Better Business Bureau Scraper — BBB.org Business Directory

Scrape BBB.org business profiles by category (or name) and location. Returns business name, phone, address, categories, BBB profile URL and accreditation status by default — no proxy needed. Turn on scrapeDetails to also pull BBB rating, complaint count, accreditation date and business hours straight off each business's profile page — fields the default search view leaves empty.

What you get (list mode — scrapeDetails:false)

Field	Description
businessName	Business display name
bbbRating	BBB letter grade — null in list mode
isAccredited	BBB accreditation status
phone	Phone number as listed
addressRaw	Full address
categories	Business category labels
bbbProfileUrl	Canonical bbb.org profile URL
logoUrl	Business logo image URL
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 UTC scrape timestamp
parse_confidence / warnings	Parse-quality envelope

Detail wedge (scrapeDetails:true)

Adds one extra request per business (its BBB profile page) and populates:

Field	Description
bbbRating	BBB letter grade (e.g. "A+")
complaintsCount	Number of BBB complaints on file
complaintsSummary	Short complaint-activity summary
accreditationDate	Date BBB accreditation began
hours	Business hours

How it works

1. GET bbb.org/search?find_text=<query>&find_loc=<location>&find_country=<country>&find_type=<Category|Name> — Next.js server-rendered page; the search-result list lives in the page's own __NEXT_DATA__ payload, extracted structurally (no hand-pinned field paths, so a BBB field rename doesn't silently break the parser).
2. scrapeDetails:true → GET each business's profile URL, same structural extraction, for the rating/complaints/accreditation/hours wedge.
3. Normalize → push + charge per result.

curl_cffi (Chrome TLS impersonation), no proxy by default — BBB.org is a public directory, COGS measured ZERO. A request that comes back blocked is automatically retried once through Apify Residential proxy (billed to the run owner, never to us).

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	"Restaurants"	Category keyword or business name
searchType	enum	"Category"	"Category" or "Name"
location	string	"New York, NY"	City + state
country	string	"USA"	Directory country
profileUrls	array	[]	Skip search, scrape these profile URLs directly (detail mode)
scrapeDetails	boolean	false	Fetch rating/complaints/accreditation/hours per business
maxItems	integer	20	Max results returned (0 = all available)
proxyConfiguration	object	none	Apify proxy; left empty by default (see above)

PII

BBB detail pages for a sole-proprietor business can carry a "Principal Contact" block with a named individual's personal phone/name. This actor never reads that block — only business-level fields are extracted, so a named person's personal contact info is structurally excluded from the output, not filtered after the fact.

Output sample

{
  "businessName": "Example Plumbing LLC",
  "bbbRating": "A+",
  "isAccredited": true,
  "phone": "(212) 555-0100",
  "addressRaw": "123 Main St, New York, NY 10001",
  "categories": ["Plumbers"],
  "bbbProfileUrl": "https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/plumber/example-plumbing-llc-0121-12345",
  "logoUrl": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-10T12:00:00+00:00",
  "complaintsCount": 2,
  "complaintsSummary": "2 complaint(s) on file",
  "accreditationDate": "2015-03-01",
  "hours": ["Mon-Fri 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM"],
  "parse_confidence": 0.9,
  "warnings": []
}

Legal note

BBB.org is a public business directory. Business names, phone numbers, addresses, accreditation status and ratings are published by BBB for the explicit purpose of helping consumers find and evaluate businesses. This actor never reads personal-contact fields for named individuals (see PII note above).