Data Miner: Is It the Right Web Scraper for Non-Technical Users?

If you’re in sales, marketing, e-commerce, or real estate, you know how valuable web data can be. Maybe you’ve heard of Data Miner—a popular browser extension for scraping website data into spreadsheets. Or maybe you’re just starting your search for a no-code web scraping tool and want to avoid the headaches of learning to code. Either way, you’re in the right place.

I’ve spent a lot of time digging into both Data Miner and , two leading tools in the no-code web scraping space. In this post, I’ll break down what Data Miner offers, who it’s for, where it shines, and where it falls short—especially for non-technical users. Then, I’ll show you how Thunderbit stacks up as a modern, AI-powered alternative that’s built for business users who just want to get things done.

If you’re considering Data Miner or searching for a friendlier, more powerful web scraping solution, keep reading. I’ll share real user feedback, pricing details, and a side-by-side comparison to help you make the best choice for your workflow.

What is Data Miner?

Data Miner is a browser extension for Chrome and Edge that lets you extract data from websites and export it to spreadsheets—no coding required. The company behind Data Miner is a small tech outfit based in Seattle, and they’ve been around for several years. Over time, they’ve built up a loyal following among researchers, sales teams, and business users who need to collect web data quickly.

Key Products and Features:

• Browser Extension: The core of Data Miner is its Chrome/Edge extension. You install it, visit a webpage, click the Data Miner icon, and start selecting the data you want to extract. It’s designed to recognize tables and lists automatically, so you can export them to CSV, Excel, or JSON with a few clicks.
• Pre-Built Recipes: Data Miner’s “recipes” are pre-made scraping templates for specific websites or data patterns. There are over 60,000 recipes available, covering everything from Google search results to Amazon product listings. If a recipe exists for your target site, you can apply it instantly.
• Pagination and Crawling: The extension can follow “next” buttons or links to scrape data across multiple pages—great for long lists or directories.
• Automation (Crawl Sequences): On paid plans, you can set up automated crawls that visit a list of URLs and scrape each one in sequence.
• Custom JavaScript: For advanced users, Data Miner allows you to inject custom JavaScript to handle tricky or dynamic content.
• Google Sheets Integration: You can send scraped data directly to Google Sheets for easy sharing and collaboration.
• Cloud Scraping (Enterprise): Higher-tier plans let you run scrapes on Data Miner’s servers, so you don’t have to keep your browser open for big jobs.
• Privacy and Security: Data Miner emphasizes that your data stays on your machine by default, and they don’t sell or share your scraped info.
• Support Resources: Free “office hours” support sessions, documentation, and tutorial videos are available to help you get started.

In short, Data Miner is a feature-rich, no-code web scraping tool that’s been around the block. It’s often described as “the most powerful web scraping tool for professional data miners,” and it’s easy to see why—at least on paper.

Who is Data Miner for?

Data Miner is aimed at business and professional users who want to automate data collection without writing code. Here are some of the main groups who use it:

• Sales & Lead Generation: Sales teams use Data Miner to pull contact info from directories or social networks, building prospect lists for outreach.
• Marketing & Competitor Research: Marketers scrape pricing, product details, or reviews from competitor sites to inform their strategies.
• E-commerce Operations: E-commerce managers extract inventory data, product specs, or price comparisons from supplier and competitor sites.
• Recruiting & HR: Recruiters scrape job boards or LinkedIn search results to build candidate lists or gather salary data.
• Real Estate Professionals: Agents and analysts pull property listings from sites like or for market research.
• Researchers and Journalists: Academics and journalists use Data Miner to collect public records or government data for analysis.

The sweet spot for Data Miner is the non-developer who understands the value of data but doesn’t want to mess with code. It’s a middle ground between manual copy-pasting and building a custom scraper from scratch.

But as I’ll explain in the next section, “no-code” doesn’t always mean “no learning curve”—especially if your data needs are more complex.

Data Miner Pricing Plan

Data Miner offers both free and paid plans, with pricing based on the number of pages you can scrape per month and the features you unlock.

