There are computer programs that can extract data from a particular source, no matter how complex, and convert it to different formats: they are called “scrapers” and are used in many different industries. With scrapers, for example, you can extract even a casino online site and use the data you obtain for many different purposes. These programs are so advanced that they can even be used on platforms such as instant messaging (IM). This includes Telegram: if you choose the right program, you can also scrape the data of this popular IM app. In this article, we are talking about the 5 best programs for this job.
Bright Data
Bright Data is one of the world’s largest web scrapers with over 15,000 customers. But don’t infer from this definition that it can only scrape websites: the company can scrape any data available online on your behalf. The reason it’s so popular is that it completely automates scraping: for example, you don’t have to deal with proxy management, you just select the source you want to scrape and leave the rest to Bright Data. You can choose one of the existing templates or create your own. Payment is only made if scraping is successful and can be as low as $0.001 per page load. Bright Data is a company with over 2,200 patents and its own proxy network, so it can easily bypass measures that protect against scraping. You can get the results in formats such as JSON, ndJSON, CSV, or Excel via platforms such as AWS, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, SFTP.
Apify
We can liken Apify to a “web scraping store”. This platform is aimed at customers with a specific purpose: for example, if you just want to scrap TikTok, you can go to the Apify store and purchase this service as a one-time thing or a subscription. Subscription prices range from 45 USD to 60 USD, and a free trial option is also offered. In the store, you can also find scraping services (e.g., Google search results scraper) that you can use absolutely free. If a service is not sold for the target you have specified, it is also possible to place a custom order. In this context, we can say that Apify will be more suitable for businesses that need scraping for a certain period of time. For example, if you only need Telegram data for three months, you can create a custom order accordingly. Apify is an open platform to developers, and scraping services are not offered by the company but by third parties who create scraping programs using the company’s infrastructure.
Octoparse
We can say that Octoparse is like a kind of “do it yourself” service. When you become a member of the platform, you can choose any online target. Octoparse then lists all the data that can be scraped on that target, and you can do anything you want using a point-and-click interface. You don’t need any coding knowledge or even parsing experience. You can choose different elements by selecting from the interface and scrape all of your selections in different formats (CSV, Excel, etc.) in a short time. It is also possible to schedule a project you have created: in this case, Octoparse automatically completes the scraping process at the intervals you specify and saves the results to its own cloud server. If your goal is too complex to scrape with a point-and-click interface, you can purchase a “data scraping service” from Octoparse. In this case, the company does the parsing itself, giving you a custom price based on the complexity of the goal you set and the type of data you request.
Silverdor
Silverdor is a little different from the services we listed above. The above companies offer web parsing services, and Telegram is just one of the options you can use. In other words, none of them just offer Telegram scraping service. Silverdor, on the other hand, was set up just for this service: it has an option for anything you want to do on Telegram. User scraping is just one of them: with this service, you can scrape any kind of user data in Telegram groups. You can also set specific criteria for this data: for example, Silverdor may scrape only the most active users for you. The results are saved to your desktop as a CSV file. It is also possible to set up and manage your own Telegram groups/channels using Silverdor. It may not be as advanced as the services listed above (for example, it doesn’t have cloud servers or proxy networks), but it does a much better job as it only focuses on Telegram. Moreover, the prices are very affordable: you can buy this service at prices ranging from 29.95 USD to 85.95 USD.
Good Old Python
As a final option, let’s mention that you can code your own Telegram scraper using Python. Of course, you can use other programming languages too, but Python can do this with very short code. Doing this requires technical knowledge, but you do not need to make any payments. Moreover, you can customize your own code as you wish and set it up to scrape only the data you need. You can find multiple code examples you can use for this job with a simple Google search.
