Onlineu Courses & Academic Catalogs Scraper (~$2.67/1k results)

Extracts university courses, degree programs and education catalogs from onlineu.com and writes them to the dataset as structured JSON.

Use cases

• University course catalog indexing and degree research
• Higher education market analysis and tuition tracking
• Online learning and curriculum trend aggregation

What it does

The actor downloads each page, parses the courses, and stores one record per course. Each record contains url, title, description, image, price.

• Extraction runs over plain HTTP, so runs are fast
• JSON-LD and embedded page-state data are used when present; otherwise the actor falls back to DOM parsing
• Duplicate records are removed before the dataset is written
• Pagination is followed automatically up to the configured page limit

Why choose this scraper

Advantage	This Scraper	Traditional / Generic Scrapers
Speed & Efficiency	Fast, lightweight extraction engine	Heavy browser overhead & slow execution
Anti-Blocking	Intelligent request impersonation & header rotation	Frequent 403 blocks & Captcha failures
Pay-Per-Result	Pay only for valid returned records	Charged for full run time even on empty results
Data Cleanliness	Verified, typed fields with deduplication	Messy HTML artifacts & missing null checks
Maintenance	Monitored and auto-healed continuously	Broken when target site updates layout

Output

Sample output

Three example records from a real run:

[
  {
    "url": "https://www.onlineu.com/request-info/southern-new-hampshire-university-online?lvl=8",
    "title": "Southern New Hampshire University Online",
    "description": "(SNHU) offers over 200 flexible, career-focused online degree programs. These include popular fields such as accounting, business, healthcare, and technology, providing personalized education to meet your goals. As a nonprofit institution, SNHU emphasizes affordability, maintaining some of the nation's lowest online tuition rates. Undergraduate classes cost $330 per credit hour, while graduate classes cost $637. SNHU also supports your success through ext",
    "image": "https://d92mrp7hetgfk.cloudfront.net/images/sites/misc/southern_new_hampshire_u-2/standard.png?1660323266",
    "price": "$330"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://www.onlineu.com/request-info/liberty-university?lvl=8",
    "title": "Request\u00a0Information",
    "description": "Liberty University offers over 600 online degree programs including undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels, aiming to provide flexible and affordable education. Tuition fees have remained unchanged for nine years, reflecting our commitment to cost stability. Ranked in the top 10% of Niche.com's best online schools in America, we emphasize academic quality and accessibility. With eight annual start dates, we accommodate your schedule, ensuring you earn your degree conveniently from home. Ou",
    "image": "https://d92mrp7hetgfk.cloudfront.net/images/sites/misc/liberty_u-2/standard.png?1623952539"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://www.onlineu.com/request/2963?lvl=8",
    "title": "Arizona State University, Online",
    "description": "At Arizona State University Online, you join a top-ranked, innovative institution renowned for accessibility and program quality. ASU Online has achieved significant milestones with over 96,700 enrolled online students and more than 100,000 online graduates to date. Offering an expansive selection of over 300 online degree programs across diverse fields including business, science, and engineering, ASU supports your career aspirations with industry-leading faculty and cutting-edge technology. Re",
    "image": "https://d92mrp7hetgfk.cloudfront.net/images/sites/misc/arizona_state_u-1/standard.png?1548463871"
  }
]

Export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel from the Dataset tab after the run.

Output schema

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "title": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "description": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "image": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "price": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

Input

Field	Type	Description
startUrls	array	Pages to scrape (defaults to https://www.onlineu.com/best-online-colleges/masters). The first URL is also the base for relative link resolution. (default: ["https://www.onlineu.com/best-online-colleges/masters"])
searchKeyword	string	Optional keyword or query to filter listings.
maxPages	integer	Maximum number of pages to crawl before stopping. (default: 10)
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of records to return. Leave empty for no limit.

Pricing

• Pay-per-result: $2.67 per 1,000 results

• Billed per result — you only pay for the records that land in your dataset.

• Volume discounts apply automatically as monthly usage climbs; the "from" price on the store page is the discounted rate.

• Run start: $0.00005 per GB of memory (a 1 GB run starts for a fraction of a cent); results are billed separately.

• There is no subscription or minimum spend. A run is charged only for the records that land in your dataset.

Integrations

The actor runs on the Apify platform: call it from the API or the Python and Node.js SDKs, trigger it on a schedule, send results to webhooks, and pipe the dataset into Zapier, Make, Slack or Google Sheets. The dataset is also LLM-ready -- point any tool that reads JSON at it.

How to use via API

Python SDK

from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the client with your Apify API token
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Set actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": ["https://www.onlineu.com/best-online-colleges/masters"],
    "maxItems": 100,
}

# Run the actor and wait for it to complete
run = client.actor("entrepreneurial_lens_ehi/onlineu-com").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch results from the default dataset
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript / Node.js SDK

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

const input = {
    startUrls: ['https://www.onlineu.com/best-online-colleges/masters'],
    maxItems: 100,
};

const run = await client.actor('entrepreneurial_lens_ehi/onlineu-com').call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

FAQ

How much does a run cost? Pay-per-result only. You are charged for the records that land in your dataset ($2.67 per 1,000 results), with no subscription or minimum. Volume discounts apply automatically on higher monthly usage.

What fields do I get? Each record contains url, title, description, image, price. Fields the source page does not display are omitted -- nothing is fabricated.

How fresh is the data? Extraction reads the live pages at run time. Schedule recurring runs from the platform to keep a monitoring dataset current.

Can I scrape pages other than the default URL? Yes. Pass any URL that matches the site's page structure in startUrls; the actor crawls and extracts from it the same way.

How many records can one run return? Control it with maxPages (crawling depth) and maxItems (a hard cap on returned records).

Is it legal to scrape this data? The actor collects publicly available data only. Check the site's Terms of Service and applicable law (for example GDPR) before bulk collection, and review the platform's own data-collection policy.

How do I export the results? JSON, CSV or Excel from the Dataset tab after the run, or pull the dataset programmatically via the API/SDKs.

What happens if a run fails? The run reports per-record errors instead of failing silently. Retry the run, and open an issue on the Issues tab if a target site keeps blocking extraction.

Limitations

• The actor extracts what the public pages expose. Fields the site does not display are omitted; nothing is fabricated.
• Some sites render content client-side. Extraction follows the live markup, so results can change if the site is redesigned.
• The actor collects publicly available data only. Check the site's Terms of Service and applicable law (for example GDPR) before bulk collection.

Found a problem or want a field added? Open an issue on the Issues tab -- the maintainer responds.