# SoftwareSuggest Scraper — Global SaaS Directory API (`umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper`) Actor

Scrape SoftwareSuggest.com SaaS & software directory by category and country into JSON. CRM/HR/PM pricing, ratings, alternatives. Unofficial public-data scraper. PPE $1.20/1k.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Umar Arshad](https://apify.com/umararshad2) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 product scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## SoftwareSuggest Scraper — Global SaaS Directory API

Scrapes **[SoftwareSuggest](https://www.softwaresuggest.com)** — a global SaaS and software directory with multi-country category pages (US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, and more) — into clean JSON on Apify.

**Store:** https://apify.com/umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper

> **Unofficial community Actor — not affiliated with SoftwareSuggest.** Collects only publicly listed software catalog data from category and product slug pages. Use responsibly and respect robots.txt + rate limits.

### Why this Actor

SoftwareSuggest indexes CRM, HR, project management, accounting, marketing automation, helpdesk, and hundreds of other software categories with schema.org **ItemList** JSON-LD on directories and rich **SoftwareApplication** JSON-LD on product pages (name, description, image, AggregateOffer pricing, aggregateRating). SaaS research, alternatives tracking, and vendor lead-gen pipelines need that data as structured rows.

Dedicated Store competition is thin (one dedicated Actor at ~$5/1k with very low monthly users). This Actor undercuts at **$1.20/1k** and complements our B2B directory scrapers:

- [GoodFirms Scraper](https://apify.com/umararshad2/goodfirms-scraper)
- [SelectedFirms Scraper](https://apify.com/umararshad2/selectedfirms-scraper)
- [TechBehemoths Scraper](https://apify.com/umararshad2/techbehemoths-scraper)
- [Adzuna Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/umararshad2/adzuna-jobs-scraper)

### What it scrapes

Public HTML only. `robots.txt` **allows** category and product slug pages. It **disallows** `/profile/*`, `/softwareprofile/*`, `/*.php`, and `/v1`/`/v2` APIs — this Actor **never** requests those paths.

1. **Category directories** — `https://www.softwaresuggest.com/{category}` and country variants `/{category}/{country}` (e.g. `/crm-software/us`). Parses ItemList JSON-LD + HTML card fallbacks. Country pages paginate with `?page=N`.
2. **Product pages** — `https://www.softwaresuggest.com/{slug}` SoftwareApplication JSON-LD (offers, ratings, OS, vendor).
3. **Direct URLs** — pass category or product links via `startUrls`.

Uses **Crawlee CheerioCrawler**. No login. Defaults to **Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy** (datacenter IPs often get 403), **maxConcurrency 2**, and about **30 requests/minute**.

#### Example categories

`crm-software`, `hr-software`, `project-management-software`, `accounting-software`, `marketing-automation-software`, `helpdesk-software`, `erp-software`, `cms-software`.

#### Example countries

`us`, `uk`, `australia`, `canada`, `germany` (and other public country path segments SoftwareSuggest exposes).

### Pricing (PPE)

**$1.20 / 1,000 products** via custom event `product-scraped` ($0.0012 each), plus a small `apify-actor-start` ($0.00005 per GB of memory, minimum one). No platform-usage pass-through. The synthetic event `apify-default-dataset-item` is **not** enabled, so a product is not billed twice.

Memory: **512–2048 MB** (default 1024).

### Example input

```json
{
  "category": "crm-software",
  "country": "us",
  "maxProducts": 50,
  "maxPages": 3,
  "includeProductDetails": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

Or pass explicit URLs:

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.softwaresuggest.com/crm-software/uk",
    "https://www.softwaresuggest.com/hubspot-crm"
  ],
  "maxProducts": 25,
  "includeProductDetails": true
}
```

### Example output

```json
{
  "name": "Hubspot CRM",
  "slug": "hubspot-crm",
  "productUrl": "https://www.softwaresuggest.com/hubspot-crm",
  "category": "crm-software",
  "country": "us",
  "description": "HubSpot Client Management Software helps businesses…",
  "imageUrl": "https://images.softwaresuggest.com/software_logo/…",
  "ratingValue": 4.6,
  "reviewCount": 48,
  "lowPrice": 45,
  "highPrice": 3600,
  "priceCurrency": "USD",
  "pricingPlans": [
    { "name": "Starter", "price": 45, "currency": "USD", "unit": "Per Month" }
  ],
  "operatingSystem": "Web App",
  "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication",
  "vendorName": "Hubspot CRM",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-01T04:00:00.000Z",
  "source": "softwaresuggest"
}
```

