Is ScrapeBox still a good option?
- Thread starter ClownBaby
- Start date
The WP Nerd
Regular Member
- Jun 7, 2026
- 206
- 63
Still got my copy from years back too. Honestly for pure scraping its kinda fallen behind, the public proxies are mostly dead and getting any real volume is a pain now. But like @Sone said its still handy for the smaller stuff... link checking, pinging, quick keyword research, ping mode still works fine. The ******** comment poster is basically useless these days though.
If you want serious scrape volume A-Parser or even just gsa setups will run circles around it. I keep SB around more out of habit than anything, does the job for little one off tasks. v2 didnt really change much imo, same tool with a fresh coat of paint.
If you want serious scrape volume A-Parser or even just gsa setups will run circles around it. I keep SB around more out of habit than anything, does the job for little one off tasks. v2 didnt really change much imo, same tool with a fresh coat of paint.
zaheer abbas 3200
Newbie
- Apr 16, 2023
- 9
- 2
Yes, but in 2026 it's a specialist tool, not the swiss army knife it used to be.
Still excellent for: footprint-based scraping for expired domain hunting, bulk backlink checking, meta/title extraction, and proxy testing. Nothing has really replaced the footprint engine.
Where it struggles now: Google's CAPTCHA walls are brutal without good residential proxies + 2captcha integration, and most public lists are burned within hours.
My current workflow: ScrapeBox for footprint generation and Wayback cross-check, but actual bulk data I pull from Common Crawl or DataForSEO API. It's cheaper at scale and doesn't get IP-blocked. Hybrid approach beats pure ScrapeBox grinding.
Still excellent for: footprint-based scraping for expired domain hunting, bulk backlink checking, meta/title extraction, and proxy testing. Nothing has really replaced the footprint engine.
Where it struggles now: Google's CAPTCHA walls are brutal without good residential proxies + 2captcha integration, and most public lists are burned within hours.
My current workflow: ScrapeBox for footprint generation and Wayback cross-check, but actual bulk data I pull from Common Crawl or DataForSEO API. It's cheaper at scale and doesn't get IP-blocked. Hybrid approach beats pure ScrapeBox grinding.
Drake Agency
Newbie
- Apr 2, 2026
- 25
- 6
Regarding automated data collection, I feel it's quite good.
cherub
Senior Member
- Dec 18, 2006
- 973
- 576
what is a footprint for an expired domain apart from whois info and no dns entries? or are you a bot?
ricketycricket
BANNED
- Jun 7, 2026
- 70
- 14
If you already own the license then yeah install it and play with it again, but I wouldnt buy it today expecting the 2010 magic back.
For me its still useful as a dirty workbench... clean/merge lists, remove dupes, test proxies, scrape sitemaps, pull titles/meta, check links, quick footprints etc. The actual “hammer Google all day and pull millions of urls” thing is mostly dead unless you throw proper proxies/apis at it, and at that point other tools make more sense.
Also footprints for expired domains usually means finding old indexed pages by niche/CMS/platform patterns, then checking if the domain is dropped/redirected/available/has links. Not whois stuff. SB is still pretty fast for that first messy discovery step.
For me its still useful as a dirty workbench... clean/merge lists, remove dupes, test proxies, scrape sitemaps, pull titles/meta, check links, quick footprints etc. The actual “hammer Google all day and pull millions of urls” thing is mostly dead unless you throw proper proxies/apis at it, and at that point other tools make more sense.
Also footprints for expired domains usually means finding old indexed pages by niche/CMS/platform patterns, then checking if the domain is dropped/redirected/available/has links. Not whois stuff. SB is still pretty fast for that first messy discovery step.
