[Blog](https://scrapfly.io/blog) / [rust](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/rust) / [6 Top Rust Web Scraping Libraries and APIs in 2026](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/best-rust-web-scraping-libraries) # 6 Top Rust Web Scraping Libraries and APIs in 2026 by [Mayada Shaaban](https://scrapfly.io/blog/author/mayada-shaaban-90143e67) Oct 16, 2026 12 min read [\#rust](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/rust) [\#tools](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/tools) [\#web-scraping](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/web-scraping) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries "Share on LinkedIn") [ ](https://x.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries&text=6%20Top%20Rust%20Web%20Scraping%20Libraries%20and%20APIs%20in%202026 "Share on X") [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries "Share on Facebook") Summarize this article with [ ](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries) [ ](https://claude.ai/new?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries) [ ](https://x.com/i/grok?text=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries) [ ](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/new?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries) [ ](https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&aep=11&q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fposts%2Fbest-rust-web-scraping-libraries) Let's collect the product names and prices from `web-scraping.dev/products` with Rust. Four of the six tools below print `Box of Chocolate Candy` as the first product. Those are Scrapfly's Rust SDK, scraper, [thirtyfour](https://docs.rs/thirtyfour/0.37.5/thirtyfour/) and [chromiumoxide](https://docs.rs/chromiumoxide/0.9.1/chromiumoxide/). The other two do something else with the page: reqwest only downloads it, and [dom\_smoothie](https://docs.rs/dom_smoothie/0.18.2/dom_smoothie/) turns it into readable text. [What is a Headless Browser? Top 5 Headless Browser ToolsQuick overview of new emerging tech of browser automation - what exactly are these tools and how are they used in web scraping?](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/what-is-a-headless-browser) ## Which Rust Web Scraping Library or API Is Best in 2026? Well, that mostly comes down to what web-scraping.dev sends back to us. The `/products` page has its products right in the html, so a plain download works, but `/reviews` loads its reviews with javascript and we'd need a browser for it. Then there's `/blocked`, which has no data in it at all, no matter how we parse it. We'll use [Tokio](https://github.com/tokio-rs/tokio) for async in every example below, which is why each one starts with `#[tokio::main]`. And if Rust isn't a must for you, our overview of [web scraping APIs and tools](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/best-web-scraping-apis) covers other options too. So what does a block look like? ## 1. Scrapfly Web Scraping API Here's what a block looks like from Rust. web-scraping.dev has a `/blocked` page, so let's request it with reqwest and count the products like we would on `/products`: rust ```rust use scraper::{Html, Selector}; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let response = reqwest::get("https://web-scraping.dev/blocked").await?; let status = response.status(); let html = response.text().await?; let document = Html::parse_document(&html); let products = document.select(&Selector::parse(".product")?).count(); let title: String = document.select(&Selector::parse("title")?).flat_map(|n| n.text()).collect(); println!("status={status} products={products} title={title:?}"); Ok(()) } ``` text ```text status=200 OK products=0 title="web-scraping.dev - You've been blocked" ``` The status is 200, so `error_for_status()` wouldn't catch it either. The [Scrapfly Rust SDK](https://scrapfly.io/docs/sdk/rust) sends the request through Scrapfly's API instead, and we parse the html it returns with scraper again. Let's add it to Cargo.toml next to scraper and tokio, which needs the `macros` and `rt-multi-thread` features for `#[tokio::main]`: toml ```toml [dependencies] reqwest = "=0.13.5" scrapfly-sdk = "=0.5.1" scraper = "=0.27.0" tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] } ``` Now we can request the products page through the [Scrapfly Web Scraping API](https://scrapfly.io/products/web-scraping-api): rust ```rust use scraper::{Html, Selector}; use scrapfly_sdk::{Client, ScrapeConfig}; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let client = Client::builder().api_key(std::env::var("SCRAPFLY_KEY")?).build()?; let config = ScrapeConfig::builder("https://web-scraping.dev/products").unblocker(true).build()?; let result = client.scrape(&config).await?; let html = Html::parse_document(&result.result.content); for name in html.select(&Selector::parse(".product h3 a")?) { println!