### Input fields

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `category` | string | `crm-software` | Used when `startUrls` empty |
| `country` | string | — | Optional path segment (`us`, `uk`, …) |
| `startUrls` | string\[] | — | Category or product URLs |
| `maxProducts` | integer | 50 | Cap 1–5000 |
| `maxPages` | integer | 5 | Directory `?page=` cap |
| `includeProductDetails` | boolean | true | Fetch SoftwareApplication pages |
| `useMockData` | boolean | false | Offline fixtures |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify Proxy on | Proxy editor |

### Rate limits & robots

- **Never** scrape `/profile/*` or `/softwareprofile/*` (robots Disallow).
- Stay on public category + product slug HTML only — no `/v1`/`/v2` APIs, no `*.php`.
- Polite defaults: concurrency **2**, ≤ **30** requests/minute.
- Prefer Apify Proxy; switch to RESIDENTIAL if challenges appear.

### Local development

```bash
cd /workspace/softwaresuggest-scraper
npm install
npm run build
APIFY_LOCAL_STORAGE_DIR=./storage npm run start:dev
```

Default local `INPUT.json` sets `useMockData: true`.

### Deploy

```bash
apify push
```

See **BUILD.md** for PPE monetization steps.

### Limitations & ethics

- Public catalog data only. Does not log in, bypass CAPTCHAs, or scrape disallowed profile paths.
- Does not collect personal/sensitive user data as a focus.
- Users must comply with SoftwareSuggest’s Terms of Service and applicable law.
- Unofficial — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SoftwareSuggest.

### SEO keywords

SoftwareSuggest scraper, SoftwareSuggest API, SaaS directory scraper, software comparison scraper, CRM software directory scraper, global SaaS catalog API, SoftwareApplication JSON-LD scraper, software alternatives scraper, Apify SaaS scraper, PPE product-scraped, Cheerio Crawlee Apify Actor, multi-country software directory.

# Actor input Schema

## `category` (type: `string`):

Category slug used when startUrls is empty. Examples: crm-software, hr-software, project-management-software, accounting-software, marketing-automation-software, helpdesk-software. Builds https://www.softwaresuggest.com/{category}. Leave empty if you only pass startUrls.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Optional country slug appended to the category path (e.g. us, uk, australia, canada, germany). Builds /{category}/{country}. Country pages typically expose larger ItemList JSON-LD (~20 products/page) and support ?page=N pagination. Leave empty for the global category page.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional SoftwareSuggest category URLs (https://www.softwaresuggest.com/crm-software or /crm-software/us) or product URLs (https://www.softwaresuggest.com/hubspot-crm). When set, these are crawled instead of category+country. Never pass /profile/\* or /softwareprofile/\* (robots disallow).

## `maxProducts` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on products written to the dataset (after dedupe by slug). Default 50, maximum 5000.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Max paginated directory pages per start URL (?page=1,2,…). Country category pages paginate; global category ItemList is smaller. Default 5. Keep modest — the Actor is rate-limited (maxConcurrency 2, ≤30 req/min).

## `includeProductDetails` (type: `boolean`):

When true, open each public product slug page and parse SoftwareApplication JSON-LD (description, image, AggregateOffer pricing, aggregateRating, OS, vendor). When false, emit directory ItemList / card fields only (faster).

## `useMockData` (type: `boolean`):

Force fixture mode (no live SoftwareSuggest calls). For local CI only.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy settings. SoftwareSuggest often 403s datacenter IPs. Default RESIDENTIAL. If still blocked, try UNBLOCKER or a matching apifyProxyCountry (US, GB, AU).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "category": "crm-software",
  "maxProducts": 10,
  "maxPages": 1,
  "includeProductDetails": true,
  "useMockData": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `products` (type: `string`):

Dataset of SoftwareSuggest product rows (name, slug, pricing, rating, vendor, category, country).

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "category": "crm-software",
    "country": "",
    "maxProducts": 10,
    "maxPages": 1
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

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

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "category": "crm-software",
    "country": "",
    "maxProducts": 10,
    "maxPages": 1,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "category": "crm-software",
  "country": "",
  "maxProducts": 10,
  "maxPages": 1
}' |
apify call umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,umararshad2/softwaresuggest-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/hBXaKq7Ty2AaKkGla/builds/tlpgd4mSAW6IgcfGl/openapi.json