- Aug 9, 2017
- 5,566
- 6,856
It can't harvest shit nowadays, and volume would be double figures at most. The only thing going for Scrapebox nowadays is the addons, and most of those are available as opensource alternatives.
lostbadger
Registered Member
- Feb 23, 2022
- 77
- 16
The SEO of 2010 isn't as effective today, the app itself is better but it's use has shifted a bit, it works well for prospecting, there are add ons you can use with services like DeathByCaptcha to send messages through contact forms/good for other scenarios.
ScrapeBox is still useful but not for the same things people used it for in 2010. I still see value in scraping, harvesting and finding prospects at scale. The automated link building side is nowhere near as effective now, but for research and data collection it still earns its place.
- Aug 7, 2011
- 1,577
- 1,432
Back in idk 2012 when I bought scrapebox I was thinking - damn, what a piece of software.
Back in 2015 I asked my friend who owns software house how much it would cost to clone scrapebox, he quoted me something like $40-50k.
I started to learn how to code back in 2016 or 2017, now I dont think anymore SB is really something.
Latest updates are lame and just prove SB team are mediocre developers.
Dont forget - we would not get SBv2 if not Gscraper that popped on market back in time out of nowhere and scraped google way faster than SB.
Is SB still worth the price? Yes.
Does it suck when it comes to scraping? Hell yeah.
Back in 2015 I asked my friend who owns software house how much it would cost to clone scrapebox, he quoted me something like $40-50k.
I started to learn how to code back in 2016 or 2017, now I dont think anymore SB is really something.
Latest updates are lame and just prove SB team are mediocre developers.
Dont forget - we would not get SBv2 if not Gscraper that popped on market back in time out of nowhere and scraped google way faster than SB.
Is SB still worth the price? Yes.
Does it suck when it comes to scraping? Hell yeah.
Adsmith2026
Registered Member
- Jun 25, 2026
- 79
- 14
since you already own the license, you might as well download v2. updates are free anyway. but yeah, don't expect to scrape millions of URLs like we did back in 2010. google will block your ips instantly unless you buy expensive residential proxies, and at that point it's not even worth the cost.
i still keep it running on my vps but mostly just use it as a utility belt. things like merging lists, removing duplicates, or checking status codes on a list of domains. for actual heavy scraping, python or a-parser is the way to go now. but for a tool you already paid for over a decade ago, it's still worth keeping around for the basic stuff.
i still keep it running on my vps but mostly just use it as a utility belt. things like merging lists, removing duplicates, or checking status codes on a list of domains. for actual heavy scraping, python or a-parser is the way to go now. but for a tool you already paid for over a decade ago, it's still worth keeping around for the basic stuff.
ScrapeBox is still useful, but it is no longer the must-have SEO tool it was years ago. It stays pretty good for things like keyword harvesting, URL scraping, and doing bulk SEO analysis, you know. But many SEOs now lean on tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or specialized AI-powered platforms for most day to day workflows. If you already own it, i would definitely go back and revisit it, but I wouldn’t treat it as my primary SEO tool right now.
Pi404
Newbie
- Mar 12, 2025
- 13
- 4
Scrapebox was never meant to be a link building tool, but it has a comment submitter, and with some modifications, it can submit to indexer-type platforms anyway. It was always built for scraping and parsing, which is why it's called a Swiss Army knife. I still use it and will continue using it as long as it exists. For link building, my go-to tools are GSA Search Engine Ranker and Money Robot (only run once to grab their PBN network links).
SoffellNox
Newbie
- Oct 31, 2020
- 24
- 11
It still works for everything except for scraping search engines. If you own GSA SER which offers total different task like link building but still you can do 99% of what scrapebox do like link processing , scraping to generate bulk content etc. Nowdays i rarely use scrapebox as i don't want to process links and its much easier and better to buy a link list instead scraping if you are looking to scrape.
- Dec 19, 2007
- 3,275
- 407
If you already have it, it still holds value to keep using. ScrapeBox keeps being useful for keyword gathering, URL harvesting, proxy checks, and other SEO automation things. It is not as dominant as it was some years back, but it still works well in a bunch of SEO routines.