```yaml
product: AlterLab
title: "Web Scraping — Web Scraping Glossary | AlterLab"
comparison_context: "AlterLab is an alternative to Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and Bright Data."
source_url: https://alterlab.io/glossary/web-scraping
```

general

# Web Scraping

Automated extraction of data from websites using software tools that parse HTML and collect structured information at scale.

Web scraping is the automated process of extracting data from websites using software. A scraper sends HTTP requests to target URLs, receives HTML responses, parses the DOM to locate specific elements, and saves the extracted data as structured records — CSV, JSON, or database rows.

Modern web scraping must overcome a stack of defences: JavaScript-rendered content that requires a real browser engine, anti-bot protection layers that inspect TLS fingerprints and browser signals, rate limits that cap requests per IP, and CAPTCHA challenges that gate access to authenticated sections. The toolchain ranges from simple HTTP fetch + HTML parser combinations to full browser automation frameworks like Playwright and Puppeteer.

AlterLab's scraping API abstracts the entire complexity stack — proxy rotation, browser fingerprinting, JavaScript rendering, and challenge resolution — into a single POST request. Developers send a URL and receive clean HTML or extracted JSON without managing any infrastructure.

### What is Web Scraping?

Automated extraction of data from websites using software tools that parse HTML and collect structured information at scale.

### How does AlterLab handle Web Scraping?

AlterLab's scraping API abstracts the entire complexity stack — proxy rotation, browser fingerprinting, JavaScript rendering, and challenge resolution — into a single POST request. Developers send a URL and receive clean HTML or extracted JSON without managing any infrastructure.

## Examples

```
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}'
```

## Related Terms

[Data ExtractionThe process of identifying and pulling specific fields from raw web content, converting unstructured HTML into typed JSON records.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-extraction)[Web CrawlerA program that automatically navigates websites by following hyperlinks, systematically indexing pages across an entire domain.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/web-crawler)[Headless BrowserA web browser that runs without a graphical user interface, executing JavaScript and rendering pages exactly as a real browser would.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/headless-browser)[JavaScript RenderingThe process of executing a page's JavaScript in a browser engine before extracting content, required for React, Vue, and Angular SPAs.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/javascript-rendering)[Anti-Bot ProtectionSystems deployed by websites to detect and block automated traffic using TLS fingerprinting, CAPTCHA challenges, and behavioural analysis.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-bot-protection)

## Extract Web Scraping data from any website

AlterLab returns clean, structured data from any public URL — no scraper infrastructure needed. Start free, no credit card required.

[View API docs](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/rest)

[Back to Glossary](https://alterlab.io/glossary)