Which quickstart should I start with?
Find your goal in the table, then go straight to that product’s first request. Each page below ends with a runnable request and the response it returns.
The SERP API, Web Unlocker API, Browser API and proxy networks each need a zone before the first request. Each page above links its zone setup step.
The rest of this page explains when each product is the right choice.
Use cases
- Structured data from a popular site: getting profiles, posts, products or reviews from sites like LinkedIn, Amazon, Instagram or TikTok. The correct product is the Web Scraper API.
- Structured data from any other site: collecting structured data from a site that has no pre-built scraper. The correct product is Scraper Studio.
- Search engine data: getting results from search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex. Results from the search engine can be ads, hotels, trends, flights or search results. The correct product is the SERP API.
- Social account management: managing multiple profiles on social networks like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. The correct product is ISP proxies with a static IP address.
Which product to choose
The following is a list of products with a description of when it makes sense to use them.When to use the Web Scraper API
The Web Scraper API is the default choice for structured data collection. It is most suitable when:- the target is a popular site covered by one of the pre-built scrapers, including LinkedIn, Amazon, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, Reddit, Google and ChatGPT
- structured JSON output is needed rather than raw HTML
- Bright Data should handle proxies, unblocking and scraper maintenance
When to use Scraper Studio
Scraper Studio is the choice when the target site has no pre-built scraper. It is most suitable when:- you want to build a custom scraper from a natural-language prompt with the AI Agent, or write one in the JavaScript IDE
- the scraper should keep working when the target site changes, using the Self-Healing tool
- you want Bright Data to host and run the scraper, with no infrastructure to maintain
When to use the SERP API
The SERP API is most suitable when you need structured results from search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex or DuckDuckGo, including ads, hotels, trends, flights and organic listings.When to use the Web Unlocker API
The Web Unlocker API is most suitable when:- you need to simply GET HTML pages, without doing any interactions on the page. Just download HTML content for given URLs.
- the page has CAPTCHA and CAPTCHA needs to be solved in order to enter the website
- custom cookies or fingerprints are needed in order to unblock the page
When to use the Browser API
The Browser API is most suitable when:- you are using tools like Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium. In that case, you can easily adjust existing code to use the Browser API.
- you need to take actions on the page, like clicking buttons, filling forms
- you want to take a screenshot of the website
When to use Residential proxies
Residential proxies route traffic through 400M+ real residential IPs across 195+ countries. They are most suitable for accessing sophisticated, highly protected sites that block datacenter and automated traffic, and for geo-targeted access as a real local user.When to use ISP proxies
ISP proxies combine residential trust with datacenter speed, using static residential-grade IPs. They are most suitable for managing social or e-commerce accounts, ad verification, QA and bypassing datacenter blocks.When to use Datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies offer 1.6M+ IPs from 98+ countries and are the fastest and most cost-effective option. They are most suitable for high-volume collection from sites with light bot protection.Which domains need a dataset
- shopee.my, shopee.ph: these domains are available as a dataset. It is not possible to scrape these sites using proxies or the Web Unlocker API. The dataset is updated regularly on an ongoing basis. Browse the Dataset Marketplace.