("{}", name.text().collect::()); } Ok(()) } ``` The key comes from the `SCRAPFLY_KEY` environment variable, and `unblocker(true)` is the part that deals with blocks like the one above. Running it prints: text ```text Box of Chocolate Candy Dark Red Energy Potion Teal Energy Potion Red Energy Potion Blue Energy Potion ``` What each request costs is on the [Scrapfly pricing page](https://scrapfly.io/pricing). But this product listing doesn't block anyone, so do we even need an API for it? Let's find out with plain HTTP using reqwest. ## 2. reqwest [reqwest](https://docs.rs/reqwest/0.13.5/reqwest/) is a plain HTTP client, a bit like `requests` in Python. It sends our request and gives us back the html exactly how the server returned it - there's no browser here, so the page's javascript never runs. Let's see how that works on two pages. We'll add `reqwest = "=0.13.5"` and tokio to Cargo.toml, download each page and check if it contains a piece of text we can see in the browser: rust ```rust #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let pages = [ ("https://web-scraping.dev/products", "Box of Chocolate Candy"), ("https://web-scraping.dev/reviews", "Unique flavor and great energy boost"), ]; for (url, text) in pages { let html = reqwest::get(url).await?.error_for_status()?.text().await?; println!("{url} bytes={} found={}", html.len(), html.contains(text)); } Ok(()) } ``` The text for the products page is the first product name, and for the [reviews page](https://web-scraping.dev/reviews) it's the newest review. If we run it we'll get: text ```text https://web-scraping.dev/products bytes=17153 found=true https://web-scraping.dev/reviews bytes=14727 found=false ``` The products html has the product name, but the reviews html doesn't have the review at all! That's because the reviews are loaded by javascript after the page opens, and reqwest never runs it. Still, for the products page the html is all we need. So how do we pull the products out of it? ## 3. scraper That's what [scraper](https://docs.rs/scraper/0.27.0/scraper/) is for - it's an HTML parsing library which turns an html string into a tree that we can search with CSS selectors, a bit like BeautifulSoup does in Python. Let's add `scraper = "=0.27.0"` to Cargo.toml next to reqwest and tokio and use the two together: rust ```rust use scraper::{Html, Selector}; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let client = reqwest::Client::builder() .timeout(std::time::Duration::from_secs(30)) .build()?; let html = client .get("https://web-scraping.dev/products") .send() .await? .error_for_status()? .text() .await?; let document = Html::parse_document(&html); let products = Selector::parse(".product")?; let name = Selector::parse("h3 a")?; let price = Selector::parse(".price")?; let rows: Vec<(String, String)> = document .select(&products) .map(|product| { let text = |selector: &Selector| { let value: String = product.select(selector).flat_map(|node| node.text()).collect(); value.trim().to_string() }; (text(&name), text(&price)) }) .collect(); for (title, cost) in &rows { println!("{title}: ${cost}"); } println!("products={}", rows.len()); Ok(()) } ``` Above, we download the products page with reqwest and parse it with scraper: - `reqwest::Client` is built once with a 30-second timeout, as the reqwest docs recommend reusing a single client. - `Html::parse_document()` turns the html into a tree we can search. - `.select()` finds every `.product` card, and the `text` closure pulls the name and price out of each one. Running it prints the same five products we got through Scrapfly: text ```text Box of Chocolate Candy: $24.99 Dark Red Energy Potion: $4.99 Teal Energy Potion: $4.99 Red Energy Potion: $4.99 Blue Energy Potion: $4.99 products=5 ``` Since this page isn't protected, plain reqwest is enough here. (For more on the selectors themselves, see our guide to [parsing HTML with CSS selectors](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/parsing-html-with-css).) What if we want to parse the page once and hand the `Html` to another tokio task? Let's try it: rust ```rust use scraper::Html; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let html = reqwest::get("https://web-scraping.dev/products").await?.text().await?; let document = Html::parse_document(&html); tokio::spawn(async move { println!("{}", document.root_element().html().len()); }) .await?; Ok(()) } ``` `cargo build` won't even compile it: text ```text error: future cannot be sent between threads safely = help: within `tendril::tendril::NonAtomic`, the trait `Sync` is not implemented for `Cell` note: captured value is not `Send` 8 | println!("{}", document.root_element().html().len()); | ^^^^^^^^ has type `Html` which is not `Send` ``` In other words, scraper's `Html` tree isn't thread safe as it uses `Cell` internally, so `tokio::spawn` refuses to take it. The easiest fix is to keep the parsing in the same task that downloaded the page. But what about pages where the products only show up after a browser runs the javascript? [Ultimate CSS Selector Cheatsheet for Web Scraping and HTML ParsingCSS selectors is a powerful HTML querying protocol which is used by browsers to determine what HTML elements to style. It's also incredibly useful in HTML parsing when web scraping or processing HTML data, as the same queries can be used to select values as well.