Scrap.io: The Best PhantomBuster Alternative for Google Maps Scraping

Let’s be honest, PhantomBuster is an excellent tool.

I have actually used it for years to automate my LinkedIn prospecting and campaigns on various platforms.

But when it comes to scraping Google Maps efficiently, the reality is quite different.

Although extremely versatile, PhantomBuster can quickly become complex and time-consuming. You need to juggle Google Sheets files, subdivide your queries to bypass Google Maps’ limitations, and often go through multiple steps to get truly useful data. And despite all these efforts, the results are often incomplete.

This is where Scrap.io changes the game and is one of the best Phantombuster alternative.

Specifically designed for Google Maps, it allows you to extract precise, rich, and actionable data in just two clicks, with no technical knowledge or preparation required.

In short, Scrap.io does one thing, but it does it exceptionally well: providing a simple and effective solution to collect data from Google Maps listings and their websites.

Scraping Google Maps with PhantomBuster

The “phantoms” are no-code assistants offered by PhantomBuster, designed to automate specific tasks on various online platforms. These tools save valuable time by automatically performing repetitive or time-consuming actions, such as web scraping or lead generation workflow : 

• Facebook and Instagram: Extracting profile information or automating message sending.
• Twitter / X: Following or liking tweets, and even extracting data from a user’s tweets or a hashtag.
• YouTube: Collecting lists of videos or information about channels.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Scrape professional profiles to feed your CRM, enrich profile, and even AI-powered outreach.
• Google Maps: data extraction of business listings

Extremely convenient, but their setup and usage can quickly become technical, especially for platforms like Google Maps.

For instance, to start a Google Maps extraction, you’ll need to input a URL corresponding to a Google Maps search (or connect a Google Sheet filled with Google Maps search URLs if you want to extract multiple queries).

Extracting, for example, hair salons in a city is relatively simple.

Important to note: Google Maps limits the results it displays to 120 listings most of the time. If there are more establishments, you won’t see them—neither will PhantomBuster.

There is, however, a solution: subdividing your queries (by districts, postal codes, specialties, etc.).

On the other hand, to create a file at the scale of a department, region, or country, you’ll need as many lines as there are cities (and in France, there are no fewer than 34,955 municipalities).

Finally, if you want to retrieve the contact information of the exported establishments, you’ll need to use a second phantom to visit the website listed on the Google Maps profile to collect emails and social media links.

Creating a file with emails will therefore require two passes—and that’s no trivial detail when you know that PhantomBuster charges by the time spent on your task.

Create Email Files with Scrap.io

Where PhantomBuster is a multi-purpose and multi-platform automation tool, Scrap.io focuses exclusively on extracting data from Google Maps.

The interface allows you to launch a complete Google Maps extraction in just two clicks.

All you need to do is select an activity from the 4,000 listed on Google Maps and a geographic area (city, department, region, or country).

That’s it.

Optionally, you can filter the results to keep only the profiles that match your ideal search criteria (e.g., prospects with an email address or website).

This is a feature that is impossible with PhantomBuster.

Finally, all that’s left is to confirm your request, and the information from Google Maps listings and attached websites will be collected in real-time without any further intervention on your part.

In simple terms, with Scrap.io, you can create a highly targeted file in just a few clicks, even on a national scale, and you only pay for the prospects that genuinely interest you.

With PhantomBuster, you’ll be billed for the time spent with no way to exclude certain prospects beforehand. If you want, for example, to extract all the restaurants in France, you’ll need to create a Google Sheet with a minimum of 34,955 rows—and it will still be incomplete.

Extracted Data

Thanks to its proprietary algorithms, Scrap.io can extract 100% of the data available on Google Maps, whereas a solution like PhantomBuster collects, according to our tests, at least 30% less due to Google Maps’ result display limits.

In this video, we explain how Scrap.io works:

If you’re looking for completeness, Scrap.io provides more prospects for the same search while also collecting more information: Google ID, Name, Description 1, Description 2, Description 3, Permanently Closed, Main Type, All Types, Website, Website (root URL), Phone Numbers, International Phone, Time Zone, Full Address, District, Address 1, Address 2, City, Postal Code, State, Level 1 Division, Level 2 Division, Country, Country Code, Longitude, Latitude, Link, Owner Name, Owner ID, Place ID, Email, Facebook Link, YouTube Link, Twitter Link, Instagram Link, LinkedIn Link, First Seen Date, First Seen Timestamp, Price Range, Review ID, Number of Reviews, Review Rating, Reviews by Rating, Number of Photos, Photo 1, Photo 2, Occupation, Claimed, Opening Hours, Features, Website Title, Website Meta Keywords, Website Meta Description, Website Meta Image, Website Meta Generator, Website Language, Email 2, Email 3, Email 4, Email 5, All Emails, Contact Page 1, Contact Page 2, Contact Page 3, Contact Page 4, Contact Page 5, All Contact Pages, All Facebook Links, All YouTube Links, All Twitter Links, All Instagram Links, All LinkedIn Links, Website Technologies, Website Ad Pixels.

Here, you have an all-in-one solution that collects Google Maps listings and automates their enrichment.

If all of this seems a bit abstract, we’ve created a detailed comparison video.

Case Study: Create an Email File of All Restaurants in France with PhantomBuster vs Scrap.io

Feature Comparison Table

Conclusion: PhantomBuster vs Scrap.io

PhantomBuster is an excellent generalist tool for sales and marketing teams looking to automate tasks across multiple platforms. But when it comes to Google Maps scraping, let’s be honest, it has its limitations.

With Scrap.io, you get a specialized, intuitive, and ultra-efficient solution.

Whether you want to extract data for a city, a department, or even an entire country, everything is done in just a few clicks, hassle-free.

You save time, achieve more complete results, and only pay for the leads that really matter to you.

If you’re tired of complicated processes and partial results, it’s time to switch to Scrap.io.

Try it for free and see for yourself why it’s the best alternative to PhantomBuster for Google Maps scraping.

Other Google Maps web scraping tools:

• APIs:

  • API Scrap.io
  • API Google Maps
  • ...

• Google Chrome Extensions

  • DataMiner
  • Instant Data Scraper
  • Data Scraper (formerly Web Scraper)
  • ...

• No-Code Tools:

  • Apify
  • D7 Lead Finder
  • Octoparse

• Other solutions:

  • Scraping Google Maps with Python and Selenium