A free Data Miner alternative for Chrome: Grabby vs Data Miner (2026)

If you are looking for a Data Miner alternative, this page is about the Data Miner Chrome extension from dataminer.io, not the unrelated enterprise data mining software that shares the name. It is a popular, mature scraper, and plenty of people use it happily. Others want something with fewer moving parts. We build Grabby, a free point-and-click scraper for Chrome, so treat the Grabby sections with some skepticism. The Data Miner facts below come from its pricing page and Chrome Web Store listing, checked in October 2026.

Quick verdict

• Stay with Data Miner if a ready-made recipe already exists for the site you scrape, or you need its paid automation and Google Sheets connection.
• Try Grabby if you want to start scraping without an account or page credits, and you are happy to run each scrape yourself in the browser.
• Look elsewhere for scheduled or cloud scraping. Our free web scraper Chrome extensions roundup and the Instant Data Scraper alternatives page cover more options.

Who Data Miner is for, and what it does well

Data Miner’s big advantage is its library of recipes. A recipe is a saved set of instructions that tells the extension which parts of a page to pull, and the vendor’s site advertises tens of thousands of free pre-made ones for thousands of popular websites. If your target site is among them, you can often scrape in one click with no setup at all. The Chrome Web Store listing also mentions table and list extraction, automatic next-page crawling, email extraction with regular expressions, image downloads and form filling from a spreadsheet. It has a large user base, around 300,000 users per the listing, and the listing shows it was last updated in September 2026. For regular, recipe-covered scraping it is a strong tool.

Why people look for a Data Miner alternative

• The page allowance. The free plan is metered at 500 pages per month at the time of writing, and the pricing page says the account is locked if you exceed it until you upgrade. For occasional use that is plenty. For a few big scrapes it can run out quickly.
• Paid plans for more. Paid tiers listed on the pricing page start at $19.99 per month at the time of writing and add things like crawl automation, custom JavaScript and the Google Sheets connection. Check the page for current prices.
• Account setup. Guides describe an account setup step after install. If you wanted to try a scrape in thirty seconds, that is friction.
• Recipes and selectors. When no recipe covers your site, you build your own with custom extraction rules. That takes some learning, which is where a click-the-fields approach feels quicker.

Data Miner vs Grabby at a glance

Where Data Miner is the better choice

• Existing recipes. Grabby has no community template library. If a recipe exists for your site, Data Miner can be faster than anything that builds from scratch.
• Paid automation. Data Miner lists crawl automation and custom JavaScript on paid plans. Grabby has neither.
• Bulk URL jobs. Its site describes running bulk scrape jobs from a list of URLs, which suits repeatable work.
• Maturity and support. It has a long track record, a big user base and daily office hours for free users per the pricing page.
• Form filling. Filling forms from a spreadsheet is part of its feature set.

Where Grabby fits

Grabby is aimed at people who want to scrape websites without an account and without counting pages. It auto-detects a list or table, lets you click to add, rename or drop fields, pages through results and infinite scroll, follows links into detail pages, and cleans the data in an editable table before export. It is free while in early access with every feature unlocked, and nothing is uploaded because the scrape runs in your browser. The limits are real: no recipe library, no scheduling, no cloud, and it only runs while Chrome is open. For a guided example see the no-code website to Excel guide.

How to switch from Data Miner

1. Export anything you still need from Data Miner, since it does not store your data on its servers.
2. Install Grabby. No sign-up is needed.
3. Open the page you scraped with a recipe. Let auto-detect find the list, then click the fields you want and rename them.
4. Turn on pagination or scrolling and set a page or row limit. Add the link column if you need detail-page fields.
5. Tidy the table and export to CSV, JSON, Excel or Google Sheets.

Recipes do not carry over, so if you rely on a dozen of them, move one scrape at a time and keep Data Miner for the sites where its recipe is still the quickest route.

FAQ

Is the Data Miner Chrome extension free?

It has a free starter plan. At the time of writing (October 2026), the vendor’s pricing page lists 500 pages per month on the free plan, with the account locked if you go over until you upgrade. Check dataminer.io/pricing for current terms.

Does Data Miner require an account?

Third-party guides say you are taken to an account setup page after installing, and the site has a Sign In link, but the vendor’s pricing page does not state it either way. Check when you install. Grabby needs no account.

Does Grabby have a page limit like Data Miner’s 500 pages?

Grabby is free while in early access with every feature unlocked, and it does not use a monthly page-credit system. You can set a page or row limit on each scrape yourself. Early-access terms can change later.

Can Grabby use Data Miner recipes?

No. Recipes are Data Miner’s own format and there is no import. Grabby auto-detects lists and tables and you click the fields you want, so most scrapes do not need a recipe.

Can Grabby schedule scrapes or run in the cloud?

No. Grabby runs only in your open Chrome browser. If you need scheduled or unattended runs, a cloud tool is the right choice.

Where does my data go with Grabby?

Nowhere. The scrape runs in your browser and the data stays on your machine until you export it to a file or copy it to Google Sheets yourself.