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/css-selector-cheatsheet) Scrapfly #### Scale your web scraping effortlessly Scrapfly handles proxies, browsers, and anti-bot bypass — so you can focus on data. [Try Free →](https://scrapfly.io/register)## 4. thirtyfour Then we need a real browser. [thirtyfour](https://docs.rs/thirtyfour/0.37.5/thirtyfour/) is pretty much Selenium for Rust - it uses the same WebDriver protocol to open Chrome, load the page and run its javascript. We don't have a ChromeDriver (or a [Selenium Grid](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/intro-to-web-scraping-using-selenium-grid)) running, so instead of connecting with `WebDriver::new` we'll use `WebDriver::managed`, which downloads the right driver and starts it for us. Let's add `thirtyfour = "=0.37.5"` and tokio to Cargo.toml: rust ```rust use thirtyfour::prelude::*; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> WebDriverResult<()> { let mut caps = DesiredCapabilities::chrome(); caps.set_headless()?; let driver = WebDriver::managed(caps).await?; driver.goto("https://web-scraping.dev/products").await?; let products = driver.find_all(By::Css(".product h3 a")).await?; for product in &products { println!("{}", product.text().await?); } println!("products={}", products.len()); driver.quit().await?; Ok(()) } ``` This opens headless Chrome, loads the products page and grabs every `.product h3 a` link: text ```text Box of Chocolate Candy Dark Red Energy Potion Teal Energy Potion Red Energy Potion Blue Energy Potion products=5 ``` All five products are there, and `managed` fetched a ChromeDriver for our Chrome 154 on its own. Note the `driver.quit()` at the end too - Rust can't run async code when the driver is dropped, so without it the browser gets closed by blocking the executor. ## 5. chromiumoxide Do we need ChromeDriver at all? Not with chromiumoxide, which talks to Chrome over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) directly, though Chrome or Chromium still has to be installed. Let's add `chromiumoxide = "=0.9.1"`, tokio and `futures = "0.3"` to Cargo.toml: rust ```rust use chromiumoxide::{Browser, BrowserConfig}; use futures::StreamExt; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let (mut browser, mut handler) = Browser::launch(BrowserConfig::builder().build()?).await?; let handle = tokio::spawn(async move { while let Some(event) = handler.next().await { if event.is_err() { break; } } }); let page = browser.new_page("https://web-scraping.dev/products").await?; let products = page.find_elements(".product h3 a").await?; for product in &products { println!("{}", product.inner_text().await?.unwrap_or_default()); } println!("products={}", products.len()); browser.close().await?; browser.wait().await?; handle.await?; Ok(()) } ``` Here `Browser::launch` gives us a `Browser` and a `Handler`, and we poll the `Handler` in its own tokio task like the official example does, since no command reaches Chrome otherwise. At the end `browser.wait()` waits for Chrome to exit, so no zombie process is left behind. Let's run it: text ```text Box of Chocolate Candy Dark Red Energy Potion Teal Energy Potion Red Energy Potion Blue Energy Potion products=5 ``` Why does the first build take so long? The CDP bindings are generated code, roughly 60,000 lines before macro expansion according to the docs. ## 6. dom\_smoothie What if we just want the article text? dom\_smoothie finds the main content of a page by itself, so we don't write any selectors. It doesn't fetch pages, so we pair it with reqwest, adding `dom_smoothie = "=0.18.2"`, `reqwest = "=0.13.5"` and tokio to Cargo.toml: rust ```rust use dom_smoothie::Readability; #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box> { let url = "https://web-scraping.dev/product/1"; let html = reqwest::get(url).await?.error_for_status()?.text().await?; let mut readability = Readability::new(html, Some(url), None)?; let article = readability.parse()?; println!("title={}", article.title); println!("text_chars={}", article.text_content.chars().count()); Ok(()) } ``` Running it prints: text ```text title=web-scraping.dev product Box of Chocolate Candy text_chars=3022 ``` That's the title plus 3,022 characters of page text. Finding new urls to visit is a separate job, which our [scraper API vs crawler API](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/scraper-api-vs-crawler-api) comparison covers. [Top Web Crawler Tools in 2026Web crawling has evolved dramatically in 2026. What used to require complex infrastructure and constant maintenance can now be accomplished with a few clicks or lines of code. But with so many options available, choosing the right tool can make or break your data collection project.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/top-web-crawler-tools) ## FAQ Can we scrape the /reviews page without a browser?Remember the review reqwest couldn't find? The page gets it from `/api/graphql`, and the query it sends sits in a `