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

Make.com Web Scraping vs SearchHive: No-Code Data Extraction Compared

Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a popular no-code automation platform that lets you build workflows connecting thousands of apps. Web scraping is one of its common use cases — but is it the right tool for serious data extraction?

This comparison breaks down Make.com's scraping capabilities against SearchHive's dedicated web scraping APIs, covering pricing, features, reliability, and when to use each.

Key Takeaways

• Make.com works for simple, low-volume scraping tasks inside broader automation workflows
• SearchHive is purpose-built for web scraping with 10x lower costs at scale
• Make.com charges $10.59+/month minimum with limited scraping operations; SearchHive starts free with 500 credits
• For production scraping, SearchHive's ScrapeForge and DeepDive APIs handle JavaScript rendering, proxies, and anti-bot bypassing out of the box
• If you already use Make.com for workflows, you can combine both: use SearchHive's API as a Make.com HTTP module

Comparison Table

Feature-by-Feature Breakdown

Web Scraping Approach

Make.com scrapes using the HTTP module — you make GET/POST requests and parse the response body. This works for static HTML pages but fails on JavaScript-rendered content (SPAs, React apps, dynamic pricing pages). You can add the JSON module for parsing, but it's manual work.

SearchHive's ScrapeForge API handles everything automatically:

import requests

API_KEY = "your_api_key"
url = "https://example.com/product-page"

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrape",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"url": url, "render_js": True}
)

data = response.json()
print(data["markdown"])  # Clean markdown output

ScrapeForge renders JavaScript, handles redirects, and returns clean markdown or raw HTML. No manual parsing needed.

Data Extraction Quality

With Make.com, you get raw HTML and must use regex tester or the built-in text parser to extract specific fields. Fragile, and breaks when the page layout changes.

SearchHive's DeepDive uses AI to extract structured data:

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/deepdive",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "url": "https://competitor.com/products",
        "extract": ["product_name", "price", "rating", "description"]
    }
)

products = response.json()["data"]
for p in products:
    print(f"{p['product_name']}: {p['price']}")

Tell DeepDive what fields you need, and it returns structured JSON. Page layout changes? The extraction still works because it's based on content understanding, not CSS selectors.

Search Capabilities

Make.com has no built-in search functionality. You'd need to scrape Google directly — which triggers CAPTCHAs and IP blocks fast.

SearchHive's SwiftSearch API provides real-time search engine results without the anti-bot headaches:

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/search",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    params={"q": "best project management tools 2026", "num": 10}
)

results = response.json()["results"]
for r in results:
    print(f"{r['title']} — {r['url']}")

Reliability and Anti-Bot Handling

This is where dedicated scraping APIs shine. Make.com makes requests from shared infrastructure — no residential proxies, no browser fingerprint rotation, no CAPTCHA solving. You'll get blocked on any site with moderate bot protection.

SearchHive routes requests through rotating residential proxies, applies stealth browser headers, and handles common anti-bot challenges automatically. This is the difference between scraping 10 pages before getting blocked and scraping 100,000 pages reliably.

Pricing Deep Dive

Make.com Pricing

• Free: 1,000 operations/month, 2 active scenarios, 15-min minimum interval
• Core ($10.59/mo): 10,000 ops, unlimited scenarios
• Pro ($18.82/mo): 10,000 ops + priority execution
• Teams ($34.27/mo): 10,000 ops + team collaboration
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Each HTTP request counts as 1 operation. A scraping workflow that makes 5 requests per page (fetch, parse, retry, etc.) gets through roughly 2,000 pages on the Pro plan.

SearchHive Pricing

• Free: 500 credits, full API access
• Starter ($9/mo): 5,000 credits
• Builder ($49/mo): 100,000 credits
• Unicorn ($199/mo): 500,000 credits

1 credit = $0.0001. ScrapeForge calls typically cost 5-15 credits depending on page complexity. At the Builder tier, that's roughly 6,000-20,000 scraped pages per month for $49.

Cost Comparison

SearchHive is 3-5x more cost-effective for pure scraping workloads.

Using SearchHive Inside Make.com

The best part: you don't have to choose. Add SearchHive as an HTTP module in Make.com to get dedicated scraping power inside your existing workflows:

# Make.com HTTP module configuration:
# URL: https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrape
# Method: POST
# Headers: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
# Body (JSON):
{
  "url": "{{1.url}}",
  "render_js": true,
  "format": "markdown"
}

This pattern lets you use Make.com's workflow logic (scheduling, filtering, routing to spreadsheets/databases) with SearchHive's actual scraping engine.

When to Use Each

Use Make.com when:

• You're already building automations on the platform
• Scraping is a small part of a larger workflow
• You need to connect 50+ apps and scraping is just one connector
• Volume is low (< 1,000 pages/month)

Use SearchHive when:

• Web scraping or data extraction is your primary use case
• You need JavaScript rendering or anti-bot bypass
• You're scraping at scale (thousands of pages+)
• You want structured data extraction without manual parsing
• You need search engine result data alongside web scraping

Verdict

Make.com is a solid automation platform, but web scraping isn't its strength. The HTTP module approach is fine for simple tasks, but it lacks JavaScript rendering, proxy rotation, and structured extraction — all things that matter for real-world scraping.

SearchHive is the better choice for dedicated web scraping. It costs less per page, handles the hard parts automatically, and gives you three specialized APIs (SwiftSearch, ScrapeForge, DeepDive) that cover every scraping use case.

If you're already invested in Make.com, use SearchHive as the scraping backend via the HTTP module. You get the best of both worlds: Make.com's workflow orchestration with SearchHive's scraping engine.

Get started with 500 free credits — no credit card required. Check out the API documentation for complete integration guides.

See also: /compare/firecrawl for a comparison with another popular scraping API, or /blog/serpapi-alternatives-for-developers for search API alternatives.