Cheerio vs Puppeteer for Web Scraping in 2023: A Detailed Guide
Methods for extracting data from web pages include ready-made web scrapers , API scrapers, and custom web scrapers . Each data extraction method will be useful depending on the specific data collection requirements. Custom web scrapers are the best option if the site you want to research does not support an API or if you do not need to outsource the development of web scraping infrastructure.
Cheerio and Puppeteer are the two most popular Node.js libraries used by developers to build web crawlers that efficiently extract data from web sources.
In this article, we will review Cheerio and Puppeteer, including their key features, pros and cons, and highlight the main differences between Cheerio and Puppeteer. In this way, we aim to help developers choose the most suitable web scraping library for their data collection projects.
Cheerio vs Puppeteer: A Detailed Comparison
Cheerio and Puppeteer are Node.js libraries that can be used for web scraping and browser automation. There are significant differences between these two libraries; the following table outlines the main differences between Cheerio and Puppeteer.
Evaluation of Cheerio
Cheerio is a Node.js framework for parsing and modifying HTML and XML documents. Cheerio is not a browser automation tool like Selenium, Puppeteer, or Playwright. As a result, it cannot interpret the output the way a web browser does. It cannot create visual rendering, use CSS, load external resources, or execute JavaScript, which makes Cheerio faster.
DOM traversal is the selection of an element from neighboring components of the document. Traversing the copy allows you to easily select and manipulate elements within the document. With Cheerio, you can traverse the DOM tree in three directions:
- Down
- Sideways
- Up
Cheerio allows developers to manipulate document elements according to their specific requirements. You can change element attributes, add and remove classes, and modify the text content of an element.
You can load HTML documents and parse them into a DOM structure using various methods such as "load", "loadBuffer", "stringStream", "fromUrl" etc.,
Cheerio allows users to select elements of an HTML document using CSS selectors. You can select elements based on their tag names, attribute values, etc. Cheerio provides two different parsers depending on the data source and code.
- For parsing HTML documents: parse5
- For parsing XML documents: htmlparser2
Installing Cheerio: To install Cheerio, you must have Node.js installed on your device. Supported operating systems include macOS, Linux, and Windows. Node.js can also be installed via a package manager. After installing Node.js, you can run one of the following commands in the terminal to install Cheerio:
- npm install
- cheerio yarn add cheerio
Prerequisites:
- Node.js
Drawbacks:
- Does not include features like screenshot capture or PDF generation.
- Does not support JavaScript parsing.
- Unable to handle dynamic pages.
Evaluation of Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a Node.js library designed specifically for browser automation. It is an open-source Node library, similar to Cheerio. The main features of Puppeteer include:
- Puppeteer has an event-driven architecture. Event-driven architecture (EDA) is a software architecture that enables independent and interactive operation of disparate services. For example, if one service fails, the others continue to function. It allows asynchronous communication between disparate services.
- Puppeteer works in headless mode. Developers and test automation engineers use headless mode to run tests. This reduces testing time. Headless mode is also useful for web scraping. Headless mode is also useful for web scraping. Headless browsers collect data from web pages without rendering the entire web page. You don't have to wait for the visual elements of the entire web page to load.
- Puppeteer is a JavaScript web scraping library for Node.js. JavaScript rendering allows users to parse dynamic web pages, such as single-page applications (SPA).
Installing Puppeteer: Puppeteer does not require installation; you can use it in your project by running the necessary command.
When you install Puppeteer, it automatically downloads the latest version of Chromium.
Drawbacks
- Puppeteer does not support video playback. Since Puppeteer is bundled with Chromium, it inherits all of Chromium's media-related limitations.
- Puppeteer is not compatible with HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).
Cheerio or Puppeteer: Which is Better for Web Scraping?
Cheerio does not render JavaScript documents. If you plan to scrape dynamic web pages like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, you can use Puppeteer. It allows you to click buttons, submit forms, etc. However, Cheerio is the best option if you plan to scrape static web pages. It facilitates parsing HTML/XML documents and selecting elements from a given document.