BBB Scraper — Ratings, Accreditation & Contacts

What is BBB Scraper — Ratings, Accreditation & Contacts?

BBB Scraper extracts Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) business profiles into a dataset, one row per business, from a keyword plus location search or from profile URLs. Each row returns the BBB letter rating, accreditation status and date, years in business, entity type, categories, phone, website, full address with coordinates, opening hours, complaint counts and listed management contacts. Lead-generation teams, vendor due-diligence analysts, reputation researchers and AI agents use it to build trusted lists of US and Canadian local businesses.

Why teams use this BBB scraper

• Trust signals in one row. bbbRating, isAccredited, dateAccredited and yearsInBusiness show standing at a glance.
• Complaint history. complaintsCount, complaintsClosedLast3Years and complaintsClosedLast12Months support due-diligence checks.
• Outreach-ready contacts. phone, website, formattedAddress and contacts (name and title) come with each enriched profile.
• Map-ready. latitude and longitude place each business on a map.
• Filters for clean lists. minRating and accreditedOnly keep only the businesses you want.
• Two depths. Enriched profiles by default, or lighter listing rows with enrichDetails set to false.

Best fit and related Actors

Best fit for US and Canadian service businesses where BBB standing matters: contractors, plumbers, HVAC, roofers, movers and other local trades, plus supplier checks before signing a contract.

• For broader local coverage with reviews and photos, use Google Maps Leads Scraper alongside this Actor.
• To find email addresses behind the website column, then pass the websites to Bulk Website Contact Extractor.

Example workflow: from a trade and city to a vetted lead list

A home-services marketplace starts with searchKeyword set to plumber, location set to Los Angeles, CA, accreditedOnly set to true and minRating set to A. The dataset returns each plumber's businessName, bbbRating, yearsInBusiness, phone, website and complaintsCount. They sort by yearsInBusiness, drop businesses with open complaints, and export the shortlist to their partner-onboarding sheet. A monthly schedule per metro area keeps the list current and lets them compare ratings over time.

How to scrape BBB

1. Enter a Search keyword such as hvac contractor and a Location as City, ST, or paste profile URLs in BBB profile URLs.
2. Choose Country, set Max results, and optionally Minimum BBB rating or BBB-accredited businesses only.
3. Click Start, then export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it through the API.

Input

{
  "searchKeyword": "plumber",
  "location": "Los Angeles, CA",
  "country": "US",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "enrichDetails": true,
  "minRating": "Any",
  "accreditedOnly": false
}

Field	Type	What it controls
searchKeyword	string	Business type or name, for example plumber or general contractor.
location	string	City, ST for the US or City, Province for Canada. Optional.
country	string	US or CA. Default US.
startUrls	array	Direct bbb.org/.../profile/... URLs to scrape in depth.
maxResults	integer	Businesses to return across the run. Default 100.
enrichDetails	boolean	Open each profile for full detail. Default true.
minRating	string	Minimum BBB letter rating, from A+ to F, or Any.
accreditedOnly	boolean	Keep only BBB-accredited businesses. Default false.
storeRawSample	boolean	Save a raw page sample to the key-value store for inspection. Default false.
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify Residential proxy pinned to the chosen country by default.

Output

One dataset row per business.

Field	What it contains
businessName, altBusinessNames	Business name and other registered names
bbbId, url	BBB business ID and profile URL
bbbRating	Letter rating from A+ to F
isAccredited, accreditationStatus, dateAccredited	Accreditation flag, label and date
businessStarted, incorporatedDate, bbbFileOpened, yearsInBusiness	Business history
entityType	Corporation, LLC and similar
categories, primaryCategory	BBB business categories
phone, website	Contact details
street, city, state, postalCode, country, formattedAddress	Address
latitude, longitude	Coordinates
complaintsCount, complaintsClosedLast3Years, complaintsClosedLast12Months	Complaint history
ratingCount, averageStarRating	Customer review signals when published
contacts	Listed management contacts with name and title
hours	Opening hours by weekday
logo	Business logo when published
scrapedFrom, scrapedAt	profile or search, and the collection time

The schema also includes email, numberOfEmployees, additionalWebsites and servingArea, filled when the BBB profile publishes them.

