Make.com Web Scraping — No-Code Data Extraction Compared

Make.com (formerly Integromat) is one of the most popular no-code automation platforms, with built-in HTTP tools that many users try to use for web scraping. But Make.com's native scraping capabilities are limited to simple HTTP requests and basic HTML parsing. For real data extraction at scale, you need dedicated scraping APIs. This guide compares Make.com's built-in scraping with the best external API options, so you can pick the right approach for your automation workflows.

Key Takeaways

• Make.com's HTTP module can fetch pages but cannot handle JavaScript rendering, CAPTCHAs, or proxy rotation
• Dedicated scraping APIs like SearchHive, Firecrawl, and ScrapingBee handle the hard parts automatically
• Firecrawl starts at $16/mo (3K pages), ScrapingBee at $49/mo (250K requests), SearchHive at $9/mo (5K credits)
• SearchHive is the only option that also provides web search and AI-powered deep research
• For Make.com workflows, connecting to a scraping API via HTTP is straightforward and more reliable than DIY scraping

Make.com Web Scraping Comparison Table

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

JavaScript Rendering

This is the single biggest limitation of Make.com's native approach. Many modern websites use React, Vue, or other JavaScript frameworks to render content. Make.com's HTTP module fetches the initial HTML, which often contains empty containers where JavaScript should render data.

Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and SearchHive all use headless browsers behind the scenes. You send a URL, they return fully rendered content.

Proxy Rotation and Anti-Bot

Make.com sends requests from fixed IP addresses. Hit a target site more than a few times and you will get blocked. Professional scraping APIs rotate through thousands of IPs to distribute requests.

ScrapingBee offers rotating proxies (standard) and premium proxies (10-25 credits per request). Firecrawl manages proxies internally. SearchHive handles all proxy management automatically.

Structured Data Extraction

Make.com's built-in tools for parsing HTML require you to manually set up CSS selectors or XPath expressions. This is tedious and breaks when websites change their markup.

All three API providers offer structured extraction:

# SearchHive - extract specific data with ScrapeForge
import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"},
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com/products",
        "extract": {
            "name": ".product-title",
            "price": ".price-value",
            "rating": ".star-rating"
        }
    }
)
print(resp.json())
# Output: [{"name": "...", "price": "...", "rating": "..."}, ...]

Search Capabilities

None of Make.com, Firecrawl, or ScrapingBee include a web search API. If your workflow needs to find URLs before scraping them (e.g., "search for competitors, then scrape their pricing pages"), you need a separate search provider.

SearchHive bundles SwiftSearch with ScrapeForge. One API key, one integration in Make.com.

Pricing Deep Dive

Here is what data extraction costs at various volumes:

Note: Make.com's own pricing is $10.59/mo for the Core plan (1,000 operations). Higher-volume plans go up to $16.56+/mo for 10K operations. The table above factors in Make.com's cost.

SearchHive wins on price at every tier beyond the free level because you do not need to pay for Make.com's operations quota plus a separate scraping API -- one API call from Make.com to SearchHive counts as one Make.com operation, and SearchHive handles the heavy lifting.

Code Examples: Make.com + SearchHive

Setting Up the HTTP Module

In Make.com:

1. Add an HTTP module to your scenario
2. Set the URL to https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge
3. Set method to POST
4. Add a header: Authorization = Bearer YOUR_SEARCHHIVE_KEY
5. Set body type to free JSON formatter with this payload:

{
  "url": "https://target-site.com/page",
  "format": "markdown"
}

Combining Search and Scrape in One Workflow

Here is a complete Make.com workflow concept that searches for companies and scrapes their websites:

Step 1: Search for companies using SwiftSearch

POST https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/swiftsearch
Body: {"query": "best CRM software 2026", "limit": 5}

Step 2: Iterate over results (Make.com Iterator module)

For each search result URL, pass it to the next HTTP module.

Step 3: Scrape each result with ScrapeForge

POST https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge
Body: {"url": "{{1.url}}", "extract": {"title": "h1", "features": ".features-list"}}

Step 4: Aggregate and send to Google Sheets or Airtable

This entire workflow uses one API key from SearchHive. No separate search API needed.

Python Script for Local Testing

Before building in Make.com, test your API calls locally:

import httpx

API_KEY = "your-searchhive-key"
HEADERS = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

# Step 1: Search
def search_companies(query):
    resp = httpx.post(
        "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/swiftsearch",
        headers=HEADERS,
        json={"query": query, "limit": 5}
    )
    return resp.json()["results"]

# Step 2: Scrape each result
def scrape_company(url):
    resp = httpx.post(
        "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
        headers=HEADERS,
        json={
            "url": url,
            "extract": {
                "company_name": "h1",
                "pricing": ".pricing-table",
                "description": "meta[name=description]"
            }
        }
    )
    return resp.json()

# Test the full workflow
results = search_companies("top project management tools 2026")
for r in results[:3]:
    print(f"Scraping: {r['title']}")
    data = scrape_company(r["url"])
    print(f"  Name: {data.get('company_name')}")
    print(f"  Description: {data.get('description', 'N/A')[:100]}")

Make.com Native Scraping: When It Works

Make.com's built-in approach is viable for:

• Static HTML pages with no JavaScript rendering
• XML feeds (RSS, sitemaps)
• APIs that return JSON (government data, weather APIs)
• Low-volume, one-off extractions

If your target is a static site and you only need a few dozen pages per month, Make.com's HTTP module + JSON/XML parser tools get the job done without any additional cost.

When to Use Each Approach

Make.com native for simple, low-volume extraction from static sites and public APIs.

Firecrawl if you need a specialized scraping platform with a polished developer experience and do not mind paying $83/mo at scale. Their GitHub stars (109K+) speak to community adoption.

ScrapingBee for high-volume basic scraping. At $49/mo for 250K requests, the per-request cost is low. However, JavaScript rendering costs 5x credits, which eats into your budget fast.

SearchHive when you need search + scraping + research in one tool. At $9/mo for 5K credits, it is the cheapest entry point. At $49/mo for 100K credits, it covers what you would pay $100+ for with separate providers. /compare/firecrawl /compare/scrapingbee

Verdict

Make.com is a powerful automation platform, but web scraping is not its strength. The HTTP module gets you basic page fetching, but anything beyond that requires fighting JavaScript rendering, proxy rotation, and CAPTCHAs on your own.

The practical approach is to connect Make.com to a dedicated scraping API via HTTP calls. SearchHive offers the best value here because it also includes web search (find URLs to scrape) and deep research (summarize findings) in the same API. One integration, one API key, one bill. Start with the free 500 credits and see how it fits your workflow.