Top 10 Helium Scraper Alternatives for Visual Web Scraping in 2026

Top 10 Helium Scraper Alternatives for Visual Web Scraping in 2026

Helium Scraper was a popular visual web scraping tool that let users point-and-click to build scrapers without writing code. While Helium Scraper is no longer actively maintained, the demand for visual, no-code web scraping hasn't gone away. If you're looking for Helium Scraper alternatives that offer visual scraping capabilities, better modern features, and active development, this guide covers your best options.

1. Octoparse — Best Visual Helium Scraper Replacement

Octoparse is the most mature visual web scraping platform, offering a point-and-click interface for building scrapers with no code required.

• Pricing: Free (limited), Standard $89/mo, Professional $249/mo, Enterprise custom
• Strengths: Full visual workflow builder, scheduled scraping, cloud execution, API access
• Weaknesses: Paid plans are expensive, cloud execution limited on lower tiers, some sites are harder to scrape
• Best for: Non-technical users who need to scrape data regularly

Octoparse lets you build scraping workflows by clicking on elements, setting pagination rules, and exporting to CSV/Excel/API. It's the closest direct replacement for Helium Scraper's visual paradigm.

/compare/octoparse

2. SearchHive ScrapeForge — Developer-Focused Alternative

While not a visual tool, is worth considering for anyone moving beyond Helium Scraper's limitations. A few lines of Python replace hours of point-and-click configuration.

• Pricing: Free 500 credits, $9/5K, $49/100K, $199/500K
• Strengths: Handles JS rendering and anti-bot bypass automatically, programmatic control, API-first
• Weaknesses: Requires coding, no visual interface

import requests

# SearchHive ScrapeForge — programmatic scraping replaces visual tools
API_KEY = "your--api-key"

# Scrape a product listing page with JS rendering
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrape",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "url": "https://store.example.com/collections/sale",
        "render_js": "true",
        "format": "markdown"
    }
)
content = response.json()["content"]
print(content["markdown"])

# Scrape multiple pages in a loop
for page in range(1, 6):
    resp = requests.get(
        "https://api..dev/v1/scrape",
        params={
            "api_key": API_KEY,
            "url": f"https://store.example.com/collections/sale?page={page}",
            "render_js": "true",
            "format": "markdown"
        }
    )
    # Process each page's content
    print(f"Page {page} scraped successfully")

For developers who found Helium Scraper's visual interface too rigid for complex scraping tasks, ScrapeForge provides full programmatic control at dramatically lower cost than visual platforms.

/compare/searchhive

3. Browse AI — AI-Powered Visual Scraping

Browse AI takes the visual scraping concept further with AI that automatically identifies data patterns and builds extraction rules.

• Pricing: Free 50 credits/mo, Starter $49/mo, Professional $149/mo, Enterprise $399/mo
• Strengths: AI-powered field detection, works on changing page layouts, robot monitoring
• Weaknesses: Credits consumed quickly on complex sites, limited control over extraction logic

Browse AI's AI assistant watches you click and interact with a page, then learns the pattern and replicates it automatically. It handles pagination, infinite scrolling, and login flows.

4. ParseHub — Desktop Visual Scraper

ParseHub is a free desktop application for visual web scraping with a flow-chart interface for building extraction logic.

• Pricing: Free (5 projects), Standard $189/mo, Professional $599/mo
• Strengths: Free desktop app, handles dynamic/AJAX content, can scrape behind logins
• Weaknesses: Desktop-only (no cloud), UI feels dated, limited on free plan

ParseHub runs on your machine, which means no cloud execution costs but also requires your computer to be running. The free tier is generous for personal projects.

5. Apify — Scraping Platform with Visual Builder

Apify offers both pre-built scrapers and a visual builder for custom extraction workflows.

• Pricing: Free 5/mo, Starter $49/mo, Scale $149/mo, Business $499/mo
• Strengths: Pre-built scrapers for popular sites, cloud scheduling, API integration
• Weaknesses: Visual builder is less intuitive than Octoparse, platform costs add up

Apify's main advantage is its marketplace of ready-made scrapers. If you need to scrape Amazon products or LinkedIn profiles, there's likely an existing actor that does it.

/compare/apify

6. Bardeen — Browser Extension Scraper

Bardeen is a browser extension that automates web tasks including scraping, with a visual no-code builder.

• Pricing: Free tier, Pro $10/mo, Business custom
• Strengths: Works in your browser, no separate app needed, automates full workflows
• Weaknesses: Limited to browser-based scraping, less powerful than standalone tools

7. Web Automation with Playwright

For developers willing to learn a simple API, Playwright gives you full browser automation with Python, JavaScript, or C#.

• Pricing: Free and open source
• Strengths: Complete control, cross-browser, handles any web interaction
• Weaknesses: Requires coding, no visual interface, you handle anti-bot yourself

# Playwright — free browser automation for scraping
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com/products")
    
    # Extract product data
    products = page.query_selector_all(".product-card")
    for product in products:
        title = product.query_selector(".title").inner_text()
        price = product.query_selector(".price").inner_text()
        print(f"{title}: {price}")
    
    browser.close()

Playwright is free and powerful but doesn't handle proxy rotation, CAPTCHAs, or sophisticated anti-bot detection. For those needs, ScrapeForge is easier — it handles anti-bot bypass automatically.

8. Scrapy — Python Scraping Framework

Scrapy is the most popular Python web scraping framework, used by thousands of companies for large-scale data extraction.

• Pricing: Free and open source
• Strengths: Battle-tested, highly scalable, large ecosystem of middleware/extensions
• Weaknesses: Steep learning curve, requires Python knowledge, no visual interface

9. Webscraper.io — Browser Extension

Webscraper.io is a free Chrome extension for building sitemaps and extracting data from websites.

• Pricing: Free for basic use, cloud scraping available on paid plans
• Strengths: Free Chrome extension, easy to learn, good for small projects
• Weaknesses: Limited to Chrome, cloud execution requires paid plan, basic features only

10. Import.io — Enterprise Visual Platform

Import.io offers enterprise-grade visual data extraction with managed cloud infrastructure.

• Pricing: Enterprise custom pricing ($500+/mo)
• Strengths: Managed service, compliance features, data delivery pipelines
• Weaknesses: Very expensive, requires sales call, overkill for most users

Comparison Table

Recommendation

The right Helium Scraper alternative depends on your technical level and use case:

• For non-technical users: Octoparse is the most complete visual scraping platform. Browse AI is a strong runner-up if you want AI-assisted extraction.

• For developers: gives you more power and flexibility than any visual tool. A few lines of Python replace hours of clicking, and at $49/100K requests, it's dramatically cheaper than Octoparse's $89/mo for potentially fewer requests.

• For free options: ParseHub (desktop) and Webscraper.io (Chrome extension) are both free for basic use. Playwright gives developers free, unlimited browser automation.

• For AI-powered extraction: Browse AI leads the visual category, while SearchHive's ScrapeForge with markdown/free JSON formatter output handles structured extraction programmatically.