Scrapy vs Selenium

Overview

Selenium

Stacks16.2K

Followers12.6K

Votes527

GitHub Stars33.6K

Forks8.6K

Scrapy

Stacks244

Followers243

Votes0

GitHub Stars58.9K

Forks11.1K

Scrapy vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction

Scrapy and Selenium are both popular tools used for web scraping and automation. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two. In this markdown document, we will highlight and explain the six main differences between Scrapy and Selenium.

Scraping Methodology: Scrapy is based on an asynchronous and non-blocking architecture, utilizing the Twisted framework, which allows it to be highly efficient at scraping large amounts of data. On the other hand, Selenium operates using a traditional synchronous approach, which may be simpler to understand and implement for some users, but can be slower when dealing with large-scale scraping tasks.
JavaScript Interaction: Scrapy is mainly designed for scraping static websites and doesn't have built-in support for handling JavaScript-heavy websites. In contrast, Selenium excels in scraping dynamic websites that heavily rely on JavaScript. It provides an API to interact with JavaScript elements, making it capable of rendering web pages, clicking buttons, filling forms, etc.
Browser Requirement: Scrapy does not require a browser to be installed or launched, as it directly interacts with web servers. Selenium, on the other hand, requires a web browser to be installed and controlled programmatically. This is because Selenium focuses on automating browser activities and can simulate user interactions.
Parallelism and Distribution: Scrapy supports distributed crawling out of the box, allowing for efficient scaling across multiple machines and IP addresses, which is useful for large-scale scraping tasks. Selenium, however, is not built with distributed crawling in mind and typically performs best on a single machine.
Learning Curve: Scrapy has a steeper learning curve, especially for those new to asynchronous programming and the Twisted framework. It requires a more in-depth understanding of these concepts to utilize the framework's full potential. Selenium, on the other hand, has a more beginner-friendly learning curve due to its synchronous nature and user-friendly APIs.
Target Audience: Scrapy is suited for developers who require high-performance web scraping, and who have a good understanding of Python and asynchronous programming. Selenium, on the other hand, is more suitable for non-programmers or users with minimal programming experience who need to interact with or scrape dynamic web pages.

In summary, Scrapy and Selenium differ in their scraping methodology, handling of JavaScript, browser requirement, parallelism and distribution capabilities, learning curve, and target audience. The choice between the two depends on the specific scraping requirements, the familiarity with programming concepts, and the nature of the websites being scraped.

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Advice on Selenium, Scrapy

Shivam

Mar 5, 2020

Needs advice

we are having one web application developed in Reacts.js. in the application, we have only 4 to 5 pages that we need to test. I am having experience in selenium with java. Please suggets which tool I should use. and why ............................ ............................ .............................

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Detailed Comparison

Selenium	Scrapy
Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.	It is the most popular web scraping framework in Python. An open source and collaborative framework for extracting the data you need from websites. In a fast, simple, yet extensible way.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 33.6K	GitHub Stars 58.9K
GitHub Forks 8.6K	GitHub Forks 11.1K
Stacks 16.2K	Stacks 244
Followers 12.6K	Followers 243
Votes 527	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 177 Automates browsers 154 Testing 101 Essential tool for running test automation 24 Record-Playback 24 Remote Control Cons 8 Flaky tests 4 Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui) 2 Update browser drivers	No community feedback yet

What are some alternatives to Selenium, Scrapy?

BrowserStack

BrowserStack is the leading test platform built for developers & QAs to expand test coverage, scale & optimize testing with cross-browser, real device cloud, accessibility, visual testing, test management, and test observability.

Sauce Labs

Cloud-based automated testing platform enables developers and QEs to perform functional, JavaScript unit, and manual tests with Selenium or Appium on web and mobile apps. Videos and screenshots for easy debugging. Secure and CI-ready.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest platform provides secure, scalable and insightful test orchestration for website, and mobile app testing. Customers at different points in their DevOps lifecycle can leverage Automation and/or Manual testing on LambdaTest.

Karma

Karma is not a testing framework, nor an assertion library. Karma just launches a HTTP server, and generates the test runner HTML file you probably already know from your favourite testing framework. So for testing purposes you can use pretty much anything you like.

Playwright

It is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

Rainforest QA

Rainforest gives you the reliability of a QA team and the speed of automation, without the hassle of managing a team or the pain of writing automated tests.

WebdriverIO

WebdriverIO lets you control a browser or a mobile application with just a few lines of code. Your test code will look simple, concise and easy to read.

import.io

import.io is a free web-based platform that puts the power of the machine readable web in your hands. Using our tools you can create an API or crawl an entire website in a fraction of the time of traditional methods, no coding required.

TestingBot

TestingBot provides automated and Manual cross browser testing in the cloud. Make sure your website looks ok in all browsers.

Ghost Inspector

It lets you create and manage UI tests that check specific functionality in your website or application. We execute these automated browser tests continuously from the cloud and alert you if anything breaks.

Related Comparisons

Scrapy vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction

Scraping Methodology: Scrapy is based on an asynchronous and non-blocking architecture, utilizing the Twisted framework, which allows it to be highly efficient at scraping large amounts of data. On the other hand, Selenium operates using a traditional synchronous approach, which may be simpler to understand and implement for some users, but can be slower when dealing with large-scale scraping tasks.
JavaScript Interaction: Scrapy is mainly designed for scraping static websites and doesn't have built-in support for handling JavaScript-heavy websites. In contrast, Selenium excels in scraping dynamic websites that heavily rely on JavaScript. It provides an API to interact with JavaScript elements, making it capable of rendering web pages, clicking buttons, filling forms, etc.
Browser Requirement: Scrapy does not require a browser to be installed or launched, as it directly interacts with web servers. Selenium, on the other hand, requires a web browser to be installed and controlled programmatically. This is because Selenium focuses on automating browser activities and can simulate user interactions.
Parallelism and Distribution: Scrapy supports distributed crawling out of the box, allowing for efficient scaling across multiple machines and IP addresses, which is useful for large-scale scraping tasks. Selenium, however, is not built with distributed crawling in mind and typically performs best on a single machine.
Learning Curve: Scrapy has a steeper learning curve, especially for those new to asynchronous programming and the Twisted framework. It requires a more in-depth understanding of these concepts to utilize the framework's full potential. Selenium, on the other hand, has a more beginner-friendly learning curve due to its synchronous nature and user-friendly APIs.
Target Audience: Scrapy is suited for developers who require high-performance web scraping, and who have a good understanding of Python and asynchronous programming. Selenium, on the other hand, is more suitable for non-programmers or users with minimal programming experience who need to interact with or scrape dynamic web pages.

Scrapy vs Selenium

Overview

Scrapy vs Selenium: What are the differences?