May 2021 Review: Need a tool for large-scale data acquisition? There are many situations where we would like to run analysis on data available online, we review the best and rank their pros & cons.
Oxylabs Ranked #1: With private proxies, dedicated ethically sourced residential IP's, full anonymity, super fast speeds & 24/7 support. Also, they were the easiest to integrate getting the cleanest data.
With today’s Machine Learning algorithms its easy to gather the data you need. Scraping tools can crawl hundreds of thousands of records & websites, and unless you have plenty of time on your hands, there is no way to do it manually.
We review of three different tools and outline their pros & cons below;
Oxylabs ranked #1 for enterprises looking to gather more data. Let us outline why below;
WHAT WE LOVED
- 100 m+ Ethically Sourced Residential Proxies – they have a pool of 100m+ rotating Residential Proxies. A large proxy pool means you receive access to Residential IP addresses from all over the world, so you can easily overcome geo-location blocks
- Easiest Integration: Rotating Residential Proxies are easy to integrate and manage. They support third-party software integration with all of the most popular software, and you can manage your Residential IPs via dashboard or Public API.
- Control Your Data Usage: We love Oxylabs dashboard, it makes it so easy to manage your proxy usage. Just follow the information to stay on top of your data usage and we never ran out of traffic. This is great because it ensures that your web scraping projects will never stop unexpectedly.
- Unlimited Concurrent Sessions – They don’t limit concurrent sessions, so you can easily scale up your web scraping projects whenever required. Some other proxy services we reviewed charge extra for additional concurrent sessions but not at Oxylabs.
- Highest Success Rate – Oxylabs Residential Proxies offer an average of 93.3% success rates. Their proxies rotate, which means you can control your sessions and avoid IP bans and CAPTCHAs. You can change your IP address with every request, or set a session time.
- State & City Level Targeting – Their Residential Proxy network covers 195 locations and offers country, city, and state-level geo-location targeting. No extra charge to access geo-restricted content from specific locations.
- Best Web Crawler – their web crawler tool is a perfect solution for companies that want to forget about dealing with complex data gathering issues and get ready-to-use data, and it has a 100% success rate.
- Best Pricing – When it came to pricing you get more from Oxylabs than the other tools. Sure, they’re not the cheapest, but if you’re looking for a tool that has the ability to scale then it ranked #1. They have a large menu to choose from, but if you’re a business then their residential proxy business plan is the best out there ($600/month)
But why is Oxylabs better than Zyte, Smartproxy, Birght Data (Luminati) & 3P freelancers?
Well, after careful review, Oxylabs was just a more comprehensive tool right out of the box. Also, it did the best job of scaling as you team/department needs it. The others were good but if you have business needs (>20GB data p/month) then the competition felt light compared with Oxylabs solution. If you’re a business, we recommend trialing Oxylabs first
Other Solutions
WHAT WE LIKED
- CUSTOMER SUPPORT – the service was knowledgeable and the staff are responsive and friendly.
- PROXY CHARTS – The temporal charts were very useful to have an immediate idea of the use of proxies
- PRICE – if you’re a business the package was $450/month (Data Services pack, not the cheaper $9/month option). This was higher than Oxylabs Business package but for comparably less.
- DATA FORMAT – The condition they send the data left us wanting, too many files, we needed to open a ticket for their customer support team to fix
WHAT WE LIKED
- CUSTOMER SUPPORT – like the others, they also had fast & responsive customers service.
- STABLE CONNECTION – good, stable service with in average 94.6% success rate.
- ERROR RATE – There are proxy errors time to time (at least in the residential), which does not make it pixel perfect, unlike others we tried.
- API INTEGRATION – API integration is easy for experienced users but maybe not for all type of customers. Chrome extension can be improved but it’s enough for a regular use.
- REGIONAL CHALLENGES – Some regions (countries) we had challenges but we guess this is something bound to happen in some software.
WHAT WE LIKED
- PRICE – starting price of $75/month is decent, but it doesn’t have the bells and whistles you get with heavyweights like Zyte and Oxylabs
- ROTATING PROXY – their rotating residential proxy worked fast but success rate was not as high as the others.
- PRICE – residential proxy plan ranged from $75 to $400/month but the business (they call it regular) plan lacked the others integration and UX of the others.
- GEO-TARGETING – but geo-targeting was lacking, for example, you can’t target particular city like Oxylabs can.
