dryscrape

Dryscrape

dryscrape is a lightweight web scraping library for Python that allows scraping JavaScript-rendered web pages without needing Selenium or a web browser. It renders pages using QtWebkit and provides tools for extracting content from the rendered pages.
Development Web Scraping
dryscrape image
python scraping headless qtwebkit
Dryscrape alternatives ➤

dryscrape: Lightweight Web Scraping Library for Python

A lightweight Python library for scraping JavaScript-rendered web pages without relying on Selenium or a web browser, utilizing QtWebkit for rendering and providing tools for content extraction.

What is Dryscrape?

dryscrape is a Python library that enables web scraping of dynamic JavaScript-rendered web pages without needing to launch a real browser like Selenium. It uses Qt and QtWebkit behind the scenes to render web pages, allowing the caller to programmatically extract information from pages that require JavaScript execution.

Some key features and benefits of dryscrape:

  • Lightweight alternative to Selenium for scraping JS sites
  • Does not require launching a full web browser
  • Rendered pages can be processed usingfamiliar Python libraries like BeautifulSoup
  • Written in Python for easier integration into Python-based data pipelines
  • Avoid overhead and additional dependencies of Selenium and WebDriver
  • Simpler API than Selenium focused specifically on programmatic web rendering
  • Good for scraping small amounts of complex pages

Ideal for situations where you need to scrape dynamic content from a few pages that require JavaScript to fully render. Not well-suited for large scale crawling. Lightweight nature makes it easy to integrate into Python scraping scripts to handle modern sites.

Dryscrape Features

Features

  1. Renders JavaScript
  2. Headless browser
  3. Scrapes dynamic content
  4. Lightweight
  5. Built on top of Qt and WebKit
  6. Works without Selenium or a real browser

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Does not require Selenium or a real browser

Lightweight and fast

Can scrape JavaScript heavy sites

Renders pages like a real browser

Easy to install and use

Cons

Limited to WebKit engine

Not as fully featured as Selenium

Requires Qt dependencies

Rendering can be slow on complex pages

Not actively maintained anymore

Official Links

Official Website
https://github.com/niklasb/dryscrape

The Best Dryscrape Alternatives

Top Development and Web Scraping and other similar apps like Dryscrape

Here are some alternatives to Dryscrape:

Selenium icon
Selenium
CasperJS icon
CasperJS
Screenster icon
Screenster
PhearJS icon
PhearJS
DalekJS icon
DalekJS
SlimerJS icon
SlimerJS
Suggest an alternative ❐

Selenium icon

Selenium

Selenium is an open-source automated testing suite for web applications across different browsers and platforms. It provides a playground for automating web-based application testing to test web apps across different browsers and platforms like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari etc. It also provides an infrastructure for the W3C WebDriver specification...
CasperJS icon

CasperJS

CasperJS is an open source web testing and automation tool written in JavaScript that uses headless browsing powered by PhantomJS. It provides a high-level API for scripting browser interactions and assertions that allows for automated testing of web applications without needing to open up an actual browser.Some key features of...
CasperJS image
Screenster icon

Screenster

Screenster is an easy-to-use screen recorder and video editor that empowers users to create professional-looking tutorial videos, product demonstrations, video lessons, and more. With Screenster, you can capture anything on your screen along with webcam, microphone audio, and system sounds.Key features of Screenster include:Intuitive screen recording with options to record...
Screenster image
PhearJS icon

PhearJS

PhearJS is an open-source JavaScript framework for building modern web applications. It is designed to be lightweight, flexible, and easy to learn.Some key features of PhearJS:Client-side routing for building single-page appsEasy DOM manipulation with a jQuery-style APIDeclarative event handling with support for custom eventsAjax helpers for making HTTP requestsLightweight at...
PhearJS image
DalekJS icon

DalekJS

DalekJS is an open-source JavaScript automated testing framework used for cross-browser testing of web applications. It is built on top of Node.js and allows executing tests across browsers in a fast and stable manner.Some key features of DalekJS include:Cross-browser testing across Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and PhantomJSWritten entirely in...
DalekJS image
SlimerJS icon

SlimerJS

SlimerJS is an open source scriptable browser engine built on top of Gecko, the browser engine that powers Mozilla Firefox. It provides a JavaScript API that allows you to control a browser instance programatically for automation, testing, web scraping, and other purposes.Some key features and capabilities of SlimerJS include:Full JavaScript...
SlimerJS image