What are the best Node.js libraries for web scraping?
Node.js offers several excellent libraries for web scraping, each suited for different use cases.
Axios:
A popular HTTP client for making requests and fetching HTML. It supports promises, automatic JSON parsing, request/response interceptors, and timeout configuration.
Use Axios for:
- Simple HTML fetching
- API requests
- Sites without JavaScript rendering
Cheerio:
A jQuery-like HTML parser that provides familiar syntax for selecting and manipulating DOM elements.
Features:
- Extremely fast
- Works with static HTML
- Supports CSS selectors
- Ideal for parsing HTML returned by Axios
Limitation: Cannot execute JavaScript or handle dynamic content.
Puppeteer (and Playwright):
Headless browser automation tools that run a real Chrome/Chromium browser.
Capabilities:
- Execute JavaScript
- Handle dynamic content
- Take screenshots
- Intercept network requests
- Automate user interactions
Use them for:
- JavaScript-heavy sites
- SPAs (Single Page Applications)
- Sites with anti-bot protections
- When you need to simulate real user behavior
Trade-off: Slower and more resource-intensive than Axios+Cheerio.
Other libraries:
- Got - Alternative to Axios with better error handling, retry logic, and streaming support
- JSDOM - Pure JavaScript implementation of web standards, provides more complete DOM than Cheerio but is slower
- Request - DEPRECATED, use Axios or Got instead
Scraping-specific frameworks:
- Apify SDK and Crawlee - Provide higher-level abstractions with built-in queue management, error handling, and anti-blocking features
Best practice combinations:
- For static sites: Use Axios + Cheerio for speed and simplicity
- For dynamic sites: Use Puppeteer or Playwright
- For mixed requirements: Start with Axios+Cheerio and fall back to Puppeteer for specific pages
- For large-scale projects: Consider Crawlee or Apify SDK