Popular Tools
HTTP Debuggers
HTTP debugging tools (aka REST API clients, API testing tools etc.) are GUI programs that allow to test sending of HTTP request.
These tools are useful for testing requests used in web scraping as provides a playground for reverse engineering website behavior and it's hidden APIs.
Here are some of the most common tools used in web scraping:
| Tool | Highlights |
|---|---|
| postman | Very popular, code export |
| insomnia | similar to postman |
| httpie web | web client |
HTTP interception
Step beyond HTTP debuggers there are tools that can intercept HTTP traffic. This can be used to reverse engineer phone app traffic through MITM traffic capture or as an alternative to browser devtools for inspecting web traffic.
| Tool | Highlights |
|---|---|
| mitmproxy | web+terminal UI, easy to extend with Python, free |
| http-toolkit | easy setup, great documentation, freemium + 7.5usd/mo |
| proxyman | powerful interception features, only windows/macos, 69usd/license |
| charles | feature-rich, 50usd/license |
| fiddler everywhere | very popular, 12usd/mo |
AI Scraping Tools
A new generation of scraping tools uses AI and large language models (LLMs) to extract data from web pages without writing explicit selectors. These tools are particularly useful for unstructured content extraction and rapid prototyping.
| Tool | Language | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| crawl4ai | Python | LLM-powered extraction, markdown conversion, open source |
| firecrawl | Python | URL to Markdown for LLMs, crawl + extract, YC-backed |
| scrapegraphai | Python | natural language extraction with Pydantic schemas |
| browser-use | Python | natural language browser control, multi-provider LLM |
| stagehand | JavaScript | AI browser automation, TypeScript, by Browserbase |
| skyvern | Python | LLM + computer vision, no selectors needed, self-correcting |
| scrapling | Python | self-healing selectors, adaptive element matching |