Managed data collection services provide a fast alternative to building and maintaining a data infrastructure, and allow businesses to focus on their core activities. Which functions would you like to outsource?
Top managed web data collection providers
All services claim to be compatible with GDPR and CCPA and offer self-service options. Learn more about these providers.
What are managed data collection services?
Managed data collection services are outsourced, end-to-end solutions that enable companies to collect specific data from websites at scale automatically and efficiently. They are also called data as a service (DaaS)
It is like having an external data operations team on demand, handling the technical and compliance-heavy aspects behind the scenes. It saves companies the effort to build an in-house web scraping operation.
This is particularly valuable for companies in data-intensive industries, such as retail, travel, and financial services.
Advantages of managed web data services
- Building and maintaining an in-house data collection team can be a costly endeavor with recruitment costs and infrastructure expenses. Managed data services can offer a more predictable cost structure.
- Managed data service providers bring experience from hundreds of projects, which facilitates data security, data privacy compliance, and scaling web data operations.
Our experience with managed web data services
When we attempted to collect B2B review data using web scraping APIs, we were unable to find any working APIs for the most popular B2B review website. Therefore, we relied on a 3rd party to build the service for us.
This saved our team from constantly maintaining the scraper, and since then, the importance of reviews has declined as quantitative benchmarks have taken their place. Therefore, we no longer rely on reviews as much as we used to, and it was beneficial to have a third-party provider for that capability.
Capabilities of web data collection providers
Bright Data
Bright Data’s Managed Data Acquisition solution provides a comprehensive, end-to-end service, encompassing everything from source targeting and infrastructure setup to data validation, enrichment, and final delivery.
Proxy service provider: Bright Data offers a leading residential proxy network that is compliant with ISO 27001 and SOC 2. As the provider of the underlying service for data collection (i.e., residential proxies), Bright Data has the flexibility to reach difficult-to-collect web data. This is also reflected in the success rates of its web unblocker, which leads the market.
Best for: Large enterprises and compliance-conscious organizations that require the highest level of transparency and an ethically verifiable data sourcing process.
Zyte
Zyte provides fast and low-cost web scraping APIs. Its engineering team also offers managed data services.
Competitive pricing: They claim to have no upfront costs for requests that meet their criteria.
Apify
Apify offers a managed service for custom web scrapers. They have an open-source SDK and many of their clients use it to create and operate their web scrapers, also known as “actors.”
Actors enable users to collect data for everyday use cases quickly. Teams can manage their own scraping projects on the platform or opt for a fully managed service.
Best for: Tech-savvy teams and startups that want a high degree of control over their data extraction processes.
Grepsr
Grepsr sells common web datasets and provides data as a service.
ScrapeHero
ScrapeHero managed data services focus on custom data projects with specialized requirements, including job postings, real estate listings, and product pricing.
The platform is built for massive scale. They also offer services such as custom API building and robotic process automation.
Best for: High-volume data extraction needs that require custom solutions to integrate with existing business processes.
Should you use a managed data service?
Answer these questions to understand if a managed web data service makes sense:
How complex is the web data project?
Managed services make sense if you are extracting.
- Data from numerous website,s including some niche websites with limited traffic or
- Data points that web data APIs do not collect
Don’t use a managed service if
- A web data API or dataset provider that supplies the data that you need and
- A team member who can write API calls. No code platforms like n8n enable non-technical users to write API calls as well.
Some are not aware of current web data collection capabilities. Small teams can deliver complex data pipelines because:
- With scraping APIs, you can get real-time results from all major websites, including social media, search engines, and e-commerce websites. Data can be delivered in structured forms, such as JSON, CSV, or XML.
- CAPTCHA and anti-bot protections can be bypassed with a combination of proxy rotation (using residential IPs), smart ban detection, and headless rendering. Unblockers can reach CAPTCHA-protected websites.
- Scraping browsers can render JavaScript (JS), execute clicks and scrolls to scrape from JS-heavy pages or single-page applications built with React, Angular, or Vue.
- Headless browsers can minimize response times.
What are your company’s web data collection capabilities?
- Limited tech skills: To collect data from niche websites, you need to write a parser, which ChatGPT or other LLMs can do, but still requires effort and constant updates.
- Expensive tech teams: If your tech team is based in San Francisco, you may want them to focus on the core business rather than web scraping.
Managed services are not necessary if you have a tech team that would like to maintain the web data pipeline and can achieve this at an attractive price point.
Is web data collection your core business?
Unless you are working with one of the providers mentioned above, web data collection is likely not your core business. In such cases, outsourcing is a sensible option when the costs are reasonable.
How to choose the right provider
Here are the key factors to consider when choosing the right managed service provider for your business:
- Data scope: Determine whether the provider supports the type, volume, and structure of data you require. For example, suppose you need product listings scraped daily from several marketplaces with varying sizes, prices, reviews, and inventory levels. A managed provider should configure the crawler to extract the necessary fields. Can they manage multi-source data aggregation, or do they give data in your preferred format?
- Scalability: Will the solution scale as your needs grow? You can check if they offer load balancing and concurrency controls. If the provider cannot handle the scale, your services may experience data delays or rate limiting.
- Compliance and ethical standards: Depending on your industry, geography, and type of data being collected, here are the key regulatory frameworks and standards you should check for:
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): If you’re collecting or using any data that could be linked to individuals in the EU, the provider must ensure no sensitive data is collected without explicit consent.
- CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act): Even if you are not headquartered in California, you can still be liable under the CCPA if you are scraping information on Californians, such as user-generated material or customer reviews.
- SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls Type 2) or ISO/IEC 27001 are typical data security certifications that enterprises expect from their suppliers. They may include regular third-party audits to ensure that strict best practices are followed when handling sensitive or regulated data.
For a deeper look at the ethical and legal aspects of web scraping, see our web-scraping ethics guide.
How do managed services differ from basic scraping tools?
Rather than relying on general-purpose scrapers and managing proxies, managed services build custom crawling architectures to:
- Operate at high volumes. Managed providers deploy distributed systems capable of handling millions of requests per day.
- Implement ongoing monitoring and automated or manual script adjustments to ensure consistently high success rates, even for websites that may not be popular.
Outsourced data security and management services
Many businesses do not see data security and management as a core business activity and want to outsource this to managed service providers (MSPs).
A managed data service provider can:
- Protect sensitive business information from unauthorized access or cyber threats.
- Ensure that your data practices align with relevant laws and standards (such as GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA).
- Identify potential vulnerabilities in your data infrastructure and audit to prevent data theft or loss.
On the positive side, these providers
- Bring years of experience from serving numerous clients
- Can have economies of scale
However, as with any outsourcing project, businesses may find themselves:
- Locked into the service provider, as the managed data service provider gains a deeper understanding of the data
- Slower in implementing data-related initiatives compared to competitors with dedicated data teams.
Checklist for selecting data services from MSPs
Businesses should check these at a minimum before engaging MSPs in this domain:
- References from your industry
- Their experience with your data stack
- SLAs
- Pricing
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