{
  "businessName": "Fords Plumbing",
  "altBusinessNames": ["Robert Ford Plumbing And Heating, Inc."],
  "bbbId": "1216-100081178",
  "url": "https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/los-angeles/profile/plumber/fords-plumbing-1216-100081178",
  "bbbRating": "A+",
  "isAccredited": true,
  "accreditationStatus": "BBB Accredited Business",
  "dateAccredited": "2010-10-04",
  "businessStarted": "1962-09-11",
  "incorporatedDate": "2007-08-06",
  "yearsInBusiness": 64,
  "entityType": "Corporation",
  "categories": ["Plumber", "Sewer Contractors", "Leak Detection", "Water Heater Installation", "Drain Cleaning"],
  "primaryCategory": "Plumber",
  "phone": "(310) 815-1515",
  "email": null,
  "website": "https://www.fordsplumbingandheating.com/",
  "street": "5818 Venice Blvd",
  "city": "Los Angeles",
  "state": "CA",
  "postalCode": "90019-5019",
  "country": "US",
  "formattedAddress": "5818 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019-5019",
  "latitude": 34.049841,
  "longitude": -118.33846,
  "ratingCount": 0,
  "averageStarRating": null,
  "complaintsCount": 1,
  "complaintsClosedLast3Years": 1,
  "complaintsClosedLast12Months": 1,
  "contacts": [
    { "name": "Jordan Example", "title": "President" },
    { "name": "Casey Example", "title": "Manager" }
  ],
  "hours": { "monday": "Open 24 Hours", "tuesday": "Open 24 Hours" },
  "logo": null,
  "scrapedFrom": "profile",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-01T13:34:50.492Z"
}

Contact names in this example are fictional placeholders.

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay per event with Apify platform usage included in the event price. Each business is charged once: a Profile enriched event when its full profile is scraped (the default, and every profile URL), or a Business found event when enrichDetails is false and only listing fields are returned. Each run also has one Actor Start event.

Worked example in words: an enriched search capped at twenty businesses costs twenty Profile enriched events plus one Actor Start event. The same search with enrichment off costs twenty Business found events instead. Check the live Pricing tab on this page for current event prices.

API example

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~bbb-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchKeyword": "hvac contractor", "location": "Austin, TX", "maxResults": 25, "accreditedOnly": true}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("khadinakbar/bbb-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchKeyword": "roofing contractor",
    "location": "Toronto, ON",
    "country": "CA",
    "maxResults": 30,
    "minRating": "A",
})
for biz in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(biz["businessName"], biz["bbbRating"], biz["phone"], biz["yearsInBusiness"])

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Connect the Actor to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client through Apify MCP and ask:

Find 20 BBB-accredited plumbers in Los Angeles with an A rating or better. Return name, rating, years in business, phone, website and complaint count.

The agent sets searchKeyword, location, accreditedOnly and minRating, reads rows back from the dataset, and cites each business by url and scrapedAt. maxResults sets the cost scope before the run starts.

Best results

Starting situation	Helpful action	Expected outcome
A large metro target	Run one search per city or suburb and merge on bbbId	Wider coverage than a single search page set
Listing fields are enough	Set enrichDetails to false	Faster, lighter rows
A vetted partner list	Combine accreditedOnly with minRating set to A	Only well-rated accredited businesses
Known businesses to check	Paste their profile URLs in startUrls	Full detail for exactly those businesses
Canadian markets	Set country to CA and location to City, Province	Results from the Canadian BBB directory
Due diligence	Read complaintsClosedLast12Months and dateAccredited together	A quick view of recent standing

Builder's note

I built this Actor around BBB's trust signals because they are what Google Maps data leaves out: accreditation, letter ratings, complaint history and business age. I designed enrichment as the default since contacts, hours and history live on the profile page, and kept a lighter listing mode with its own event for runs that only need names and ratings. I found that rating and accreditation filters are most useful after enrichment, so they apply once each profile is read.

FAQ

Which countries does it cover?

The United States and Canada, chosen with country.

How do I collect more than one search returns?

Run several locations, for example one per metro area or suburb, and merge the datasets on bbbId.

Why are some fields empty?

BBB publishes different details for different businesses. Fields such as email and averageStarRating are filled when the profile shows them.

Which proxy should I use?

Keep the default Apify Residential proxy pinned to the chosen country.

Responsible use

This Actor collects publicly available business-directory information from bbb.org. Use it in line with BBB's terms of service and applicable laws. Profiles can list names of owners and managers, which are personal data under laws such as the CCPA and Canada's PIPEDA, so use them only with a lawful basis and honor opt-outs before outreach. BBB is a trademark of its owner; this independent Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Better Business Bureau.