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Apifier vs Puppeteer: What are the differences?
Architecture: Apifier is a platform that provides a higher-level layer of abstraction for web scraping tasks, while Puppeteer gives users more control over low-level interactions with the browser allowing for more customization in scraping tasks.
Automated Tasks: Apifier focuses on automating and scheduling large-scale scraping tasks, while Puppeteer is more suitable for smaller, manual scraping tasks where customization is crucial.
Scalability: Apifier is designed for scalability and can handle large volumes of data processing easily, while Puppeteer is better suited for smaller scale projects due to its focus on fine-tuned customization.
Community and Support: Puppeteer has a larger community and more extensive documentation, making it easier for users to find help and resources, while Apifier has a more specialized user base but offers strong support for its platform.
Cost: Apifier is a paid platform with tiered pricing based on usage and features, while Puppeteer is open-source and free to use, making it more accessible for smaller projects or users on a budget.
Ease of Use: Apifier offers a drag-and-drop interface for building scrapers, making it more user-friendly for beginners, while Puppeteer requires more technical knowledge and coding skills, which may be challenging for novice users.
In Summary, the key differences between Apifier and Puppeteer lie in their architecture, automated task capabilities, scalability, community support, cost, and ease of use.
I am using Node 12 for server scripting and have a function to generate PDF and send it to a browser. Currently, we are using PhantomJS to generate a PDF. Some web post shows that we can achieve PDF generation using Puppeteer. I was a bit confused. Should we move to puppeteerJS? Which one is better with NodeJS for generating PDF?
You better go with puppeteer. It is basically chrome automation tool, written in nodejs. So what you get is PDF, generated by chrome itself. I guess there is hardly better PDF generation tool for the web. Phantomjs is already more or less outdated as technology. It uses some old webkit port that's quite behind in terms of standards and features. It can be replaced with puppeteer for every single task.
I suggest puppeteer to go for. It is simple and easy to set up. Only limitaiton is it can be used only for chrome browser and currently they are looking into expanding into FF. The next thing is Playwright which is just a scale up of Puppeteer. It supports cross browsers.
Pros of Apify
- Perfect for Heavy Java Script Websites4
Pros of Puppeteer
- Very well documented10
- Scriptable web browser10
- Promise based6
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Cons of Apify
Cons of Puppeteer
- Chrome only10