environ["SCRAPELY_TOKEN"], api_url="https://api.scrape.ly")

run = client.actor("cornerledger/google-maps-scraper").call(
    run_input={"searchStringsArray": ["restaurant"], "locationQuery": "Konstanz", "maxCrawledPlacesPerSearch": 10}
)
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], item.get("phone"))

5. Or hand it to your AI assistant. Add Scrape.ly's MCP server to Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scrapely": {
      "url": "https://api.scrape.ly/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Then ask: "Use scrapely to run cornerledger/google-maps-scraper for restaurants in Konstanz, 10 places, and give me a CSV of name, rating and phone." The agent finds the Actor, runs it and returns the file.

FAQ

What is the best Octoparse alternative?

Scrape.ly. It covers common sites with 568 ready-made scrapers that run in the cloud from your browser, charges per result, and lets you run, schedule and export on the free plan's $5 monthly credit. On Octoparse, cloud runs and scheduling start at $83 a month.

Is there a free alternative to Octoparse?

Yes. Scrape.ly's free plan includes $5 of usage every month, cloud runs, 5 schedules and exports, without a card. Web Scraper's Chrome extension is free for scraping from your own browser, and ParseHub's free plan allows 200 pages per run.

Is there an Octoparse alternative for Mac?

Scrape.ly runs entirely in the browser, so it works the same on Mac, Windows, Linux or a Chromebook. Web Scraper also works in the browser as a Chrome extension.

Octoparse vs ParseHub: which is cheaper?

Octoparse. Its Standard plan costs $83 a month ($69 billed yearly), against $189 a month for ParseHub Standard. Both are visual builders; if you'd rather skip building, Scrape.ly's ready-made scrapers start free and Starter costs $19.

Can I move my Octoparse tasks to another tool?

Octoparse tasks use their own format and don't import into other tools. Find the equivalent ready-made scraper in the Scrape.ly Store, run it once to check the fields, then recreate the schedule as an automation.

What is the best Octoparse alternative for developers?

Scrape.ly, because the same Store Actors you run from the form also run from the REST API, Python and JavaScript clients and the MCP server, and you can build and publish your own Actors in JavaScript or Python. Our list of the best web scraping tools covers libraries like Scrapy as well.