How to Scrape Trustpilot Reviews for Reputation Monitoring

TL;DR:

A reliable Trustpilot scraper needs anti-block protection, dynamic rendering, and performance monitoring. Custom scrapers cover these requirements and offer development and integration options on top. This makes them the best choice for teams running ongoing multi-platform review monitoring.

Leave a couple of negative reviews unaddressed, and customers will pass on your product. Setting up a Trustpilot scraper is not hard — the market offers plenty of options. The main challenge is building a solution that won’t suffer from days of downtime or reputation-damaging blind spots.

In this article, we compare scraping options and recommend the most reliable approaches for different use cases.

Read more about choosing between building vs. buying a data pipeline in our article.

An off-the-shelf solution like an Apify Trustpilot scraper actor can work well, as it’s a popular use case with a relatively large selection of pre-programmed tools. For reliable results, keep in mind the scraper characteristics below.

1. Automatic updates.
2. Anti-block protection.
3. Dynamic rendering.
4. Structured data.
5. Deduplication.
6. Performance monitoring.
7. Scalability.

All scrapers break. These features are needed to ensure two things: it doesn’t break constantly, and it doesn’t break silently.

If you want a professional team to build a Trustpilot review scraper that meets these criteria, contact DataOx.

The best option for you depends on the scale and complexity of your project. Off-the-shelf solutions are a good fit for simple one-time jobs on a single review page. When it comes to real-time monitoring across platforms, challenges appear.

Common Challenges of Using a Ready-Made Trustpilot Review Scraper

Even the most integration-friendly pre-made tools lack the flexibility of a custom solution. In addition, building a platform or workflow around a subscription-based tool leaves a business dependent on a single vendor. Below are a few other challenges to consider before subscribing.

1. Dealing with scraper breaks

Many ready-made solutions leave output monitoring and debugging to end users. While providers handle major layout changes and anti-bot protection updates, you still have to keep your own data pipeline running.

Example: Trustpilot has recently updated its terms of service, limiting access for users without an account to 10 pages. Teams in need of comprehensive reputation intelligence had to switch from an Apify Trustpilot scraper actor to custom development.

2. Unfit data quality

An Apify Trustpilot reviews scraper can deliver a JSON file with a structure that doesn’t fit your workflow. Your team has to spend time transforming it, connecting the data to an NLP setup, or building a visualization. What’s worse, the output quality can be inconsistent, adding validation and QA to your task list.

3. Unpredictable pricing at scale

Trustpilot publishes over 60 million reviews a year. If you run crawlers often or cover a lot of competitors to compare feedback, costs add up fast. Tools like the Apify Trustpilot scraper have layered usage-dependent pricing that can be hard to control with large-scale projects.

Why Businesses Choose a Custom Trustpilot Reviews Scraper

A bespoke solution adapts to source and requirement changes faster, making it a more reliable option. In addition, commissioning a Trustpilot review scraper offers more opportunities for custom development and seamless integration.

1. Custom data extraction

Standard tools pull Trustpilot fields with the original data structure. That produces well-organized metadata and long, unstructured review texts. Custom AI parsers can extract reviewer problems, complaints, and common terms used to describe a product, making the data easier to use.

2. Data transformation

Custom develpment allows to make a scraper a part of a larger data processing pipeline. Adding a transformation layer turns raw review data into a structured feed that fits your software automatically.

3. Custom visualization

A raw JSON is of little use to a non-technical branding specialist. With custom integration, scraped data is delivered into an existing or newly developed brand monitoring dashboard. Bespoke dashboards can include data from multiple platforms, deduplicated and turned into visual insights. This makes them more valuable, as an average consumer uses six different review sites before making a purchase, according to BrightLocal.

If you need a bespoke reputation monitoring pipeline developed, contact the DataOx team. We provide custom web scraping services where each solution is adapted to a client’s needs.