Web scraping - what is HTTP 503 status code?

Response status code 503 generally means the service is unavailable.

This could mean that the server can't handle the requests because of technical issues. In which case web scrapers should be paused to prevent being IP blocked for too many invalid repeated connections.

Alternatively, 503 status code is also used to block web scrapers if they are identified and undesired.

To avoid status code 503 when web scraping we should ensure that the server cannot identify the web scraper connections. For that refer to our how to scrape without being blocked guide which covers all of the ways to prevent web scrapers from being identified.

Question tagged: Scraper Blocking

Related Posts

How to Know What Anti-Bot Service a Website is Using?

In this article we'll take a look at two popular tools: WhatWaf and Wafw00f which can identify what WAF service is used.

Use Curl Impersonate to scrape as Chrome or Firefox

Learn how to prevent TLS fingerprinting by impersonating normal web browser configurations. We'll start by explaining what the Curl Impersonate is, how it works, how to install and use it. Finally, we'll explore using it with Python to avoid web scraping blocking.

FlareSolverr Guide: Bypass Cloudflare While Scraping

In this article, we'll explore the FlareSolverr tool and how to use it to get around Cloudflare while scraping. We'll start by explaining what FlareSolverr is, how it works, how to install and use it. Let's get started!