Best Google Maps Scrapers: How to Choose One
Six tools, compared on the questions that actually separate them — and a disclosure first: GMapsScout publishes this page and sells one of the six.
Why this is not a ranked list
Rankings of scrapers go stale the quarter they are written: a price changes, a free tier shrinks, a feature ships. What does not change is the set of questions that decide which tool fits which job. This page is those questions, with each tool placed against them and a head-to-head page for anyone who wants the detail.
Read it knowing we are one of the six. Where the honest answer for your situation is another tool, this page says so — a customer who signs up and leaves in a week is worth less to us than one who picked the right thing.
The six, at a glance
Structure, not prices. Click a name for the full comparison.
| Tool | Runs | Charges | Finds emails | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMapsScout | Browser extension | Flat monthly, free tier | Built in | Lists from the Maps search you are already on |
| Apify | Cloud | Per result, pay-per-event | Separate paid add-ons | You need tens of thousands of rows on a schedule, unattended. |
| Outscraper | Cloud | Pay as you go, per record | Add-on, per record | You need very large one-off pulls — a whole state, a whole category. |
| PhantomBuster | Cloud | Subscription tiers | Separate phantom + credits | Google Maps is one input to a multi-platform outreach workflow you are already running there. |
| Octoparse | Desktop or cloud | Subscription tiers | Not a listed feature | You need to scrape sites beyond Google Maps and want one tool for all of them. |
| Scrap.io | Cloud | Subscription tiers | Built in | You want results in seconds from a maintained database rather than a live scan. |
Last checked September 2026. Corrections welcome at scout@gmapsscout.com.
The five questions that decide it
Answer these for your own situation and the table above mostly sorts itself.
Where does it run?
Browser extensions work on the Maps page you are already looking at — nothing to configure, results immediately, limited by your browser and your patience. Cloud platforms run on someone else's infrastructure — better for large volumes and scheduled jobs, but you are configuring a job rather than using an interface. If you want a list this afternoon, cloud is overhead. If you need 100,000 rows on a schedule, an extension is the wrong shape.
What does it cost at your actual volume?
Per-result pricing looks cheap until you run a big sweep. Monthly subscriptions look expensive until you use them weekly. Credit systems are worth converting to a per-lead figure before comparing. Work out your realistic monthly volume — most people badly overestimate; a focused campaign is a few hundred leads, not tens of thousands — then price each option at that number.
Does it enrich, or only extract?
The biggest functional divide. Extraction gives you what the listing shows. Enrichment follows the website to add a public email, an owner name, social profiles, and signals like how many reviews went unanswered — the difference between a directory dump and a list you can prioritise. Ask what happens when it finds nothing; any tool claiming a contact for every listing is overselling.
Where does the data go?
Some tools process on your machine; some upload to their servers. Neither is automatically wrong. But if your prospect data is subject to handling rules, or you would rather your lead list not sit on a third party's infrastructure, ask before you commit.
Can you get your data out?
Check the export formats and whether the column schema is stable between exports. A tool that changes its columns breaks every downstream import you have built.
What we would suggest
Try two or three on the free tier with the same search — one niche, one city — and compare what comes back. Ten minutes of that tells you more than any comparison article, including this one.
For what it is worth: GMapsScout is a browser extension with enrichment and configurable lead scoring, it processes and stores leads on your own machine, and it exports 45 columns to CSV, Excel, Google Sheets and JSON. The free plan covers 500 leads a month. Whether that shape suits you depends on the questions above.
Questions
Which one is the cheapest?
Which one is the most accurate?
Is scraping Google Maps allowed?
Run the ten-minute test
Free plan, no card. Same search on ours and one other, and you will know which shape fits.