Here’s how the plans break down:

• Starter (Free): Scrape up to 500 pages per month. You get access to public recipes and can create your own basic recipes, but some domains are restricted. If you go over 500 pages, your account is locked until you upgrade.
• Solo ($19.99/month): Still limited to 500 pages/month, but you unlock advanced features like automated crawling, custom JavaScript, Google Sheets integration, and the ability to scrape all domains.
• Small Business ($49/month): Increases your quota to 1,000 pages/month, with all Solo features included.
• Business ($99/month): 4,000 pages/month, all features included.
• Business Plus ($200/month): 9,000 pages/month, all features included.
• Enterprise (Custom): Higher page limits, cloud scraping, and dedicated support—pricing is negotiated case by case.

A few things to watch out for:

• The page limits are strict. If you have a big project (say, scraping 10,000 pages), you’ll need a high-tier plan or to spread your work over several months.
• Data Miner charges extra for complex, multi-level scrapers—about $300 per website if you need their team to set up a custom recipe.
• There’s no built-in proxy or IP rotation, so if a website blocks you for too many requests, you’re on your own.
• The free plan is generous for light use, but you’ll quickly hit the wall if you have ongoing or high-volume needs.

User Feedback for Data Miner

Ratings on Review Platforms

• G2: 4.7 out of 5 stars (based on a small number of reviews)
• Capterra & Trustpilot: Not widely reviewed
• Chrome Web Store: Around 4.0–4.3 out of 5 stars

What Users Like

• No Coding Required: For simple tasks, users love that they can extract data without writing code. The point-and-click interface is intuitive for basic jobs.
• Pre-Built Recipes: The huge library of recipes means you can often get started in minutes, especially if your target site is popular.
• Customer Support: The support team (especially a rep named Zack) gets high marks for being responsive and helpful.
• Integration: Direct export to Google Sheets and other formats makes it easy to use scraped data in your workflow.

Where Users Struggle

1. Steep Learning Curve

While Data Miner is easy for basic table scraping, things get complicated fast if you need to do more. Combining actions like pagination, handling pop-ups, or creating custom recipes often requires studying documentation and watching tutorial videos. Non-technical users expecting a “set it and forget it” experience can get frustrated.

For example, one user said, “This is a great application, but you need to first take lessons to learn and then try it. The documentation and videos are great.” Another mentioned, “It took some time to figure out how Data Miner actually works, especially combining pagination and crawl scrape.”

2. Not Friendly for New Beginners

Some users found the interface confusing, especially after major updates. One reviewer lamented, “Frustration with the overhaul in version 5. Preferred the simplicity of the previous version.” Others said that selecting data on a page isn’t always as simple as clicking what you see—you sometimes have to tweak selectors or use the column finder, which can feel technical.

3. Stability and Performance Issues

A few users reported that Data Miner can be buggy or unreliable, especially on large jobs. Comments like “Most of the time didn’t work and sometimes it hung the browser… 110% Time Waste” and “Most time does not work. Waste [of] time” pop up in Chrome Store reviews. Inconsistent or incomplete data is another complaint, especially if the site loads content dynamically.

4. Free Version Limitations

Some users felt the free plan was too limited to really test the tool. One review said, “Too limited—you can scrape only 3 pages…Requires paid subscription to try scraping anything worth scraping. Could not even test it to see if it works for what I need.” (The current free limit is 500 pages, but some features are still locked behind a paywall.)

5. Lack of Advanced Features

Data Miner doesn’t handle anti-scraping measures well. If a site blocks you for too many requests, there’s no built-in proxy or workaround. For very large or complex projects, users often hit a ceiling and have to look elsewhere.

Key Takeaways from the Data Miner Review

• Data Miner is a solid tool for simple, one-off scraping jobs. If you need to pull a few hundred records from a website into Excel, it can save you hours of manual work.
• The learning curve is real. For anything beyond basic table scraping, expect to spend time learning the tool and possibly reaching out to support.
• The free plan is good for light use, but you’ll hit limits fast if you have ongoing or high-volume needs.
• Not ideal for non-technical users with complex requirements. If you want a truly effortless, “just click and go” experience, you may find Data Miner’s interface and recipe system a bit daunting.
• Support is responsive, but you may need it more than you’d like. The tool is powerful, but not always as user-friendly as it could be.