- ONLINE REVIEWS – only 3.5/5 from customer reviews online. Not a deal breaker but not great either.
WHAT WE LIKED
- CHEAP – hiring a 3rd party freelance scraper can save you a ton if you only have a one time job. Someone in India or Eastern Europe will cost you $10-$50+ p/hour. But then you have to control the hours they do, and always goes over in our experience.
- PATCHY DATA QUALITY – 3P freelancers usually cut corners to save time or don’t understand what you need. We found you often spend alot of time cleaning data post receipt. In the end, its often easier to use a reliable service with great customer support.
- SECURITY – It’s hard to verify the security of scraped data from a 3P freelancer.
Market research is essential for every company that wants to stay competitive in the market. Carefully calculating how to make the right decisions when creating a business plan has always been crucial, whether for a small or a large business. Companies that provide market research services help businesses increase margins and keep up with the latest market trends. To improve the data gathering process, companies utilize proxies for market research.
Some of the biggest challenges for companies are making sure that their products are protected from counterfeiting and ensuring their brand reputation. Being proactive in terms of brand protection is now a security must-have, so usually, such businesses outsource organizations that provide security services. And for these services to be fully optimized and operational, they require proxies.
Travel fare aggregators collect data from hotel and flight company websites, online travel agencies, and other similar sources. They search for deals across multiple websites to publish the results on their website. To ensure a smooth and fast data gathering process, travel fare aggregators utilize proxies. They help to overcome challenges that companies face when collecting vast amounts of data from various websites.
Ad fraud is a severe problem for companies as it can be harmful to their whole marketing strategy. The most common ad fraud methods are click fraud, falsely accumulating impressions, and conversions of the original advertiser. Ad verification companies scan the web and check if the ads displayed on the various websites meet the campaign settings, do not appear on fraudulent websites, and reach the right audience. For that, ad verification companies use proxies.
Copyright infringers pose a threat to various companies by stealing their proprietary data. The data then can be illegally reproduced, resold, or used for their purposes. Such companies usually hire organizations that provide brand security. These organizations need an effective solution for scanning the web to find any stolen intellectual property, and advanced scraping tools can help facilitate this process.
Online reviews is one of the defining factors that converts browsing customers into buyers. Tracking customer reviews and responding to them affects ranking on search engines, influences online reputation, and helps set marketing goals. Whether your business provides review tracking software or if you are looking for a review monitoring solution for your company, choosing a reliable source for data will help you boost your business.
Oxylabs Real-Time Crawler Ranked #1
1. Worldwide IP’s = Better Data
Geo-location restrictions are a huge challenge for market researchers because they can not follow the latest market trends and monitor competitors worldwide. Oxylabs’ proxies cover almost all countries in the world. Their solution ensures that companies could easily access any website regardless of their location.
2. Higher Speed
High speed and uptime are among the most common criteria when choosing a reliable service for market research. Oxylabs proxies for market research are one of the fastest proxies in the market. Furthermore, they are dedicated and provide 99.9% uptime. These features guarantee a smooth and effective data collection process.
3. Oxylabs Scale Unbeatable
Market researchers have to keep track of many websites. Competitors are constantly changing content on their websites. Furthermore, it is hard. Oxylabs proxies for market research help to monitor many websites in any required location. Depending on the needs, companies can easily manage the scale of monitoring.
4. Flawless Operation For IP Protection
Tracking and monitoring copyright infringers has to be fast and effective. Hackers can instantly react and try to hide their illegal activity. Oxylabs has the largest proxy pool in the market. Companies can easily monitor copyright infringers’ websites without getting blocked. Furthermore, their solutions are able to provide real-time data and have high uptime, all with the quickest speeds.
5. Get Around IP Blocks
If IP addresses are permanently blocked, ad verification companies can not pursue ad monitoring. Oxylabs provide one of the largest Residential IP pools in the market. Companies are able to imitate organic user behavior and this decreases chances of being caught and blocked.
Our Conclusion
Choosing a data scraping tool isn’t easy today, there are so many that claim to be the best. Not to mention, many offer dumbed down versions for free or low cost. But, when it comes to a tool that has all the right features for scarrping at scale Oxylabs beat the competition hands down. They have full functionality and the ability to scale with you data scraping needs.
ReviewRumble.com’ content are the opinion’s of the author’s only based on their collation of online customer review and their experiences with the brand(s). ReviewRumble may be compensated for any business done by anyone connecting with businesses listed in the article.