What Is the Difference Between 80legs' Custom Web Crawling, Giant Web Crawl, and Datafiniti?

Updated

80legs offers three distinct products, and the right one depends on how much control you want over the crawling process versus how quickly you need usable data. Custom Web Crawling lets you run your own crawls on 80legs' cloud platform — best if you need full control over what gets crawled and how. Giant Web Crawl lets you pull custom data from an existing crawl of the entire web — best if your target pages are already covered and you'd rather query than crawl. Datafiniti skips scraping entirely and gives you instant access to ready-made web data — best if you want results without managing any crawl infrastructure at all.

The Three Products at a Glance

Product What it does Who controls the crawl Best for
Custom Web Crawling Run your own web crawls on a cloud-enabled platform You define and run the crawl Teams that need specific, custom crawl logic
Giant Web Crawl Pull custom data from a crawl of the entire web 80legs has already crawled; you extract Users whose targets are already in the dataset
Datafiniti Instant access to web data, no scraping Neither — data is provided Users who want data now without crawling

Custom Web Crawling: You Run the Crawl

This is the most hands-on option. You run your own web crawls on 80legs' cloud-enabled platform, which means you define what gets crawled and the platform handles the infrastructure.

Choose this when:

  • Your target sites are specific or unusual and aren't likely covered by a general web crawl.
  • You need to control crawl scope, frequency, or targeting.
  • You have the technical capacity to configure and manage a crawl.

The trade-off is effort: you're responsible for setting up and running the crawl rather than receiving finished data.

Giant Web Crawl: Query an Existing Full-Web Crawl

Giant Web Crawl flips the model. Instead of crawling yourself, you pull custom data from 80legs' crawl of the entire web. The crawling work is already done — your job is to extract the subset you need.

Choose this when:

  • The pages you need are likely already part of a broad web crawl.
  • You want custom extracted data without running your own crawler.
  • Speed matters more than controlling exactly which pages get fetched.

The key condition: this only works if your targets fall within the existing crawl's coverage. If you need something the crawl didn't capture, Custom Web Crawling is the better fit.

Datafiniti: Skip Scraping Entirely

Datafiniti is the "skip web scraping" option — it gives you instant access to web data rather than having you crawl or extract anything. You trade some control and customization for immediacy and zero infrastructure management.

Choose this when:

  • You want data now and don't want to build or run any crawl.
  • Your needs match data that's already available through the product.
  • You'd rather not deal with crawling at all.

How to Decide

Ask one question first: do you need to control the crawl, or just the data?

  • Need to control the crawl → Custom Web Crawling.
  • Don't need to crawl, but need custom extraction from a broad crawl → Giant Web Crawl.
  • Don't want to crawl or extract — just want data → Datafiniti.

A simple way to think about it: Custom Web Crawling is the most flexible but most effort; Giant Web Crawl is a middle ground that assumes coverage; Datafiniti is the least effort but the least customizable.

A Practical Note on Pricing and Access

The 80legs site links to a dedicated pricing page, so cost varies by product and usage rather than being a single flat rate. Before committing, check the pricing page for the specific product you're considering, since the three options differ in what you're paying for — crawl infrastructure, extraction from an existing crawl, or ready-made data.