Import.io platform
Web scraping service
Also called: Web scraping as a service
Buying web data as a service: the provider owns extraction and maintenance and delivers data on a schedule.
In practice
Compare providers on coverage, QA, SLA terms and who fixes breakage.
Buy a defined outcome
A web-scraping service can range from a one-off collection project to a recurring managed feed. State the outcome you need: sources, fields, history, refresh cadence, destination and acceptance criteria. A provider offering access to tools or infrastructure is not necessarily taking responsibility for maintaining the resulting dataset.
Example: scoping a recurring feed
For an illustrative weekly catalogue delivery, provide representative URLs and a sample schema. Agree how products are identified, whether missing products are reported and how historical observations are retained. Test a sample before accepting the full scope. Confirm who handles a source redesign, a destination failure and a request to add another retailer. These are distinct pieces of work.
Compare proposals consistently
Ask each provider to price the same coverage, cadence and validation requirements. Separate setup, recurring operation, changes and backfills where relevant. Define support and repair expectations in the agreement rather than inferring them from the service label. A low collection price may still leave substantial integration and quality-control work with your team, so include retained responsibilities in the comparison.
Compare providers on coverage, QA, SLA terms and who fixes breakage.
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