Web scraping, cloud and desktop
Primary sources checkedOctoparse
Scraper you configure once and schedule, running in the cloud rather than in your browser, with proxies and CAPTCHA handling sold on top.
The short answer
- Best for
- Extractions you need again next week, unattended
- Not ideal for
- One-off jobs, which a free browser extension does faster
- Price
- Free, then from USD 58 per month; proxies and CAPTCHA solving are metered on top
- Closest alternative
- Instant Data ScraperWhen the job is one-off and you are already looking at the page
At a glance
- Recruitment fitWeak
- Ease of useUnknown
- ImplementationFair
- Price transparencyStrong
- Value for moneyFair
- ScalabilityStrong
Why these assessments
- Recruitment fitWeak
- A general web scraper. Nothing in it knows about candidates, vacancies or a hiring process.
- Ease of useUnknown
- We have not used it, and we have no evidence of its real-world success rate against defended sites.
- ImplementationFair
- The free plan is more than a demo, but a scheduled cloud scraper has to be configured before it does anything.
- Price transparencyStrong
- Plans, task caps and the add-ons are priced in the open, including what proxies and CAPTCHA solving cost.
- Value for moneyFair
- The free plan does real work, but the jump to Professional is large and the add-ons are usage rather than features.
- ScalabilityStrong
- It runs in the cloud on a schedule with concurrent runs per plan, so it does not depend on your browser staying open.
Our reading of the evidence on this page. No score, no formula.
Where it sits
- Discover
- Contact
The SourcrLab bottom line
The step up from a browser extension: it runs without you, keeps history, and handles the things sites do to stop it. That last part is also where the honest question sits, because IP rotation and automatic CAPTCHA solving exist to get past defences a site put there deliberately.
Best fit
A recurring job: the same list, the same site, on a schedule, where somebody would otherwise repeat a browser extraction by hand every Monday.
Think twice if
One-off jobs, which a free browser extension does faster, and any target whose terms prohibit extraction. Paying for proxy rotation does not make scraping permitted.
SourcrLab assessment
Everything on this page comes from the vendor's own pages, checked on the dates below. SourcrLab has not used this product in real recruitment work, so you will not find a first-hand opinion here.
Why choose Octoparse?
It runs when you are not there
Cloud extraction with scheduling and concurrent runs is the whole difference from a browser tool. Up to 3 concurrent cloud runs on Standard, up to 20 on Professional.
A free plan that is more than a demo
Ten tasks, one user and 50,000 exported rows a month at no cost. Enough to build a real extraction and see whether the site cooperates before paying anything.
The add-ons are priced in the open
Residential proxies at USD 3 per GB, CAPTCHA solving at USD 1 to 1.5 per thousand, done-for-you data from USD 599 and crawler setup from USD 399. Rare honesty about where the cost actually lands.
Main trade-offs
Tasks are the unit, and they are capped
10 tasks on Free, 100 on Standard, 250 on Professional. A task is a configured extraction, so a team that scrapes many different sites runs out of tasks long before it runs out of rows.
The jump to Professional is large
USD 69 a month against USD 249, or USD 58 against USD 209 on annual billing. What you buy in between is concurrency and cloud integrations, not more data.
Proxies and CAPTCHA solving are usage, not features
Both are billed on what you consume. A heavy month against a well-defended site can cost more in add-ons than in subscription, and neither is predictable in advance.
Getting past a defence is not permission
IP rotation and automatic CAPTCHA solving are sold as features. They do not change a site's terms, and for personal data in Europe the lawful basis question is yours regardless of how the data was collected.
Pricing and buying reality
Free, then from USD 58 per month
- Free: USD 0, 10 tasks, 1 user, 2 concurrent runs, 50,000 exported rows per month
- Standard: USD 69 per month, or USD 58 billed annually. 100 tasks, up to 3 concurrent cloud runs, unlimited export, IP rotation, scheduling, API
- Professional: USD 249 per month, or USD 209 billed annually. 250 tasks, up to 20 concurrent cloud runs, cloud integrations, priority support
- Add-ons: residential proxies USD 3 per GB, CAPTCHA solving USD 1 to 1.5 per thousand, data service from USD 599, crawler setup from USD 399
- Enterprise is quoted. The vendor states a 5-day money-back guarantee on all plans
What we do not know
- Typical proxy and CAPTCHA spend for a real recruiting job
- What Enterprise costs
- Where extracted data is stored and for how long
Checked on the vendor's pricing page, August 2026. Octoparse pricing page
How it fits your stack
Works with
- Google Sheets, Dropbox and S3, on the Professional plan
- Your own systems, through the API from Standard
Likely replaces
- Repeating a browser extraction by hand every week
- A scraping script somebody would otherwise have to maintain
May overlap with
- Instant Data Scraper and Data Miner for one-off work
Check before buying
- The terms of the sites you intend to run against
- Your task count, since that caps before rows do
- A month of proxy and CAPTCHA spend, tested on the free plan first
Octoparse vs alternatives
Products a buyer would genuinely put next to this one, with the reason you would pick each instead.
Choose Instant Data Scraper when the job is one-off and you are already looking at the page. It is free and needs no setup.
Consider Data Miner if you want a saved recipe in the browser rather than a scheduled cloud run.
Consider Outscraper when you would rather buy the result as a service than configure and maintain the extraction.
Used Octoparse?
Tell other recruiters what worked, what did not, and who it suits. Positive, mixed or critical — all useful.
Evidence
- Plan prices, tasks and concurrency — checked against a primary source: Octoparse pricing page
- Free plan limits — checked against a primary source: Octoparse pricing page
- Add-on prices for proxies and CAPTCHA solving — checked against a primary source: Octoparse pricing page
- Feature list per plan — vendor claim, not independently verified: Octoparse pricing page
- Real-world success rate against defended sites — not enough evidence
- SourcrLab hands-on use — not enough evidence
Last reviewed: August 2026. How SourcrLab verifies information
Work at Octoparse?
Email us to verify this profile or suggest a factual update.