Let's say it up front: for a one-off extraction, this extension is hard to beat. It's free, it installs in one click, and it needs no configuration. Looking for an alternative only makes sense once you've hit the wall — and the wall is always in the same place.
A free extension that guesses the page structure
A million users and 4.9 across nearly 7,700 ratings is no accident. The idea is well judged — instead of making you describe what to extract, the extension analyses the HTML structure and proposes the table it believes is relevant, which you correct if needed. Results export to XLS, XLSX or CSV, no account required. Where a configurable scraper needs a project per site, this works on sites nobody ever tooled for.
Three scenarios, and the point where the extension stops
You want to grab a table that's on screen. A ranking, an exhibitor list, a paginated directory: the extension is the right tool, and shopping for an alternative wastes your time.
You want the same thing, every week. The wall starts here. The extension works in your browser, on the page in front of you: there's no scheduled run, no resume, no history. What takes three minutes once takes three hundred over a year.
You want every business in an area, not on a page. This is where the model stops holding. A page extension starts from whatever the site chose to display; an area extraction starts from the territory and goes after what's in it, however many pages, framings and scrolls that represents. It isn't the same operation, and no improvement to the extension would close that gap.
What the export doesn't contain
An extension export returns what the page displayed: a name, an address, often a phone number, sometimes a link. To contact French companies you still need the legal identity — SIRET, legal form, officers, active or struck-off status — and contact addresses that actually exist. Those steps decide whether your file is usable or costs you half your sends.
At outsend they sit in one chain: extracting an area from Google Maps, SIRET, VAT and RCS enrichment, legal data and company officers, then deliverability checks before the first send — free, by application during the alpha. The comparison with a configurable visual scraper is covered in the ParseHub alternative, and the full set of cases in our comparison of prospecting tools.
Do you actually need to replace it?
Often not, and that's the honest answer on this page. If your need is occasional and fits on a page, keep the extension: it's free, it works, and swapping it for something heavier would be a regression. The alternative question only gets serious once you repeat the operation, or once your unit of work is an area rather than a page. The two can coexist without friction.
Point-by-point comparison
| Criterion | Instant Data Scraper | outsend |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of work | The page open in the browser | An area and an activity |
| Setup | None, automatic detection | None, you describe the target |
| Sites covered | Any site showing a list | Worldwide Google Maps + French Sirene register |
| Scheduled runs | No | Processing runs server-side |
| French legal matching (SIRET, officers) | Not covered | Built in |
| Email verification | Not covered | Built in |
| Cost | Free | Free alpha, by application |
Two rows cut against us, and they're decisive for a lot of people. The extension works on any site showing a list, which we don't claim to do. And it asks for nothing: no application, no account, no waiting — a real advantage no data-quality argument offsets for a one-time need.
What people ask us
Does the extension work on Google Maps?
It can extract what's displayed on screen. The difficulty isn't reading, it's completeness: results load on scroll and depend on how the map is framed, so what you export is what you scrolled through, not what the area contains.
Is there a volume limit?
The practical limit isn't a quota, it's your browser and your patience: everything happens in the open tab. That's the difference between a page tool and server-side processing.
Can it be used for commercial prospecting?
To build a first list, yes. To make it usable you then need legal identity and verified addresses — two steps no page extension covers, and which are most of the work.
What's the alternative if I only want scheduled extraction?
A configurable scraper or an extraction platform: that's exactly what they do. But you then take on a project to build and maintain per site — the cost the extension was saving you.