BBB Scraper: Business Leads, Ratings & New Reviews

What does BBB Scraper do?

BBB Scraper pulls business leads and customer reviews from the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org). Type a category such as plumber and a city such as Austin, TX, and get one row per business with its name, business phone, address, BBB rating (A+ to F), accreditation status, categories and map coordinates. Turn on reviews to also get BBB reviews with star rating, date, text and the company's reply.

It works like a BBB API: it reads the same public JSON that bbb.org uses for its own search and review pages, over plain HTTP. No browser, no login, no residential proxy.

Monitor mode remembers which reviews it has already returned, so a scheduled run gives you only the new BBB reviews for your own company or your competitors.

Not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the Better Business Bureau or the International Association of Better Business Bureaus.

Why use it?

• Local lead lists: plumbers, roofers, dentists, auto shops, lawyers or any other BBB category, city by city, with phone numbers ready for a CRM.
• Vetting suppliers and contractors: check BBB rating and accreditation for a list of companies before you sign.
• Reputation monitoring: a scheduled run returns each new BBB review on your profile, or on a competitor's, once.
• Market research: compare ratings and review sentiment across a category or region.
• AI agents and apps: feed live BBB data into lead scoring, due-diligence or customer-service tools.

Runs on the Apify platform, so you also get an API, scheduling, webhooks and integrations with Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets.

What data can it extract?

Business rows (type: "business")

Field	Example
businessName, primaryCategory, categories[]	Calixto Plumbing, Plumber, ["Plumber", "Commercial Plumber"]
rating, ratingScore, accredited	A+, 98.49, true
phone, phones[]	(512) 945-3143 (business phone numbers only)
address, city, state, postalCode, country	8410 Georgian Dr # B, Austin, TX, 78753-6003, USA
latitude, longitude	30.3, -97.76
profileUrl, reviewsUrl, logoUrl	links to the BBB profile, its reviews and logo
localBbb, businessId, bbbId	BBB Heart of Texas, 1000223803, 0825
reviewCount	total BBB reviews (when reviews are on)
searchTerm, searchLocation, position	which search found it and where it ranked

Review rows (type: "review")

Field	Example
reviewId, stars, date	0292_1922_163715, 1, 2026-10-24
reviewerName	Misty I (first name and initial, as bbb.org shows it)
text	full review text
businessResponse, businessResponseDate	the company's public reply and its date
replies[]	the whole back-and-forth: business, customer and BBB replies
businessName, profileUrl	which business the review belongs to

How to scrape BBB business leads and reviews

1. Open the Actor and enter one or more categories or keywords (plumber, roofing contractors).
2. Add locations as City, ST, City, Province (Canada) or ZIP codes, and pick the country.
3. Set Max businesses per search (bbb.org shows at most 225 per search).
4. Optional: tick Include BBB reviews, or paste BBB profile URLs to get reviews for specific companies.
5. Click Start, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

To monitor new reviews, paste the profile URLs, tick Only new reviews, and add a daily or weekly schedule.

How much does it cost?

Pay per result:

• $1 per 1,000 businesses ($0.001 each)
• $1 per 1,000 reviews ($0.001 each)
• plus a tiny start fee of $0.00005 per run

Free: searches with no results, locations bbb.org does not recognise, invalid URLs, failed requests and duplicates (a business found by several searches is saved and charged once). On the Apify free plan, the $5 monthly credit covers about 5,000 businesses or reviews. Set a maximum cost per run and the Actor stops when it reaches it.

A monitor run that finds no new reviews costs almost nothing.

Input

{
    "searchTerms": ["plumber", "electrician"],
    "locations": ["Austin, TX", "Dallas, TX", "78701"],
    "country": "USA",
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 100,
    "accreditedOnly": false,
    "includeReviews": true,
    "maxReviewsPerBusiness": 20
}

Review monitor:

{
    "profileUrls": ["https://www.bbb.org/us/oh/cincinnati/profile/plumber/roto-rooter-plumbing-water-cleanup-0292-1922"],
    "onlyNewReviews": true,
    "monitorStoreName": "my-competitors"
}

Output

{
    "type": "business",
    "businessName": "Calixto Plumbing",
    "accredited": true,
    "rating": "A+",
    "ratingScore": 98.49,
    "primaryCategory": "Plumber",
    "phone": "(512) 945-3143",
    "address": "8410 Georgian Dr # B",
    "city": "Austin",
    "state": "TX",
    "postalCode": "78753-6003",
    "latitude": 30.3,
    "longitude": -97.76,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/austin/profile/plumber/calixto-plumbing-0825-1000223803",
    "reviewCount": 1
}

{
    "type": "review",
    "reviewId": "0825_1000223803_517929",
    "stars": 1,
    "date": "2025-07-08",
    "reviewerName": "Karey R",
    "text": "This company charged me $2800 to replace a water heater. That was outrageous!",
    "businessResponse": null,
    "businessName": "Calixto Plumbing",
    "profileUrl": "https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/austin/profile/plumber/calixto-plumbing-0825-1000223803"
}

Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or filter it by type to split businesses from reviews.

Tips

• More than 225 results? bbb.org stops each search at 15 pages of 15. Split big areas into several cities or ZIP codes; duplicates across searches are removed for free.
• Monitoring: use profile URLs rather than searches, so each run only pays for new reviews. Keep one Monitor name per list you track.
• Accredited only skips non-accredited businesses at no charge.
• Datacenter proxy (the default) is enough for bbb.org.

FAQ

Does it scrape BBB complaints?

No. It returns business listings and customer reviews only.

Does it return emails or personal phone numbers?

No. Phones are the business numbers listed on bbb.org. Reviewer names are shown the way bbb.org shows them (first name and last initial).

Does it work for Canada?

Yes. Set Country to Canada and use locations like Toronto, ON.

How fresh is the data?

Every run reads bbb.org live, and reviews come newest first.

Is it legal to scrape BBB?

The Actor reads only public pages and does not log in. Business listings can still contain personal data (for example sole traders), which may be protected by GDPR, CCPA and similar laws. Use the data only for legitimate purposes and check with your lawyer if you are unsure.