Introducing Thunderbit: The AI Web Scraper Built for Business Users

After seeing where Data Miner falls short—especially for non-technical users who want a fast, easy, and reliable way to scrape web data—let’s talk about .

Thunderbit is an AI-powered web scraper Chrome extension designed to make web data extraction as simple as possible. I’ve tested a lot of scraping tools, and Thunderbit stands out for its focus on usability, automation, and value.

What is Thunderbit?

Thunderbit is a productivity tool that helps you scrape data from any website, PDF, or image in just two clicks. It’s built for business users in sales, marketing, real estate, and e-commerce who want to automate repetitive web tasks—without any coding or complicated setup.

Thunderbit’s Key Features:

• AI Web Scraper: Just click “AI Suggest Columns,” let the AI figure out the best way to extract data from the page, then hit “Scrape.” No recipes, no selectors, no guesswork.
• Subpage Scraping: Thunderbit’s AI can visit each subpage (like product details or contact pages) and enrich your data table automatically.
• Instant Data Scraper Templates: For popular sites like Amazon, Zillow, Instagram, and Shopify, you can export data in one click using pre-built templates.
• Free Data Export: Export your scraped data to Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable, or Notion—no extra charges.
• AI Autofill (Completely Free): Use AI to fill out online forms and complete workflows. Just select the context and press enter—the AI does the rest.
• Scheduled Scraper: Set up automatic scraping at scheduled intervals. Just describe the time, input the URLs, and click “Schedule.”
• Email, Phone, and Image Extractors: Extract emails, phone numbers, or images from any website in one click—totally free.
• Image/Document Parser: Extract tables from PDFs, Word, Excel, or images. Upload your doc, let AI structure the data, and click “Scrape.”
• Modern, User-Friendly Interface: Thunderbit is designed to be intuitive for non-technical users. You don’t need to watch hours of tutorials or tweak settings—just point, click, and go.

How Thunderbit Solves Data Miner’s Pain Points:

• No Learning Curve: Thunderbit’s AI does the heavy lifting. You don’t need to create recipes or learn a new system—just let the AI suggest what to scrape.
• No Hidden Fees: All exports and advanced features are included in your plan. No $300 custom setup fees or surprise charges.
• Better for Beginners: The interface is clean, modern, and designed for business users—not developers.
• Handles Complex Sites: Thunderbit’s AI adapts to changing website structures and can handle subpages, dynamic content, and more.
• Free and Affordable Plans: Thunderbit’s free tier lets you scrape 6 pages (or 10 with a free trial), and paid plans start at just $15/month for 500 credits (1 credit = 1 output row).

Thunderbit Pricing Plans:

You can check out the full details on the Thunderbit Pricing page.

Thunderbit vs Data Miner: Side-by-Side Comparison

Here’s a quick table to show how Thunderbit and Data Miner stack up on the features that matter most to business users:

Conclusion

If you’re a business user who wants to automate web data collection without the hassle, both Data Miner and Thunderbit can help—but they’re not created equal.

Data Miner is a solid choice for simple, one-off scraping jobs, especially if you’re willing to invest time learning the tool and don’t mind its quirks. But if you want a truly effortless, modern, and AI-powered experience, Thunderbit is the clear winner.

Thunderbit’s focus on usability, automation, and value makes it the best choice for non-technical users in sales, marketing, e-commerce, and real estate. You’ll spend less time wrestling with recipes and more time putting your data to work.

Ready to see how easy web scraping can be?

FAQs

1. How does Thunderbit compare to other web scraping tools like Data Miner?

Thunderbit is designed for non-technical users who want a fast, AI-powered scraping experience. Unlike Data Miner, which can have a steep learning curve and extra fees for advanced features, Thunderbit uses AI to automate column selection and subpage scraping, making it easier and more cost-effective for business users.

2. What makes Thunderbit’s AI web scraper unique?

Thunderbit’s “AI Suggest Columns” feature automatically identifies the best data to extract from any website. You don’t need to create recipes or tweak settings—the AI does it for you. This makes Thunderbit the easiest-to-use web scraper for sales, marketing, and e-commerce teams.

3. Can I export data for free with Thunderbit?

Yes! Thunderbit lets you export scraped data to Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable, or Notion at no extra cost. There are no hidden fees for data export, even on the free plan. Learn more about exporting data here.

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